[There are only so many music columns one man can write in a
week, so while Ezra Ace Caraeff is covering for a vacationing Cary
Clarke’s Our Town Could Be Your Life (pg. 29), Mr. Tonry will be
filling in here on Once More with Feeling.]

Here at the Mercury we spend so much time looking at acts
headed to town I thought it’d be nice to look at a few outside that
sphere. 

WHITE DENIM

With a reportedly wild, scorching live show and skills to back it
up, White Denim earned a lot of ink at this year’s South by Southwest
festival. The Austin trio’s punches swing and smack from a rhythm
section bound at the hip, pulsing and breathing as a single
entity—lungs and hearts joined, pumping in triplicate. And while
the band convincingly wails through Hendrix-like runs and MC5 drivers,
their more modern, slightly experimental tunes are the most visceral.
Employing bits of electronic blips, beeps, and other samples alongside
classic, righteous rock chops, White Denim appear to be unearthing a
sound all their own. The bright, spastic, repetitive guitar pricks
above shifting rhythms of “Don’t Look That Way At It” is the
highlight. 

THESE NEW PURITANS

Alienation and paranoia run rife through the back alleys in the
minds of These News Puritans, a half-electro, all-serrated group
from the UK. You might even call them a punk response to
grime—covered in dirt, dust, razor-wire, and broken glass.
Forever left all alone, TNP cultivate a futuristic deconstructionism.
Emphasizing rhythm over melody, shots whiz past and repetition abounds
as singer Jack Barnett chants cryptic apocalyptics that may or may not
hold some savage encoded secrets. Occasionally the band leaps into the
clouds, sustaining a note or a melody, and the contrast is beautiful. A
recent release, Beat Pyramid (Domino), has These New Puritans
touring all over their native Europe, and one can only imagine the
group will head west soon. 

ALICE COLTRANE

Inspired by Hindu philosophy, Alice Coltrane and her supremely
talented group—featuring famed free-jazz drummer Rashied
Ali—create the most spectral, psychedelic, beautiful, soothing
soundscapes on her fourth album, Journey in Satchidananda (1970). Coltrane’s fingers glide and dance up and down the harp,
anchored by the deep heartbeat of the double bass and brushed drums,
until Pharoah Sanders’ sax begins to steer the drifting ship through
distant space. Coltrane’s interest in Indian music and culture is
represented by the tambura, a sitar-like sound of buzzy drone. The
title track is some of the most ethereal, stirring music you’ll ever
hear. Lay on the floor, dim the lights, crank the volume, and you’ll be
hovering in no time.

To listen to this playlist, visit endhits.portlandmercury.com