These are listed in chronological order in which they we're discovered.  I'll try to send out a bulletin when this blog is updated.



Perfect Recipe For A Smile by Craig Hatfield
RBG Magazine: Columbus, Ohio http://rbgmagazine.com/?p=2139

I went to a house show last night, and it was the first time I had ever been to anything like this. I walked into the backyard of the house and this guy and his wife had everyone singing along with them. At first I didn’t want to sing along, but the man playing the guitar called me out,  so I had no choice. After I started to sing I saw my friends start to sing with me.

I felt that if you were there, no matter what, you were having a good time now, because they wouldn’t let you not enjoy yourself.

I have been to all kinds of shows in my life, but I feel that this is what a show should be like. Forget thousands and thousands of people: It was about connecting with the people who come to see you and making everyone understand why you do what you do. This band’s name is Destroy Nate Allen and they were nice enough to give me one of there CDs. The best part about it was not that the music was good but the show was free for anyone to come and enjoy.

I can only speak for myself,  but I know that I took more from this show than a few free CDs. I know now that it isn’t about making money from a performance as long as someone took something positive away from what you had to say. I would just like to say thank you to Destroy Nate Allen, and I wish you to the best of luck with your marriage. You were great people with a great message.

I’ll admit, I’m not much of a folk punk fan. That said, Portlanders Destroy Nate Allen totally charmed me. Well, technically, “Perfect Recipe for a Smile” is Destroy Nate Allen, written & performed by Nate and his wife Tessa, and “Don’t Let This Smile Fool You” is Nate Allen alone.

The aesthetics are straight up punk rock, while the lyrics mix introspective, personal storytelling in the vein of ....Olympia.... acoustic pop with the charm and humour of Jonathan Richman. In a few instances, “Recipe” and “His Lips Are Sealed Hallelujah” specifically, there’s an infusion of wacky radio theatre. The opener, “Anchors Away”, and “White Flag” later on, are fairly simple, fun songs. I can’t quite guess whether the lyrics hint at a bigger story or were simply fun to say, but it doesn’t really matter. The majority of the songs on “Perfect Recipe..” are super cute duets describing the story (real or fictionalized, I don’t know) of Nate and Tessa’s relationship, or Nate’s feelings about life. “Turns Out Your Perfect For Me” “Loving You”, “His Lips Are Sealed Hallelujah” , “Despite It All”. Destroy Nate Allen have a good way of capturing the victories and challenges of loving someone. My favourite is “Loving You”, which depicts the difficulties of loving someone even though “she likes the songs that I don’t like.” Nate and Tessa have amazing chemistry – I feel almost like an eavesdropper listening to them sing about their love. “Recipe” is a song I’m really sorry my old band Project Casserole didn’t write. It’s a theatrical, poppy instruction to cooking – “Follow the recipe the first time that you do it, after you do that you can add things to it.” And hey, that’s really good advice.

“Don’t Let This Smile Fool You”, is even simpler in instrumentation – just Nate and a banjo. It’s also a quick one – the longest song is ..2:48... Track 1, “Phil Collins” has that purposely-fuzzy, ancient wax cylinder microphone sound. “35, 35, 35” is a great song. I can’t explain exactly way – it’s just fun and poppy and makes me feel really good. The next three, “Guitar Strings”, “Glow in the Dark”, and “How To Make a Girl Cry”, are love songs. And for the record, “How To Make a Girl Cry” is so sweet that I did start to cry a little while I was listening to it. All Allen’s love songs contain the kind of sweet, emotional things that most guys won’t hardly admit to saying to the person they’re saying it about, much less tell the whole world – I give him double kudos for that. The next two songs, “Grandpa”, and “Ain’t Gonna Rain no More” are something completely different, but related to eachother. The first is Nate asking his grandparents what life and his history is about, and the second is a goofy song his grandpa supposedly taught him – “How the heck gonna wash my neck if it ain’t gonna rain no more?” “Suffer” is about the necessity of dealing with things you don’t want to deal with, with a little bit of political commentary mixed in.  The pair of records end with “Pardon Song” which reminds us that  “In the end it doesn’t matter, in the end we are just fools – if we haven’t made a lot of friends and broken a few rules.”


8Oo Octane Show Review: This Was our kick off show and I promoted the show, as well as played. bu Eric Octane.

I know I’ve thrown a lot of lyric quotes in here, but for this sort of music, that’s the best way to explain it. Actually, the second best way. The first best way is for you to go listen to it yourself.

