Hello there! As you mayhaps are aware (why did I just use the word "mayhaps"?), we've got a couple of stellar releases on deck for June: Portland Cello Project's "The Thao and Justin Power Sessions" (Kill Rock Stars, out 6/9) and All Smiles' "Oh For The Gettinng and Not Letting Go" (out 6/30). If you haven't already, I'd love it if you could share any coverage plans you might have with me--and please let me know if I can get you anything in the way of bios, photos, interview time, list spots, and....well, that's about it. Brief synopses are below; I look forward to hearing from you! xo Joan/Riot Act
In the course of one of Portland Cello Project’s epic two to three-hour shows (the format of which is always a one-time affair – the group writes almost entirely new arrangements for every performance cycle), you’ll see old ladies straight out of the symphony hall nodding their heads to cello hip-hop; young children playing air cello while dancing to 16 cellos accompanying The Builders and The Butchers, too-cool-for-school hipsters mesmerized by Arvo Paert, members of the Decemberists playing late 19th century Russian compositions transcribed for Hammond Organ, a 40-piece choir, and of course, a symphony of cellos. On "The Thao and Justin Power Sessions", two of the artists who have collaborated with PCP, Kill Rock Stars artist Thao Nguyen of Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and local musician Justin Power, contribute four songs each to the record, and the other four songs are strategically placed examples of cello sublimity and madness, oscillating from a Pantera cover to a solemn religious piece by John Tavener. Although it’s no longer an anomaly for popular musicians to work with an orchestra, it tends to be on the symphony's terms, in the symphony's concert halls, and for the symphony's exclusive rates. The classically trained cellists of The Portland Cello Project are working to reverse that tradition by making their talents accessible to their guests’ wildest dreams, while bringing the instrument into venues where you wouldn't normally see cellos. With this in mind, the group will be touring throughout 2009, bringing their collaborative philosophy to a dirty punk club near you.
All Smiles is Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, Modest Mouse), and this is his second full-length. Fairchild began creating his new record shortly after he and his longtime love moved to Chicago, IL in the winter of 2007. After years of living in Modesto, Los Angeles, and Portland, and years of being on the road surrounded by friends and fun and constant movement, Fairchild found himself in a new place that was internally quiet, externally frigid and devoid of a familiar social environment. As anyone who has lived there can attest, Chicago can be a harsh and unforgiving place in the wintertime, although it's also a city that teaches its people innumerable lessons, some of which are harsh, some of which are life-affirming. Fairchild was living in a rough part of the city that illustrated, in his words, "...the fracture and entropy that we're seeing come to fruition somehow. I started thinking a lot about how weird it was to be broke in a shitty neighborhood, getting record-label financed computers dropped on my doorstep to make songs I couldn't afford to record without this weird money coming from who knows where, surrounded simultaneously by people like myself whose rent could be paid for months at the cost of shit being left on my doorstep in the snow." Despite that, "Being in love and watching opportunity grow from within my relationships was giving me hope... I was also moving around the notion that without good strong love and relationships and roots, we don't ever have any hope for improvement. That without love, we can't grow." Thus, the duality; shit and shine. Bright, smart chord progressions undercut with damning lyrics, all sung with gently assertive aplomb. The smile with your bitter cup of coffee. That's the record.
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