10/14/05
Okay...I haven't been better about this blog stuff, but lots has been going on. Good stuff. Some of it even music-related. Thanks for understanding.
08/26/05
Sorry for the long, long delay in updates. I'll be better. I promise.
04/29/05
I love digital photography! A couple of months ago, an Oregonian reporter asked to use one of my PDX-Pop Now! photos in a piece about the local band Blitzen Trapper. It was in the A&E last month and I got a photo by-line! The same picture also appeared in a Berbati's Pan ad. Let's hear it for my amateurish photographic stylings!
In other photographic news, I recently had a chuckle with local singer/axe-mistress, Erika Meyer of the band Serpentone. Somehow, the following digital picture found it's way onto their website. Compare that to what I suspect to be the original, un-doctored version.
Fascinating, no? Erika was quick to blame her former bass player, even though I assured her that I really, honestly thought it was just hilarious.
03/04/05
My name was mentioned on the indie-rock webzine pitchfork media for the first time today. This Jandek tribute appearance is already making long-standing career goals of mine fall by the wayside. Hooray for Summersteps Records and Jeff Tweedy!
02/06/05
Look for my track "Van Ness Mission" on Down In A Mirror - A Second Tribute to Jandek being released this spring by Summersteps Records. It will also include tracks from The Mountain Goats and Jeff Tweedy, as well as about 20 other great artists. This spring will also see the simultaneous release of the new cds Country and Optimism. Yay for market saturation!
In other news...last weekend I held my first house show of solo-acoustic artists, and I'm pleased to report that my house was not, repeat not, completely destroyed. Everyone seemed to have a nice time and Sean, Jaqq and Julia were amazing as always.
01/28/05
This is why I don't have a page on LiveJournal. It would never get
updated.
As usual, much has happened since I last posted. We've gotten mixes of
the songs for Optimism, the new Hellpets record, and they're currently
in Baton Rouge being mastered by the capable ears of our friend Mike.
Meanwhile, our other friend (and graphics wizard extraordinaire) Megan
has signed on to do the album art layout. A date for the simultaneous
release of Optimism and Country is being decided on. Hellpet touring
plans are being discussed. Local performances have been hinted at. I
took a trip to New York. Witnessed the debut of the band Heroes & Villains, opening for Myshkin's Ruby Warblers at
Mississippi Studios. Finished mixing an EP by local acoustic rock duo Quality Name Brand; began a
recording project for the artist currently known as Jaqqxila; saw
PDX homies Colin Meloy, Modernstate and Viva Voce terrorize the Doug Fir; hung
out with Tommy of The Wanteds
at Davy Jones Locker; got my mind blown by Minmae at the Tonic Lounge; started helping
to make plans for the 2005 PDX-Pop
Now! local music festival. All in all, a pretty good couple of
months.
12/06/04
I've been producing some new songs by the amazing local acoustic rock duo Quality Name Brand and the first round of mixes are nearly complete. These guys are not to be missed! In other news, I was hilariously sent up - solo acoustic style - by Celesteville mastermind Jake Anderson at a recent holiday gathering. It was like being the guest of honor at a roast...and coming from a creative force of his magnitude, it was especially humbling. Thanks, Jake!
At the same party, I witnessed a mind-blowing performance from Matt whose musical project is called Natural Bridges (and who don't seem to have a website). Check out his record, Variations on Birdsong, if you come acrosss it. The brilliant songwriters just keep emerging from the Portland woodwork!
12/02/04
Our last show of the year at the White Eagle a couple of weeks ago was a fun, raucous affair. Go see the Vulturines and Giant Bug Village at the next available opportunities. During this brief hiatus from shows, we're putting the finishing touches on the new Ross and the Hellpets full-length album and planning a spring '05 tour of the pacific northwest. Also, according to my sources, the new Ross Beach solo cd will be shipping from the factory in a couple of days. I'll create a Paypal link for that as soon as it becomes available.
As you can imagine, I'm disappointed about what happened to our country one month ago today. The "land of the free" decided that certain minority groups should be denied equal rights. The "home of the brave" succumbed to fear-mongering. Fifty-one percent of the country decided they were more personally affect by the prospect of gay marriage than by the government giving false rationales for sending their children off to die in a war. Funny thing, though...the exit polls didn't say that. Only the "official" results. The computer-tabulated, un-auditable, unverifiable official results. Welcome to the illusion of democracy.
