Wild Ones have announced the details of their long-awaited debut album, Keep It Safe, which will come out on July 9 on Party Damage Records. It's the inaugural release for Party Damage, the new local label started by Casey Jarman and Ben Hubbird of the Morals (Jarman is also former music editor of the Willamette Week.) And it's a great record to start on.

That's the album cover up there, and here's the album's first single, "Curse Over Me," a bouncing, midtempo dazzler that meshes the band's many elements: synth-laden electro-pop, laidback R&B, forceful post-punk via a growling bass, and a tweeish sweater-pop element as well. The result is a tropically tinged track that's a great introduction to the new album. (You can check out the previously posted video for Keep It Safe's opening track, "Golden Twin," over here.)

Here's a bit more about the album, from Party Damage's press release:

Dream-pop outfit Wild Ones, one of the most talked-about acts in their native Portland, OR, have completed their debut album Keep It Safe after over a year of intense recording and mixing sessions. The band, which faced lineup changes, hospital visits and financial drama en route to finishing its debut, took a deeply collaborative approach to crafting the record. Keep It Safe was largely self-recorded and produced, and each sonic puzzle piece has been carefully selected by the band. (Even the album artwork was created by the band’s Thomas Himes.) The resulting record is staggering: A swirling, deep concoction of electronic and analog elements that features both huge pop hooks and obsessive attention to detail. Keep It Safe is a Rubik’s Cube of a record that will appeal to fans of everything from Can to Beach House to Brian Eno.

The new album can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp, and Wild Ones play a record release show on July 5 at Mississippi Studios. They're also playing the "Cancer Sucks!" benefit with Typhoon on Saturday, June 1, also at Mississippi Studios, which I am certain is gonna hella sell out.

The week kicks off excitingly with news about Pure Bathing Culture's forthcoming album, Moon Tides. It's their first full-length, following up their splendid 2012 self-titled EP, and it's due on August 20 on Partisan Records (in the UK, August 19 on Memphis Industries).

There's also a new track to listen to—"Pendulum" just premiered this morning on Gorilla vs. Bear, but you can listen to it here. The track graced many of PBC's hometown live shows last year, so it should sound pretty familiar. With Dan Hindman's immaculately clean electric guitar and Sarah Versprille's airy but distinct vocals, the track will also open the new album, which—like the self-titled EP—was recorded with Richard Swift at his Cottage Grove, Oregon, studio.

Here's the tracklisting for Moon Tides; amazingly, it will not duplicate any of the incredible tracks from the EP:

1. Pendulum
2. Dream the Dare
3. Evergreener
4. Twins
5. Only Lonely Lovers
6. Scotty
7. Seven 2 One
8. Golden Girl
9. Temples of the Moon

Pure Bathing Culture plays the Wonder Ballroom this Saturday, May 25, opening for Father John Misty—AKA Josh Tillman, whose brother Zach plays bass in Pure Bathing Culture.

This has been a good week for album announcement news. Local jangle-jam-folk-Southern-krautrockers Houndstooth have announced their much-awaited debut album, Ride Out the Dark, is coming out July 16 on Philly/Brooklyn psych label No Quarter. That's the album cover up there (shades of Tango in the Night?), and below is the first single, "Canary Island," a splendid Crazy Horse-style chugger that opens up into guitar-spangled majesty, and has been a familiar staple of the band's great live show.

The 10 tracks on Ride Out the Dark also include favorites like "Francis" and "Bee Keeper," and while it doesn't include any 20-minute freakout jams, contains plenty of band fireworks from the ensemble of local all-stars: Katie Bernstein, John Gnorski, Courtney Sheedy, Mike Yun, and Graeme Gibson.

Houndstooth plays June 7 at the Doug Fir with Eyelids and Denim Wedding.

After many anxious sleepless months, we finally have some details about the new Typhoon album, which is titled White Lighter and will be released on August 20 on LA's Roll Call Records, also home to Rubblebucket, Army Navy, and On An On. A preview track appeared over at the Wall Street Journal, of all places, this morning. It's of course another stunner from the 11-piece local band, a swirling, rumbling mini-epic filled with all the drama and dynamics the band is so skilled at, making the most of the band's massed vocals and even expanding their instrumentation to include piano and pedal steel.

Typhoon singer Kyle Morton has a little bit to say about the new song, "Dreams of Cannibalism," over on WSJ, and the album, which was recorded at Pendarvis Farm (site of Pickathon) and other locations with longtime Typhoon collaborator Paul Laxer has a full track listing posted on Typhoon's site. (Interestingly, one of the 13 tracks is named "Hunger and Thirst," which was the title of Typhoon's 2010 full-length—shades of "Houses of the Holy.")

August 20 cannot get here soon enough, but in the meantime, take a listen to "Dreams of Cannibalism" above, and download it on Soundcloud.

