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Wesley Allen Hartley is leaving.
One of his bands, Dead End Armory, was among the early group of local acts I encountered when I moved to Portland in 2008, and I was immediately drawn to his songwriting and performance, which often took on an highly caustic and unpredictable nature. I love danger in music, and you’ve never heard so much danger in a man’s voice as Wesley Hartley solo in a dark room with an acoustic guitar, or fronting a rock trio on the verge of destruction while climbing on everything in sight, or decimating the expectations a Port City Music Hall audience as his alt-country group raises the bar for everybody, or, damn, doing the honor of kicking off a friend’s going away party at SPACE. Tonight at Geno’s, celebrate all the great music this friend has brought to Portland with the Wesley Hartley Farewell Show presented by Leif Sherman Curtis, featuring performances by Aleric Nez, The Coalsack in Crux, HeeBeeGeeBees and a very special duo set by Wesley Hartley and Leslie Deane (of Dead End Armory/the Traveling Trees/There Is No Sin). 9:30pm, $5. Wish Wes luck and say “thank you” from us. Peter McLaughlin interviewed Wesley last night over a case of Sebago Lake Trout Stout, a bag of Humpty Dumpty ‘All Dressed-Up Chips,’ and a can of Pringles (Original Flavor). Special thanks to Scott Nebel for unwillingly providing the beer, Tim Alan Walker for willingly providing the chips, and Henry Jamison for, well, being there. HT: What is your earliest memory? How about your first love? Around the same instance, there was a really profound moment… I was running around with this group of people. They were older kids and they had jumped this other kid for some reason. I remember he had blue like snow clone dregs around his lips. They pretty much beat him senseless and I sat there and watched it and pretty much couldn’t do anything. When he walked away crying, I went home and sat in the bath tub and cried most of the night. Then my Mom asked him what happened. I told her this kid with blue snow cone lips had been beaten up and it wasn’t right. That was kind of a beautiful moment. The first time I can remember feeling compassion for a person I didn’t know: an outcast because he had blue snow cone lips. I had been beaten up a bunch because I had big ears, but I usually did the beatings. People would pick on me and I had to retaliate. But this kid couldn’t fend for himself because he had blue snow cone lips. He couldn’t control it. Maybe he could. I don’t know. Read on…
Interview by Matt Dodge. Whispering Altar photos by Bryan Bruchman. A spectacle at the center of Portland’s folk/pysch/drone scene for the last three years, Planets Around the Sun will take their leave of the city in the coming weeks. Read on… As you know, local trio The Milkman’s Union are playing our HillyTown Presents show this weekend. The band has been hyperactive lately, unveiling a new EP and temporarily streaming a single (with guest appearance by Lady Lamb The Beekeeper) for fans in the past weeks. Here’s another treat from the band: a HillyTown exclusive video, plus an in-depth interview, because we just can’t get enough. Interview by Matt Dodge. Photo and video by Bryan Bruchman. The Milkman’s Union on post-college ennui, amp dreams and Sufjan Steven’s step-dad Local indie rockers The Milkman’s Union have earned their place in the Portland musical landscape since moving to town last September. Beginning as the high school musical endeavor of Burlington, VT frontman Henry Jamison, the project migrated with Jamison to Bowdoin College in Brunswick where he met drummer Peter McLaughlin and bassist Sean Weathersby. Since the band graduated and moved to Portland, Bates College alum Alex Hernandez has replaced Sean Weathersby on bass. Boasting a high school prodigy as a guitarist, two audio engineers on bass and drums and a background in booking big name shows (did Kevin Drew belittle you at Broken Social Scene’s 2008 show at Bowdoin? Blame McLaughlin for booking the condescending Canadians) The Milkman’s Union seems poised for success following their breakthrough debut album “Roads In”. Based in Jamison singer-songwriting style with influences of garage and post rock creeping in around the edges, The Milkman’s Union can play a soft, folksy act one night, and keep pace with Portland’s indie rock acts the next. The act has opened up for national touring acts like Deerhunter, Santigold, Ben Kweller and The Morning Benders, and will play the HillyTown Presents: Milagres + The Milkman’s Union + Husband & Wife at One Longfellow Square this Saturday, April 23rd. Purchase advance tickets here.
————– How did you get your start? Henry Jamison: “It started it in high school when i was 16. I released two albums and got like, moderate buzz going in Burlington. Then i went to Bowdoin [College] and lost my ambition for a few months. Then Peter came along with this bass player (who is now a private investigator in Washington D.C.) and they kind of helped me get going again. Read on… Before you do anything, head over to Daytrotter and download the Astronautalis session. It’s excellent. Ok, let’s do this.
Astronautalis is Andy Bothwell. He’s in town prepping his new band for their first tour together, which kicks off tomorrow with a show at SPACE Gallery. Buy tickets here. His new single, Midday Moon, is out today. We talked about the new band, style, and getting frozen. You’ve had some great collabs – Portland’s seen you onstage with P.O.S. and Bleubird (as Boyfriends, Inc.), and now we’re about to get a taste of Astronautilus with a full band. Even better, two of the members are regulars from the local scene here (Oscar from Gully and Derek From Haru Bangs plus Nobs) and you’re taking them on the road. We know that started back at the SPACE Gallery Halloween when you took the role of Joe Strummer for a Clash tribute with them (and others), but can you tell us a bit about how you decided to take them on as your band? Have you performed with a live band before? I have performed with a live band on several occasions, but it is sadly, pretty expensive to take a band on the road and expect to make a living. After 7 years of grinding two deep in a Honda, we have finally carved enough of a career out of all of this yelling to afford a few upgrades to the live show. After the show at the SPACE, i was talking to Oscar and Derek, and they said if i ever needed a guitarist and a drummer to take on the road…give them a holler. Shortly there after…i did. Read on… This Sunday (2/13) sees Rhode Island’s B. Dolan bringing a huge Valentine’s Day weekend tour he’s calling “The Church Of Love & Ruin” to SPACE Gallery. He was nice enough to answer some questions in the week leading up to this special string of shows to help shed some light on what he’s got planned for the SPACE show.
