This Wednesday, FILMUSIC presents another installation at the Hollywood Theater. This time, it's the classic Japanese monster movie Gamera vs. Guiron. If you have not been to one of their other events, you should do yourself a favor and go to this one. What is Filmusic, you ask?

7 Actors from the Willamette Radio Workshop dub the film into English from their onstage recording booth. Sam A. Mowry directs the ensemble in interpreting the original translated dialog from the 1969 release of the film.

The Classical Revolution PDX Chamber Orchestra performs an original soundtrack to the film, composed by Galen Huckins and premiered at the performance. Live orchestras haven't been seen much since the silent film era when they accompanied the flickering wordless pictures. Gamera vs. Guiron is far from silent, in fact it's very noisy, but this movie orchestra is not just underscoring the action, it's a concert of new music by a contemporary composer.

4 professional sound effects artists ("foley" artists), create the sounds from the film as it's happening. Pat Janowski (Livewire's Siren of Sound) and David Ian (Unchained Productions) lead the ensemble in every scratch boom and whistle from their onstage arsenal of wind machines, balloons, hammers and bikes. No sound is too big or too small, but a 25 story monster colliding with a missile calls for some big toys. Pat and David turn the orchestra pit into a warzone of swinging mallets as the monsters face off onscreen.

Check out the trailer below...

Filmusik: Gamera vs. Guiron from Galen Huckins on Vimeo.

Buzz Staff has been so busy w/life stuff that we have hardly had any time to go out and see shows, let alone post about the rad stuff going on around town. While we have a couple minutes to sip coffee and watch the rain, we'll clue you in to a couple of good things happening tonight...
The Angry Orts, Tiger House, and Patterns are playing over at Dunes for just $5bucks. We've seen Patterns a couple of times, and they haven't let us down yet.

If you are feeling more philanthropic (and rich), Britt Daniel will be hosting a benefit for PDXPOPNOW! at Mississippi Studios. That is sure to be a good show, but tickets are $25 bucks a pop. Sheesh.


Go out. See shows. Support local music.

Interview: The Ascetic Junkies

With one album out and another in the works, The Ascetic Junkies are busy these days. A brief glance at their myspace page shows a nice line up of shows, including a February residency at LaurelThirst Public House. Buzz Staff has been noticing their name quite a bit and decided to find out a little more about the band. Here is how it went...

Hey guys,

-First of all, since I totally meant to go--but missed it, how was your show at Mississippi Studios?

No worries... it was good - we were a bit haggard (long week), but I think it went well, and we really enjoyed the venue. People seemed to be into it. There was some stomping and dancing. We kicked it off with a new song debut, but just Kali and I (acoustic), which is something we've never really done. So, in a way, I think you could say that the show broke some artistic ground and really set a new precedent for musicians everywhere.

-How are The Ascetic Junkies doing these days? What is the main focus for the band currently?

They're doing great- thanks for asking! Right now we're focusing primarily on recording for our sophomore album. We're releasing some material, plus some remixes that some great people are contributing, in December (11th, at Backspace), and then in the spring the album will come out. And playing more shows out of Portland, too. Eugene and Bend and Seattle, oh my. We've also been enlisting some really talented artist-friends to make us some new merch items, so stay tuned for that.

-How did you all get together and start playing music anyway?

Kali and I met each other and started playing music in various situations, like, 5 years ago in Boston. We formed the original AJs there in '07, but then decided to move to a new city, which ended up being Portland, and to form a whole rock band. For that, we relied on Craigslist and really good luck. Craigslist, by the way, is like, the worst way to try to put a band together, but it just so happened to work out in this case. A crazy story: we found Ryan (bass) and Graham (banjo) separately, and then it turned out (after we asked each of them to join the band separately) that they were childhood friends from LA.

-Who are some of your influences, past and present?

It's pretty hard for me to answer that question because I'm not really sure we're influenced by the people we should be influenced by. Kali and I both love bluegrass and folk, for instance, but we definitely listen more to other stuff that I don't think overtly comes through in our music. My current favorite artists include Of Montreal, The White Stripes, Animal Collective, Black Star, St. Vincent, Elvis Costello, and any band in any way connected to this defunct Boston punk/ballsy blues band called The Lot Six (check out Viva Viva and Drug Rug). And Kali's been really into The Velvet Underground, Mirah, The Avett Brothers, Zero 7 and AC Newman.

