enjoy these gifts of old & new, peeks at future albums and much more. keep checking back or follow on twitter.
From Blake Carrillo of Cinema Minimal:
Hi Buds!
Cinema Minimal started out as a bedroom project around 2007, when all of the sudden, I felt that the songs coming out were better than anything I had written in the previous decade. These early songs were born out of immersing myself in films, evolving friendships, losing people you love, drinking heavily and lots and lots of weed!
Firstly, we have the final version of all those season EPs I wrote, now split into 2 discs spring/summer and fall/winter. They include 4 cover songs by Jawbreaker, Screeching Weasel, Boilermaker and My Bloody Valentine. Appearing on Seasons are the ever talented, Peter Bowhan (Moth Dust), Carlos Segovia (Ghost Ramps, DOTD), Victor Paul and Amanda Spring (PJWA). Hopefully one day I'll get these on vinyl and my original dream might finally be realized as a 2xLP with a season per side.
Along with Seasons, we have +happy/bsides+ which consists of random songs I wrote for birthdays or the blog i was doing back then. Also as a bonus there is a cover song by one of my favorite bands, The Love of Everything! I spent some time in New York in 2001 and when I saw LOE play live for the first time on 9/10/2001 (yikes!), this song kind of really stuck with me for the rest of my stay...actually still to this day I sing it in the shower. I urge you to listen to the OG version! Oh and there is a special appearance by Cheese the Original Dog on the last track.
Finally, we have a brand new song for GHOSTS entitled, Slush, which might be on the next album. We're about 5 songs in and hope to have it done by the summer/fall of 2014.
The live band right now consists of Nate Otani, Sean Cochran and Jason Holcomb who are the best!! Cassie Neth, Scott Funkhouser, Carlos Segovia and Peter Bowhan have all lent some hands, feet and voices over the years too (They're also the best). I seriously hope you really enjoy these jams. Thanks a million to the WTGY family for putting in so much hard work for the cause and including me. I am truly grateful for these buds!
xox,
+bcc+
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From Nick Jaina of Binary Dolls:
Da Vinci said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned," but some art is not just abandoned, it's left on the side of the road like an unwanted baby by parents who are too freaked out to know what to do with it.
"Too Much Thinking Sinks Ships" was an album made by my band Binary Dolls in 2005. My brother Matt Dabrowiak and I formed the band when we moved to Portland in 2001. I had gotten a short-wave radio for Christmas and I still had a trumpet I had borrowed from a friend; Matt had an old Boss drum machine. I thought that would be enough for a band. Put the radio through some effects and make some beats? Yeah, not quite enough. We went to Portland Music Company looking for a sampler and the guy convinced us to get Ableton Live, thank God. We added a Fender Rhodes keyboard to the band, one of those nice ones with a lot of keys that is so fucking heavy that you need two people to carry it out of the basement and you fear for your life if you're on the bottom. But when you get that instrument to the venue, you feel like you've EARNED something and you'd better use it.
More importantly, we added Paul Alcott on drums. Paul says when he first heard my songs he decided to quit being a songwriter and be a serious drummer, which is the one nice thing he's ever said to me. Recording that album was one of the hardest times of my life, partly because I was getting a divorce, which they say is worse than a root canal and almost as bad as dying. The band didn't really get along that well at that point. Matt and Paul were very unhappy with my singing, mostly because I couldn't sing.
The album was recorded at Paul's house off of Alberta. It was all on his computer and he liked to spend a long long time working on mixes. Often Matt and I had to force him to play us a mix, and he'd tell us it wasn't finished yet and we'd listen to it and we'd honestly think he was trying to ruin the album and our lives. Well, that's when you know you're really collaborating.
I don't know if I could listen to the album now without doubling over in pain, but I think that kind of tension among band mates can create an exciting dynamic. I remember a review saying something like, "It sounds like these guys hate each other," and well at least it's good to know that those emotions show through. Please enjoy, there are some songs on here I'm really proud of.
