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TreeFort Music Fest: Portland meets Boise
The spring break festival features bands such as Blitzen Trapper, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, Sun Araw and The Shivas
Maryland. Wongs intricate technicality and simple psychedelia are sure to please. Folk darlings and Seattle natives Pickwick combine modern folk sounds with a lo-fi influence, and have been compared to the likes of Wilco and Fleet Foxes. Pickwick can truly be considered emerging artists, as they are still working on their debut LP. On Friday, Portlands The Parson Red Heads take the stage, playing their own brand of timeless indie music. The band has been around for nearly eight years, but has been gaining notoriety lately since their move from Eugene to Portland via Los Angeles. Sun Araw will be playing their brand of psychedelic experimental music on Friday as well. Sun Araw grew out of the psychedelic rock collective Magic Lantern, and have been releasing music ceaselessly ever since. Bay Area hip-hop newcomer K.Flay raps about generational indifference and how she just doesnt really care about anything. She released her first EP and hopes to release a two-part LP later this year. Portland duo Talkdemonic brings their unique chamber pop to the festival on Friday night as well. AU (pronounced ay-you) are recent Portland residents who combine dynamic vocals with off-beats, guitar and a keyboard to make something golden. Typhoon, Portlands 10-member chamber pop band, is hauling out to Boise, too. Their 2010 release Hunger & Thirst, influenced by physical and ontological sickness saw much success. The band is signed to Tender Loving Empire and should be having some kind of record coming out soon. And And And will also be playing on Saturday. If you havent already heard their noisy, disorganized brand of folk punk, you should. Portland locals Brainstorm will take the stage with their ecstatic art-rock. Denver duo Flashlights brings their sweet Glo-fi basement party jams to TreeFort, changing up the lineup a bit. Their debut EP Hidden Behind Trees is an exciting, summery adventure through sound. The experimental musician AAN from Portland makes rich, harmonious music that crosses over grunge, pop and progressive indie music, and will be stopping at TreeFort fest before embarking on a national tour. Tennis, whose debut album Cape Dory made big waves in the indie community, will perform at TreeFort Fest on Sunday. Cape Dory chronicled two band members journey across the country. Their forthcoming LP Young and Old will be nothing like the old one, according to the bands website. Portland band The Shivas will play their surf-rock sounds at the festival. Theyve been around since 2006, and have perfected a mopey sound that other hyped surf bands have yet to achieve. Portland/Boise based band Death Songs play percussion-heavy, simple folk songs. Since forming in 2007, the band has become most famous for playing house shows in Portland, and only relocated to Boise this past summer. Four-day general passes (that give you entry into every show at every venue) go for $150. Not bad, considering the 100+ bands playing. You can also buy individual tickets to any show any night. The festival is structured like Portlands Music Fest North West, which involves several different venues hosting showsbasically, club hopping around the city. TreeFort Fest is a way to stretch your legs this spring and get to know new music from the Pacific Northwest.
The Pioneer Log ARTS
february 24, 2012
ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY GRAY
BY ZIBBY PILLOTE
Editor-In-Chief
As if, living in Portland, we werent submerged enough in emerging music, this spring break, why not spend your time reveling in just that? TreeFort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho is having its first annual festival this March, just in time for Lewis & Clarks spring break. The festival is focused on new and emerging bands, and although the lineup may not seem too new to you, there are a bevy of newcomers and unknowns that are making names
for themselves here. Headlining are psych-pop outfit of Montreal, Boise natives Built To Spill, Portland sweethearts Blitzen Trapper, and WHY? from Cincinnati, Ohio. WHY? are an indie-rap amalgamation who combine ironic and often satirical poetry with ambient sounds and beats. WHY? has been around for a while, releasing several EPs and the LP Oaklandazulasylum in 2003, with follow-up Alopecia in 2007. Anyone who loves trip-hop, folkpunk or experimental pop will love WHY?s sound. Aside from the headliners,
many other great bands will be descending on Boise. On Thursday night, Portlands nostalgic pop quartet Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside will perform. LC students might remember the group for their performance at last years Sunburn Music Festival hosted by KLC, or for the flawless and much anticipated LP they dropped this summer, Dirty Radio. The group combines classic American rock n roll with a modern vibe and does so effortlessly (listen to Where Did You Go?). Thursday night also features Dustin Wong, ambient sound artist from Baltimore,
The Womyns Center presents Eve Enslers The Vagina Monologues to raise money for Rafael House of Portland
BY TAYLOR WALLAU
Staff Writer
Vaginas stage a takeover
VAGINA. How often do you hear the word used, outside of biology class? On Feb. 17, almost forty Lewis & Clark students, dressed to the nines, stood up in front of a packed Chapel, and not only talked about vaginas, but many of them actually shouted the word at the tops of their lungs at the annual performance of Vagina Monologues. Tyler Rizzo (14), Womyns Center coordinator, believes the event serves as a unique platform to open up the conversation of female sexuality, as a womans relationship to her vagina is not something you bring up at the Bon. Throughout February, communities worldwide celebrate V-Day by performing Eve Enslers collection of monologues, which tackle the taboo subjects of sex and abuse. VDay was established Feb. 14, 1998, as a movement dedicated to stopping violence against women by
PHOTO BY LARISSA BOARD
Libby Howard (14) performs in the Chapel at the annual Vagina Monologues.
raising public awareness of issues such as rape, sex slavery and mutilation. The Vagina Monologues have been performed in over 140 countries and the V-Day movement has raised over $80 million for anti-violence organizations. The Womyns Center coordinates the event every year, usually right around Valentines Day. Auditions are held early in the semester, but anyone who would like to perform is given the opportunity to do so. This year, the event was fully equipped with thematic merchandise, such as cuntcakes, creatively decorated cupcakes, as well as t-shirts and beads. Although attendance was free, all of the funds raised from cupcakes, shirts and donations (suggested donation was three to five dollars) benefited the Rafael House of Portland, a local domestic violence agency. The beads were sold as part of a separate fundraiser, Bead for Life, which raises money to eradicate extreme poverty through the sale of goods crafted by Ugandan women.
They can still be purchased at the Womyns Center. Were reclaiming control of female sexuality, said performer Hannah Miller (14). Some of the pieces focus on abusive sexual encounters, but many of the stories celebrate women as sexual beings by exploring the positive relationships that they have with their vaginas. All of the monologues were inspired by the interviews with women conducted by Ensler. The stories deal with topics ranging from a womans first period to homoerotic sex work to female genital mutilation. The monologues provide a chance to give voices to people who dont have the strength or opportunity to recount their own experiences on a stage, said director Adrian Gebhart (12). The ultimate goal of the performers and directors is for female-identifying audience members to walk away feeling empowered, and maleidentifying audience members to gain a better understanding of female sexuality.
