Mark Your Calendars: PDX Pop Now! Releases Comp, Festival Info
Well, we’re a little late on this, but how can you not share news this awesome? The good folks at PDX Pop Now! just released a bevy of info this morning to the internet world—including the final tracklisting for the 2008 compilation and the initial lineup for this year’s festival, set to take place July 25-27 at Rotture.
Sitting atop the pile are the Builders and the Butchers and Starfucker, the top two finishers from last week’s Best New Band feature, but the rest of the lineup ain’t looking too shabby, either: Reporter, Panther, New Bloods, and another band on our list, future synth-rock stars World’s Greatest Ghosts are among those scheduled to play the festival.
And not to outdo themselves, the compilation features brand spankin’ new tracks from Blitzen Trapper, the Joggers, YACHT, Faux Hoax (the super project of Dave Allen and Menomena drummer Danny Seim), Horse Feathers, Pink Martini, and Au. Here’s the complete lowdown, from our inbox to yours:
Portland, Ore. — May 11, 2008 PDX Pop Now! — a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to championing its city’s vibrant music community — is pleased to announce its fifth annual festival of Portland music and the release of PDX Pop Now! 2008, the group’s fifth 2-disc compilation of music from Portland artists.
The Festival
A FREE, ALL AGES, three-day event featuring nearly 50 Portland bands, the PDX Pop Now! festival will take place July 25-27, 2008, at Rotture (roh-TUR-ay), a live music venue located in Portland’s inner southeast warehouse district. Rotture resides in the space formerly occupied by the venues Loveland and Meow Meow, home to the first three PDX Pop Now! festivals. The initial lineup includes:The Builders & The Butchers | New Bloods | Panther | Starfucker | Atole
SubArachnoid Space | Reporter | Argumentix | Meth Teeth
Guidance Counselor | World’s Greatest Ghosts | Y La Bamba
Hutch & Kathy of The Thermals (tentative)Many more artists are still to be announced; please check our schedule page for updates.
The Compilation
Previously unreleased tracks from Portland artists Faux Hoax (the new project from Danny Seim of Menomena, Dave Allen of Gang of Four and John Askew), Blitzen Trapper, YACHT, The Joggers, Talkdemonic, Horse Feathers, Yellow Swans, Au and Pink Martini highlight the 40-track collection, which features additional gems from local favorites Chromatics, Valet, New Bloods, Panther, Sandpeople and more. PDX Pop Now! also extended an open invitation to its city’s musicians to submit music for consideration for the album, and selections culled from the work submitted by more than 400 artists round out the album, which, in a display of Portland’s tremendous musical diversity, features genres from indie rock, laptop-pop and hip hop to folk, ambient, psychedelia, jazz, noise, and metal. The compilation will be available for purchase for a quite economical $8 starting Tuesday, June 17, at Portland-area retail outlets and online at CD Baby. Proceeds from sales go towards funding the festival.Tracklisting:
