September 09
The Pabst Theater
CONTENT/BIO
RX BANDITS
Mandala: few titles are as perfectly befitting an album for a band reaching the culmination of a decade-long musical transformation. With this recording, RX Bandits have truly struck the essence of their merging of genres into a complete and masterfully detailed mosaic.
The metamorphic rock group’s latest disc showcases a more rock-oriented quartet, while deftly sweeping in elements of Latin, prog-rock, punk, rock to dub and blues. The much anticipated follow-up to 2006’s …And The Battle Begun jettisons ahead of where the last left off, scaling back the use of horns and adding more focus on balance and powerful dynamics. Songs like album opener “My Lonesome Only Friend” easily shift from entrancing chimes to full-on syncopated rock fury (replete with a molten John MacLaughlin-meets-Kirk Hammett guitar solo.) Elsewhere, blustery blasts of metallic guitars give way to swirling, proggy synths on “Hearts That Hanker For Mistake.” Electric piano leads the blues-dub “March of the Caterpillar” while “Breakfast Cat” boasts the tightest rhythm guitar strumming and grooving drums this side of The Meters.
In an age where taking risks and being fearless can make or break you, RX have emerged as a tidal wave, a force that shatters all the boundaries set against them. Throughout their decade long career, the group has reinvented and revolutionized their identity while retaining their socially conscious lyrics and eruptive instrumentation. This concept has been the catalyst for the band’s ever-growing fanbase, which revels in their uniqueness and continue to storm their celebrated, incendiary live shows. RX Bandits’ performance on the main stage at Bonnaroo in 2007 proved the band’s majesty to a new audience, while myriad tours with the likes of Portugal The Man, Tera Melos, Fall of Troy, et al, have built the quartet’s considerable fan base over the years.
Tracking for Mandala took place at The Mouse House Studio in Northern Pasadena in March of 2009, and marked the return of producer Chris Fudurich to the fold.The album features dramatically hypnotic artwork by Sonny Kay.
RX Bandits first emerged in 1999, forming in Orange County, CA. The young band, fresh out of high school had already been signed to a woefully disastrous recording contract under a different name in a previous incarnation. As the band’s music rapidly matured, its label didn’t — leading to many years’ strife and struggle to stick to their guns and release the music they wanted. Three albums (Halfway Between Here and There, Progress and The Resignation… the seething sentiments in the titles are quite telling) and nearly 7 years later, the band was freed of its bondage to self-release …And The Battle Begun on its own MDB Records imprint with Sargent House in 2006. Live From Bonnaroo, a digital iTunes exclusive release followed in December 2007. On July 21st, 2009, Mandala hit shelves via Sargent House
The Builders and the Butchers
Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well
Alaska is a most unlikely origin for the five young men who comprise the Builders and the Butchers. Between 2002-2005, each of the members that would eventually form the band moved to Portland from Alaska pursuing music as a means of escaping subzero temperatures and the endless winter darkness. Soon after moving to Portland Ryan Sollee, singer songwriter and guitarist for The Builders, immersed himself in pre-1950’s American music, and started writing Southern Gothic themed story-songs “I was raised on Punk Rock but when I moved to Portland I discovered American Roots music, I felt as though there was similarities between the two styles. They are both genres that you cannot passively listen to, they almost evoke a response or an immediate reaction from you.”
Starting innocently enough as a fully acoustic rambling bunch, seeking out audiences on street corners and outside of venues, make no mistake this is not another story of busking come good, The Builders were not looking for money nor were they looking for fame, they were just playing the music they wanted to on their own terms. The band didn’t work out parts on these early songs, they were developed playing on the street, and this philosophy carries through today, by choosing to develop songs live or at rehearsal. Ryan Sollee says “Something special happens when we get in a room and try to work out a song. If I come in with a developed song it never seems to sound as good or it does not sound like The Builders.” In particular it was at these performances that Ray and Paul worked out their unique “deconstructed” drum style.
They played in the rain and cold of Portland winters until instruments were warped and broken, then one day the Builders sold out and booked a real show, then another, and crowds soon were seeking the Builders out. At the early shows it was hard to distinguish the band from the audience, nothing was mic’d or amplified, and seemingly everyone in the audience had a shaker, washboard, or were just beating on the wall and singing. All in attendance saw something special happening, a Portland audience was having fun, singing along and participating, the music demanded a celebration. Within a year, the Builders would win the Willamette Week’s “Best New Band of 2008” and Seattle Sound’s “Best Live Performers 2008” and completed supporting tours with the Helio Sequence, Brand New, Langhorne Slim, Amanda Palmer, Dax Riggs, Murder By Death and Port O’brien.
The Builders don’t pay homage to old America, they channel it. All of the basic instruments are there, acoustic bass, drum, guitar, banjo, and mandolin. They mix gospel, blues, and bluegrass and howl desperate story-songs that latch onto your brain and demand immediate attention.
The timeless sound of their songs, harkens back to a time long passed in music, but reflecting the dark times of the present. Their self-titled debut was released in 2007 and showcases the bands early raw sound. Their latest release titled “Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well” is a much more complete work showcasing the bands full potential. On Salvation, the Builders worked with producer Chris Funk from the Decemberists who brought with him a throng of expertise, patience, instruments, and some of the best musicians in Portland. Salvation record combines the immediacy of the Builders early work with more a developed songwriting, each one with its own personality and story to tell. In the vein of the Southern Gothic tales Ryan weaves stories of struggle with the usual cast of characters God, the Devil, soldiers, branches, wind, rain and hell fire. The record starts with a piano chord and an eerie wind escalating into the thunderous “Golden and Green”, stomp and grinds its way through “Devil Town” and “The Short Way Home”, to the Spanish tinged “Barcelona" and “Raise Up”, and the soaring chorus of “In The Branches”, ending with a lesson of hope in the gospel homage “The World is a Top”.
The story of “Salvation is a Deep Dark Well” is that there’s joy and celebration through the darkness, there’s light in the hardest of times, and when you reach the bottom may salvation light your way.
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