10/14/04
Despite the Hellpets being of undeclared sexual orientation, we had the distinct honor of performing in the PSU park blocks this past Monday for National Coming Out Day. Following us was the amazingly fun, bear-riffic band Sneakin' Out. Their mandolin, xylophone, bass and percussion powered instrumental tunes include a cover of a song by The Captain and Tennille. How can you beat that? And speaking of beatings...our set was bookended by brief stump speeches by city council candidates Nick Fish and Sam Adams, who both seemed to be on the up and up. Mayoral candidate Jim Francesconi was also scheduled to appear, but never showed. Perhaps things were a bit too GAY for the future also ran. Here are a couple of pictures courtesy of Mr. Mark Person. Click to enlarge.
The saga of the new records continues with its dramatic trajectory. My solo album, "Country", has been sent to the cd manufacturer and advance copies should be available from me in about a month. The arrival time of the new Hellpets album, "Optimism", is a little less certain. I'll just say that family reunions and immigration law are both involved. The plan is still to release these records simultaneously, though that probably won't happen in any official sense until January 2005.
And by the way...
Don't allow bigotry to be written into the Oregon constitution.
Vote NO on 36.
I approve this message,
Ross
10/09/04
I played an interesting house party last weekend. Here was the lineup, as emailed to me by the party planner...
jason of the red house painters
girl chasers of the unflushables
craig as a verb of new jersey
jack tuftee formerly of pink floyd jr.
ROSS of need i say more
stephanie and friend from some band ceitzgeist?
the sort ofs
09/07/04
New Zealand pictures have been uploaded! To peruse them, click HERE.
Saturday night I went to an excellent house show which featured the local musical artists Celesteville, Punk Cat Z (aka Jack Tuftee) and Sean Brooks. Ten minutes before his set, Jack asked me to play lead guitar with him. I think I pulled off some pretty convincing fakery on Sean's guitar. Monday I went to Bumbershoot to see the reunited Pixies perform. Incredible.
09/03/04
Just got back from a trip to New Zealand where I saw tons of breath-taking scenery, hiked many kilometers (thank you, metric system) of nature trail, walked on several beaches, met many other foreign travelers (who seemed genuinely sympathetic to individual Americans such as myself who are living in these dark political times), played in snow and drove a long, long way. Stopped in at the ARC Cafe in Dunedin (a town that made me feel like I was in Scotland, and which also happens to be at the same latitude as Portland, Oregon, only in the southern hemisphere) and saw an improve noise band, which may or may not have been comprised of Flying Nun Records label founders. They seemed about the right age...
Last night I went to the Portland Rock Collective show at the White Eagle where the lineup consisted entirely of my super-talented friends. This time out, it was Sauvie Island Moon Rocket Factory, followed by The Minor Thirds and Myshkin's Ruby Warblers. In trying to continue my habits as part-time photojournalist of the Portland scene, I took a few shots of each band, thinking I might post them here. I try to use only available light (as opposed to the flash), which isn't easy in dimly lit clubs like this one. Sadly, the blurriness didn't come out especially artistic tonight.
08/13/04
This month marks the ten year anniversary of my
first solo album. Holy crap!
08/09/04
It was another great week of rock in this land we
call port. Last night, based on a strong recommendation, I went to see
Montreal pop band The
High Dials play at the Twilight Cafe. I'm a big fan of that
bar...consistently great music, almost never a cover charge. I like
those odds. My friend Amoree Lovell closed out the evening with her
soothing torch-style piano set. I helped carry her electric mini-grand
onto the stage. That thing must weigh 350 pounds! She noted that Billy
Joel and Elton John both started to suck when they switched to synths,
so she's sticking with actual hammers and strings. Earlier that day, I
hung out in a backyard near the 39th Ave. Fred Meyer with Sam Schauer
of Modernstate and the two brothers who make up the band The Better To
See You With. These are a couple of the guys who've put on so many
legendary "house" shows at a certain former hotel in the heart of
downtown Portland. Saturday night we had a great show at the Mississippi
Pizza Pub with The
Mouse That Roared. Thursday night I missed Minmae at the White
Eagle, but had my socks knocked off by the Binary Dolls. Have I
mentioned that this town is crazy with great bands?!
