Interview with Ben Chasny---

Sci-fi geeks are often obnoxious in their pristine, bookish, overwhelmingly meticulous nature. Metalheads are the antithesis: rowdy, haggard, and often appearing to lumber mindlessly through life with music as its only real pursuit. Seattle's Bloodhag, however, is the perfect marriage of all likeable between the two. Part thrash, part librarian, and completely awesome, Bloodhag represents a common ground between the desire to learn and the longing to just rock the hell out. Aimed at improving literacy and intelligence within the music community through "edu-core," their signature style, Bloodhag delivers fierce metal songs that detail the biographies of various notable science fiction authors.

KPSU embraced the opportunity to meet with the band (Prof Jake Stratton, vocals; D.r J. Mc Nulty, guitar; Zach Orgel, bass; and Brent Carpenter, drums) before they donned their crisp suits and ties and took the Ash Street's stage by a ferocious metal storm.

I caught up with the members of The Essex Green – Chris Ziter (Guitar/Vocals), Sasha Bell (Keyboard/Vocals), Jeff Baron (Lead Guitar) – outside The Holocene before their show with Irving and Parks & Recreation. The band was on tour for their new release, Cannibal Sea.
Cannibal Sea sees The Essex Greeners in fine form, finding a cohesiveness and assurance that wasn't present on their sophomore LP, The Long Goodbye[2003; Merge]. Bucolic may be the best word to describe Cannibal Sea as a whole, because even in their more rock-oriented moments, the band never conveys great excitement or anxiety, but rather exudes the peaceful detachment of a band of Buddhist monks. Despite this utter confidence, Cannibal Sea differs little from The Long Goodbye : the elements that made that album successful – tight songwriting, precise arrangements and elegant performances – are once again employed with aplomb. The most immediate tracks, such as "Don't Know Why (You Stay)" and "Cardinal Points," are some of the least psychedelic and most jumpy, electric, and straight-ahead rock songs in their catalog.
Unfortunately, the crowd that greeted them at the Holocene was thin: while most of them were urban hipsters, underweight because they spent all their food money on clothes at Buffalo Exchange, what I mean by "thin" is that the show was ill-attended. This is especially unfortunate because Cannibal Sea is the best release from The Essex Green and arguably one of the most brilliantly executed albums in 2006 thus far.

I caught up with the members of The Essex Green – Chris Ziter (Guitar/Vocals), Sasha Bell (Keyboard/Vocals), Jeff Baron (Lead Guitar) – outside The Holocene before their show with Irving and Parks & Recreation. The band was on tour for their new release, Cannibal Sea.
Cannibal Sea sees The Essex Greeners in fine form, finding a cohesiveness and assurance that wasn't present on their sophomore LP, The Long Goodbye[2003; Merge]. Bucolic may be the best word to describe Cannibal Sea as a whole, because even in their more rock-oriented moments, the band never conveys great excitement or anxiety, but rather exudes the peaceful detachment of a band of Buddhist monks. Despite this utter confidence, Cannibal Sea differs little from The Long Goodbye : the elements that made that album successful – tight songwriting, precise arrangements and elegant performances – are once again employed with aplomb. The most immediate tracks, such as "Don't Know Why (You Stay)" and "Cardinal Points," are some of the least psychedelic and most jumpy, electric, and straight-ahead rock songs in their catalog.
Unfortunately, the crowd that greeted them at the Holocene was thin: while most of them were urban hipsters, underweight because they spent all their food money on clothes at Buffalo Exchange, what I mean by "thin" is that the show was ill-attended. This is especially unfortunate because Cannibal Sea is the best release from The Essex Green and arguably one of the most brilliantly executed albums in 2006 thus far.

The Starlight Mints, led by Allan Vest and composed of 4 other members, have released one album every three years since 2000. Their newest creation, Drowaton, was released a few weeks ago to stellar championing by both music critics, journalists, and fans. Drowaton, containing 12 songs, does not have a black cat with "boomerangs between her toes;" there are no songs that sound like an animated xylophone; no standout dreamy track. Instead we are bombarded with straight-ahead psychedelic pop with variations on just one instrument, the guitar.

THE OVERLY EVENTFUL BAND
An Interview with Ben Whitesides, Lead Guitarist/Vocalist for The Joggers

On one of the few brilliantly sunny days that Portland had experienced in many months, I sat down with Ben at Tully's Coffee on Broadway. Eating a bagel with cream cheese and tomatoes, while I drank a coffee with some cream, we discussed issues of genres, touring, the “T” Zone and making Hummer ads.

Patrick: This might be too personal for a music interview but: What do you listen to when you're just hanging out at home?

Several months ago after wandering various websites, this writer stumbled across a Pitchfork review that inspired her to purchase an album called Jagjaguwar by Wilderness. However, I've had conflicting opinions with the website's reviews before, and this seems to be one of those instances. When the opportunity came up to interview the Wilderness I accepted, still intrigued by what the previous writer had said. Perhaps, there was something about the music that could still really click with me.

THE CURIOUS THING ABOUT IRVING

An Interview with Steven Scott, Guitarist for the Rock Band Irving