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| Eh, they do pretty well sometimes. |
With PDX Pop Now! 2019 happening over the weekend, I threw together this wee tribute to Portland, Oregon’s DIY, highly-affordable (it’s free) outdoor music festival. It’s been going on since 2004, it’s always been all-ages, and some of the bigger local names have given songs to the compilations that fund the festival each year.
I have far from a perfect record of attendance – think I’ve been to just three of ‘em, most recently in 2016 – but it’s usually fun. The current location isn’t the best - the organizers center it under the Hawthorne Bridge, with North and South stages on each side – and, unless they’ve got tarps this year, it’s largely uncovered. The crowds have been sparse during the day every time I’ve gone, which hurts the atmospherics a bit (it has looked downright desolate here and there), but the crowd fills in nicely when the sun goes down; it feels like a solid, regular music festival starting right after dinner.
The first year I went – this would have been 2006(?) – they held it at least partially at an indoor venue (think it was Loveland the year I went) and, if I could have one wish, they’d go back to that, but I get it at the same time.
Anyway, the coolest thing about PDX Pop Now! is the range of artists you can hear. An entire day spent there almost guarantees exposing yourself to something you normally wouldn’t listen to and that’s the festival’s strength. You get that on the compilations too – something that comes through in the 50 songs selected down below (and included on the Spotify playlist I’m posting with this). Last, but definitely not least, here’s information on where to find and, crucially, where to buy the compilations – and that gets you access to all of them. That helps with the funding for what is a goddamn cool event, however you take it in.
I have far from a perfect record of attendance – think I’ve been to just three of ‘em, most recently in 2016 – but it’s usually fun. The current location isn’t the best - the organizers center it under the Hawthorne Bridge, with North and South stages on each side – and, unless they’ve got tarps this year, it’s largely uncovered. The crowds have been sparse during the day every time I’ve gone, which hurts the atmospherics a bit (it has looked downright desolate here and there), but the crowd fills in nicely when the sun goes down; it feels like a solid, regular music festival starting right after dinner.
The first year I went – this would have been 2006(?) – they held it at least partially at an indoor venue (think it was Loveland the year I went) and, if I could have one wish, they’d go back to that, but I get it at the same time.
Anyway, the coolest thing about PDX Pop Now! is the range of artists you can hear. An entire day spent there almost guarantees exposing yourself to something you normally wouldn’t listen to and that’s the festival’s strength. You get that on the compilations too – something that comes through in the 50 songs selected down below (and included on the Spotify playlist I’m posting with this). Last, but definitely not least, here’s information on where to find and, crucially, where to buy the compilations – and that gets you access to all of them. That helps with the funding for what is a goddamn cool event, however you take it in.
Some of your bigger local artists have contributed songs to past compilations and some of them (but not many) show up on the playlist I compiled. One thing I noticed as I was getting them onto the Spotify, a lot of the songs submitted for the compilations aren't the best-known works by many of these artists. In many cases, that happened because I'm pulling from older compilations (as old as 2005), and they've put out more, sometimes better work since that time. Best case, people can use the list and links below as a first step for exploring the local music scene. That's the goal here, and god knows I'll be doing that going forward. Just this post gives you/me about 47-48 bands/artists to work with, so have it.
So, if you’re looking for something to do tonight or tomorrow, and that doesn’t cost much, it’s pretty fun. And you can take trips to My Father’s Place to get out of the sun…maybe get a little tight, etc. That’s all the talking I’m going to do. As cruel experience has taught me, commenting on 50 songs gets out of hand fast. Still, enjoy the songs; I linked to every one of them I could find…hey, only missed one. They're listed in (roughly) chronological order for now, but I'll be scrambling the Spotify playlist in the days ahead to see if I can't make it fit together a bit more smoothly.
Viva Voce – “Alive with Pleasure”
The Taxpayers - “Black Batons”Trio Subtonic – “Bombast” (ooh, extended play edit!)
Lovers – “Boxer”
STRFKR – “Boy Toy”
Pat MacDonald – “The Harder They Come”
Caleb Klauder – “Can I Go Home With You”
Lightheaded – "Superstar”
Sandpeople – “Hate Aside”
Beyoung, Empire, Lost Poet – “Hip Hop Is Breathing”
Boy Eats Drum Machine – “Hoop & Wire”
The Mint Chicks – “Hot on Your Heels”
Jared Mees & The Grown Children – “The Tallest Building in Hell”
The Minders – “I’m So Low”
Ravishers – “Keep You Around”
Cool Nutz – “Monster Up”
Aed + Quiet Countries – “Moving Day”
Langhorn Slim & The Law – “Way We Move”
Langhorn Slim & The Law – “Past Lives”
Point Juncture, WA – “Pearl of the Quarter”
The Blow – “Pile of Gold”
Dirty Mittens – “The Dock”
MY-G, Mikah 9 – “The Untold Story”
Forbidden Friends – “Tiny Hands”
Dolorean – “The Destruction”
The Domestics – “It Came to Me”
Gold Casio – “Colors on the Wall”
LEO – “Stopping to Start” (shit. can't find it.)
Barra Brown – “Rose”
Brownish Black – “You Can Taste It”
Dogheart – “Night Jewels”
Barna Howard – “Indiana Rose”
Moon By You – “Effigies”
Minden – “Saint”
New Move – “When Did We Stop”
Laura Palmer’s Death Parade – “Dawgslut”
Months – “Cannibal”
Andrew Endres Collective – “Consciousness”
Tribe Mars – “Ode to Phobos”
The Minders – “Boiling the Ocean”
Poison Beaches – “I Am the Sun”
Wave Action – “Lost Translation”
Blossom – “Rhyme”
Myke Bogan – “Cold Sushi”
Mini Blinds – “Witch Girl”
Rodetta – “Spell”
Roselit Bone – “Dreamless Sleep”
Donte Thomas – “Summer Nights”
Amanda Richards & The Good Long Whiles – “Close to Me”
Rocket 3 – “I See”
Illmac & Goldini Bagwell (ft. Little Warrior) – “Last one”
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