OPB Music Review of Alive  Wow! is all I can say. Thank you OPB!

Friends,
Have you seen this online music magazine?  It has awesome information about the Portland music scene as well as else where but it's a great resource. I am honored to have gotten a Deli Magazine Review  and put on a poll for band of the month.  We'd love a click in our favor if you are so inclined!

Fez Ballroom | 316 SW 11th Ave., 221-7262 | more info
[^^^]Pilar French, Rob Stroup and the Blame, Scott Gallego
[SINGER-SONGWRITER] Song titles like “Alive,” “Mercy” and “Higher Ground” might make you wonder whether Pilar French’s new release (also called Alive) is a covers album, but the Portland singer-songwriter has been busy on both sides of the hyphen. Vocally alternating between airy and nasal, she reminds me of Aimee Mann as well as Portland artist McKinley; as far as songwriting, her quirky melodies and glossy and spiky New Wave production are also, if you will, “McKinleyesque.” French’s “Higher Ground,” a duet with Justin Jude, is a bouncy, would-be radio-ready pop song and the highlight of the album released tonight. JEFF ROSENBERG. 8 pm. 316 SW 11th Ave., 221-7262. $8 advanced, $10 day of show. 21+.

This week, I have the honor of being featured on a Portland music internet show called Scott & Randy - The Podcast. The comes out tomorrow, but Scott and Randy permitted me to post the podcast here first! These guy...s are so pro local music, it brings massive smiles to my heart. I hope you enjoy. Stephen Aschcroft, Lisa Mann and others have also podcasted on their show.

http://www.scottandrandy.com/shows/pilar..-french-10132009.mp3

Thank you Scott and Randy.

We've just learned that KINK LOCAL MUSIC SPOTLIGHT  will be airing one of the new tunes from Alive, Monday night on the local music spot light.  We thank you KINK!

Saturday night, I had the privilege of playing at Hip Chicks Do Wine (www.hipchicksdowine.com). Once a month this Brooklyn neighborhood winery opens its doors to the public for a tasting of their fabulous wines, some hors d'oeuvres, and free live music.  

The owners and crowd were awesome.  It was strange but I woke up feeling like I'd spent a night hanging with family. . . so if you want a place to chill some time, check it out.

 

Friends,
I do hope you can make this CD Release party. . . these parties only come once every few years and it's our chance to put on a really special, sonically and visually vibrant show to celebrate all the hours of creative bliss and bloodshed that go into the making of a cd.

We're going to have a rock solid show with many local favs participating in the celebration--Rob Stroup and the Blame, Scott, Gallegos, and guest appearances from Nicole Campbell, Amanda and Jenni Price, Justin Jude, Renee Plant, Robin Ward, and then some. . .

To make things easy and save a few bucks, we're selling tickets in advance on brownpapertickets. When you go through brown paper you can ask for a ticket or simply have your name put on the will call list and then show up, presto. . . no waiting in line and you save some money.

I do hope you can make it.

LINK HERE: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/81695

Portland Jazz Encyclopediast, prophetic writer, and KMHD disc jockey, Tom D'Antoni, gave us a little love last night on KMHD with our song, "One More Dance."  Thanks Tom. 

 

It's been so long since I posted a blog and that's crazy because it's been a great summer for the band.  We completed our cd-- it's packaged and ready for sale. . . We have them in our hot little hands but we're waiting for cdbaby.com to finish uploading them.

We have had a busy tour schedule . . .We've played three major Oregon festivals this year and toured up and down Oregon's Coast. .. The festivals were the Rose Festival, Robin Hood Festival, and last night for the third year in a row, the Bite of Oregon.  

Our tour took us to Gearhart, Seaside, Manzanita, Grand Ronde, Yachats and Salem and we're looking forward to returning. While we'll continue to play some out of town shows, this fall will be aimed toward putting together an awesome cd release party at the Fez Ballroom on October 17, 2009. I hope you all will save the date because it will be a very special show.  Since the band is now shared Joshua Slamp, we'll also be working hard to get his next cd recorded and released.

Here's to what the future brings.  I want to thank all the great people we've gotten to meet along our journey this summer and all the great venues that indulged our performance.

Here's a few photos and a live podcast recently recorded on DJ Rachelle's Anti-Apathy Hour at KPSU:  http://kpsu.org/node/31059

Friday night, the Intention traveled to Yachats, Oregon to debut a new kind of show we've put together.  Since songwriters Reina Collins and Joshua Slamp are part of the Intention in addition to myself of course, and the Intention has several multi instrumentalists including Josh, Jeff Koch and myself, why not turn our longer shows into a triple threat where the band backs a set of Reina's and Josh's tunes in addition to my own?

On learning that our adventure gig at the famous Landmark in Yachats, Oregon, would require four hours worth of material, we seized the opportunity to apply this idea.  And, you know what . . .it worked. . .

The Landmark is a great venue whose patrons are kind and there to listen.  They appreciated the variety we could offer, noting the three different personalities taking charge of the show at different times, and acknowledging the steady backbeats of drummer Eric Kotila and creative variety coming from the various guitar solos of Jeff Koch and Joshua Slamp.

The owners and employees of the Landmark were equally as welcoming, making sure our bellies were full and we had a place to lay our heads that night.  The only "problem" was a few rowdy snores from some of my band mates and the silliness of the night that reminded me much of my childhood slumber parties, where I would always return home without having had a wink of sleep.  Fortunately no one tried to stick my fingers in a glass of warm water at the Landmark. . Although I scared the heck out of Eric when we happened to be on the same time zone for potty breaks in the middle of the night.  I am not used to bumping into a six foot tall, tattoo-ladened tough guy, in the dark in the middle of the night!  Before he came out of the little boy's room, I gently urged "Reina", thinking it was Reina to make sure I didn't scare her.  Didn't work! Eric stood there for a second and said what are you doing? I said I didn't want to scare you. .. He said, you failed in that regard.  In hindsight, the better notion was I didn't want to get clobbered by a sixfoot tall, tatoo ladened tough guy in the middle of the night so all in all the chirps of pre-warnings worked out just fine.

Still there was something to opening the window facing the beach before crawling into my sleeping bag that night. I lay there smelling the salt breezes and drifting in and out of sleep the same way the tides seemed to ebb and flow.  All was good until Eric forced all of us to get up at 7:30.  Thank God Reina is his girlfriend and had the power to send him on a coffee run!

Thank you Landmark for the experience we look forward to coming back and to our upcoming Oregon Beach Tour this summer.  Most excellent place, people and fun.  For pictures, check out Landmark photo journal in my photos.

 

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