you can find (and a personal favorite of mine) is Liz Harris
and her project Grouper. It’s muddy and beautiful. Guitar
and voice flutter onto cassette-quality sound giving it an
organic and open feeling - sort of like Portland itself. Her
tunes are strange, expansive and visual. You could picture
her writing these songs - her window open overlooking
a quiet part of town on a cold night. Sometimes you can
even hear traces of cars driving by and a subtle breeze.
Then we have Yacht, a synth-based groove band that
churns out music which doesn’t sound very Portland. Yet,
it’s sort of nice to think that people around here are capable
of making catchy songs. Their videos are cheery and
sunny with an avante garde touch. While they brought a
newer sound to Portland, they seemed to have packed up
and moved down to Los Angeles, so we need to dig deeper.
Next up is a band called Genders, a popular Portland
band. You can imagine their tunes pouring out of their
practice space windows on a cold, rainy evening or may
hear it coming from a backyard on a warm summer day;
pine trees swaying and cold beers flowing, all the while
their music bouncing into the long Oregon summer nights.
It’s fitting and unpretentious. They feel a bit more like that
Alaskan band’s sound I am trying to reconnect with, but I
have to go even deeper.
What’s the thing that’s most connected to a house show?
What is right beyond those living room walls that separate
the makeshift stage and the Goodwill Superstore couch?
The bedroom.
While bedroom musicians have been around forever,
only recently have they been able to make hits and
masterpieces that can be heard and distributed on a large
scale. Bedroom musicians sprung to life again during
the recession. Using cheap computer software or 4-track
cassette players, they used their spare time between job
hunting or post-collegiate blues to make new and unique
music.
This leads me to a local project currently called
Little Brother. Little Brother is musician and artist
Scott Dougherty; some of his music recorded here and
some in Austin, Texas. While various tracks of his pop up
like hidden gems strewn across the internet, finding an
entire album is elusive. His music is a very fitting project
for Oregon. It’s apparent that the shift in environment has
been very influential for Little Brother, and it shows in his
music.
“Environmentally, coming from a place as dry and dull
as Texas, the grey skies and moss-covered trees offer a
different mood than what I’m used to. Everything feels sort
of dreamy. As for the community, it seems tight-knit, and
is something I’d like to become a part of. It’s comforting
knowing there’s room for collaboration.” - Scott Dougherty
If you were to start a compilation of his music on the
coast and listen to it all the way to the southeast corner of
Oregon’s vast deserts, his music would fit every possible
ecosystem you pass through. Some of his music is foggy
and driving. It chugs with that same hypnotic beat pulling
you through like the lines on the freeway. Other tracks
offer twangy slide guitar and an unknown person harps
beautiful lyrics over it. These songs feel warmer. Warbled
organs suck you in while clicks and pops whisper around
like a desolate wind. His music is relaxing and inviting
and one can easily imagine these songs being made as
described - deep in a Portland bedroom.
Portland is evolving. The idea of expression as only an
external thing feels dated. Perhaps this secretwave of
Portland musicians follows this logic. People like Scott
Dougherty or the members of Genders simply don’t need
to overcompensate. They don’t need wacky music videos
or a gimmick. The music and their attitude speaks for
itself. After all, from an early age you’re taught that it’s
what’s inside that counts, and this follows true for them.
“Portland’s completely different from where I’m from. In
Austin, psych-rock has taken over a majority of the scene.
So, it’s refreshing being in a place where every show I’ve
gone to so far has varied in style. If I would like to see it
go anywhere, it would go to a place with more exposure.
I’ve seen a couple of local bands around town that deserve
some notoriety on a larger scale.” - Scott Dougherty on
Portland’s music scene.
The past decade has g