We feel like the Belle of the ball this week. If you haven't already seen the news over on Hypebot, we announced a new sponsorship deal with CD Baby!

Plus, we're just days away from our Arrested Develpment Returns Party at Holocene on May 8th!

Here are all the details of the party:

Three awesome bands! The We Shared Milk (recently named one of the Best New Bands by WWeek), Animal Eyes, and Tango Alpha Tango. Each will be performing one cover song from the show! The We Shared Milk will perform "Big Yellow Joint," Animal Eyes will play "The Final Countdown," and Tango Alpha Tango will cover "Afternoon Delight." Plus, the first 100 attendees will get free album downloads from the bands courtesy of CD Baby!

DJ sets by Trim Jones! Come early and stay late to groove with one of our favorite electronic acts in town.

Bluth Family costume-contest! We've done it before and we hope you'll join us again. Rumor is Franklin might even make an appearance! Plus, "Chicken Dance" dance-off! Prizes for both contests include gift-cards to Veggie Grill and Double Dragon, a Banana Stand prize package, and a month-long, VIP membership to all the events at Holocene!

We're also having an Art Show featuring a variety of Arrested Development prints made by local artists. You may have seen some of the prints on Portland Pulp this week, but if not, here they are in all their glory:

"Buster" by Allyson Haller

"The Mole" by Ryan Hill

"Gangy 4" by Terry Blas

"Millford Man" by Carolyn Main

A limited number of these prints will be available for sale at the show with all proceeds going directly to the individual artists.

We'll also have banana slushies, clips from the show, and who knows what else! Anything can happen when you share a cell, 'cos. (You can't tell, but we just winked.)

The party is being sponsored by CD Baby and our long-time friends over at The Portland Mercury, who recently named Dustin Mills' poster for the event as the best of the week.

Get your tickets to the Arrested Development Returns Party at Stranger Tickets in advance, or on May 8th at the door. And if you're into that sort of thing, RSVP on Facebook. 

2013 got off to an incredible year with our release of the Grandparents live album, and we're working to make sure the rest of the months are equally great. We're so thrilled to have our live albums being distributed and produced by the Portland-based CD Baby, and we can't wait to show you what the new albums look like. As always, a huge thanks to everyone who has helped us along the way: our partners at Collective-47 Productions, Tim, Chris, Adam, Vita Mastering, and all the wonderful people who show up to our little space month after month to hear great music. I love you all, Marta!

Easy one of our favorite bands of all time with only two albums out, Unknown Mortal Orchestra (appearing in Portland at the Aladdin Theater) are something of Portland legend around these parts. Bass player Jake Portrait has worked with The Dandy Warhols and variety of other bands as a producer, and plays in the incredibly hip Blouse. Lead-singer Ruban Nielson's first group, Mint Chicks, was the envy of every band in town while still together. 

It's not out of the question to call us super-fans. So be it. 

Following our interviews with The Thermals and Portugal. The Man, we reached out to the group, and Nielson was kind enough to answer some questions that we hoped to get placed on a site larger than ours. But, as that fell through, we were excited to repurpose the content here, figuring any fans of Banana Stand would love to get some greater insight into one of the city's most popular, yet one of the more elusive bands.

How is the new album similar or different from your debut?

The second album is kind of heavier and more ambitious. It's very similar in terms of themes and production, but it goes further. The first album was written at home in Portland, Oregon but the second was written during a year when I was touring like a mad man. Both records draw on psychedelic rock and soul. The new record goes deeper into it.

Is there any significance to the album's title, II?

It's just the second album, that's all. I like having that kind of blankness to the record when you first encounter it. The first album is untitled and has this strange, mysterious building called Petrova Gora on the cover. This one is just called 'II' and has this strange, mysterious witch called Janet Farrar.

What's the recording process like for you and the rest of the band?

I do most of the recording and mixing at home by myself. I turned my basement into a little studio. It's really fun for me to come off tour and just hang out in the basement for hours on end. I recorded my brother Kody playing a bunch of drums and Jake played bass on a song. I like recording all night and at about 4 in the morning some cool stuff starts happening to my brain haha.

You've talked about wanting the music to speak for itself, and even tried to stay somewhat anonymous when first leaking material. Are you uncomfortable with all of the critical praise the band has been getting for such a new group?

It's exciting when people like the music.

There seems to be a lot of marijuana references in your songs, and there are some rumors of fruit-related festivities at a couple of shows in Portland in the past. Is weed an important part of your creative process or it just a lifestyle thing that comes out in the writing? 

There aren't any weed references, but there are drug references. Truth be told weed isn't really one of my drugs of choice. It's nice sometimes, though. It's true that I smoked a whole audience out two nights in a row using melons and pomegranates and all kinda of fruits. I'd love to do that every night, but apart from the legality of that its kind of a logistical issue haha.

Portland, OR seems to be a place that fosters a lot of critically acclaimed bands these days, do you feel any special connection to the city?

Yeah. My uncle has lived here for about 20 years and so that's how I came to discover it. I grew up in New Zealand but I could only have invented the UMO thing here in Portland.

Having been on tour for the large part of the last two years, how are you holding up? Does that sort of schedule start to wear on a person?

It does if you don't adjust your habits. I'm pretty good at it now. It's hard because partying super hard doesn't work, but also cleaning up your act doesn't really work either. Some people are built for this and some people aren't. I am I think.

What are some of your favorite comforts when on the road?

I just like laughing. I need to be around funny people. Also, I like to eat crazy good food.

What are some of your favorite bands to listen to these days?

I'm always looking for new music but most of the stuff I like is from the past. Some of my new favorites are Los Brincos, Blossom Toes, White Fence, Skip Bifferty. There's a band called Art Bears that I've been getting into lately, they're this weird art rock band from Germany in the late 70's. 

Any big plans for 2013? 

Yeah I suppose you could say that.

Big thanks to Ruban for answering questions! Be sure to get II, out now from Jagjaguar Records. Find out more about Unknown Mortal Orchest on their website unknownmortalorchestra.com.

We're back with another of our infamous Top 10 lists. We hope you enjoy these posts and recommend you sign-out of your Google account before viewing them to avoid getting hit with targeted-ads. As well, loading the full page will take longer on slower connections, or if you already have several other browsing windows open. Thanks for reading!

There are probably lots of other people who have done some stupid list about the best TV show theme songs, but this is ours and it's better than all of the others. Probably. Kinda too lazy to check.

We watch a lot of television around The Banana Stand, hell, our name sake comes from one of our favorite shows of all time. Maybe that explains our attention problem.  

10. Beavis & Butthead - [Opening Theme] by Mike Judge

That's right, Mike Judge. Turns out the man is as brilliant of an animator, writer, and director as he is a musican. He also wrote the kick-ass opening music to King of the Hill. Oh, and he also has a Physics degree from UC San Diego. Your life is a complete failure by comparission. [Note: It was actually Arizona bad The Refreshments, fronted by Roger Clyne, who created the theme song to King of the Hill, titled "Yahoos and Triangles." Thanks to Jenny for the correction! You are all still utter disapoinments as sons and daughters compared to Mike Judge.]

9. Cheers - "Everybody Knows Your Name" by Gary Portnoy

You could sing this song right now. Alright, it's not the best reason to include it in this list, but the song is so incredible smooth-rock 80s that hit all the standards, including the sexy sax, and set the tone for catchy pop-hooks for sitcoms in way not seen since The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

8. The Tick - [Opening Theme] by Douglas Katsaros

For a while The Tick was the hottest property around, and the creators of the animated series must have used that leverage to hire a fantastic orchestra to record this theme and get Douglas Katsaros to complete the rest of the show's score. Oh, how far the mighty have fallen. Can kids today even recognize The Tick? The answer may depress you.

7. Twin Peaks - "Falling" [Instrumental Version] by Julee Cruise, Angelo Badalamenti, and David Lynch

If you know who killed Laura Palmer, hearing this song will send shivers down your spine. Sure, without being associated with David Lynch's fantasticly creepy television show, this song probably wouldn't carry much weight. But it's imporrislbe to separate the two, so there you have it. As a bonus, here's a link to MC Chris' sample of theme. Agent Cooper loves coffee; so do we.

6. Rawhide - "Rawhide" by Frankie Laine, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Ned Washington

Maybe it's just because of The Blues Brothers, but even if it's just because of The Blues Brothers, it's still because of The Blues Brothers. So, yeah.

5. Hawaii Five-O - "Hawaii Five-O" by The Ventures and Morton Stevens

This song was so popular that it catipuled The Ventures to a #4 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It's no Dick Dale, but damn is it snappy! Coincidently, The Ventures also recorded a version of the next song on our list . . .

4. The Green Hornet - "Green Bee" by Billy May and Lionel Newman, featuring Al Hirt

Like how Rawhide's theme was cooler after being included in The Blues Brothers, Quentin Tarintino's inclusion of this tune in Kill Bill Vol. 1 in an homage to Bruce Lee makes it all the sweeter. Based on Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee," Billy May rearranged the classic interlude with conductor Lione Newman, feautring New Orlean's trumputeer Al Hirt. I said, "goddamn!"

3. The Jeffersons - "Movin' On Up" by Ja'net Dubois and Jeff Barry

The fact that a television theme song could encapsalate the hopes of a post-Civil Rights black America in the 1970s is staggering, but the production of The Jeffersons was of paramount importance in the scope of entertainment and culture shifts. The show still remains as the longest running sitcom in history that features a predominently African-American cast. Good Times star Ja'ent Dubois wrote and sang the theme song of The Jeffersons, which was a spin-off of All In the Family - a show that was eventually seen as fairly subversive in challenge the opintions of white, middle America despite its bigotted main character Archie Bunker. Dubois was also in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. That's not really important, but if you haven't seen the movie, it features a rather hilarious scene with a young Chris Rock that we shall not spoil. [Note: The Jeffersons star Sherman Hemsley passed away just as this list was coming together. Our best wishes and deepest respect to his family and friends.]

2. Mission Impossible - [Opening Theme] by Lalo Schifrin

Listing to this song automatically turns whatever simply task you're performing into a top-secret, high risk operation where failure means the destruction of Western civilization and your imenent death. This website will self-destructive in 5, 4, 3 . . .

1. Cowboy Bebop - "Tank!" by Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts, featuring Masato Honda

Without the cool as fuck intro-animation that accompanies this song, "Tank!" might not have made it to #1, but since we can't completely divorce the songs from the visuals that are taiolored to them, Cowboy Bepop wins.

That's a wrap for this Top 10 list. If you have dissenting opinions on the issues, please leave your comments below. We always enjoying hearing other people's opinion.

All choices picked by random people inside the Banana Stand through the highly scientific method of a dry-erase board and alcohol. 

Comprised of Quinn Mulligan on guitar and vocals, along with Evan Hailstone and Dane Brist on drums, Fanno Creek is a magic trio of talent and adorableness. Seriously, they're like the music equivilant of fucking unicorns. And by that, we mean unicorns who are fucking. So, get ready to be super gay about it, bronies. 

How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Evan Hailstone: The band's been together in it's current form since late 2009 but it really started a bit earlier than that, in 2007. Quinn and I had been in a blues based rock band in high school which carried on through our first two years of college -- I played rhythm guitar and he played lead, but we rarely sang, and when we did it was backup. The band was slowing down and Quinn began writing, singing, and recording his own songs which were very stripped down and honest, and it turned out he had a great voice. Hearing those songs inspired me to try writing and singing a few songs myself and a short while after that we started playing together. We would basically get together after work to drink and smoke and unwind and we would end up practicing songs for hours. Our first gigs were open mics and house parties in Forest Grove, where we would both play acoustic guitars and scream all of the lyrics -- it was all a very liberating thing and we didn't really care where it was going, it was just fun and it felt right. It was a couple years later in 2009, when Dane joined as our drummer, and everything just came together; he really helped shape our songs a lot and brought an amazing energy to the table.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences? 

We have a very hard time describing our sound, but we've heard it referred to as junk-folk, which is pretty close. I would say it sounds something like The Everly Brothers after hanging out with The Kinks all night and drinking way too much (not to say we're as good as either of those bands). We are influenced by all sorts of things: film, literature, nature, friends, good conversation, love interests, family, and of course - THE MUSIC! To name a few artists: The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, Caetano Veloso, Animal Collective, Woody Guthrie, Simon & Garfunkel, The Kinks, Townes Van Zandt, David Bowie, Son House, Grizzly Bear, BOB DYLAN, the list goes on and on . . . .

Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

Quinn Mulligan: Recording live gives us the opportunity to capture our live energy, something that has proved hard to duplicate in the studio. It's a nice chance to give people who haven't seen us live an idea of what it's like to be at a Fanno Creek show! What interests me about recording at the "Stand" is both the professionalism of the people who run the project, and the sort of folks that come out to watch these shows. It's part of what attracts me most to the Portland music scene. There is a genuine sense of community, where talented people seem to gravitate towards each other with a kind of warmth that seems lost on many other aspects of every day life . . . like working a soul sucking job.

EH: What Quinn said.

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

EH: Favorite artist I've seen live: Paul McCartney, that was a dream come true. Favorite show we've played: The first time we played the PALS Clubhouse! We had never been there before and we didn't know what to expect at all. It looked like it was going to be a pretty mellow night at first but by the time we started playing the house was packed. I don't think many of the people there had heard of us at that point but by the end of the night everyone seemed to be singing along with us. It was one of those nights where everything just came together and nothing else mattered. A truly great time! Least favorite: We've played some pretty shitty shows . . . .

QM: David Bowie was one of the first concerts I saw that really struck me as not only amazing musically, but theatrically. It's the presence the man has on that stage, and control of his craft that really boosted my ideas of what a live show could be. Then there's the other side of the coin. House shows for example. The performers are drunk a lot of time, and the audience is usually much further down that line. Everyone is genuinely happy to be watching their favorite bands in the most intimate setting, someone's home. And though things get sloppy, and lyrics are often forgotten, there's a powerful sort of honesty in the performers and the "conversation" they have with the intimate crowd they're playing for. As for least favorite, I agree with Evan, we definitely have played some bombers.

What are your favorite live albums?

QM: David Bowie - Live, How the West Was Won [Led Zeppelin], Nirvana's MTV Unplugged, Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison, and Duke Ellington - Live at Newport.

EH: The Bob Dylan bootleg series (especially the early performances, so amazing!); MC5 - '66 Breakout (mostly recorded at high school dances, weddings, and basement rehearsals); Nirvana - MTV Unplugged; Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Alone in San Francisco.

What other projects are you all involved with?

QM: Musically, just the Creek.

What are you working on lately?

FC: Right now we are finishing up an EP of some old material which we haven't been able to get out there yet. At the same time we're practicing a lot of new songs, experimenting with our live set-up, planning some music videos, and gearing up to record as much new material as possible. Also, T-SHIRTS! We are trying to decide on a design and we're broke as hell, but we will have them soon, damn it!

Thanks to Fanno Creek to answering questions. The band will record at our secret space later this month. Find out more about Fanno Creek on Facebook and Bandcamp.

We're pretty fucking lucky to be in the same neighborhood as bands like Red Fang and Typhoon, because we can hear them practice new material on the way to get burritos, but we're even more amazed that places like PALS Clubhouse and Ghost House are right around the corner. Both homes are full of some of the best people we've ever met, and we consider them to be, dare we say it, friends. 

We've got a lot of things planned for this summer, so watch for news. Until then, please enjoy a music video for "Grizzy Bear" [Live from The Banana Stand] that we're releasing in collaboration with Ghost House. (Click on through to see the video.)

Find out more about Animal Eyes by reading our interview with the band. The full-length live album from the group's performance will be available soon, online for a pay-what-you-want download.

We first heard of The No Tomorrow Boys while hanging out with some super rad music foik over at the house of And And And drummer Bim. Fellow drummer Jimmy seemed like a rad dude, but we had no idea that the band was so incredible. Dirty rock & roll is one way to describe the group's sound. Authentic, but out of time. The trio of Danny Dodge, Jimmy Beat, and Matt Mayhem will clock you in the face, and then buy you a shot to celebrate. The guys answered some questions over email as they prepare to come in for a live recording later this month; we can only assume they were wearing leather jackets while doing so.

How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Danny Dodge: We've been together for just about a year. Jim and I go back about a year and a half. I had a crude formation of this band while in Seattle, but they weren't a good fit, so I brought all the songs I wrote to Portland and started on a new line-up. That's when I met Jimmy.

Jimmy Beat: I met Danny at a Last Thursday up on Alberta, back in October 2012. We met through a mutal friend at the time, and immediately gravitated towards each other. After sharing our tastes in music and what a band should be like, he told me about his attempt at starting The No Tomorrow Boys in Seattle, and his desire to try again here in Portland. I committed right there on the spot, and shortly after quit this punk band I was playing in. We met Matt months later after he responded to a Craigslist ad I posted looking for a bass player. My dear friend, Derek Dolls (founding member of the punk band Cheap Sex) has just moved to town and we had already taken him on as our bass player, but Matt came out to our shows anyway to hang out and we formed a friendship. We found out that Matt played killer guitar after seeing his one man band at the Foggy Notion one night, and soon after took him on as lead guitar. Derek left a few months later due to personal reason/obligations, which leaves us where we are at now.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

DD: We play roots rock 'n' roll. The real nitty-gritty stuff from when rock 'n' roll was first crawlin' outta the primordial ooze. We're influenced by all the wild rock 'n' rollers, like Little Richard, Link Wray, Jerry Lee, Benny Joy, Wynonie Harris, Louie Jordan, Huey Piano Smith . . . plus some of the later punk rockers from the 70s to the 90s, like The Dictators, Johnny Thuders, Teenage Head, The Devil Dogs, The Raunch Hands, Oblivians, Guitar Worlf, etc.

JB: RIFF-RAFF Rock 'n' Roll!

Matt Mayhem: Yeah, we're pretty much punked-up traditional rock 'n' roll, but we're influenced by all sortsa wild 'n' frantic music.

Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at The Banana Stand?

DD: I think live records are amazing when done right. Plus, you gotta have a band that thrives on live shows. i think we do that. I'm interested in the 'Stand cause you guys seem to really have your shit together. Professional without bein' hard to work with. You ain't against workin' with a pack of ruffians like us. Hah!

MM: Yeah, live recordings often capture a different dynamic of a band than studio recordings. There's an energy and excitement that ecists with band members feeding off each other, and off the audience. The 'Stand seems like a great place for this, being so intimate and all.

JB: I'm excited. This is right up our alley!

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

DD: As in our live shows? Favorite memories would be whenever people let loose and go apeshit. You gotta dance at rock 'n' roll shows! Too many squares out there just sit still like statues, man. Our record release at Club 21 was real wild like that. Bad experience are few and far between. Maybe people fucking with us while we play? We always handle that firmly and swiftly, though.

JB: I agree with Danny. I also wanna add our show with pals Los Headaches (Mexico City) at East End. That show was a blast, and solidified my devotion (I'm always finding more reasons) to this band and this life. They covered Del Shannon's "Runaway" and we got up there and sang it with 'em. I felt like a front man that moment, which was kinda cool.

MM: Mine's prolly the first time I saw the boys before I joined. I'm still not clear on what happened, but mid-song Danny and Jimmy jumped off stand and whirl of chaos ensued, resulting in some punches being thrown and Jimmy putting some guy in a headlock. That definitely got my attention.

What are your favorite live albums?

DD: The Stooges' Metallic K.O., The Cramps' Smell of Female, New York Dolls' Teenage News, Jerry Lee Lee Lewis' Live at the Star Club. I also got a killer live record of Sonny Boy Williamson backed by the Yardbirds. I think that was at the Star Club, too. Not to mention many Johnny Thunders and The Cramps bootlegs. I miss the days of bootleg records!

JB: Yeah, Smell of Female and Thunder's bootlegs for sure.

MM: The Cramps Smell of Female, Rezillos' Mission Accomplished. That Live at The Masque series. Ramones' It's Alive, and Louis Armstrong's Ambassador Satch . . .

What other projects are you all involved with?

DD: Just recorded 12 songs with Pat Kearns at PermaPress Records. Release plans, labels, etc. are still in the works.

JB: yeah, we're psyched on the new recordings, we still gotta get 'em mastered though. Buy some combs and junk from us so we can put these out!

What are you working on lately?

DD: Writing a ton of new songs. Booking a NW tour with our pals in YouthBitch, then booking another tour after that, and then maybe a Mexico tour with Los Headaches further on down the line? Who knows!

JB: We just designed some shirts, too! We're trying to pool some money together at the moment so we can get the screens made. I'm excited to start seein' those around town.

MM: We're also working on a video for our first single. Due out someday . . . 

Big thanks to Danny, Jimmy, and Matt for answering questions. The No Tomorrow Boys will perform at The Banana Stand as part of our ongoing series of ongoing, secret live recording events.

Find out more about The No Tomorrow Boys on Facebook and Bandcamp.

DoublePlusGood is known for playing some of the best dance music in the city of Portland, and for good reason. While many dance acts heavily rely on only electronic beats and effects, the power of DoublePlusGood comes from vocalist Erik Carlson and drummer Andy Nelson. The band has been performing for years, but Carlson was a fearless performer before starting DoublePlusGood as well in places like Eugene. We're supremely excited to host DoublePlusGood at The Banana Stand, and in preperation for the secrete recording event, Carlson was kind enough to answer some questions via email.

How long as the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

DoublePlusGood the band has been together in its current form for almost three years. I was playing solo for about three years before. Before our release show I had another drummer who had to quit suddenly due to jobs and other bands. Andy stepped in, and has been playing ever since.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

I think I would describe our sound as pop. I like pop because pop is ultimate genre to expirement in. Ultimately, "pop music" x "any other genre" = "pop," so generally I just tell people we're a pop band becaue it gives us more stylistic freedom. Biggest influences are probably The Beach Boys, Björk, New Order, Prince, Kate Bush, anything that Phil Spector recorded in the 60s, all those girl groups and like The Righteous Brothers. Also, a big love of pop Divas, ladies with big voices. We're also influenced by heavy reverb.

Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording a live show at The Banana Stand?

I think what's fun about our live show is to hear how we sound a little more raw. The recordings have so many overdubs of vocals and drums that they feel almost symphonic on tape, but live they have a more kenetic quality to them. 

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

Two years ago I saw this man named Bob Corn play at Valentine's. He was opening for this dude called Larry Yes. He was an older Italian man, maybe in his 50s, and I guess this was his first tour of America. He sand these really simple and charming songs. Before he played, the girl who had along with him told the audience about how he had this gigantic jar that he had kept on his counter, and it was marked "America Tour," and he put all his extra change everyday into it to save for his tour. He was very sweet and charsimatic, but the most beautiful moment was when he announce he was going to cover a Hüsker Dü song. And everyone laughed at first, since it seemed so out of place. Then he started to sing this gorgeous version of "She Floated Away," and at the very last chorus he stopped playing guitar and conducted the entire audience at Valentine's in a sing-a-long. It was really moving and beautiful, and it was one of the most connected moments I believe I've ever felt at a show, not only to the singer, but the rest of the audience as well. [Ed. Note: Watch a video of Bob Corn performing live.]

What are you favorite live albums?

I don't listen to many to be honest, but I like when performers take some extra libertie or go on tangents between songs. I guess I really likeed this one Jill Scott live albums [Ed. Note: Experience: Jill Scott 826+], her stories between songs were great. And Jeff Buckely had a great one.

What other projects are you involved with these day?

I run a small label in town called SoHiTek Records, which works with a few bands. Currently, we're getting a Pegasus Dream EP ready to be released. Super excited about that. And hopefully some more music to come summer time. The label has also moved into a gallery in the Everret Station lofts, so a lot of my time has now been split with booking art openings as well. Andy also plays drums in this really great band called Hutson, which is set to have a release in March.

What else have you been working on lately?

We released our album (HERETHEYCOME,THEBIRDSOFMYYOUTH), which took like two years of effort. So now that they dust has sort of settled from that release, I think we're just exploring some options - writing a few new tracks here and there, trying to get something cohesive together.

Big thanks to Erik for answering questions. DoublePlusGood will perform at The Banana Stand in February as part of our ongoing, sceret live recording events.

Find out more about DoublePlusGood on SoundCloud and Facebook.

We're back with another Top 10 post, and this one is pretty much a dick move, bro. We asked the random people who pass through the Banana Stand which bands they assume are probably really good, but for one reason or another they just can't seem to give two shits about.

We'll attempt to determine just why the bands on this list are so fucking unimpressive to the people that hang out with us. 

10. James Blake

The London-based minimalist musician is such a critical darling that the editors of Pitchfork would probably eat the dirty ass of a two-day-dead dog to feature an exclusive track on their website, but apparently some people find his songs to be boring as shit. Probably because they are.

