Tag Archives: surfer blood

Musicfest NW, Now Available in Convenient Recap Form

Dan Vidmar
Danielle Sullivan
PDX

Katie Stelmanis of Austra performing for KEXP (Photo: Kelsey Kaufman)

John Vanderslice at the Doug Fir (Photo: Kelsey Kaufman)

Dan Vidmar of Shy Girls for the Red Bull Sound Select showcase at Mississippi Studios (Photo: Kelsey Kaufman)

Danielle Sullivan of Wild Ones at Bunk Bar (Photo: Kelsey Kaufman)

Only in Portland. (Photo: Kelsey Kaufman)

As a born-and-raised Oregonian living in Seattle for the past year, I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Portland. Most of my friends live there, and most probably won’t ever leave there. But who could blame ‘em? Portland is a utopia, rich with good-looking people, excellent coffee, and drool-worthy food. It’s Seattle without the “freeze.”

A mere three days after Bumbershoot, I drove down to Portland for Musicfest NW. The festival started on a Tuesday, but the recovery period post-Bumbershoot is at minimum of 48 hours. So here’s what I learned:

What to do:

  • VIP, baby. The lines are ridiculously long at nearly every venue. A press pass won’t do you any good, either, so be prepared to wait. Get there at least 45 minutes early.
  • The best shows aren’t on the MFNW “official” schedule.  Marmoset put on a killer Hott Summer Nights Party on Thursday with Radiation City, Surfer Blood, Shy Girls, and more. They also had Salt & Straw ice cream and an open bar – so it was impossible to have a bad time. Bunk Bar’s CD Baby Day Party on Saturday afternoon with Aan and Wild Ones was also a hit. Then there was a Blouse “secret” show in a warehouse somewhere that same night.
  • See Portland bands. There’s so much good music coming out of PDX lately. MFNW is the perfect opportunity to mainline it directly into your system. Indulge guilt-free.

What not to do:

  • Get stuck on the Westside. You could see Charles Bradley at the Crystal Ballroom or Animal Collective in Pioneer Courthouse Square, but do you really want to be downtown? The best venues are on the Eastside, anyways. If you can handle missing some of the headliners, you’ll save yourself the massive headache of parking and dodging tourists with those pink donut boxes.
  • Drive. Pick a spot and stay there. Unless you’re already playing DD, sit down, have a shot of whiskey, and enjoy yourself. Remember, we’re not in Kansas (i.e., Seattle) any more. Strangers will talk to you and you will make new friends. Don’t be scared.
  • Miss a Red Bull Sound Select showcase. I’m partial because Mississippi Studios is one of my favorite venues, but Red Bull curated some of the — if not THE — best lineups of the entire festival. A mix of local and national artists plus a (time-limited) open bar and free barbecue made it dually enticing. See where I’m going with this? Follow the free booze!

What I probably should have done:

  • Attend more KEXP sets. Austra and The Dodos were the only two I caught. The sets are short and sweet, intimate, and also have excellent sound. Doug Fir also pours their drinks strong, so it’s a good place to get an early afternoon buzz going.
  • More. Brunch. Pass on Pine State Biscuits. I wish it were 10 a.m.–2 p.m. all day, every day, in Portland. Brunch should never end in this city, so don’t let it pass you by. It’s also completely necessary if you plan on listening to music until the wee hours of the night. Broder, Jam on Hawthorne, and Interurban are three of my favorites that I’m kicking myself for not going to.

Overall, MFNW is yet another opportunity to show pride for this incredible place we live in called the Pacific Northwest. It’s the neatly-tied, perfectly-placed bow to wrap up summer. Until next year.

Oh, Just Surfer Blood Interviewing The Thermals in Japandroids’ Eco-Friendly Murder Van [Photo Gallery]

At Bumbershoot Monday, the Broad Street Stage had the awesome back-to-back-to-back lineup of Japandroids, Surfer Blood, and The Thermals.  Before their set, Surfer Blood briefly chatted with The Thermals in Japandroids‘ plush (souped up with a DVD player and wifi), creepy (tinted windows), environmentally friendly (biodiesel) Sprinter van.  All three bands play this weekend’s MusicfestNW in Portland, The Thermals’ new album, Personal Life, is out on Kill Rock Stars as of Tuesday, and Surfer Blood will be back in Seattle with The Drums, at Neumo’s on October 4th.