The Lovely Pumpkin Patch - http://thelovelypumpkinpatch.blogspot.com/

We saw some really good bands (Rodent Emporium, Revolution Radio, Flatfoot 56, Highway Magic, Destroy Nate Allen...) and some not good bands, which I won't name because that won't be nice.

The Grace Notes - http://joshuahedlund.wordpress.com/

We followed some of our campsite friends to see Destroy Nate Allen, which is basically Nate Allen and his wife singing mildly silly songs on guitar and tambourine. Their affection for each other was touching..and their songs were unconventional but entertaining (“Jesus, keep us safe from the cops” and “We’re gonna start a family, but not… not quite yet.”)

introdafuturo.blogspot.com

Ellen, Marge, and I drove 2 hours to go see an awesome show, Destroy Nate Allen, in Vermillion, SD. Marge knows Nate and Tessa from Portland, and they are going on a six month tour. I can't imagine living out of a van for that long. It was one of the best decisions we have ever made. Our plan was to go up, see the show, and then find somewhere to go camp out. -DESTROY NATE ALLEN..has to be the cutest couple I have ever met


Tour kick off photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlelioness09/sets/72157619949603778/detail/ 


Note the blood on his finger. He was playing his guitar so hard that he broke a string, then bashed the thing onto the floor, forever ending the life of the poor Yamaha. This was the next closest guitar, and it belonged to another band. Given the fate of the last guitar Nate had handled, the owner of this guitar was a little nervous.


I wasn't going to upload this at first. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized that this is probably the one photo which embodies everything that is simply "The Coop." Nate jumped up onto the fireplace and did a stage dive.

They play every show like it's their last. Destroy Nate Allen kicked off their 6-month-long northwest tour last night at The Coop. They were one of the most energetic, wild, and crazy bands that I've ever seen live, and Nate seemed to greatly enjoy breaking his guitar (Putting a dent in Damien's floor in the process). I can't say he enjoyed the bloody mess nearly as much. But then again, I don't think he even realized it until after the performance was over.

Room Thirteen - UK Cd Review: By Jim Ody
http://www.roomthirteen.com/cd_reviews/10040/Destroy_Nate_Allen__Perfect_REcipe_For_A_SmileDont.html

Coming out of Portland, Oregon, Nate Allen is a guy that can pick up a guitar or banjo and write a catchy tune quicker than the time it takes to make a nice cuppa. Here we have two albums rolled into one. The first one ‘Perfect Recipe For A Smile’ is under his Destroy Nate Allen guise, and is a duet with his wife Tessa consisting of 10 songs with an acoustic guitar, whereas the second one, ‘Don’t Let This Smile Fool You’ is under his cut down name of Nate Allen, and is written and recorded in his apartment and played on a banjo.

So on the first slice of this double CD we start off with, ‘Anchors Away’ which is a real toe-tapper and reminds me a little of Chuck Ragan’s tunes sung with a less gravely voice. ‘Turns Out You’re…’ really showcases how well Nate and Tessa’s voices go together. The song is a catchy love song that shows you early that they are not afraid to lyrically explain their feelings for each other, and this is done in a silly, but enchanting way, not a sickly throat-chugger way! ‘Recipe’ is about as catchy as you get mixing folk/playground chants with a little wackiness. ‘Loving You’ is another high-tempo song that is up beat and has all the markings of a great song. I can’t say better than that!

‘White Flag’ is a little deeper, mixing in the likes of Rocky Votolato and a stripped down Dusty Rhodes And The River Band, whereas there is a Rock’n’Folk-Punk feel to ‘His Lips Are Sealed…’ that spouts out a feverish anarchic side to the pair that borders on mischievous. ‘Despite It All’ is a fast-pace plod along song that is a fine stripped down tune. ‘Steady’ although slower of pace, sounds like a Punk song that has been slowed down and stripped of pounding drums and big riffs. Of course this song is less than two minutes long so I would think that a fast version would be less than a minute. It could be a song by The Stooges or Racer X. ‘I Am Alive’ is an acoustic Rock’n’Roll song that has flashes of a Religious hymen in the chorus, whereas ‘Smile’ is just a great ending to this album.