9. Fu Manchu

This might be a joke refering to the fictional villain because that's something that the kind of jack-off fuck-faces with which we associate would do. In the case that it's not, it probably refers to the 1990s California stoner-rock band that pretty much blows. In the event that this was a joke, then this slot should be replaced with Metallica. Metallica sucks and you're a goddamn moron if you think otherwise. Ripping off Black Sabbath for four albums before turning into entitled pussies doesn't make a you great metal band, assholes.

8. Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead is only popular because they give indie record store employees the ability to fuck college chicks who are tired of getting banged to the same Broken Social Scene songs over and over and over again.

7. Of Montreal

If you're some emo-queer who likes feathers and crying about your sexual inadequacies in make-up, then apparently you get to make one album worth a damn. But replaying the same fucking drum-loop over layered falsetto isn't a career, it's just lame. And a series of stage gags, costume changes, and crowd full of teenagers on magic mushrooms doesn't hide the fact that your music is stale and you're a sad, old queen.

6. Band of Horses

After My Morning Jacket hit mainstream success they started experimenting with other sounds, none of which have been as poignant or popular. At least that band is evolving and trying new things. Unfortunately, a host of other bands decided to remain in a stagnant pool of reverb-laden shit. Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, and a bunch other bands could also be substituted here. Plus this happened, so now every 16-year-old girl with an acoustic guitar thinks she should post a video to YouTube covering one of Band of Horse's songs. Great. 

5. The National

For some reason The National spend a lot of time making sure people will be really sad when they play their music. No one knows why, or what causes them to be popular. 

4. The Black Keys

If you don't want to listen to The White Stripes for some ignorant reason, then you can pick anything from The Black Keys. It doesn't matter what album or song. It's all the same. Or you could listen to The MC5 or a dozen other bands that have actual balls.

3. Radiohead

Maybe it's because the band made a big deal about bucking the entertainment industry by releasing a pretty decent record under a pay-what-you-want system only to charge fans $10 for an EP full of material hardly worth a B-side. Maybe it's because Thom Yorke looks like a giant albino bat. Or maybe some people are just douches and hate anything that's popular.

2. Deerhoof

Oh, I know. Let's just bang on some shit and make stupid noises and call it music. San Franscico hipsters love stuff like that. How fucking charming. Other bands that can go in this stuck-up-your-own-ass category are Xiu Xiu and that inbred retard Bradford Cox with his bands Atlas Sound and Deerhunter. Getting paid to masturbate on stage is probably pretty awesome, if you can get the work.

1. Arcade Fire

Look, Arcade Fire will never make an album better than their debut release. Get over it. The number of the people in the band compared to the simplistic sounds make the group juvenile at best and insulting at worst. Combined with ridiculous haircuts, ugly motherfucking clothes, and an idiotic "gee golly you guys the suburbs sure are uncool" vibe, the band is pretty much only around so that Connecticut housewives can lie to themselves about being hip while getting all nostalgic for when they snorted cheap coke and lived in an apartment.

Well, that's all we've got. Who would be on your list? Leave comments below and we can argue about why certain bands are worse than others. It'll be super worth everyone's time. 

This post was written in jest. We actually really love all of the bands on this list and have paid to see them in concert. If you're offended by anything on this page, then you should probably get the hell off the Internet.

Soon after helping propel And And And to being named Willamette Week's Best New Band of 2011 (previous winners include Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside, Explode Into Colors, The Shaky Hands, and more), Tyler Keene left the group to focus on his own style of music under the name Log Across The Washer. Although less than a year old, the ever prolific Keene has released a free collection of twenty-seven songs (.zip) that hint at his previous group's roots, but reveal a sound that's unlike anything else in Portland today. Be sure to download the tracks, especially "The Emmys," which was easily one of the Top 5 songs released in the city last year. We asked Keene and new band members Jackson Bihler and Steve Schob some questions about live music in preperation for their secret, live recording here at The Banana Stand. We hope to see you out at the show.

How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Current form, since 12/29/11.

Tell us your thoughs about recording live. What makes you want to record at The Banana Stand?

Jackson Bihler: We're glad the 'Stand wants to record us because we love the easily metabolized character of bananas. You will be providing bananas, right?

What's your favorite memory of a live show?

JB: Steve [Schob] had just seen Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Rose Garden and came to the show with a murky awe in his eyes. He was still imagining the light show while performing with us and was, well, lights out.

What are your favorite live albums?

JB: Pink Floyd's Is There Anybody Out There? (The Wall: Live 1980 - 1981).

Steve Schob: Anything Peter Frampton does.

Tyler Keene: Paris by The Cure.

What other projects are you involved with?

JB: Pedal Home.

SS: You don't actually want me to list them all. [Ed. note: We would have probably listed them all, unless it was weird or something.]

TK: To quote Cappadonna, "Park Hill Projects, chicka-pow!"

What are you working on lately?

SS: Providing some undeciable statements.

TK: Making a stronger effort to see my family more often.

Big thanks to Jackson, Steve, and Tyler of Log Across The Washer for answering questions. The trio will be recording live at The Banana Stand later this month at a secret show. The above images were taken from Log Across The Washer press material. 

Find out more about Log Across The Washer on Tumblr and SoundCloud.

Since 2006, Justin Ringle has been releasing expertly crafted folk music with a rotating cast of band members under the name Horse Feathers. Roughly every other year, the group has managed to release a new full-length album of superb quality while touring across the United States and Europe. Currently, Ringle & Co. are back in the studio working on the follow-up to 2010's Thistled Spring that was released by Kill Rock Stars. 

Don't make the mistake of consdering Horse Feathers just another folk act from the Pacific Northwest. Although the genre is well-worn in our neck of the woods, the construction of thoughtful melodies and empty space make Horse Feathers something all together more ethereal. The best word I can think of is craftmanship. Like a solid oak table, Horse Feathers build songs to last. And it's the earnesty in the songs that give Horse Feather an edge about others in the field, even when playing someone else's song.

Justin Ringle was kind enough to chat with us about working on the band's new record, touring, and his favorite moments playing live over email earlier this month. We wish him and the rest of members of Horse Feathers all the best as they continue to create what will no doubt be another fine album in their already admirable history of releases.

How was touring earlier this year? Did you have a favorite city?

Touring went really well this year. We just made some rounds in the US and Europe. I really enjoyed our shows in Colorado in general, and we had some really great shows in Paris which, up until this year, was not the case.

Where are you recording your next album?

I've been working on this record at Miracle Lake Studios and at home with Skyler Norwood.

What's a typical studio session like for you guys?

There really hasn't been a "typical" one for this record. I have been working with a lot of different people on this one, and each session has been mostly a product of who's available on which day for how long. We've had a french horn player in the morning and a piaon player in the afternoon kind-of-days quite a bit.

How will the next album compare to your previous material?

I think this one has a little bit more variety and some different textures. But, I really don't know; I'm so close to it right now.

Would you ever consider putting out a live album?

I've thought about it some. It would be a cool project for sure!

What's your favorite memory of a live show - either one you've played or one you've attended?

On my second U.S. tour we played in a gaslit historical church in rural Vermont in October. It was amazingly spooky and cool, and during the day the leaves were beautiful. Still think about that one.

Least favorite?

L.A. on several occasions.

Who are your favorite bands in Portland at the moment?

Death Songs is amazing.

What are your plans for Horse Feathers going forward?

The record will come out this spring, and then kicking into touring again. Going to have some different folks playing with me live this year which I'm excited about.

Do you know when your next live show will be?

Right now, I think it's going to be SXSW in March.

Thanks to Justin for the interview. You can find more about Horse Feathers on their website, any of their albums are worth your money and their live shows are not to be missed. To read more interviews, check out our features with The Thermals and Portugal. The Man from earlier this year.

Fuck Monday, right Garfield? We agree. Here are ten songs that we think will help you get the week started off to its ass-kicking best. As always, these songs were picked by random people using a dry erase board in our kitchen. We recommend these tunes be listened to while enjoying a large cup of damn fine coffee, and hot too. We prefer Courier Coffee roasted right here in Portland, Oregon. But, feel free to subsitute your local brew if you're not as lucky. So, the next time you're dreading having to get up to go to work and see that stupid shit of a boss that you have to sell your fucking soul to for an hourly wage in order for this house-of-cards consumer hell we've made for ourselves here in America to continue, crank up the volume on the tracks below and maybe you won't feel like setting the whole damn building ablaze.

1) "You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" by Queens of the Stone Age

It is a scientific fact that a person can fight a full-grown lion while listening to this song. Fact! Another fact is that the original Queens of the Stone Age song features bassist and singer Nick Oliveri, who also played in the Dwarves. Josh Homme of QOTSA once assulated Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia and was placed on probation. Oliveri is not in QOTSA anymore, but he still perfoms the songs solo-style. Homme also still plays the song with QOSTA. Neither are as good. Fact!

2) "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath 

Black Sabbath used to be so fucking awesome. Like the creepy little brother of American 1960's rock and roll who started taking acid at way too young of an age and subsequently grew up to be kinds fucked-up in a way that was cool and slightly scary. It's really too bad the whole knuckle-dragging metal-head fan stereotype got attached to them like some sort of godfathers of Metallica.

3) "Ex Lion Tamer" by Wire

This song is so good it would still rock if a middle school band covered it for their parents, which is the only live footage I could find on YouTube of this song, which is why there's a music video here instead. Hey, at least it has boobs.

4) "7 and 7 Is" by Love

For those of you who smoke two joints in the morning. This is your song. Although there isn't any good live video of this song readily available, the audio alone is pretty groovy, man.

5) "Up Around The Bend" by Creedance Clearwater Revival

If you have to drive a bit for during your morning commute, a little CCR can always brighten that trip. Also, this live version of the song was recorded in Amsterdam. Bong!

6) "Bitch" by The Rolling Stones

This song is sassy as fuck. Honey Badger don't even give a shit, ya know? This video though, goddamn. It looks like Mick Jagger is going to chew off his cheeks. COCAINE!

7) "Iron Swan" by The Sword

An epic song for an epic band. This particular show at The Metro in Chicago looks to have been epic as well, bro.

8) "Bastards of Young" by The Replacements

"Bastards of Young" is probably the quinessential track of The Replacements, and it's a damn fine way to start any day, and for whatever reason, it always makes me want to listen to "A Salty Salute" by Guided By Voices. Turns out The Strokes cover that on tour. And, Against Me! covers "Bastards of Young" sometimes. Neither are as good as the originals. Fact!

9) "The Ruler's Back" by Jay-Z

This song is one of the best produced tracks Jay-Z has ever released, and the opening to the album that would solidify him as the king of New York hip-hop after several hit-singles on lesser full-length efforts. The success of The Blueprint is even more surprising considering its release date - Sept. 11, 2001.

10) "This Year" by The Mountain Goats

Less boisterious than the other songs on this list, "This Year" is one of the most sturring modern acoustic anthems. The live video from the Bowery Ballrom features Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, who looks like he's having the time of this life getting to sing with The Mountain Goats on this song.

That's it for this Top 10. Check back soon for our recommendations for how to beat the crippling Portland rainy-season depression. Oh, and sorry for the photo. I think I was in a hurry, or drunk, or something. You'll notice the third song on this list is difficult to read, so I removed it and moved all the others in the line up one spot. I can do that. 

If you have favorite songs that get your week started, leave them in the comment section below, or on our Facebook page, and see if random strangers will mock you for your musical preferences. It'll be fun!

The top photo, taken by Aaron Colter, is of a Too Much Coffee Man painting on the side of the Hawthorne Theater that was done by the series creator, and local cartoonist, Shannon Wheeler. Sorry for the quality, first-gen iPhones are not proper photography devices.

Youth is one of the fastest growing bands in Portland at the moment, which is even more admirable considering the group isn't simple to track down online without using a dash of Boolean logic. Despite not having a particulary easy name for Google to find, Youth is attracting an increasing number of fans for their lush, surf-style sound and catchy hooks. Coming off tour with Wild Ones and local-stars Typhoon, Youth will be recording at The Banana Stand later in the month of November, and we couldn't be happier to have a band of their caliber in to create an album. Youth's guitarist Maggie was kind enough to answer a few questions about their music prior leaving on tour earlier this month.

How long as the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

With our current lineup (with Matthew on bass) we have been together since May of 2011, though our core members Maggie, Stephen and Elec have been playing together since June of 2010, with a couple of friends rotating on bass.  Youth started as a home recording project between Elec and Stephen in February of 2010 and asked our friends to join in order to create a fuller sound and a live set.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

Our influences stem from so many things, I think we have elements of pop, rock and roll, psychedelia, surf and folk but people's descriptions of our music tend to vary. Some key influences are Pavement, early Beach Boys records, Beulah, a lot of the bands on the Woodsist record label, and most importantly our friend's bands. Hearing all of the great music our friends are writing is really exciting and inspiring.

Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

We love the idea of live recordings, to get a single performance captured as it was in that moment.  Sometimes when you hit a wrong note it can sound better than the note you meant to play.  We are interested to record live at the 'Stand because we like the way you operate and enjoy the artists you choose to showcase, we think it's a great chance to play a live set with a local recording collective.

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

I think the least and most favorite memories of a live show are one and the same. It was a show we played in a forest near our friend's house in Eugene, OR. I don't think we really knew what we were in for . . . we had to hike in total darkness for about 10 minutes with all of our gear in tow, set up with a generator that was on the fritz and play as best as we could. Luckily we had some great friends there to help us, and I think all of the struggle and annoyances brought us closer together.

What other projects are you all involved with?

We are currently working on an EP with our friends at Badlands Recording, we have been playing a lot of shows and are trying to get prepared for a tour with our friends Typhoon and Wild Ones during early November.

Big thanks to Maggie for answering questions right before the busy rush of getting ready to go on tour. Youth is Maggie, Matt, Stephen, and Elec, and they'll be recording live at The Banana Stand later this month at a secret show. The header image is a collection of photo-booth prints taken of the band, and the middle image is  a photo of the band taken at Doug Fir by Aaron Colter.

For more about Youth, check out their pages on Facebook and Bandcamp.

We'd been interested in recording No Kind of Rider ever since seeing them play at Mississippi Studios with The Greater Midwest. The band sometimes likes to joke that they get unfairly compared to TV On the Radio because of their appearance in the monochromatic Portland, but their sound is nothing like the Williamsburg art scence. The timing just never seemed to work out to get them into the studio. But now, we're happy to announce that No Kind of Rider will record with us before a live audience, in secret. To get you ready for the show, drummer Jon Van Patten answered our questions on the band's behalf.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

No Kind of Rider: The band, with its five members, has been together approximately five and half years. We began playing together in late Feb/early March of 2006. Four out of five of us, Wes, Sam, Joe and myself (Jon), knew each other from high school in Tulsa, OK. The other member, which was Jeremy, became known by Sam and Joe from university. I had been playing in another band for roughly a year in Dallas, TX and by end of that year the band had dissolved over a period of a couple months. I moved back to Tulsa to work and go to school. Three months had gone by and I had been feeling restless, began looking for some people to play with and miraculously, got in touch with Sam through this weird website called Myspace. I think our moms had something to do with it. Thanks Mom. It was odd because I had never really been close friends with Sam or any of the other members, but we knew of each other and found to our delight, the five of us all got along quite well from the very beginning. Musical interest as well as personality was on par, which is rare. At the end of the night, after setting up and playing together for the first time, I looked around at the guys and said, "I'm gonna leave my drums here." They looked at me and the general consensus was, Yep, that seems like a good idea. And now, here we are, five and half years later.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

NKOR: I would say our general sound is raw experimental form of rock n' roll with R&B elements expressing itself through pop song structure for the most part. We have very different influences, but there are also common threads. We typical are not influenced by a lot of older music. Many bands these days sight bands like Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Talking Heads, you know, big legendary names. We're typical inspired by things of the past twenty years, bands like, Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Interpol, Blonde Redhead, Brian Eno, Starflyer 59 and Doves. There are countless others as well. We're constantly talking about music and getting excited about things we've discovered. We're like kids in that respect, we get giddy.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

NKOR: Although we've put out two EPs, The Black Swan EP and Away Colors, and those songs express themselves very much how we've written them in our practice space on those records, we've typically view ourselves as a Live band. One gets a strong sense of who we really are when they come to one of our shows. We hope to capture those elements at Banana Stand.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

NKOR: I think that's a hard question to answer. We've been together longer than a lot of bands and have played a considerable number of shows, which is awesome, but sometimes the specifics are difficult to remember. I can say with a good amount of certainty on behalf of NKoR that any show when people connect with with us and/or our music, and we make new friends is generally considered an enjoyable night. Obviously we want to play well all the time and that is always the goal, but when people respond on a personal level, that really means a lot. Least favorite show? Any show when we're having technical difficulties usually is quite stressful. Sometimes equipment doesn't work or our monitor mix on stage is so bad we can't enjoy playing, on those nights, we general get off stage and are just ready to drink some beers and forget about it.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

NKOR: I would say the two live albums that I enjoy very much and also somehow manage to encapsulate our general sound and aim is Erykah Badu Live (1997) and Nirvana Live at Reading (1992). These albums are significant because Badu Live has an awesome level of instrumental precision in its performance which I can say is a major goal of ours. And Live at Reading is just about as bad ass of a live album as one can get. We aim for raw fist pumping rock n' roll as well.

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

NKOR: Most of us are typically working day jobs, but also very much interested in other things as well, both musical and otherwise. Jeremy and Wes have been working on some interesting things with local songstress, Jen Moon. And I will be filling in on drums for some shows in the coming months with local band, Greylag.

BS: What are you working on lately?

NKOR: Collectively, we're looking forward to nesting a little bit this autumn and winter and writing as much new material as we can muster. We're in the process of planning a small one week tour north into Washington and British Columbia in mid November. Other than that, we're just trying to get into the idea and discipline of working with a sense of pace and intention. Learning to utilize time well and appropriately is a continuing exercise for No Kind of Rider, but it's a good one and very necessary. New material is on the way at our live shows and we're very much looking forward to that.

Thanks a ton to Jon for participating in our interview. According to their Facebook, No Kind of Rider is a sinner, a salaryman, a sartorialist, a physicist and a psycho. They're recording live at the 'Stand, in secret, later this month.

For more from No Kind of Rider, check them out at nokindofrider.com, and on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

Portland is the home of many well-known bands, and following our interview with Portugal. The Man, we've decided to reach out to other great musical groups in the city to hear their thoughts about live music and the professionalism it takes to make it big.

The Thermals have become one of the most respected bands in the industry for a variety of reasons, not least of which is their dedication to a hard-working ethic. With five full-length studio albums out in just under ten years (most produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla for Sub Pop, but some through Kill Rock Stars), The Thermals are an admirable aspiration for novice bands in Portland or any other city. Plus, the band has managed to stay relevant and popular without selling-out to big businesses for things like car commercials or other products they band doesn't feel comfortable supporting, something that in today's music industry of slim profit-margins is as praise worthy as their dedication to killer tunes.

Kathy Foster, bassist for The Thermals, is in her own league of professional success having also been the drummer for All Girl Summer Fun Band in addition to working solo material. While ordering up all of All Girls Summer Fun Band's previous albums, Banana Stand Media got in contact with Foster, who was kind enough to answer some questions. 

You had said you were pretty busy touring with The Thermals lately. How was it? Did you have a favorite city?

We toured a lot this past spring and summer. The last tour we were on was in August, in Europe. We played mostly festivals, in Germany, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria and Belgium. I loved playing the festival in Sibenik, Croatia. The people are sweet and fun there. The festival was on an old military base, and the area was very desert-y, but then just a few minutes away was the Adriatic Sea. It was beautiful!

How is playing with The Thermals different than playing with All Girl Summer Fun Band?

The Thermals are a lot more active these days than AGSFB, so I'm mostly playing with The Thermals, which I play bass in. I played mostly drums in AGSFB (and on two of The Thermals' albums), but we would switch around on instruments. I don't sing very much in The Thermals, but I sang a bunch in AGSFB. We did a lot of vocal harmonies, and would take turns singing lead vocal. In AGSFB, I got to hang out with my best girl friends and play music and talk. In The Thermals, I get to do that with my best boy friends.

The Thermals put out a live album in 2007 from LA. How was that? Would you do it again?

I forget about it, because for us, we were just playing a show - we didn't have to do anything differently - and I never listen to it. I don't think I'd want to do it again. I don't really care about putting out live recordings. I like playing live, and I like recording songs in studios or at home or wherever, and I want people to experience both. Live performances are meant to be experienced LIVE! I love the exchange of energy! Writing and recording our songs is a different, more intimate experience for us. Its a really fun time! We go inside, away from everyone for a while and then after a few months, emerge with a bunch of new songs. I love that time. And I love for people to hear what we've done.

Do you have a favorite live show moment as a fan?

My favorite show, of the past several years probably, was Sleep at the Roseland, here in Portland, for Music Fest Northwest in 2010. Their reunion and decision to play the album Holy Mountain live was a stoner dream come true!! I grew up near San Jose, CA, where they're from, and saw them live a bunch around when that album originally came out. It's one of my favorite albums, and they ruled live back in the day. So, I was beyond stoked to go see them, and they were PERFECT! Their playing (shredding!), their volume (fuckin LOUD!), their tones (my ears were orgasming), their visuals (tripped out space or underwater images layered with close-ups of buds) - it was all so perfect. I was so happy.

Least favorite as a performer?

I never dwell on such things.

Who are you favorite live bands at the moment?

I'm really excited to see Hot Snakes!!!! They are reuniting, and playing the same festival as us in Austin next month!

Favorite bands in Portland, Oregon?

Nurses, Formica Man, Night Moves, The Crow, Wampire, 1939 Ensemble, Nucular Aminals.

What are The Thermals playing in the near future?

The Thermals are playing the Halifax Pop Explosion Festival next week, and then the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin first week of November. And we're currently working on new songs. I think we'll be playing Portland in December or January, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks to Kathy Foster for the interview. You can find more about The Thermals on their website, and check out the All Girl Summer Fun Band as well - both bands are incredibly worth your time and money. Photo by Thomas Oliver.

Having had our faces entirely melted by Sons of Huns' epic set at the PALS Payback Party, we knew this was a band we wanted to record as soon as possible. Good news! They'll be tracked before a live audience, in secret, later this month. To get you ready for the set, Sons of Huns drummer Ryan Northrop answered our questions about the band via email.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Ryan Northrop: We've been a band for roughly 2 years, got started in the fall of 2009. Peter and Shoki were already great friends as they were roommates in college at Willamette University in Salem. I had played in an Indie/Pop act called Patterns with Shoki and a few others for a couple of years as well. Shoki also played drums in a band with Peter called The Awful Din and I saw their last show at the Tonic. I really dug Peter's playing and asked him if he'd be interested in starting a band. Things went from there, we wrote songs real quick and put the EP together which we have available today.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

RN: We're influenced by all things rock. When we met and talked about what we wanted to hone our sound into, one band came to mind: The Sonics. We love the energy of that great NW rock band, so we tried to capture that the best we could, but we're also influenced by blues and metal. Peter grew up playing not only classical pieces but practicing to Tony Iommi's (of Black Sabbath) solos. We wanted to produce something unrelenting in sound but also accessible to folks. I think that we cover such a wide spectrum of rock influences that we offer a little something to everyone.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

RN: We really enjoy the pressures of recording live. I think it's a great way for the artist to stay mindful of the fact that not only are they entertaining a crowd, but doing it with precession. I believe we're a great live band, and we're excited to record at the Banana Stand because of the engineering quality of the previous recordings really showcased that awesome energy of a live performance.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

RN: Me personally, I love it when bands crush on stage. I recently saw one of my favorite metal bands, Saviours, crush it and everyone in the band was locked in. The energy erupts when a great band is setting shit on fire. There's so many great bands in this town and even ones that come through so the guys and I try to see as much live music as possible. The times where I don't enjoy a live show is when the sound is shitty in the venue, or the band is getting distracted by the crowd, etc.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

RN: I don't if they made it into an album but on YouTube one can watch Black Sabbath's entire 1970 live performance in Paris. Amazing.

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

RN: We're all primarily focused on this project. No one has any outside projects at this time.

BS: What are you working on lately?

RN: We entered the studio to record a 7" at PermaPress Studios to work with Pat Kearns of Blue Skies and Black Hearts. He did the mixing and mastering on our EP and we're pretty excited to work with him again. We're pretty much set with shows till February, so we couldn't be happier about that.

