Possibly attributable to a BMP hangover that wouldn’t quit, the “Sibilance” staff misread a MySpace page and lengthened Purse’s name to Pursesnatcher. Either way, Bob Smyth checked in this week to update the staff with news that ex-Conifer drummer Nate Nadeau has joined the band playing bass, drums, and electronics. As for the sound, we’ll let Smyth do the defining: “Think Death from Above 1979, old Blonde Redhead, old PJ Harvey, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Jefferson Starship.” We’re unclear if that last one is a joke.
Now-Is-Now’s Mitch Alden has announced plans for the band’s third full-length, tentatively titled Never Go Back. Drums and rhythm were tracked last week, with guitars and vocals to be added as the summer goes on. Mixing will take place at Electric Machine in early September, and the CD is scheduled for an early October release. The “Sibilance” staff are slightly put off by his organization. We mean, really, how is anybody supposed to know what’s going to happen in October? Bush’s ineptitude with foreign relations could trigger a nuclear war by then, right? So there’s little point in planning. In other news, Now-Is-Now are now available on iTunes.
Also in the studio are Dead Season, who won’t be playing live again until July while they finally put together their debut full-length after two very successful EPs over the past three years. They start recording June 17.
The F2 Beat Alliance has released Sanford Funk Summit, amusing just on the face of it. The funk/hip-hop/electronica effort features some nice, live beat-making, coming from members of area punkers gocasual, Jodi Explodi, and BDC, and resulting in a sound like Jurassic 5 mixed with Primus. The MCs don’t seem completely comfortable in their rapping skins, but the word-play is decent and the delivery’s intent is at least admirable. The album dropped earlier this month, coinciding with the reopening of the Sanford Bull Moose, which the “Sibilance” staff suspects is something of an oasis down there. Not that we’ve got anything bad to say about Sanford, since we don’t want Rick Wormwood and his Rumbling Proletariat to come and kick our teeth in or anything.
Jason Hjort, who performs as J.Hjort and runs the electronica label Brick City Media, is all aflutter about the creation of wepushbuttons.com, a tongue-in-cheek and perhaps self-deprecatory reference to what it is that electronic purveyors do. The online publication is a collaboration between Rocket Resources (brainchild of sometimes-Phoenix contributor Todd Richard), Hjort’s Brick.City.Media, Moshe’s Milled Pavement, and Glacial Multimedia (a Portland-based marketing firm), intended “to cover and promote Portland’s electronic music scene.” Look for listings, reviews, and forums, and Hjort promises the site will not be “genre-specific, but instead will cover all music created with electronic elements (hip hop, techno, house, drum and bass, trip hop, whatever).” He also envisions the site as a global beacon, and has already signed up writers from Scotland, Czech Republic, and Turkey. The site will be launched in late July or early August, they haven’t decided yet. Also, “Expect a big star-studded launch event!” Huzzah.
