To paraphrase what I wrote in my 2009 Best of.. List a few days ago, “here’s a list of Portland artists that I spent the most time with in 2009. This is not meant to be a ranked list..” Portland never ceases to delight, with fresh new music popping up every month or so. Here’s just a handful that meant something to me this year.

The Builders And The Butchers

I saw The Builders And The Butchers at the Sasquatch Festival this year and was amazed to see the audience spontaneously begin to sing along with the band. It turned out to be one of the best performances of the weekend. Buy Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well

When It Rains by The Builders & The Butchers

Alela Diane

Early this year Alela Diane delivered, To Be Still, a wonderfully elegiac follow up to her album, The Rifle. I reviewed it at the time. Although she moves to and fro between Portland and Northern California, we should claim her as our hometown girl, as there is no doubt she is moving steadily toward greater renown.
Buy To Be Still

White As Diamonds by Alela Diane

Ramona Falls

Brent Knopf steps out of his Menomena world to bring us a startlingly fresh solo album, Intuit, under the moniker Ramona Falls. The release was accompanied by an amazing video.
Buy Intuit

Russia By Ramona Falls

Lackthereof

For ten years or more, Danny Seim, also of Menomena, has been releasing his own work as Lackthereof. In 2009 Barsuk released a retrospective of his decade’s work. This is a must have collection that will help you catch up with the work of one of Portland’s more creative and experimental musicians.

Buy A Retrospective 1998-2008

Last November By Lackthereof

Nurses

I’ll let this music fan, who left a review of the Nurses album Apple’s Acre on Amazon, have her say:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best albums of 2009, August 10, 2009
By J. Marler “Trendkill” (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

“This is a truly one of a kind album. I’ve never heard music like this before, not even from their first album. It’s an absolutely beautiful album, my personal favorite tracks are Mile After Mile, Technicolor, Man At Arms, Lita, Apple’s Acre… I guess I should just list the whole album every song is 5 stars. I can’t help but dance and sing with every track. My favorite album so far this year.”

Buy Apple’s Acre

Caterpillar Playground By Nurses

Panther

This is Portland’s loss. A word from Kill Rock Stars:

We are very sad to announce that Kill Rock Stars artists’ Panther are calling it quits. They have scheduled their last show for Dec 20 at Rontom’s in their hometown of Portland, OR. It will be a free show to thank their fans and friends for all their support.

Panther started out at the end of the 20th century as a solo project for Charlie Salas-Humara, then of the noisy prog band The Planet The. His shows were legendary - his signature falsetto over blown out beats making a bizarre form of damaged r&b along with his insane Merge Cunningham inspired dance moves and crowd heckling made for chaos that (mostly) won even the most uptight crowds over. He released a few records in this vein on local Fryk Beat records and made an AMAZING video before adding drummer Joe Kelly to the band and signing to KRS.

Buy Entropy

Love Is Sold [Lips and Ribs Remix] By Panther

Bobby Birdman

I love this video from Bobby Birdman and Audio Dregs and Fryk Beat Records. Click the image to play.

Buy New Moods

Thao And The Get Down Stay Down

Thao and her band had a busy year. There was the new album Know Better Learn Faster as well as her participation with the Portland Cello Project. I’ve a feeling that she will go far.

Buy Know Better Learn Faster

When We Swam By Thao And The Get Down Stay Down

Tallymarks By The Portland Cello Project feat. Thao

Bladen County Records

Bladen County Records continued to support and promote great music.

Pickathon and MusicFestNW

And it was another good year for two of our best music festivals. Pickathon and MusicFestNW.

Dr Dog at Pickathon

Crowd at Pickathon

Tu Fawning at MusicFestNW

OPB and WOXY iPhone Apps

And where would I be without my OPB Music and WOXY.com radio iPhone Apps?

Danny Barnes and Bad Livers Live at Pickathon from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Hackensaw Boys in the Galaxy Barn

Last night saw the close of the Pickathon Roots Music Festival that takes place every year just outside Portland at Pendarvis Farm. Here’s a Pickathon 2008 photo page. Feel free to download any of the pictures but please credit me and Pampelmoose. There are instructions on the page. Enjoy! More coming soon along with more video.

As Pickathon celebrates its 10th Anniversary this years Festival is going to be a doozy. Jolie Holland, Langhorne Slim, Danny Barnes back with his Bad Livers, Kelly Joe Phelps, Melissa Ferrick and many, many more all ready to rock the main stage and, of course, long into the night in the more intimate barn. It all takes place over three days of festivities and camping just 20 minutes outside Portland at Pendarvis Farms. All the information you’ll ever need is here. And the full line-up list is here.

When Barak Obama came to town a while back the coverage he received worldwide no doubt awakened many people to the fact that the 72,000 people who turned out to hear him talk were gathered in Portland’s Waterfront Park. Where Obama took the stage was at the southern end of the park nestled between the Hawthorne Bridge and Riverplace, a retail and residential development. It’s just one part of the 29 acre downtown riverfront park.

Although Portland is well known as the independent music capitol of the USA, the city offers a variety of music. For instance the Portland Jazz Festival that takes place every February played host to Sonny Rollins this year and currently the Waterfront Blues Festival, now in its 21st year and the second-largest blues festival in the country, has kicked off with none other than the soul legend Isaac Hayes. It continues throughout the July 4th weekend with literally hundreds of blues artists too many to mention here. Visit the web site for a full list of performers.

Indie music fans can get their fill with three upcoming festivals. First up PDXPOPNOW! 2008 which takes place July 25-27 at Rotture. As the festival folks quite simply say on their web site it’s - Free. All-Ages. Tons of Portland Bands.

In August the 10th Annual Pickathon Roots Music Festival takes place featuring artists Jolie Holland, Bad Livers, The Gourds and many more. It takes place at Pendarvis Farm on Portland’s outskirts and the three day weekend is set up for camping and RVs too. As the web site says - Pickathon is the Indie-Roots Music event of the Year. More than 35 bands on 5 stages. Camping, Hiking and Sustainability amongst Oregon’s Doug Firs on an 80 acre wonderland just 20 minutes from Portland, OR.

September 3rd to the 6th brings us the annual MusicFestNW festival, a three day music festival not unlike Austin’s SXSW. The festival grows in stature every year and this year’s lineup is exemplary - Vampire Weekend, TV On The Radio and The Murder City Devils headline and the rest of the lineup is stellar too - Del the Funky Homosapien, M Ward, Menomena and Polvo to name a few. Visit the site to see the full roster.

A little extra good news is that you can get a hotel deal if you’re thinking of attending any of the festivals this summer. On this site you’ll see an ad to help you find a hotel room and get a free CD or a download that features 12 Portland indie bands.