Thanks a ton to Ryan for participating in our interview. Sons of Huns is Ryan, Peter Hughes and Shoki Tanabe. They're recording live at the 'Stand, in secret, later this month.

For more from Sons of Huns, check them out on Facebook, Tumblr and MySpace.

The header image for this post was shot by William Bragg -- williambragg.com.

The mid-page image, which is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen, was done by Takako Shinozaki.

Our friends Genders had an unfortunate accident with a deer in Illinois causing them to be temporarily stranded in the great Midwest. Genders is currently on tour opening for Built to Spill in cities across the country - a dream come true for the band - and want more than anything to continue on. In order to do so, however, they need our help!

UPDATE (Oct. 29th): Genders is back on the road with Built to Spill! The insurance company has covered some of the expenses to keep them going. And thanks to your donations, the band has almost made up the difference to keep touring! Any further donations or purchases of their music will continue to help them as they make their way across the country and back home to Oregon. Thanks again to everyone who helped! We and Genders feel so blessed to be part of a such a supportive community. All the love to all of you!

UPDATE (Oct. 23rd): The band has gotten a rental van to get them to the next shows with Built to Spill, who have been very kind and often to help share gear. Everyone in the group is really touched by the support fans have given them. While they are getting back on the road, it's unlikely that the insurance funds will cover renting a van for 5 more weeks, not to mention the limites those services have. Genders can absolutely still use all of our support, so keep those donations going!

For now, the band is waiting for the insurance company to determine how much they'll get for the van that they purchased less than a month ago, and figuring out if they can rent another vehicle or even purchase a used one in the region. Thankfully, the band and their equipment is all okay!

But, to put it bluntly: Genders needs some cash, fast.

If you want to help out Genders, they have chosen to use Square Cash to collect donations. It's a cool new service from Square that lets people send money to debit cards via email. Square Cash was just rolled out to the public last week, so it's pretty incredible timing! If you've purchased things from Genders or Banana Stand at any of our shows, then you've probably used Square - it's that white, square card reader on smartphones and tablets; lots of independent restaurants in town use them too. Here's how the email payment system works:

1. Write a new email from your email account to: genderspdx@gmail.com
2. In the subject line, type in the amount you want to send to the band (i.e. $25).
3. CC the email address: cash@square.com
4. Press send.

You do not need a Square account to send the band money!  If you have a Square account set up, then you can authorize the payment that system. If you don't have a Square account, then you will recieve an email asking for your credit card information for the payment. Genders will receive your donation 1-2 business days after it is sent. Yes, it's actually that easy. We tested it. You can read more about Square Cash on their website

We suggested Square Cash to Genders because it's the fastest and easiest way for people to send money without having to do rewards or reach funding goals or worry about a percentage going to this or that company. If you're uncomfortable with this method, we encourage you to purchase a digital copy of the band's 7" and EP from Bandcamp.

We'll continue to update this page with news from Genders about their current situation.

Please share and create your own posts and blogs to help the band! Any amount helps. Thank you.

The shows Genders hopes to make with your help:

10/22 – Newport, KY @ The Southgate House Revival w/ BTS
10/23 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel w/ BTS
10/24 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse w/ BTS
10/25 – Jacksonville, FL @ Free Bird Live w/ BTS
10/26 – Orlando, FL @ Beacham w/ BTS
10/27 – Fort Lauderdale @ Culture Room w/ BTS
10/28 – Gainesville, FL @ High Dive w/ BTS
10/29 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm
10/30 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle w/ BTS
10/31 – Richmond, VA @ Canal Club w/ BTS
11/01 – Washington DC @ 930 Club w/ BTS
11/03 – Brooklyn, NY @ Death By Audio
11/04 – Brooklyn, NY @ Shea Stadium
11/05 – New York City, NY @ Arlene’s Grocery
11/06 – Boston, MA @ TBC
11/07 – Burlington, VT @ Monkey House
11/08 – Syracuse, NY @ TBC
11/09 – Harrisburg, PA @ TBC
11/10 – Toledo, OH @ The Village Idiot
11/11 – Detroit, MI @ Lager House
11/13 – Chicago, IL @ Township
11/14 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverwest Public House
11/15 – Madison, WI @ Mickey’s Tavern
11/16 – Minneapolis, MN @ TBC
11/18 - Iowa City, IA @ Blue Moose Tap House w/ BTS
11/19 – Fayetteville, AR @ Lighthouse Club
11/20 – Little Rock, AR @ Rev Room w/ BTS
11/21 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater w/ BTS
11/22 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s w/ BTS
11/23 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s w/ BTS
11/24 – El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls w/ BTS
11/25 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress w/ BTS
11/26 – Las Vegas, NV – Vinyl @ Hard Rock Hotel w/ BTS
11/27 – Salt Lake City @ Urban Lounge w/ BTS

We're already looking forward to this year's PDX Pop Now! festival and compilation CD, and along with Tim Shrout (formerly of Badlands) we're offering a special discount on our studio rates to help bands put together a submission for the compilation!

In case you're not familiar with PDX Pop Now, it's an awesome non-profit that puts on an annual festival featuring some of the best bands in Portland, as well as a double-disc compilation of local artists. Some previous musicians on the comp include M Ward, Y La Bamba, Radiation City, Sons of Huns, Sun Angle, Grandparents, Pure Bathing Culture, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Death Songs, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and tons more.  

If you've got a song you'd like to submit, we can help you record and mix it before the submission deadline. We'll come up with a plan for the recording, spend a day in the studio laying down tracks, and then put together a great mix to send to the listening committee.

To keep things simple and affordable, we're offering this as a package for $130. This gets you a 10 hour recording session with Tim plus a great mix of your song (2 revisions included.) We'll take a break while tracking for lunch and to assess our progress.

If you want to submit to the awesome PDX Pop Now Compilation but don't have a recording to send in, get in touch! For more information about PDX Pop Now!, head over to their website.

It's with great pleasure that we announce the partnering of Badlands PDX and the Banana Stand! For those who are unfamiliar, Badlands PDX was a studio and house venue in Northeast Portland very similar to what we were doing at the Banana Stand. The difference, however, was that audio engineer Tim Shrout focused on recording studio albums for bands here on the West Coast and for friends back East, more than recording and releasing live material. Tim was behind one of our all time favorite studio releases - the debut album from the now defunct Youth titled June. He also mixed one of the best albums to ever come out from our live series by Fanno Creek, and has begun to work on a full-length album with another of our favorite bands, Towering Trees.

Tim has been coming in to help with our live shows, along with the talented Adam Harney, and asked if he might start moving his gear into our space to take advantage of our mixing area and large, acousticly-treated basement, where many of you have come to see some of Portland's best bands. Of course, we immediately said, "Yes!"

We're excited to start welcoming in more bands for studio work as we being to limit our live shows for 2013. It's great to see the Banana Stand go from an unfinished, dirty basement to a comfortable recording space, where we'll continue to host big, secret shows for Portland's top bands, but also expand our recent run of more casual afternoon events and increase our ability to help young artists release their first EP or full-length effort.

Tim's education in audio engineering certainly exceeds the knowledge that we had at the Banana Stand previously, and, combined with his wide range of recording equipment, we're confident that the Banana Stand can be that middle ground for emerging bands to record and release work that will put them on the map towards greater recognition, critical acclaim, and prepare them to someday record in some of the legendary studios around town, like Jackpot! Recording Studio, Flora Recording & Playback, Toadhouse Recording Studios, Revolver Studios, or any of the other powerhouses in Portland. 

If you're interested in scheduling recording time with Badlands PDX engineer Tim Shrout at the Banana Stand, please contact us for information regarding our reasonable rates and dates available.

Banana Stand Media, Kelly's Olympian, and the Portland Mercury are proud to present Talkative, Tiger House, Fanno Creek, and The We Shared Milk at Kelly's Olympian on Saturday, November 24th for a special concert benefiting New Avenues for Youth. Raffle prizes will be available from our fantastic sponsors Hot Lips Pizza, Floating World Comics, VeggieGrill, Sizzle Pie, and Double Dragon!

The show is free, so we hope everyone can attend! Plus, we'll be releasing advance copies of The We Shared Milk - Live from the Banana Stand 2012, our 50th album released so far! We want to extend our deepest thanks to all of our sponsors, some of the coolest places in the city and great people, too!

If you're not familar with New Avenues for Youth, please take a moment to check out all of the importnat work they do. We're overwhelmed with all of the people who have rallied together to help us raise money for their efforts. Getting the opportunity to showcase some of the best bands we've had the privledge to work with over these last five years is just icing on an already delicious cake. 

Take a look at all the excellent you'll be able to see for free!

The We Shared Milk

Be sure to preview the upcoming album by listening to the preview track "Dog" by clicking here.

Fanno Creek

The group hasn't played a live show in Portland since returning from tour with the wonderfully talented Animal Eyes this fall, so we're in for a treat.

Tiger House

Friends for life, these righteous dudes will release their second live album with us at the Doug Fir this December. Look for details soon!

Talkative

We can't wait for this group to get all the respect they deserve. Following a recent show with Hustle and Drone at Bunk Bar, they're on the right track.

Once again, the show is free, it benefits a great nonprofit, features great bands and prizes from sweet businesses in Portland. There's no reason to miss the show if you'll be in town, so RSVP on Facebook and come say hello as we give thanks for being blessed with so much.

Huge thanks to Nalin from Kelly's Olympian and Revolver Studios for helping put the show together, to Brenna at Last Broadcast Design for the post, to our gratious sponsors who have terrific products you should purchase on a regular basis, and to all the bands playing for a great cause.

With the help of the terrific Collective-47 Productions team, we're happy to release a new video about the music and mayhem of The No Tomorrow Boys, one of the most rippin' bands in Portland, Oregon. We talk to the band members about why they started a true Rock N' Roll band, and follow the crew as they participate in a few misdemeanors around the industrial district. 

Check out the video after the jump for all the hijinx.

Be sure to watch in HD, full-screen mode for best experience!

Check out our original interview with the band, and download the full-length, live album today for pay-what-you-want. Please support local, independent music by sharing the news, or better yet - giving us and the band a few dollars when you grab the album. Thanks!

[Update: Amanda Palmer has just announced that she will be paying all of the musicians she needs at each of her shows on this tour. We think it's a good move on her part, and shows the power of being able to communicate and share ideas quickly to enact change.] 

Following this contest, news broke that Amanda Palmer wasn't paying her backup band. Needless to say, we were concerned. To be fair, Palmer is paying three full-time musicians to tour with her, so it's not as bad as some headlines are making it sound. And yes, she did raise over $1 million on Kickstarter, but as people who have organized former Kickstarter campaigns, it's important to understand that up to 40% of those funds can disappear in fees and taxes, especially if you don't plan correctly.  

Next, it's entirely fair to touring musicians to ask fans to play on stage with them, for free, for beer, for high-fives, for whatever. Musicians should be able to determine when and where they want to play and for what. Musicians we love, like Jen Lekman, have asked for the same. And for some, maybe simply playing with Palmer on stage is worth their effort.

But after further inspection, Palmer isn't simply asking for fans to come up for a few tunes or some simple parts, she's trying to mine professional music organizations and college students who are classically trained. Furthermore, the aim of her Kickstarter was to bring her fans an album and live experience of the best quality, which has a much higher chance of happening if she were to pay a full-time group to tour with her. In short, she's broken the trust that new models of raising funds and connecting artists with fans rely upon; models that have been created by technological progress, sharing, and the belief that musicians should be paid more than they have been historically.

Initially, this post was going to be updated with a winner for tickets to her Portland show. The truth is - hardly anyone bothered to enter to win. Maybe that's telling. While Amanda Palmer has helped pioneer pay-what-you-want-downloads, bucked traditions of the misogynistic entertainment culture, and no doubt spent years improving her craft, it's truly dishearteing to see her approach to this latest tour.

Amanda Palmer has been having, one would think, the best year of her life. Celebrating a year of marriage with legendary comics writer Neil Gaiman, becoming a catalyst of artistic expression (along side others like painter Molly Crabapple) for the Occupy movement, and, oh yeah, raising over $1 million dollars on Kickstarter to fund her latest album Theatre Is Evil.

That's right. Palmer raised $1.1 million dollars through the crowd-sourced website, making the campaign the most successful music project in the website's history. Looks like all that time talking to people in public parks across America about social unrest has paid off well.

Earlier this year, Palmer spoke with me for an article on DigitalTrends about the future of the music industry, saying:

“I come from a street-performing background. I made my living with a hat at my feet for about five years. I have a fundamental belief that people love to support artists, we just need to work towards a system where the act is a simple as tossing a dollar in the basket of a musician whose street music you’ve been enjoying. Musicians need to drop any shame they’ve had in the past about asking. The asking has to just be second nature and feel as shameless and natural as the act of playing music itself.” 

Somewhat foolishly, I was quoted in an article on the same site later, suggesting the public may have seen the highwater mark for Kickstarter campaigns. Time will tell whether or not that's true, but Palmer's record success, along with several independent video game projects this summer, have certainly shown that there are still enormous amounts of potential money to be gained by asking fans for startup funds. And more to Palmer's point, people do want support the artists that they love.

Likewise, artists love rewarding their listeners. In that spirit, fans of Amanda Palmer can download a free, four-song teaser of the new album featuring "Do It With a Rockstar," "Trout Heart Replica," "Want It Back," and "The Killing Type," here.

Palmer recently talked more in-depth with Rolling Stone about her latest album and the changing tide of the music business, echoing the growing chorus of working class musicians who have found new ways to make money off of their art through services like Bandcamp. Her dedication to her craft is certainly inspirational, and her career shows that hard work and originality are worth the effort. 

Be sure to get Theatre Is Evil, out on Sept. 11th - the same day as our release from Fanno Creek. And don't miss Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra play Portland's Wonder Ballroom on Friday, September 28th. Tickets are only $25 in advance and can be purchased online. 

As an extra-special treat, our friends at Monqui are offering a pair of tickets to the Portland show for one of our lucky readers! Simply share this post on Twitter and/or Facebook for a chance to enter. Be sure let us know that you've entered by commenting below or tagging us on one of the social networks.

Thanks to Amanda's publicity team at Girlie Action for sending us the free tracks to share. Header image by Shervin Lainez. Find about more about Amanada Palmer on her website. -Aaron

MFNW has been the highlight of many Portland music fans for years, and 2012 should be no different, but will feature an added twist. For the first time the festival is adding a technology conference to the week-long celebration, dubbed Portland Digital eXperience. Started by Rick Turcozy, the conference will focus on startup culture in the Portland community. 

We reached out to Rick early on about hosting a panel that could bridge the conference and festival, combining insights to both music and technology. The idea was approved, and we're happy to announce that the following guests will be on stage to talk about their professional experiences within the ever-changing landscape of the music industry, and how different technologies have shifted their work:

Larry Crane - owner of Jackpot! Recording Studios and editor of Tape Op magazine.

Alicia J. Rose - video director, photographer, and marketing specialist for bands such as Mastodon, The Decemberists, Cake, Menomena, Laura Gibson, and many other artists.

Jared Mees - musician and founder of label Tender Loving Empire.

Maggie Vail - musician, activist, label manager for Bikini Kill Records, and co-executive director of the nonprofit CASH Music.

Mike Thrasher - owner of the Hawthorne Theatre and premiere event promoter in Portland and Seattle.

Robert Ham - a freelance music writer whose work has been featured in Willamette Week, The Oregonian, Portland Monthly, Village Voice, and  other publications.

Christopher Kirkley - West African music archivist and founder of label Sahel Sounds.

Banana Stand's Aaron Colter will act as the panel moderator for this insightful discussion on Friday, September 7th from 3:00pm to 4:00pm at Pure Space, located at in Portland's Pearl District at 315 NW Overton Street. Access to the panel requires a PDX Laminate badge that also allows holders into all of the other MFNW events, and can be purchased online in advance. A webstream of the panel is expected to be available for those that cannot attend. 

Special thanks to Rick and all of the MFNW PDX organizers, speakers, and atteendees. Check out Rick's excellent website about the Portland tech industry at Silicon Florist. To read an long-form article about the future of music featuring ideas from many of the panelists above, please check out "Can pay-what-you-want downloads save the music industry?"

Immediately upon coming to Portland and starting house shows almost five years ago, everyone at the Banana Stand has been very impressed and appreciative of all the efforts of the non-profit project PDX Pop Now!, especially the low-cost, double-disc albums that they distribute across the city every summer. As PDX Pop Now! is set to host their famous all-day festival from July 20th - 22nd at Refuge PDX, we asked Communications Director Benna Gottfried some questions.

Why did you start PDX Pop Now?

In 1998, PDX Pop listserv began when a few dozen Portland musicians, fans, and writers started a listserv that focused on promoting and discussing the local music scene. PDX Pop Now! was started based on conversations on the listserv surrounding accessibility to local music - particularly to minors, and desire to increase the national profile of the Portland music community. The founders of PDX Pop Now! believed that Portland’s self-sustained scene had reached a level deserving of recognition, discovery, enhancement, stimulation, participation, accessibility and—most importantly—celebration! Thus, the PDX Pop Now! music festival was born in 2004.

What are the goals of the project?

The mission of PDX Pop Now! is to promote and enhance Portland's local music community, and provide accessibility to live, local music to people of all ages and economic backgrounds. We achieve these through the PDX Pop Now! festival by opening the festival to all ages, free of charge, and by working with the volunteer booking committee to make conscious and booking decisions to showcase the wide array of musical genres being created in our city.

What has changed since you started?

A lot has changed since PDX Pop Now! started, but the organization has stayed true to it's mission keeping the essence of the organization the same. In 2008, PDX Pop Now! became a registered 501 (c) 3 non profit organization which opened up the doors for granting opportunities, expanded outreach programming, and individual donations of support. Our festival production value has matured significantly over the years, most notably with our move from Rotture to RefugePDX last year. Through these changes, however, PDX Pop Now! has remained a volunteer-run organization - a unique model which seems to work well for us. We intend to remain volunteer-run for the foreseeable future. and continue focusing on our three programming areas: festival, compilation and youth outreach programs.

What are your favorite Portland bands?

I'm personally a big fan of Onuinu and Y La Bamba [seen above] right now. I always get a new favorite at the festival each year though. After her performance at the PDX Pop Now! comp release show, I'm also really into Rose.

In what ways do you think Portland could improve its music community?

We really need to push harder to open up our live music venues to people under 21. Kids are often the most energetic, enthusiastic fans. The musicians in our city deserve a chance to play to such encouraging crowds. It would be great if the city could rally around developing an all-ages venue and workshop space similar to Seattle's Vera Project that would not only produce shows, but also offer the opportunity for kids to learn about the industry - event and sound production, promotions, screen printing, etc.

Find out more about all the great things PDX Pop Now! does on their website, which includes a full-schedule for the festival.

Since partnering with Collective-47 Productions, we've been proud to release live video of Animal Eyes and The We Shared Milk, and we're just as thrilled to bring music fans another excellent production.

Check out Fanno Creek's performance of "Don't Go Away" [Live from the Banana Stand] after the jump!

To learn more about Fanno Creek, read our interview with the band and listen to them on Bandcamp.

In case you missed the release event for our compilation album where we debuted the video check out this sweet, extended-length live capture of The We Shared Milk made by our partners at Collective-47 Productions. (Full video after the jump.)

It was the third time we've had The We Shared Milk in to record a live show, just after working with the band for their upcoming studio album. Big thanks to Larry Crane and Jackpot! Recording Studio for letting us use their post-production equipment to make this happen. And also a big thanks to the Portland Mercury for debuting the video on their blog, End Hits. (Full video after the jump.)

For more about The We Shared Milk, please visit their Tumblr. A full-length album from this night's recording will available for a pay-what-you-want download soon.

As we lead up to our free release event on Sunday, June 10th at the Hawthorne Theatre, we've been blessed to get press coverage in several outlets in Portland that we've respected for years. It's pretty incredible to see so many people starting to fully embrace the idea of high-quality, live music from local artists.

This town has a long history of being a haven for creative people, but perhaps today more than ever before there is a great pool of musical geniuses making some of the best songs in the world.

Many articles mention Louie and I, noting that our work and cultivation of the scene has improved the appreciation of live talent. We truly hope so. But, it's also a lie.

Not that we don't work hard. We do. Every single day we are both spending time and effort to make the Banana Stand be the best that it can be. But, we certainly don't do it alone. In fact, we owe our success to so many that when we send a list of people we'd like to thank, it's pretty much impossible for reporters to include them at all, or any for that matter.

So, we'd like to take some time to thank the following people:

First, to our Indiana brothers Ross, Jott, and Shawn. We took this journey together and we're all the better for it. Shawn, you lovable bastard. You'll work a double shift in one of the city's most notorious bars and then come home to help us out with our bullshit. Thank you.

To Adam, you are the original trailblazer, the godfather. You showed us that hard work and perseverance can pay off. Thank you.

Evan. Where to start? Web design, hosting, photographs, videos, layout, general awesomeness. It's a pleasure to know you. You make us better. Thank you.

Brian, our Art Director, who has made sure we don't look foolish with terrible design. Thank you.

Tony. We miss you, brother. You're a light in an otherwise dark world, and so talented it boggles the mind. Thank you.

Chris, you're just cool as all hell, man. Smart as fuck too. It's amazing you even spend what little free time you have hanging out with us. Thank you.

Alex. Holy shit, dude. You're the reason we have an authentic live sound. You're a gentlemen and a scholar. Thank you.

Vic. You helped us when we were just an idea, for no reason other than you thought it was cool and fun. Thank you.

Nicholas, you taught us that compromise is death. We're still learning. Your respect on any project means the world to us. Thank you.

Pat, the troubadour of Portland music. We are so humbled to have your support and help. You changed the game for us. Thank you.

Chris, you polish the roughest of tracks so that we sound like professionals. You truly are one. Thank you.

Larry, you're a giant figure to us, and we're still a little scared to talk to you for fear of sounding like idiots. We promise not to fanboy-out on you. Too much, anyway. Thank you.

Jennifer, you're a delight and a show buddy for life. It's hard to find people more dedicated to music than you. Thank you.

Jake, you're one of the nicest people in the whole world. Congratulations to you and Destinee! We hope to see more of you all. Thank you.

Nick, we haven't kicked it in a while, buddy! WTF? Your professionalism is a beacon in the sea of Portland carelessness. Thank you.

Purple Palace crew. You know who you are. You've been like half of our audience or more for at least two years now. Thank you for showing up to everything we do, and supporting us day in and day out. Love you guys. Thank you.

PALS crew. You guys are the salt of the earth and our comrades in art. We will always be there for you. Thank you.

Eleven crew, you believed in us first. We'll never forget that. Remember those plans we made at Dots? That was less than a year ago! This town ain't seen nothin' yet. Let's blow shit up. Thank you.

Adam, you just started working with us, but you've already made our lives a thousand times easier in just a few weeks. We can't wait to look back at years worth of friendship. Thank you.

Tim, we're so happy you're helping us out, and your D.I.Y. spirit is the core of what we do. To many more adventures. Thank you.

Collective-47 crew, our Visual Partners. You guys moved here and immediately started to work. You might not have any idea how long we've waited to find partners like you, but we're so happy you're here now. Together, we are unstoppable. Thank you.

Jon, Travis & Bawbee, for the artwork, for the mural, for coming to Portland. Thank you.

Sara, for helping us put everything together. Thank you.

Bill, just for being you. Thank you.

Rose City crew, you are the solidest of dudes. We heard you're moving. That super sucks. Hope you'll come back someday. Thank you.

WWeek & Oregon Music News, we're glad you dig what we're trying to accomplish. Thank you.

To all the bands (Lonesome Radio Heart, Mythological Horses, Saucy Yoda, Hungry Mob, Alex Arrowsmith, Curious Hands, The Greater Midwest, Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Craig, Paul, and Ryan, The Grokkers, Please Step Out of the Vehicle, Nordic, Tranquilazer, Modernstate, Jippedo, Mannequinhead, Explode Into Colors, Dat'r, Dr. Something and the Poppin' Fresh Love Engines, Mr. Frederick, Curious Hands, Alex Arrowsmith, Wright and Rude, Magen Melancholy, Nordic, Dynast SMG, Ingredients the Band, Shelby Sifers, Project Eldridge, Branden Daniel, Holy Children, Prizzy Prizzy Please, The Shivas, The Un, Yeah Great Fine, Duck, Little Brother, Duck!, Bodhi, Padraic Finbar Hagerty Hammond, White Fang, Why I Must Be Careful, Asteroid M, Dr. Something and the Pipin' Hot Love Engines, Constantina, Deer or the Doe, Spy Island, The Nextdoor Neighbors, Destroy Nate Allen, The Ro Sham Bos, Soft Paws, Alex Arrowsmith & His Pugs, Ether Circus, The Big Ideas, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Raised by TV, The Silent Numbers, The Heligoats, The Hague, What, Slutty Hearts, The Woolen Men, The Empty, Orca Team, A Million Years Ago, Vanimal, Titans of Industry, Tiger House, Bombs Into You, Towering Trees, The Shy Seasons, The Polyps, Talkative, The Blast Majesty, Death Songs, Jack Ruby Presents, Your Rival, Forest Park, The Golden Hours, Tango Alpha Tango, The Angry Orts, Sons of Huns, No Kind of Rider, Youth, Log Across the Washer, DoublePlusGood, Animal Eyes, The No Tomorrow Boys, Fanno Creek, The We Shared Milk, Grandparents, Sam Adams), but especially The We Shared Milk, Tiger House, and The Greater Midwest for playing each year and being so supportive. We couldn't do anything without musicians far more talented than we are agreeing to all this. We hope we do right by you all. Thank you.