Now to the more raw album of, ‘Don’t Let The Smile Fool You’, which starts off with the great ‘Phil Collins’ that has the nice lyrics of, “I’m not Phil Collins, but I might be Henry Rollins-// Banging out, a tune // On this old banjo…”. It’s simple like all of this double album in fact. The one instrument doesn’t complicate, doesn't distract from the melody or the vocals nor the poetic lyrics. The album title track is again fast tempo and catchy, a little more like Langhorne Slim. ’35, 35, 35’ is pure Folk/Pop and with a band behind it this could be a smooth and great song, which isn’t to say that in this raw form it’s not still a nice song. ‘Guitar Strings’ is a sappy Blues/Folk song, whereas ‘Glow In The Dark’ is a more Country influenced Folk track.

There is a hint of self-indulgence in ‘How To Make…’ as Nate sings a love song about his wife. ‘Grandpa’ is a little more sentimental constantly asking questions, then in, ‘Ain’t Gonna Rain No More’ which could be one of those Traditional Folk tunes that have been passed on down the generations, with a sing-a-long chorus, “How the heck, am I gonna wash my neck// if it ain’t gonna rain no more?”. Things are a little more thoughtful in, ‘Suffer’, whereas the banjo has a beauty that seems to have been missed in the earlier song here, and with a touch of humour, ‘Pardon Song’ is a great ending, a little like if Ben Folds did a song with just a banjo.

What you get here are 20 songs that are simple, catchy and entertaining. ‘Perfect Recipe…’ would get a 12/13 due to it’s good production and foot-tapping tunes. Add to that Tessa’s vocals that gives the songs more depth and with a band behind him, Destroy Nate Allen would have a fantastic album. ‘Don’t Let The Smile…’ is good but would get 10/13 for me. The banjo can sound a little repetitive, and the album recording is quite raw. Half the songs are very good and the others are just good.

This is what music should be all about as Nate shows that he enjoys what he does, and this is music that anyone can appreciate. If you took Langhorne Slim, got him to sing with Chuck Ragan, and Dustin Apodaca, stripped it down to a guitar or banjo then this could well be what you’d get. It’s a cracking good musical offering!


CrappyIndieMusic.Blogspot.com - Amber Dawn - CD Review (Portland. OR)

Go figure that the best Portland show we’ve had all year (well, except for that Guttermouth one) would be in someone’s living room. There was a lot of stuff to take in so I’ll keep it brief. The Seditionists were up first. Brash, snotty, fast, sloppy, low-fi punk rock. I would dare say quite enjoyed it. We Play Quiet was up second and featured a saw. Yep, saw as in “I bought this at Home Depot to cut things” kind of saw. I suppose you could cut fools with it too, but a blade is much better for that. The saw had a very strange almost theremin like sound to it. Interesting take on the genre for sure. Bill Skins Fifth was 3rd, but sadly I didn’t see much as we were catching up with Mayor. Not Dave, the Mayor of Tri-Cities, but the Mayor of Compact 56. We spoke afterwards and he seemed like a cool guy and that gets props here. Destroy Nate Allen was next and he/them was the reason we took the show. Nate used to book our Roseburg shows back in the day and was probably the coolest small town show promoter we’ve ever come across. Everything ran on schedule, pay was always fair, and many times you’d even get fed. Pretty amazing since I think he was in high school at the time. He’s played solo acoustic sets for quite some time and has written many good songs. His new incarnation, featuring his wife on vocals equated to quite possibly the feel good show of the year. Fun songs, easy singalongs, clever lyrics and a DIY spirit few can duplicate. It was Nate, his guitar, his wife and the both of them singing to one another, with a huddled in crowd, no microphones and a room full of smiles. Very cool. They are off for a 6 month tour (!) so we wish them the best. Our set was a blast to play. The room seemed loud, energetic and as the immortal Buster Pointdexter would say “hot, hot, hot”. Speaking of which, I never realized Buster was the singer for the New York Dolls until recently. I almost touched him once exiting a log flume ride many years ago at a Six Flags. Wow, this is a fascinating show review isn’t it? Didn’t I say it would be brief? Anyway, we had a fantastic time playing and I can’t thank everyone who came out to watch us play. Absent Minds was last and in keeping with the theme of the evening they too also had an unusual instrument, a cello. For a while it was inadvertently coming out distorted which sounded pretty awesome. They were pretty excellent. I wanted to watch more but I’m old and old people can die in hot weather so I spent the rest of the night outside in the cool air. Thanks to all who participated in the show. Extra big thanks to Nate and the folks who run the Coop!