DISC 1
01 Au - “Are Animals”
02 Blue Cranes - “S.T.I.L.L.”
03 Meth Teeth - “Unemployment Forever”
04 The Joggers - “Golden Wage”
05 A Weather - “Spiders, Snakes”
06 New Bloods - “Oh, Deadly Nightshade!”
07 Portland Cello Project feat. Heather Broderick - “For Misty”
08 Copacrescent - “Do My Thing”
09 Y La Bamba - “Fasting in San Francisco”
10 Valet - “We Went There”
11 Strength - “Wilderness”
12 Swim Swam Swum - “Not in Your Way”
13 Andy Combs and The Moth - “Let’s Ride”
14 Still Pending - “Drivin’ to California”
15 Yellow Swans - “Velvet Water”
16 Kelli Schaefer - “Lasso the Moon”
17 Nick Caceres - “The Victorian Hoedown”
18 Blitzen Trapper - “Crushing the Wheat”
19 Sandpeople - “The Count”
20 Panther - “Puerto Rican Jukebox (Lips and Ribs Remix)”DISC 2
01 Devin Phillips - “Frenchmen Street Strut”
02 Bodhi - “Nadine”
03 SubArachnoid Space - “Honorable Mention”
04 Fist Fite - “Grandma Surprise”
05 Braille - “The IV”
06 Eliot Rose - “Brightness and the Blood”
07 Pseudosix - “Apathy & Excess”
08 Horse Feathers - “Road to Ruin”
09 Hey Lover - “She’s the Girl for Me”
10 Dragging an Ox Through Water - “Houses & Homonculi”
11 Southern Belle - “Sunnyside”
12 Pink Martini - “Hey Eugene (Watch Your Back)”
13 YACHT - “Ring the Bell (Premix)”
14 Living Proof feat. Liv Warfield - “Sky High City (Bluebird)”
15 Faux Hoax - “Foxworthy”
16 JonnyX and the Groadies - “Castle/Face”
17 The Woodlands - “Until the Day Dims”
18 Chromatics - “Night Drive”
19 Talkdemonic - “Silvertone”
20 Guidance Counselor - “Pull Over”
Sweeeeet.
Links:
PDX Pop Now!
Photo courtesy of PDX Pop Now!
J Ragel
says:I bet if you open your window and sit perfectly still you can hear the sound of about 400 bands rehearsing angrily right now.
Posted @ May 12th, 2008 at 6:39 pm (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkThirteenburn
says:Portland Cello Project feat. Heather Broaderick?
WTF?!?
I thought this was called “PDX Pop Now”? Sorry but you need to look up the defintion in the dictionary as a Cello based group IS NOT POP.
Whatever. Once again, Portland, in their misguided attempts at being “all inclusive” ruin what would have been a really good idea by adding the likes of Cello players, Mexican Mariachi music and Pink Martini, none of which are fucking POP you imbecilic dolts!!!
Jesus Christ!! Isn’t there anything anymore that is safe from the intellectually dishonest concept of political correctness? After all, PC is nothing more than a cop out for those who can’t handle the harsh truth of reality.
And I would add to JRagel’s post that it would be 400 POP bands rehearsing angerly rehearsing…
Posted @ May 12th, 2008 at 9:56 pm (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCary Clarke
says:Thirteen Burn-
This is Cary Clarke, one of the organizers of PDX Pop Now! writing.
The definition of “pop music” is something that is likely to be debated long after we’re both dead. In some senses of the word, Pink Martini has a stronger claim to being pop than any other artist on the compilation. That, however, isn’t the definition that PDX Pop Now! has in mind, and it isn’t a factor in determining what goes on the album.
As an organization, PDX Pop Now! more or less happened into its name, as it grew out of a discussion on an online listserv called “pdx-pop” in 2004. We’ve certainly had a lot of discussions about the name, but, basically, we think of it as referring to “popular” in the sense of “of the people” or “populist.” We are interested in championing the music being made by the people of Portland, sort of a local “folk music” without the stylistic connotations of that term. I suppose that “independent” or “punk” might do just as well here as descriptors, depending on your frame of reference.
Personally, I don’t agree that any particular instrument is inherently not pop. In point of fact, the cello has a long history in rock and folk music, which I think we could both probably agree fall in the pop tradition. As for the Portland Cello Project specifically, well, they’re awesome, and if you see them live, or hear them on the comp, I think you’ll see how they fit into the culture of independently created music and art in Portland, which is the kind of populism we’re really about anyhow.
Part of what we’re trying to do with PDX Pop Now! is expose music fans to as wide a cross-section of great Portland music as is possible, a task which is never completely possible to achieve given the limits of disc and concert length. One component of that is including a wide array of different styles. We think this makes for a more interesting compilation, and, in addition to introducing audiences to some new artists, the PDX Pop Now! compilations and festivals are some of the only instances where the various little subcultures of music-making in Portland are brought into contact with one another and presented as part of a whole, to appreciate one another’s art and, maybe, learn from and influence one another a bit.
As far as we’re concerned, the only real requirements for consideration for the comp are that the music is original, contemporary and from the Portland area. We love the diversity and, in our experience, Portlanders do, too.
