Pet Marmoset

+ Oh Darling

Fronted by one of the cutest gals in town, the Oh Darling guy-girl vibe possess an intriguing, yet subtle mix of what almost feels like sexual tension, plus plenty of indie pop goodness in their delivery. Already successful on her own, Jasmine Ash knows how to write catchy pop songs that are delicous like cheerios in chocolate milk. Now backed by a team of portland indie-pop veterans (Davey Hall of The Bella Fayes, J. Marie Hall of Sestina), the band recently wrapped-up their first full-length, which will no doubt make some waves in Portland and beyond. In the meantime, you can enjoy the eclectic, yet rythymically rocking material they turned out on their 2007 self-titled EP. Imagine strawberry shortcake meets metric, yet these kids (always the best dressed in town!) are fronted by Jasmine Ash - so that makes them better.

Be sure to check out the OD’s live and in person on May 7th at the Doug Fir in Portland, where they’ll be teaming-up with Northern State and The Trucks. It’s sure to be a nice nice time.

Waking Up on a Train (Nice Nice - 2008)

Check out their DIY video, waking up on a train - courtesy of their best bud, Kyle Oddson.

- Small display of shameless promtotion:Kyle Oddson is a handsome devil and a gentlemen…and is extremely talented at making music videos, video promos, and artistic photography. I highly recommend him for all of your rockstar visual media needs.  Let me know if you’d like an introduction or you can contact him directly at www.kyleoddson.com

Check out Oh Darling at:

+ www.ohdarlingmusic.com

+ www.myspace.com/ohdarlingmusic

Note: An earlier version of this review was originally published on NadaMucho.com by yours truly.

The past week or so has been quite the whirlwind around here. Here’s the the rundown:

• I haven’t eaten nachos in nearly two weeks - despite minimal support from friends and family.
•  I’ve learned more about dog bowls and the pet industry in the past week than most people learn in their whole lives.
• We had a house guest for a couple of nights. Our dear friend, Sharlese, was in town from Seattle and it seems she was in awe of how completely superior Portland is to Seattle. If I remember right, she said that Portland’s coffee, beer, music, and practically everything else were much better than Seattle’s. And you know what? I think i agree with her.
• The Dimes headlined a sold-out show at Doug Fir Saturday night, which included hanging out backstage with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of R.E.M., and seeing some cool people in the crowd, like Nate Query of The Decemberists, Fernando Viciconte, Britt Daniel of Spoon, and our Department peeps - Derby, Oh Darling, and DCRS….to name a few. And speaking of Spoon, here’s their video (one of my faves), Underdog:

• Had a wonderful time in Seattle on Saturday night. At the Mars Bar, The Dimes played a set, I enjoyed meeting the guys in Safer and J Minus, had the pleasure of chatting with my friend Andy Werth and his wife (thanks for stopping by), and later, Jerome and Tyron caught up with us and wisked us away with them to their spot in Capitol Hill.  As usual, Jerome scouted out some cool places for us to try out - ending-up at a swanky Japanese Sushi place that had some amazing Crabi Inari rolls. Sharlese couldn’t hang and stayed home.
• Literally bumped into Kim Thayhil of Soundgarden on Saturday night in Seattle. We were bar hopping on Capitol Hill when I had a brief exchange with him as we walked past him on the sidewalk. Nice guy. -If you don’ know who Kim Thayhill is, he’s the guy playing guitar in this video:

• I’m leaving tomorrow for an eight day dash down to the bay and back with my friends, The Dimes. Speaking of The Dimes, we had a great time in Seattle on Saturday. Here’s a photo I snapped on my phone of all of us, while we were waiting to eat breakfast on Madrona Hill. We ate at a wonderful breakfast establishmet called The Hi Spot. I highly recommend it, if you’re ever in the neighborhood. I had the Huevos Rancheros and they were AMAZING. They’re the closest thing on the menu to nachos that I could find.

• My wife Jeana has virtually turned into a robot during the past week and I must say, I’m am quite impressed. Studying for finals requires the ability to turn off all human characteristics and simply learn, retain, and articulate gobs of information. In my opinion, she’s doing a fine job. Jeana has offically taken her last class EVER of law school and is now in her “get serious” mode, focused and preparing for two weeks of finals. Speaking of serious… We’ll be doing some serious celebrating when this is all over. T-minus three weeks and counting…

Okay, now I’m gonna work like a madman to get things done and be ready to leave around noon tomorrow. I’ll provide some updates from the road as I can.

This just in from Dimes Communication Headquarters:

The Dimes are kicking-off their big West Coast Tour THIS FRIDAY NIGHT
at P-town’s Doug Fir, admittedly humble, yet excited to share the
night with The Minus 5 and The Heavenly States.

