Slabtown Bender 2011 Lineup

Slabtown has just released the line up for their 2011 Bender with Paul Collins, Nobunny, and Holly Golightly headlining. The 2010 Bender was awesome and I expect nothing less than that this year.

I've got a month to familiarize myself with the lineup and plan my weekend. Like last year, it's a mix of old favorites (Pure Country Gold, Pity Fucks, etc.) and bands I've never heard of, so once again I've hunted down most of their homepages and included the band's rough genre based on the few songs I heard. By the 4th I should be ready.

Friday 2/4
The Paul Collins Beat (New York) original power popper
Head (Seattle) pop punk
The Tranzmitors (Vancouver, BC) power pop, garage rock
Apache (San Francisco) punk rock
The Mean Jeans (Portland) Ramones-style punk rock
The Blind Shake (Minneapolis) garage rock
Pure Country Gold (Portland) garage blues
The Wrong Words (San Francisco)
Welcome Home Walker (Portland) pop punk, garage rock
Sons of Bitches (Portland) country punk

Saturday 2/5
Nobunny (Oakland) garage rock
Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders (Los Angeles) roots rock, garage rock
Liquorball (Bay Area?) psychedelic rock?
Hank IV (San Francisco) punk rock
James Arthur's Manhunt (Texas) psychedelic rock
Unnatural Helpers (Seattle) garage rock, punk rock
Spencey Dude & The Doodles (San Francisco) garage pop, indie pop
Dreamdate (San Francisco) indie pop
Pity Fucks (Portland) garage rock, punk rock
Flash Flood & The Dikes (Portland) off-kilter country

Saturday 2/5 Matinee
Spider Babies (Portland) punk rock
Bad Trips (Ventura) garage rock, psychedelic
Uzi Trash
Knifey Spoony (Oakland) psychedelic rock
Trash TV (Portland)

Sunday 2/6
Holly Golightly (UK) garage rock, country, soul
The Rantouls (San Jose?) garage pop, retro pop
The Royal Baths (San Francisco) garage rock, psychedelic
The Courtney Crusher Band (Portland) garage rock, retro pop
Thee Headliners (Portland) garage blues
Chemicals (Champaign) indie rock
G Green (Sacramento) punk
The Night Beats (Seattle) garage rock
Primitive Hearts (Oakland) garage rock
Therapists (Portland) punk

Sunday 2/6 Matinee
Pataha Hiss
The Bugs (Portland) garage rock
Orca Team (Portland) retro pop, indie rock, surf
The English Singles (Sacramento) retro pop, indie rock
The Summer Twins (Riverside) dreamy indie pop

New Garage Explosion!!: In Love With These Times Documentary

If you like balls out rock n' roll you should probably check out this new documentary made by directors Joseph Patel and Aaron Brown for VBS. It covers a lot of my favorite bands. Even Jay Reatard (RIP) makes an appearance. Plus, you don't need to go hunt down some obscure art theater see it. Just watch the full-length version below.

Top 5 Favorite 2010 Bay Area Garage Rock Albums

The Bay Area appears to be the epicenter for a kick ass garage rock scene that encompasses the full range of sloppy rock n’ roll, from fuzzy and hazy pop to loud and psychedelic jams. Even though the year isn’t over, there are already way too many albums to include all the great releases. So let’s go see who’s playing at Thee Parkside, knock back a couple tallboys, and argue over who I missed.

5. Kelley Stoltz - To Dreamers (San Francisco)
   Damn catchy retro pop nuggets.
   
   
4. Hunx and his Punx - Gay Singles (San Francisco)
   A wild and hilarious dude fronting a glammy girl group band. Think gay Ramones.
   
   
3. Nobunny - First Blood (Oakland)
   Dude wears a bunny mask and tosses off blistering garage punk hooks. Hell yeah!
   
   
2. The Fresh & Onlys - Play It Strange (San Francisco)
   Seamlessly integrate country chug and classic stroll into fun psychedelic pop.
   
   
1. Bare Wires - Seeking Love (Oakland)
   Like all great garage bands, they only lift from the best and have Seeds-like attitude to spare.

J Roddy Waltson - "Don't Break The Needle" video

Man, J Roddy Walston and the Business rule. Although I love just about every song on their album, "Don't Break The Needle" is one of the best. Incidentally, the video was sponsored by Black Star Beer, a beer I remember fondly from college but thought had gone out of business years ago. I remember sitting on our front porch with my brother, cooking giant steaks, eating burn-your-mouth spicy garlic bread and making our way through a case. It may be time to revisit that nostalgia.

Anyway, JRW and the Business are coming back through Portland on October 21st when they open for Deer Tick at the Crystal Ballroom. You can bet I'll be there after missing their last show, when I couldn't believe a band was actually taking the stage at 8 PM. Judging from the clip, I can't let that happen again.

