Orquestra Pacifico Tropical, Papi Fimbres, Edna Våzquez, Luz Elena Mendoza, The Chicharones, Adrian H and The Wounds, Lee and The Bees, Solvents, Bevelers, Sinless, Revolution Comedy Hour hosted by Andie Main
Doug Fir Lounge
05/16/2016 06:00 PM PDT
$0.00
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Orquestra Pacifico Tropical
Deep in the vein filled jungles of each of our hearts beats a music with roots as wide as continents and influence as deep as time itself. Cumbia, music of the Southern American Hemisphere. Orquestra Pacifico Tropical have taken this frenetic, addictive rhythm and accomplished what musicians across time and space have always done, bringing crowds into a blistering dance frenzy. From clubs to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, to hear the ecstatic thump, rumble, and sheer brilliance of the racing rhythms of coastal Columbia side by side with the psychedelic guitar explorations of the Peruvian rain forest is to travel across continents and through time with Orquestra Pacifico Tropical as the guide. WIth respect to those who came and innovated before us, and armed with an arsenal of percussion, woodwinds, horns, accordion and guitars, these 11 friends have come together in the spirit of capturing and breathing new life into this most essential of musics. Cumbia, music of the people.
Featuring members of Sun Angle, Deer or the Doe, O Bruxo, Ioa, Lewi Longmire Band,Tu Fawning, Point Juncture WA, Modernstate, Jippedo and Team Evil, Orquestra Pacifico Tropical's wall of sound is dedicated to expanding the music of Central and South America to the people and dance floors of the Pacific Northwest.
Edna Våzquez
"Soy libre! libre como el mar, como el viento, como las hojas que le nacen a los arboles. No soy hombre, ni mujer, soy un ser de luz conectado a ti y a los demas!"
Edna Vazquez was born in the Mexican state of Colima but lived the first 16 years of her life in the state of Jalisco, a state that is world-renowned as the soul of Mexican mariachi music. At age 17 she left her native Mexico and traveled to the U.S.A. to start a career in the music business, and met with more success than she ever could have imagined. She found herself singing and playing music across the country in many different styles.
Enda sings with a passion to bring a traditional touch and feeling of Mexico's traditional Folklorico to her audience, and mixes in her own compositions which are sprinkled with a variety of all Latin American genres. She sings with a velvety voice and sometimes whistles the melodies to compliment her guitar.
Luz Elena Mendoza
With Y LA BAMBA, Luzelena Mendoza draws from both her strict Catholic upbringing as an only daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a debilitating illness that led her to fall away from her faith, to create what LA Weekly calls "Devendra Banhart-influenced art-folk with hazy femme vocals and traditional Mexican sounds."
Mendoza's father immigrated to the Bay Area from the Michoacan region of Mexico after meeting her mother who had received her US citizenship as a teenager. Her father got a job at a southern Oregon sawmill and Luzelena would spend her childhood summers on a farm in California's San Joaquin Valley among peach, almond, and fig orchards. It was in these strong Mexican communities that she would soak up the melodies and the stories that were being told while, as she remembers it, "the men with tassel hats" strummed their guitars and sang their traditional folk songs in three part harmonies. "I remember singing along, mimicking my father's voice and dancing like a little wild child," she recalls. For Mendoza, this music was the only way she could relate to her father, and was a bright spot in a rough childhood.
In 2003, Mendoza traveled to New Zealand and India, in a quest for a deeper understanding of her spiritual growth as an active Christian, hungry for the tools to create a shift on this planet. During her trip to India, she contracted amoebic dysentery and giardia, causing her to suffer from insomnia, lose 60 pounds and fear her loss of sanity. "It shook me in ways I was not expecting, leading me to struggle with my prayer life and search for a healthy relationship with God, the universe, and with myself," says Mendoza of her condition (which was only complicated with a misdiagnosis). "I gave up on Christianity and what religion was starting to mean to me due to a natural awareness that was knocking on my door."
