When Grandaddy splintered in 2006, guitarist Jim Fairchild
wasn’t immediately ready to step out from the wings with his own
material, but encouragement came from likeminded musicians in his
adopted home of Portland—including Danny Seim of Menomena, Janet
Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, and Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse. With their
support, he released the first All Smiles record, and now Fairchild has
another All Smiles album gunning for release.
That new record is Oh for the Getting and Not Letting Go, and
like its predecessor, features the talents of several illustrious
names, including Plummer, Solon Bixler of Great Northern, and Nik
Freitas, who earlier this year released the splendid Sun Down album. Fairchild says, “I have been thinking about the press photos for
the new album simply being tons of individual shots with me and each of
my friends.” Indeed, the album sounds like a warm audio scrapbook,
evoking not just Grandaddy, but Elliott Smith in both hushed and
full-blare modes, John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls-Royce, and the
spiraling but pop-friendly guitars of Built to Spill. These are easy,
familiar touchstones, to be sure, but Fairchild’s assured song craft
earns the comparisons.
Thursday’s All Smiles show will see Fairchild joined by Plummer and
Seim, as well as Seim’s Menomena bandmate Justin Harris. “Joe and Danny
are both in the band full time, but as part time as they
please. Their day jobs pay better,” jokes Fairchild.
Since early label support for the record fell through, the band is
considering self-releasing Oh for the Getting next year, but
first-edition copies will be for sale at the show with hand-screened
covers by Fairchild, Seim, and artist Natasha Wheat. Meanwhile, a new
EP is already near completion, and Fairchild is cultivating new
collaborations for further All Smiles projects—the happy
byproduct of living in such a musician-rich city.
“Anybody here has access to such rich resources of steady intellect
from a community as diverse as the forest,” he says. “[It’s] fitting
that the forest that once stood where we sit now is occupied currently
by such a diversity of healthy personality.”