Poster by ShowdeerLine up the tequila shots for Cinco de Mayo, Vortex Music Magazine is turning three! To celebrate our third birthday, we asked 11 of our favorite local artists (including the three acts rocking this show) to give us an unreleased song and, thanks to Vinyl On Demand, we cut Portland’s hottest new tracks to wax!
Come pick up a free copy of the latest mag, party with us, and go home with an exclusive record featuring tracks by Dave Depper (of Death Cab for Cutie), Jay Cobb Anderson (of Fruition), Gold Casio featuring Coco Columbia, Skull Diver, Korgy & Bass featuring Catherine Feeny and Dusty Fox (of Two Planets), Siren and the Sea, Dogheart, Turtlenecked, and the night’s performers. Only 60 copies total will be cut to 12-inch, 180-gram vinyl!
Autonomics:
The Portland trio’s “Dead T.V. Star” is the opening track on our #PDXmusic vinyl comp, and it’s a fuzz-filled, riotous rocker from their upcoming full-length—the aptly, yet cheekily titled Debt Sounds, which is full of fast, lo-fi punches of poppy punk and out this fall via ROLA Records.
Debt Sounds is the culmination of several year’s worth of material alongside freshly penned tracks. Entering the studio with a desire “to make something really dense and heavy sonically,” ROLA Studios producer and engineer Dominik-Lukas Schmidt (Thanks, Giantree) frequently referenced early ‘90s classics “Dookie, Siamese Dream and Nevermind during the tracking,” describes vocalist and guitar player Dan Pantenburg. The rewritten and new songs burst forth from the record with a vital resolve and fuzzy, ‘90s rock vibe, thanks in part to mixing by Jeremy Sherrer (Modest Mouse, Gossip) at Ice Cream Party Studios and mastering by Pete Lyman (Weezer, Matt & Kim, Wavves, Best Coast) at Infrasonic Sound.
“Superfuzz,” the record’s first single (watch above), is ready for a singalong with its classic Weezer catchiness and party hookup mojo, while the record’s other 10 songs teem with purposeful pop punk power akin to fellow Portlanders The Thermals. Carefully crafted simplicity, “We try to write music that's entertaining and bombastic throughout, from start to finish,” Pantenburg says.
Read more about Rasheed Jamal in the cover story from VRTX 10: Photo by Sam Gehrke
Rasheed Jamal:
The Portland emcee’s contribution to our vinyl comp is “Better Off $$$”—and that’s exactly what Jamal’s incredible flow deserves for this raw, angsty hip-hop cut. FYI, those three signs stand for being paid and you can do so when you cop 22 Grams later this summer. Joined by DJ QUAZ at the Alberta Street, look out for the The Resistance crew member to be conscious and cutting, all in the same breath.
Read about Small Million as an Artist to Watch in VRTX 9
Small Million:
The moody electropop duo gave us “LONE” (listen below), another cinematic nugget of synthed-up bliss, for our vinyl comp. Highlighting the soaring vocals Malachi Graham and the meticulous production of Ryan Linder, it’s also the first sounds from an in-process debut album. Sonically, Linder analogizes that Small Million is: “If Anthony Gonzalez from M83 fell asleep at the wheel while listening to Sylvan Esso.” And while their music is ripe with modern electronic and pop references, Graham, as vocalist and lyricist, still retains shades of her Americana- and country-tinged upbringing—her love for the original rockstars of American folk music: the Carter Family. Featured on the 2014 PDX Pop Now! compilation, Small Million’s beautiful juxtaposition is nostalgia-soaked and demurely danceable.
