Port O'Brien are based in Oakland, with summers spent in Alaska on a commercial salmon boat. Thus, their sound retains a mix of both locales - something you might call edgey folk. The brilliant "I Woke Up Today" captures elements of both the Arcade Fire and Crosby, Stills and Nash and has been making believers out of the likes of M. Ward and Pitchfork. Stephen M. Deusner writes, "This Oakland band comes off like We're Not From Fucking Barcelona: instead of using many voices to extend a warm, scruffy, slightly creepy welcome to all listeners, these several singers (just a handful actually, not a full choir) convey a folksy, angsty isolation. Sure, they're all singing together, but the lyrics are mostly in first-person singular, evoking the feeling of being adrift on the vast ocean and powerless against its immense surges and undercurrents." The band has a pair of California shows on the horizon before heading over to Alaska...05/17 @ The Echo w/ Fujiya and Miyagi - Los Angeles, CA
05/18 @ SLO Arts Cent - San Luis Obispo, CA
05/19 @ Hemlock Tavern - San Francisco, CA
The Happy Hollows are just what you'd expect a great indie rock band to be - fun and energetic. The band has not been short on blog buzz with recent mentions at Rock Insider and our friends Rewriteable Content. "I'm a sucker for stage presence," writes RC's BWH99, "and Sarah's spastic energy kept perfect pace with a set teetering into chaos. With only a handful of recorded songs, The Happy Hollows are another band in need of a full length. Luckily, they have curbed this lack of itunes time, with a consistent dose of local shows." Sounds like the live show is where it's at - so I'm hoping for an SF show sometime in the near future. Thankfully this spastic energy does translate well into great singles. Not to mention, they've made one of my favorite videos this year with this clip for Vietnam ... Catch them if you can on one of these dates ...
05/17 @ The Prospector - Long Beach, CA
05/24 @ Off the Air w/ Rademacher - Modesto, CA
05/25 @ The Pearl Lounge w/ Rademacher - Eureka, CA
05/26 @ The Towne Lounge w/ Rademacher - Portland, OR
06/09 @ The Troubadour - Los Angeles, CA
2 comments:
I loved both of those tracks, especially the one from Port O'Brien. I'm definitely going to check out more of their stuff, thanks for the tips. Yay for new music!
Good finds, Will!
Port O'Brien do have a very seagoing sound, even if they Aren't From Fucking Barcelona.
And I dug that Happy Hollows video. I was a little afraid we were going to see her undies, but all was okay in the end.
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