It's summertime again, which means the responsibilities and useful activities that are normally given first priority instead give way to enough delicious boredom to encourage a blog post. I tried blogging regularly in Europe, by anyone's estimation unsuccessfully, which leads me to the conclusion that i simply may not be a regular post kind of girl. Moving on: there's been enough excellent stuff punted across my screen that I feel inclined to share some of it. This one's a music post.
To start off, let me say that I love summer in Portland. The weather is perfectly mild and sweet, the days are optimally lazy, and I get a chance to catch up on all the new excellent music churned out over the course of the past nine months that I've spent toiling away in Lewiston. On this last point, contracting mononucleosis this season has had the undesirable yet unavoidable result of (largely) missing out. Even though only able to make it to a handful of shows since I got home, I thankfully have a host reliably in-touch local friendly types, ready and able to compensate for my summertime inexperience and bring me up to speed. Thus I present, courtesy of a certain KUPS radio dj in Tacoma, the newest contender for the ever elusive title of Most Epitomic Portland Band Of Our Generation: Typhoon.
Possible and presumptuous exaggeration. But this band is lovely, and as such I'm loving on them. There's something about their tunes and their vibe that's so preternaturally of this place, the city that feels like a town that's growing into a city but wants to stay a town, where i love to spend the best dozen or so weeks of my year. I might be projecting, but it seems to me that Portland's growing pains are echoed throughout the band's reverberative repertoire. It could be just that their songs play really well on the farm's ancient busted stereo. For some less subjective, bona fide support for their aforementioned nomination, try these on:
Exhibit A. They went over huge at PDX Pop Now 2010.
Exhibit B. Their next three shows are at the Enchanted Forest (! HOW many birthday parties I attended here in my youthier youth is anyone's guess), Pickathon, and Music Fest NW.
Exhibit C: perhaps the most potent evidence of all is their first music video, filmed in Portland and imbued with youthful Portland-y Portlandness:
and, for good measure, Exhibit D: this year's summer anthem/favorite track off their first album, Hunger and Thirst: CPR / Claws Pt. 2
For those with knowledge, I'm not going to nitpick over the fact that Typhoon is actually from Salem. They are integral to the portrait of my 2010 hometown summer. That's that.