08/02/04
I had a terrific show at the Brainwash Laundromat
and Cafe in San Francisco last week. I was the "featured performer" at
a spoken word/poetry/music salon hosted by the enigmatic beat poet
known as Diamond Dave (not to be confused with the former Van Halen
singer). I played all political material and the crowd was very
appreciative. In fact, one of the performers - a 50 year old black guy
with the voice and presence of a southern preacher - delivered an
oration that actually riffed on my analogy between corporate campaign
finance and bet-hedging at the racetrack. As usual, I met a bunch of
terrific people, not the least of which were Guy and Ethan who arrived
early to set up the P.A....Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the cd
manufacturer has sent me barcodes for the new albums, so graphic design
work is underway. Thank you so much graphic design friends! Thinking
back, I don't think that any record I've ever made would have been
possible without the kindness and generosity of friends. People
actually volunteered their time, talents and equipment just so I could
put out music. How bizarre is that? I've worked to pass this generosity
on to friends who can benefit from what I have to offer, but it never
feels like enough....
07/20/04
Soooo much is going on...
Topic 1: PDX-POP NOW! - The festival was a huge success: great bands, large
friendly crowds, unprecedented punctuality. We were hoping to foster a
sense of community and enthusiasm among local indie rockers and music
fans, but this surpassed our expectations. The companion compilation cd
we put together sold out in about 10 days and now we're doing second
pressing to meet the additional demand. Although I was at the Meow Meow for
about 36 hours over the weekend, I was occasionally working away from
the stages and didn't get to see every band. Bearing that in mind, my
personal highlights were: Psuedosix, Viva Voce, The Minders, Junior
Private Detective, Per Se, Lackthereof, Schicky Gnarowitz & the
Transparent Wings of Joy, The Empty Set, Wet Confetti, Loch Lomond,
Gravity & Henry, Blue Skies For Black Hearts, The Snuggle-Ups,
Blitzen Trapper, Tara Jane O'Neil and The Joggers. Okay, so there were
a lot of highlights. PHOTO ESSAY COMING SOON!
Topic 2: NEW RECORDS - Our two new albums (being released
simulataneously at the end of the summer) are going to be put out by my
old label, A Bouncing Space Recordings. My solo alt-country album is
currently being mastered in Baton Rouge and the new Hellpets album is
currently being mixed here in Portland. This is the long-awaited
political material, so in the spirit of education and the encouragement
of a national dialogue, these records will be offered at super low
prices (and not the ridiculous $17.99 that chain music retailers would
charge). Samples will be posted here.
Topic 3: FREE MUSIC - Speaking of music samples, I just posted a whole
bunch of mp3 clips from my legendary and diverse back catalog. Download
them for free at the download page. Oh,
the overwhelming historical interest!
Topic 4: LOCAL MUSIC PICKS - People of Portland, if you're a fan of the
indie-rock you have to go see this band called Minmae. Imagine if
Johnny Cash and Neil Young were the founding members of Sebadoh. For
those interested in witnessing a hyper-kinetic frenzy of an acoustic
duo, I present Quality Name Brand (formerly Shed, Inc.). I'm
also really into Myshkin's Ruby Warblers at the moment.
06/01/04
As usual, I've seen some fabulous music shows since last writing: first show of the Decemberists (viva la Tain)/Long Winters/Places tour; The Shins/Fiery Furnaces (hammiest working drummer in show business?)/Elf Power (featuring, for no apparent reason, the Minus 5's Scott McCaughey), Celesteville (elevated levels of bizarreness at the Dunes - I urge you to check
these people out), Breezy Porticos (e6-pop from Denver), Sean Brooks (of Minmae fame), Per Se (of Anne Adams fame), the Vulturines (recent PDX arrivals from Austin) and the incomparable Jack Tuftee (of the incomparable Tuftees). I'm sure I'm forgetting many....I've started making preliminary contact with a couple of record labels with whom I might be aesthetically aligned
about the possibity of releasing some records. Nothing definite at this point....Speaking of, after hours of tambourine overdubs, the new Hellpets record is finished being tracked and will soon be delivered to our fabulous mixing engineer in the form of a small stack of cdrs....In other news, I re-learned an important lesson last week: just because someone you think you
know asks about something that is ostensibly public information, and you give what you think is a thoughful explanation of how this information was arrived at and justified, it doesn't mean that the person won't then go off half-cocked and whining into the inboxes of hundreds of strangers. Oy, vey.
05/10/04
The Hellpets album is progressing at my usual snail-like pace. All that remains is some acoustic guitar overdubs and The Countess' backing vocals. I'm very excited about the results so far..... Planning for the PDX POP NOW fest (a free all-local music festival taking place July 9-11 at the Meow Meow) is picking up steam. A more complete line-up of local acts could be announced in the next couple of weeks.... I met the new Tonic Lounge booker this past weekend at the Heather Duby show (who was excellent, by the way). Apparently, there have been several since the unfortunate occurances of last fall. The Hellpets may yet rock that place again.... Along this weekend I performed on a new Minor Thirds album as a member of the "ethereal choir of vengeance" (featuring members of Celesteville, The Tuftees, The Persimmons, Shed Inc. and additional Hellpets). It was sort of like USA For Africa, only a little less altruistic and a little more dischordant.
