OTHER LIVES, RIOTHORSE ROYALE (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) Four years after their last album, Other Lives have a new place to call home and a new record to tell you about it. After recording 2011's Tamer Animals, the trio felt they had written all they could about their home in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and needed a change of scenery—both physically and musically. "Through our travels, Portland kept coming up in conversation," says lead singer Jesse Tabish. "Every time we were here we'd think how great it was. There was just something to it—it seemed healthy." When the time came to relocate, Portland was an easy choice for the group, which also includes multi-instrumentalists Josh Onstott and Jonathon Mooney. With a style that's morphed throughout the years, Other Lives can be tricky to classify. Beginning as a primarily instrumental ensemble, the band went through a folky phase and now boasts a sound best described as meticulously crafted collage. Their new album, Rituals, is no exception. Loftier than previous recordings, it has an undeniably smooth and seductive resonance that's entrancing. Tabish's brooding vocals give way to a velvety lushness that remains buoyant through bright and driving instrumentals. "The new work explores a lot of different music—everything from folk to electronic to experimental," he says. HALEY MARTIN Read the full article on Other Lives.
SÓLSTAFIR, ANCIENT VVISDOM, JOHN HAUGHM (Star Theater, 13 NW 6th) Iceland's best-known band at the moment, Sigur Rós, is an acquired taste. The group's soaring post-rock straddles a tricky line: Some find the reliable stream of crescendos triumphant, while others hear too much preciousness in the group's emotionally charged sound and Jónsi's piercing wail. If Sigur Rós intrigues you but you fall into the latter camp, check out Sólstafir, an excellent Icelandic band that put out a gorgeous album, Ótta, last year, which plays like Sigur Rós' murkier, burlier cousin. Here, Sólstafir continues its evolution from a thrashy black-metal band into an ambitious rock 'n' roll machine with a road case full of weighty riffs, walloping rhythms, and dark tones, but also lots of beautiful moments to burn through the arctic fog. And unlike Jónis, frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason never sounds like he's communicating with sea creatures. BEN SALMON
JAMES CARTER, OREGON SYMPHONY (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) For three nights, the Oregon Symphony's music director, Carlos Kalmar, puts Portland's biggest band through its paces with an all-American program sporting 20th-century masterworks and a pair of more unfamiliar gems from contemporary composers. The evening's staggering setlist explodes from the start with Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, a series of brilliant orchestrations based on Leonard Bernstein's perennially cool score. It will be a tough act to follow, but James Carter is up to the task. The jazz saxophonist is in town to blow, squeal, and honk his way through a blazing concerto composed especially for him by Roberto Siena. Following intermission, a sea change occurs with Samuel Barber's heart-wrenching Adagio for Strings, a work that offers a beautiful opportunity to witness the Symphony's impressive violin, viola, cello, and bass sections—unadorned and absolutely glorious. The night ends with an utterly bombastic finale from composer Christopher Rouse that's a mere seven years old, and it's guaranteed that Carlos and the Gang are going to kill it. BRIAN HORAY
LESS THAN JAKE, REEL BIG FISH, PACIFIC DUB (Roseland, 8 NW 6th) My editor's prompt for this preview was: "Who goes to see Reel Big Fish these days?" I don't have all the answers, and I'm not bold (or bored) enough to find out for myself. To say that Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake are "confined to an era" would be a generous overestimation. Unlike a few other bands from the same '90s period, there's little redeeming about these groups' canons; nothing about a record like RBF's Turn the Radio Off begs for hipster reevaluation. (Last year it was reissued on vinyl and available at select Hot Topic locations, which should give you an inkling as to who will be attendance at tonight's show.) Most egregiously, both bands are partly responsible for leaving an indissoluble blemish on a formerly credible genre (ska) that most people my age just reflexively assume is interchangeable with comedy music. Both bands are on tour supporting sorta newish releases, an EP from Reel Big Fish released last winter called Happy Skalidays (it opens with "Skank for Christmas" and comes full circle with a predictably brassy take on "Auld Lang Syne"), and a two-song single by Less Than Jake titled American Idle. I almost feel sorry for them. MORGAN TROPER
Senior Editor Ned Lannamann writes about pop culture, music, film, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, politics, Portland, and other things.
