PDX_2X4 is a monthly podcast celebrating the bands of Portland, Oregon. Episode One shines a light on The Welfare State, Derby, Lewi Longmire Band & Drunken Prayer

PDX_2X4 : Pills, Pop, Pearls & Swine

Episode One shines a light on The Welfare State, Drunken Prayer, Derby and the Lewi Longmire Band. In a new series of podcasts, each consisting of 2 tracks played live by 4 Portland-based bands, celebrating what’s going down right now.

THE WELFARE STATE (live at the White Eagle Saloon)

1. Beneath the College Garage

2. The Man Of Least Resistance

DERBY (live at the Doug Fir Lounge)

3. All Or Nothing

4. Stop Stalling

LEWI LONGMIRE BAND (live at Mississippi Studios)

5. Save Yourself

6. Voluntary Martyr

DRUNKEN PRAYER (live at Doug Fir Lounge)

7. What Made Me Kill

8. Pearls & Swine

The Welfare State debuted in August of 2008 at the International Pop Overthrow Festival, and were straight out of the gate tight synapses & sinew.  A huge leap forward from previous band, Crack City Rockers; these songs were once destined for CCR’s 3rd unreleased album.  A year and change later, The Welfare State ready the release of High Times, the debut cd this Spring. The songs have been hammered & honed live: Greg explodes bombs on the toms while Ken squeezes sparks from the frets a la Quine.  Freddie’s funky fat cobra bass lines slither past you, slamming against the bar while Eric shivers & sings of “delirious, contagious certainties”, taking more than you need and spending it easily.  Is it worth it? Fuck yea.

If Derby resided in NYC or Sweden or some other scene blipping on the radar, they’d be mega huge by now.  Earcandy Powerpop with double shots of Kinks wit & Beatle harmonies, they’d have to run for the tour bus and turn down the interviews. Luckily for us in Portland, they are our little secret.  Their 2008 release, Posters Fade, upped the ante on their debut, This Is The New You, by which time NPR and the BBC took note and Europe gave a listen.  Derby are finishing a 3rd album as we speak and, in a perfect world, it might force them to hire limos and do that world tour.  Portland would miss them.

Lewi Longmire has never met an instrument he didn’t like; whether playing fender, farfisa, trumpet, what-have-you..he’s been the go-to-multi-instrumentalist session & sideman since moving here from Albuquerque. Peter Buck of REM once remarked it seemed Lewi was always in whatever band he went to see when in Portland. Thankfully, a couple of years back, Lewi stepped forward with his own band and his own songs.  With Bill Rudolph on bass and Ned Folkerth on drums, its a powerful rock trio that will pummel & sway you.  I hope to grow old to the music of Lewi Longmire. Its a long, cold pull of water after an endless stumble across the desert.

You can still smell Appalachian smoke on the songs of Morgan Christopher Geer and his band Drunken Prayer, hailing as he does from Asheville, NC. Songs of sin, drunkenness & possible redemption, Morgan’s guitar attack assails you & grabs you by the lapels & looks you square in eye & slowly smiles. Like a carnival barker selling snake oil with a promise to cure all and save your soul.  I’ve been at gigs where local musicians, dragging in their friends, yell over the maelstrom: “Man, you’ve got to hear this guy, he’s fuckin’ awesome!”.  It’s true.

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