Beginning behind a layer of tape hiss, “Nadine” jumps out from the get go, quickly adding a tight, jaunty bassline, tumbling drums, jangly guitar and a sick farfisa organ lick. The song doesn’t gradually build as much as it struts, complete with the shouting marching orders of a singer who has clearly studied at the Jack White school of vocal inflection. I hear a little Iggy Pop, too, in both the vocals and the way “Nadine” lodges itself into every corner of your brain like the uptempo songs on Lust For Life. It’s the type of song you want to listen to at maximum volume, speakers crackling with distortion and neighbors not asking to turn it down but instead yelling to crank that shit up. Go ahead and try it—you just might have a new favorite band.

Links: BodhiSpace
PDX Pop Now!

Photo courtesy of Bodhi

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!

How did you decide on your DJ name?
Well, people would ask me what my favorite band was and I would say “Black Sabbath and Hawkwind” and they said “That’s not one band! You can’t do that!” So I said “Whatever “the man!” So I put em together and there was born “DJ Blackhawk.”

As the Rapture say, “People don’t dance no more, they just stand there like this” - how often do you encounter this?
I don’t dance, I rock out.

Ideal crowd?
Rockers.

How do you feel about requests?
If I’m playing Blue Cheer and Pentagram… chances are I don’t have talking heads… However, to that nice lady who kept slipping me fives to play the Yardbirds and the Troggs, I got that Who record you wanted!

Do you DJ full time? / What do you do outside of DJing?
I’m a treasure hunter. I buy and sell vintage clothes, stereo and music equipment, sometimes I even come across a good patch of records. One time my lady found the first Silver Apples record for me… For 50 cents!!!

Where can we find you?
“Ride the Sky” at TUBE (18 NW 3rd) Saturdays from 6-10pm (except first Saturdays)
“Fly tot he Rainbow” at East End first Fridays from 10-2:30am.

How’d you get your current main gig?
I’ve been DJing at tube for three years now. The owner(s) and I are fellow Olympia Washinton ex-patriots. And I’d been good friends with the [East End] owners Tony, Gabe and Michelle for years now as well.

How long have you been spinning?
About 10 plus years I’d say.

What drew you to DJing originally?
House parties. I was always the only one in town with enough of an attention span to throw on record after record on one player and still keep em dancin’. They were always other people’s collections too, so I had to improvise!

What are your thoughts on vinyl vs CDS vs laptops?
Personally I only buy and play vinyl, but to each his/her own. I do own one CD; Truth Janey, “No Rest for the Wicked”… the vinyl is about $500-600… Yikes!

What songs will we find ourselves dancing to with you?
Bang - “The Queen”
Pentagram “Star Lady”
UFO - “Silver Bird”
Scorpions - “Dark Lady”
Sir Lord Baltimore - “Kingdom Come”

How would you describe yourself in five words or less - complete sentence or not:
Long Haired Wild Man

How do you describe the genre you play?
Hard Rock/Heavy Psych

Who are your other favorite Portland DJs?
DJ KG
DJ Maximillion
DJ JD Phaedra
DJ Vinyl Richie… man it’s tough, Portland has some killer DJs!

Links:
DJ Blackhawk

The Dry County Crooks appear on the Rick Emerson show this Monday, May 12th at 11 am on 970 AM

DCCs play their CD release at Dante’s on Saturday, May 17, 2008. $8. 9:30 pm.

Links:
Dry County CrookSpace

Photo courtesy of DCC

A note about booking hotels on the internet: internet reservation sites (airplane tickets included) use scare tactics to bump up prices and increase split decision purchases. When you go onto a site and choose the room you like and discover a reasonable rate, what do you do next? You leave the computer to call your mates and make sure they’re okay with the price and the location, or you call the hotel to make sure they have ample parking for your tour van… of course the hotel won’t offer you the same rate you saw online, but rather they remind you that its an online special and you will have to book it their website. Then you return to your computer and enter the exact same information and look for the exact same rate… only to find an increased rate (in our case the room rate jumped from $89 a room to $125) The rate you originally saw is magically no longer available. This happens because reservation websites put cookies onto your browser and when you return they know what you’ve already looked at. The rate automatically increases and you think, “oh shit! I better get this room now before the price goes up any more.” You go into an anxious frenzy and buy buy buy! But wait… my dad taught me a trick – If you delete the cookies from your browser (usually in preferences) and empty your cache (usually an option under the menu ‘file’) the price magically drops to the original rate… and that’s how we got to stay with Credence for only $89 a room.

It’s not unlike a good dream.

We were only a few blocks from the bar we were playing at, so we headed over (The Satellite Bar). Upon arriving we learned there were two opening bands and WEINLAND would go on at midnight and Norfolk would go on at 1am. Of course we worried about the late hour of the show, but the lovely bartender assured us that Reno doesn’t close down. Later we found her sage-ness to be valid. This was a crazy night—putting our experience into words would be lengthy enough to rival a Nick Jaina entry so I’m going to give you bullet points and send you some videos to give you a good idea of what went down:

· The kids in Reno come out for music. It was a great turnout.

· Norfolk and WEINLAND decided if we were going to truly get wasted on a particular night of tour, it should be in Reno. So we set a goal of 11 on a scale of a 1 – 10 drunk.

· The kids in the opening bands were super nice.

· The first band sounded kind of like Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and had really long noise endings to most of their songs—you know, big drum rolls that almost end ten times before they actually do. A lot of good energy, I think they’re on their way to becoming a fine band.

· The second band sounded alarmingly like Bright Eyes. Of course I’ve never heard Bright Eye’s myself, but that’s what folks said… especially Rachel (Norfolk - drums) who recently did a tour playing drums for Bright Eyes. They sounded so much like Bright Eyes that Rachel wrote Connor (Bright Eyes’ bright eye) a text message to tell him about it. Shortly after that someone in the audience dubbed the band “Light Eyes.”

Coincidentally the band broke up during WEINLAND’s set. Their drummer said there already was one Bright Eyes and there doesn’t need to be another. After the show Dave Depper (Norfolk – bass) got an exclusive interview with the drummer regarding the incident. The video is absolutely hilarious, but Dave swore he would not share the video with the public and I cannot talk him into going back on his word—so it remains in the vault.

· I felt bad for them because they were super nice (and give it a few years, they’ll be badass musicians), but it was pretty dramatic. I wish you could see for yourself.

· WEINLAND and Norfolk rocked. It was a really fun show. We played our new rock song which has a riff in it that sounds exactly like the theme song from People’s Court.

