This video just blows me away. It's so well done and the colors and symbols are so beautiful. It was a perfect way to wake up and I have Annie to thank for it. She has introduced me to another amazing Portland-based band, called Y La Bamba and I am so very excited to share it with you all.
What a weekend!!!! My goodness. Just to recap some music highlights: Friday, we had TV on the Radio grace us with their presence (and I mean we should feel HONORED because they are THAT rad) at Edgefield Brewery, which I was supposed to attend but didn't, and then Saturday we had for the music festival this last weekend, Portugal. The Man played at Music Millenium on Burnside for FREE! You can imagine the crowd for that one, hence why yours truly was not going to attend on a hot 85 degree sweltering day with other black panted hipsters. I chose to sit by a pool in Sellwood listening to their album on repeat. Later that night, some very lucky audience members had the opportunity to witness a Fleet Foxes show, also at Edgefield on a beautiful summer night (one of the very few we have enjoyed). Yesterday, I figured with one of my few days childless, I was going to do a "walk about" town and hit up some recording studios and Elliott's house, just listening to some new tunes on my phone but then I saw that Eleanor Friedberger was playing for FREE ALSO at Music Millenium yesterday afternoon, so I wanted to hit that up. Again, lots of people. For those of you unfamiliar, Eleanor Friedberger is part of an indie rock duo group called The Fiery Furnaces with her brother, Matthew. She produces some sweet vocals for their little duo and I appreciate listening to them. Little bit of trivia for you: She dated Alex Kapranos from the Scottish pop band, Franz Ferdinand.
With me not having gotten the chance to see some of the greats this weekend, I felt lost and utterly disappointed. HOWEVER, this was all made better by my introduction to Y La Bamba. Now I know I sing Portland's praises often, but how can I not? Do we not produce some of the best music around? I think so! Do I not have every single album of Pink Martini? I do! I have seen them more than a handful of times in concert. Do I have Portugal. The Man's latest album in my player and refuse to take it out? Correct! Am I now in love with this band, Y La Bamba? YOU BET! And I will purchase their CD asap and buy a ticket this week to see them play at the Doug Fir on 08/12/11 for only $12! Very exciting stuff indeed!
As a side note, I have decided to embrace my insomnia. I have been fighting it for some time. I find out in detox, that it is very common to lose lots of sleep and to feel restless and a bit agitated. Also speaking of The Fiery Furnaces, my house temperature is broken. I'm convinced. Sitting at 80 degrees is rough at night I tell you what. Ugh. Anyway, I have decided that it's ok to be on no sleep. It will make for creative stories, right? Ha. I wake up early with my mind full of ideas and my dreams only make the day more interesting as I cannot tell if they have really happened or not. Maybe I'm in a perpetual state of "waking life" lucid dreaming as I go through my day. Who knows. But anyway, instead of "waking up" angry about it, I have decided to embrace it. So already I have started the day off much brighter. There are many things to complain about though. It is Monday, it is gray, the meterologists are liars, there was the loudest thunderstorm known to man in the history of Portland, Oregon at 5:00 a.m. on the dot (which is not an awesome way to wake up) and the garbage comes at the butt crack of dawn with the lovely sound of smashing glass come sunrise. BUT I woke up happy, kind of refreshed, excited about my day. And the band, Y La Bamba, is responsible for a lot of that. I have been listening to their music all morning, cup of coffee in hand, pencil behind ear, pen holding hair in high bun, in my t-shirt and underwear.
Let's tell the tale of Y La Bamba, shall we? There is no way you will not just enjoy hearing about their start, how far they have come, and embracing the uniqueness and their absolute creativity will change you somehow and I'm not even sure how. They are best described as an eclectic indie rock folk band consisting of the tall, beautiful Mexican goddess Luz Elena Mendoza, the man whom she believes has opened her up and saved her soul, Ben Meyercord, long-time friend and collaborator Mike Kitson on drums, Sean Flinn on lead guitar, and Eric Shrapel with the accordion.
Mendoza migrated to Portland, Oregon where she feels the music scene really opened her up and gave her a fresh start in self-actualization and musical enlightenment. In early 2008, she would sit in her room and write music, recording a collection of little songs that became not-so-little but major works of art picked up by Gypsy Pop Records and released in December 2008 titled Alida St. Luz Elena started an open mic at a sake house in Northeast Portland regularly where she met her muse and inspiratory (yes, I actually mean to use that word as the word 'inspiration' actually comes from the inhalation of air ie: "to catch one's breath" and this is exactly how I feel when hearing her sing) guidance to create a collaborative band under the name Y La Bamba. Once the group was formed, people flocked to see them perform. Like a moth to a flame, people have taken to Y La Bamba unlike any other in the sense that their sound is entirely unique. When I hear them, I feel I am having a spiritual awakening. I feel transformative, as if I am in a gypsy cathedral hearing this soulful voice singing in religious codified tongues exciting me as Mexican folk music does.
Mendoza, a self-taught artist, feels her talents were given to her by her parents, whose musical tastes are her primary influence for her 1930's eclectic native sound. Raised in a traditional Mexican household, she was exposed to the old sounds, almost gospel-like in its tone and feel. She has stayed true to those roots with a modern twist and carnival caravan texture. It really is unlike anything I have heard before.
The rich sound is moving, compels you to shut your eyes and hear each wail, each note carried into the next as if you are being taken on a soul-searching adventure through tall grass, setting suns, wearing grandiose eccentric costumes marching to the beat of your new family drum. I feel honored to have walked the same streets, hung around the same coffee shops with their independent open mic ghosts lingering in the dusty corners. They have made Portland proud.
Good stuff. Good, good stuff. Pure raw talent. If you would like to see them live, they will be playing at the Doug Fir on August 12th, as mentioned previously, as well as MusicFestNW on September 7th. If you have tickets, make it a point to catch your local artists as they will need the most support, and in my humble opinion, the most deserving.
IN OTHER NEWS: The deluxe edition of Arcade Fire's The Suburbs comes out August 2. Over the weekend, a seven-minute remix of "Ready to Start" by the band and producer Damian Taylor, as well as a demo of "Sprawl I", have hit the Internet, too.
Impossible Soul is the gargantuan 25-minute-plus closer to Sufjan Stevens' latest LP. WNYC posted video of Sufjan performing the final section of "Impossible Soul", the acoustic lullaby "Pleasure Principle", accompanied by Bryce Dessner of the National.
On Thursday Feist shared a mysterious teaser video hinting at the followup to The Reminder. Today we’ve got a new vignette and confirmation that a new album is indeed coming soon. Titled Metals, it’s out October 4th.
I still feel really sad about Amy Winehouse. It's just devastating. As a friend and I were talking yesterday, we pointed out that the media will capture footage of celebrities making them laughable ridiculed symbols to be judged and characterized by us "normal folk" when in all reality, they are addicts. This is their life. We take a picture of a helpless torn-up desperate Winehouse on the streets of London in the middle of the night begging to be helped. After we had our laughs and our snickers and our dinnertime table conversations about "right" and "wrong", she is dead. That is the face of addiction. It is real. And it kills people.
I feel so happy to be breathing in and out: inspiration. I am grateful to be alive, even on this gray Monday morning. I am stoked to read and hear about new music being made, the continuous flow of sound that never stops, people being moved, artists never giving up and new sounds being produced all for us, to hear and to experience whenever we want. We are so very lucky. Have a wonderful start of your week.
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