10.24.15 – SEANCE CRASHER // HANK PORCHE // MYSTERIOUS SAILOR // NATALIE LASWELL

12052386_544290779051899_4495433932434737990_oA night of live music featuring Portland indie rock band Seance Crasher, primitive ragtime piano artist Hank Porche, family foreboding folk groupMysterious Sailor, and the stunning voice of Natalie Laswell.

Saturday, October 24th
Doors@8PM // Show@8:30PM
all ages+bar w/i.d.
$5 in advance at Ranch Records – Cds, Lps, Vintage Rock Art, Dvds or $8 at the door

text LEVELB to 24587 for updates & giveaways!

3.14.15: Eric Lovre Band + Brian Berg

10974622_451314695016175_7084196056505187301_oGuitarist for the legendary Dharma Bums, Eric has been rocking the Northwest since before you moved here. Eric is a fourth-generation Oregonian, born and raised in the Willamette Valley. As a boy, Eric used to build crazy things out of parts from his grandpa’s garage: crystal radios, little one-stage tube amplifiers, and even an eavesdropping device so he could listen to people in the living room while he was in the bedroom.

Eric’s interest in music started around the same time. “I just love to play music. I can’t live without it. It’s like air and water to me. I was born to do it. It was a calling. My entire life, I never figured I would do anything else, ever. I never ever considered doing anything but rock and roll. That and electronics.”

He also records music in his all-vintage-analog studio, producing and engineering projects for, among others, John Fahey, the Minus 5, Perhapst, Kalaloch, and Michael Davis (MC5), as well as his current group, the Eric Lovre Band. “I’ve never liked the sound of digital very much, although it’s improved over the years,” says Eric. “The energy and the whole vibe of the record is better when people give a performance. That’s what separates a great record from an OK record — a great human performance — because no technology can do that. Technology just does what you tell it to do.”

+++

Brian Berg, the singer/songwriter/guitarist for Portland, Oregon’s 44 Long knows how to write a brilliant pop hook. One listen to either of their albums, COLLECT THEM ALL (Schizophonic) or INSIDE THE HORSE’S HEAD (Sideburn), and you’ll see why fans of roots rock, country, and the always enduring pop fanatic have gone nuts for his rock ‘n’ roll music. Whether it’s an acoustic based number or an all out rocker, Berg will have you on the edge of your seats begging for more.

Over the years, Berg has recorded wtih John Doe (X), Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), Scott McCaughey (REM), John Moen (Decemberists) and co-produced and played on several records by Robert Pollard (Guided by Voices).

Saturday, March 14th at Level B Theater
Doors@8PM // Music@8:30PM
all ages+bar w/i.d.
$5 at the door

text LEVELB to 24587 for updates & giveaways!

1.23.15: Joseph and Yaquina Bay

10682375_418284904985821_3355383734681582877_oFriday, January 23rd
Doors@8PM // Music@8:30PM
all ages+bar w/i.d.
$8 at the door

text LEVELB to 24587 for updates & giveaways!

Joseph is a band of three sisters from the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

“Hauntingly beautiful, incredibly inspired sounds.” – Darling magazine.

Expect honest words and genetically perfected harmonies.