We've loved Hausu for many moons. It was announced this week that the Portland band has signed with Seattle label Hardly Art, known for excellent, at times challenging work. This is a match made in rock 'n' roll heaven.

Hausu's debut full-length Total—that's the front cover above—will come out June 25, and the lead track "Leaning Mess") is available for your ears right this second. Featuring the band's unmatched blend of post-punk, regular punk, punk-pop, post-hardcore, and... ugh, sorry. Just typing that made me hate myself. Let me put it this way: Hausu fucking kicks ass, and so does this song. It's noisy and sweet and weird and heavy and light, all at once. I can't wait for the whole album, which was recorded here in town at YU Contemporary (where Dirty Projectors recorded the now-legendary Bitte Orca) with Naomi Punk collaborator Dylan Wall.

Hausu kick off a nationwide tour on June 5 with a show at Mississippi Studios. You'll be hearing more about them from us, without a doubt. (You can also check out "Leaning Mess" on YouTube.)

Alela Diane has a brand new song, and it's great.

"The Way We Fall" is a beautiful, two-part composition from the Portland songwriter. Its first section is a lament over lost love, fastened together with time/site-specific memories, told in the manner of a short story. The second, almost hymnlike section is an elegy on more universal struggles, but one that ultimately offers hope. With Diane's gentle but insistent guitar strums, the song unfolds like a bird's wings, gracefully ornamented by somber flutes and a somewhat claustrophobic sounding drum kit. It's a stunning new track, one that sets the anticipation for the upcoming About Farewell album to new heights.

Diane previewed a number of these songs at her pair of intimate solo shows at SE Portland's Oaks Pioneer Church about a year ago. While her back catalog is not exactly standoffish, those songs (and "The Way We Fall," too) are perhaps even more intimate and vulnerable than what's come before. Expect a breakup album of devastating proportions, but one that looks to the light as opposed to wallowing in misery.

As sneaky and silent as a panther, Old Light surreptitiously dropped their new release guerrilla-style, at last Friday night's show at Habesha (formerly known as Mudai). The new 7-song cassette, succinctly titled No, is streaming on Bandcamp (and below) and was recorded very, very quickly. From the liner notes:

“NO” is the first in a series of five cassettes to be released by Curly Cassettes in 2013. The rules of the project are:

1. All music to be performed by the four members of Old Light. Each release will be produced & engineered by a different producer, at the location of their choosing.
2. All tracks to be recorded to Tascam 388 tape machine. This enables the project to be mobile according to producer's choice. All mixes to be 8 tracks or less.
3. Mixes to be mastered directly to cassette. This ensures direct analog connection between Old Light & the listener. Digital versions of Side A & Side B will be made available, but not as individual songs.
4. Each subsequent release in the series of 5 to include a new arrangement of 1 song from the previous release.
5. Cassettes are $5 each. When all 5 are complete, they will be made available as a limited edition handmade box set for $20.

The new songs are indicative of Old Light's noteworthy shift toward heavy, shreddy psychedelic rock, favoring spontaneity over all. The band began work on No on Friday, January 18 and completed it on Friday, January 25, just in time for the Habesha show. Yes, that seems remarkably speedy, but in the same week that Old Light recorded more than 32 minutes of new material, I also was very productive:

1. did 1.5 loads of laundry (did not manage to move second load into dryer)
2. read about three pages of Ender's Game on bus
3. thought about replying to some emails
4. cereal

Check out No in full right here, and purchase it over on Bandcamp. The cassettes will also be for sale this Saturday at the second annual Malt Ball—that's at the Wonder Ballroom and you are going. Because it will be awesome.

New Portland music for a Monday! Let's jump right in.

Y La Bamba's Oh February comes out digitally tomorrow via Tender Loving Empire. Here's the title track from the new EP, which reunites them with producer Chris Funk, who worked with the band on their album Lupon. Y La Bamba is hitting the road for a quick East Coast tour with the Lumineers.
LISTEN:

Y La Bamba - "Oh February"

Tracks from Lost Lander, STRFKR, Aan, and Paper/Upper/Cuts after the jump!

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Here are a bunch of new music things that Portland people made! Get ready for some Soundcloudin'.

Menomena unveiled their new single last week, a track from the Moms sessions that did not appear on the album. "Toomer," apart from shrugging off the responsibilities of correct spelling, is a shrugging, almost wistful track undercut buy a kaleidoscope production and some funky undercurrents. It's one of their prettiest tracks; its B-side is called "Banyon" and both tracks are available on iTunes. Menomena hits the road next month (no Portland show scheduled) with new member Dave Depper, who replaces Paul Alcott and Holcombe Waller.

A new track from Carcrashlander surfaced last week as well. "Call in Sick" will be on the upcoming Carcrashlander album, and it's an unsettled, growling track that feels, appropriately, like a delirious sick day. Carcrashlander's Cory Gray appeared at Themes' great Saturday night show at Mississippi Studios, and fittingly, that band's Kelsey Crawford and Jacy McIntosh appear on this new track.