· At the end of Norfolk’s set (during Barrel’s on Fire) WEINLAND spontaneously came onto stage and started playing with Norfolk. It was a 1960’s moment in the best possible way. This will become a theme for the rest of the tour. Any chance we get (depending on how many drink tickets they give us) we’ll share the stage on one or more songs.

· Loading our gear out of the club was harder than playing. It was like corralling the world’s drunkest cows and getting them to carry 50-pound amplifiers while they climbed into the trailer.

· We went to the casino. We didn’t find Credence.

· I pulled out $100 to gamble. After about 30 minutes I was way way up. I was betting $100 a hand at black jack for several hands. It was very exciting, all the way until I left $100 in the hole. But I drank lots of free liquor and nearly peed my pants out of excitement and anxiety about 19 times.

· Thunderbolt (piano) left $300 up because he played safe…like a weenie.

· Dave (Norfolk - bass) and Lyly-Bear (drums) got lost and video taped their experience. The video is here so you can see for yourself (it’s not unlike that show on the Discovery Chanel where the British guy is always looking for a glacier):

· Selzer (Norfolk – singer/guitar) bet Norfolk’s cut of the door from the show, but luckily he has restraint and came out even.

· The casino continued to deliver free drinks until bedtime… which was 6am.

· We got up at 8am to drive to Sacramento.

· Paul (piano) went to collect the van from the casino parking lot. The Weinlander (van) immediately broke down in front of the valet parking… we were thwarted. Casinos don’t like it when you block their rich customers from the valet with your 1974 tour van (affectionately called the Weinlander).

· We cracked the engine open and opened up the carburetor. It took us about 40 minutes to assess the problem. Once we were sure we had no idea what the problem was we sprayed some Engine Starting Fluid (which is similar to an explosion in a can) directly into the carburetor and with a puff of hesitant smoke and fire she turned over!

· We drove to Safeway to get a deli sandwich.

· When we returned to the Weinlander to head on our way to Sacramento, again she wouldn’t start. We were now out of starter fluid. This time we decided there was something wrong with the choke in the engine, so Rory (bass) put on my dad’s old leather driving glove and shoved his hand into the choke. With even less muster and after multiple tries, she turned over and we were off.

Reno is a town. We (Norfolk and WEINLAND) are bands. The mix is exciting, dangerous, and unpredictable.

XO,

WEINLAND

More Photos:

Links:
WeinlandSpace

NorfolkSpace

Photos courtesy of Weinland

Today is a bright and sunny day; one of the few that I have witnessed on this spring tour. I have seen lots of rain and lots of snow. The train is just pulling out of Milan and I am excited for the 4 and a half hour train trip south to Rome. I have been busy and have not had a chance to update this journal in a while, so now I will give a recap of the prior days events.

Saturday the 13th was spent relaxing, chatting, and eating with Alan, Eleanora, and Eleanora’s family. We went to her mother and father’s house for lunch and spent the time trying to converse in broken English and broken Italian. This was our second meeting. We first met when Miss Massive Snowflake did a small tour of Italy in 2006. Marianne from Rollerball and I were over here because we had two art shows of our paintings in Milano and Varese that were organized by Alan. There was a ton of snow then also. I guess that the name Miss Massive Snowflake is even more fitting here in Europe.

That evening some friends came over for an excellent meal. Eleanora made a roast with potatoes and Alan’s aunt made lasagna entirely from scratch (even the noodles were fresh). My old friends Paco and Serina were there, as well as some new friends that I had made the previous evening at the Capoiera class. There was also a wonderful man/musician there who goes by the handle “Mr. Henry.” We all sat around the table, having course after course of food, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and talking about music, art, and, of course, politics. Sunday was the day to vote and the discussion got heated (it was often punctuated with the wonderful curses of “catzo!” and “minchia!”)

Berlusconi is once again running for president here in Italy. He is a very, very rich man and besides being a politician he also owns the TV stations, Milan’s soccer team, and has the other politicians in his hands because he pays for the apartments, clothes, and lifestyles of these men’s secret girlfriends in Milan. He is a close friend of President Bush and his policies are on the far right. The evening reminded me so much of when Bush was running for his second term and all the young people on the left were angry/scared but were hopeful that he would be defeated. We all thought that the people were not dumb enough to stand behind this stupid man who started wars and lied to the public. Well, Bush won anyways and even though all the people at the table that Saturday night voted the next day, Berlusconi still won the vote on Sunday.

While the people of Italy voted, I boarded the train to Bologna for a show on Sunday. I arrived around 3 and walked to the Lokomotiv Club. No one was there when I showed up, so I spent around two hours sitting in the park adjacent to the club watching soccer games between young men. I strummed guitar, drew some pictures, and relaxed in the sun for the first time in a while. Paolo showed up and opened up the club around 5. It was very large and very nice. The video screen on which I showed my projections was around 20 feet tall. We went next door to a bar to get an espresso and I was completely surprised to find Bruno there. Bruno booked around half of the shows I did on this tour and I last saw him in Berlin two weeks ago. We had said our goodbyes because he was going on tour with Jason Molina and then recording a new Bacchi di Pietra CD in Firenze. He had decided to come and check out my show on the way back to Berlin. We discussed our respective tours and talked about some big personal changes in his life. We went back to Lokomotiv and did the sound check, ate pasta, drank beer, and enjoyed the rest of the night.

The stage at Lokomotiv was huge, so I took advantage of it and did some serious dance moves. I was doing all sorts of breaking, popping, locking, and even some floor moves. I even tried a back flip, but didn’t land it. (My body is acquiring quite a collection of bruises, scabs, and pains). I am excited to get back home and get a massage from Torria Lee, my personal masseuse. After the show, a guy who runs a label in Italy approached me and we began the discussion of possibly doing a CD together. This would be great. Bruno and I spent the night in the back room of the club on some soft futons and woke up early for a train to Milan. When we arrived we had some focaccia and an espresso and said our goodbyes. He was off to do some errands before he had to catch a plane to Berlin that night to see ?Alos perform with Baby Dee at the Volksbuno. I took the long succession of trains out to Malnate and spent the rest of Monday afternoon sleeping/snoring on Alan’s couch.