Sorta Ultra, Half Way There, Your Rival, and Eidolons. We used the money you gave us from studio sessions to do this, hope that's okay. Thank you.

To all the Kickstarter funders -- Aaron Robert Miller, Aaron Whitmore, Abigail from CA, Adam Harney, Adam Skibbe, Ajax, Alayna Herr, Aly Hoffman, Anonymous, anonymous, April Ng, Breanne rupp, Brenna, Brian David Smith, Caitlin McGuan, captain scrotes, Cheyenne Allott, Curt Arrowsmith, David Gerber, Eddie Charlton, Eli Johnston, erin fanshier, fruit4dinner, "Fuck you Louie, you fucking piece of shit. (Victoria Wong)," Gary W. Anderson, Ingmar Weltin, Jack Ruby Presents, Jacob Campbell, Jennifer Marcson, Jenny Li, Jesse Hughey, Joe Frazier, Joel Daly, Joel H Levitt, Kara Behan, King Emmet the 1st and last, Ky Fifer, Kyle "Special K" Knies, Lewis Winter, Liz Lewis, magen melancholy, Mark B., Mark Keller, mary ann reeves, Michael & Yina Gombos, modernDAVE.com, Nathan Trueb, Nick Detrich, Oisin F. O'Brien, okjimmy.com, pixeldompteur, R. Hughes, Ryan Hill, Ryan Northrop, Scott Tridle, Stephen Sansom, Stuart Wainstock-Rose City Live, The Hague, The We Love Milk, Theskyscratcher.com, Tom Kishel, Travis "Dogleg" Leipzig, Trevor McPherson, Trisha Shozuya, Troy Howard, tyler keene, and Vanessa Hammer -- Thank you so much!

To our amazing sponsors who are pretty much the only reason this event is even happening - Hawthorne Theatre, Stumptown Printers, CraveDog, Vita Mastering, Rather Severe, and the Portland Mercury. Thank you.

To anyone we forgot, sorry. We're not very good at remembering. For some reason. We still love you. Seriously, deeply, and in a way all human beings should. Thank you.

And to anyone reading this, thank you too. We hope to see everyone at the free release event on Sunday, June 10th at the Hawthorne Theatre.

Following years of work in secret, it's time for Banana Stand's public debut. But, we need your help!

On June 10th, we're releasing our long-promised compilation CD at a free, all-day, all-ages event at Hawthorne Theatre. Our goal is to promote Portland's live music and those performing it. We're broke, and though we have great sponsors on board, we're asking for community assistance to make the compilation and release event as awesome as we know they can be.

Please consider helping us in the following ways if you dig what we've done for Portland music over the last few years :

1. Donate to our Kickstarter if you are able. Any amount helps, and we've got rad rewards for you!
2. Share news of our Kickstarter and compilation release to Facebook and Twitter, if you do those things.
3. Download a few of our more than three dozen releases and, if you like them, share them with your friends!

Before you check out the details below, we at Banana Stand thank you for your support -- for this latest project and for our work over the last 4+ years. Thanks also to to all of the people -- bands, music professionals, and volunteers -- who have helped make this release possible.

We hope to see you at the release event on June 10th!

-Team Banana Stand

Kickstarter video produced by collective47 and Ghost House Music Media. Kickstarter video features "Want You To Know" from Youth - Live from the Banana Stand (forthcoming). Compilation cover art produced by Rather Severe. Compilation layout designed by Shut Up, Crow. Printers.

Live from the Banana Stand Volume 1 is sponsored by Cravedog, Stumptown Printers, Hawthorne Theater, The Portland Mercury, and Vita Mastering.

Live from the Banana Stand Volume 1 features songs mixed by Alex Arrowsmith, Pat Kearns, Tyler Keene, Vic Lund, Nicholas Taplin, and Chris Vita.

Lineup for our free release event at Hawthorne Theater on Sunday, June 10th

ALL-AGES Afternoon Show:
2:00 pm - The Woolen Men
3:00 pm - Fanno Creek
4:00 pm - The Angry Orts
5:00 pm - Sons of Huns

21+ Evening Show:
8:00 pm - Genders (featuring members of Youth)
9:00 pm - Blue Skies for Black Hearts
10:00 pm - Tango Alpha Tango

Live from the Banana Stand Volume 1 - Track Listing
1. Blue Skies For Black Hearts - "The Sitch"
2. Youth - "Want You To Know"
3. Death Songs - "Water in the Eyes of Man"
4. The Woolen Men - "Land of Laughs"
5. The We Shared Milk - "Drag"
6. The Angry Orts - "No More"
7. Tango Alpha Tango - "Black Cloud"
8. Log Across the Washer - "What's New Fat Man?"
9. Forest Park "Story"
10. The Polyps - "Short Song"
11. Talkative - "Front Porch Annex"
12. Tiger House - "No Bees"
13. Alex Arrowsmith & His Pugs - "Freeze Tag"
14. Curious Hands - "British Columbia"
15. The Silent Numbers - "Said So"
16. Sons of Huns - "Super Kanpai Rainbow"
17. The Hague - "Passing Cars"
18. Towering Trees - "Coolidge"
19. Modernstate - "This Is Life"
20. Jack Ruby Presents - "Old"

Todd Gautreau was once better known as Tear Ceremony, a dark ambient electronic project, like the flip-side of Baths side-project Geotic, or a desolate Boards of Canada, only devoid of near-dance beats. As the music evolved, Gautreau changed the name of the electronic outfit to Sonogram, and eventually he diverged to sullen indie-rock in the vein of Mark Kozelek's Red House Painters, calling his new project Crushed Stars. Originally signed to Portland's now abandoned Area Rock Records (once home of local favorites Talkdemonic and Richmond Fontaine), Crushed Stars and the rest of Gautrea's projects are now with Simulacra Records.

Oddly enough, Gautreau's opinion's on music are almost completely contradictory to the live-focus we have here, but his professionalism towards crafting music was compelling, as was that fact that he recorded his lastest album with Stuart Sikes (Grammy winning engineer behind Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose along side producer Jack White, and Cat Power's The Greatest).

Living in Dallas, Gaurtrea answered some questions over email about his new album, studio musicians, and why he somewhat famously turns down all opportunites to play live.

What made you want to stop recording more electronic-style music and focus more on instruments like guitar, piano, drums, etc?

I started playing guitar at a very young age, so when I reached my 20s and started recording on a 4 track I was ready to explore new sounds. I started experimenting with reverbs and delays and eventually synths. For awhile, I just wanted to get as far awy form guitar as possible. But I had always intended to write pop songs, so after a few years of experimenting and learning about recording, I finally decided to get back to guitar with Crushed Stars. Since I was accustomed to recording alone, I continued doing it that way. And at that time I didn’t know many other musicians.

You traditionally don’t play live, and so seemingly a tour is out of the question. Can you talk about why you’d rather have people listen to the album or why you’re not a fan of performing live?

As a music fan I have always enjoyed recordings more than live performances so I naturally gravitated more towards recording. Music has always been an intimate experience for me and its hard to share that with a room full of people. I find some of the nuances of Crushed Stars get lost in a live setting. I can’t hear anything when there’s a drum set behind me. So I would rather spend that time and energy working on new material. Even a great show you tend to forget after a few weeks, a good record stays with you forever.

How long did it take to record the latest album?

It was recorded over a course of six months, but that wasn’t working every day. It was closer to 3 months if condensed. I usually come up with all the songs in the first few weeks, and the arrangements come pretty fast. Then the rest of the time is just me trying to record all the parts in my home studio.

You collaborated with some very talented people on the album, are there other musicians you’d like to collaborate with in the future?

Peter Milton Walsh of the Apartments would be high on the list. I would love to have Jim O’Rourke or Richard Hawley as a producer. Kevin Junior of The Chamber Strings recently connected when he heard we were covering an Epic Soundtracks song on the new record. Perhaps he would be interested in doing something. Kevin has had some health issues lately. There’s a fund set up to help with his medical bills. There’s a link to it on our Facebook page.

How much did the other musicians help contribute the songs on this album and how much of the material is comprised by you alone?

On the first couple of records I was probably more of a dictator because I felt I had to be protective of the material, but lately I have tried to let go and allow guests more freedom. Things like horn or flute parts I usually still write and ask them to play it the same way, but drummer Jeff Ryan (St. Vincent, War on Drugs) usually has total freedom and I only make minor suggestions to push it in a certain direction. Stuart helps me with that when I can’t speak drummer language. Justin Evans (The Angelus) contributed some great background vocals to this record that made the songs come alive, as did Howard Draper (Okkervill River, Shearwater) who also contributed keys and a really cool lap steel guitar on “Take Flight.”

What was it like working with Stuart compared to other engineers you may have worked with in the past, and what did he bring the album?

Stuart did our “99 Red Balloons” cover and that was very much the sound I wanted for this record , especially on tracks like “Brighter Now” and “Pretty Girls Are Everywhere. I worked with John Congleton on the previous record. John’s more interested in working with darker material and I knew he would be really receptive to some of the darker textures on that record. They are both great to work with. I will likely continue to alternate between them.

Even though you don’t play live very much, do you have a favorite live moment either as a fan or a performer? Least favorite?

My favorite might be the second time we played SXSW when our record was out on Arena Rock. We had been playing more regularly that year and the lineup was somewhat stable. I also enjoy the solo shows, particularly the CMJ show which had a surprisingly cordial audience.

Who are your favorite musicians or groups at the moment?

Gem Club is interesting, Real Estate, Peasant, I like the new GBV record and the latest Aidan Moffat record, Richard Hawley, Charles Bradley.

What are your musical plans in the coming months - more recording or taking some time off now that the album is out?

I have another Sonogram record that’s almost finished, I would like to get it out by the end of the year. I usually alternate between the two projects. As soon as a Crushed Stars record is finished I usually start on a Sonogram and vice-versa. I can’t seem to go more than three months without working on music.

Thanks to Tood for answering questions. You can find out more about Crushed Stars on the band's website. And be sure to reader our other interviews with Horse Feathers, The Thermals, and Portugal. The Man.

A relatively new band, Alaskan transplants Animal Eyes have quickly became one of most popular independent live acts in Portland. Comprised of a varierty of instruments, some not usually found in a standard rock and roll band, members Tyler, Sam, Figley, Have, and Colin will no doubt continue to win over listeners with their blend of psychedelic, folk, jazz, blues grass, and pop. Whatever you genre you care to call their tunes, Animals Eyes is assurdedly Pacific Northwest Rock. We spoke to Tyler about the band in preperation of their secret live recording with us in March.

How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

We've been together almost a year now. Colin (bass player) moved down first, expecting to get an English degree, and then we all came down for different reasons. But all with music in mind.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

World, prog, pop and stuff. Menomena, Grizzle Bear, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Radiohead . . . just for a start.

Tell us your thouhts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live a The Banana Stand?

Live recording are great because it has a swagger and chemistry that's harder to get when tracking an album. And it's really an honest representation of the band actually sounds. Which is kind of scary . . . 

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

One of the fondest memories was when we had a show at our house, and people (TWSM *cough* *cough*) got so rowdy there were shoe-markings and beer bottle holes in the ceiling the next morning. It was pure beauty. Least favorite was this house show we played in SF at the end of our first tour, there weren't really many people there to begin with, and they charged a cover to a house show?!?!? They had all the different bands from the house play first, and we didn't end up playing until 2:00am or so. Even the people in the other bands who lived in the house went to bed . . . hahahahaha . . . it was hilarious. But, we ate at Church's that night, so it balanced it out.

What are your favorite live albums?

Ohhh, that's a hard one . . . Great Big Sea in Newfoundland for New Year's 2000, Nirvana Unplugged, there's a live Fleet Foxes album [Ed. Note: We think it's the BBC Radio 1 session] that's one of our favorites, and Daft Punk Alive 2007.

What other projects are you all involved with?

Haven and Colin are working on this funk-soul side project called $kaching$, and we kinda all have our own more folky side projects.

What are you working on lately?

New song/EP to be, we have a music video in the works for our song "Goat Chasing" (embeded above), and a few live videos of some newer songs coming up. Getting better at our instruments, not forgetting shit at shows. 

Big thanks to Tyler for answering questions. Animal Eyes will preform at The Banana Stand in March as part of our ongoing, secret live recording events.

Find out more about Animal Eyes on Facebook, Bandcamp, and on AnimalEyesBand.com.

We built 50+ acoustic tiles while revising our space. We learned a ton while building them. Learn from our mistakes!

Sources

First, and probably most helpful, these are the resources we consulted most often during the panel build:

• Ethan Winer: Acoustic Treatment and Design for Recording Studios and Listening Rooms - Phenomenal resource. Thorough but easy to digest. Really fantastic.
• How to Build Your Own Acoustic Panels (DIY) - This is the build most similar to what we did.
• RealTraps - Room Measuring Series: Everything you need to measure a room - Making your room sound better. With science.

I strongly, strongly recommend the Ethan Winer resource if you plan a build of this kind.

Hanging Tiles

Though it's odd to start at the end of the process, I couldn't find good resources describing how to hang the tiles once they've been assembled. Here's how we did it.

You Need:

• D-Rings
• S-Hooks
• Picture-Hanging Hooks
• Picture-Hanging Wire
• Ferrules
• Hammer
• Power Drill

How Many?

• For the ceiling, you'll need at least six D-Rings and three S-Hooks per tile. You may feel more comfortable using eight D-Rings and four S-Hooks.
• For the walls, you'll need two D-Rings, two ferrules, and one hanging hook. You will also need between 2.5 and 3 feet of picture hanging wire (more if the frame needs to hang farther down from the wall hook).
• For securing taller wall tiles, you'll need the same materials as for hanging tiles on the wall.

Ceiling Tiles

We were surprised to find ceiling mounting easier than wall hanging. First, hold the tiles up and mark the best hanging points on both the tile and the ceiling. Exposed joists made this easy in our case. Then, apply D-Rings to both the tile and the ceiling at the marked points. Finally, use the S-Hooks to connect D-Ring to D-Ring, pinching the S-Hook closed with pliers added stability (though be sure to leave a bit of space so that tiles can be repositioned easily).

Hanging tiles on the ceiling was more costly than we expected. If you do it the way that we did, you'll spend as much as $5 on hanging hardware for each ceiling tile. We judged that additional expense as preferable to installing dozens of eye-hooks by hand. YMMV.

Wall Tiles

Wall hanging was a little more difficult, but only because we were stupid (and hungover) (and by "we" I mean "I"). The best way to do it is shown in this image. To hang a panel vertically, attach two D-Rings in line with each other to the longer sides of the frame near the "top" of the frame. Cut a section of wire around three feet long. Thread a ferrule onto the wire. Then, loop the wire back around and through the ferrule, forming a loop in the wire around the D-Ring. Hammering the ferrule fixes it in place on the wire, binding the loop in place. Repeat this process with the other D-Ring and you're ready to hang your panel.

We ended up using fairly long wires for our wall tiles because they're basically hung from the ceiling, not our cinder-block basement walls.

Final note on hanging: of all the materials we purchased, we had the most trouble locating enough D-Rings for the build. Be sure to check online or call ahead to make sure that the hardware store you visit has enough for you needs. If D-Rings have to be ordered, the delivery time will be around one week of business days (according to some guy in a home depot vest).

If you have suggestions to improve these hanging processes, please comment!

Roxul AFBs > OC 703

Owens Corning 703 or 705 is the insulation most traditionally used in panel builds. We didn't want to use fiberglass, though, and were looking for something cheaper. The product we used is called Roxul AFB. It's tougher to work with because it's less rigid than OC stuff. Due to this, we used far more spray glue than expected.

The AFBs seem to have worked out great, though. Panels made at the end of our build, when we'd had a bit of practice, seem to have turned out especially good. As hoped, the AFBs were also a lot cheaper than the OC 703. We picked up five 12-packs of AFBs from Paragon Pacific Insulation for a total of about $240.00. That same amount of OC 703 would have run us up to $700.

Our experience with AFBs has been quite good so far. Please add a comment if you have any questions about them.

Panel Dimensions and Material Needs

You can find these in the resource links above (for the most part), but people have asked for these so I'm adding them here. First, a few notes:

• Though a couple sources called for 2" Furring Strips, we ended up using 3" strips instead. Using the 2" strips left some of the insulative panel extending beyond the frame, and we wanted full coverage because of the AFBs' fragility. Plus, the 3" strips are slightly nicer wood, and therefore easier to work with. They're a bit more expensive, though: $1.61 for an 8'-long 3" furring strip compared to $.97 for a comparable 2" furring strip. (Prices from mid-December 2011.)
• If possible, purchase the furring strips in full bundles of 12 or 16. On average, those in bundles will be higher quality than those loose, which have already been picked-over by dozens of people before you.
• Furring strip dimensions may not be what you expect. 1" x 2" x 8' furring strips are actually around 1.5 inches wide and .75 inches thick. 1" x 3" x 8' strips are about 2.5 inches wide and .75 inches thick. Make sure you account for this in your plans.
• The cheapest fabric you we found was unbleached muslin. We used James Thompson Travelers Muslin, "Natural" color, which came in a 38" width. Fabric Depot (here in Portland) offers a 40% discount if you purchase a full bolt of fabric. We grabbed a full 50-yard bolt for $104.70 and used all of it.

Now, the dimensions:

For 2' x 4' Tiles

• 8x Wood Screws
• 2x 49.5" Furring Strip
• 2x 24" Furring Strip
• 60" (Approx) of Fabric
• Each 2' by 4' tile uses 2 8' Furring Strips

For 2' x 6' Tiles

• 12x Wood Screws
• 2x 74.25" Furring Strip
• 3x 24" Furring Strip
• 90" (Approx) of Fabric
• Each 2' by 6' tile uses 3 8' Furring Strips

The taller 2' by 6' tiles use one full and one half AFB tile, with a cross-beam in between the two.

In addition to these designs, we also built double-thickness 2' x 4' tiles (for mobile baffles), double-thickness 2' by 6' tiles (for corner bass traps), and single-thickness 2' by 2' panels (to use up extra tiles). Double-thickness baffles use the same length dimensions as single-thickness, but substitute 1" x 4" x 8' boards for the furring strips. For double-thickness baffles we also used 3 screws for each joint (as opposed to 2 screws for the single-thickness).

Please note: this is not a full materials list. Please see this build for a more thorough inventory.

Quick Tips

• Our build took way longer than we expected. If you plan to do something similar, budget lots of extra time to be on the safe side.
• Quality tools helped us a ton. If you're going to cut your own lumber, borrow a good saw from someone (thanks Eric!). A good power drill is also critical. Having more than one around can be a big help (thanks Vanessa!).
• Google SketchUp was really helpful. Depending on the size/geometry of your room, it could be pretty easy to create a model of it in SketchUp. Visualizing the space will help a ton during planning.
• Room Measurement is baffling, but really cool. We picked up a cheap omnidirectional microphone so that we could analyze our space using Room EQ Wizard. We haven't tested the space since we installed our panels but will follow-up with those results.
• Spray glue is strong stuff. Use gloves, and make sure your space is well ventilated. Your hands and brain will thank you.
• Consider all costs. We used, I think, ten cans of spray glue, no bullshit. That's $100+ that you may not think to budget for. Hanging hardware was also far more expensive than expected -- up to $5 for each ceiling tile.
• Other upgrades can make a space a lot more comfortable. In our case, we cleaned the hell out of our basement space, added a lot of lighting, created a seating area for hanging out, and added a dehumidifier to dry things out.

Nice "Short" Post, Lou.

Ok, a more thorough post than intended. Hope it ends up being helpful to you, though!

We learned a ton from our build, and got a lot better at assembling the tiles as we went. If you have any questions about building panels or treating your room, please get in touch. Add a comment or Contact Us.

Thanks Aaron Colter, Austin Dickson, Shawn Pike, Chris Vita, Brian David Smith, and Aly Hoffman for their help/guidance during the redesign!

Thanks Jennifer Sowell for the photos of our new space!

I had originally thought about doing a Top 25 regardless of style, but since we're sticking with this Top 10 thing, and because Kyle already did a really great run down of the 50 Best on his sick blog, I thought I'd narrow down my favorite music of the year to a single category that I believe was especially excellent this year.

Hip-hop has gone through a great many changes over the years, and the democratization of music with online platforms seems to be embraced by rap artists more than any other genre of musician.  And in that manner, a good number of albums on this list are avaible as a free download. I'm by no means and expert, but I hopefully you'll enjoy the recommendations.

We'll go from:

To:

And finally reach:

Ready? Set. Go!

10. Immortal Technique - The Martyr

Inspired by the Occupy movement, Immortal Technique released the powerful, free download The Martyr, encouraging everyone to share the release and to rise up against the powers that be; aka Old White Men, who, let's face it, ruin everything. Click here to download the .zip file before the new authority under NDAA and SOPA get you labeled a domestic terrorist. 

9. Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire - Lost In Translation

Here's another free download and it's from Mishka, who we wish we were more like. But we're not, because we're not awesome Jews. They're Jewish, right? New York City? Whatever. This is some dirty shit. You'll love it, hipsters. Get it for free.

8. Pusha-T - Fear of God

One half of Clipse, Pusha-T teamed-up with Odd Future's Tyler, The Creator for one of the best single's of the year, and released this great mixtape that's about being rich as hell and not giving a single fuck. Of course all of us can relate. It's also free and available from DatPiff.com after having to click on a bunch of bullshit.

7. ASAP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP

I know a lot of people were creaming their jeans over this release like it was Whiz Kalifia's Kush & OJ all over again, but I consider the album to be unoriginal in many ways. Still, it's the craftmanship in which the songs are so wondefully stolen that makes the mixtape so solid. Grab it up for free.

6. G-Side - Island and The ONE . . . COHESIVE

G-Side probably should have been my radar sooner, but it was their Daytrotter session that first introduced me to the group. Both of their studio albums released this year are worth paying for due to their supreme quality production. And if you want to be a cheap bastard, you can stream them for free. The fact that a group this great is at number six on this list should tell you how phenomenal of a year it's been for rap music.

5. Jean Grae - Cookies or Coma

Jean Grae is smarter than you are, and she can probably beat you up. Even Talib Kweli is a fan. Download her mixtape now and start crushing super hard. Just don't start crying once you get your heart broken and ass kicked. Moar Jean Graw, plzkthx.

4. B - Jesus

B aka Blu should be as big as MF Doom, who should be as big as Kayne West. Such is the music business. So it goes. Jesus is an instant classic that is addictive as it relaxing. You can't get this one for free, at least not legally, but it's definitely worth buying. Click here to get a free track from the album.

3. Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All - Goblin, BlackendWhite, Under The Influence, and Purple Naked Ladies

It's been OFWGKTA's year, thanks to Tyler, The Creator's "Yonkers" success and his stellar full-length Goblin, an album that's equally as bold as it is adolecent. Domo Genesis' Under The Influece is my favorite of the collective, even though it takes the least risks. It's also free to download, so maybe I'm biased. BlackenedWhite by Mellowhype (Hodgy Beats and Left Brain) used to be free, until the group got big and took it off their Tumblr, and features the killer track "F666 The Police," but is also hit or miss overall. Syd aka The Internet released her Purple Naked Ladies album late in the year, which may have caused it be overlooked, coupled with its relatively low-key feeling, but it's great. Together, the group is fucking-up in the best of ways and making the kids go wild. Who would have thought that that hip-hop would be the most punk-rock thing of 2011? Most people under 30, apparently.

2. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

Shabazz Places is so incredible and ahead of their time that I don't even know where to start. There's a reason the group is the first hip-hop act ever signed to SubPop. Way to jump on the bandwagon, guys. At least you picked a good front-runner. I can't wait to see where the duo goes next, and seeing them open for Blackstar this year in Portland was a dream come true, as was seeing Madlib last year.