https://www.facebook.com/thebandjoseph

~~~~

Layering accordion, ukulele, guitar, and percussion Oregon native Chris Ward slowly sculpted a sound praised for its distinct old world flavor and pop sensibilities. What began as a recording project evolved into a powerful live act complete with intoxicating melodies and harmonies that ebb and flow between antiquated and contemporary instrumentation.

Violins, piano, and acoustic guitar share the same unique sonic space as heavy bass, sampled organ, and a full drum kit. The music of Yaquina Bay has been compared to The Decemberists, Blind Pilot, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw. It is a sound that is both nostalgic and fresh, familiar and new.

https://www.facebook.com/yaquinabay/

10.4.14: The Eric Lovre Band Album Release with Orchards

10694363_382306225250356_2623200332876988016_o (1)THE ERIC LOVRE BAND // ORCHARDS

Guitarist for the legendary Dharma Bums, Eric has been rocking the Northwest since before you moved here. Eric is a fourth-generation Oregonian, born and raised in the Willamette Valley. As a boy, Eric used to build crazy things out of parts from his grandpa’s garage: crystal radios, little one-stage tube amplifiers, and even an eavesdropping device so he could listen to people in the living room while he was in the bedroom.

Eric’s interest in music started around the same time. “I just love to play music. I can’t live without it. It’s like air and water to me. I was born to do it. It was a calling. My entire life, I never figured I would do anything else, ever. I never ever considered doing anything but rock and roll. That and electronics.”

He also records music in his all-vintage-analog studio, producing and engineering projects for, among others, John Fahey, the Minus 5, Perhapst, Kalaloch, and Michael Davis (MC5), as well as his current group, the Eric Lovre Band. “I’ve never liked the sound of digital very much, although it’s improved over the years,” says Eric. “The energy and the whole vibe of the record is better when people give a performance. That’s what separates a great record from an OK record — a great human performance — because no technology can do that. Technology just does what you tell it to do.”

The Eric Lovre Band will present material from their brand new album.

The darkwave sounds created by Orchards’ members Jacob Zeigler, Daniel Remington, Kelly Kippel, Alex Geiszler, and Patrick O’Driscoll are spectacularly haunting. The Salem band releases its first EP this fall titled DIVISION//LOSS.

9.19.14: Tonya Gilmore, Elvicious Cash, Nate Hagen & Michael Taylor

1939987_375623509251961_2648818132396529758_o@Level B Theater PuB
Doors@8PM, Music@9PM
$5 at the door
all ages+bar w/i.d.

text LEVELB to 24587 for updates & giveaways!

A host of solo performers will have their turn spinning songs in their most singular and pure form, that of the acoustic singer-songwriter! Four of the area’s top players will perform several standby songs and probably even some new material!

Tonya Gilmore: Portland singer-songwriter Tonya Gilmore is a master of musical suspense.10592913_887883014574225_6829892031660402806_n In her debut album, Phantoms Fill the Sky, she engages the power of the pop song to haunt, to float and whisper, to draw you up close before she goes in for the kill. The album is musically playful and many of her songs are so infectiously catchy they have a tendency to stick in your ear, where they can subconsciously reprogram your woozy mind. But the singability of her hooks only serves as a contrast to the dark depth of her lyrical vision. It is the sound of a single light bulb beaming incandescent light, swinging metronomically over half-lit faces. http://www.tonyagilmoremusic.com/

Elvicious Cash: This local performer has been involved in several performance projects all of which carry his character and witticism to their fullest. Certainly the most intimate of these incarnations is Elvicious Cash solo. He prides himself on acoustic stories and song.

His new CD “seven” will be available to purchase!
http://www.reverbnation.com/elviciouscash

Michael Taylor: Michael Hamlin Taylor has been writing songs for over 20 years now. Like many musicians, he tried on what was popular during current musical culture, but always retained his approach; writing from the heart, regardless of what was popular at the time.
http://www.reverbnation.com/michaelhamlintaylor

Nate Hagen: Nate is a local guitarist, harp guitarist, teacher and performer here in Salem and is quite versatile in his
experience and training. Witness his well-trained hands move between several instruments.