Alan:

Monday evening came and Alan and I went to Mr. Henry’s to record some music. The two of them have a band called Luche Libre, so I was invited to do some recording with them. We began with some acapella improvisations and finished with an absurd fairy tale that I made up about a small bear (“Orzetti”) and a gay Viking. Part of the story was in my horrible Italian and part in English. We laughed and laughed and had much fun. We are going to do some more recording on this upcoming Saturday before my last show for this tour in Milan.

When Alan and I arrived back at his house around midnight, Eleanora was watching the election results and they were sad. Berlusconi and his far right party, who are racist, anti-immigration, and trying to split Italy in two between north and south, had won. Not a single left-wing candidate was left in parliament. I feel the pain that the young people in Italy and the left wing are feeling right now. I was so pissed and depressed when Bush won his second time. The right wing always has that soft air of fascism and hate, but they somehow know how to make the common people vote against their own best interests. They use patriotism, fear, religion, and the phrase “family values” to breed hate and make the divide between the rich and poor an ever-increasing gulf that may never be filled by a downwardly mobile middle class.

Tuesday, I awoke and slowly got ready to head to Milan from Malnate, which translates into English as “badly born woman”. I met up with Gigi, the promoter, for the show that night at Biko. We went to his flat and he showed me some films he’d made. He is an excellent cinematographer and I was really impressed with his work. He set up a small area in his kitchen and I performed a couple of songs on guitar for his camera. We also did an interview. He is a promoter and has a web site where he posts a series of musicians performing solo in his kitchen along with the interview. Around 6 we went to Biko club for the sound check. The main topic on everyone’s tongue right now is the elections. People are pissed off and sad for their country. It has been different to tour as a solo musician as opposed to touring in Rollerball. One of the most fun parts of touring is being in new situations and areas all the time and sharing these experiences with your good friends. I have spent quite a bit of time alone with people who barely speak my language and since I don’ t have the option to be in an insular environment with good friends, I find that I am forced to speak to others and that has made this tour really special. I have had way more conversations with new people then I usually do, and with what is happening politically in Italy right now, most of those conversations have been centered around governments, politics, social change, and unrest. People here are not happy with what just happened and they want to talk to me about what I think. This is wonderful because I usually start each concert with the phrase, “I am an ambassador of peace from the United States of America”. Many of my songs from Queen’s Headache have politically and socially based lyrics in them. This is what I want to do with my music and life. Through talk and action we can make change and I am doing what I can with my art to spur debate and thought. These are troubled times and we need artists and people to address what is happening in the world head on.

My set is timed with the projections that I use and aside from the first couple of shows, which were around 50 minutes long, my show has been clocking in around 42 minutes long. I don’t do encores but last night the mood of the room was so involved with my set that as soon as I was done with my last song, I went directly in to two more numbers. The crowd was ecstatic and I really feel that I affected each and every person in the room. The laughs and applause were huge. I sold quite a few CDs, and my T-shirt supply is nearly depleted. This is a good thing. I want to take as little back to the US as possible. The end of the night was spent speaking with people about — you guessed it, the political situation of the world and Italy. They are realizing that they have five more years of struggle against the right wing. I wish all my Italian friends and acquaintances good luck and may your country not crumble like my own is doing currently. Salute and Chin Chin.

Links:
Miss Massive SnowflakeSpace

More photos at hairrorist.blogspot.com

“The show at the Smell was a blast of pure wild energy with seemingly no limits. The kids there hung on every riff and beat, working themselves into a frenzy. I would say that the Smell exist in a parallel dimension were people lose connection with reality and give in to some shamanic collective unconscious. This was only helped by a lineup of artists more akin to some form of mind altering drugs than bands. Inland Empire made people jump and scream and chant, while Captain Ahab pulled every ounce of energy from the crowd, transferred it to Jim’s sweat covered body and sprayed it over the unrelenting crowd. Dan Deacon finished the night with some fancy prancing, wild dancing, brilliant story telling, and frantic dance music.
This was a amazing to say the least.”

Back to the song at hand: member Jayme Hansen shared the lyrics of the tune, and here’s a sample:

“body tied in knots
these invisible weights pull me past the floor
darkened streets numbers repeat
connected by metallic thread
we create our dreaded fate

12345678910…

smallest lightest coin
keep it close
take a breath
count to ten

head between your knees
watch them fall
breathe out
move on”

It’s about “bringing life into focus” according to the group’s sole male member Brett Whitman. It’s a nod to Jayme’s connection with finding and being given dimes (so she’s into dimes) and how coins tie into spirituality.

Now envision some sparse drumming by back-up dancer and vocalist Kim Hansen, Whitman behind the keyboards and frontwoman Jayme Hansen leading the charge with confidence and charisma and you’ve got “Silver Flash” live and in person. No need for time travel.

Links:
FleshtoneSpace

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Carter’s clip presents us with Marshall roaming in a place that reminds me oh-so-much of Powell Butte. Mood-setting lens flare, toppled candlesticks, wayward shacks and items raining from the sky also get their 15 minutes of fame condensed into a four minute clip alongside Marshall. Let’s get parched and take a desert journey:

Links:
MattressSpace
Grace Carter official site
El Dorado on Wikipedia
El Dorado Gold Mine in Fairbanks
Powell Butte (accessible by Tri-met bus number 9. Take a stab at recreating this video care of public transportation)

Thanks to Arya for the tip-off.

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

First off, we’ve got Loch Lomond’s Ritchie Young, sounding effeminate as ever (and channeling Sir Sufjan a bit) while leading his choral chamber-folk outfit in a strength-in-numbers refrain: “I am the world’s loudest instrument,” they sing en masse—more than driving the statement home by song’s end. But this tune’s fully dynamic (not just loud), as well, building in waves only to drop back to a hushed and sparse arrangement after each explosion of gentle-yet-powerful voices. Timpani-sounding echoes, swooning strings and light, high piano notes add depth and delicacy, respectively, to the whole ordeal. And you’re ultimately left with an image of Young loftily drifting atop a white, fluffy cloud, surrounded by heavenly voices pouring from Rocky Horror-esque floating mouths while winged instruments accompany like little sonic angels. Or maybe that’s just me.

For the Butchers’ part, they couldn’t stop gushing about the talent pool that is Loch Lomond at our recent Best New Band-related interview. Says drummer Ray Rude (of both Loch Lomond and Nick Jaina and his band): “They’re really good. I’m just in awe.” Frontman Ryan Sollee adds, “If there’s anybody who plays guitar, they’re better than me, [even] in the bar here. [laughs] So it’s really intimidating when you play with Ritchie [Young] or Nick [Jaina] or any of those guys.” That said, it doesn’t seem like the Builders are hurting as far as good impressions go (um, they are this year’s Best New Band, after all). And it’s not hard to see why listening to a bombastic track like ‘When It Rains.”