1. Danny Brown - XXX

Detriot's Danny Brown was already a top-notch rapper with a catalog of great albums before he released XXX this year. Now he's on a different fucking planet than the rest of us. XXX is complicated, not always easy to digest, and the last album since RZA's Bobby Digital in Stereo that has made me readjust my eardrums to comprehend what's happening. The best art is often challenging; that's about the highest recommendation I can give. Oh and it's free, FTW.

BONUS ROUND!

Cool Nutz - The Cook Up

Seeing as how we're based out of Portland and everything, I'd be remiss to not mention this great album, and like most of the others, it too is available for a free download. Songs like "Gas Team," "Kangol," and "Tax Brackets" are more than enough reason to put this album on any top list anywhere for best hip-hop of the year. Cool Nutz is a top MC in this city, and The Cook Up features another - Immaculate. While Immaculate released a pair of excellent free albums this year, The Skrill Walton EP and The Green Tape tribute to Al Green, The Cook Up shows an attention to production at the highest level, edging it out to be the best of 2011. If you haven't been proud of Portland hip-hop before, it's time to start.

Thanks for reading. The Banana Stand hasn't recorded much live hip-hop, but we hope to in the future. Check out "Right To Be Free" by Hungry Mob featuring Mic Crenshaw for the best we've ever released. Photo above of OFWGKTA in Portland, Oregon at the Roseland Theater by Aaron Colter.

Did you ever wonder where Tiger House got it's moniker? Where they're headed after the show? Or which band they'd most like to fight? (Here's a hint, it's not INXS). We sat down with the boys of Ti Ho to answer these questions and more. We also talk about music or whatever.

Originally recorded October, 2011

We're very proud to release the final live album of the year, recorded earlier this year on April 30th: Towering Trees - Live from The Banana Stand. The band played a great set, and we were able to get some good photos of the band as well. We caught up with lead singer William Carpenter over email in advance of putting out the album to see what the band has been up to since their first interview.

It's been about six months since this album was recorded. What's been happening with Towering Trees since?

We've been writing more new songs and recorded a new EP at Badlands. It has yet to be titled, has six songs, and should be finished before the end of the year. Some of the songs appear on the Banana Stand recording, some of which are even newer.

What other projects have you been working on?

I have been working on a solo tape tentatively titled "Supply," which is a collection of covers recorded with one-mic to a tape recorder. That is in the mixing process right now and should be released some time in November. It will be free and limited to 50 copies.

Tom's band The Protons has been recording some tracks as well, and playing some shows. Their songs can be found here, and they are thouroughly awesome.

What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last few months? In music beyond Portland?

There is always such amazing music happening here right now. Lately we've been to and played shows with Padraic Finbar Hagerty-Hammond, who plays the most incredible songs. Lynnae Gryffin just released a stellar record called "Abigail", you can find lots of information here. We haven't yet been able to get a show together with Your Rival, but I'm looking forward to it. Their new EP is really well-written and way fun.

What have you been listening to lately?

Lately, lots of Death, The Germs, Crass, Misfits and Stiff Little Fingers. On the less aggressive tip: Roky Erickson, Neil Young, The Replacements, The Housemartins, and Of Montreal.

Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

We're looking at some shows this winter after we finish the EP and we can get it out there for people, nothing solid enough yet for details. Hopefully another chance to record at The Banana Stand?

Thanks to WIlliam for taking the time to answer our questions, and to answer his question - Yes. Be sure to check out Towering Trees - Live from The Banana Stand on December 6th.

The release marks the last of our live albums out this year, but we've got plenty in store for 2012, including full-length releases from The Polyps, Talkative, The Angry Orts, Sons of Huns, Tango Alpha Tango, The Golden Hours, No Kind of Rider, Forest Park, Vanimal, Jack Ruby Presents, and many more! We're also starting to distribute some secret meme-cards around town. You'll know 'em if you see 'em, and on the back is a special link to a download with teaser tracks not yet made public. Lucky you. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful winter!

On November 8th we will release A Million Years Ago - Live from the Banana Stand, our first live album documenting a band from Seattle. A preview is available right now, so go check it out, and make sure you come back on Tuesday to check out the full album.

To get you ready for the release, we caught up with A Million Years Ago's Seth Syberg via email.

Banana Stand: It's been almost a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with A Million Years Ago since?

Seth Syberg: Unfortunately, we've broken up since this recording... but don't worry we are all still close friends.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

SS: Seth and Jordan started a new folk band called Seeds and have recorded a few songs. Seth moved to NYC and is reuniting with his long lost bandmate to reform The Casual Lust. Chris became the drummer of the Seattle hardcore band Titpig and also pursues his own songwriting in two side projects named Sharkie and Inchworm.

BS: What has been your favorite thing in Seattle music in the last year? In music beyond Seattle?

SS: Hate to toot my own horn, but Seeds is really sounding amazing. Jordan's song writing continues to be among my favorite Seattle music.

BS: What have you been listening to lately?

SS: Lots of Pop and Hip Hop.

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

SS: Titpig is going on tour at the end of the month and hopefully Seeds will get their first show together before the end of the year.

Big thanks to Seth for participating in our interview. Don't miss our full-length live release with A Million Years Ago, which comes out Tuesday, November 8th.

I was going to wait to start this run of Top 10 lists, but seeing as how today might be the last dry day we see here in Portland until, I dunno, fucking June probably, I figured I'd jump the gun a bit and introduce the Top 10 Bands to Listen To on a Crisp Fall Day.

We had started a Top 10 list over on the Facebook page once, but then moved to a more informal system where people could scribble down their picks on our dry-erase board in the kitchen. Democracy! People can add, remove, change, or call into question any of the songs on the list, should they choose. It should also be noted that some of the choices on these upcoming lists may have been influenced by drugs and/or alcohol, but always in a controlled environement and in the most repsonsible manner humanly possible. We swear. 

1) The Kinks - 

I don't think we really need to defend this choice. The Kinks are the perfect fall band. A little meloncholy, but not too depressing. Upbeat, but not in a way that says, "Let's go to the beach." Maybe it's all the Wes Anderson films, but The Kinks should be playing whenever the leaves are changing, no matter if you're in the mountains of Colorado or the streets of New York City.

2) David Bowie -

It's inevitable that David Bowie will be on many of these lists because, let's face it, he's the coolest motherfucker around, and maybe knows magic. You can't tell me that eye of his doesn't look straight into the far away future. Anyway, superpowers aside, only some Bowie can be listened to in the fall, but thankfully there's a plethera of material to draw from, and I think "Oh You Pretty Things" is the perfect theme song for our American Fall. Occupy, brothers and sisters. 

3) Paul Simon -

I imagine Paul Simon is what you listen to on the last road trip home for the winter. Plus, is there really any a bad time to listen to Graceland? No, there isn't. What a ridiculous question.

4) Sun Kil Moon -

Formed by Mark Kozelek after Red House Paintes went the way of the dinosaur, Sun Kil Moon is Kozelek's typical singer-songwriter style of music. The group has only released a few albums, and in my humble opion, the band's debut album "Ghosts of Great Highway" is the best work, weaving in tales of boxers who died at the age of 23. The band followed up with a strange Modest Mouse cover album before finally just becoming a one man show of Kozelek again. The man is a sad bastard, but he does play some beautiful fall day tunes.

5) John Coltrane -

Unlike Mile Davis's modal jazz period that can be listened to on any occasion, John Coltrane's brand of softer jazz following the end of the bebop era is somehow heavier than the trumpeter's songs (even though they played together on several albums). Perhaps its the saxaphone itself that creates a deeper tune, not quite to the dark edges of Charles Mingus, but still blue.

6) Feist - 

Everyone loves Feist, even your parents. It's okay. The Canadian songstress deserves our love, even though Broken Social Scene got a little lost when she and Emily Haines left.

7) The Wu Tang Clan -

There was some push-back on this choice, but I've always felt like The Wu Tang Clan were a more contemplative group than their contemporaries, much like Outkast. Perfect headphone jams while you wait out in the cold for your bus.

8) Elliot Smith -

Come on. You knew this would be on here. Aren't you suprised it wasn't up higher on the list? Us too. Oh well. 

9) The Cure -

Also a no-brainer. The Cure created one of the best albums of ever with Disintegration, and later became yet another cautionary tale of what happens when great bands get old and keep dredging up the same old shit. But past all that, I think people forgot that very early material from The Cure was pretty fucking rocking and not so much goth. Damn kids these days.

10) Ben Folds Five - 

I don't know if we're all just a bit emotionally scared after hearing "Brick" on the radio every goddamn day during our formative years, but I think Ben Folds Five will always be sad despite Ben Folds being a fairly humorous guy. While Folds' solo work is excellent at times, there's really nothing as great at the original trio, who provided some much needed flare and jazz background to the piano-pop.

Well, that's the list everyone! Hope you enjoyed the round-up of videos too. It took for-fucking-ever to find some decent ones. Just so you know. I love you. Now it's your turn. Agree with the list? Have your own Top 10? Let us know by commenting here. Thanks for reading!

-A

Back in March, we recorded Bombs Into You before a live audience. This week, (tomorrow, in fact!) we release the result of this show: Bombs Into You - Live from the Banana Stand. To prep you for the release, we caught up with Bombs Into You's frontman Jared Jensen via email.

Banana Stand: It's been more than six months since this album was recorded. What's been happening with Bombs Into You since?

Jared Jensen: We just finished tracking our new record, which should be ready to release in the late fall. It's been a long time coming with this one. We planned to have it a lot sooner, but the whole process has taken on a much different tone from we've anything we've done before. All of us have gone through some personal stuff, so the songs just got angrier, grittier, and less poppy. Anyone that saw us play last winter hopefully knows what I'm talking about. We ditched how everything worked before and got a little more punk rock. Writing has been a lot more collaborative, and we've tried to give the songs time to grow and manifest differently. After the Banana Stand performance we analyzed each song and tried to figure out what we felt wasn't working, so the versions that people will hear on the Banana Stand recording may be quite different from what's going on the record. We're headed into the studio to mix soon. I think it'll be our best work to date.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

JJ: Kevin has been working on his solo project Donkey The Lion, which people can check out on Facebook. It's a lot different from BIY, but really good stuff. He plans to release his debut record early next year. I've been DJing a lot and working on an elusive electronic side project that bounces around in my head a whole bunch, and Gage has been busy crafting videos and taking over the internet with White of Eye.

BS: What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

JJ: Hard to judge, there's so much going on in Portland. Reporter is definitely one of our favorite acts to catch. We're also really excited about the upcoming Nurses, and Blitzen Trapper records. As far as beyond Portland... I absolutely love the new Does it Offend You Yeah record. I'm also really into some of the bass music scene that's been exploding: Skrillex, Bassnectar, Glitch Mob. Some of that stuff is so fucking creative and reminds me a lot of Aphex Twin.

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

JJ: We'll be announcing plans for our record release very soon, and booking more shows in the coming weeks. Watch bombsintoyou.com for details!

Big thanks to Jared for participating in our interview. For more from Bombs Into You, check them out at bombsintoyou.com and on Bandcamp, Facebook and MySpace, and don't miss our full-length live release with them, which comes out Tuesday, October 18th.

On October 4th we will release Slutty Hearts - Live from the Banana Stand, the second live album from last year's insane Halloween event. A preview is available right now, so go check it out, and make sure you come back on Tuesday to check out the full album.

To get you ready for the release, we caught up with Slutty Hearts drummer Marisa Laurelle via email.

Banana Stand: It's been nearly a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with Slutty Hearts since?

Marisa Laurelle: Cathleen had just joined us when we played at The Banana Stand, and since then we've been learning how to be a 3-piece band. We've found that while it was fun to split up the drum kit, it sure makes us sound more together if we don't. So now I (Marisa) play a full (real!) drum-kit, and I gave up the foot pedal to Marty to stamp on. We have grown up a lot in the past year, I feel like. We have more complex arrangements, and have been playing more rockers than sleepers. We've been more able to express the music we want to play with a third person for keys and bass-lines. We have been really working on nailing down what exactly it is we want to sound like, and messing around with 50's do-wop mixed in with swampy-dance rock.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

ML: We have been recording our full-length album. We had one recorded this time last year- but with all the changes we were going through (Marty got his period), we decided to re-record a few oldies, and record some fresh Slutty Hearts tracks, too. The upcoming album will be super fun, and we're very excited about it. We also are set to release a tape with Cassingle and Loving It Records (Portland tape label!) sometime in winter.

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

ML: October 24th at Slims in St Johns, with our friends Wizard Boots, and at The Knife Shop on November 3rd. We are planning on going on tour in the spring, if we can suck enough dicks to raise money. Keep a lookout for our tape-label release, as well as our album, "We Learned it by Watching You."

Big thanks to Marisa for participating in our interview. For more from Slutty Hearts, check them out on Facebook and MySpace, and don't miss our full-length live release with them, which comes out Tuesday, October 4th.

The Angry Orts -- from our first listen to their self-titled full-length, we knew we wanted to record this band. Our hopes will be realized later this month, when they will record in secret here at the 'Stand.

To help you get to know The Angry Orts, we interviewed frontwoman Sara Hernandez via email.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Sara Hernandez: In its current form, the band has only been together for about 3 months. Our former bass player (with whom we’d played for the last 3 years) went his own way in the spring, so it was great that Dusty could jump right in. Matthew, Aaron and Sara have been playing together in the band since 2007.

Aaron and Sara met 8 years ago and played with a myriad of musicians before they met Matthew via an ad they’d placed for a drummer. When James (our former bass player) returned from Ithaca, New York, we all started playing together. We recorded two albums together (one put out in 2008 and one put out in 2010) before parting ways.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

SH: I think our sound is best described as garage-pop. It definitely has some pop-y accents to it, but I feel like there’s also a grit that most pop bands don’t incorporate. Key influences include the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gossip, Jack White, Sleater-Kinney and a ton of other bands that we’re into at any given moment. Our influences are pretty fluid and we like to incorporate bits and pieces of them into our repertoire without just mimicking the original. We like to put twists on our influences and create something new but familiar.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

SH: I think recording live sounds like a great challenge. I feel like it has the same vibe as going into the studio – you have to practice even harder than you usually do to make sure that everything’s tight and cohesive and perfect. Plus, there’s just an energy in live shows that is really difficult to capture when you’re sitting in a room with your other band mates listening to the same line over and over again to make sure that every beat is in place. The audience really brings something to a live performance that you can’t get in the studio.

We’ve had friends in multiple bands play at the ‘Stand and all of the recordings we’ve heard sound tight and well mixed, so we were really interested to get in. Add that to the fact that it’s a show in front of people who really love the band and want to interact and it makes the deal even sweeter.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

SH: Aaron, Matthew and Sara all went to see Sharon Jones when she came to the Doug Fir a few years ago and that show was absolutely amazing. She’s so powerful and energetic onstage and her band is so tight and they flow so well with her. Aaron’s also seen the Budos Band a few times and has said their show is pretty awesome as well. Some of Sara’s favorite shows are house shows or local band shows she’s been to: World’s Greatest Ghosts, Jared Mees and the Grown Children CD release at the Doug Fir, Sleater-Kinney’s final show at the Crystal Ballroom. Matthew and Sara both saw the Arcade Fire when they came through the Arlene Schnitzer for the Neon Bible tour, which was incredible.

As for shows that haven’t been so impressive, mostly it’s bands that just don’t seem to give a fuck about their stage show. Arctic Monkeys and the Wallflowers (yes, Sara actually paid to see them) both played super lazy, uninvolved sets and hardly even looked at the audience. Why the fuck do bands think people want to pay fifteen or thirty dollars (or more) when all they’re going to get is a limp-dicked performance (can you tell this annoys us)? I’d rather just stay at home, drink a thirty dollar bottle of wine and listen to the record.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

SH: I know it’s totally cliché, but I think Nirvana’s Unplugged album and Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison album are some of the best live albums out there. Matthew and I (Sara) also really like Radiohead’s I Might Be Wrong album (Aaron can’t stand Radiohead).

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

SH: Currently, Aaron is the only other band member involved with a separate project. He plays in a band called The Honeycuts that blends soul, funk and hip-hop. I’d like to do a solo side project, but right now I’m super busy with a bunch of other stuff (launching a booking and management agency with my friend Tim, fixing up the house Matthew and I bought a couple of years ago, working on writing for the Orts) so I’m not sure when I’m going to get around to it. We buy really cool little instruments for birthdays and Christmases (toy piano, glockenspiel, melodica, ukele, baby accordion) and I’d really like to incorporate all of those. We’ve also got an old organ and a piano that’s badly in need of tuning that I’d like to use. Now I just feel lazy, thinking of all the cool things I could be doing, but I’m not.

BS: What are you working on lately?

SH: We’re just about to take a few months off (November through January or February) to focus on writing. We’re hoping to get back into the studio come late spring or early summer, so we’ve got some work ahead of us. I think that we’re really hitting our stride when it comes to writing – we’re all finally happy with what we’re producing and our influences increase every day, creating a bigger pool of ideas to pull from and a better idea of where we want to go (and not go) with our music. Hopefully we’ll have a new album out at the end of next summer/early fall.

Thanks a ton to Sara for participating in our interview. The Angry Orts is Sara, Matthew Hernandez, Aaron Ettlin and Dusty Brooks. They're recording live at the 'Stand, in secret, later this month.

For more from The Angry Orts, check them out at TheAngryOrts.com, and on BandCamp and Facebook.

If we didn't manage to get Tango Alpha Tango in to the 'Stand to record, I'm pretty sure Tiger House's Bill Scharmann would have stopped being friends with us. After seeing Tango Alpha Tango a few months back at White Eagle, I couldn't help but agree with Bill's assessment of Tango Alpha Tango as one of the best live bands in Portland, and knew that they had to be documented live. Well, we're proud to announce that they will be, in secret, sometime this month. We hope you can be out to see them record live at that secret date and time.

For a little more on Tango Alpha Tango, we interviewed frontman Nathan Trueb about the band and their thoughts on recording live.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Nathan Trueb: The band has been together in its current form for about 3 years.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

NT: Our influences are all over the map with everyone in the band, from jazz to rock n' roll and everything in between. We have lots of bands and musicians that we've all listened to for years, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin, but I find in the writing of the songs they come more from my experiences, and sometimes others' experiences around me.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

NT: We all love to record live. Recently, we've started recording two new albums and both of those records are being recorded live, no click, and just a few takes. It changes everything. You have to put everything into the performance. You're as good as you sound. Everything you've learned, every show you've played, it all comes out in those few takes. When you don't record live there's a certain temptation to make it MORE perfect, which arguably may get further away from perfection. A large majority of music being put out today is "perfect" by industry standards, and incidentally has lost all of its humanity.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

NT: My favorite memories of live shows are too many to count. There was a basement show in Corvallis where absolute mayhem occurred... in a good way. Kids were singing, partying, the line between the "stage" and the crowd was blurry, in more ways than one, which made it an absolute blast. It's the moments where the unexpected happens. It could be a technical malfunction that turns the song, or whole show into something else. I broke a guitar once on stage, accidentally; the electronics were dangling out of the body, and by grabbing certain wires a magical noise happened, I played the instrument in a way it was not intended to be played, but it was musical nonetheless.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

NT: My favorite live album would have to be The Song Remains the Same, by Led Zeppelin. I learned a lot from their ability to travel over a jam, make parts memorable, like planned chaos. Also, Bob Dylan, live at the Gaslight. Almost performance art; funny at times, and heartbreaking as well. I've always loved those contrasts that are present in great art.

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

NT: I don't know that I'm involved in any other projects. I record for people when they hire me. I often go to the Dookie Jam in Portland, which is an R&B/Gospel/hip-hop jam in town. Other than that I just write, practice, and play.

BS: What are you working on lately?

NT: I mentioned earlier that we are recording two albums in the studio right now. If you want to get involved we've got a Kickstarter going up soon, so keep your eyes posted for that.

Thanks a ton to Nathan for participating in our interview. Tango Alpha Tango is Nathan, Aaron Trueb, Mirabai Trueb and Walker Beckman. They're recording live at the 'Stand, in secret, later this month.

For more from Tango Alpha Tango, please support their Kickstarter and check them out on BandCamp, Facebook and MySpace.

Tomorrow (September 20th) (!), The Empty - Live from the Banana Stand will be released for the first time in its entirety. Recorded at last year's 'Stand NYE bash, it's a terrific live album that we think you're going to dig a lot. Check it out here!

To get you ready for the release, The Empty's Jake Schmitt (also a Banana Stander) caught us up via email on what's new with the band.

Banana Stand: It's been nearly a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with The Empty since?

Jake Schmitt: We had literally just finished writing that group of songs in the days before the show, and even if we had wanted to play one or two more songs that night, we couldn't have. That was our first time playing as a three-piece and with the drum machine and samples, so we spent a good amount of time after the show just getting familiar with our setup and writing several more songs to fill out a set. Now that we've done that and gotten a few more shows under our belts, we're transitioning to producer mode and demoing out our songs for a full length to be released this fall.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

JS: Jake and Bobby play in The Greater Midwest with fellow Banana Stander Shawn Pike. Their album Consumer Confidence is mastered and getting ready to go to print, so keep an eye out for that in the coming months. Jake is putting the final mix on an album of weird instrumental electro/hip hop-type beats under the name Treehugger that should be available to download for free sometime in September, and Bob just started up a mysterious Glass Candy-inspired euro disco project with a lady friend of his. Deets forthcoming…

BS: What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

JS: We love the way that people collaborate on projects here locally. There's this massive pool of talent, musicians and engineers alike, and everyone seems to have this innate drive to create and the knowledge and gear to make it happen. And if they don't, the band rehearsing down the street does, or knows someone who does. Also, the haterdom is so minimal here, you just get the sense that everyone is pulling for everyone else, and it inspires the hell out of us to contribute something of value, to put something worthwhile back into the community that fostered us.

Outside of Portland, it's just been really good watching bands and labels making it a priority to get their music in front of as many people as possible, whether it's streaming on Soundcloud or Bandcamp, posting full YouTube streams of albums (our current favorite is this trippy Shabazz Palaces 'Black Up' stream from SubPop), or using the name your own price model that forward thinking organizations like the 'Stand recognized long ago. And, with bands being so accessible on Facebook and Twitter, it just seems like the connection between bands and listeners has never been more closely knit. It's a real motivation for bands out there right now, like they're accountable to something more genuine than their distributor or label middle men.

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

JS: We're recording and producing our full length album on our own, so we'll most likely drop off the radar for a few months, but we're really excited about what we have so far. This album has been a long time coming, and we finally have the time (and setup) to do what we've had in mind for the past few years. It's going to be the most elaborate thing we've ever done. So expect a serious party when it's finished.

Big thanks to Jake for participating in our interview. For more from The Empty, check them out on Facebook and MySpace, and don't miss our full-length live release with them, which comes out Tuesday, September 20th.

Ether Circus - Live from the Banana Stand will be released in full, with all of its manic glory, on Tuesday, September 13th. To get you ready for the release, we caught up with Ether Circus frontman Jake Carpenter via email. Here's what's new with Ether Circus. -L

Banana Stand: It's been over a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with Ether Circus since?

Jake Carpenter: We have been hard at work on some new songs, playing shows here and there and partying really hard.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

JC: Aside from eagerly awaiting the debut of our Banana Stand album, I (Jake) have been working on a side project called Dirty Kid Discount. We are also working on getting some of our older studio material released.

BS: What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

JC: The Taxpayers have really worn a soft spot in my stony heart, and they are from here in Portland. But I have to admit that Larry and His Flask is probably the most exciting thing happening from Oregon. Those guys are amazing.

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

JC: We are playing a 21+ show August 19 at the Agenda in SE with B-Lines and Feral Pigs, and an all ages show on Oct. 7 at The Crypt in SE Portland with CBK, Yo Adrian, Mormon Trannies and Ramblin Rod's Bastard Children. Both should be a good time!

Thanks to Ether Circus's Jake Carpenter for his interview responses. Be sure to come back tomorrow for their full-length album release!

Find more from Ether Circus on Facebook, MySpace and in our previous interview with them.

On Tuesday, September 6th The Big Ideas - Live from the Banana Stand will be released in full. A preview is available here. In advance of the release, we caught up with Matt, Louie, Gabe and Kari via email. Here's what's new with The Big Ideas. -L

Banana Stand: It's been over a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with The Big Ideas since?

Louie: The Big Ideas have been dormant--much like Gandalf the Grey before he becomes Gandalf the White.