Upon her return to the US, she took in a white six-toed cat to keep her company as she fought to regain her physical, emotional and spiritual health. She christened her new feline companion La Bamba, a name that she incorporated into a moniker for her home recordings and performances at open mic nights in her new home, Portland. Bassist and vocalist Ben Meyercord caught some of Mendoza's open mic performances and the two quickly found a musical connection. In a whirlwind week that she said happened magically, Mendoza recruited Mike Kitson on drums and David Kyle on guitar. Luzelena played in an Ashland band with Kitson when she wanted a more quiet alternative to her early punk roots and Kyle was a musician she met online that shared her spiritual and eccentric philosophies. Intuition told her that she was going to meet the final piece in her musical puzzle and, sure enough, she stumbled upon accordion player Eric Schrepel playing the squeezebox at a puppet show.
With a raw songbook of home recordings under her belt and a new group of musicians to help Mendoza with her musical vision, Y LA BAMBA began to captivate audiences in Portland and tour stops around the US. Eventually, the quintet would attract the attention of The Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk, who offered his production skills for the band's first studio recording. Funk worked tirelessly to capture Y LA BAMBA's rustic tones, songs inspired by the traditional tunes of Mendoza's childhood, and her signature vocals that resemble the sounds spilling out of a 1930's Victrola. Dubbing the confidently stunning body of songs Lupon (after a nickname that Mendoza's father despised), Y LA BAMBA has emerged from the studio, ready to wow listeners everywhere. Lupon will be available during the fall of 2010 on Tender Loving Empire.
The Chicharones
The Chicharones, were formed at the South by Southwest Festival, when Sleep and Josh Martinez were just two ambitious guys trying to make it big. On the verge of their own solo careers, the two artists combined forces, and in the following decade, toured the world, sold over a 100,000 albums, and solidified their place as one of the best live shows in underground hip hop. They've licensed songs to NBA, MTV, ESPN, The Movies and multiple TV shows. Over time, the Chicharones have also become adults. After three years in the studio, they have created a living ode to the trials and tribulations of their 20s and the party that just won't die.
"The Best Bar Band in America" The Chicharones have toured the world, solo and with live bands, and perfected their sound, with over a decade spent in airplanes and in crowded tour vans, fighting to make something of themselves for the people they left behind. From Sleep's magic tricks and quick change routines, to Martinez's beer balancing and hi-kicking Elvis dance moves, The Chicharones have become legends for their unique sound and one-of-a-kind live show. Spin called The Chicharones "The Best Bar Band in America". Using humor and harmony, they've created something entirely new, pushing the boundaries of what hip hop sounds like. Expect 5-part harmonies, speed raps, a razor tight band, costume changes, syncopated dance moves, stage magic, standup comedy and the joyful interplay of veteran performers Sleep and Josh Martinez as they constantly raise the bar on what live performance can be.
THE NEW ALBUM: SWINE FLEW Swine Flew is the culmination of years of musical experimentation, uniting the content driven storytelling raps of the Boss Hogs EP, the epic joy and sorrow of When Pigs Fly, with the Surf-Rock musicality of Swine Country, to create an album for all seasons. The Chicharones are looking to infect the whole world with their particular brand of greasy hip-hop magic. While laying themselves bare, they take their lyrical content and musicality to new heights. With influences from the Beach Boys to the Beastie Boys, the Beatles to the Beatnuts, The Chicharones have created a musical masterpiece that speaks to all generations. This is musically mature music that engages the emotions, showcases the growth of the songwriters, but doesn't stray too far from the unique joie-de-vive the Chicharones have always brought you. This is the music for the adult you've become, and the kid that lives in your heart.
Adrian H and The Wounds
Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Adrian H and The Wounds is a three-piece band consisting of Adrian H (piano/vocals), Shiggy Nakano (bass) and Doug Layon (drums). The band certainly carved out their own niche sound on their recent release Pipe. It’s dark themed music that oozes cabaret and noir themes while embracing organic and electronic instrumentation.