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The Dutch Flat (Sam Humans, Matt Genz, Tim Graham) moved to PDX from Seattle in late 2001, releasing their aptly titled album "Ghosts" in 2003. The 3 piece found a welcome home in the fertile basement scene and genre-less rock and roll attitude that defined Portland in those days. The title track, a 13 minute epic of complexity and shred, was recorded live in 1 take in Scott Sloan's basement. Matt and Sam went on to form ...worms with Sloan a few years later. Tim now teaches high school history here in town.
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From Carlos Segovia of Ghost Ramps:
The two songs on "...Presenta Moving North" are the first Ghost Ramps songs released since 2009's "Presenta Valley Blvd" cassette. The songs are respectively sides A and B to an imaginary 7". Ghost Ramps is the exploration of found sounds, sample manipulations and live instrumentation recorded at home. These songs and the ones on the previous release ("Presenta Valley Blvd" which can be found here on wants to give you) are cathartic soundtracks to distant memories of my childhood in Los Angeles, CA up through my early years of living in Portland, OR. Enjoy and remember this was born in a basement.
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From Greg Campanile of I've Been Franklin:
These are songs recorded between 1999 and 2004 in suburban Arizona on a Gateway desktop computer using Fruity Loops...pretty much what I nerded out on doing in high school instead of excelling academically or meeting girls. Ok, hope you like it.
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From Emily Overstreet of The Olive Grove:
I was about 20 years old at the making of this record. It's not necessarily true to my tastes in the present day, but I am proud of it, still. I feel like it still has some life left and so I thought I'd give this a try.
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The Little Fires EP was the first Spy Island release. Recorded in 2002, released early 2003. At the time, the core was David Serra (also of Cheat Sheet! on drums and farfisa and backing vocals and a bunch of other shizz), and myself. Recorded by George Dubber at the 205 in Detroit on a Tascam 8-track machine. A ton of our friends also played various things on the EP.
As an added DEEP GHOST... In 2005 we contributed our cover of Jale's 'Ali' to Plumline's "One Scene To Another" compilation, a sort of love-letter to the Canadian bands that influence us nerds in Detroit.
In high school, David and I were fans of Jale (and Sloan and Eric's Trip and all them dudes), so thought it would be fun to take Jale's poppy-peppy 'Ali' and turn it into a drunken mess. Ha. We somehow added two minutes to the original's running time.
This song was recorded in my bedroom in Detroit (hence the drum sound) on an 8-track recorder. The players/singers were David, Faith, Rob, George, and myself. It was one of my favorite sessions ever, 'cause we all hung out and recorded it in a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon.
Thanks for listening!
Dale
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Pluvial is Daniel O'Brien-Bravi & Papi Fimbres (of Gallons) playing drum & bass math rockiness. Included here is a solo track by Daniel O'Brien-Bravi
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A Point Juncture, WA album is never rushed out for release. Each album, including 2011's Handsome Orders, are works in progress that take years. The lush production, beautiful songwriting and solid albums always make it worth the wait though. So listen and enjoy Handsome Orders while we wait for the new album in which they are currently working on to drop.
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Another of Jason Lymangrover's post Junior Private Detective projects.
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One of Jason Lymangrover's post Junior Private Detective projects with David Serra.
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Steel Hymen are Becca VandeWalle, Chris C. Luke, and Lauren Vidal. This is the bands LP 0 || 0/0. The band is in the studio working on a new LP.
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From Ben Hubbird of The Morals:
The Warming Light of Dawn was recorded over a period of two years with our friend Aaron Fratis in his Northeast Portland basement. When we started the record, his wife was 2 weeks pregnant. When we finished they were the proud parents of an adorable one year old. Aaron recorded the record and played drums at the same time -- operating his ProTools rig from behind the kit with a space age motion sensing cordless mouse. The record also features guitar work from our dear friend Brian Mumford of Dragging an Ox through Water and bass and vocals from our dear friend Mike Barnhill.