J Roddy Walston And The Business - Self Titled (2010)

Who the hell is J Roddy Walston? I have no idea, but he fucking rocks. The album kicks off with "Don't Break The Needle" and a rolling piano that recalls old time rock n' roll in the vein of Huey Piano Smith or Fats Domino before the guitar plugs in and cranks up a giant amp. And it only gets better from there, as he heads for the hills on "Pigs & Pearls" for a country rocker with a great front porch singalong chorus. "Brave Man's Death" (mp3) starts off with a tinny ice cream truck keyboard before ratcheting it up with scratchy, yearning vocals. "Use Your Language" mixes in some down-home garage blues. Overall, this is a fantastic album of good timing piano-based rock n' roll.

If there album is any indication of their live performance, Walston might just burn Dante's down before the Dirty Dozen Brass Band can take the stage on Sunday night. And if you stick around afterward, it looks like the Sinferno dancers will continue the New Orleans experience. See you there.

SMMR BMMR DMMR BMMR

SMMR BMMR DMMR BMMR is Portland's summer celebration of sloppy, loud, and scuzzy rock n' roll. I missed it last year and chances are I'll miss it again, but not because the talent. I've seen and loved a couple of the bands before (Shannon & The Clams, Pure Country Gold, Mean Jeans, Pity Fucks) and a few more are on my must see list (Bare Wires, White Fang). I'm sure I'll discover a couple new favorites if I can squeeze it in.

East End Block Party!

After checking out the line up, I am amped for the East End's Block Party this July 4th weekend. Saturday nights features some of my favorites from Slabtown's Bender. Ty Segall just released Melted and Pure Country Gold should be releasing Tough Tuesday any day now, so their should be plenty of new songs to hear and love. With manic and entertaining Mean Jeans headlining it will ensure a great night of loud, sloppy rock n' roll. And Sunday features the catchy garage pop of Harlem. I still can't get enough of Hippies.

Of course, it will mean missing out on some of the Waterfront Blues Festival, but lucky for me, Cedric Burnside & Lightnin' Malcolm are playing on Friday and Booker T is playing pretty early on Saturday.

Thee Headliners - Rain & Blood (2009)

Thee Headliners open Saturday night of Slabtown's Bender, ensuring that I'll be showing up early (the closing set by Germany's Teutonics means I'll probably being staying late too). I imagine their opening slot likely has less to do with their quality or following and more to do with them playing a show last week the Kenton Club.

The band was first recommended to me, along with Pure Country Gold, at October's Garagefest while discussing local bands to rival the scene in Memphis. Not surprisingly, the best cuts off Rain & Blood are lively dive bar rock n' roll. The gruff JT Halmfilst and powerful Holly Hotbox shout it out over a charging riff on "Sketch City" while the organ bounces on girl group-loving "Uplifter '09" and whirls "Sourpuss" up into a go-going frenzy. Overall, it's a good-timing dance-friendly mix of blues and garage rock.

Mean Jeans - Are You Serious? (2009)

Portland's Mean Jeans are one of the bands I am most looking forward to seeing at Slabtown's Bender. I didn't pick up their album of juvenile and manic Ramones-style punk rock, Are You Serious?, until late in the year and although I immediately liked the album, I kept missing their shows. The songs are repetitively catchy and all sound like should've been classic punk hits. Their singer, Billy Jeans, even sounds like Joey Ramone. The album kicks off self-mythologizing "Born On A Saturday Night" (mp3). A definite party jam. The band hardly seem to take a breathe, counting it out, and bashing out rapid fire riffs. "2 Much Cocaine" explains how even punk rockers have their limit. It all adds up to a fun album and what should be a killer show.

Slabtown's Bender 2010 - February 5-7

Ah yeah! Another year, another Portland garage rock festival. Slabtown will be my ground central February 5th-7th. I'm amped to see Ty Segall, Pure Country Gold, Thee Headliners, Mean Jeans, King Louie and Pierced Arrows. I don't know many of the other bands, but I imagine I'll find a couple more that I love. Plus I still have time to do some research.

I'm buying my wristband now.

Tic Tac Records

This morning I was trying to figure out the release date for a Lover! single I'm Not A Gnome I just picked up, and I stumbled upon Tic Tac Totally Records, which seems to specialize in the sloppy rock and roll I love. As a result, I've been listening to their player all morning and I thought I should share. For fans of Lover!, Wavves, Digital Leather, Lost Sounds, Thomas Function, and a whole lot of bands I am just discovering.

Note: I took the player down because I couldn't get the player to stop playing automatically, but the songs are still worth checking out. Go here to launch the player.

Cheap Time - Cheap Time (2008)

I am such a sucker for sloppy rock n' roll, especially when it smashes around huge hooks. I like the way it sounds and I like the way it makes me feel. Cheap Time delivers over and over again. The songs range from garage rock to punk rock to the crunchier side of power pop. "Too Late" is snotty, juvenile and awesome. The guitars squall behind nasal, shout-sung vocals. The repetitive chorus on "People Talk" reminds me of Jay Reatard. And it's just as good. "Permanent Damage" and "Falling Down" are my other two favorites, but every song is full of short bursts of energy and the album never drags. The longest song is just three minutes and the whole album only lasts 28 minutes. Sweet.