The song starts out with simple acoustic strumming and a few cricketlike castanet claps. It builds slowing for the first minute or so, adding drums and bright high-pitched string chirps bit by bit. Then—seemingly out of nowhere—”When It Rains” bursts, like an honest-to-god clap of thunder, into an explosion of Mariachi-sounding trumpet and lightning-fast percussion. It’s totally rad, and when the song breaks, only slightly, back down for Sollee’s impassioned verses about the “wicked old weight of the world” and the “highest tide”—well, you might as well consider it a proper rain dance, beckoning rain, thunder and all-out flood.

And if there’s one thing you can count on the Builders for, it’s bringing the storm—and they sound anything but intimidated while doing it. As Rude reassured Sollee of his self-perceived guitar-playing shortcomings, “It’s really important not to get psyched out. What we do is what we do. You can’t second guess yourself; then you’re not doing anything anymore.” And, boy, would that be a shame.

The Builders and the Butchers and Loch Lomond both play this year’s Best New Band showcase, Saturday, May 10, at Berbati’s Pan. 9 pm. FREE! 21+.

Links:
BuildersSpace
LomondSpace
WW’s Best New Band 2008 cover story

Below is the Best New Band Poll Ballot letter for 2008. This letter was sent out to close to 400 local music experts. The only bands (who are not involved in music in some way besides playing it) that allowed to cast a vote are those who’ve appeared on past Best New Band top 10 lists, and are therefore ineligible. This year, one hundred and twenty-nine voters replied to the ballot, naming a whopping two hundred ninety-seven artists as nominees. Those individual ballots (including anonymous votes) are listed below this year’s vote-soliciting letter. If you feel like you should be included in next year’s poll, please email bestnewband at wweek dot com and tell us why.
—Amy McCullough

Subject: Willamette Week’s Best New Band Poll!

Dear Esteemed Member of the Portland Music Community,

Congratulations! You have been selected by our diligent team of local music scientists to take part in Willamette Week’s Best New Band Poll 2008, where the Portland music community looks back over the last year and deigns one band, solo artist or DJ the greatest new talent in town.

Last year’s winner was the Shaky Hands, who—as this year’s winner soon will—appeared on the cover of Willamette Week’s Best New Band issue. The Shaky Hands went on to play to a packed house at Berbati’s as part of WW’s Best New Band Showcase before conquering the world. Well, not quite. But they’re certainly on their way. With all the great talent that’s constantly popping up here in our fair city, it’s hard to say who will become Portland’s Best New Band 2008, but we would like you to help us figure that out.

Participation is easy. All you need to do is send us a list of the top 5 acts you’ve discovered this year—again you can vote for any music-making entity, be it a band, a solo performer, a DJ or an emcee. You can rank them one through five, or give no rankings, if you’re the indecisive sort. If you can’t think of five new acts that have made an impact on you in the last year, just send us however many you like, whether it’s four, three, or just one. It could also be two.

When all the ballots have been collected, we will assign points for each band you voted for based on how you ranked them (No. 1 = 5 pts., No. 2 = 4 pts., No. 3 = 3 pts., etc.). If you don’t rank your votes by numbering each band, the points will be divided and distributed equally. We will then add up the points from all the ballots and come up with a top 10, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Willamette Week. The number one band will appear on the cover of the paper and will headline WW’s free Best New Band showcase.

You can vote for any band you like, as long as it is not a band you play in (you can vote for bands you work with—as long as you’re voting as a FAN and not a profiteer). But we ask that you refrain from voting for any of the following bands that have already appeared on a Best New Band top 10 list from either 2004, 2005, 2006 or 2007:

Alan Singley and Pants Machine
Blitzen Trapper
Climber
Clorox Girls
Copy
Derby
DJ Beyonda
Dolorean
The Kingdom
Lifesavas
Lion Fever
Menomena
The Minds
The Nice Boys
Norfolk & Western
Paint By Numbers
Please Step Out of the Vehicle
Point Juncture, WA
The Ready
Siren’s Echo
The Snuggle Ups
Swan Island
Talkdemonic
The Thermals
Tractor Operator
Viva Voce
Wet Confetti
White Rainbow
The Shaky Hands
Horse Feathers
Alela Diane
Laura Gibson
New Bloods
Dat’r
LKN
Dragging An Ox Through Water
Hey Lover
Pure Country Gold

Please email your list to bestnewband@wweek.com (please do not reply sender; the best new band email is conveniently located last on the list of emails above), along with your full name and role in the music community, by Friday, March 28, 2008—IF YOU DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND TITLE IN YOUR REPLY EMAIL YOUR VOTES WILL NOT BE COUNTED. Your votes will be published online, but if you would like your votes to remain anonymous, we can do that too. Just let us know. Also, if you received this email at more than one email address (as many of you may have), please only respond once, with one set of votes.

Thanks so much!

Amy McCullough
Music Editor
Willamette Week

INDIVIDUAL BALLOTS:

Sarah Mayfield
Double Tee Concerts
1. Pierced Arrows
2. Highway
3. The Upsidedown
4. Valet
5. China Forbes Band

Seann McKeel—Eventress, The Cleaners at Ace Hotel
I have been lucky enough to be getting earfulls of The Builders and the Butchers and I love them. The Builders and The Butchers. That’s my number one and only, so 5 points!

Stephen Marc Beaudoin, staff writer at Just Out, active freelance musician in town (classical music, mostly).
1. The Lonely H
2. The Builders and The Butchers
3. Ethan Rose
4. Holcombe Waller and the Healers (who really just incorporated as a “band” in the last year or so…)
5. Chris Robley and The Fear of Heights (again, moving into “band” mode from a solo act in the last year…)

Todd Fadel, Meow Meow Presents, Proprietor
The Builders and the Butchers
Upsidedown Cat
Ross McLeron
Alexis Gideon
The Old Believers

Tom Humphrey
Graphic Designer, Willamette Week
1. Baptist Arms
2. Eat Skull
3. Hornet Leg
4. Gulls
5. Hammer of Hathor

Tony Prato
KPSU Program Director
1. (5 points) Southern Belle
2. The Rainy States
3. The Builders and the Butchers
4. Eskimo & Sons
5. (1 point) Y La Bamba