04/08/04
These random updates have been a little more random (that is to say, infrequent) than I had originally intended. I'll work on that......In performance news, I recently made a couple of appearances sitting in on lead/slide/ebow guitar with The Tuftees. We made a nice recording in the KPSU studio that they'll probably mail you a copy of if you get in touch with them......Once again, I'm tremendously indebted to Mr. Mike Merriam in Baton Rouge who is putting the finishing touches on the Uppity Proles record as I type this. In other recording news, the new Hellpets record is entering the overdub phase......I've played a couple of fun solo sets lately: Billy Ray's Neighborhood Dive with Per Se and Sylous. Also, Costello's Travel Cafe with Jack Tuftee and Cory Dale. It was Cory's first show of a national solo tour - excellent stuff. Look for some audio and/or video clips to be posted soon, compliments of PDX musical artiste/gadabout/documentarian-of-life Chris Piuma: a solo rendition of "Pepper" from the soon-to-be-released Proles record and my covers of "Say" by W. Cullen Hart and "The Angel's Revenge" by The Minor Thirds ......I saw Dennis Kucinich speak last night, though only by accident. I have a great deal of respect for the guy and what he's trying to do. Still I wish he would have just come out and said: "Listen, you and I both know that I'm not going to get the Democratic nomination, but we can still send the message that progressive causes are important to the party base and, at this point, sending that message is my only goal." Anyway, I'm sure that's what he meant. He closed his comments by introducing Ani DiFranco, who was the reason I was out at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. After all the years of hype about her live shows, I wasn't disappointed. She's great. I'm less sure about some of her fans (I'm talking about a small percentage here) who, during Ani's shows, seem to forget that other people exist (which in my unsophisticated perception runs in stark contrast to the artist's message). I mean, are you so moved by the music that you have to stand up, blocking 15 people's view and then whistle loudly while 16 inches away from someone else's eardrum?......Here's a new Portland band recommendation: Truckless. They're southern-rock, northwest style...sorta like the second coming of Foghat. Okay, I'm slipping into hyperbole here, but when they play, butts move. I'll leave it at that.
02/24/04
The Countess, C. Baker and myself spent the weekend at Fusion Audio in downtown Portland with the Grammy-nominated audio mastermind, Drew Canulette. We laid down basic tracks for the upcoming Hellpets full-length, which will hopefully be available by late summer. Meanwhile, planning continues for what is being called the PDX-POP NOW! music festival - a free event taking place this July. I've been appointed to the booking committee, which probably gets me off the hook for having to perform. Soon, the public will be able to vote online for the local bands they want to see play...actually, this is what will get me off the hook for having to perform. I saw great sets recently from local artists The Empty Set, The Sort Ofs, Truckless, The Before Picture (who claim to be breaking up - what gives?) and Glance Failed. Also, our Seattle pals Jodi Hates the World came through town to rock not only the Ash Street Saloon, but also the
PSU cafeteria. Hard-frickin'-core.
02/03/04
I recently returned from visiting friends and family in Chicago where it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit and snowing. It really makes a person appreciate the Portland rain....The upcoming leftist-alt-country album from Ross Beach & the Uppity Proles is now in the able hands of Mix Master Mike in Baton Rouge....Tracking begins in three weeks on the new record by Ross and
the Hellpets with Rose City Softball commissioner Drew Canulette at the console....We played a fun Portland Rock Collective sponsored show at the White Eagle last month which featured me sitting in on banjo with the Tuftees. Mercifully, the banjo was all but inaudible amid the rockin' rhythms of Casey Tuftee and their drummer, Cloister Maximus III....We played a fun, if bizarre, show at Grand Central Bowl last week. It's rare when a club booking person actually gives bands pointers on how to scam the bar. It's sadly common to watch 50-75 people file into a $4 cover show and then be told that the door didn't make any money....Last night I attended an
organizational meeting for a new PDX indiepop music fest, hopefully to take place outdoors in the summertime. As a subsection of the local music scene, we recently came to the realization that Portland is full of fantastic bands! Yeah!