Thomas Fekete, Surfer Blood guitarist: What famous people do you see from Portland in the grocery store?

Kathy Foster, Thermals bassist: Quasi-famous. Quasi.

Hutch Harris, Thermals guitarist/vocalist: I saw Danny Glover one time.  Danny Glover has a house in Portland.

KF: Steve Malkmus and I are on a softball team this summer.

HH: Except he kinda flaked out.

KF: He only played one game.

HH: What, Pavement had to tour?  Didn’t they know he has a softball team?

TF: The first time I ever saw Steve Malkmus in person, he was sitting in a mall, cross-legged, eating an ice cream cone, by himself on a bench. It was pretty perfect.

K: What mall?

TF: It was in Barcelona.

HH: I made coffee for Art from Everclear one time.

TF:  Everlast tried to fight us.  Do you guys know the guys from Everlast?  Have they ever tried to fight you?  [laughs]  Because apparently they try to fight every other band in the world.

K: Really?

HH: Wait, Everlast or Everclear?

TF: Everlast.

HH: But Everlast was just one dude.

TF:  Well, his crew.

The SunBreak:  He’s a white rapper, right?

HH: Was he related to House of Pain somehow?  The guy from House of Pain? [Ed: Yes.]

JP Pitts, Surfer Blood guitarist/vocalist: Maybe he was a guy from House of Pain.

TF: Yeah, he called us “a bunch of faggots,” so he’s a really intelligent dude, obviously, and then he tried to fight Marcos [Surfer Blood percussionist/keyboardist].  We were just like, “Is this real right now?”

HH:  Where was this?

TF:  Osaka.  It was insane.

HH:  WHAT?  Why?  Who does that?

TF:  And what do the Japanese people think?  “Oh, wow, two shitty American bands trying to fight each other.”

JPP:  And then the next day, we heard that they hospitalized Sum 41.

KF:  What?

TF:  Sum 41 was djing a club called Rock Rock.

JPP: I don’t even know why we were there.  We walked in and were like, oh my god…

TF: I’m so embarrassed of this story, come to think of it.

Westin Glass, Thermals drummer: Anyway, Everlast put some members of Sum 41 in the hospital, is what you’re saying.

TF: It was like, five minutes after we left.

TSB: Derek whatever his name is.  [Ed: For the record, that’s Deryck Whibley.]

TF: The singer, yeah.

KF: Is that the guy who was married to Avril Lavigne?

WG: Is he still married to Avril Lavigne?

K: No.

WG: That’s a name that I haven’t heard in a long time: Avril Lavigne.  Whatever happened to her?

HH: She’s on the cover of YM or Ms. or whatever.  Or not Ms.Ms. is a feminist magazine.  Is YM still a magazine?  “Skating tips for girls.”

KF: She doesn’t skate

HH: She carried a skateboard.

Tyler Schwarz, Surfer Blood drummer: Dogs or cats?

KF: I like cats.

HH: I like cats, but dogs are pretty rad too.

TS: Mice or rats?

KF, HH: Mice.

WG: I think we can all agree on that.

TS: Scabies or bedbugs?

[collective groan]

WG: Scabies any day.

HH: No, bedbugs.

[collective “NO!”]

WG: You can get rid of scabies; with bedbugs you’re fucked.

TSB: Just burn it down.

KF: Put your bed outside.  Put it outside in the snow so they freeze and die.

HH: And then sleep outside.

WG: But then it’s too late–they’re already everywhere else in your house.

TF: It’s gotta be liberating, y’know, to get rid of everything?  To start fresh.

WG: No way.  I love my stuff.

HH: Someone burned down a couch outside my apartment.  TO THE GROUND.  It must’ve been going all night.  There were just springs and ashes [left], I swear to God.  I was taking pictures of it, and some guy rode by, and he’s like, “I think a meteor hit it.” [laughs]

TS: We actually got kicked out of our old practice space for burning a couch.  It was gross.

TF: We pulled it out of a dumpster and burned it….We started off with the pillow and then we ended up burning the whole thing. The story gets progressively worse, so let’s just keep it rated PG.

HH: There was this dirty mattress outside, and I joked about burning it down, and then someone burned that couch.  I’m on Belmont, and people are always throwing mattresses all over that street.  One had bedding on it too. End of summer move.