The Dark Sounds of The Prids from Portland

I flirted with goth culture back in the '80s, from the dyed black teased out hair and make-up, to dancing at Seattle's notorious club the Monastery, to going to Skinny Puppy and Siouxsie concerts. It was the first alternative subculture I dove into at 16 when I knew I didn't fit in with all the mainstream kids. It was fun to dress up, rock out, and be embraced in a community for being a weirdo. It worked quite well for me until I began to seek out more aggressive and political music and moved more towards the punk rock scene. I'm always slightly amazed that goth survived the '80s, as well as the grunge/alternative rock explosion of the '90s, but I guess I could say the same thing about punk rock. Subcultures never seem to die, they just go through phases of popularity and decline.

Portland band The Prids also flirt with goth... from the dark themes and musical style. And certainly when you see The Prids live, you can't help but notice their fans are dressed in a lot more higher end black clothes than at your average rock or punk show. But, the band also adds in elements of pop, art rock and post-punk, resulting in an alluring blend of dark indie rock. There is an intensity to their slow building tunes, songs layered within their songs, and melodies and bursts of energy lurking around the corner, seemingly ready to jump out. I can't say they blew me away live when I saw them last month in Portland, they did some back turning and looking down instead of at the audience, rather than fully embracing their role as our entertainment for the night. But I think that's part of their style--reluctant, holding something back, letting the energy build, but never quite releasing it and letting loose.

The band began as a two-piece back in the '90s and were performing live and releasing material as a duo until adding a drummer in 2005, then a keyboardist in 2007, when things really started to click. A year ago this month they were in a pretty awful van wreck on tour, you may remember me reporting about it here, but thankfully all survived and have recovered to continue to rock. The Prids have a pile of releases out and earlier this year, there was even a Prids tribute album. The band is currently playing out in the Northwest and working on material for a new album this fall. Check out their website for more info: theprids.com

Band members: Mistina Keith on vocals and bass, David Frederickson on guitar and vocals, Maile Tarries on keyboards and Joey Maas on drums

Discography:

• 2000, Duracraft CD
• 2002, Glide, Screamer CD/EP
• 2003, Love Zero CD/LP
• 2004, Shadow And Shadow 7"
• 2004, Let It Go 7"
• 2006, Until the World Is Beautiful CD
• 2007, Something Difficult CD

Anchor Down

Seattle's Born Anchors seem to be getting a lot of hype these days. When you write about music you can tell what bands are getting THE PUSH by the amount of mail and email you get from labels and promotional companies about a band. From a music fan's perspective, most of you miss this entire aspect of behind the scenes promotion, from the phone calls and press packs, to the constant nagging from PR companies. I think the PR firm barrage often pays off and might be worth it for a band trying to break bigger when they release an album, but there is also something sorta false about it. Because the reason why a band is getting a lot of press attention isn't necessarily because of how good their music or live performance is.

With Born Anchors, it's gotten them on KNDD and KEXP and great press in local publications, including Megan Seling from The Stranger saying “Born Anchors are the most exciting rock band in Seattle right now…” That kind of promo blitz tends to actually work the opposite of how it's supposed to with people like me. When a band is getting too much hype, I ignore them, or at least I realize they sure don't need me to cover them, the mainstream local press is already doing that quite well. So if you want to see what the hype is about, you can check out Born Anchors at the Capitol Hill Block Party... and try not to fall asleep during their set.

My "job," and that of the underground press, is hopefully at least occasionally focusing your attention on the things not getting written about in the mainstream. It's about giving press to less touched-on subjects. In my case, that means pulling together histories and photos of Northwest bands, labels and places that are somewhat or fully forgotten. There is a lot of Northwest and punk rock history that isn't well documented on the Web that's still important, even if just to me. I also try to shine the spotlight on what I see as brilliant, but often press-neglected bands, currently rocking local stages and basements. So, instead of following the hype, I want to focus your attention on another Northwest "Anchor" band...

Anchor Down from Portland, Oregon:



Anchor Down have been labeled entirely too much with the "pop punk" tag, which I find even lazier than my music writing. Their sound is more melodic punk with balls. They kind of have a Monsula crossed with Bouncing Souls feel to them, with sometimes gruff vocals, layered melodic guitars, super catchy songs and occasional sing-a-long choruses. This is comfort food for people like me that grew up listening to '90s melodic punk. They have a new 6-song EP out entitled "Steel to Dust" I picked up when I saw them a few weeks ago. It's excellent, plus they sold me the CD and a t-shirt for $10, pretty much unheard of low prices in today's world. You can catch a few of their songs over here.

Anchor Down is currently on tour, they will be playing Seattle next August 26th at The Morgue with locals Success and Texas bands The Anchor and O Pioneers. Two Anchor bands for the price of one!

Portland School of Rock kids cover Poison Idea!

This is all kinds of awesome. Portland's School of Rock kids cover Poison Idea's "Plastic Bomb"...