Matt King
Talent Acquisition & Promotion, Towne Lounge
ATOLE
THE CHROMATICS
LEY LINES
PAPER BRAIN
MAGIC JOHNSON

Zach Barnes, booker/founder, Exit Only
1. Ohioan and Native Kin
2. Valet
3. Ohmega Watts
4. Carcrashlander
5. Vanishing Kids

AP Kryza, WW freelancer, music and otherwise
The Crosswalks
The Blue Horns
Copacrescent
The Headliners

Heather - Booking Agent (et. al.), Ash Street Saloon
The Days The Nights - 5 pts
Doctor Moss - 4 pts
Fist of Dishonor - 3pts
Sprinkles - 2pts

John Barrios
Love Harder founder
1) Dr. Something & The Poppin’ Fresh Love Engines
2) The Fall Colors
3) Bugs of Lightning
4) Benjamin Franklin Freeman
5) Guyve

Ben Parrish, Kill Rock Stars
1. panther (technically new since there’s a drummer now!)
2. hornet leg
3. eat skull
4. dj magic beans

Beren Ekine-Huett, Failing Records
Michele Wylen- She’s gonna be huge. Seriously, like Britney huge…hopefully without the headshaving and whatnot (rimshot).
Meth Teeth- So sweet, so good…
Hot Victory- Unlike anything else going on in PDX right now. And really, with two drummers, how can you go wrong?
The Builder and the Butchers
Magic Johnson

Conrad Loebl
head booker, Rotture
1. Starfucker
2. Caves
3. Fleshtone
4. Reverse Dotty and the Candy Cane Shivs
5. Sukey Tawdry

ANONYMOUS
1. Builders and the Butchers
2. Loch Lomond
3. Fist of Dishonor
4. Per Se
5. Run On Sentence

Brian Riehle
former PRA Manager
Starfucker
Dragging an Ox through Water
the builders and the butchers
paperuppercuts
dykeritz

Curtis Knapp
Marriage Records
1. Rob Walmart
2. White Fang
3. Dash!
4. Grand Junction Grand Therapy
5. Lee Baggett

Cary Clarke,
PDX Pop Now! organizer, Portland Mercury local music columnist, member of At Dusk
1) Au
2) Starfucker
3) Evolutionary Jass Band
4) Chromatics
5) Black Elk

Coco Madrid
Events Manager, Portland Radio Authority
Starfucker
Reverse Dotty and The Candy Cane Shivs
DJ Rad
DJ Freaky Outty
31Avas
Atole

Danny Seim, Menomena (past Best New Band top ten)
Tu Fawning

Name: Dave Depper
Role in the music community: Member of Norfolk & Western, Loch Lomond, Graves, White Hinterland, or whomever needs me to fill in, studio musician/producer, sometime employee of HUSH Records
1. Weinland
2. Nick Jaina
3. Tu Fawning
4. Musee Mechanique
5. Peter Broderick (solo)

ANONYMOUS
1. The Builders And The Butchers
2. Tu Fawning
3. Kelly Blair Bauman

Devan Cook, WW music freelancer
starfucker 5
dirty mittens 1
typhoon! 3
fourever young 4
dagger of the mind 2

Jeremy Judy, Red Room booker/owner
1) trophies
2) red dakota revivial show
3) sprinkles
4) qwong
5) the subterranean howl

Riley Borne
Modern Age Volunteer
1. the revisions
2. a ghost face two inches from your own face
3. dagger of the mind
4. flask mask
5. the rainy states

ANONYMOUS
#1 Starfucker
#2 Weinland
#3 Tu Fawning
#4 M Billy
#5 Eskimo and Sons

Em Brownlowe (member of Swallows), “Tragically Unheard Of” blogger, We Made This Festival founder
Chores
Slutty Hearts
Autopilot is for Lovers
John Sutherland
Sick Sick Sister

Ezra Fowler
Producer/Engineer/Owner, Alternative Spaces Recording Co.
Booking Agent, The World Famous Kenton Club
Freelancer, Mississippi Studios, Terrestrial Records
1. Wooden Indian Burial Ground
2. The Old Believers
3. Drunken Prayer
4. Curious Hands
5. Cicada Omega

Noah Marmalefsky, former ambassador of the Waffle Horse Entertainment Group and member of Taco Mountain Time
1. Meth Teeth
2. Eat Skull
3. LOOSE CONTROL

Fasil Debeb
MusicfestNW Board of Directors
1. Helio Sequence
2. Builders and Butchers
3. Tu Fawning
4. Pseudosix
5. Starfucker

Craig Marquardo
Publisher, Music Spectator
Debra Arlyn
Tea For Julie
The Dimes
3 Leg Torso
Ohmega Watts

Fawn Williams
Manager, Portland Radio Authority
1. Kieskagato
2. Yoyodyne
3. Caves
4. DRATS!
5. The Pink Snowflakes

Gus Elg, recording/mastering engineer @ Sky Onion, PRA co-founder, Pants Machine bassist, and solo artist Wilding.
Modernstate
Mike Coykendall
Sleepyhead
Blue Cranes
Loch Lamond

Hannah Carlen
Radio Promoter for Spectre Entertainment, Portland Mercury music freelancer, Concert Lover, Helper
1. GLASS CANDY*
2. BUILDERS & BUTCHERS
3. REPORTER
4. LOCH LOMOND
5. PSEUDOSIX

Stephanie Hays, Rock ‘n’ Roll Mama contributor
1 - chris robley and the fear of heights
2 - chris gabriel
3 - super zeitgeist

James Squeaky
Argumentix, Below PDX Records
1. Budweiser Sprite
2. Dude War
3. Soup Purse
4. Syrup
5. Redglaer

Jeffrey “Chairman” Couch, DRATS!!! and The Chair Project
TRANSIENT
DRAMADY
SLAM DUNK (WITH AUTHORITY!)
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FREEMAN
CAGUAMA

Jeff Simmons of the Portland Radio Authority here, this is the official tally of all PRA DJs’ votes for the Best new Band. We used the same point system you used to tally our 60+ DJs’ fav new acts. And the winners are:
starfucker
ohioan and native kin
Eat Skull
The EEgos
Dragging an Ox through Water

Joong-Hyun Kim, Grover a.k.a. DJ Seoul Brother # 1… I’ve been DJing in the portland area for over 10 years, promoted shows, etc.
1) The Way Downs
2) Love Trail
3) A Weather
4) Devin Phillips Band
5) Copacrescent

Jordan Dykstra
Vice Pres, Marriage Records
1. valet
2. white fang
3. rob walmart

Justin Ringle, Horse Feathers (past Best New Band top ten)
justin power
loch lomond
builders and butchers
weinland
musee mecanique

Lindsey Collins
CD Baby Artist/Label Relations, Live Music Enthusiast, specializing in local music. I’ve also hand a hand in C>O>T>R and other events (mainly the CD Baby benefit shows, benefits for local non-profits).
1.) Au | myspace.com/peaofthesea
2.) Fist Fite | www.myspace.com/fistfitefistfite
3.) Rabbits | www.myspace.com/rabbitusmaximus
4.) Black Elk | www.myspace.com/blackelk
5.) Dirty Mittens | www.myspace.com/dirtymittensband

Tim Germer, Northwest Noise
Blind Pilot
Caves
YACHT
DCRS
Panther

Ed Michinski,
owner/booker, edge of Belmont
My pick for best band is Intervision,
with second vote for Mike Struwin.