Posted @ May 13th, 2008 at 3:29 am (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkPeter R. Walters
says:There is no such thing as pop music
ever notice the biggest section in a music store is always “Alternative Rock/Pop”? (alternative to what?)
Fuck man, the festival’s free, the comp is like $7 just chill out. I don’t know how to play cello either, its nothing to whine about.
besides, genre names only exist to make us music geeks feel like we know something.
Posted @ May 13th, 2008 at 8:54 am (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkJ Ragel
says:@13burn: mm. Portland Cello Project and Pink Martini playing for a rowdy crowd of all-agers is awesome to me. Mixing crowds and saying ‘F U’ to genres and exposing people to various forms is the primary strength of any festival (or first thursday, or excellent buffet, or a ‘random’ button on strong bad’s emails). Also, given their incredible run of POPularity I don’t know that any other PDX group can lay claim to the word ‘pop’ more then Pink Martini can. So kudos either way.
IMHO: the word ‘pop’ is either completely subjective (IE- whatever seems ‘contagious’ to you) or based on a bunch of boring objective industry data. I’m glad the poppers seem more generally inclined to the former way of looking at things. Sure, they break my heart (and likely your heart) pretty much every year, but I still can’t help but love the poppers and what they are doing. It’s fun and good for the city. We need more of this sort of thing year around.
Posted @ May 13th, 2008 at 10:14 am (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkjason
says:Whatever you feel about the festival or its compilations, if you just hurl insults at the people who are working very hard to put it all together, you just sound like an asshole. Maybe calm down and say something constructive, find something else more deserving of your rage, or make your own compilation/festival.
Posted @ May 13th, 2008 at 10:56 am (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinktravis
says:it is what it is….a popularity contest.
who do they think is coolest? thats who goes on the comp.
this compilation and festival only represent a small circle of portland music fans’ taste in local music. you can say whatever you want about that….
but the fact is, what other towns have multiple compilation cds (failing records, holocene records, ect) coming out that represent a huge cross section of independent local artists???
there are a billion really great bands/artists in portland that have never been on the pdx pop comps or bills. you can’t blame the organizers for only being able to afford to self release a 2 disc cd compilation and throw one free festival every year.
if i’d been picking bands, it would’ve been a totally different track listing. thats not to say i don’t dig on the bands they pick. its just to say that there is so much awesome music in this town, how do you pick only like 40 songs???!?!?!?!!?
if you don’t like the line up or track listing, you should make yr own comp, self release it, then put on yr own festival. and i’m being serious!!!! D I Y!!!!!!! once you’ve taken on all that shit, then please complain about pdx pop now.
personally, i’m just glad that the festival this year is happening at a venue that won’t reach maximum capacity 4 hours before you show up. i spent last year out side on the street with a bunch of drunk teenagers while my homies watched the blow….
i did spend a bit on postage for all those cd-r submissions….
Posted @ May 13th, 2008 at 4:41 pm (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCary Clarke
says:Thanks for your support, Travis. You’re totally right - there’s way more great music being made in this town than could ever fit on 2 discs, or 4, or 8… or in one festival. We do our best to put some of it out there, though, and hopefully it’s a diverse assortment.
I do, however, want to be very clear about how the compilation tracklist is determined. It is decidedly not a high school popularity contest, though, of course individual preference and subjectivity are an important part of the process.
First of all ANYONE can be involved in PDX Pop Now! - whether it be in determining the tracklist, the lineup of the festival, raising funds or whatever else. Every year we put out press releases, emails and announcements asking for volunteers to join us, and every year people do. So I don’t think it’s appropriate to suggest there’s any croneyism involved.
Here’s how it works:
We receive about 450 tracks submitted from local bands. We take all of those tracks and digitize them, removing their identifying information, leaving them only a number (no band or track name). We then divide all of the submissions up into about 6 or 7 groups, with each group then including 75 or so tracks. Each group of 75 tracks is then listened to by a different group of 5-10 volunteers who vote YES or NO on that track. Before we assign volunteers to each group, we ask them to state all of their conflicts of interest - their bands, their friends’ bands, bands they’ve engineered etc. - so that we can get a vote based on the artistic merit of each track. Again, to be clear, these volunteers are voting on tracks blindly.
