Doug Fir

Electric Company

Friday, November 11th, 2011 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

LIVE: Wild Flag and Drew Grow & the Pastor’s Wives at Doug Fir, 11.9.11

Supergroups are never super. Therefore, Wild Flag can’t be considered a supergroup. The former Sleater-Kinney/Minders/Helium members have formed a great American rock band—incredibly fun songs, endless energy—I almost forgot what it’s like to experience a real rock show. Rock ‘n’ roll mythology seems to be what fuels Wild Flag. They unabashedly celebrate it in their songs. They act it out onstage. And I love them all the more for it. So did the sold-out crowd at the Doug Fir, which on this night might as well have been Budokon … save for the fact audience members stood rather than sit and clap politely.

Drew Grow & the Pasture’s Wives led things off with an eclectic, slightly overwrought set of strummy rock jams. The energy was there, but the songs weren’t all that memorable. Then again, I need to be beaten over the head … which is where Wild Flag comes in.

I’ve always thought the best bands were the ones in which you could pick out the individual personalities. And Wild Flag has plenty of it. Former Helium axetress Mary Timony’s controlled guitar lines and (comparatively) prim stage presence were met with Carrie Brownstein’s Joey Ramone hiccup and Jimmy Page-meets-Pete Townshend flash (complete with lots of leg kicks and windmills). Basher Janet Weiss and keyboardist Rebecca Cole make up the concrete-slab rhythm section, and occasionally exchanged wide smiles while providing the bulk of the grrrl-group harmonies.

Musically Wild Flag is somewhere in the neighborhood of Cheap Trick meets Sonic Youth meets The Supremes—gloriously tight and sloppy all at once, compact power-pop songs occasionally giving way to extended noise freakouts (most notably on the terrific “Glass Tambourine”). Wild Flag ran through the entire record, hitting on eternally endearing songs like “Boom” and “Electric Band.” These old-hands tap into the primal innocence and reckless abandon of teen punks with more conviction than any of this week’s hot blog’s yesterday’s news. Probably because this is no act.

It remained that way right on through the encore, which led off seamlessly with The Ramones’ “Judy Is a Punk.” The only lapse of the evening was when Brownstein slipped into Portlandia mode. It seems the ladies of Wild Flag had received coupons for free acupuncture. Brownstein explained how she thought she would have to cancel because of prior plans, only to realize that those prior plans included an acupuncture appointment. “Only in Portland,” she said. I feared Fred Armisen might appear onstage in a dress at any moment. That surely would have been no rock ‘n’ roll fun.

Photo by Mark Lore

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TDoL Presents: Rock and Roll at the Doug Fir

Monday, April 12th, 2010 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

This Friday, April 16 The Days of Lore Presents The Mother Hips, Jared Mees & the Grown Children and The Hugs at the Doug Fir.

TDoL is giving away two pairs of tickets as well as two vinyl platters of The Mother Hips’ latest LP Pacific Dust. Just become a Facebook fan of The Days of Lore and list songs you’d like to hear live, or why you want to check out the show in the comments. It’s that easy!

Winners will be notified Thursday, April 15. There will be more goodies divvied up at the show. Come say hi, give a high-five, get yourself a drink, and enjoy the rock. In that order.

“Pet Foot” - The Mother Hips

“Shake” - Jared Mees & the Grown Children

“She Was High” - The Hugs

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TDoL Presents: Rock and roll at the Doug Fir

Monday, March 29th, 2010 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

Like rock ‘n’ roll? Debauchery? Rock ‘n’ roll and debauchery skipping hand in hand in a golden field of wheat? Uh … me, too.

The first The Days of Lore Presents show featuring San Francisco’s The Mother Hips is coming to the Doug Fir Friday, April 16 (the key word here being “the”). Joining them are a couple of great Portland bands in Jared Mees & the Grown Children and Monarques The Hugs [Monarques are headed to New Jersey to perform on A Prairie Home Companion 4/17--Ed.] All three make sweet, sweet rock ‘n’ roll … you and I will take care of the debauchery.

Tickets are $15, and can be purchased here. TDoL will be giving away two pairs of tickets as well as a couple of vinyl platters from The Mother Hips in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

“TGIM” - The Mother Hips

“The Tallest Building in Hell” - Jared Mees & the Grown Children

“Cold Cold Heart” - Monarques

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The Vaselines enter The Days of Lore

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | interviewZ, musiX, pdX | 5 Comments

Like many, my introduction to The Vaselines came via Nirvana’s Incesticide record in 1992. “Molly’s Lips” and “Son of a Gun” were cheery pop songs that sounded a little less Nirvana-like than the rest of the album. Of course, Nirvana would later cover “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” for its Unplugged album and, as with the brothers Meat (who incidentally have a new record out May 12), The Vaselines were soon on everybody’s cool-and-hip radar.

The Vaselines weren’t even a band by that point. Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee (for whom Cobain would name his daughter after) broke up—personally and professionally—in 1989, only three years after they formed. The band have only a pair of EPs and one full-length—Dum-Dum—released a few months before they called it a day. Ever since Mr. Cobain professed his undying love for the Scotland duo’s jangly garage pop, The Vaselines have maintained indie-rock cult status, and in 1992 Sub Pop re-released The Vaselines’ first two EPs and Dum-Dum as The Way of The Vaselines.

On May 5 Sub Pop re-released the re-release with a much more grandiose title Enter The Vaselines. And with that Kelly and McKee will also play a few U.S. dates, including one here in Portland at the Doug Fir on Wednesday, May 13. The show, no doubt, will be packed. Gee, imagine a world where Kurt Cobain didn’t endorse bands. Who could blame him? The Vaselines are everything I like about music: Sweet, catchy, naughty, ramshackle, strange, beautiful.

Eugene Kelly took some time to talk to TDoL about the upcoming tour and his first encounter with his biggest fan.

TDoL: When you formed The Vaselines in 1986, how did you think it would end up?
Eugene Kelly: We just wanted to write songs and play gigs. We were lucky that we released a single soon after we’d formed, but we didn’t have any plans. It was one day at a time and we were both at college so it wasn’t a full-time job being in The Vaselines.

Is it strange performing songs you wrote over 20 years ago, considering the fact that The Vaselines could have just as easily ended up long-gone and forgotten?
We could’ve been dead and gone and no one would’ve missed us if it wasn’t for Nirvana then Sub Pop introducing us to a new audience. It’s not strange to play these songs after 20 years at all. They feel new and fresh to us. We didn’t perform many of them live 20 years ago as we split soon after the Dum-Dum album was released.

Kurt Cobain asked you to reform in 1990 to perform with Nirvana in Edinburgh. It was obviously before Nirvana broke. What made you decide to do it?
I was interested in meeting these guys from far over the ocean who seemed to be fans of ours. It was a positive thing in my life at a time when—post-split, post-break up, post-college—I didn’t have much to be cheery about.

How did Kurt react to meeting you two?
We were introduced and chatted before the show; he seemed very shy and introverted.

You’ve both been involved in projects post-Vaselines. Does The Vaselines still satisfy a musical part of you that hasn’t been tapped into since?
I’ve played mostly folk-based acoustic music for the last few years and played solo shows, so playing electric guitar again is fantastic. I’ve missed making a racket.

What are you most looking forward to with the tour?
Simply getting to go to places that The Vaselines haven’t been before and seeing who is waiting to see us play. I can’t wait.

“Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam” - The Vaselines

“Sex Sux (Amen)” - The Vaselines

“Molly’s Lips” - Nirvana

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