01/14/04
Finally, it's starting to feel like Portland again! For starters, the rain is back. It's a more than welcome change after being snowed in for two days last week, then trudging through slush for another six days. Also, steps were once again taken to criminalize political discourse as our un-elected Vice President Richard B. Cheney stopped at the PDX airport for a
fundraiser/photo op. The thoroughly unconstitutional "free speech zones" were situated behind fences and stormtroopers, 300 yards from where Dick was soliciting money. It's just part of ongoing efforts by the current administration to re-shape democracy in their own un-democratic image. Why such a show of police muscle? The most dangerous thing the citizens have is
the truth. So anyhoo, having a city-wide sheet of ice preventing me from leaving the house gave me the opportunity to finally wrap up tracking on my new leftist/anti-imperialist barnyard hoedown record. The working title is: Ross Beach and the Uppity Proles - Country. It features guest turns by Portland artists Myshkin, Anne Adams and, from the No War Drum Corps, Natasha Roe. I've send the rough tracks to Baton Rouge for mixing. With any luck, it'll be available before the election.
11/12/03
Well, my last post generated quite the email discussion. I inadvertently created a monster. It's starting to look like a friendly monster, though. This past Sunday evening, about 30 local musicians met up at the Lucky Lab to discuss the local scene and try to figure out what we can do to make it better. The current course of action is to create a loose-knit
collective of local bands that will be the revolving cast in a regular local band showcase. More grandiose, logistically-challenging ideas about opening a co-op venue were put on the back burner. This isn't exactly a radical move, but it's already helped local musicians to meet each other, and it might eventually raise the profile of underground local music in Portland....Speaking of great underground local musicians playing combined bills to enthusiastic hometown fans, on Friday night I went to the Produce Row Cafe to hear my friends in Per Se, Sauvie Island Moon Rocket Factory and Metropolitan. It's a bit frightening how good SIMRF is. Is was sitting about four feet away from singer/guitarist Dave Klopfenstein, and he looked like a man possessed. An unexpected delight was the second band, The Lodge Club....After the show, I decided to finally check out that new PDX venue The Dunes. I've given it the unofficial title of "Darkest Bar in Portland". Once my eyes adjusted, I noticed that the DJ for the evening was local
scene stalwart (and Captain vs. Crew drummer) Shawna Erwin-Gore....It was 1:40am by the time I reached Berbati's Pan, so obviously I missed The Decemberists' set. Colin Meloy told me that he met some of my friends when they played at the Red Star in Baton Rouge. My efforts to shrink the universe of American indie rock seem to be working....Finally, it was a Voodoo Doughnut and
off to bed.
10/24/03
When I glimpsed the words "don't like" scribbled next to our band name in the booking contact's calendar, I figured it meant trouble. It was my first time meeting Dave, the new booker for the Tonic Lounge, and despite those two words (which he probably didn't realize I saw - assuming they weren't simply a manifestation of some undiagnosed paranoid delusion), he
assured me that our show on October 18th, 2003 was still on. This was in September. In the past, I wouldn't have made a special trip to the Tonic to confirm a show. But, as is usually the case, the past was over. Gene Hall, the previous booker with whom we had a good working relationship, had left his post at the Tonic under murky circumstances. His protege, Sara, was
also fired about three weeks later. Rumors of political in-fighting and intra-bar power struggles ran rampant. Word reached me that shows booked by Gene and Sara would not be honored under the new system. Hence my trip to the bar to confirm the show. Dave confirmed the show. I left the bar feeling relieved.
Fast forward a month. Wednesday, Oct 15: the Tonic Lounge listing is absent from the Willamette Week music listings. New booking people probably just don't have their act together about emailing in the listings yet, I reasoned. No biggie. Thursday, Oct 16: the Tonic Lounge did have listings, and an ad, in the Portland Mercury. However, I had never heard of the bands. So, that night The Countess and I headed back to the Tonic in an attempt to sort this thing out. "Oh, we totally axed that", explained an uninterested-looking goateed man who appeared to hold some sort of supervisory position at the bar. When I asked why we weren't informed of the change, I was referred to the email address for booking-guy Dave. The next day (Oct 17th) I wrote to tonicloungebooking@hotmail.com in hopes that Dave might shed some light on the situation. The full text of my email appears below:
--Dave,
--Hi. This is Ross Beach. We met last month when I came into the bar to confirm our
--Oct 18 show (which you confirmed).
--I stopped by the bar last night and learned that we are no longer scheduled to play.
--
--When were you planning on telling us? When we showed up with our gear?
--
--Looking forward to your explanation,
--Ross
Too flippant, maybe? As of this writing (Oct 24), the email has not been returned.
