A Fresh Breeze from the Pacific Northwest

The Northwest has long been a source of good music, even before Nirvana made "Seattle" synonymous with "grunge rock." More recently, bands such as Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper and The Decemberists have brought certain shared features to music from that region, such as an emphasis on melody and harmony (over rhythm), lush arrangements, and lots of lyric references to nature.

Those qualities can also be found in the Portland, Oregon-based artists that are coming to The Cedar this coming Thursday evening (6/4). Laura Gibson brings a haunting voice and delicate sensibility to darker topics on her latest recording, Beast of Seasons. She's a favorite with the good folks over at NPR Music, in fact she inspired a very cool new feature on their website called Tiny Desk Concerts. Here's Laura's:



Laura will be performing with members of the opening band, Musée Mécanique, whose debut CD Hold This Ghost was one of my favorite releases of 2008. Both of these CD's were produced by the talented Tucker Martine, who was also responsible for (producing, recording and mixing) the extraordinary new Decemberists release, The Hazards of Love. Martine is one of those rare producers that seems to work wonders on every project which he is involved.

Here's a fun video of a Musée Mécanique tune to a classic Max Fleischer cartoon:



The sky is aligned for a magical show...