Matt: It's been a busy year for everybody in the Big Ideas, but not necessarily in a musical way. In March, Kari and Louie and I moved out of the house that had been the band's home for two and a half years. Nathan got engaged recently. Louie spent the summer back in Minnesota. And I moved to Seattle in August. But we also played a bunch of shows during the year, wrote and learned some new songs, and got a new website. So, we've been on hiatus since Louie left town in April, but we're in the process of adding a drummer, and we're really looking forward to playing more frequently again this year.

Banana Stand: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

Louie: Personally, I've been writing/researching my thesis for my MFA in Creative Writing at PSU, writing the occasional song, and trying to get on the next "The Bachelorette."

Matt: I've been playing baseball again this summer, which is probably the closest thing I've had to a project since this summer has been so busy. I also just finished writing my third song about a former baseball player, and I've been watching a lot of baseball, if that counts as a project.

Kari: Apparently I'm an actual violinist now, as I played for a couple weddings this summer. Mostly, though, I've been working on taking the MCAT and applying to med schools. I also plan to watch Louie be a contestant on the next "The Bachelorette."

Gabe: I have been working on building, planting and maintaining Kari's and my garden, as well as improving my guitar playing skills. I joined Kari in playing in two weddings this summer, which was a real treat!

Banana Stand: What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

Louie: I haven't been in Portland since April, but I really love what Typhoon has been up to; their new EP (A New Kind of House) is really tremendous, and I love how they've managed to tie in the new release with their previous album without it getting stale or trite. As far as music in general, I'm mostly getting amped for Weezy F. Baby's August release date. Lil Tunechi's back, baby!

Matt: I really have loved Typhoon as well. I haven't liked a song as much as I like "The Sickness Unto Death" in a long time. And in terms of music outside of Portland, I have to say that the new Bon Iver album is stupidly good. I haven't really listened to anything else in months. It's really having its way with me.

Gabe: I was recently gifted a record player from Matt and so have been listening to a lot of vinyls (or, rather, a few vinyls over and over), including Bon Iver's Bon Iver, Buddy Guy's Skin Deep, a collection called Greatest 64 Motown Original Hits and the Pointer Sisters' Break Out.

Kari: I have to admit to being pretty out of the Portland music loop lately, but I'm excited to catch some shows at Music Fest NW.

Banana Stand: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

Matt: We're finalizing a couple of September shows, and we'll be playing throughout the fall and winter both in Seattle and Portland. We also have a live album coming out on September 6...

Thanks to Matt, Kari, Gabe and Louie from The Big Ideas for participating in our interview. Be sure to check back next week for their full-length live release!

Find more from The Big Ideas at bigideasband.com and on Facebook and MySpace.

Next Tuesday (August 23rd), the Banana Stand will release The Hague - Live from the Banana Stand for the first time in its entirety. It's an amazing live album, and we feel lucky to have recorded it. Having persevered through illness- and injury-related setbacks, the band recently completed a giant tour under their new Stark House EP and seem primed to blow up in Portland. The Hague is ridiculously talented, widely appealing, and, if they keep working as hard as they're working, are going to be huge. We're glad we could record them before the coming explosion.

Make sure you come back to bananastandmedia.com next Tuesday to download the full length live release. A preview track, "LA," is available in the meantime. In the meantime, catch up with The Hague through this interview with drummer Jesse Tranfo, who answered our interview questions via email.

Banana Stand: It's been nearly a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with The Hague since?

Jesse Tranfo: We've recorded another album The Stark House EP with the wizard Adam Pike, we just finished a 4000 mile west coast tour, had a name change, and have written a handful of new songs.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

JT: Jesse has been playing in the indie folk group Fair Weather Watchers, Charlie is playing in the punk/thrash band -The Prick and the Burn, and as a whole we have been getting new gear and writing more. Travis plays with so many people its hard to keep track, he teaches, plays farmers markets, churches, and everything in between. It makes the rest of us look lazy, haha.

BS: What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

JT: In Portland-we really like Octopus Entertainment, I think they are much needed for the scene here, and I think that its becoming closer without being clique-y. There are a lot of musicians that are in multiple good successful bands. Like Jon Lewis who plays in Housefire, Aan, and fills in with Hosannas.

Beyond Portland-I see a lot of bands doing things more DIY with little to no outside help, releasing vinyl, touring their asses off, and getting radio play on the smaller stations. Its encouraging for us, as everything we do right now is DIY. Its a lot of work to book and promote and tour, get the money together to record an album and release it, and then to try and get people to pay attention to it. Its really rewarding through when good things start happening.

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

JT: We play Dantes with God is an Astronaut 8/17 and Ash St with some cool touring bands 8/27.

Big thanks to Jesse for participating in our interview. For more from The Hague, check them out on Facebook and MySpace, and don't miss our full-length live release with them, which comes out Tuesday, August 23rd.

Back in June, we welcomed Death Songs to record live at the Banana Stand. A few days prior to the show, we spoke with Death Songs frontman Nick Delffs about the genesis of his new project and his thoughts recording live. Due to busy schedules, we haven't been able to share the interview with you until now. However, we're now proud to be able to offer this peek behind the scenes of one of the best new bands in Portland.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Nick Delffs: [Death Songs] started as a recording project with my brother (Nathan Delffs, The Castanets). It was just something that we did after Shaky Hands practice. We lived pretty close to each other at the time. I think that was 2007. It might have been late 2006, but it was around that time. It was just an experimental thing. A lot of the shows weren't really rehearsed and were more improvised.

Because of that first recording that we did -- which is actually going to be released this fall, Nicholas [Taplin] is going to release a 10" of eight of the best songs from it -- after we recorded that, we were so happy with it that we started to play more shows. A lot of house shows and a lot of shows at Valentines actually. It slowly got more song based, playing a lot of songs from that recording. Then my brother moved to New York, and is doing his music now so it's been just mainly Justin [Power] -- the drummer -- and I. We have different guitar players from time to time, and sometimes a bass player.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

ND: Townes Van Zandt I think was a really big influence on the recording and on the songs too. Especially his self-titled album.

The album that I'm doing with Nicholas and the album I did with my brother are pretty different. One is pretty lo-fi, and the one with Nicholas is pretty hi-fi. They seem kinda similar to me on one hand. The first album has a lot of percussion, different Ethiopian recordings we were listening to a lot and Fela Kuti and like Bob Marley's African Herbsman album. So there's that mixed in with way more folk stuff. I guess the genre "folk" gets kinda tossed around. Like, people use that word if you have an acoustic guitar or something. But, I consider Townes Van Zandt to be definitely folk and country, actually.

I guess recently I've been influenced by a lot of really early rock 'n' roll. The Bobby Fuller Four, I don't know, stuff like that. Originally, I wanted to do something as different from The Shaky Hands as I could. It's just always fun to do really different things. It always helps. It's kind of beneficial to each project to do that. And I feel that way with being, like, a front-man that plays on songs and then also playing drums or playing bass in another band. It's completely different but both the roles help each other. I think that's similar. One song could go in a thousand different directions. I'm sure you know about that from recording. That's how it started out, just having something really different from The Shaky Hands. But I think it's turning into actually being sort of similar. [Laughs.]

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live.

ND: It's great. We did that a lot with Nicholas Taplin at the Silo. He'd just record practices and would constantly be recording. It's something that I'm constantly wanting to do. I'm always trying to get my friends to come out and record our shows, even if it's just with a handheld crappy-sounding thing. I just think that when you're playing music and it's being recorded its a very different feeling than when you're not being recorded. It's completely different the way I think and feel. The goal for me is just to be so used to recording and to record so much that the line is kind of blurred. It's an addictive thing and I want to be doing it all the time. You never know what's going to be something you're really excited about or something you're completely humiliated by. [Laughs.]

Sometimes I've felt just so good about a take or about a song, it just felt so right, and then I listen back and it's just so wrong. And vice versa too. That actually happens a lot, where you just feel so shitty about something and then it's like, "Wow, that's the greatest thing I've ever done, what the hell." There's this mystery behind it that can never get old. That's why there's so many bands, that's why there's so many people with, you know, film too. It's just that really simple idea of capturing a moment and making a really small moment whatever it can be. You really discover that when you record, especially with Nicholas Taplin. You could just go so far and then do something that you're surprised by. Something that doesn't sound like yourself, you know? So you can have this distance or separation from it, and almost can appreciate it more because you're sort of removed from the process. I think there's moments that happen like that.

BS: Our thoughts are much the same as yours. There's that tremendous serendipity of that unexpected moment that you really want to try to capture somehow so you can refer to it in the future.

ND: One more thing about recording that you somehow reminded me of. Another reason why I love it so much is that it forces -- either the engineer or the musician, it forces you to ... [trails off]

People have this idea of the egotistical musician or rockstar that's totally full of themselves and just thinks what they do is totally great. And there is an element to that, you can feel very high from something that you created. Just, on top of the world, no other feeling like it. But there's also always backlash to that, and it can be the most humiliating thing ever and can just completely destroy you. That's what I really like about it. You just never know what's going to happen. It forces you to be introspective. You're examining yourself and your thoughts and ideas, but also realizing that they're not just yours. They're not something that you completely created. Great songs and sounds are happening all around us all at once. A musician or a song writer is just paying attention to them and allowing it all to to filter through them.

For more from Death Songs: Facebook, MySpace, Post-Consumer Records. For more from Nick Delffs, check out the three excellent studio albums from his previous project, The Shaky Hands.

The Woolen Men are one of our favorite up and coming bands in Portland, and we count ourselves tremendously lucky to have been able to work with them on a live album (coming October 25th!) and these live sessions. It remains to be seen what will become of these recordings, but whatever the result, working with Lawton, Raf and Alex is a terrific way to spend a couple afternoons.

Here's a few of our favorite videos from the sessions. Please visit our Facebook page for more, and stay tuned for tons of more video from the 'Stand!

For more from The Woolen Men, check them out on Facebook, MySpace and in the Free Music Archive.

The Silent Numbers are super fucking awesome and we're excited as all hell to release their live album because they shred hot shit. The Silent Numbers - Live from The Banana Stand will be released on August 9th, 2011. Until then, check out the single "Horrible Monster." We caught up with the band to find out what they've been doing since they came into record late last fall. -A

It's been nearly a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with The Silent Numbers since?

We've been playing a lot of shows, writing new music, and working on a record. Our sound is constantly changing. I think we are becoming less and less ashamed to sound like the bands that we like.

What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

Our record is available now at www.thesilentnumbers.com for download. You can also get a 7" record for 5 bucks at any of our shows, or on the website.

What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

It seems like a new version of shoegaze is being formed. Maybe it isn't, but i'm seeing what I want to see. Either way, I saw a great band called The Small Kingdoms at Kenton Club not long ago.

Nick and I are from around Detroit, MI and both started out in the garage rock scene that happened there 8-10 years ago. We played three shows with a band called the Advisory that made us nostalgic for Detroit. While our styles might not mesh perfectly, they really fucking rock and it's great to play on a bill with that kind of stuff.

Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

Yeah. Listen to our record, and keep checking our website for show updates. We'll be playing a lot once the 7" gets here.

Thanks to The Silent Numbers for participating in the interview. You can read the band's first interview, see photos from their recording, and download more music on their Bandcamp page. And you should really check out their album by clicking the image above. Seriously. Do it now. Stop reading, damn it!

EDIT: Holy whoa, thanks for all your kindness, everyone. It's been terrific seeing all the support on Facebook, thanks so much to everyone that posted. Thanks also to everyone that has donated. Sorry if you found our donation link to be broken, we suck. We have received enough donations to cover our loss from the theft (largely from an amazing single benefactor who we won't embarrass by naming, but who we are indebted to). If you still want to help out, please donate.  As we say below, all proceed still go to documenting live music! -L

At our last show on July 30th, $517 was stolen from a Banana Stander's room. Due to this and other events, we're enacting today policy changes that we'd been planning for next year:

• Shows will now be secret. Facebook events will no be longer created, and the date and time of the recordings will not be publicly posted, nor will the address. Sorry. If you really love a band, we feel Portland's music scene is small enough that you will be able to speak with someone directly, including us, about attending.
• Our door policy is going to be more strict. While we've always checked IDs, we will now search bags, and no longer allow hard alcohol into our shows. Attendance will be limited and people will be turned away. Sorry. If you really care about seeing a band record in our space, you will show up early and be respectful. We're no longer throwing house shows in the traditional sense.

We've reimbursed the stolen $517 out of funds we'd saved to buy new equipment to improve what we do. The theft of the $517 won't stop us from documenting music. However, we operate on a very limited budget, funded only by your donations and out of our own pockets. The theft of $517 is a setback both financially and psychically.

We want to state explicitly: this should not reflect negatively on either of the bands from our July 30th show, both of whom were really great to work with. We remain excited to release their performances in the coming months. Further, the bulk of the attendees of the show were quite nice. Unfortunately, a few assholes ruined things for the rest of folks.

If this bothers you as it bothers us -- stand up for the musicians and places that host art, and try to foster a friendly community at shows. We try to maintain a secure environment, but the truth is that we need good people to help us. If you have any information about the theft on July 30th or would like to help us in any other way, please contact us at info [at] bananastandmedia [dot] com.

Further, if you like what we've been doing the last few years, please consider doing the following:

1. Please donate if you are able.

Any amount will help, and please feel free to download any or all of the dozen albums we have on our site. We have a lot of great things on the way, and this will help us reach our goals. All proceeds will go do documenting live music.

2. Please share a link to this post (or repost our posts) on Facebook, Twitter or whatever. The more attention we get, the better we'll be able to improve our activities.

Please also continue to check back to this site, and come out to the shows you're able to. We will continue to record and release live performances and document live music in new and awesome ways. This isn't the final word on any of this. So, thanks for your support, and stay tuned.

Banana Stand Media

Forest Park wasn't a band on The Banana Stand radar this year, but after booking Your Rival for a July 30th recording, we were glad to have been introduced to the group, who released a very strong and haunting four song demo EP in December of 2010. Together, the tracks on the album are some of the most promising work from a local band I've heard in several months. The story goes that Maya and Katherine starting playing music together in 2006, but didn't solidify as a group until the summer 2009. Cyrus joined the band in the winter of 2009, and Mike came aboard in the winter of 2010 when the demos were recorded. Academics and a trip to Africa have delayed the band working as much as they may have liked, and so, their show at The Banana Stand will be one of the first complete recordings of the group. You'll want to be there. -A

How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Maya: I first met Katherine when I was around fourteen and she still lived in Anacortes, Washington. We both were the type to spend a lot of time on our own in our rooms making shitty recordings of “endearing” music. This being a less popular hobby for younger girls we naturally clicked and she sometimes came down to Portland to visit and play music together. When Katherine moved to Portland in 2007 to go to Lewis & Clark we started our first band together, Teeath. Teeath was fun and a good start, but it didn’t neccessarily sound like the music we spent most of our time listening to. This is why Forest Park formed.

Cyrus: Maya asked me to come play music with her and Katherine in the summer of 2009, after like four practices we played our first show and I became addicted to the sound they we’re creating, and I’ve never looked back.

KP: It was just me, Maya, and Cyrus for a while and we would play and it sounded good but it was missing something.  We decided after much thought, to get a bassist. That’s when Cyrus introduced us to Michael Campbell. I was kind of reluctant to have a bassist because I was just so used to playing guitar with Maya and felt it might overshadow us. But having bass in the band really adds to the dynamics and has made me work harder at creating those dynamics.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

Cyrus: We sound like a bunch of kids that hate doing nothing. As Mike says, there are a handful of noodles, a sprinkle of emotion and then some punk ass beats.  It’s also really loud and really quiet at the same time. As far as influences go . . . 

KP: Cat Power, Do Make Say Think, Genevieve Castree, Julie Doiron,Thanksgiving, Emily Haines, Electrelane, Like A Villain, Eluvium, Mt. Eerie, Kusikia, Takhoma, Kickball, friends who are motivated, fashion movies, living in my head, Anacortes, and Grouper.

Cyrus: The Mercury Program, American Football, Maserati, Caspian, This Will Destroy You, Scraps of Tape, Envy, Explosions, Broken Social Scene. Things that my friends create, people who are just as confused as I am . . . 

Maya: The Microphones, American Football, Cap’n Jazz, Little Wings, Algernon Cadwallader, Do Make Say Think, Total Bros, Broken Social Scene, Avi Buffalo, Penpal, Boyfriends, Headphones, Talkdemonic, Dragging an Ox through Water, Kickball, author Raymond Carver, painter Leon Gollub . . . nostalgically remembering shows of the past but also looking forward to the future.

Mike: Death Cab, Girls of Mars, hard bodies. 

Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

Maya: Recording at the Stand is a great opportunity for bands like us. As a band, most of our energy goes into playing music together and writing songs and it can be easy to overlook other important organizational things such as recording and what not. As a result of this, we don’t have any real releases to give out at shows or promote our band with . . . and when we cut a song out of our set it is lost forever.

Cyrus: It’s just playing music with your friends and what’s better than that? The Banana Stand is doing a great thing! It's giving an opportunity for bands to have really good sounding recordings for free. That's almost better than playing music with your friends, almost!

Katherine: I’m interested in recording live because we’ve never really heard what we sound like recorded. It’s always good as a band to hear from an outside perspective especially if you want to keep moving forward as musicians.

Mike: I'm stoked. We need some recordings love.

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

Cyrus: My favorite live show was a show we played at FOC Fest! Maya, Katherine and Nsayi (Kusikia) put together this amazing festival. We didn’t play super good but I felt more in touch with my band than any other show… The festival was about supporting the women of color musicians in Portland to help make the community more inclusive. My least favorite shows were the ones that I had to stress out about! 

Maya: One time this guy fell and his head was just laying on my pedal . . . and he didn’t move it. And I didn’t move it. He was just laying there. I think he’s okay . . . He’s a good guy.

KP: My favorite shows are always the shows where the PA is loud enough for people to hear the vocals. That just makes it all the more comfortable for us I think.

What are your favorite live albums?

Cyrus & Mike: The John Byrd EP by Death Cab For Cutie.

Maya: I’ve had Mirah’s College Park is Always Ready to Party for a long time and it’s nice every once in a while. DMST live tracks are always good.

KP: I don’t really listen to that many live albums but I really love the Gossip’s Live in Liverpool album. There’s just so much energy there.

What other projects are you all involved with?

Cyrus: Pardee Shorts!

KP: I play drums for my friend Fabi and another friend, Nsayi, plays the bass. I’m also starting another project with Nora of Typhoon and Glass Teeth, and Maggie of Youth.

What are you working on lately?

Cyrus: My brain.

KP: I’m doing two internships right now. One with Tom Tom Magazine and the other with the National Indian Child Welfare Association. I just graduated from college and am taking a year off to just do anything and most importantly, to do music. After that, I think I’m going to law school. But for now, I’m working on being productive in my life.

Maya: Making videos, life drawings, ten second long animations, taking pictures, etc. I am all over the place when it comes to art . . . but I’ve been thinking a lot about how I could combine visual arts with music . . . oh, and art school . . .

Thanks to Maya, Katherine, Mike, and Cyrus for answering questions, and for coming into record on July 30th, 2011. Be sure to RSVP on Facebook if you're coming to the show. You can find more about Forest Park on Bandcamp, Myspace and Facebook. The photo contained in this interview is by the amazing Jordan Strong, please check out his work.

As Banana Stand Media prepares to release The We Shared Milk - Live from The Banana Stand 2010, we decided to ask lead-singer Boone Howard some questions about what the band has been doing so far in the Year of Our Lord 2011, or whatever the fuck year it is in church-time.

It's been nearly a year since this album was recorded. What's been happening with The We Shared Milk since?

We've just been gigging around town. We put out an EP called Jesuses. We've had a couple of bass players filling in, and our guitarist Nate has taken a sabbatical in Alaska and is hopefully returning at some point. Oh, the guy who played bass for the Banana Stand recordings showed up at one of our recent shows and mooned us through the bar window but nobody could see his butt because it's too skinny . . .

What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

I was a touring sound engineer for like 9 months out of the year [with Portgual. The Man], but I just decided to quit that awesome job. Pretty dumb move. Our drummer Eric plays in World's Greatest Ghosts.

What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

I find like one or two really good Portland band recordings on bandcamp per month. Current favorites are Archers, Yeah Great Fine, Cat Stalks Bird and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. My favorite thing about music globally right now is good music made by people who aren't expert players. It gives me hope.

Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

We are helping organize a block party festival at 8th and Division on July 30th (which I realize conflicts with a 'Stand show - we're just down the street!). It's called Multiple Personalities Music Fest and it's being held at a rad house show spot called PALS. There will be two outdoor stages and a beer garden. And And And, World's Greatest Ghosts, Yeah Great Fine and a ton of other bands are playing. Free, all ages . . . find it on Facebook.

Thanks to Boone for answering questions, and the rest of The We Shared Milk for recording an excellent live album. Be sure to download the release when it comes out on September 27th, 2011. The single track "Modern Man & The Microwave" is available now, check it out.

On July 30th, The Banana Stand will proudly host two relatively new bands in the Portland music scene - Your Rival and Forest Park. The show is expected to reach full capacity, so please RSVP on Facebook if you're planning on attending. Your Rival has started to build a bit of buzz in the city, The Portland Mercury called the band's latest release, "one of the most immediately likable local releases in recent memory," as the group played a show with Blue Skies for Black Hearts and The Blast Majesty.

Your Rival's Mo Troper asnwered some question via email about his band, which will be playing as a special two-piece for the recording at The Banana Stand.

How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Your Rival technically began as a solo project in the end of 2008, but it wasn't something I took very seriously until about a year ago. I had been trying to form a band for a long time but I didn't feel like any of my musician friends took the music I was creating very seriously at all, and I was too self-conscious at that point to perform solo (either live or on recording). In the beginning of 2010 I competed in the MITS Battle of the Bands. I played solo and placed second, losing to the band Stimulus Package (who, coincidentally, Nate, the drummer in Your Rival, was playing drums in). I pretty soon afterwards recorded our first six-song EP with assistance from my friend Gavin (who played drums on that record) and my other friend Jarret, who recorded a guitar track on one song and later became a fixture of the live configuration. My friends Nate and Parker joined the live band on drums and bass respectively, and that was that. Now it's technically a solo project again, although I can't imagine playing without Nate. Our friend Sam is playing bass with us.

How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

We're definitely a power pop or "rock and roll" band, but our influences extend beyond that. I actually don't even listen to a lot of the artists that I consider my principal influences that much anymore, maybe with the exception of the Beatles (who I listen to all the time) and Big Star (I have a tradition where I listen to their album Radio City on the first sunny day of every year). Every time I sit down with the intention of writing a song that sounds like Sunny Day Real Estate or something, it ends up just being this real consonant pop tune instead. An example is WWF off our new EP, which is certainly more Supertramp or solo McCartney than Sunny Day Real Estate, but it's never deliberate. Those are just such deep-rooted influences that I will never be able to escape or replace with something else.

Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

In my experience, it can be difficult getting a quality live recording of a loud band. The Banana Stand recordings I had heard sounded excellent and I really liked the concept of it being this service disguised a house show. In the fall of 2010 we recorded on KBOO but I wasn't really satisfied with how it sounded. I'm confident that we'll get good a live recording out of this, and it'll also be great to play a free show for our friends.

What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

We played a house show at the Pink Room in late December that, in retrospect, I think was our best performance. Everything just worked, the chemistry between the band members was so spot-on. It was packed, there was a lot of energy and it's one of the only times I remember people singing along. The worst was probably at Dunes in November, we debuted two new songs at that show and we fucked both of them up. My amp stopped working because I tripped over a cable or something, I lost my voice. KBOO was actually also pretty bad, a lot of our friends showed up but they didn't know they could make noise in between songs so didn't clap at all, and additionally there was all this horrible tension between some of the people there. I played what I thought was a great solo show last July at a venue called the Waypost.

What are your favorite live albums?

I got the Guided By Voices Live in Dayton set at the beginning of the summer, and sonically those songs sound worlds better live than they do on their records, so I like that album. I really love Elvis Costello: Live at the El Mocambo, because I really like early Costello and those performances are so energetic. MC5's "Kick Out The Jams" is probably the premiere live album though, it's so hilarious and fun to listen to. In my opinion a live band that's reckless is almost always better than one that performs immaculately. I like Rush a lot (more than I probably should), but I would never pay to see them because they're so spotless, that ain't ROCK. What's the point? Why pay a huge amount of money for what's essentially the exact same experience?

What other projects are you all involved with?

