Last night was history in the making as Red Bull MP Embassy brought three of the best live drum machine performers on the planet together for a one-of-a-kind showcase. Renowned drum controller music producers Araabmuzik, Jeremy Ellis and Party Supplies hit the Emerald City on the heels of a performance the night before in Portland. Through several “rounds,” the three kept the crowd at the Crocodile in awe with their display of beat creation and sheer rhythmic dexterity.
The line snaking outside the Cabana Club stretches nearly a full block from its starting point of a tatted Asian rocker chic with blue hair at the gate, down past a Harry Potter looking dude in jhorts, and finishes with what looks from here, a Pakistani Jesus complete with robe. This multi-cultural serpent has become a spectacle of its own in a town all too familiar with lines of lost souls outside a club, for this one is bathed in daylight on a Sunday afternoon! It even has a Twitter hashtag (#do-over-line). But don’t fret, for in exchange for your patience, your body will soon be baptized in the spirit-s: Sangria, Soul music, and most likely Somebody else. (RT @waldorules: @do_over EVEN THE SOCIALLY AWKWARD SOUND GUY IN STAR TREK T-SHIRT IS GETTING LAID AFTER THIS ONE!)
The Mean Jeans are a good ol’ fashioned, party hard and get rowdy on stage, punk band from Portland. The trio, consisting of Billy Jeans (guitar/vocals), Jean Wilder (drums/vocals), and Howie Doodat (bass, vocals) recently played the Dark Horse (formerly Bordello) in Los Angeles.
After finishing up on stage and toweling off the sweat, Billy Jeans and Jean Wilder “attempted” a serious interview with ChinaShop. The guys told us all about how they are able to create such a powerful sound with only 3 members (a lot of it, according to Billy Jeans, comes down to the fact that they are too lazy to search for additional members), as well as discussed filling up swimming pools with Red Bull plus Jager and amazing parties they don’t quite remember.
Ace Hotel is definitely the place to stay if you ever find yourself in Portland, Seattle, Palm Springs or New York City. Their offbeat, nouveau-bohemian interior design has been attracting artists, designers, geeks with style & international jet setters — you know, people just like you — since 1999. The New York City location has morphed into something beyond just a place to rest your head.
Kill Rock Stars | Though they bill themselves as “Progressive/Concrete/Fusion”, The Shaky Hands‘ self-appointed genre categorization might prove a little misleading for some: First, all you prog-heads might be disappointed to learn they’re not exactly Yes or Dream Theater or Rush; second, the term ‘Concrete’ might conjure up notions of sludge, stoner, or some derivative of hard rock, which for all intents and purposes they eschew as well. With that extremely relative label ‘fusion’, however, we have what is probably the most appropriate of terms, as elements of folk, indie, and — dare I say — a sprinkling of shoegaze (Don’t believe me? check out the track “Air Better Come”) successfully blend together for an album both ingenuitive and unapologetically nostalgic.
As Hockey’s “Song Away” would tell you, they make truthful songs over eighties grooves, but their music goes further than that – more diverse, but a good start in trying to describe their unique sound.
Hockey started their musical adventure as a two-piece. Jerm Reynolds (Jeremy, but nobody calls him that) and Ben Grubin got together when the two attended college together in Redlands, California. After moving to Spokane, Washington (on a whim) in hope of finding new band mates, they soon re-located to Portland (adding drummer Anthony, and later Brian on bass). Although Hockey calls Portland home when they aren’t spreading the gospel from the west coast to the UK, the band members hail from every corner of the United States and their musical style is the sum of their disparate parts.