Summastorms was recorded over a period of one amazing summer weekend with our friend Victor Nash at his DESTINATION UNIVERSE! studio in Southeast Portland. When we started the record, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. When we finished, the moon was out and the crickets were chirping. We recorded the first three tracks out in his lovely back yard, bringing microphones, sound baffles, and instruments onto the grass and capturing some of the magic of that incredible Portland summer. The last three tracks were recorded inside, and feature the musical talents of Skyler Norwood, Gus Elg, John Hubbird (my dad) as well as Victor himself.
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From Matt Dabrowiak (now in Gallons and Menomena) and Paul Alcott (now in Parenthetical Girls):
After a couple of false starts, the songs for In Defense Of The Corporate Jet came pouring out quickly towards the end of 2008. Things were going so well that in June of 2009 we held a listening party complete with survey questions to help decide which songs would make the final cut. Then things slowed to a crawl as we prepped for a new live show and joined other bands. Finally, we were asked to join the touring version of Menomena, and Dat'r was put on semi-permanent hiatus. Somehow we mustered the energy to have Tony Lash master it in 2011, but not the energy to actually listen to the finished product. Not sure that either of us has listened to it yet. This was an exhausting album to finish, but hopefully not one to listen to. Thanks!
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Tonight We Love You by Deer Or The Doe was recorded in the winter of 2011 by Victor Nash at Church Modes and mixed by Rian Lewis. This album was DOTD's first full length and was released as a finale to the bands 6 year run. Album art by Danny Seim. Enjoy!
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From Skyler Norwood of Team Evil (and Point Juncture, WA):
Taken from early recording sessions (2006ish), these songs didn't make it on Mad Reciprocity. They seem to only fit with each other.
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From Papi Fimbres of paper/upper/cuts (and Gallons):
This was recorded here in my basement rather quickly by Jesse "Gigante" Johnson in the early winter/january of 2008. This is my first solo album with Ian Hodges (Prime Meridian) on bass for "Time is to Hug Your Friends." it was a super easy fun album to do and we only made digital copies which i hand collaged every single cover, so they'd all be different.
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Though the name didn't arrive until two years later, and still never meant anything, Jana Osta began in 2006 as Will Hattman's attempt at a bedroom heavy metal project. By 2009, it had become a full-fledged five-piece mining territory somewhere between Neurosis and Dinosaur Jr., with Will on lead vocal and guitar, his sister Susan on bass, mutual friends Jack Hayden and Lindsay Candra on guitars two and three, and Will's former drum student and future Portland hardcore fixture Sam Pape (GrandFather, The Sky Above and Earth Below) on drums. This lineup recorded a self-titled EP, played a total of seven shows, and then faded out, at which time Will carried the name back into his bedroom for retooling. The Neighbor EP, unreleased until February 2013, was the project's last breath. This record combines the last song the five-piece ever developed together (Neighbor, recorded early 2010) with three others that Will wrote and tracked entirely himself (late 2011 to early 2012) in a frantic effort to get another release out the door before retiring the name. It had ended up sounding more like Sebadoh or something by that point, so who knows where it might have gone. This EP, along with every other song the band ever tracked, was produced by Skyler Norwood at Miracle Lake Studios and mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion.
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Starting in 2005, Neal Wright wrote songs under the home-recording project, The Four Edge, before forming a band which ultimately dropped the name and became Burner Courage. Among the many band names tossed out during the name change, Fake Fireplace was mostly disliked by everyone else in the band but Neal, so when he found himself with unreleased material and no project under which to release it, he looked to some of the discarded band names of old. Being that he was the only band member, he found it convenient that 100% of the band liked the name, and Fake Fireplace was born. The name is commentary on the fact that sometimes something digital, something layered, a solo project, can have its own strange ambiance. Much like the comforting glow of a fake fireplace, despite the fact that it's a facsimile of the real experience. These songs were recorded solo in apartments and bedrooms over the past 8 years or so with a sole contribution by the now Burner Courage drummer Lukas Schneider. Enjoy!