Nate and I are in a band called Ledgend, that's actually sort of like the MC5 (but not nearly as awesome, we don't have those huge Detroit nuts). Nate plays drums in a SWEET metal band called SLOTHS, and Sam played bass in a band called Butter.

What are you working on lately?

I'm working on material for a seven-inch and would eventually like to rerecord some of my favorite songs off our first two EPs for a full-length. At this point nobody in the band is employed and we don't have the resources to "big dog it" and go to a nice studio or anything like that, but lack of material definitely isn't an issue!

Thanks to Mo for participating in our interview series. If interested, you can read interviews with almost every band that has played The Banana Stand in the archive section. Be sure to check out You Rival's latest release "Seven Sparking Children" - it's available for a pay-what-you-want download, just like Banana Stand Media's live albums. And, don't miss the chance to download a powerful four demo song from Forest Park for free.

About a year and a half ago, I started to become incrementally more serious about running. Not serious in a reading running magazines ("chairs about jogging") sense, but serious about a dedicated schedule and improving my distance and pace.

When I think about the armatures I've adopted to support running, a few things stick out as being particularly helpful. RunKeeper Pro, Gatorade (recently replaced by chocolate milk) and pasta dinners all come to mind, but there's one armature especially relevant to this space: the music.

Louie's Running Playlist, as of July 4th 2011
1. POWER by Kanye West
2. 99 Problems by Jay-Z
3. Stars Come Out by Calvin Harris
4. Sexyback by Justin Timberlake
5. It's Tricky by Run-D.M.C. (Did not know Penn & Teller were in this video)
6. Stronger by Kanye West
7. Telephone by Lady Gaga
8. My Cool by Adam Tensta
9. Kill Me by Make The Girl Dance
10. The New Workout Plan by Kanye West

My current run typically ends about halfway through track 10. Previously used but later cut for various reasons: Shake Your Coconuts by Junior Senior, Public Warning by Lady Sovereign, Robot Rock by Daft Punk, Hotel Expressionism by The Streets, Louder Than a Bomb by Tiga, I Want I Want by Digitalism, Dopeboy by Adam Tensta.

Yes, there are three Kanye songs. I'm a white dude from the Indianapolis suburbs, what do you want from me. Yes, Justin Timberlake, yes, Lady Gaga, and, yes, they're basically all club jams. (At least My Cool and Kill Me are hotness that you may not have heard before.) But they're also great workout songs, I promise.

I invite your comment/ridicule. What do you have on your workout playlist?

-Louie

There's an inside joke here at The Banana Stand that goes something like, "Hey, I like your band." We say it a lot, like all the time. It's funny because it's so nerdy and uncool to admit how much you like something in the artistic scene sometimes, but we're absolutely sincere about it. It's how we introduce ourselves to bands for the first time, it's what wish we could say to a thousand other musicans. 

One of those bands we've said it to before, and will probably say it to again, is Portugal. The Man.

The band is set to release In the Mountain, In the Cloud on July 19th, the group's sixth studio album, but first with Atlantic Records. So far, only a few songs have been released to the public, most in the form of a thirteen minute long music video that debuted at the band's show at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon.

The attention to studio production is apparent in the new songs, no doubt due to Atlantic Records being able to boost the group's recording budget, which enabled them to hire top-talent producers and mastering artists. It's a beautiful thing. New tracks, like "Got It All (This Can't Be Living Now)" sing with layered harmonies and string accompanyment. 

As the album's release date approaches, band members took some time while on a brief rest from the tour to talk to fans and the media. We snagged a few minutes via video Skype with Portugal. The Man drummer Jason Sechrist, who talked about touring, the new album, recording, and his favorite live musicans.

Hey man, how's it going?

Not too bad. Where are you calling from?

Portland, Oregon.

Weeeeird.

Yeah, we actually work with your sound guy, Boone Howard, sometimes. We've recorded a couple of live albums with The We Shared Milk at this place called The Banana Stand.

Sure, man. I know that place. I've been inside that house!

Thanks for taking the time to talk about Portugal. The Man.

We're gonna hang out Division style, here! I actually lived in that house across the street from you. You know the party block there, the three houses. I lived there in 2007. Red Fang used to practice there all the time.

Are you guys still out on tour?

No, we're back in Portland.

You're playing Lollapolooza later this summer, but do you have any shows before that?

Next Wednesday we're going to do a small California run, San Diego, San Francisco, L.A., and then we'll come back home and do Seattle. And then we're going to do a Music Millennium thing on the 23rd, which will be pretty fun.

It seems like the Banana Stand project is working out, going well.

Thanks! We're excited to record Tengo Alpha Tengo later this summer, and we just finished recording Nick Delffs of The Shaky Hands with his Death Songs band.

Oh man, The Shaky Hands, I've been wanting to see them play live.

Was your recent secret show at The Beauty Bar in Portland something to get people excited about the new record?

The Beauty Bar thing was to let people in Portland know that we still exist on a small, friendly level. We like playing small clubs, where there isn't a bunch of monitors and stuff. I guess you could call it a house-party vibe. I've played so many parties and basements around Portland, and it's crazy that those make you feel just as wild as a big show.

I don't know if you know this, but you guys are big on the website Reddit.

Reddit? What's that?

It's like a big Internet forum where people share stuff and talk about what's going on online.

I'll have to check that out.

A lot of fans on there, and elsewhere, say you really have to see Portugal. The Man live to get the full experience, and that the live shows are sometimes better than the studio albums. Do you and the rest of the band feel the same way?

Yeah, basically 99%. That 1% is the album grace, in terms of reverb, in terms of overdubs, in terms of just the actual sound of what you captured. The live shows are cool, because that's when you can extend parts. So, getting to extend things, changing the song's tempo, intro and outros, things like that, and even down to the Elliot Smith level, where, if you mess up, it's front of everyone, it's how you deal with it as a person.

You've released an iTunes "Live from SoHo" album, as well as some downloads from shows earlier this year. Do you have plans to continue to put those shows online from the rest of the tour this year?

We tried to just input to the board from the tour, and we found out that several of the gigs, something happened on the software side, where it didn't record for 15 minutes or half-hour, some random shit. I think out of thirty shows, most were successful.

The Portland show at the Roseland is up for download, and it's great.

Yeah, that was a weird thing. Kicking-off a tour in your hometown is kinda stressful, to me. In my mind, you want to end the your tour in your home city. That way you're tight, the songs are figured out, the tour is figured out, you know? It seems the first couple of days on tour always feel a little shaky to the band. So, I would recommend ending a tour at home.

What's your favorite memory of a live show - either one you played or one you attended?

There's been a lot of moments. Basically, if you get to see your favorite song, whatever you're listening to at the time, and you get to capture the moment, it's pretty much the best time ever. I've had that experience with Red Fang at the Doug Fir, right up front, head-banging, having a great time. I really, really liked the Grizzly Bear record from a couple years ago. When we were doing festivals, I got to see them, and then, thanks to my backstage pass, I got to go meet them and say, "That was awesome."

So it ranges from local club gigs, to big band with records out. It all depends. From our perspective, getting to play the Roseland is pretty fun. It's a big, loud rock and roll venue. But sometimes you play a place and think, "Man, this venue sucks."

Do you have a least favorite live moment?

Whooo! Well, there are a lot of small mistakes and small accidents that can happen, but I would say, luckily, I haven't had very many of them. Not in this band. But, in my first band, I got a beer thrown at me, here in Portland. They chucked a pint of beer at us, and it landed on the keyboards, and a bit on my drums. But, it was more about the inner pain of having beer thrown on you while on stage. You're up there and it's like, "What the hell was that about?" Kinda makes you feel like, "Ah shit, maybe I should just hang this shit up."

What are your favorite bands to see live?

I thought that Grizzy Bear was amazing. I like The Melvins a lot, I've seen them a lot. The Mars Volta is always fun to me, seeing this crazy instrumental stuff. I saw Fever Ray, that was wild, a really impressive lazer light show. I guess it ranges. If you have a favorite record, or favorite sound, it's just so cool to bring yourself to that live show just to feel being there. If it's something you like, unless it's totally sucking, which is really never the case, at least you're there, a part of it.

Do you think Portugal. The Man will ever put out another live record someday?

I think we'll always want to, but thing are moving so fast. It would probably have to come straight off the tour. It's something we were touching on earlier with releasing the live shows from this tour. But then it's like, "Are you going to be okay with mistakes." I don't know if I'm entirely comfortable with a Phish style production, or Grateful Dead production. I like Grateful Dead records, but they were great, and you can't tell what was a mistake at the time.

Are you currently involved in any projects outside Portugal. The Man?

Nah. That's not to say those of us in the band wouldn't want to play with friends and have fun on something else. But, right now, this band and touring truly takes up all the time. Sometimes, I think it's good enough to just set down and play alone. I know most of the time, when I'm playing, I'm playing with the band. So, one of my favorite things is to play drums alone. It's a great feeling. 

Thanks to Jason Sechrist for the interview, which was conducted over the Internet even though we were down the street from each other. Be sure to check out the Jesuses EP from The We Shared Milk, which is rumored to feature Portugal. The Man's Zachary Carothers on bass. Look for the second live album from The We Shared Milk in the coming months, and be sure to pick up In the Mountain, In the Cloud once its out on July 19th.

-Aaron Colter

The Banana Stand is thrilled to make Curious Hands - Live from the Banana Stand available in its entirety on July 12th. It's a phenomenal live record that you're going to love. To get you ready for its release, Tyler and John from Curious Hands answered our interview questions via email.

Banana Stand: It's been three years since this album was recorded. What's been happening with Curious Hands since?

John Barrios: We have continued our Spinal Tap drummer rotation, but we also continue to write 4 times as many songs as we actually play. We write a lot of crap before we find the golden nuggets. We unintentionally took a hiatus, but that shit is behind us. Book us! We have a bandcamp page with two of our records up, one for free download, but you can listen to everything there.

BS: What other projects have you been working on during the last year?

JB: I do a lot of writing, poetry and fiction, and I have been a stay at home father, so, you know, rugrats are time vacuums.

TR: Bubble Cats. I played bass on the new Wooden Indian record, that hits the streets soon and sounds freaking awesome.

BS: What has been your favorite thing in Portland music in the last year? In music beyond Portland?

JB: I really like Eternal Tapestry and Run On Sentence. Two very different styles, but that's just the diversity of the Portland music scene. I have also been really excited by Bad Blood, a monthly poetry series hosted by Drew Swenhaugen at the Worksound Gallery in the SE.

TR: I rarely listen to American music but I saw some dude playing buckets on the street the other day, he was ripping it up. Coral Stabz is a pretty sweet band, they're from the island state. The rest of my time is taken up listening to J-rock/pop

BS: Do you have any events coming up that folks should check out?

JB: July 15th we are playing the Hungry Tiger.

TR: July 15th like John said and July 30th there's a block party (bubble cats) put on by the PALS Clubhouse guys.

Out July 12th!

Big thanks to Tyler and John from Curious Hands for participating in our interview. Curious Hands, as recorded May 3rd, 2008, was Tyler, John, Chris Ubick and Jason Ferris. The live album of this performance comes out Tuesday, July 12th and is a fucking killer release. Be sure to grab it!

Check out more of Curious Hands on Facebook and MySpace.

On June 25th The Banana Stand will play host to the oft-haunting, oft-uplifting folks sounds of Jack Ruby Presents, who will share the evening with Death Songs. It's going to be a great show. You should really be out for it. RSVP on Facebook if you're coming.

To get ready for the event, learn a bit about Jack Ruby Presents, who answered our interview questions via email.

BS: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

We started playing about three and a half years ago. We all met while in college in McMinnville. Jesse had started writing songs for an as of yet non-existent Jack Ruby Presents in the summer of 2007. At school that next fall he showed Melissa (Mad Dog), Chris and Aaron some of the music he was working on, and was amazed at how the things came together with a group contributing their own ideas and arrangements to his songs. We played our first show on October 25th of 2007. Since then we have have dozens of guest players and friends on stage, but the core of the group has remained the same.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

I think that despite the fact that we have all grown up through the punk and alt rock and dance sounds of the last 15 years our sound is very heavily folk informed. I think that we make rock music, but from a folk and even country point of view. Sonically, we have little in common with folk music, but under the over-driven guitars and pounding drums, we play folk songs. Equally, the four of us come from such different musical backgrounds that we have a difficult time articulating exactly what sort of music we are playing, and can't agree on all that many influences. Jesse likes At The Drive-in, The Roadside Graves, Point Juncture, Wa, Neil Young, and Uncle Tupelo. Mad Dog cites, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Allman Brothers Band, Moody Blues, Brahms and Chopin. Aaron and Chris agree on '90s alt rock, Mingus, and The Long Winters. The whole band can agree on Blitzen Trapper, Murder By Death and Langhorne Slim.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live at the 'Stand?

In our past recording attempts, our goal has always been to capture the energy of our live performances. Often it is difficult to feel excited about a song while sitting in a basement listening to headphones. I feel like we are at our best when we are interacting with a room full of people. It is also really cool to hear what everybody else at the show hears. Mad Dog writes, "I'm always surprised when I hear the playback of a live recording--I think, wow, I can hear everything! We sound alright! I wish that I could hear with this much clarity when we're on stage."

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

A few summers ago we all made the trek to Jesse's hometown of Sitka, Alaska for the home-gown Homeskillet Festival with Langhorne Slim, Breathe Owl Breathe, and Silver Jackson (along with lots of great local acts). We played four really exciting shows, over the course of three nights, at the main event, and even better, at the drunken-Alaskan-twilight-two-am after parties. The Homeskillet Records crew really knows how to have a good time, and it is, as of yet, the only JRP show to involve crowd surfing.

On the other side of the spectrum, Jesse writes, "We played at a the Caldera Brewery (most highly recommended) in Ashland, OR in the middle of a ten day tour. I was really sick and guzzling on all sorts of cough syrups and tea just to get through the day. I took a nap in the car right before the show, and croaked my way through the least energetic set of my life in front of about a dozen unimpressed drinkers."

The runner up was being the only non-metal or teenie-pop band in a 22-minute local showcase at the now defunct Satyricon.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

Wilco - Kicking Television, Eric Clapton - Unplugged, Counting Crows - Across A Wire, Jeff Tweedy - Sunken Treasure

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

We currently share members with, The Vicious Kisses, Pine Language, and Joy Nelson's Band. Mad Dog recently sang the role of "Mimi" in the opera La Boheme.

BS: What are you working on lately?

We've just started laying down demo tracks for our second full length album, which is almost entirely written. We are really excited to get back into the studio with a new project.

Big thanks to Jack Ruby Presents for participating in our interview, especially Jesse Hughey for coordinating. Jack Ruby Presents is Jesse, Chris Hernandez, Melissa Davaz and Aaron Owens. They're recording live at the 'Stand on June 25th, at a show that will also feature Death Songs (Nick Delffs of The Shaky Hands). It will be awesome. You should be here. RSVP on Facebook.

Find more from Jack Ruby Presents at jackrubypresents.com, and on Facebook and MySpace.

Our next live release is the stellar Modernstate - Live from the Banana Stand, which comes out June 28th. We're really thrilled about the album. Sam Schauer was a staple of Portland music long before we arrived in town, and continues to be to this day as Sam Humans and the Light and as a part of the excellent-though-short-lived O Bruxo.

To prepare for the release, Sam dropped us an email to let you know what's been going on in the two years(!) since this album was recorded.

"My son was born on Feb 2 2009, shorty after which I retired the Modernstate moniker for good. Things were fresh and new all over, figured I would keep the ball rolling in that direction. Since then I spent most of my time focusing on the currently dormant O Bruxo and learning how to be a father. I also found time to tinker with electronics, and have been building oscillators/noise makers/weird music machines. Currently playing/recording as Sam Humans & the Light, which includes David Fimbres (O Bruxo, papper/upper/cuts) on drums/vocals and longtime band mate Matt Genz (...worms, Dutchflat) on bass. We have a few shows coming up:

• Sat July 16th @ N Pix Bastille Day Block Party. 3pm, outdoors, all ages, free.
• Sat Aug 13th @ The Woods w/ papper/upper/cuts and Silian Rail
• Aug 18-20 @ Total Fest 10, Missoula MT"

Sam also asks that you check out SAMHUMANS.BLOGSPOT.COM. You can also find more from him on Bandcamp. Don't miss our live release from him, which comes out June 28th. It's super rad, and pay-what-you-want.

Sam Schauer performing as part of O Bruxo at the PDX Pop Now! show at Holocene, June 2nd, 2011

It was somewhat lost in the shuffle around the recent Blue Skies for Black Hearts and Soft Paws releases (which you should go check out now if you haven't already), but, yes, we have finally relaunched our website. Huzzah!

Our web relaunch begins to bring to a close many months of efforting, primarily by our web designer Evan R. Thompson.

Won't you trust this man with your website?

Big thanks are also owed to Aaron Colter and Corrie Minor for their work on the new site.

Evan did extremely good work on the site. We think you'll agree that it's much, much better than the previous. In addition to the vast improvements to our Music section and related content, the redesign greatly streamlines our publishing process, which will allow us to post more content more often. Things on the site are still being cinched up and added-to as well, so be sure to check back in the coming weeks. There's sure to always be something new.

Our new website isn't the only thing we're pumped about, though. It's one of several things that have come together as a result of recent efforts that could all fall under the heading "we take this totally seriously and are working really hard at it." In addition to the new website:

* We've got album and poster are pouring in from the 'Stand's art director (and newest addition to our house) Brian David Smith. You're going to be seeing it all soon, but in the meantime, be assured that it's awesome. Brian also has great ideas for improvements that you can look forward to seeing.

* Our mixers have been going nuts lately. We have a ton of new releases on the way from both Alex Arrowsmith and Vic Lund, and hopefully from Chris Vita (a mastering engineer recently relocated to Portland) as well. Coming soon: rad albums from The We Shared Milk, Tiger House, The Hague and too many other bands to list. Thanks a ton, all of you dudes, for your work.

* We have totally revised our basement space. Improvements include a better stage position, live monitors for the bands, out-board compression and reverb and vastly improved lighting and power availability. Further, the space available for the audience has been increased substantially. These improvements continue our efforts to create as comfortable and professional a recording environment as possible. Additionally, we're hoping they'll open up greater possibilities for video and photography at the 'Stand. Huge thanks to everyone who helped with basement revision: Evan, Aaron, Brian, Shawn Pike, Chris Anderson and Jake Schmitt.

* For the first time in more than two years, we're recording without an audience. Earlier this week, we welcomed in The Woolen Men for the first of several live-style studio sessions. We're pumped. The Woolen Men are a great band and have already been a lot of fun to work with. We'll share videos and photos as we continue to work with the band.

Video from The Woolen Men's June 12th session

* We've got unbelievable shows scheduled for the summer and fall, including sets from Death Songs, Tango Alpha Tango, Jack Ruby Presents and The Golden Hours. You should definitely be out for them. Please RSVP for them on Facebook.

It's been a big year for the 'Stand already, but we're not nearly done yet. Check back to our website and Facebook page often to check out what's new. Thanks again to everyone that's been working on or supporting the 'Stand over the last many months!

-Lou 

Next in line for our stellar summer release schedule is a personal favorite of ours: Soft Paws - Live from the Banana Stand. The album was recorded last June and turned out really, really excellent. A preview is available right now. The full album will be released next Tuesday and, like I said, is super awesome. Make sure you grab it!

To get ready for the release, we got together with Brandon and Ethan from Soft Paws, who told us what the bands been doing over the last year. Thanks dudes!

Banana Stand: It's been almost a year since we last chatted. What's been happening with Soft Paws?

Saturday, May 28th (tonight!) The Banana Stand starts off the summer strong with a great show you should totally be at: Talkative, The Blast Majesty and The Polyps, recording before a live audience. You should be here. It will be rad. RSVP on Facebook.

This Saturday, May 25th, The Banana Stand will welcome The Blast Majesty to record live at our secret space. We're pumped. We caught a bit of the band live at Mississippi Studios a few weeks back, and their dirty, psychedelic surf rock sounds are perfect for our first party of the summertime. The event will also feature The Polyps (Raf from The Woolen Men + others) and Talkative (Eugene). You should be here. It's going to be rad. RSVP on Facebook.

Next Tuesday, May 24th, the Banana Stand is releasing our biggest album to date: Blue Skies for Black Hearts - Live from the Banana Stand. To say we're pumped would be an understatement. It's an amazing-sounding album from a terrific live band, and we're know you're going to love it. Make sure you grab it up next Tuesday!

To get ready for the release, we caught up with Blue Skies front-man Pat Kearns, who also mixed and mastered the album at his studio, PermaPress Recording. In this email interview, Pat told us about the band's recently released album and short film -- both called Embracing the Modern Age -- and let us in on what's coming next for Blue Skies for Black Hearts.

Banana Stand: You guys have been super busy since last we chatted. What all has been happening?

Pat Kearns: The new LP has been released, we finished and showed the first edit of our movie, we've been playing shows up and down the west coast, and we've been planning a tour of the east coast for October of 2011. I've also been writing a lot and we've been talking about starting to record the next LP before we even finish touring on Embracing the Modern Age. 

BS: It was really great to see so much positive press around the Mission Theater release show. It was a great event. How'd it all come together?

PK: It was kind of unusual for a record release show. It was important to me that the film was shown to an audience that was ready to see a goofy short film filled with non-sequitors and tons of references to other movies and TV shows. The evening needed to be an event in contrast to a cold showing of the short film followed by a couple of performances from Blue Skies and The Midnight Callers. I asked friends who are involved with Atomic Arts Theater Company (Adam and Amy Rosko), Curious Comedy Theater (Laura James), and my cousin, Jon Jolin, who is an actor in LA, to help with the evenings entertainment. The big catch was that the audience had no idea what they were in for. And it turned out great.

The night started off with Von Hummer introducing the show from the movie screen. He ends up getting into a fight with two hecklers in the audience, Laura James and Adam Rosko. The audience thought the hecklers were real for a bit....at least until one of them ran back stage and appeared on the movie screen along with Von Hummer. We had The Satin Chaps playing music in between each one of our actors' short performances. Blue Skies also played Old Friends with The Satin Chaps. The Midnight Callers played a fantastic set and we got to show the movie to an audience that was primed for total weirdness, which is exactly what our little film is. We played after the film, people danced, shouted and hollered. It was a really good time.

Considering how ambitious our plans were, I am very surprised it went off with only a few minor hitches. The guys in the band were so nervous ahead of time that I was overextending ourselves with the show, so I had it secretly filmed without telling them. We get to see the footage of the show later this week. I'm really looking forward to it.

Photo by Justin Dylan Renney

BS: For those that don't know, the Mission Theater event was both the release of Blue Skies for Black Hearts' new album Embracing The Modern Age and the premier of their short film of the same name. Can you tell us a bit about the film?

PK: I wrote the song first, which sparked a conversation between Kelly and his friend, Matt Fulkerson, about the future of mankind and how, in order to survive, we will become robots. Matt drew a cartoon of a monkey handing a robot a banana to go along with his theory. Kelly tried to turn this basic idea into a concept for a video for one of our songs, but very quickly, the concept grew into three videos for three separate songs. The video concept was eventually pitched to Jonathan Griffith of Valley Video Services in La Grande and he convinced us to do it as a movie. Kelly hashed out the screenplay with help from the band while we were on a 3 week tour in March of 2010. We filmed the whole thing in three days with locations including East End; I84, Maryhill, WA; and La Grande, OR. 

BS: What about the new album? You recorded it to tape, correct? Tell us a bit about the production process.

PK: We actually started out recording in digital. I was installing a new tape machine at PermaPress Recording, where I work. We cut two songs on the tape machine and realized it was the sound we were looking for. It was so much thicker and more rock and roll sounding than the digital recordings we had done up to that point. Also, in contrast to our previous records, this one was more rehearsed. In the past, I would show new songs to the band often on the same day that we cut the basic tracks. This time, we worked up tunes ahead of time and because of that, I had the opportunity to rewrite many of them. I think we actually threw away the first six songs written for this record. Parts of them were incorporated into other songs on the record. I was really able to zero in on making all the songs really great. I think that's the biggest strength of the record. The tape didn't make getting good sounds always easy. We had some technical problems with the tape shedding and becoming gummy. It made the process of recording very slow because we had to stop a lot to clean the tape deck. But I think this also made every performance count. Every performance had a feel of desperation to it because if you didn't get it right on the first or second pass, you were going to be taking ten minutes while the engineer cleaned the tape deck again. 

BS: What're you all up to in your spare time? Any projects beyond Blue Skies right now?