+ Friday, April 25th at Doug Fir (Portland) Doors at 8pm, Dimes at
11pm sharp. More info and tickets available at:
http://www.dougfirlounge.com/calendar.html

The Minus 5, featuring Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of R.E.M. fame
are promoting their seventh album, self-titled (but known as The Gun
Album) - a record featuring, along the regular line-up, guest
appearances by Wilco, Kelly Hogan, and Colin Meloy, among others.
+http://www.minus5.com

Bay area sweethearts, The Heavenly States, are kicking off their own
national tour Friday night, which will climax with a much anticipated
performance at this year’s Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge.
+http://www.myspace.com/heavenlystates

In case you missed it, The Dimes boys had a delightful time last
weekend at Mississippi Studios, debuting over an hour of new material
for a sold out room of friends and family. It was truly a special
evening and you can read about it and listen to a brand new song at
Northwest Noise:
+http://www.northwestnoise.com

The big West Coast Tour (aka 101 Degree Fever Tour) is shaping up to
be quite a trip! Here’s the schedule:

Apr 25: Doug Fir - Portland, Oregon
Apr 26: The Mars Bar - Seattle, Washington
Apr 29: Willamette University - Salem, Oregon
Apr 30: Good Morning Sacramento (TV News show!)
Apr 30: Sacramento State U. - Sacramento, California
Apr 30: UC Davis - Davis, California
May 1: Fresno State University - Fresno, California
May 1: KSCU 103.3FM Live In-Studio - Santa Clara, California
May 1: Santa Clara University - The Bronco - Santa Clara, California
May 2: UC Berkeley - Berkeley, California
May 2: KDVS 90.3fm - Live In-Studio - Davis, California
May 2: Old Ironsides - Sacramento, California
May 3: Sophias Thai Kitchen w/ Tyler Ramsey (BandofHorses) Davis, CA
May 4: TBA - Monterey, California
May 5: Sonoma State University - Rohnert Park, California
May 5: TBA - Ashland, Oregon
May 15: Spokane Community College - Spokane, Washington
May 16: The Great Pacific - Pendleton, Oregon
May 17: The Yakima Sports Center - Yakima, Washington
May 21: McMenamin’s Boone’s Treasury - Acoustic Set -Salem, Oregon
May 30: Oregon State University - Corvallis, Oregon
May 30: Sam Bonds Garage - with John Shipe - Eugene, Oregon
May 31: Bottom of the Hill w/ The Heaveny States - San Francisco, CA
Jun 5: Nectar - Seattle - Seattle, Washington
June 6: Go home and rest. Ugh.

We look forward to seeing many familiar faces and old friends while
out on tour. Give us a heads-up if you’ll make it out by emailing us
at: pierre@thedimes.com. Pierre loves getting email.

For our Portland friends, we highly recommend getting advance tickets
for this Friday night’s show, as it’s looking like it might sell out
early. You can purchase advance tickets and have them waiting for you
at Will Call at:
+http://ticketswest.rdln.com/Artist.aspx?evt=61651

See you soon-

xoxo

Team Dimes!

So I’ve got a dilemma that I’d like to work out. We’ve been doing the Netflix thing for a couple of years now. We subscribe to the “two at a time” model, where we can have up to two DVDs in our possession at a time. I think we pay around $12 a month for this service.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but McDonald’s has started offering a new DVD rental service called Redbox. Essentially, they have a giant vending machine at McDonald’s restaurants where you can use a touch screen to select the movie you want to rent and then slide your credit card for payment. The best part of Redbox is that rentals are only $1 each per day. And for every extra day you keep the DVD, your credit card is charged $1. And for pros like my friend Mario, you can go online ahead of time and reserve a particular movie at a specific Redbox location, so you can view what’s available ahead of time and also ensure you get the one you want.

We’ve got a Redbox machine right across the street from our condo building. Seriously, as I type this, I’m looking out of my second story window, across the street, through the glass windows of McDonalds, and I can actually see the Redbox vending machine. See the photo  I just snapped on my cell phone. Let me know if you ever need to know the daily special. I can see it clearly on the reader board at anytime. Right now it’s $1 Fillet-O-Fish on Fridays At $1 per rental, and assuming we only rent about one or two DVD’s per week, this is about half of what we pay for our Netflix subscription.

My dilemma is that I absolutely hate McDonalds and all that they stand for and can’t bear the thought of supporting that hideous monster of an organization. I’m serious with this - no exaggeration here. As far as I’m concerned, McDonalds preys upon children with scary clowns and cheap toys, using artificial flavors and chemicals to get you addicted as a kid, knowing that as you grow older and start having your own children, you’ll keep coming back due to the chemical addiction and brainwashing brand campagins they attack you with when you’re little. And as a result, you get fat, get lazy, and increase your health risks dramatically. In my opinion, McDonalds is a very successful, very bad company.

So… my big dilemma is this: do I opt for a significant cost savings on my regular DVD rentals and get equal, if not better convenience (Redbox is more on-demand in my book) by using Redbox instead of Netflix…all the while supporting McDonalds - an organization that I feel has adversely impacted the world as much as or more than Walmart, Hitler, and New Kids on the Block. Or am I simply over thinking this? I mean, maybe Netflix has some skeletons in their closet that I don’t know about, you know?

Here’s a recent article on Redbox I found: http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/27/Business/DVD_distributor_Redbo.shtml

I wanted to make a plate of nachos for lunch today, mainly so I could take a picture of my work and post it to the blog.  But Jeana scolded me and told me she’s worried that this blog could really make my mad nacho addiction even worse. She hid the cheese and told me to have soup.