Zac Pennington
Musician (Parenthetical Girls), label proprietor (Slender
Means Society), ex-Portland Mercury music editor
1. Au
2. Cex Fucx
3. Valet

Zachary King
Booking Agent, Twilight Cafe & Bar
1. Purple Rhinestone Eagle
2. The Estranged
3. The Whips and The Whales
4. The Pity Fucks
5. Sleepwalkers RIP

Lauren K. Newman
member of Palo Verde, Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls volunteer, past Best New Band top ten
the Empty
Prize Country
Shelter Red
Jessica Jones

Jay Hoton (WW/Local Cut music writer)
- Slants
- Family Gun
- Highway
- Young Immortals
- Rapids

Adam Forkner
White Rainbow, Yarnlazer records
1. Valet
2. White Fang
2. Atole
3. Arohan
4. 3. Rob Walmart
5. Starfucker

Manny Reyes (DIY Electronic DJ/Musician/Techno-Basement Party Queen)
-Moodring
-Smoke and Mirrors
-Valet
-Gay Deceivers
-Arohan

E*Rock, Audio Dregs and Fryk Beat records co-founder
1. Valet
2. Atole
3. Arohan
4. Rob Walmart
5. Starfucker

Art Santana (Ground Kontrol Manager)
1. World’s Greatest Ghosts
2. Red Dons
3. Kickball
4. The Estranged
5. Modernstate

Philip Sherburne
journalist/blogger, Pitchfork, etc., electronic musician
-Valet

DJ Broken Window, International IDM and electro producer
1. Valet
2. ATOLE
3. Smoke And Mirrors
4. Paint & Copter

Mike McGonigal
Yeti Publishing, Halleluwah festival organizer, etc.
-Valet

Michael Mannheimer
Music freelancer, WW/Localcut.com
1. World’s Greatest Ghosts
2. Eskimo & Sons
3. Love Menu (Emily Katz)
4. Bark Hide and Horn
5. AU

Casey Jarman, WW Assistant Music Editor, LocalCut.com Editor
1. Eskimo and Sons
2. Starfucker
3. Sandpeople
4. Ohmega Watts
5. Ohioan and Native Kin

Maggie Vail, Kill Rock Stars
Hornet Leg
Eat Skull

Nalin Silva (Kelly’s Olympian booking agent)
#1. federale
#2. the fast computers
#3. the ax
#4. oh darling
#5. texas league
#5. Growler

New Bloods, past Best New Band top ten
- Hornet Leg www.myspace.com/hornetleg
- Magic Johnson www.myspace.com/magicjohnsonmusic
- Purple Rhinestone Eagle www.myspace.com/purplerhinestoneeagle
- Pegasus www.myspace.com/pegasusportland
-We Quit www.myspace.com/wequit

Mike Jones, CD Forge
1. panther
2. boy eats drum machine
3. loch lomond

Corey duBrowa, freelance writer (Sr. Contributing Editor, Paste; columnist, Magnet; contributor, Oregonian, No Depression, The Stranger, eMusic)
1. Fast Computers
2. Ashleigh Flynn
3. Weinland
4. Glass Candy
5. Blue Skies for Black Hearts

December Carson (Mississippi Pizza booker)
- Swallows
- Drats
- Caleb Klauder Band
- Jenny Conlee
- Fernando

Aaron Hall
Booking & Publicity (Holocene, Blackbird, Backspace)
1) Starfucker
2) Builders and Butchers
3) The Joggers (seriously? they’ve never been on there!?)
4) Evolutionary Jass Band
5) Caves

Kevin French (Big Shot Touring)
1. The Builders & The Butchers
2. Loch Lomond?
3. Tu Fawning

Lance Kramer
WW freelancer, music and otherwise
The Old Believers
Dat’r
Nick Jaina

Adam Gnade, solo performer (ex-Mercury music editor)
1. Inca Ore
2. Ohioan & Native Kin

Mike King, Ye Olde Crashe Desyne (Crash America)
1. Builders and the Butchers
2. Pseudosix
3. Per Se
4. Colt Vista

Batty’s Hippodrome
-Basic Fix
-Bedtime
-Soup Purse
-Loose Control
-Y La Bamba

Eric (Produce Row Café Booking)
-Gabe Rozzell and the Decency
-57 Octaves Below
-Eluvium
-Grails
-Miss Lonely Hearts

Alica J. Rose (Doug Fir Booking)
1. The Builders and the Butchers
2. Loch Lomond
3. Tu Fawning
4. Holcombe Waller & The Healers
5. Nick Jaina

Matt Kirkpatrick
Co-manager, Portland Radio Authority
1) Gulls
2) the Builders and the Butchers
3) Ethan Rose
4) Starfucker
5) The Snowfields

Michael Donhowe (WW Classifieds)
The Brilliant Channel - My favorite new band. Matthew Peterson writes beautiful, epic songs and his guitar playing and tone is just primitive enough to be interesting. Jonathan Drew and Jim Talstra might be the best rhythm section in town. In the interest of full disclosure; Matt and I used to play in Sugarboom together. But I know the music is good because it makes me mildly jealous in the way that Hazel, Eliot Smith and the Dandy’s did when I first heard them.
Baptist Arms - The only group I’ve seen that makes me think of civil war era popular music. Ooze authenticity.
Ohioan - A ‘fun’ band that references many traditional American idioms. Connect with audience. Create a sense of catharsis.
Drunk Ladies - The most interesting guitar playing I’ve seen in a long time. It’s so fucking loud that it becomes a physical experience. Nifty drumming too. The singer might be good but I’ve never really been able to hear him.
Oblivion Seekers - My vote for favourite band that’s been around for a long time. After all these years Mark Sten still embodies the underground Portland cool vibe. Satyricon, pre-grunge/pre-Seattle sound. And nobody can sing like Heidi Hellbender.

