Saturday
10:00 pm: The Blank Tapes + Agent Ribbons

Monday
9:00 pm: Service Industry Night
Service industry workers enjoy a house discount.

Tuesday
10:00 pm: Trivia Night

Thursday
10:00 pm: Drunken Prayer + Low Red Land + Alex Levin
About Drunken Prayer from Portland, OR:

"...one part the Band, one part Tonights The Night and several parts sinners remorse...Bad Seeds-in-New Orleans noir..." - Fred Mills, Harp Magazine

&brooding ballads and Cash-esque country morbidity. - Willamette Week, Portland, OR

"...Geer's voice oozes a nonchalant bitterness that plays against the kind of hard-driving darkness you'll never find on today's pop-country charts...his style varies from outright guttural to an almost inculpable sincerity..." -Steve Shanafelt, Mountain Xpress, Asheville, NC

I'm at a loss as to what to compare their sound to, but I'm completely captivated with the few songs I've gotten my hands on. - Monica Topping, Times-Standard, Eugene, OR

"This is unapologetic American music--straight, no irony chaser. These sorrowful, brutish, hell-bent songs pick up a narrative thread that's too long been left in the dirt." -Tables Turned, Portland, OR

"The CD is a fascinating display of contrast. It is rocking, it is solemn. It is gritty; it is ethereal. It is in your face; it is in your heart. It is satiating; but will have you craving more. The songs contain striking lyrics that sweep over and engulf the listener. Pay close attention to those thoughtful words - some of them are very deep and will challenge you." -Roots Music Report

"This is saint and sinner stuff full of passion and pain." - Jeff Weiss, Miles of Music

Low Red Land:

We are Low Red Land. We are a three piece from San Francisco, CA, made up of Ben Thorne on bass and vocals, Neil Thompson on guitar and vocals, and Mark DeVito on drums. We all met in college in upstate New York and played a lot in crappy houses in and around Franklin Springs. We moved on to Boston for a few years and played in a four piece band that had very mild success. The fourth member of the band chose to go back to school, Mark messed up his back shovelling snow, and we decided to move to California. We got here in July of 2005. Since arriving the city has been very inspirational. Our music has grown at an incredible rate, and we are all much happier with what we are playing. Moving away from our homes, families, and jobs also made us very tight, which has carried over to our music. We couldn't be happier with our music and our decision to pursue rock and roll as a lifestyle.

We get frustrated trying to describe our sound. That is pretty common among bands playing original music. We strive to sound like nothing but Low Red Land, and we think we do a good job of it. One of our bios says something about us being an explosive rock trio with heart-felt lyrics and precise dynamic changes. It also says that we don't like band bios because they're written by people too close to the music. There are too many comparisons made, too many big words used, and too much effort taken to sound unique. Our ideal band bio would read, "Come see us play a show. We are awesome." >p> We recently completed our first national tour, playing thirty-five shows over seven weeks. It was a great experience for us as a band. We played some great shows, learned a lot about our music, and met some fantastic people. The most inspiring part of the tour was finding good people all over the country. We are currently gearing up to hit the road again.

Please check out our music. If you can make it to a live show you should. We play real hard, and we're all pretty nice guys.

Hopefully we'll see you soon.

Love, Low Red Land

Friday
10:00 pm: Prairie Dog + Last of the Blacksmiths
Last of the Blacksmiths began playing together as a band in San Francisco in 2003. By the time they recorded and released an eponymous album in 2005, they had garnered a dedicated local following. In 2006, the band joined Vanguard Squad with the release of a two-song single, And Then Some. Shortly after, they began recording their second full-length album, Young Family Song, which was released on May Day, 2008.

Since they've been together, the Blacksmiths have developed a catalog filled with veritable triumphs. Their songs will outlive the time in which they are written and, when considered as a whole, gather a lifetime worth of lived experiences. The Blacksmiths are my favorite kind of band. They are comfortable doing their own thing; they develop that "thing" together and then unabatedly set it alight on stage and on their recordings. They take their art seriously without taking themselves too seriously. Their songs are engaging in a unique way that makes me think about all sorts of things I would likely not have considered had I not heard the song.