I have a great deal of respect for people who can differentiate between music they like and music they don't like. I would certainly never hold against someone the fact that they don't like my band. In fact, I'm constantly amazed that so many people do like us. What I don't
appreciate is being lied to and having to backpedal on promotional efforts. Plans had been made. People with busy schedules were involved. If I could give any advice to the new bookers of the Tonic Lounge it might be this: if you don't want a band to play, don't tell them that they're playing. If you have to cancel a show, tell the band(s) involved. This strategy of
confrontation avoidance is not going to work. People are going to get aggravated and this
town isn't especially big.
Anyway, after leaving the Tonic on Oct 16th, the Countess and I headed down to Dante's for the Demolition Doll Rods show. They were great!
10/15/03
Back in 1998, I recorded a song for a tribute album to the enigmatic, Houston-based, cult recording artist Jandek. The song was subsequently un-included from the record, but because of my track's immense popularity (apparently with none other than Jandek himself), it's now available as a free download. Head on over to the Summersteps Records site and download the Van Ness Mission .mp3. Own a piece of way, way-underground music history. Is that really how my voice used to sound? The 2003 Bands Against Bush show happened at Liberty Hall this past Saturday. I received some nice compliments for my songs, got quoted in the Willamette Week,
and had the honor of having Tom Dietzel of Shed Inc. wail on my guitar during their set. It was a zen-like moment of letting go for me, yet somehow the guitar was returned in one piece. As usual, Shed were amazing.
9/30/03
Oh, life. It's bigger. Bigger than you and you are not me...I think. I'll have to get back to you on that. What I do know is that Get Set Go totally rock! They're currently criss-crossing the countryside, spreading the rock onslaught whereever they go. Check them out if you get the chance.
9/12/03
Last night, September 11th, was a momentus anniversary. That's right, 30 years ago yesterday the CIA orchestrated the bloody coup in Chile that brought the tyrannical dictator General Augusto Pinochet to power. Sure, maybe he suppressed all political discourse using violence and torture, but he was GREAT for American business interests! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! We
celebrated the occasion by playing a benefit show for Portland's chapter of Bands Against Bush at Conan's Pub. The Hellpets kicked off the evening with a selection of power pop nuggets covering topics such as economic disparity, natural resource privatization and military imperialism. We were followed by the dynamic dual-acoustic onslaught of Shed, Inc. Lastly, we were all treated to the freakshow stylings of BrewZerkus (which tonight featured Dingo Dizmal of the legendary PeptoDizmal Clown Troupe). Naturally, there was cricket eating, maggot eating, beds of nails, sharp knives, cinderblocks being broken over stomachs, escapes from straight-jackets, partial nudity and banjo playing. You know, the basics. All proceeds went toward the big October 11th Bands Against Bush show at Liberty Hall. Similar BAB events will be taking place on that date in cities around the world. Also amusing last night...a bar-goer paid us the compliment that we're a good band and would be really popular if we were famous. That's the rub, I figure.
9/07/03
In the last six days I've seen Nickel Creek, Carissa's Wierd, Imperial Teen, Lushus, R.E.M., Wilco (twice), Karla Bozulich, Minmae, Blue Skies For Black Hearts, The High Violets, Luke Janela, Captured! By Robots, The Carolines, Western, My Regrets, The Empty Set, Norfolk & Western, Nordic and Gravity & Henry. The last dozen of these were at MusicFest NW 2003, which felt to me like a great success. Now, it's time to sleep....In other news, the Tonic Lounge has reportedly already forced out the new booking contact Sara and does not intend to honor the dates she set with bands (of which we have two). Not sure what our future holds in terms of the Tonic.
8/25/03
This past Saturday we played a benefit for the Pet Overpopulation Prevention
Association which took the form of an art fair / Italian food festival (an Italian bakery donated their parking lot for the festivities). Remember in the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch when they played the Menses fair? It felt to me like I imagine that scene felt to them. I sang through our spare bass amp, so things were appropriately low-fidelity. We played one of
our quietest shows in recent memory yet still managed to inspire a noise complaint (the officer arrived on scene after we had packed up and left). The artists were very appreciative...even the one whose tent we essentially took over. Please spay and neuter your pets so that we don't have to play parking lots on N. Killingsworth anymore!