Ryan Feigh
Lucky Madison label founder
1) Starfucker
2) Dramady
3) Sandpeople
4) paper/upper/cuts
5) Colin Jones

Matt Dabrowiak and Paul Alcott
Dat’r, past Best New Band top ten
1. Parenthetical Girls
2. Nick Jaina
3. Swim Swam Swum
4. Gouseion
5. Tu Fawning

Jake Rose, member of Childhood Friends, zine writer: Forest Friends Liberation Magazine
1. Fade 13
2. The Misadventures of Two
3. Benjamin Franklin Freeman
4. Michele Wylen
5.Clik Mix

Chad Crouch (Hush Records)
-Loch Lomond
-Nick Jaina
-Graves
-Run On Sentence
-Shelley Short

Hank Failing (Old Town Music, Failing Records)
1. Southern Belle
They are young, talented, and exciting. It’s just a matter of time before a major label picks them up.
2. Dirty Mittens
They have good songs with timeless vocals.
3. Starfucker
They’re a great band with awesome songs and fun live performance. I hear Starfucker in my head sometimes when I’m cleaning up the house, it totally makes things better! Josh Hodges is the most talented un-known musician in Portland right now.
4. Narwal Vs. Narwal
5. Michele Wylen
She’s ambitious and talented with her one person electronica. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of her songs got picked up for a movie.

Jim Sandberg, WW/LocalCut.com music scribe, vagabond
-Ohioan and Native Kin
-Eskimo and Sons (not very new)
-World’s Greatest Ghosts
-The Rainy States
-Living Proof

Bobby “Fatboy” Roberts, KUFO DJ
-My Life in Black and White
-Kleveland
-Nickel Arcade
-Another Fine Crisis
-Kaitlyn y Donovan Isolde

ANNONYMOUS
1. starfucker
2. atole
3. fist fite
4. lips and ribs
5. strength

Nathan Carson (Nanotear Booking, Dj Nate C, The Better to See You With, WW music freelancer)
1) Fist Fite
2) Trees
3) Starfucker
4) Knelt Rote
5) Here Comes a Big Black Cloud

Arya Imig, KPSU DJ, LocalCut podcast contributor
1. World’s Greatest Ghosts
2. The Vonneguts
3. A Weather
4. Love Menu
5. The Rainy States

Kristine Strackbein (Alberta Street Public House booking)
#1 Federale
#2 Caves
#3 The Dimes
#4 Weinland
#5 Autopilot is for Lovers

ANNONYMOUS
Weinland
Musee Mechanique
Mike Coykendall Band
Valiant Arms
Sabertooth

Allison Carter, Crystal Ballroom McMenamins booking empire Weinland
The Builders & The Butchers
Copacrescent
Danava
Monstrous
I would be remiss to not make note that the Helio Sequence have yet to make the list and just assumed they had been voted in as it seems surely at one year or another they would have been singled out. Their new record is taking them to the “next level,” as they say, however, the latest release is their fourth full-length album. I suppose they were not even “new” in 2004, the first year of the Best New Band poll! Just wanted to make that point and give props to one of Portland/Beaverton’s finest.

Amy McCullough, Music Editor, Willamette Week
1) Graves
2) Jared Mees
3) Starfucker
4) Kurt Hagardorn
5) Andy Combs & the Moth

Angelo De Ieso II
Pop Tomorrow!/Portland Oregon Indie Music
this one’s tough, but here goes:
1. The Slants
2. The Builders and the Butchers
3. Jared Mees
4. The Wherewithals
5. Bark Hide and Horn

Anika Sabin
freelance writer, Willamette Week & LocalCut.com / KLC Publications Director
1. fist fite
2. the whips and the whales
3. Au
4. hornet leg
5. magic johnson

Anthony Lusk, Event Booking and Promotions, Ground Kontrol
1. Danava
2. DarkBlack
3. Ancient Age
4. Torn to Pieces
5. Order of the Gash

Barbara Mitchell,
Freelance Writer (Music & Sustainable Life), Portland Tribune
little beirut
the dimes
oh darling
kasey anderson
carcrashlander

Brent Bell
PDX Pop Now! | Board Member & Communications Director
The Crystal Ballroom/McMenamins | Marketing Assistant
1. Starfucker
2. Ethan Rose
3. Valet
4. The Builders & The Butchers
5. Gulls

PJ Portlock, Bridgetown Breaks
1) Tu Fawning
2) modernstate
3) pseudosix
4) 31 knots
5) Panzah Zandahz

Caroline Julia Buchalter, Mississippi Studios Booking
1. Builders and The Butchers
2. Portland cello project
3. musee mecanique
4. run on sentence
5. tu fawning

Anne Koch, Business & Entertainment Attorney, Motschenbacher & Blattner LLP
1. Builders & the Butchers
2. Hugs
3. Blind Pilot
4. Hillstomp
5. Dimes

Dan Eichler, District Marketing Manager, Borders
I book music shows in 8 Borders stores in Oregon, including one store in Vancouver. Mostly, the artists I schedule are solo acoustic singer, songwriters. I do book a wide variety of bands that play rock, pop, world, bluegrass and jazz.
1. Amelia – they are not a new band, but they did take an extended break and are releasing a new CD in April. They are my favorite local band. Their new CD continues the growth and development of their music.
2. Garth Michael McDermott - He’s a great singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist and is very accomplished. His sound is folk/rock, but with an Americana feel to it.
3. Canoe – This young band features rock instrumentation with a violin on some songs. Their songs have unique and unexpected melodies and the male lead singer has a very wide range.
4. Courtney Jones – Oregon singer, songwriter from the Sarah McLachlan school; she is a great singer and pianist and writes well-crafted pop songs.
5. Echo Helstrom – might not be considered new.