9.12.14: Wampire | Miss Massive Snowflake | Coronation | Thomas Mudrick

10632659_363619940452318_729247975663791713_nFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th
Doors@8PM, Music@9PM
$10 adv./$15 at the door
all ages+bar w/i.d.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/845662

text LEVELB to 24587 for updates & giveaways!

A Live Concert Showcase featuring Wampire (off-kilter alluring sonic pop), Thomas Mudrick (funk-infused psychedelic pop), Coronation (synth-pop), Miss Massive Snowflake (avante-garde pop rocks)!

Wampire:
After forming Wampire, Rocky Tinder and Eric Phipps steadily began to make a name for themselves in the same Portland, OR, scene that has produced labelmates STRFKR as well as Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Now having toured the world and expanded to a five-piece live band, Wampire’s disarmingly off-kilter pop is imbued with tinges of paranoia and surrealism (both lyrically and musically) and continually offers listeners a variety of unexpected and alluring sonic flavors. http://wampiremusic.com/

Miss Massive Snowflake:
The charismatic and playful band, Miss Massive Snowflake, produce curious and clever progressive pop songs. The band marries traditional familiarities and edgy concepts with catchy energetic rock, crafting deceptively intricate songs. The drums and bass drive while horns punch into screwed groove guitar riffs producing beautiful, moving, and intellectually satisfying rock music. http://missmassivesnowflake.com/

Coronation:
Coronation is a duo consisting of long time Northwest musicians, Joshua Blanchard and Andy Brown. Andy Brown cut his teeth with many bands, including Seattle space rock pioneers, Jessamine, and Southern Lord/Kranky recording artists Fontanelle. Joshua Blanchard played with Synth-punks Point Line Plane and psychedelic folksters, Plants. The band brings together elements of Synth pop, Italian disco and up tempo New Romantic crooning into a tasty aural blend that’s both fresh and familiar. While most dance music lives in the thrill of the moment, Coronation explores what happens the day after the party and divulges autobiographical tales of broken relationships, hangovers, and burning the candle at both ends. http://www.coronationmusic.com/

Thomas Mudrick:
Through his varied work with the TDRCO crew, Mudrick has proven himself to be a true musical chameleon, multi-talented and as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife. Furthering and emboldening this stylistic doppelganglery, (((boing)))’s twelve lush and verdant tracks see Mudrick laying bare the variegated depths of his metronomic heart, hewn of one part acid-folk manifesto, one part comedic interlude, and one large dollop of rock solid, root down groove. And make no doubt about it, this album brings it in a way that would likely make Beyoncé or Kanye sit up and take notice if they weren’t so busy admiring their bling or whatever it is they do with their time. To put it in the parlance of the people,(((boing))) jams in the truest sense, with every track its own insular ecosystem replete with the appropriate flora and fauna, at times surprisingly different from the track before it. Still, at the end of the day all the scattershot pieces manage to fall perfectly into aesthetic lockstep, a type of traveling musical circus humming on down the road to the next township. http://tdrco.org/thomas_mudrick/

World touring groups Wampire and Miss Massive Snowflake bookend this incredible show of pop music in every color. From electronic to funk, you’re sure to get your feet scooting to these purveyors of well-structured and disarming pop!

9.5.14: SALLIE FORD with guests The Indigo Boyz & Slater Smith

10505009_356807617800217_205416866312442250_oSALLIE FORD with guests The Indigo Boyz & Slater Smith at LEVEL B Theater Pub!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th
Doors@8PM, Music@9PM
$15 in advance at LEVEL B, Ranch Records or brownpapertickets.com / $20 at the door

text LEVELB to 24587 for updates & giveaways!

SALLIE FORD is the real deal. With a voice that can belt, soothe, caress, and flat-out spit sass, attitude, and raw street emotion, she sounds like some sort of dream cross between Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin, and her band has evolved from the swing rock of the group’s debut full-length, 2011’s Dirty Radio, into a solid garage rock outfit that snarls, prowls, and shouts right along with her. Ford, who, on songs like the raging and rocking “They Told Me,” the stubborn and insistent “Party Kids,” the jazzy ballad “Shivers,” and “Devil,” which is full of bad-girl swagger and rockabilly strut, she shakes off her influences and becomes a force all on her own. She is a rare talent, a full-tilt arrival.
