Menomena’s Danny Seim debuts Lackthereof live in Portland from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Danny steps out from behind the drums

Danny Seim, the mighty drummer for Portland’s preeminent alt-rockers, Menomena, stepped out from behind the kit last night to front his own band, Lackthereof. Additional musicians included Matt Dabrowiak and Paul Alcott of Dat’r on drums and bass and a guitar/keyboards player whose name has slipped my mind. Lackthereof has been Danny’s musical vehicle since around 1997 preceding Menomena by a few years so it can’t really be called a side project. Anyway, check the video for a couple of songs and a quick chat with Danny at the end. Look out for the new Lackthereof album ‘Your Anchor’ out on Barsuk in July.

Related Post: Lackthereof - new MP3

Weezer Hootenanny in Portland, exclusive video from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Weezer performed at Portland’s Oaks Park fairground for a KNRK 94.7 radio show. The station invited 200 local musicians to show up and play with Weezer. Here’s a video of them playing Radiohead’s Creep….

State of Mind at the Crystal Ballroom.

1500 high school students crammed Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on May 30th raising $18,000 to help keep music programs in Portland schools. Midway through the night four of their own, students from Grant High, took the stage with their hip hop outfit State of Mind….the place went crazy, check the video.

Jona and Claire, aka, Yacht played an amazingly energetic set in front of 1500 screaming high school kids at a benefit for Music In Portland Public Schools on May 30th 2008 at the Crystal Ballroom. Here’s the video I shot…

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Horsefeathers perform live at Portia and Slim Moon’s BBQ from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

I spent Sunday afternoon out in Washington state, near Battle Ground actually. Portia from Kill Rock Stars and her husband Slim held a BBQ at their house and invited many people who had at least a tenuous connection to the indie music scene. Mecca Normal performed and for me that was a first as I had never seen them and I know they have had a heavy influence on many musicians in the Northwest indie rock/riot grrrl movements. Amongst the crowd were Hutch and Kathy of The Thermals, Carrie from Sleater-Kinney and Rachel Blumberg who was telling me about touring with Bright Eyes and working with M Ward and how she really enjoyed his She and Him project with the actress Zooey Deschanel. And as you can tell by the video, Horsefeathers performed a set too. I also edited some footage from the day to a Horsefeathers song Hardwood Pews - watch it here.