DJ Wicked, longtime Portland hip-hop DJ
-DJ Wells

Erik Bader, Blogger/WW Freelancer
-Evolutionary Jass Band

Jen Oleson,
Valentines booker, Here’s some folks I really loved hearing this year, in no particular order.
AAN
Rush-N-Disco
Purple Rhinestone Eagle
Elephants
Ah Holly Fam’ly

Jason Quigley, concert photographer
here comes a big black cloud
portland cello project
junkface
typhoon
eskimo and sons

Jason Simms - Freelancer for the Oregonian, Harp, (Sound)
1. Fist Fite
2. Pierced Arrows
3. Rum Rebellion
4. The Rainy States
5. Michele Wylen

Steve Otis, member of Matinee, KJ, songwriter workshop host
- Run On Sentence
- Boy Eats Drum Machine
- Nick Jaina
- Non Sequitur
- Hutson

Kaytea McIntosh, XO Publicity
THE SODA POP KIDS (5)
BLUE SKIES FOR BLACK HEARTS (4)
THE GREATER MIDWEST (3)
THE HUGS (2)
CAVES (1)

Kelly Clarke, WW Arts and Culture Editor
1. Builders & the Butchers.
American gothic hippie drum circle awesomeness. Their raucous live shows give me sweaty chills and make me want to simultaneously sing and throw beer bottles. Which, of course, garners them my undying devotion. Amen.
2. Eskimo & Sons
If only I spent my time making rag tag sing along music this achingly heartfelt and beautiful when I was 18-years-old instead of shaking my ass at my high school cafeteria dances to Quad City DJs “Come’On Ride the Train.”
3. Loch Lomond

Kurt Prutsman, booker and bartender at Dunes.
The Marmits
Night Wounds
The Golden Greats
Michele Wylen
Magic Johnson

Connie Wohn, Music Maven and Artists Relations
1. builders & butchers
2. the fix featuring ohmega watts, rev. shines, dj kez & dun diggy
3. chromatics
4. colt vista
5. riddenpa

Lisa Lepine
Promotion Queen (Bite of Oregon, etc.)
Chervona 5pts
This post punk peasant Eastern block band creates the most crowd interaction I have seen in years. Charming Russian/broken English lyrics cross the language barrier to connect to our new peasant society. They know about the price of freedom and the bs of government—but help us party just the same. If I could give them 10 points I would!!
Portland Cello Project 4 pts
Scotland Barr & the Slow Drags 3pts
Justin Jude 2 pts
Emily Herring 1 pt

Matthew Roley, Booking at the Buffalo Gap Saloon
1. Domonic Castillo and the Rock Savants
2. Tony Smiley
3. The Online Romance
4. Brandon Chandler and the Revival
5. Trashcan Joe

Michael Ackerman, Boxxes /Fez Ballroom
1. SOUTHERLY
2. CATFIGHT
3. WONDERMONSTER
4. fraqtured:sound
5. MICHAEL ROCKSTAR

Michael Byrne, ex-WW freelancer, Music Editor, Baltimore City Paper
Let’s Go Outside
Au
Alexis Gideon
Gulls
Fist Fite

Michael Newman, I operate the Waypost music venue, coffee lounge, local beer emporium.
1. Andy Combs & The Moth
2. Love Menu
3. Renegade Minstrels
4. DJ Ghost Dad
5. Sagas / Saw Whet

From Miranda King, Booker/Event Coordinator, Backspace.
1. The Builders and the Butchers
2. The Crosswalks
3. Junkface
4. Starfucker
5. Nick Jaina Band

Nicholas Johnson
KPSU DJ/PDX Pop Now! Booking Committee/Oregon Encyclopedia Editorial Office
Worlds Greatest Ghosts
Emily Katz/Love Menu
The Rainy States
Starfucker
The Maybe Happening

Nilina Mason-Campbell
Photographer, blogger: notontheguestlist.com, Willamette Week/LocalCut freelance writer
1.Breakfast Mountain (formerly Kissin’)
2.Doubledutch
3.Easter Egg
4.Starfucker
5.Fist Fite

Full name: Paige Richmond
Title: Former Local Cutter and WW contributor
1. Builders and Butchers
2. Loch Lomond
3. Portland Cello Project
4. Honus Huffhines
5. Southerly
Even though he’s the antithesis of a “new band,” this dude has never made the poll before, so I’m throwing his hat in the ring for good measure: Adrian Orange

Randy Bemrose
I play in Junkface, Dagger of the Mind, and the Vivian. I also own the Green House, and put shows together here and there.
rainbow and the kittens
here comes a big black cloud
danava
starfucker
swim swam swum

Colin Grigson, Punk Rock go-to Guy
Sleepwalkers RIP
Pierced Arrows
The Estranged
Moral Panic
Social Graces

Rob Jones, Jealous Butcher Records
#1 Nick Jaina
#2 Carcrashlander
#3 Kelly Blair Bauman
#4 Weinland
#5 The Mighty Ghosts of Heaven
#6 Hutch & Kathy

Sam Soule, Slabtown co-owner/booker
1. Rapids
2. The Pity Fucks
3. The Leaders
4. The Mean Jeans
5. The Drunk Ladies

Scott McLean, Holocene
Atlas Sound
Valet
Builders and Butchers
Starfucker
Arohan

Sean Croghan, Local Legend
1. …worms
2. Danava
3. Adrian Orange and Her Band
4. Pierced Arrows
5. Dark Skies
(voted for 10 bands, rules only permit 5. The bottom 5 follow)
6. Wax Edison
7. Slam Dunk (with authority)
8. Valet
9. Sprinkles
10. Chris Robley

Shaun Semsch, Vendetta
Carcrashlander
Sexton Blake
William Holley
Hey Lover
Bretta

Sohale Kevin Darouian, Children of the Revolution
Glass Candy
Danava
Chromatics
Get Hustle
Starfucker

SP Clarke, Music Writer/Musician (Two Louies Magazine, Buko Magazine, Toy Room: A Rock Opera)
1. Loch Lomond
2. Shelley Short
3. Tears Run Rings

Steve Schroeder, Boss, States Rights Records
1st-White Fang
2nd-Valet
3rd-Flaspar

Kevin O’ Connor, Talkdemonic (Past BNB winners)
1. Starfucker
2. Dykeritz
3. The Builders and the Butchers
4. Paper Uppercuts
5. Bark Hide and Horn

Terry Curier, Music Millenium
1) Dimes
2) builders & the Butcher
3) Slants
4) Alex Wiley
5) Nu Shooz Orchestra

Aaron @ Artistery
Kelli Schaefer

Trevor Solomon, MusicfestNW Director
Builders and butchers
Au
Red Fang
Pseudosix
Swim Swam Swum

Photo: WW’s Best New Band 2008: The Builders and the Butchers, taken by Nilina Mason-Campbell.