https://www.facebook.com/salliefordmusic

THE INDIGO BOYZ is a B-side cover and originals band playing bluesy-rock-folk and country-swing with a touch of alternative… resulting from one man’s musical vision combined with another man’s neurotic need to stay busy, then finessed by the talented work of others. The band’s style has quickly become a favorite of small cocktail venues, weddings, animal birthday parties, bat/bar mitzvahs and smoker’s lounges. With exception to the residents of a yellow jacket nest that found the keyboardist abrasive and confrontational, reviews have been quite positive.https://www.facebook.com/theindigoboyz

The core songwriter and creative center of The Weather Machine is SLATER SMITH. Garnering accolades for his music video project documenting his travel to every Oregon State Park, Slater’s songs carry an amazing message thats both playful and contemplative. Folk rock and indie influence are on the menu September 5th as Slater performs a very rare and special solo set for Salem!https://www.facebook.com/weathermachinemusic

8.16.14: THE ERIC LOVRE BAND | PEPPERBOX

Eric LovreNewly formed super group, PEPPERBOX made up of Todd McPherson, Rod Steward, J Saucy, and Casey Nova join the new and improved incarnation of local legend and Oregon musician’s Hall of Fame inductee Eric Lovre’s band for a night of rock and roll at LEVEL B!

Guitarist for the legendary Dharma Bums, Eric has been rocking the Northwest since before you moved here! Eric is a fourth-generation Oregonian, born and raised in the Willamette Valley. As a boy, Eric used to build crazy things out of parts from his grandpa’s garage: crystal radios, little one-stage tube amplifiers, and even an eavesdropping device so he could listen to people in the living room while he was in the bedroom.

Eric’s interest in music started around the same time. “I just love to play music. I can’t live without it. It’s like air and water to me. I was born to do it. It was a calling. My entire life, I never figured I would do anything else, ever. I never ever considered doing anything but rock and roll. That and electronics.”

He also records music in his all-vintage-analog studio, producing and engineering projects for, among others, John Fahey, the Minus 5, Perhapst, Kalaloch, and Michael Davis (MC5), as well as his current group, the Eric Lovre Band. “I’ve never liked the sound of digital very much, although it’s improved over the years,” says Eric. “The energy and the whole vibe of the record is better when people give a performance. That’s what separates a great record from an OK record—a great human performance—because no technology can do that. Technology just does what you tell it to do.”

Eric will present new material with the new lineup of his band who are preparing to release an album at LEVEL B in October!https://myspace.com/ericlovre/music/songs

pep·per·box [pep-er-boks]
noun
1. a compact, easily-concealed, but lethally persuasive revolver, favored by riverboat gamblers in the 19th century.
2. an audibly dangerous 4-piece original rock powerhouse from the western United States, pairing industry-renowned singer/songwriters J. Saucy (vocals) and Casey Nova (guitar), with internationally-acclaimed virtuosos Todd McPherson (bass guitar) and Rod Steward (all manner of things beaten). Unpredictable, unrestrained and unorthodox, their music shifts effortlessly between the soft gooey center and the savage outer reaches of their genre’s sphere of extremes–at times coming on coy and insinuating, wearing all of the greasy fingerprints of the most succulent 1966 garage rock cut and then, just when the listener surrenders to the familiar pull of the warm hypnotic undertow, the plot twists and the sky splits wide open to reveal the glistening silhouette of a brave new sonic universe. And as if gasping aural ecstasy isn’t quite enough, their jaw-dropping, relentlessly-arresting, emotive performances are absolutely unrivaled in the music industry to date. From the first lush syllable of their thick dreamy vows of fealty to the final trailing note of their blistering rock anthems, they are clearly possessed by an insatiable passion and innate ability to enthrall and delight every last body in the building. Pepperbox plans worldwide tours in the near future, but in the meantime, they’re in Oregon, and are a must-see live show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG3-EOnGN48&feature=youtu.be