8/20/03
The High Violets and The Empty Set are my new gods. There are nine band members between them and, while polytheism isn't readily accepted in this land of supposed religious freedom, my declaration of this new religion should nonetheless entitle me to heaps of faith-based government grants. The spiritual awakening occurred Saturday night during our show with these fine Portlanders at the highly sought-after venue The Blackbird. As profound and humbling as this conversion was, it doesn't equal the profundity and humbl...um...humblosity of being deemed worthy to, one last time, take the Blackbird stage after getting a year's worth of the cold shoulder.
8/12/03
Plenty going on, as always...I'm halfway through recording my leftist anti-imperialist country album...the Hellpets have just scheduled studio time to record basic tracks for the upcoming Ross and the Hellpets release...my song "All This Non-Stop Fun" has been played everyday on KLSU in Baton Rouge for the last couple of weeks, according to various sources...I recently attended great performances by Portlanders The Tuftees, The Minor Thirds, The Mouse That Roared and Shicky Gnarowitz & the Transparent Wings of Joy (currently my favorite local band name)...I just downloaded an MP3 of a drumbeat from the Music Liberation Project. They're encouraging musicians around the
planet to download the track, record their own accompanying track, and send it in. The plan is for selected submissions to be mixed together to create a collaborative, experimental album. It's just gonzo enough to work!
8/05/03
We figuratively blew the doors off Portland's Ash Street Saloon Saturday night with the help of our fellow rockers The Odditors. Yes, the reports of back-bends and somersaults are true. Eric is one of the friendliest sound guys (to use the vulgar tongue) that we've encountered lately. Still, Ash Street economics has me flummoxed. The last time we played there, the crowd was...let's say, modest in size and, after the show, we were informed that the door take was $9 short of covering sound person expenses. Fair enough. This time, there were about four times as many audience members, but we're told the bar still didn't "cover expenses". I don't know if these means anything. While waiting for the show to start, I read the brand new issue of the Music Liberation Project. Finally, a local publication that actually concerns itself with local music. Gee, we might nurture a scene around here yet.
7/22/03
Yesterday, I got word that three members of the Portland band The Exploding Hearts were killed when their tour van rolled on Interstate 5 outside of Eugene, OR. They were pulling an all-night drive to get home from a show in San Francisco. My friend Ratch, the band's manager, was also in the van, but was relatively unhurt. I had only ever met one member of the band and only one time. The singer Adam Baby and I played the same songwriter's showcase show a few months ago. He was really good. This has been a rough year for the Portland music scene.
7/14/03
In light of the global instability wrought by the self-serving malice of various governing factions, many observers have, no doubt, taken it all to be an indicator of the quickly approaching end of time. That ain't nothing, though. The true harbinger is this: Ross and the Hellpets has been accepted to MusicFest NW
2003, putting an end of my long and (previously) untarnished string of music festival rejections. Woe be to the Gods! As if that wasn't enough, we were recently asked to play a show at The Blackbird, a Portland venue that, for some time now, we haven't been hip enough to play. Whither hipness? At the time of this writing, we're not listed on the Blackbird's website, so maybe they've detected our lack of painfully literate brooding ironic detachment. We played an amazingly fun show Friday night at the Jasmine Tree with our dear friends Sauvie Island Moon Rocket Factory (their first show since the addition of multi-instrumentalist Andy Giegerich) and The Minor Thirds (who decided to give their naughty material a rest for the evening in favor of songs on such topics as having a pet chicken). Among the attendees was my friend Margery whose Dark Porch Productions is putting on a performance piece this month at Disjecta.
7/01/03
We had a very (I'm told) successful evening of humanitarian fundraising this past Thursday evening at the 411 Collective. Proceeds went to buy supplies for a group of naturopathic doctors and students who will be volunteering in remote and impoverished areas of Nicaragua this summer. Among the participants were the band Polite Fiction, which includes the creators of that delightfully Portland-centric rock 'zine Music Liberation Project. For this show, Ross and the Hellpets were an official music pick of the Portland Mercury, which is something they periodically do as an excuse to ridicule us in print. Hard not to love 'em though. Saturday we had a terrific time playing the Tonic Lounge with our longtime pals Shed, Inc. and our new pals Queen Bee Jackson. Coincidentally, the Queen Bee drummer has a friend in common with us from the Baton Rouge music scene: Andy from El Tuco. Sunday, the homeless advocacy group Sisters of the Road Cafe put together the world's largest guitar band as a fundraising event. One thousand guitarists crammed into Pioneer Courthouse Square and played Woody Guthrie's populist anthem "This Land is Your Land" for an hour.