This caliber of songs is the result of a band that started as a group of musicians but has become dear friends. To spend time with this band is to realize how much a part of each other's lives they are. This new album, Young Family Song, is evidence of that closeness. It is a beautiful and unique experience to explore their imaginations together and build songs from whispers, dreams and fleeting moments nearly lost to time. To do this--to really do this--means making oneself vulnerable. This kind of art requires letting go, being comfortable exploring your helplessness and your desires. In the case of the Blacksmiths, "band practice" means a lot more than figuring out what notes to play.

Being comfortable with oneself is a great virtue. It allows stillness; in this state, one can see the traumas and excitements that get caught in the fence of a lived experience. To develop this stillness of character as a band, democratically, is a tremendous feat. It takes great effort to accommodate the opinions and appreciations of one another. The payoff, of course, is rich, and anyone who listens will hear evidence of this in the songs. The music of the Blacksmiths offers more than just notes and melodies, verses and choruses. When you listen, you can hear through their music and into their lives and experiences; you can hear the influences, the rustlings of their helplessness and yearnings. As the result of this band being the way they are--vulnerable, sharing in their desires and fears, exploring the further reaches of their imaginations--their music offers so many things that stick with the listener after the song has ended. This, to me, is genuine music. Perfect music. Real life music.

The Blacksmiths sing about things that are personal to them without doing so either in a tinselly singer-songwriter manner or in a way that ties the song to "issues," leaving no wiggle room. The songs are specific to the lives of these gentlemen without being limited only to them. The topics of everyday experiences, when divorced from their everyday surroundings, have spaciousness. There is allowance for the song to age, room for what Agnes Martin calls "endless directions." Without irony, the creative examination of daily life is fodder for their musical oeuvre.

The future looks fertile for the band. They are writing and recording new songs, planning shows, and continuing to explore the inexhaustible melodies that nest in their throats.

I grew up with part of the Blacksmiths, playing in bands with Nathan after high school and messing around with recording equipment with Nigel. I left San Francisco in 2002, before the Blacksmiths formed. A favorite pastime Nathan and I enjoyed was shopping for records. He and I would spend hours flipping through bins, debating what we thought of bands or albums and reconciling our opinions with one another. To say that sharing our thoughts on music was important to us would be a colossal understatement. While we didn't always agree (me: "The Beach Boys have absolutely no balls!") and we didn't always find the same inspiration (Nathan: "The Swans create a mood I don't often want to indulge in"), we have always come away wiser for the time. In fact, most of our visits these days are consumed with similar discussions, as if we've been saving up all these thoughts to share with each other and it doesn't matter that we're standing in a kitchen at 3 am jawing on about Dolly Parton while everyone else is in the house is trying to sleep. It's a beautiful feeling to find someone else with whom you can share such ideas. And, luckily for me, I now have this relationship with the rest of the Blacksmiths.

I am particularly proud that Vanguard Squad is releasing Young Family Song. In 2004, after I had moved, the band was recording songs and I got a demo of "The Records." For one reason or another, the song didn't end up on their first album, but it remained my favorite. It was the first song I heard by the Blacksmiths and one that made me homesick for friends and the music we shared. Nathan wrote the song for those times when even your favorite tunes can't cheer you up:

And the records that I listen to They don't sound so good to me anymore

It's an understated chorus, but one that, to me, is beautifully eloquent. In the song, he concedes, "Found the things I crown my favorite things are things." And it's true; without the rest of it (the intent, the expression of something unique), those records are just things. Just sound. Getting a chance to release this album, after being so influenced by the expression of creativity that is unique to the band, is like coming full circle.

I can't help but feel like I'm getting old when I talk with friends about how some of today's music is terrible. Although, I would argue that there's plenty of great bands who make the kind of music that will raise the hair on the back of your neck, or make you weep in public, or keep you humming their melodies long after you've stopped listening. Last of the Blacksmiths are that band, and for that, I am grateful.

Thank you for reading, --Bambouche of the Vanguard Squad