Party kings the Mean Jeans just released a split 7-inch single with Seattle band Big Eyes, with each band offering a new number plus a cover of the other band. Here's the new Mean Jeans track, "I Miss Outerspace," which serves as an apt followup to their recent Mean Jeans on Mars album. There's also a riff you might recognize at the end of the track, if you're feeling kind of Petty. The MJs are hitting the road next month as well, coming back home on February 16 for a show at Blackwater Records with Big Eyes (Portland's Bi-Marks are also on the bill).

The second preview track from Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside's new record is also on the webternets. "Party Kids" is just as tough as "They Told Me," and both fine tracks are indicative of Ford/Outside's great new album, Untamed Beast, which hits shelves on February 19. The band plays two release shows at the Wonder Ballroom on February 22 and 23.

They're Sub Pop labelmates, so the fact that Portland's the Helio Sequence is touring with Seattle hiphop deconstructionists Shabazz Palaces is not as unlikely as it seems. To that end, each band has remixed the other; listen to the surprising results below. Shabazz's "Recollections of the Wrath" is given a broad, heavy treatment to match Helio's similarly widescreen style, while Helio's lovely, whispering "Harvester of Souls" is given some crispness, punch, and pop. The Helio Sequence play Portland (without Shabazz Palaces) on Saturday, February 9. It's a benefit for Music in the Schools; The Helio Sequence plays with Talkdemonic and Yeti Sweater at Cleveland High School, and it sounds like a really great time for a great cause. More info here.

Atmospheric Americana band Small Souls have their first album ready, and they're releasing the self-titled effort on Friday, with a release show on Saturday, January 26 at Secret Society. The opening track—the Morrissey counterpoint "Please Don't Give Me What I Want"—is available for free download now. It's a lovely, haunted piece of folk with quite a bit of haunting ambience.

Prescription Pills just played the Doug Fir last night with Wild Ones, and they have two new tracks which they recorded with Portland producer/engineer Gregg Williams (Dandy Warhols, Anya Marina). Main Pill-er Cole Browning sent over the A-side of what they're calling a "virtual 7-inch" last week but I did not get it up in time for last night's show. So here it is, the morning after. "Redwoods" is an initially subdued-seeming track, but I hear a lot of contained urgency under the surface. Prescription Pills play another show on Thursday, January 31 at East End, as part of the Soft Kill's record release bash.

Portland band Wampire has been relatively quiet lately, but expect that all to change in 2013: The band is opening for Unknown Mortal Orchestra on that band's upcoming national tour, plus Polyvinyl Records just announced that they signed the Portland duo of Rocky Tinder and Eric Phipps, and will put out their new album Curiosity on May 7. There's also a new single, "The Hearse," which premiered on Pitchfork today and which you can hear right now.

"The Hearse" comes out on a purple vinyl 7-inch on March 5 and will be backed by a cover of Kraftwerk's "Das Modell." Meanwhile, the nine-track Curiosity was produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Jacob Portrait, whose production credits also include Blouse, and who also reportedly became very well integrated into Wampire, according to the band's new press bio:

And so, in mid-August Tinder and Phipps each brought fragments of song ideas into the studio, before deconstructing, re-arranging, and fitting them back together piece by piece — at times lyrics and melodies were thrown out, brought back from the dead, or improvised on the spot.

This loosely structured approach made the process truly collaborative, with producer Portrait occasionally chipping in ideas for lyrics, arrangements, and instrumentation.

Other album track titles include "The Orchard," "Trains," and "Magic Light." Meanwhile, "The Hearse" is a fine showcase for Wampire's development, maintaining the bedazzled, zooted sound of the band's previous, dance-friendly records but offering something a little more urgent and impassioned. It makes me think the titular hearse is in the middle of a high-speed chase, a bizarre but cinematic image that's appropriate for Wampire's new sound.

Portland electronic label Dropping Gems has their seam-bursting showcase tonight at Holocene (read more about the label here), but there's a little more info about the new EP from Natasha Kmeto, who performs at the DG showcase tonight. It was announced yesterday that her forthcoming EP, Dirty Mind Melt, comes out on Dropping Gems on February 19, and its four tracks lead up to her full-length album that comes out in May. We've got the title track for you below—you can download it as well—and it's a stark, dramatic piece over a hiphop beat with Kmeto's overlaid and vari-speeded vocals. Click the jump for the EP's cover image and track listing. Again, Kmeto performs at Holocene along with a truly stacked bill of other Dropping Gems artists: Devonwho, the Great Mundane, Rap Class, Break Mode, Ghost Feet, City Mouth, Brownbear, Bone Rock, and Philip Grass, with visuals by Mapache Films.

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