Here is the initial lineup for Willamette Week's MusicfestNW, scheduled for Sept. 7-11, 2011 in Portland, Oregon, and it's pretty great. The multi-venue fest includes big outdoor performances by Band of Horses (Sunday, Sept. 11), Explosions in the Sky (Saturday, Sept. 10), and Iron & Wine (Friday, Sept. 9), in addition to shows with everyone from Archers of Loaf to Big Freedia to Butthole Surfers to Neurosis. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 3rd. Check out the full list below...

Continue reading "MusicfestNW 2011 -- dates & initial lineup"

Emily Wells

"The best musical news of the year is that Emily Wells moved to the East Village. On the east side of Tompkins Park, 9th Street is quite and peaceful, and that's where she moved. At least I imagine that's where she moved. Wells is so musical and energetic, I imagine she needs some tranquility to even herself out. I want to take her brain, project it on the building next door from my rooftop and enjoy her whole soul."
[Serial Optimist]

Weather reports indicate that tonight's snowfall in NYC won't be the whopper that the last snowstorm was, so making your way down to City Winery TONIGHT (1/7) SHOULD be a snap (the city may find a way to fuck it up anyway). It's there that Emily Wells, Portland Cello Project, Live Footage, and Henry Wolfe will team up for a show, a one-off APAP Showcase for all parties. Tickets are still available.

Emily Wells's impressive violin compositions won't be exclusive to City Winery though, as she has already announced a residency at Ace Hotel that will see her perform free shows every Sunday in February, AND a show with Anni Rossi at Southpaw this Wednesday (1/12). All tour dates are with some videos of Emily below.

Some of those Emily Wells dates will see her supporting My Brightest Diamond who separately plays the Time Warner Center in NYC on 1/27 as part of the 2011 Americana Songbook Season. There are other MBD dates too, and they are listed below too.

Alt-classical/alt-Cello band Portland Cello Project recently dropped their new LP Thousand Words (you can pick up a copy at their site)...

"PCP is known for tailoring their song choices to the collaborators who join them. Second only to the cello, collaboration is one of the group's defining features. The group has recorded or performed with Laura Gibson, Hurtbird, 3 Leg Torso, Horse Feathers, Thao Nguyen, The Builders and the Butchers, the Decemberists, and many more local and national artists, and has created their own renditions of artists from ABBA to Beethoven to John Williams to Justin Timberlake.

[A recent show's] list of collaborators will included the same high caliber of Portland-area artists: The Corin Tucker Band, Typhoon (of whom Jenkins said, "I really just don't understand how they aren't world famous by now," though recent features on KEXP shouldn't hurt their chances of world fame), Golden Bears, and the recently OMN-profiled PHAME Academy Choir." [Oregon Music News]

PCP's tour dates, as well as My Brightest Diamond's and Emily Wells's, are below alongside some video..

Continue reading "Emily Wells, Portland Cello Project & My Brightest Diamond are playing shows (some tonight) -- 2011 dates"

DOWNLOAD: Portland Cello Project - Travel (feat. Justin Power) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Portland Cello Project - Tallymarks (feat. Thao) (MP3)

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down @ BV party - SXSW 09 (more by Leia Jospe)

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down will be playing a show at the Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday, November 4th. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday, August 26th at noon. General sale starts Friday, August 28th at noon.

That show will include sets from David Schultz and the Portland Cello Project, the latter of which collaborated with Thao on their most recent album, The Thao and Justin Power Sessions, that came out on June 9th on Kill Rock Stars. Two tracks from that, one with Thao and one with Justin Power, are posted above.

"Portland Cello Project, in case you're unfamiliar, is an amazing group of cellists that, in the course of one of their epic 2-3 hour shows - (the format of which is always a one-time affair - the group writes almost entirely new arrangements for every performance cycle) - perform a crazy diverse array of everything from canonized and avant classical compositions to reconstructed pop covers of everything from Nintendo game themes to Britney Spears to Yoko Ono to R. Kelly--and they've accompanied The Builders and The Butchers, Laura Gibson, The Dandy Warhols, Mirah, Loch Lomond, Horse Feathers and tons of other indyish folks. At shows, you'll see hipsters too-cool-for-school mesmerized by Arvo Paert, members of the Decemberists playing late 19th century Russian compositions transcribed for Hammond Organ, a 40-piece choir, and all kinds of other craziness."

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down will releasing a new album of their own, Know Better Learn Faster, also on Kill Rock Stars, on October 13th. Producing the record will be Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Bill Frisell, Jim James), and guests include Andrew Bird, Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper, Laura Veirs, Nathan Crockett of Horse Feathers and Tune-Yards.

Tune-Yards recently signed to 4AD and has a show coming up at Music Hall of Williamsburg soon.

The Thao-Bowery show is part of a soon-to-be-announced (we think) larger tour. Those dates with album info are below...

Continue reading "Thao With The Get Down Stay Down & Portland Cello Project - new albums & shows (Bowery Ballroom) "

Willamette Week's Musicfest NW announces this year's festival line-up which will be held at various venues around the Portland, OR metropolitan area on September 16, 17, 18 & 19. On the heels of the most successful MFNW to date, MFNW 2009 launches with nothing but the hope of a bigger and better festival. MFNW's ultimate aim is to provide Portland with a unique and special musical experience that features all types of acts including nationally renowned artists while still honoring and supporting the special musical scene of the Northwest.

Four-day passes to the fest are on sale now.

The lineup so far, including the newly-reunited Sunny Day Real Estate, is below...

Continue reading "Musicfest NW in Portland, OR (Sept 16-19) - lineup"