Hunched close together in a bustling Stumptown location, the
three members of Reporter waste little time explaining themselves. “We
are a different band,” says frontwoman Alberta Poon. “It’s not a name
change. We think of it as being the same people, but a new
project.”
While that statement might come off a bit blunt, her comments are
the result of the confusion that stems from the breakup of Wet
Confetti. Back in May, when Wet Confetti ended its six-year run,
bassist/vocalist Poon, guitarist Dan Grazzini, and drummer Mike
McKinnon decided that breaking up the band didn’t mean an end to their
relationship. So the three changed their name, their sound, and started
the whole thing back up again under the moniker Reporter.
“We were just, ‘Let’s start a new band! Wait, isn’t that weird?'”
says Poon. “But we don’t care what people think. There aren’t rules in
rock.”
Fair enough. But a band breaking up without any member turnover is a
bit odd, and while the faces remain the same, their music has undergone
a natural evolution. Gone is the rigid post-prog of Wet Confetti’s
jerking rhythms and stiff vocals. While this lineup had more than a few
memorable moments in all their years together, including a tightly
wound and unpredictable live show, the reborn trio of Reporter is loose
knit and cool, their music built upon tiny pop melodies and Poon’s
charming voice. Free of the post-punk limitations, Reporter has adopted
a far more streamlined and comfortable sound that might put those
Blonde Redhead comparisons to bed, once and for all. Or as Poon
describes it, “It’s a little more straightforward, and natural than Wet
Confetti.”
Of course, this is about more than just a name change. The trio now
has an opportunity that so few bands get: a clean slate. It’s a chance
for them to manipulate, shift, or deconstruct their sound without
having to justify that change to a fickle fanbase. Unabashed about
their flourishes into loose art-rock, Reporter masterfully presents
their sound as both accessible and challenging, a have-it-both-ways
combination that plays off their experience of so many years at each
other’s side.
While Wet Confetti never quite crossed over to the
mainstream—”It’s not like we were feeding anyone’s kids,” says
Grazzini—they were an established act with over a half-dozen
years of experience under their belts. In that time, this gang of three
wooed Gang of Four’s Dave Allen, who recorded and released their
Laughing Gasping album late last year, plus the band also
torched their way through an appearance (alongside the Shins and
Decemberists, among others) in the Portland segment of the Burn to
Shine DVD series (where local bands perform in a doomed house, mere
hours before the structure is set aflame and destroyed). By changing
their name and sound, the trio knowingly walked away from all of these
accomplishments, but the transition didn’t go unnoticed.
The Thermals recently tapped Reporter to support them for a
multiple-week jaunt across the Midwest and East Coast, despite the
young band only performing three times before packing the van and
heading east, with their new songs still feeling unfamiliar. An
experience summed up by Grazzini, “Even playing live, these songs are a
bit scary for us to play. And I think scary is good.”