Megafauna is playing at EastBurn on the 22nd. A personal favorite hangout, I recommend checking it out. There’s no cover and the set goes 10pm – midnight.  Come listen to some original jazz and partake of the highly above average tap selection over there.

From Barfly Magazine -
Housed in the former Nocturnal space, East Burn comprises two levels: a restaurant upstairs and a casual bar downstairs.
Where else in Portland can you play 25-cent Skee Ball or race electric cars for free with a cocktail in hand? Please let us know. The patio here trumps almost all smoking patios with overhead heaters, swinging chairs and mini fire pits built into the tables. Bartender Tristin makes a mean Manhattan, which is fantastic as they are heavily discounted on Wednesdays.

www.theeastburn.com

The EastBurn
1800 E. Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97214

Interview on KBPS All Classical Portland

We got to talking about some really interesting stuff on (and off) the air, we listened to a couple clips from the soundtrack and chatted about music for monsters.

Excerpt from the score: Bicycle Symphony – How I Came to Chicago and Why

Bicyclists perform symphony on Park blocks

By Casey Parks, The Oregonian
June 25, 2009, 3:47PM

Around 4:30, after practice, Jason Fromme climbed into the back of a pedicab and prepared to conduct a symphony. About 40 bicyclists stood parked before him, singing a “low, pleasing melody.”

“All right, let’s see if we can make something nice,” he told them, and they set off.

The event director, Mattie Kaiser, looked part bicyclist, part musician, wearing a white gown and a helmet as she led the crowd. Kaiser’s the head of Classical Revolution, a group of 20- and 30-somethings dead-set on making classical musical accessible for all. During Pedalpalooza, that means taking the music — by bike — to the streets.

The group performed “How I came to Chicago and why” while riding along the Park blocks.

Galen Huckins — a 22-year-old composer whom Kaiser calls “Boywonder” — wrote the piece after a cross-country bike trip two years ago. He woke up in Indiana one morning, determined to bike to Chicago by nightfall. The symphony is what the 144-mile trip sounded like, he said. It’s the sound of countryside giving way to urban sprawl, of a body long worn out, of a bike’s natural squeakiness.

Not that any of that sounds particularly gorgeous. Wednesday’s symphony was more Portland weird than orchestra pretty. But the musicians were smiling the entire time. And the onlookers who stopped to watch the noise-makers riding by seemed to like it.

The cyclists whooshed. They rang bells. They banged on their bike frames with silverware.

“I’m not getting a good sound out of this,” one guy said, clanking a fork against his frame. “I think it’s my bike.”

The street offered its own improvised melodies: Motorcycles blared by, birds chirped, a couple fought over a suitcase, a man asked for change.

To hear a snippet of the symphony, watch the video.

– Casey Parks; caseyparks@news.oregonian.com

Interview