Then, the 100 or so songs that get the highest percentage of YES votes from all of the volunteer groups go to the PDX Pop Now! board which, this year, consisted of 12 members. The board members abstain from any tracks they cannot be objective about (their own submissions, friends’ etc.) and vote yes or no. We then determine what percentage of YES votes yields around 30 tracks and draw a line.
At this point, we include a certain number of tracks - usually unreleased, new, or exclusive - that we solicit from bigger name bands (e.g. this year Blitzen Trapper, Horse Feathers, Pink Martini, Yellow Swans etc.). We include these tracks not only because they are strong on their own merits, but because they will attract people to the comp, as they are names in their community. There are many people in the world who are not familiar with these bands which we think of as being big who will discover them through the comp. But then there is also a sizable group of people who are familiar with the “stars” of the Portland music community, but are not familiar with some of the lesser known artists. Part of what PDX Pop Now! does is use the draw of great, larger acts to introduce people to some of the lesser known gems.
Lastly, we take a look at the balance of songs we have. If we feel that certain genres are not adequately represented by what came through the vote, the board - who collectively have heard all of the submitted tracks - suggests tracks that they had heard at any point in the process that they thought were interesting and represented one of these absent genres. Using all of these factors - votes, auto-ins, and genre rounding - we end up with the final tracklist.
I myself am one of the founders of PDX Pop Now! and have submitted to the comp with different bands every year. I have never made it on to the comp. But, I also do not feel bitter about this, because I know first hand that the system is about as fair as it could possibly be for a process that is inherently subjective.
Hopefully that explanation sheds some more light on how the tracklist is determined. It is decidedly not a collection of bands that a small, closed cabal of people think are “cool.” It is the result of an open, inclusive process that takes personal taste and bias into account.
On a separate note…as far as being trapped out of last year’s festival - come one, cut us some slack! There was literally only one set (The Blow) that we had to hold the doors for. This was a very hard moment for us, because the whole reason that all of us volunteer for PDX Pop Now! is because we want people to discover and share their love for local music. It felt really bad to keep people out. However, the maximum capacity of 600 had been reached (yes, 600, we counted)for that set. On the other hand, how awesome was it that so many people came out to see Portland bands! We certainly hope that we will be able to accommodate everyone who shows up this year.
I’ll conclude just by repeating that anyone and everyone is welcome to volunteer for PDX Pop Now! and participate in the process. If you are really dedicated you could even potentially end up on the board and help shape those processes.
We could particularly use some help with fundraising and sponsorship so we can pay for the free festival and pressing the $8 double disc comps!
I hope you’ll check out this year’s comp. There’s some amazing, unexpected stuff on there, if I do say so myself. And I think the festival is shaping up great. Hope to see you there!
Posted @ May 13th, 2008 at 11:57 pm (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCASEY JARMAN
says:I heart pdx pop. And this comp looks fantastic. cello project is absolutely fair game, especially because of how active they’ve been in backing Portland pop groups and singer/songwriters. anyway, i’m trying to write shorter comments these days, but you totally have my support. stoked!
Posted @ May 14th, 2008 at 8:10 pm (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinktravis
says:cary,
i meant ‘cool’ as in “oh, i like this song, it sounds coooool.”
i know that the folks who put together pdx pop aren’t the heartless heathers sitting at the COOL table in the cafeteria going thru the year book deciding who is COOL enough to come to their party.
from dictionary.com:
cool
adjective, -er, -est, adverb, noun, verb
–adjective
Slang.
a. great; fine; excellent: a real cool comic.
b. characterized by great facility; highly skilled or clever: cool maneuvers on the parallel bars.
c. socially adept: It’s not cool to arrive at a party too early.
……………………….
pop music
noun
Posted @ May 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm (May 12th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkmusic of general appeal to teenagers; a bland watered-down version of rock’n'roll with more rhythm and harmony and an emphasis on romantic love