Kickin’ Out the Jams

Warpaint, Marv Ellis bring it all back home

Come ye! Come all ye hippies, craftsmen, musicians, artists, faeries, potheads, salesmen and other such Eugeneans; this year’s Oregon Country Fair has a fabulous music lineup and you definitely want to be in the know before you find your buzz being harshed by something you’d sooner not hear. Of course, the chances of this happening are incredibly low — that is, unless you’ve managed to procure some of Hunter S. Thompson’s mythic, recreationally accessible Adrenochrome — but it might put your mind at ease to have advance warning of what you’re in for.

So here we go: Chill out, make a dandelion chain and let this be a guide of six to your awesome musical Country Fair experience.

As always, the Country Fair lineup packs a punch delivered mostly by blue-grass, jam and reggae groups — but what of Warpaint? This locally rooted, four-part female powerhouse out of L.A. is about as describable through language as a volatile and heart-pounding LSD trip in the middle of a ticking clock, yet there’s something hauntingly familiar about the band’s droning, pop-rock sound that makes you want to drop what you’re doing and follow them into the perfectly tuned dreamworld they create. Theorists around here speculate that only alien technology could be responsible for bringing such a foursome together back in ‘04, but chances are it was just a perfectly harmonized, well-executed conspiracy designed to throw the world into shock and awe.

Warpaint. Photo by Todd Cooper

All levity aside, though, the women in Warpaint have a chemistry that’s hard to top, their chops are intense, and the best part is they’ve found a sound that works. It’s their first year playing the Country Fair, but that shouldn’t stop them from feeling right at home, and it also shouldn’t stop you from feeling like you’ve found a place to call home when they step on stage. They’re sanitary, post-hippie masterminds, and every second of their dense compositional power warrants attention.

Speaking of dense, this year’s Country Fair welcomes a group that could be a contender for the most dreadlocks per capita award: Hailing originally from Jamaica, the members of Rootz Underground are staunch purveyors of synergistic, revolutionary reggae. They’ve combined the chilled-out vibe of a modernized Wailers, the soul and consistency of blues and the wild musical chops of modern funk to form the basis for their overlordic reggaelution, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg-devil’s-lettuce. When Stephen Newland starts pouring out his soul into the microphone, an air of passionate genius seems to float down from the sky like some kind of veiled, rebellious precipitation. Seriously, if these guys were louder they’d sound like Rage Against the Machine any day: “You are the ones who can hold your ground, / the more you listen the more you learn, / romp with fire and your skin gonna burn, / What you gonna do when the tables turn?” So yeah, by the time they’re done you’re pretty much gonna be on their side, like it or not.

If you’re at the Country Fair, scrupulously performed mathematics tell us that you have a 59 percent chance of being a dirty, stinking hippie. With this in mind, a cool majority of you are gonna love 7 Walkers. Ex-Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann has, in recent years, taken his chops down a path of isolation from the other Dead members, and while his new music stays in touch with the bluesy country jams of his hayday, the tunes still stand apart with wicked, beautiful intensity. Lovers of that dusty, tie-dyed, dancing bear, psychedelic-fueled jam band music will find solace in 7 Walkers, but don’t be surprised when the ratio of originals-to-Dead songs is weighted more toward the former. That said, you’ll probably be trippin’ balls, so it doesn’t much matter what you’re hearing as long as the Steal Your Face vibe stands strong.

Before you hit the peak of this long, three-day adventure, by the way, you might want a little pick-me-up to get things started. Enter Marv Ellis and The Platform, a locally founded, fully fledged hip hop jazz group with influence that can be credited to acts such as the Roots and Digable Planets. Not only does lead MC Marv Ellis have reasonable flow and cooled-off vocals to offer, he’s also been known to throw down a freestyle or two. By the time his first year on the scene had drawn to a close, he’d already gotten more than 100 shows buckled under his belt and been named the Northwest’s number one unsigned hip hop and fusion artist. Are we intrigued yet?

At this point, you might be freaking out, thinking there are no string bands to groove on. Have no fear, Elephant Revival is here. The members of this neo-acoustic quintet — which hails from Nederland, Colo. — have far more tricks up their flannel sleeves than you might first think. From the moment they began cutting their teeth, they’ve been pioneers of an emerging genre known as “transcendental folk,” and it seems the only way to sum this sound up is by listening to it. Take the eerie, folky string band sound of last year’s Country Fair bigwig Black Prairie, add some electrified energy and throw it into a beautiful, wide-echoing well of reverb. The skinny is this: Not only are they beautiful compositionally, they’re all fantastic at what they do — fun, poppy-come-mellow folk music. Oh yeah, and they have voices like poppy sirens, so that’s a bonus.

If you’re still in the mood to get your sweaty, sunny dance on after two full days of Country Fair, then Cabinessence is definitely worth checking out. They’re opening up for Warpaint and they should set the stage nicely. With a real funky rock ‘n’ roll feel going on, Cabinessence has a penchant for taking the rock genre and fucking with everything beneath the umbrella. You’ll hear funky ass wah-wah guitars side by side with rock ‘n’ roll twang piano, happy lyrics sidling their way mischievously into minor chord progressions, indie-folk pop vibes dancing for joy behind walls of ‘50s boogie woogie and whinging dobro falling neatly into place between modernized country emotives. This is where your Sunday night starts to get psychedelic, so don’t fret; just chill out and enjoy.

The Oregon Country Fair music scene is something to revel in, and if you don’t you’re gonna have a bad time. At first glance it’ll probably look like a bunch of dirty, stinking hippies jamming out, but trust me, they’re so much more than that.