Organic hearty lentil soup is no substitution for a sweet plate of nachos.

I’m hungry.

My friend Mario and I are meeting up tonight and he has a similar addiction to burritos. I’m thinking we may need to meet at Cha Cha Cha so we can both get a fix. Oh, how I need a fix.

+ Boy Eats Drum Machine

As overused and abused as the word is, I’m going to go ahead and use it: GENIUS.  BEDM frontman Jonny Ragel is one of the most talented artists forging his way through P-town these days. And please - don’t let the name, “Boy Eats Drum Machine” throw you off, quickly mistaking it for an emo rock knock-off or a techno beat factory. Much like their local buddies, Menomena, BEDM is like nothing you’ve heard before and might be the biggest, most dynamic sound you’ll ever discover in a trio.

Actually, BEDM has recently evolved to a one man affair, but for the sake of this review, we won’t travel down that road too far. Just trust me on this: whatever Mr. Ragel puts his mind and talent to will produce something unique, trendsetting, and is guaranteed to make you get up and dance.

Go to iTunes or the Myspace page and explore samples of the pioneering 2006 release, Pleasure. This record is both innovative and brilliant. From beginning to the end, this record supplies delicious hooks (ie: “Let’s Get Lost Sometime”), danceable beats, and simple, sometimes punchy guitar ballads that make you wonder why in the hell these guys haven’t been featured in Rolling Stone yet.

And as good as Pleasure and their 2007 follow-up, Two Ghosts, are…there is nothing quite like seeing BEDM live. On stage Jonny owns the x-factor that industry insiders talk about. Surrounded by an arsenal of instruments (electric and acoustic guitar, turntable, mixer, saxophone, floor tom, tambourine, cow bell, and more) he commands an undeniable stage presence - reinforced with a spot-on falsetto, fascinating turn-table work, and non-stop dancing. The kid can get down!

Now I’m well aware that I’m going a little over the top here…lacking an objective dig to bring BEDM back down to reality. But for a moment…think about this. Maybe BEDM really IS that good.

You can find out for yourself on Sunday, May 11th at Berbati’s Pan in downtown Portland where BEDM is performing at the Tender Loving Empire’s all ages par-tae.

3000FLARES (Two Ghosts - 2007)

This is a video of a live show I had the pleasure of being at, about a year or so ago at the good old Satyricon in Portland - performing “Sixcuse Me”:

Check out Boy Eats Drum Machine at:

+ www.boyeatsdrummachine.com

+ www.myspace.com/boyeatsdrummachine

Note: An earlier version of this review was originally published on NadaMucho.com by yours truly.

Originally uploaded by ryanwines

In case you missed it, The Dimes boys completely killed it Saturday night at Mississippi Studios in Portland. The show sold out the week before and so there ended-up being a bunch of people sitting on the floor and standing in the aisles and in the back of the room. It was a little weird seeing so many people cram themselves into this tiny theater for these jerkies commonly referred to as The Dimes. Kidding on the jerkies comment…you know these guys are all like family to me.

All in all, this was probably the best and most exciting Dimes show to date. They played all new music and had the entire room bobbing their heads, stomping their feet, clapping, and singing-along. Wow, it was cool.

Not to mention, the newest Dime, Ehren Ebbage, played a pretty epic solo acoustic set to kick off the night. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that room so intensely quiet in my life - everyone locked into Ehren’s performance and lyrics. Man, I love that guy.

Northwest Noise has already reviewed the show and actually posted one of The Dimes’ new, unreleased songs on their webiste. Check it out. http://www.northestnoise.com

Okay… After monkeying around with Myspace and a couple websites that I maintain some content on, I’ve decided to finally jump-in with two feet and start blogging. My friend, Mario, seems to have a lot of fun with his blog, so I figure why not?  I also just started Twittering too, largely thanks to my poet friend, Robert Bruce, who maintains an interesting little website of his thoughts and poetry at Knife Gun Pen.

So there you go. From time to time I’ll be sharing my thoughts on music, media, and my mad addiction to nachos. And yes, it’s true… I have a serious problem with chips and cheese and I hope to work through it, in some form of therapy, with this blog.  If you want to keep closer tabs on me (which would be a little weird), you can follow me on Twitter.  If you’re not up on Twitter, it’s a new web phenomenon of speed blogging, sort of giving folks a play-by-play of what you’re thinking, what you’re doing, what you smell like, etc. Yes, it’s sorta different, but as I’m learning, it’s pretty cool.  Let me know if you have any questions. I’ve installed a little Twitter feature on this blog, you can see the little faces and captions over on the right side of the page…

And finally, I think I’ll work harder at updating my Flickr account too, uploading the occassional photograph and the like. I’ve made it easy for you - you can keep tabs on my new photos simply by looking over towards the right side of this blog. Cool, huh?

So there! All at once, I’m jumping into some serious blogging, twittering, and flickring. Any questions?

Gotta run…. my nachos are done!