Blue Giant : Target Heart
Friday, March 20, 2009
What's In the Water Up There?
You've got to love Portland, Oregon. Pound for pound, it's got more musical muscle than many of it's hipster hotbed east coast cousins (The Decemberists, M. Ward, Sleater-Kinney, Blitzen Trapper, The Shins, Elliott Smith. Geez.) Plus these Portlanders all seem to genuinely like each other, support one another and increasingly; play together.
We witnessed this first hand last night when we eased our way into night #2 at SXSW with a lovely acoustic set from Portland singer-songwriter Laura Gibson at Red Eyed Fly. It was there that Coreydu ran into Chirs Funk of The Decemberists who clued us in that his new project Blue Giant would be playing just across the street at Club DeVille at 10pm.
Choice A:
Stay where we were and hang out with the "ironic" crowd to see The Thermals-also from Portland-which we would knew would be a hot show (Pete Doherty of Babyshambles/Libertines/Kate Moss fame arrived early in trademark hat and coat).Choice B:
Stick with the Portland vibe but head across the street.We smartly chose option B and were treated to a simply amazing set of music. Blue Giant features Kevin and Anita Robinson from Viva Voce, Chris Funk of The Decemberists, along with Evan Railton from The Swords Project and Seth Lorinczi from Golden Bears. (Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney also makes a guest appearance on the EP). I normally hate the term super-group but these guys personify the humble, under the radar version of that term, and the truth of the matter is, they rocked.
Anita Robinson might be the most talented female guitar player I have ever seen - and I had just crowned Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards with that title less than 24 hours ago. What Erika is to movement and energy, Anita is to restraint. She plays the F*&% out of a guitar while appearing to barely move.
The group recalls a dark and delirious side of country tinged rock with hints of Creedence and a bit of... dare I say it? The Eagles.
I don't know what's in the water up there in the pacific northwest but I want to get me some!
by Blue Giant from Target Heart (EP)
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