http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/best-of-the-white-eagle/Event?oid=3070966 Comments On: Best of the White Eagle en-us Copyright 2013 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Fri, 24 May 2013 08:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss MRU combines all the ingredients essential for a band worth seeing: funk, prog, excellent covers, psychedelia, very tight timing, and therefore very danceable music.
Funky beats, excellent musicianship, and a progressive sensibility is the holy grail of pop music. MRU's kind of music makes one realize that most bands. even talented ones, don't cut it, at least at the nightclub.
No shoe-gazing for this homeboy.

Best of the White Eagle
Rating: 5 Stars
Posted by subnurmul]]> Sat, 20 Nov 2010 19:11:08 -0800 Portland Mercury
I saw Mars Retrieval Unit at the White Eagle a few months ago and I was astonished with their technical virtuosity and the subtle and meticulous textures and patterns of their compositions. Each member is a musician's musician, and close listening pays off. They play on the first Wednesday of every month at the White Eagle, so that is easy to remember. Fronted by a bright young man who plays an emerald green PRS guitar via about six pedals, he noodles through sweeping single note passages in perfect time with a pretty young lady in a cloche who plays a tarnished saxophone and a flute through an echo unit. She also sings like a bird. I went to see them again last night, wondering if my first encounter with them was a fluke. It was not.

I am an uninhibited guy. I speak my mind and live by my own rules; but I do have my limits. I hate the idea of making a clown of myself. I don’t really even like to make a scene. So a band had better really bring something magical to the game for me to get involved in a physical way.

Last night I could have danced forever. I quickly found a hollow place in the music that I could be in, I could breathe, emote and gesture my feelings in real time. I escaped into weird fantasies and savored tasty memories with clarity, nesting in the womb of MRU’s psychedelic, lush jams.

I interpreted my instant crush on the lady on stage by waving my hands toward her like palm fronds, I bowed, prayed and kneeled before her, all in time with the hypnotic groove.

I later thanked a pair of darling girls who were also dancing, telling them it was a pleasure to share the dance floor with them. They told me their names and smiled with lilting joy, oh happy night!

An exhausted friend later commented that they sounded over-rehearsed and over-thought. But I am glad that they know their material so well that they can be trusted whilst I freebird naked on the astral-plane. And while they certainly can play a cerebral variety of jazz, they also play with a visceral physicality that yields a horny dance-floor vibe.

And if that were not enough~ they respectfully cover seventies classics ("Used Me Up" by Bill Withers and "MAGIC MAN" by Heart!!!) favoring faithful reproduction over creative interpretation. Classy.

Finding Mars Retrieval unit was like falling in love. Thank you.

Best of the White Eagle
Rating: 5 Stars
Posted by Liebekrieg]]> Wed, 17 Nov 2010 22:33:11 -0800 Portland Mercury