Story by Kate Loftesness and Sarabeth Oppliger
Photos as noted
The 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival returns Memorial Day weekend, once again transforming the Gorge Amphitheatre into the Pacific Northwest’s indie, folk, hip hop, comedy, techno, electro, and rock music Mecca. Six and a half hours away from Eugene, in central Washington, Sasquatch! is close enough that on a holiday weekend scores of University of Oregon students roadtrip to the internationally acclaimed music festival before Dead Week sets in. Sasquatch! features artists from around the world as well as an array of local Oregon bands for concertgoers’ listening (and watching and dancing) pleasure. Here’s a rundown:
Nurses
Originally starting as a trio of musicians experimenting with music for fun, Nurses offers an unclassifiable genre of music. Their almost haunting harmonies and playful use of pianos and percussion make this band a must-see at Sasquatch!. The Portland-based band is often described as psychedelic pop with a strong folk rock and indie influence, but these boys are happy without a title for their sound.
“We get excited about musical ideas and we try to take them as far as we can,” backup vocalist and keyboardist John Bowers remarks. Bowers says the band’s environment greatly affects their mood and the music they want to hear and make. The stimulating atmosphere of Portland has helped inspire some of their sound.
“Just being alive in Portland is a really nice thing,” Bowers says. He describes the climate as being “explosively vibrant” and “crushingly gray” and this strong contrast is shown in Nurses’ records in the most admirable of ways.
The boys are excited to take some serious R&R up at Sasquatch! after being on the road with The Tallest Man on Earth (also performing at the festival). This is their first festival performance although, the band hopes, it won’t be their last: “We’re always heading forward. [A new record] will be our main focus after this tour.”
Nurses plays Saturday 2:25 pm at the Yeti Stage.
Portugal. The Man
Portugal. The Man makes the kind of popular experimental indie prog rock that defies labeling.
“If you had to get specific, I’d probably call it psychedelic pop,” drummer Zachary Scott Carothers says.
The band (which also includes singer John Baldwin Gourley, drummer Jason Sechrist, and Ryan Neighbors, who plays piano and synthesizer) hails from Wasilla, Alaska, (near Anchorage and home to former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin) but moved to Portland for various reasons.
“[The move] was huge,” Carothers says. “Growing up in Alaska, we had absolutely no access. It was like before the Internet, so we grew up on top 40s rock and stuff our parents listened to. When we moved down to Portland, it was just kind of a flood of this music culture and all these underground shows of bands I’d never even heard of, and it really, really opened our eyes to a lot of art in general.”
Since then, the band has released six full-length albums in as many years and gained success and festival experience with Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Coachella, and numerous European festivals. The band will soon add Sasquatch! to that list.
“I’ve been to plenty of concerts out at the Gorge and I’m really, really excited to play out there for this,” Carothers says. “I’ve never gotten to go and I’ve always wanted to. We’ve always been on tour every time that Sasquatch! has gone on, so I’m very, very pumped to go out there and play.”
Carothers isn’t sure what the rest of the band’s Sasquatch! plans are, but he plans to stay the whole weekend to absorb the atmosphere and enjoy the “kickass bands.”
After Sasquatch!, Portugal. The Man will continue recording for two weeks in London, and hopes to put their record out in January 2011. After releasing their previous CDs on smaller indie labels, Portugal. The Man finally signed to Atlantic Records in early April. They talked with the label for months beforehand and, comfortable with the identity they’ve established, hope that being on a major label will open doors for them in terms of producers, tours and other opportunities.
Portugal. The Man plays 3pm Saturday at the Bigfoot Stage.
Quasi
Portland-based rockers Quasi are seasoned veterans of the music festival scene, but this year will be their first at Sasquatch!.
When Quasi formed in 1993, it was only Sam Coomes (guitar, keyboard, and vocals) and his ex-wife Janet Weiss (drums and vocals). They added bassist Joanna Bolme in 2006. The band’s rough-around-the-edges rock runs the gamut from piano-driven and smooth melodies to raucous cacophony. Many generalize their sound as “indie rock,” a title Coomes begrudgingly accepts.
“I don’t really know anything about ‘indie rock,’” he says. “I’ve been playing forever, and when I started playing, that term ‘indie rock’ didn’t even exist as far as I knew, or at least I never heard of it. I’ve not really changed the way I play in essence since I started, at least in my mind. At a certain point, people started to call it indie rock, so I guess that’s what it is.”
In late February, the band released their eighth full-length album, American Gong, and several months ago began a new tour. For them, Sasquatch! will be a welcome return to the Pacific Northwest. They take the stage after playing a show in Glasgow, U.K., three days earlier.
“I think it will be a lot of fun,” Coomes says. “We’ll be just coming back from Europe pretty much the day before we head out to Sasquatch!, so in a way it will be kind of like a homecoming. I always look forward to homecomings.”
Quasi plays Monday 3:25 pm at the Bigfoot Stage.
YACHT
It’s safe to say that the way Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans formed YACHT is as interesting as the music they produce. During a trip in the desert of West Texas in 2008, the duo witnessed a natural phenomenon: the Marfa Lights. They took this experience as a sign that everything they did from that point on would be done together, and YACHT was born.
At a recent performance in Eugene, Evans asked the audience “Do you guys like punk music?” In response to a crowd of cheers and applause, YACHT began playing a stream of songs emulating a genre that has morphed drastically since its popularity in the late ‘70s. YACHT’s version of “punk” involves a gratifying usage of technology, from electronic drums to synthesizers. Although the duo enjoys the “punk” aspect of their sound, they are not constricted to the genre.
“The more you try to find a label, the less connected you are to everything around you,” Evans says. “[Our fans] are free to interpret our music in any way. We love and encourage that.”
The pair has been traveling nonstop the past couple of months due to the release of their newest album See Mystery Lights, but were more than willing to accept an invitation to Sasquatch!.
“We were surprised that they wanted us to perform,” YACHT says. “Sasquatch! has always been this big ‘thing’ in the Pacific Northwest and now we get to be a part of it.”
YACHT’s stage performance revolves around chanting, clapping, and a unique expression of dance that is sure to draw in tremendous crowds at . Both Bechtolt and Evans partake in vogue-like hand and arm gestures while Bechtolt reaches serious height with his impressive vertical leaps.
As for future projects, Bechtolt says: “We’ll go wherever the wind blow us.” Vague and elusive as that may sound, this mindset has done YACHT well so far.
YACHT plays Sunday 7:30pm at the Rumpus Room.
Heading to Sasquatch? Be sure and read How to Survive A Music Festival.
