The Roving Musicologist
Found Sound, Outsider, Street Performers, Sound Events, Experimental, Recorded and Posted with a minimum of interference.
Portland:
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Eye Myths
It was a going away party.
Eye Myths relocated to Portland from San Diego several years ago, and since then have become involved in various projects, including working with the Tenses and Eat Skull.
They aren’t a band that plays very often, but when they do there seems to be a gulf of thought between what they sounded like before and where they are now. This was the most lucid set to come my way yet, although as it’s from June they’ve probably left it a long way behind by now.
Play count: 31
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Hungry Hungry Hippos Amplified (Portland, Oregon)
Re-enacting the Tragedy of the Commons provides hours of entertainment.
Contact microphones attached to an aggressive behavior-inducing board game provides us with this sound.
Play count: 50
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Travel Post #23: Party in the USA (Portland, Oregon Again)
Ending where I began the trip, this recording is a sampling of the country I almost left behind.
On this recording there is a street performer and two different conversations, one of which was just one person. While I can’t say where exactly they were recorded, the picture below was taken nearby one of them:
The storefront was blank except for soda bottles from bankrupt ventures.
Having recovered from the shock of being swathed once again in the language that not so long ago was reserved for the inside of my head, I have been able to put this together. More recordings from outside of the US will be posted when they can be identified.
Miley also welcomed me home when I caught a ride in a gleaming SUV. Photo courtesy of fisherwy.blogspot.com
Goatskin Sack Music was dominant at Alberta St.
And for those of you that came here in error:
Play count: 15
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Fred Meyer (Portland, Oregon)
Although they lost the battle of the bands, Fred Meyer knows it’s more important to be good sports.
The sun was hot when I recorded this show at the pancake house in north Portland. It seemed like things were going wrong. At some point there was an apology from the performer. I was having my own problems with recording…notice the conversation about dogshit halfway through.
But then when something is recorded it changes. This is the last song of a three song set.
A very rare photo of Lala, the other half of Fred Meyer.
Play count: 30
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Grandfather Claws (Portland, Oregon)
This Band performs sitting on the ground without back support, hence stretching is necessary to maintain proper posture.
Grandfather Claws is a band, two men and two women, that I happened to catch shortly before I left Oregon. I found them in the few recordings that I took with me when I left the country and they seem to be an appropriate thing to post after Michael Hurley, as they both represent, for me, a sort of rambling approach to folk music. What people call noise music, while it is approached from many angles, is at its core more folk than anything else. While it is influenced by esoteric ideas from all over the spectrum of music (well, hopefully), when you go to a noise show you are seeing these ideas being refracted in a way that will almost necessarily reflect a homespun approach.
http://www.myspace.com/grandfatherclaws
What I have posted here is only about a quarter of the show; to post more I would have had to reduce the quality to the point that many of the quieter tones would have been lost.
Play count: 53
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Gorf Freaks Out
I was at an arcade in Portland, Oregon the other day called Ground Kontrol and this game, forgotton among the pinball machines on the second floor, was completely fucking freaking out. After the fairly long game of pinball I played right next to it, I felt like it was trying to communicate with me.
Play count: 50
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Smegma of Portland, Oregon (Part 1)
There are very few people who have been continuously active in experimental music for as long as Smegma. They have been making music, in various combinations, since they formed in Pasadena in the early 70’s.
This recording is a collaboration with Nour Mobarak and Parker Lemus. It was performed as a live soundtrack for a movie Nour had previously made.
The next part of this series will feature an interview by Smegma where they talk about their beginnings, what it was like playing shows during the early punk years, and the recent interest in their music by younger fans.
Play count: 61