Adrian H unfolds haunting storylines, reminiscent of Rumpelstiltskin taking a crackdown walk on the wild side with Lou Reed, in a deep-throated Leonard Cohen style. Original music and lyrical content reflect raw vocalized emotions, the sort of emotions facilitated by waking up alone, unwillingly divorced, and incapacitated by a lingering drunken stupor amid several dozen empty bottles of the cheapest liquor that panhandling can buy; and an unbrazened devotion to well-crafted stories. Perhaps moody and misunderstood, Adrian H's vocal range initially impresses of an unwashed, swarthy character; the anonymous sort from whom mothers pull away their children, moving hurriedly in any opposite direction. Mothers also say, "Don't judge a book by its cover!" Their music reveals serial, overlapping layers of complexity as each sordid song spins a new tale. Solace for open wounds earned via life's harsh realities may still reverberate deeply once the music stops. Despite these more dynamic audio features developing slowly behind each line of poetry, much of the lyrical content remains simplistic and to-the-point. Ironically, however, some of the lyrical content becomes so metaphysical that the mind of any listener may twist and turn in wonder upon the truth lingering still amid the lines of allegorical poetry. Overall, the music immediately provokes imagined visual context to support the creative lyrical storylines. Labor upon piano keys reflects nuances of an exquisite attention toward mood altering audio impacts. As such, each song might easily be paired with sinister cinematic opportunities. The next mission, for those who choose to accept: discover whether Adrian H and The Wounds so profoundly deliver live and on-stage the same enigmatic and provocative music, or whether this band harbors even more horrific new music yet to furtively be unveiled.
Lee and The Bees
Lee Allstar is a 6-piece folk & rock group from Portland. The music blends from one genre to another, channeling the likes of Rilo Kiley. Lee Aulson is the front woman (from Bevelers) with bandmates, Aaron Stern (bass), Jeremiah Brunnhoelzl (guitar), Ben Dahmes (Drums), Alicia Newsom (vocals), and John Sawyer (violin). Record label, My Darling Records released their first EP titled, "ish," on March 17th 2016.
Bevelers
Adria and Lee met while working at a coffee shop together called, Vivace in Portland, OR. It was there that their friendship blossomed musically! Lee Aulson, 25, writes, sings and plucks guitar strings in Bevelers. Just 3 weeks after she graduated college in May 2011, she boarded a Greyhound bus in Boston, MA and headed west. She has committed herself to simply, making art [post-art school]. During her time she explored drawing, performance art, event production and her primary study, Art Education. Adria Ivanitsky likes puns and chocolate milk. In Bevelers she sings, plays guitar, piano horn and glockenspiel. Originally from Salem, OR, she has experimented with a variety of different instruments starting at the age of 4! Together they wear many hats!
Sinless
Following the end of a relationship and a band, songwriter Cor Allen found himself soul searching. He started playing harmonium for a Hindu Guru and recording his own songs for the first time with borrowed gear, cheap synthesizers, and guitars inherited from his late father. The result is a hazy reminiscence of lost loves which takes classic pop songwriting influences and bathes them in a glow of dreampop and analogue warmth.
Cor heard the guru say "everyone is sinless in their true nature" during a talk and it stuck in his head. Needing a fresh start, he packed his car with only his music gear and came to Portland to start a band called Sinless.
Cor joined forces with Portland psych-folker Jackson Boone, playing lead guitar, until Sinless was fully formed. The band features members Pete Bosack (also of Mothertapes and Loch Lomond) on bass, John Walsh (formerly Palace Fiction) on guitar and synth, Lynn Nicholson (also of Land of the Living, formerly Fen Wik Ren) on drums, and Chelsea Smith (also of SewBlue) on keys and backing vocals.
Sinless are currently working on their debut album with Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Riley Geare due for release next year and have another home-recorded EP on the way.
Venue Information
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E. Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97214
http://www.dougfirlounge.com/