6/25/03
I just got word that the Capricorns have cancelled their west coast tour, so no show on July 15th. This is turning into a trend. Meanwhile, the fabulous electro-feminist duo Kid Quiz has left Eugene and moved down to L.A. (much to the chagrin of us Oregonians). In other news, tonight is the first rock and roll show being hosted by my favorite Portland bowling alley, Grand Central Bowl. Appearing tonight will be PDX rockers Metropolitan and the Tuftees. C'mon...bowling? Rock? How great is that?
6/20/03
A seriously rockin' time was had by all at the Twilight Cafe last night. We opened the show with a set that included a requested rendition of "I Prefer Sheep" (why does that song resonate so strongly with our fans?) and were followed by our Seattle-by-way-of-Louisiana rock stalwarts Jodi Hates the World. Also playing were NYC's own Crimson Sweet who played highly enjoyable New York Dolls-ish punk (or maybe I just think that because the bass player looks so much like David Johanssen). Rounding out the evening were the Portand rockers 8 Foot Tender. And, as if that wasn't great enough, Mark Serrat of the Portland-centric punk label Last Chance Records gave me a copy of his brand-new compilation "Northwest Kicked in the Nuts", featuring 25 female-fronted punk bands. Jodi Hates the World stayed over at Casa Hotstream West-Annex on their way to rock the unsuspecting citizens of California.
06/14/03
The Capricorns show at the Tonic is on for July 15th. They will be joined by BRONTRON, which is Sarah and Richel from Bronwyn wearing robot costumes. Yes! In other news, I've been asked to donate some door-prize CDs for a show sponsored by The Music Liberation Project, which is actively freeing local music from the chains of tyranny. The show is Saturday, July 15 at Nocturnal in Portland. Also, I've gotten word that the Hellpets won't be playing Bumbershoot in Seattle this year, so I guess that leaves me free to see a lot more music. Glass = half full.
06/10/03
I just painted the walls and pulled up the purple, dog-stained carpet in my basement. Soon, it will be the home of the newly reconstituted Casa Hotstream West recording studio. I'm halfway finished with the batch of psychedelic country tunes I started at the studio's previous location. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out. Look for a spring 2004 release date. After that will be the new Hellpets record, followed by a new Ross Beach solo CD in 2005. Or, that's the plan. Speaking of plans, I saw the Dismemberment Plan play their last Portland show last night. Awe-inspiring, as usual. Too bad for us that they're breaking up, but I'm sure they know what's best for them.
06/04/03
My friend Bethany from the band Estereo just asked me to help set up a Portland show on July 15th for a touring experimental female pop duo called The Capricorns. Looks like it'll be happening at the epicenter of eastside rock known as The Tonic Lounge. More details to come.
06/01/03
My long-suffering amp, the venerable Alamo Fury has, once again, returned from the repair shop. It's many recent attempts to join that great amplifier backline in the sky have been foiled by my relentless resusitations. I expect the Alamo will soon resort to more drastic measures, such as spontaneously combusting in mid-show. Exploding, perhaps. You know you don't want to miss that, so be sure to attend every
Hellpet show possible, just in case.
05/31/03
I was informed today that my most recent record label, A Bouncing Space Recordings, has officially given up the ghost. The website has even been taken down. Not sure yet what affect this may have on the availability of my record. Such is life. I guess now I have no choice but to sell out to a major. Now THAT was funny! Also today I attended the garage sale of a
certain Mr. Sean Broox and got myself a copy of his newly released Minmae CD. Also on hand were 2/3 of the Portland indie pop up-and-comers The Tuftees and Angelo, host of the KPSU indie rock show. Rock music and garage sales: the Portland tradition lives on.
05/28/03
Last night I played a performance showcase with the Portland Underground Showbiz Society Y'all (it's hard work to make that acronym). I did three solo acoustic songs, played tambourine for Dave and Linc of Sauvie Island Moon Rocket Factory and did a bit of mixer work for the band The Minor Thirds, who were typically great. I've had their new EP "Saskatchewan" in heavy rotation. Tonight was the maiden voyage for Jake Anderson's new bass fiddle. Also on hand were the comedians known as Rachael Parenta and Hecktow "King of Sweden".
05/21/03
The Countess has finally returned from a Hawaiian yoga instructor training course, and the Hellpets are once again ready to continue saving the world through rock music. In our very first post-hiatus rehearsal, my Alamo guitar amp fried one of its electronic gizmos. I know everyone is very interested in the well-being of the Alamo; that's why I write these things. Anyway, playing guitar through our backup bass amp sounded like crap. Just say no.
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Teddy Bear Satan says...