PK: My wife, Susan, and I have a studio project called St. Cloud. We have a song out on YouTube called You're Profile Says Today Is Your Birthday. I'm also working on several other bands' records at the studio. I finished up a new album for Buckley yesterday, I'm working on the next Welfare State record, and I'm hoping to start working with this killer local band called The Reselectrics really soon...and that's really only scratching the surface with me. Mike is just beginning to write the next record for The Very Foundation, and Kelly has been doing some one off shows around town with his wife, Katy. I'm pretty sure Blue Skies is going to be starting our next studio record late this summer. We definitely have the songs. I'm just waiting to see when I can squeeze us into the studio's schedule between my job and the band's touring.

BS: What's coming up next for Blue Skies for Black Hearts?

PK: We play a bunch of shows throughout the NW in late May and June including the PDXPOP compilation CD release show on June 2 at Holocene. We have another short west coast run also in June. We'll be going to Sacramento, Fresno and the Bay Area. We play our first all ages Portland show in a long time. It's not confirmed yet, but I believe we'll be at Backspace with Your Rival on July 8. We're planning shows for the east coast in October. And I'm doing lots of writing. I think our new batch of songs is really cool. I can't wait to start recording the next record.

Big thanks to Pat Kearns from Blue Skies for Black Hearts for participating in our interview. Blue Skies for Black Hearts is Pat, Michael Lewis and Kelly Simmons and Paul Noel. Their live album, recorded before a live audience here at the Banana Stand last August, comes out Tuesday, May 24th. You should really, really grab it

Check out more of Blue Skies for Black Hearts at blueskiesforblackhearts.com and on Facebook and MySpace.

This Saturday, April 30th, The Banana Stand will host the jangly, dreamy sounds of Towering Trees to record live. The show will also feature The Shy Seasons, and will be super rad: please RSVP on Facebook.

To get you ready for Saturday, please check out this interview with Towering Trees' William Carpenter, who answered our questions via email for this interview.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

William Carpenter: Towering Trees started a few years back under the name William Carpenter's Towering Trees. When I moved to Portland, I played music with a lot of folks and used "Towering Trees" as a name for whatever group of folks with which I played. We had quite a few lineup changes. It wasn't until about this time last year that our band solidified as myself, Sawyer, and Tom. After a few months of playing and writing with these guys it became clear that my name had no place in front of the band's name. We were all in the same band.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

WC: The word I like to use is "jangle," maybe because it's just fun to say. It's pop in rhythm and melody. We get a lot of influences from a lot of different places. Some of our favorite bands: The Smiths, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Strokes, a lot of fifties and sixties pop too.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live?

WC: We recorded our Proto EP with live takes and overdubbed the vocals later on, which I think was helpful in capturing the energy of the songs. We have never recorded, with any calculated effort, in a live concert setting though. I think that setting is where a lot of the best performances of the songs can happen. We're really excited to be working with the Banana Stand and can't wait to get it on record.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

WC: [Shows played] We played Backspace in January with Padraic Finbar Hagerty-Hammond and pocketknife. Both bands were totally stellar, the crowd just danced and had a great time. It is always good to see a crowd that physically expresses their pleasure with the music. Years back I got to play on the roof of the Hotel Deluxe as part of the Top Down Film Festival, that was a gorgeous night. Another outside concert at Lewis and Clark College with Old Time Relijun was just awesome. Least favorite memories are thankfully far between, but they usually involve issues with organization. I'm happy when any number of people come to our concerts, so long as they enjoy themselves.

[Shows attended] A few shows come to mind: Wolf Eyes at the Knitting Factory in '06, Why? and Mount Eerie last year at the Wonder Ballroom, Morrissey in '09 at the Roseland, Sunn O))) and Boris at the Walker in '06. All of these shows had one thing in common: the artists were engaged with the audience. The best live performances not only try to convey the emotionthat's there on the studio recording, but try to humanize it and put it in context. I won't name any specific bands for the worst shows I've been to, but they have consistently been the kind where the artist is more interested pleasing themselves (or drinking themselves silly) than putting forth the best performance possible.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

WC: Yessongs by Yes is without question one of the best live albums ever recorded. Rank by The Smiths. And of course Live at the Fillmore East, June 1971 by The Mothers of Invention.

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

WC: Tom is in a band called The Protons, who are playing Langano Lounge on April 29th. They're awesome. I still perform solo from time to time. Once in a while I will resurrect my drone band Brocaine, that's usually around full moons, solstices. 

BS: What are you working on lately?

WC: The band is writing songs and recording demos for what we hope will be our first album. We're playing a lot of shows around town right now and that may stop for a month or so in order to move forward with a recording.

Thanks to William Carpenter from Towering Trees for participating in our interview. Towering Trees is William, Tom and Sawyer. They'll be recording live at the Banana Stand on Saturday, April 30th with The Shy Seasons. You should totally be here: RSVP on Facebook.

Check out more of Towering Trees on Bandcamp, Facebook and MySpace.

Lack of sun driving wilting your brain, bleaching your skin and sapping your motivation on the eternal wait for Portland summertime? Soak up some of Portland’s other best season(s) on April 30 when the Banana Stand welcomes Shy Seasons. The four-piece outfit will rock alongside Towering Trees in one of the ‘Stand’s most anticipated shows of the year. Below, guitarist Keenan Olsen and drummer Zach Habbestad took the time to explain how the bands humble origins, wide-ranging influences, and why the Satyricon sucks.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Shy Seasons: Well, the ‘ol band has been together for some time now. Around four years, all of ‘em good. We came together like any other good band; dudes dating sisters, makin’ noise, slinging guitars around, eventually you got yourself a band. It happens naturally. Before you know it, we've got a gig and we don't even have two original songs. So that's how we were brought up as a band, doing live shows. Play one gig, “alright boys, we need some new tunes for the next gig,” then we hammer out some jams to freshen up the set. Thankfully for us, the songs were really damn good. So we stuck together.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

SS: Our sound is like... when you’re chilling in a dark lounge and you catch the eye of a pretty lady, a real bonnie lass. At the same time, it’s like being lost at sea, entranced by sirens. Our influences are wide-ranged. Sometimes we're diggin’ the Rolling Stones or Interpol, Dr. Dre or Wu Tang Clan, QOTSA or RATM, Robert Johnson or Son House, Bob Dylan or Bob Marley, Nina Simone or Thelonious, Radiohead or the Chili Peppers, We just like music. If it's good it's good.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live?

SS: Cuz that's what we know best. We started out as a live band, so playing live is just what we're used to. And to have a good night of music preserved on a recording is great. It documents a point in time when people got together to have a good time and celebrate life to some good tunes.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

SS: There was one show that stands out. We were doing a number called "Campfire Song" at the Hawthorne, and people started singing along to the chorus. Which was cool and strange at the same time, cuz no one had heard it before. At least we didn't think so.

The least favorite award will have to go to a night at the Satyricon. The venue was empty except for other bands and the bums wandering outside. So we said "Fuck it, no more Satyricon", and never went back.


BS: What are your favorite live albums?

SS: Zeppelin at BBC, Mastodon just came out with a really good one, Rage Live at the Grand Olympic, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. Pixies have been releasing a lot of archived live recordings as well that are awesome.



BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

SS: We have some side projects to pass the time when The Shy Seasons are hibernating. We got Zoo Bomb Crew (Reggae), Laser Light Shotgun (Experimental Funk), Weather (Hip-hop), Feral Dogs (Rock&Roll), and so on. We're also sharing our bassist with the band Funkle Ted. You're welcome Funkle's. He's a precious commodity. 


BS: What are you working on lately?

SS: We just so happen to be in the studio right now. We're cutting our first full-length LP, to be entitled "Socialite". Not to be boastful, but... it's gonna be great. We're hoping to have it out by late May.

Thanks to Keenan Olsen and Zach Habbestad from The Shy Seasons for participating in our interview. The Shy Seasons are Keenan, Zach, Chad Miner and Jesse Blair. They'll be recording live at the Banana Stand on Saturday, April 30th with Towering Trees. You should totally be here: RSVP on Facebook.

Check out more of The Shy Seasons on Facebook and MySpace.

After shaking the 'stand in January 2010 alongside Asteroid M and releasing Tiger House Live from the Banana Stand, the gentleman of Tiger House will once again grace us with their presence on March 26 with Bombs Into You. Lead vocalist Bill Scharmann explained to us what's been keeping the band busy, how to confuse the local indie rags, and what happens when your dad does the sound for your shows.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form?

Bill Scharmann: A little over a year.

BS: How did it come together?

BSch: Carl and I have been writing music together since late 2007 or early 2008. I had just got my B.A. at Portland State and wanted to start my first band. He was the only guy I knew who played guitar in Portland (yeah, for real) -- but I hadn't seen him since high school. I thought he was the greasy dude that always brought his guitar to school. I was the theatre nerd he thought was pulling straight A's. We both had a passion for Silverchair (yeah, for real.) I e-mailed him and then we toyed around for awhile playing with various drummers and bassists. Tiger House was the natural progression for both of us.

BS: How would you describe your sound?

BSch: This question can never be avoided and it's always hard to answer, but the only answer I can give you is: We don't want one. It drives the local alternative papers nuts. They call us 'genre-bending,' frankenstien indie rock, or tell us we have yet to 'find' our sound. All we know is that we don't want our audience (or ourselves) to sit through a 45 minute set of the same song over and over. I am pretty sure it stems from sitting through too many story-teller coffee shop shows, ADHD, and my restless leg syndrome.

BS: What are your key influences?

BSch: Education, [redacted] and 80's romanticism.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live?

BSch: I love the challenge of recording a band live. It is so incredibly hard to do. I love what the Banana Stand is doing in Portland. I wish there was more of that-- capturing Portland in its natural environment--- in its basement.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

BSch: Can I take a moment to talk about what a 'real night' is? I heard this from our friend Alex, who, I think heard it from the Jogger's (former Shaky Hands) drummer. A 'real night' is many things. It could be playing to your girlfriends on a Monday at the Red Room on 82nd. It could be walking into a venue to set up your equipment, promptly greeted by a medieval flute band who has taken over your stage and then the sound guy has 'left for the night' so the bassist of Nu Shooz and your Dad have to do the sound for your show, and then your Dad discovers the light board and thinks the lights need to come down dramatically after you finish every song. A 'real night' is getting your show moved to another venue and now you're playing at what looks to be a Family Pizzeria in St. Johns. And yes, that 13-year-old is playing whack a-mole during your set. A 'real night' is your least favorite show ever while being your favorite show. Yes, every single one of those happened to us.

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

BSch: Right now I am really into these VHS heavy metal tapes I got at various thrift stores. I don't care if this counts as a live album or if I sound like I am trying to be a kistch record snob. But everyone needs to check out Def Leppard's In The Round LIVE, Hard 'n' Heavy volumes 1-10 (They're on Hulu, seriously), Anthrax's N.F.V. Live at Hammersmith Odeon, and Armored Saint's Trip Thru Red Times. Go ahead and judge me, but it will be the best thing you ever watch.

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

BSch: Carl and I work solely on Tiger House, but right now my mistress is graduate school and Carl's will be his child when it comes in August. Both Dustin (drummer) and George (bassist) are in other bands. Dustin fronts Mere Mention (a wonderful shoe-gaze band) and George is probably in a million other bands I don't know about... the ones I do know about are Handcheck and Salty Blackness.

BS: What are you working on lately?

BSch: We just played our EP release show at Doug Fir for our Doom Pop EP (which we recorded this last summer). We are currently finishing writing the last songs for our full-length debut album tentatively called "Top 40 Mornings & Underground Nights" which will more than likely be full half dance songs and half indie pop foot tappers. We don't know what the hell we're doing, we're just having a really good time doing it.

Thanks to Tiger House's Bill Scharmann for participating in our interview. The band will be recording live at the Banana Stand on Saturday, March 26 with Bombs Into You.

Check out more of Tiger House on Facebook, Bandcamp, Twitter and MySpace

We're dead psyched for the next Banana Stand event (3/26), when we will host the "cranktronic" sounds of Bombs Into You and 'stand faves Tiger House (in a return performance). It's going to be rad, and you should be here: RSVP on Facebook.

To get you ready for the 26th, Bombs Into You's Jared Jensen told us a bit about Bombs Into You, their history and thoughts on recording live.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Jared Jensen: Well, BIY has gone through a lot of changes. Our drummer Kevin has been with us since June, and he's made an immeasurable impact on what we do and how we write. So I'd say BIY has around for a few years, but that our current form is really new. It's pretty exciting right now. We're making the music that feels really visceral and vital to the three of us, and that's a pretty great place to be.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

JJ: Willamette Week called us “cranktronic” once, and that has stuck pretty well. We're definitely loud and confrontational. Amid all the folk rock in this town, hopefully bands like us can be a bit of fresh air. Not to take anything away from folk bands but it's so prevalent... it feels to me like we need a little raucous craziness in this town sometimes. Most of our influences are ever changing and sporadic. The record that we've been writing weighs on our more noisy, punk rock, heavy side.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live?

JJ: The pressure is pretty fun. Whatever the show, it is what you made it. If you didn't practice enough, people are gonna hear it. If you're voice is off that night, it's gonna be apparent. I think that makes it sound courageous and adventurous. Especially since you guys disperse this thing all over. If we truly suck, we'll know it after Banana Stand... we don't suck, though.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

JJ: Tackling Will from Tiger House. That was pretty recent. He's so into being crazy at shows, I love it!

Least favorite?...anytime we've played with Tiger House...oh wait...

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

JJ: Oh wow - that's a tough question. I don't listen to that many live records to be honest. And All That Could Have Been, the NIN live record comes to mind. I really love Interpol's live EP. Miles Davis live in San Francisco is a fav that I have on vinyl - how's that for disparate and pretentious?

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

JJ: Kevin is also in Amber Voltaire, and just completed work on his solo project, Donkey The Lion, which will debut live on June 1 I believe. Gage is always working on personal projects that come to life at parties, or on Internet EP's - he also does some film work here and there. I do some DJing, which I've found to be super fun and energizing. I've also got an all-electronic noise project in my back pocket that I work on every once in a while...one of these days...

BS: What are you working on lately?

JJ: We're working hard on a new record. We're still writing, but we'll definitely have something out by the end of the year, hopefully sooner!

Huge thanks to Bombs Into You's Jared Jensen for participating in our interview. Bombs Into You is Jared, Gage Choat and Kevin Woodruff. They're recording live at the Banana Stand this Saturday (March 26th) with Tiger House. You should totally be here: RSVP on Facebook.

Check out more of Bombs Into You at bombsintoyou.com and on Facebook, Bandcamp and MySpace.

For more from The Banana Stand, please like us on Facebook, sign up for our email newsletter and follow us on Twitter.

Vanimal - Live at The Banana Stand from Banana Stand Media on Vimeo.

After Titans of Industry played a great set, electronic rockers Vanimal kicked off an epic dance party that we can't to release to the world. Usually we have a post-show write up, but we think this video will suffice. Hope you agree.

-Aaron

Thanks Aaron for the show writeup and Evan for the video.

Have fun at our 2/26 show? Be sure to check out our photos from the event and read our interviews with Vanimal and Titans of Industry.

You can also find more from VANIMAL on Facebook and MySpace, and from The Titans of Industry on Facebook, Bandcamp and MySpace.

Once upon a time I took an audio engineering lab at Purdue University, so after Please Step Out of the Vehicle played, I thought I could mix down my favorite moment of the night. And you can get a fairly decent idea of what happened, but not really. See, the thing is, I barely knew what the fuck I was doing. 

Thankfully, the rest of the set is mixed by Vic Lund. To be honest, I thought Vic was going to mix this song down too, as he did with the rest. But, sorry for you, it was left in it's current form, horribly overproduced.

Not until the end of the song, where I poorly brought up crowd noise, can you hear the tone of the room, an essential part of a live recording.

We're capturing beautiful, sometimes important and even meaningful seconds in time. Please Step Out of the Vehicle isn't even a band anymore, and unless you were there, you can't truly feel the emotion that was there.

Honesty is the Best Policy was the last song of the night. Saturday, August 8th, 2008 was a perfect Portland, usually sunny, day. Please Step Out of the Vehicle played our space for their Lo-Fi Summer CD release. The people in attendance were all wonderful, and at the end of the song, the entire crowd was singing along. 

The best song you can hear from the night, in my opinion, is Mountainz and I hope you check it out. It's way better than Blacked Out - the first song I mixed. Actually, all the songs ever released from Banana Stand Media are better.

Songs from Please Step Out of the Vehicle, all of which are excellent, are part of our free Friends of the Stand compilation. The album is good, but definitely our earlier work. I can't wait for people to hear the new stuff.

-Aaron

Honesty is the Best Policy was performed by Please Step Out of the Vehicle. Find more from them on MySpace. It was mixed by Aaron Colter.

The Banana Stand is ecstatic to offer this preview track to get you pumped for the release of The Nextdoor Neighbors - Live from the Banana Stand, dropping Tuesday, March 15th. Recorded at our April 24th, 2010 event (which also featured Portland house show staple Destroy Nate Allen), our live album with Olympia's The Nextdoor Neighbors is an excellent documentation of a fantastic live set, and of the audience's response to that set. Kathy and Jessie provided a welcome alternative to the 'Stand's traditional fare (guitar rock from dudes) and the crowd loved it.

With the band on hiatus and Kathy heading for New Orleans, The Nextdoor Neighbors - Live from the Banana Stand is your last, best chance to hear this excellent band perform live. Make sure you download the album next Tuesday (3/15) for the low-low price of pay-what-you-want!

The 'Stand is thrilled to host the electro-wave of Portland's VANIMAL to record live here February 26th with Seattle's The Titans of Industry. It's going to be a rad show that you should totally be at: RSVP on Facebook. To get you pumped for the evening: Tim John O'Brien told us a bit about VANIMAL's history, sound and thoughts on recording live.

Update, 2/24: Though Tim John O'Brien was our contact for this interview, interview responses come from all of Vanimal. We'd previously credited answers only to Tim John. Sorry for this confusion.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

VANIMAL: Tim John O'Brien started the band after his last project with a specific sound and concept in mind. He began playing with Nick Ramsdell first about 9 months ago.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

V: New wave/Electro/Post-post-post/Cetra/Cetra/Gary Numan on crack-cocaine. We all listen to different things, sometimes they intersect. It ranges from 30 year old French new wave to LCD Soundsystem to Trans Am to Wire to Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark to Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Nitzer Ebb, Robyn, Cameo, Knife, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, Serge Gainsbourg, Lou Reed, Les Rita Mitsouko, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Matthew Dear, Prince, New Order, Orange Juice, Ol' Dirty Bastard. You know, all the usual hit-makers. We tear through influences rather quickly to really say in any specific terms. No artist in particular is more important.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live?

V: Documentation and perspective. There really isn't any reason not to. We suppose if you are signed it's a good way to get out of a contract. Yea, God, why not? There are definitely more than enough differences in how we sound on the EP we're recording in studio and how we sound live. We're a live band, we sound different from show to show.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

V: Shows are expressive. We've got the Stand's show and 1 more coming up and we'll be hiatus-ing from live shows for a little bit to finish this EP we're making with Karl Kling of Remix Artist Collective. We'll be writing new material in this time so we can be playing new stuff this summer. Brent wants to learn 7 cover songs from 1 artist for learning purposes or something from what I understand. He says he's serious. Tim John and Nick want to screen print this EP in their basement, which will be an effort, for certain. We've got a lot to do so we're excited to do these things, then hit it hard in the summer again. 

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

V: "Urgh! A Music War!" is a VHS documentary but I think that still counts. That's pretty inspirational to some of us. It features an amazing amount of artists performing from the early 80's. It's a rich combination of great performances of all kinds of new wave bands and more. Klaus Nomi is in it.

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

V: Brent has "A Gentleman's Picnic" with his partner Devon, which is really exciting. Nick has always called his solo work "Arcs", and he continues to write and perform that growing body of work with a rotating cast of other musicians. It is very different than Vanimal. Jakub is always very involved with visual arts. Andrew is going to school again and day dreams about furniture, we're led to believe. Tim John does graphic design (timjohnobrien.tumblr.com) and recently did some soundtrack work.

BS: What are you working on lately?

V: New songs. A new EP. Constantly changing up the sound and the gear. We're all practicing DJing on vinyl, what with the beatmatching and such. If we DJ at our shows then we won't have to hear some playlist on someone's iPod between sets anymore. We're moving towards attempting to create a more cohesive environment for an evening's trajectory during all of our shows and it requires a lot of attention to detail. Learning to DJ on vinyl is a bit of a process but we think it'll be really worth it. There is a lot of music one can play to paint the air with to properly contextualize and encapsulate Vanimal's set.

Huge thanks to VANIMAL's Tim John O'Brien being our touch-point for this interview. VANIMAL is Tim John, Brent Braun, Jakub Jerzy, Nicholas Ramsdell, Andrew Meininger. They're recording live at the Banana Stand this Saturday (February 26th) with The Titans of Industry. You should totally be here: RSVP on Facebook.

You can find more from VANIMAL on Facebook and MySpace.

We're proud to record Seattle band The Titans of Industry on February 26th along with Vanimal. The pop-rock group uses catchy rhythms and piano in a way that's as infectious as it is smart. Kellen Grace answered some questions via email about the group and why they're traveling all the way to Portland for a live recording.

Banana Stand: How long has the band been together in its current form? How did it come together?

Kellen Grace: I decided to put the band together a couple of years ago after my previous band fell apart. Its morphed a bit over time; we've had our current line-up for about 9 months now. Matt Leon has been with the band essentially from the beginning.

BS: How would you describe your sound? What are your key influences?

KG: Always a tough question to pin down, although I find myself mostly influenced by song-writers like Lennon, Newman, Cale, Nilsson, and especially the old ones: the Gershwins and Cole Porter and the hundreds more that invented the pop song during the 30s and 40s. Also, can never get too far away from The Stranglers, Joe Jackson, Clash, Bowie, and Teardrop Explodes.

BS: Tell us your thoughts about recording live. What makes you interested in recording live?

KG: Its the essence of making music. If we were living in the 60s right now, we'd have no choice but.

BS: What's your favorite memory of a live show? Least favorite?

KG: Whew, that is a question. Pretty much every show I went to as a kid, getting my body crushed at a hardcore show by all the flying bodies was pretty much what made me want to start a band as a kid.  As far as least favorite goes, thats hard to say. There seems to be one show on every tour we go on that makes you want give up and just go to sleep for the rest of your life or something. Of course the next night seems to always make up for it, such seems to be the way of things!

BS: What are your favorite live albums?

KG: Pretty much all of Nina Simone's live records are pretty amazing, the one at ronnie scott's in london is definitely a fav. The Make-up's Destination Love gotta be on the list too

BS: What other projects are you all involved with?

KG: This is it at the moment for me. Chris is currently working on a project with Adam from Devotion.

BS: What are you working on lately?

KG: Starting to prepare some new material for our first full length record to be released in the next year or so.

Huge thanks to Titans of Industry's Kellen Grace for participating in our interview. Titans of Industry is Kellen, Matt Leon, Matt Maisano and Chris Rager. They're recording live at the Banana Stand on Saturday, February 26th with VANIMAL. You should totally be here: RSVP on Facebook.

You can find more from Titans of Industry at thetitansofindustry.bandcamp.com and on Facebook and MySpace.

Years ago, when we were contemplating hosting Ingredients the Band for a live recording, we only needed one song to solidify the decision - "Groovy Groovy Man" was that song. I don't think any explanation is needed. Just listen to it.

Continue reading if you'd like some history on this song and how the the first, full-length live album from Banana Stand Media came to be.

Ingredients the Band contacted us while they were still living in Eugene. A beloved group in the college scene at the University of Oregon, the band had everything we were looking for in terms of independent musicians -- they were talented, well-versed in playing live shows, and didn't take themselves too seriously.

The last point might not seem that important, but when recording live, it's good that the band not be perfectionists, or overly arrogant about the art they're creating. The entire point of the live album is to get a total experience of what a group sounds like honestly.

The only problem we saw with Ingredients the Band was that they lived in a different city, and sometimes that can be a hinderance to contract signing, promotion, and a variety of other factors. In the end, Ingredients won us over and we booked them for our February 14th show with Project Eldridge, a young group of local musicians, and Shelby Sifers, who had only recently arrived to Portland.

The night of February 14th was fun, but a fucking disaster in terms of recording. I can't remember what all the issues were, drunkenness assuredly, but possible microphone problems, feedback, electronic interference - it could have been a number of things.

In any case, we weren't satisfied with how Ingredients the Band were represented in what we had captured. So, we invited them back, but for a private session. A couple weeks later, Ingredients came back on a Sunday afternoon while Louie and I ran sound.