More information on dates, times, and stages at oregoncountryfair.org

EW 7/7

Do Clouds Still Taste Metallic?

The end of a transformation for The Flaming Lips

1983 is important for many reasons in our world. It’s a song by Jimi Hendrix; it’s also the year Return of the Jedi was released, the Tokyo Disneyland opened and KISS first appeared on TV without makeup. But all of these momentous events seem obsolete in the face of one thing: ’83 marked the formation of the psychedelic, fuzz driven, colorful, magical, beautifully wild, shows-that-will-reputedly-blow-your-mind Flaming Lips.

Hailing from Oklahoma City, the Lips fuel their music with a range of different influences and styles. Dreamy vocals echo between fuzzy synthesizers and flanged guitars to create a symphony of psychedelia, while mid-tempo drums carry the listener along through an array of flowing melodies, licks and breaks — techniques reminiscent of those found on Pink Floyd’s cosmic Dark Side of the Moon. In testament to this Floydian influence, The Flaming Lips recently covered the entire Dark Side of the Moon album, and boy, did they do it well. Currently the Lips are touring to back last year’s Embryonic, and they’ll only be making one stop in Oregon. How lucky we are that they chose our McDonald Theatre for that stop.



Now imagine, if you will, a stage. Throw in some naked people, some Teletubbies, bubbles, aliens, bouncy balls, confetti, lights, giant hands, microphones and instruments. Now make the entire thing explode into color and life. You’re at a Lips show and the world is bursting at the seams with beautiful rays of light. This might sound a little more like a carnival than a concert, but that’s just the point.

Since Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was released in 2002, it seems as though the Lips’ older albums have become lost in a haze of fuzzy, mellow-artistic engineering. There is certainly no denying that Yoshimi and At War With the Mystics are solid records, but they indicate that the group’s slow transformation into a psychedelic funny-house band is drawing to a close.

In 1995, Clouds Taste Metallic blasted the ears off of those people who had managed to hear about the Flaming Lips — most of them probably hanging on every note of “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which was released in 1993 — and this slop infested, psychedelic, noise driven masterpiece left an impact that seemed like it could be everlasting. Unfortunately, those days of noisy, gain-up-too-high slop rock seem to be over for the Lips, and their recent music has gained an art-rock quality that still aims to please but won’t entirely satisfy those fans from the ’90s.

Embryonic, however, has a lot more old-Lips style mixed into it than the previous two albums (especially At War With the Mystics), and this gives great hope to fans of the dirty production and sound effects of Transmissions from the Satellite Heart and Clouds Taste Metallic. Fingers crossed that the Flaming Lips will soon find the perfect way to blend their older, crazier stuff with their cunningly engineered post-millennium sound. As of now, Embryonic is the closest example of this.

Back at that carnival things are still going wild, and you love it. You love yourself and everyone around you. Here’s where the Flaming Lips have truly succeeded in leaving a mark — friendship and connection. So is it ultimately a bad thing that they have transitioned from a sloppy, noisy rock band to a colorful, well-produced dream machine? The answer is undoubtedly no. They’ll still rock you sideways.

The Flaming Lips, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. 9 pm Wednesday, Sept. 29. McDonald Theatre • SOLD OUT

[EW 9/23]

Upcoming Events: Ashland Mind Music Festival

Ashland locals Kaargo Bossajova have worked tirelessly since their formation to promote local music and community spirit with the use of festivals, and on October 8th they will host another grassroots rager down there in southern Oregon. The Ashland Mind Music Festival boasts camping, open jams, and a place to kick back and listen to some awesome local names.

The lineup includes some of the names found at this year’s Apple Jam—an event hosted annually by Kaargo—and a whole lot of new ones too, including Eugene favorites Forever Growing. Beyond the music though, the festival is about much more; friendship, community and a fun atmosphere.



Though complaints about the price have occurred (albeit rarely), tickets include a full weekend of camping, and all night access to amenities—including beer—so although the prices may seem steep at first, it all evens out to a fair price in the end. Complaints about price tend to originate from the fact that many of the bands are unknown, but as the organizers put it: “All of the best were unknown until the community came out to listen.”

The Ashland Mind Music Festival is on October 8th, AMMF property, Ashland, OR. More info @ http://events.myspace.com/Event/7060427/The-Ashland-Mind-Music-Festival

Young Homeless In Eugene: Cover Story

Tim, age 20, Radcliffe, Ky.

“My entire family has been made up of criminals, addicts, alcoholics and car mechanics,” Tim says. He’s been homeless for about two months, he says, and lives on the doorstep outside of John Henry’s. He earned his GED from an adult education center and recently got a job at the Wendy’s on Franklin Boulevard.
He left the South because, “Kentucky seemed bland, you know? I just wanted to see the world for what it was.”
“I want to be a carnie; it’s my life dream to own a traveling circus.”


(Eugene Weekly 7/1 issue)

Jesus, age 16, Eugene
He calls himself Jesus because, “I was on mushrooms and decided that, not unlike Jesus, I see everything for what it is.”
Jesus says he was raised by a normal family in the Whiteaker area and was homeschooled til about halfway through high school. He’s been homeless since he was 13. Jesus used to live in a traditional homeless shelter, now lives on the doorsteps of businesses in downtown Eugene.
He says that nobody ever gives homeless people — much less homeless kids — the time of day to hear their stories. “Living outside of society, trying to keep equilibrium with everything around.”
He manages to make an average of $10 in an hour (on a good day) by asking for change.

(From the Cover Story: Eugene Weekly 7/1)
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2010/07/01/index.html