Pink Widower, Wednesday August 6
This widower ain't such a sad sack after all.



To hear Jed Allan talk about his new band, Pink Widower ("I want to write 'get up' music," he says. "High-life music to move asses and inspire people"), you'd be forgiven for imagining the 31-year-old Portlander as a zonked-out hippie instead of a clear-headed, stylishly unkempt man enjoying kombucha and a cigarette on a late summer's evening. The dichotomy is fitting for both Allan's approach to writing songs for this new project and the loose-limbed yet locked-in style that his bandmates use throughout the one-year-old band's debut album, The Enchanted Realm of the Pink Widower (North Pole Records).

Many of the tracks feature a laconic reggae groove topped with a honking horn section, but have the clean, streamlined feel of a classic pop song. Others (the steady rumble of "Christmas Lights" and the uke and Rhodes piano-inflected "Let Me See") take a path similar to that of the group Allan fronted for nine years, Six Foot Sloth.

Although Allan understands the associations between and Pink Widower and Six Foot Sloth, he sees the new project as a move past what he deems the "morose" music SFS trucked in. "It was great for me at the time," he says, "because in our lives, we had so much sad shit happen to us. So that's what we were into: writing really sad ballads."

"I still write from a lost-love perspective," he says, pointing to the shuffling track "Battledogs," which contains the lines, "'Cause if my head stops working overtime/ That means our hearts won't beat as one" as a key example. He is quick to mention, though, that "even if there's dark stuff lyrically, there's usually sun at the end."

If there's any negatives with Pink Widower, in Allan's view, it's in trying to wrangle his bandmates together for shows, as all of them play in other groups (drummer Gilles and tenor sax player Amanda Mason Wiles with Rollerball, sax player Christine Denkewalter with the Evolutionary Jass Band, and trombonist Toussaint Perrault with Tu Fawning and solo project Babydollar$). Still, "I trust them so much to make the most of it," he says. "It's that kind of music that's easy for people to fall into and get into it. It's no sweat."
BY ROBERT HAM

Pink Widower—headed by the Jed, formerly of Six Foot Sloth—have picked a damn good time to release their first album of summertime pop gems. With handclaps, horns, shakers, warm keyboards, and the Jed's reedy vocals, the band breezily plows through a very Northwestern take on psychedelic pop on The Enchanted Realm of the Pink Widower, which will see the light of [Portland] day in mid-August. "Let Me See" begs to be brought along on your next river trip, while "Baby Elephant" just knocked back another beer on your porch. The time is ripe to fall in love with this record, so do it before the sun leaves for another nine months. RS

New Band Day: Pink Widower

May 14, 2008 in Music, New Band Day, mp3 by tamboosh
Hanging out in 100b

If you're in the mood for a band that doesn't take itself too seriously but makes great music with a massive sound, Pink Widower is right up your alley. When I was little I used to want a Tiki bar in my living room and have Tiki parties with a Hawaïan shirt and/or grass skirt dress code. Years of watching Magnum, P.I. convinced me that that was the height of class. Now, it sounds more like the start of a seventies Key party, but I'd still love that bar. When I first heard Pink Widower's "The Crimson Eye", my old Tiki dream sprung to mind, because it's a brilliant song that has a slighty sleazy, old wood-panelling feel, but in a good way! My favorite song on the MySpace is "Baby Elephant", a mellow yet riotous song about a baby elephant. But do not miss "Battledogs" for all it's poppy and theatrical wonder. Oh, and if anyone out there has some free time, could you listen to "The Golden Well" and confirm whether the chorus really is 'old man vagina' …

Now some additional Pink Widower facts for your New Band Day scrap books: It's a 4 to 7 piece band from Portland, Oregon … Yah, I'm not sure how many members they have, but one of their sites said 4 to 7 so I'm sticking with that. They're fronted by The Jed, formerly of Six Foot Sloth. Their songs sound fun, but complicated; I would love to know how the layers of hand claps, voices, a brass band, bells, and that instrument that goes kgrrrrr in the opening of "Battledogs" (what is that?!?) come together on stage. Their debut comes out in June on North Pole Records and I think it's going to be a perfect summer record, so keep your eyes peeled for it.