The lead story in WW’s music section this week, “Rad Begets Rad,” is about Tender Loving Empire–a new retail store and all-around art collective founded and run by Jared and Brianne Mees. Now, some of you may recognize Jared’s name, and there are a number of reasons for that: Awhile back, LocalCut editor Casey Jarman said the following about Jared’s debut album: “Like Elvis Costello if he had grown up an American Stoner… If You Wanna Swim With the Sharks… is fucking fantastic.” I gave the same album a pretty glowing review upon its release and even voted for Jared as one of my top-five in WW’s most recent Best New Band poll. Oh, and he just started writing a tour diary for LocalCut.

Needless to say, Jared’s been in the Willy Week/LocalCut spotlight quite a bit. But he says the most recent Mees-related endeavor–opening the store–is all Brianne. (He mentioned at our interview that all he’d be able to tell a press person is how he made the store’s tables by hand: “Yeah, quarter-inch plywood. Awesome.”) History shows, however, that he and Brianne have long been a team. The couple used to sing folk-pop together as Julai, and they’ve talked about starting a physical art collective for several years. Now that they’ve done just that, I’d like to celebrate the store’s opening by sharing some TLE-released music–the reason I was interested in TLE in the first place–with you, dear reader.

Right here, we have an old Julai song that Jared and Brianne re-recorded for Jared’s debut (aptly titled “Julai Throwback”). It’s a cute-and-true, anatomically themed guy-girl folk number, and it addresses something plenty of Portlanders are familiar with–drinking too much and being generally hard on our physical selves.

Download audio file (julaithrowback.mp3)

This track, “Working & Drinking” (which appears on the most recent Failing Records comp as well as on Sharks), continues the drinking theme–and wonderfully so. Jared pretty much sums up the lifestyle of many a young creative in, as he would say, “a few sloppy hooks.” And the “I’ve only got one match left/ To light two cigarettes” line is horribly addictive; you’ll see.

Download audio file (workinganddrinking.mp3)

Another fave, “The Strange Demise of Jerome Nobles,” just had to be included, too. When someone sings the words, “Halle-fuckin’, halle-fuckin’-lujah,” it simply cannot be ignored.

Download audio file (jeromenobles.mp3)

And, finally, here’s a cut by the Starving Daughters, a California-based band that released its EP on TLE. I think the Daughters’ spacey guitar rock sounds quite a bit like Built to Spill’s spacey guitar rock–and that’s certainly not a bad thing. TLE plans to release the Starving Daughters’ upcoming full-length, as well (hopefully next year).

Download audio file (nothanks.mp3)

Tender Loving Empire is located at 1720 NW Lovejoy St., #109, and at tenderlovingempire.com. For upcoming show information, visit Jared’s MySpace. Photo: The Meeses standing in front of artwork by Sam Guerrero, this month’s featured gallery artist, taken by Cameron Browne.