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For Friday the 13th we can't think of a more appropriate ghost than Tranquilazer. Few people follow through with ideas born in bars, but this one had to happen. Members of Junior Private Detective (Emilie Strange on bass) and Deer or the Doe (Blake Carrillo & Aaron Miller on guitars, Carlos Segovia on drums) with Brent "The Brain" Swaine as frontman singing about lil' red rockets and dancing hard. Essentially a party band who thrived on basement shows, it's hard to ignore the hooks laid down on their self-titled album, recorded by Skyler Norwood in 2006. Unfortunately they left many wanting more after stopping the party in 2009 and leaving this one album, but we'll aways have Magic. Enjoy.
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Before Deer or the Doe, Clint Cunningham, Aaron Miller and Carlos Segovia played in Curse of the Carousel Pony with Stephen Colvin and Aarik Miller. I guess you could say they were post punk, but they packed more into one song than other band's entire albums. That may sound like a mess but they managed to keep it tight and controlled, especially on this Go Careful album. Enjoy this 2005 time capsule.
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Emilie Strange, Jason Lymangrover, Marcella Simon and Bo Fickel. Only they (who found each other at the Recording Workshop music school) could create the mix of pop, prog rock and shredding that was Junior Private Detective. JPD managed to leave quite a legacy in the handful of years they played around Portland with two albums, several early PDX Pop Now! appearances and many devoted fans. Now is the time to celebrate their first album's tenth anniversary, which was recorded by Larry Crane at the old Jackpot! studio, with this download that includes an EP of songs that were recorded but not released before they packed it up and moved onto other projects. Check out Gallons for Bo's current group and we'll have some of Emilie Strange and Jason Lymangrover's post-JPD projects up in the coming days and weeks.
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Swim Swam Swum began as a bedroom project for Matthew Taylor in the mid-aughts. Over the years the band has gone through many lineups but that original, unique sound is still apparent and fleshed out on Circumpolar Westerlies. Enjoy their first full length along with a special bonus track.
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From Randy of Junkface:
Dear listener, here's this record I made in the later half of 2003. It's all about the things I'm in love with and out of respect it's all true. The songs have been split into two sides: happy/sad, question/answer, +/-, junk/faces. On each song there's one thing that I recorded and then removed to make room for your input. Things like laughing out loud, telling me to hush, and singing 'ooo' are a good place to start but really it's up to you on how to fill it out (or not).
This was NYC junkface in it's original line up of me and Josh Hodges. We played something like 4 or 5 shows, and broke 2 or 3 guitars over the course of them. When I fist finished this I made twenty copies and sent them to my idols and influences (not all but mostly musicians) along with a letter. I never heard back from any of them. Anyways, much love to you and yours and until next time stay up.
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Consisting of Aubrey Hornor (vox/guitar), Eddy Crichton from Total Noise (drums), Mason Crumley (bass), and Dustin Scharlach (guitar), the group came together in the damp hamlet of Portland, Oregon during the fall of 2010. Having made a name for themselves locally for their explosive and unpredictable live shows-shows that scarcely surpassed the 15-minute mark-Formica Man undertook a headlining tour of the U.S., where they soon found affinity and patronage in Deerhoof's Greg Saunier. Saunier would go on to mix their self-released, self-titled debut EP, and would eventually invite them along for Deerhoof's 2012 tour of the US. Saunier is currently mixing their new full-length album, due out in 2014.
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thanks go to dale nichols from spy island for creating this video to help promote ghosts.
heart to elk was the follow up to 2005 and 2004's mama auto boss and juxtupony ep. released in 2008 it also featured packaging by aaron miller of deer or the doe. to check out their previous releases, go here.
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we bring out our ghosts of the past, present and yet to come for the month of december. enjoy these gifts of old & new, peeks at future albums and much more. keep checking under the tree or follow us on twitter. |
![junkface [2003] cover](media/aap/junkface/junkface [2003]/cover copy.jpg)