-What are some advantages of being a band in Portland, Oregon, right now? What are some disadvantages?

Easy access to great beer, great pot, thousands of inspiring people and places, an absence of questions about "your career", and lots of rainy downtime spent in a room with a guitar. I mean, those are all big advantages. Fantastic music scene, too. The AJs weren't really well-established enough in Boston to deal with this sort of thing, but I was in other bands that rose up high enough in the Boston scene to open my eyes to a lot of really dumb clique-mentality stuff, and a lot of behind-the-back shit-talking and competition. Portland seems so much more interested in a supportive attitude, and I really love that. There's not a sense here that there can only be one or two "Portland Bands" and that everyone's vying for that position. I can't really think of any disadvantages we've run into yet, except maybe that on a gigantic world-conquest scale, there aren't that many people here - it's not like New York where being locally successful means having 8 million potential fans to draw from for local shows. But then again, it seems like Portland is kind of a music industry taste-maker, thanks to wave after wave of awesome artists over several decades, so it probably doesn't even matter.

-Ideal situation, what does it look like? Major label? Indie label? No label?

Idealistically, no label, at least not a traditional one. It seems like bands should be able to do everything nowadays with the internet and iTunes and such. But practically, someone to help us out financially with touring and hooking us up with larger national acts. And to help a bit with promotion. Up to this point, we've done everything from recording to booking and promoting ourselves, except that for the last few months we've been lucky enough to have a great booking agent, which is really helping us focus on getting back to writing/recording the next album. But yeah, having someone, maybe not even someone called "the Label", but someone to help out with some of this stuff would probably help propel us to the next level in terms of being able to tour and support ourselves. We're pretty sure that a Major would be a terrible idea right now, though. Not that they're knocking on our door. Licensing would be nice - know anyone who needs a song for a movie?

-What can you tell us about this February residency you have at LaurelThirst Pub? Any plans you care to share? Surprises?

We're super excited about it, and we're gonna have special guests and such, but we can't tell you who yet. Maybe because we want it to be a surprise, or maybe because we haven't figured it out. Maybe both, even. It'll be a blast, though.

-What is one question I should've asked you if I was a better interviewer?

(and what is the answer?)

"Is it true that you're a Christian band?" Just kidding. We had a few different people assume that a while ago because some of our songs mention God, but it's more in an observational/story telling/point-making (and usually pretty blasphemous) way than a "There is a God and he watches you as we speak" sort of way. Oh, right, the answer would be "No." How about "Do you think I'm a good interviewer?" Answer: "Yes!"

-Lastly, who are some local bands you are particularly fond of these days?

The Glyptodons are probably our current favorites - I've been recording them lately. Boy Eats Drum Machine. Laura Veirs. The Mint Chicks. The Shaky Hands. Jared Mees. Porches is a new favorite - we played with them at Mississippi the other night. Oh, and if we can still claim them as "local" then definitely Blitzen Trapper!

Thats it! Thanks for your time!

Check out their myspace page for upcoming shows.

A lot of stuff to do tonight if you are feeling like getting out and about. It's KPSU's 15th anniversary party over at Smith Ballroom on the PSU campus. It's open to all ages (plus a beer garden for the drunkies) and it's only $3 bucks. Line up includes Fist Fite, New Century Schoolbook, and others. Should be fun!

Also, The Press Club over on Clinton is beginning to assert itself as a viable music venue for you acoustic types. We've been watching lately as some good names have been appearing on the bill. Tonight its Y la Bamba (we're guessing a stripped down, if not solo, show) and she is always nice to hear.

Go out. See shows. Support local music.

Anybody know what happened to The Rosewood Thieves? They canceled their whole tour. Hmmm...hope all is well. They are a really great band to see live.

What are you doing tonight? John Wesley Harding, the folksinger turned novelist, will be at Mississippi Studios tonight w/local Sean Flinn. Backspace has a pretty good line up w/Lake and Miss Massive Snowflake.

Monsters of Folk is at The Schnitz. But since we like Conor Oberst about as much as we like a frontal lobotomy, which is to say, not one bit, we'd rather take our $36bucks and spend it somewhere else.

Also, we've been meaning to interview locals The Ascetic Junkies for, like, ever now. We'll get to that this week, we promise.