How did you hook up with What Cheer? Brigade? It seems like a lot of mc’s team up with bands to fill out their live sound, but a 16 piece marching band is just insane. How do you control the sound, and what was the process like getting your songs to work with their instruments – or did you write new material for them to play? I first became aware of the What Cheer? Brigade at a Providence hardcore show, and followed them as a fan for years. I can remember sitting in the crowd at numerous shows of theirs and rapping quietly to myself while they played, figuring out how to interact with what they were doing and wondering how to approach them.
Interview by Robert Ker Fans of mainstream pop culture might not think of the Twin Cities as a hip-hop hotbed, those who are invested in the genre otherwise. This is due in part to two prominent independent labels: Rhymesayers Entertainment — which boasts acts such as Brother Ali, Atmosphere, and Eyedea and Abilities — and Doomtree, a collective that includes P.O.S., Sims, and others. The whole gang plays at SPACE Gallery at 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 28. Local MC Sontiago (whom you may know as Sonya Tomlinson) opens. Doomtree’s Dessa released her solo debut album, A Badly Broken Code, earlier this year. It’s a slick, personal set of songs that finds the performer delivering her lines in her melodic blend of singing and rapping. She spoke to HillyTown a week before arriving in town to play at SPACE. Can you explain to people how Doomtree all got together? Doomtree started as a group of friends who were making music together in their high school years. It started really informally, and then over the course of the next ten years organically became an independent music label. So the guys in Doomtree met as teenagers and gelled into a more formal structure over the course of their music-making careers. It wasn’t long ago that Dark Dark Dark visited Portland in support of their previous album, Bright Bright Bright, back in March. They’re back already with a new album – Wild Go – and a show tonight at SPACE Gallery. Brooklyn’s Milagres (who have played a HillyTown show before and will be on the FREE Brooklyn vs. Portland CMJ Day Party this Friday at The Rock Shop!) and local Meghan Yates open.
Interview by Robert Ker The members of chamber-folk sextet Dark Dark Dark often refer to themselves as a nomadic band. Musically, they can be all over the map: their latest album, Wild Go, is their typical blend of classic pop, indie rock, New Orleans dirges, lounge singing, chamber folk, and whatever else they can pull together from their eclectic instrumentation and exploratory songwriting. Their road atlas is no doubt well-worn as well. The band is based in Minneapolis but boasts players from throughout the country. They write on the road and tour constantly — after performing in Maine just seven months ago, they return for a show at Space Gallery at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12. Tickets are $7. I spoke with co-singer (along with Nona Marie) and multi-instrumentalist Marshall LaCount by telephone in advance of this gig. Read on… Interview by Robert B. Ker Jana Hunter began her career last decade with an acoustic guitar in her hand and two terrific albums of the “freak folk” variety — including the first album on Andy Cabic (of Vetiver) and Devendra Banhart’s Gnomonsong label. With the public interest for such music dwindling a tad from its heights of six years ago, and perhaps finding herself at a creative crossroads, Hunter resurfaced this year as the frontwoman for rock ensemble Lower Dens. OK, so it wasn’t like Dylan going electric in 1965, but it was still a calculated career risk that paid off admirably: Twin-Hand Movement is one of the best indie-rock records of the year so far, a sultry blend of dizzying shoegaze and drony dream-pop, one that will remind listeners of random stuff like early Cat Power, Mazzy Star, and Joy Division, and contains long instrumental passages that are emotional and evocative as any folk music, freaky or otherwise. Lower Dens performs at The Apohadion at 7 p.m., Monday, Aug. 9, along with touring partner Inoculist (feauting Jana’s brother John), a reunion set by Ian Paige’s White Light (featuring Jeremy and Jerusha Robinson of South China – was the last time we saw them really during last year’s OFFStage series?), and Jakob Battick & Friends (who was recently featured on this site). This event is a unique collaboration between SPACE Gallery (who are presenting the event) and DIY space The Apohadion. I exchanged a brief email interview with Hunter about Lower Dens the week prior. The first question is the obvious one: what led you to get Lower Dens together? I put together a band for a tour of my solo music, and found Geoff Graham and Abe Sanders through mutual friends. When the tour was over, I’d found I really liked working with them and asked if they’d consider working on new material. We were about halfway through the writing process when Will Adams joined. He’s an old friend that wasn’t finding work on Nova Scotia farms. I convinced him this was a better deal.
As I mentioned last week, a new record shop has opened in downtown Portland. Sounds Absurd is a welcome addition to the Arts District, and I stopped by on opening day (Black Friday) to check out the store and ask owner Shawn Lawrence some questions. Read on for his answers and photos from inside the store… Read on… |
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