[OPTIMAL BPM] Recently, Steve Schieberl has taken to walking nearly six miles from his Southeast Portland house to his work at an animation and interactive studio in Old Town. It gives him time to think, reflect and get a little exercise. But today he took the bus. “I’m pretty sore from dancing all night,” the 31-year-old says. “I can’t really stay out and only sleep three hours anymore.”

For the past three years, Schieberl has recorded and performed electronic dance music under the name Let’s Go Outside (a saying inspired by his penchant for skydiving, base jumping and picnics) with the intent to get people to dance. “I know a lot of people who make dance music that have never danced before in their lives—and it shows in their music and their tempo selection,” Schieberl says, laughing. “For me it’s always been about 130-133 [beats per minute]—if you are right in that range you can keep people dancing all night without losing breath and stressing their bodies.”

Tempo aside, Let’s Go Outside’s music is malleable and shifting—ranging from hard, Detroit-inspired techno to dub and even ambient pieces. It’s among the city’s best electronic music, though you’d be forgiven for not knowing the dude. He rarely plays here.

Instead, Schieberl (who was born in Italy and moved to the States after grade school) has shifted most of his focus to Europe, a continent that really appreciates dance culture. There, the music is free from the negative connotation and stigma that bogs down stateside shows (it’s all drugs and raves!), and it’s not uncommon for thousands of people to cram into a sweaty building at 2 am to hear a DJ’s set. Let’s Go Outside found a home on Glasgow’s Soma Records after randomly sending a demo their way, and spent three months in early 2008 playing dance parties all over Europe—from London’s famed Fabric club to a converted church in Brussels. “You don’t really realize how strange it is to make this kind of music until you go somewhere and you see so many people that are into it,” Schieberl says. “It’s basically the way that people attend rock shows over there. It’s a normal thing to go dancing all night.”

Schieberl is working hard to keep the party going. In January, he released his debut record, A Picnic With the Hunters, and this fall he has made three DJ mixes, a handful of new tracks and is readying his own label, Slant Records, for a February debut. The hard part is getting Portland to dance.

SEE IT: Let’s Go Outside plays the Rotture Friday, Dec. 5, with Bryan Zentz, Pipedream and Killbox. 9 pm. $3. 21+.

Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment are proud to announce the dates for the eighth annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Confirmed to take place June 11 - 14, 2009, the four-day festival will once again be held on the same beautiful, 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

Bonnaroo on amazon.com

Ticket pre-sales for the festival will begin on December 4, 2008 and go through December 31st. These tickets will be specially priced ticket levels available exclusively for early purchase. VIP tickets will also be available during this time. In an unprecedented move, during our holiday pre-sale, general admission tickets will be available as well for five (5) payments of $50.00 plus applicable fees through our payment plan. To promote the pre-sale, Bonnaroo and comedian Lewis Black worked together to create a hilariously manic Crazy-Eddie inspired video. A link for viewing it is below:

Watch Crazy Lewis video:

Consistently and successfully looking for ways to improve the festival each year, Bonnaroo’s eighth promises to build on the triumphs of the previous seven in every way. From its music programming to the non-music attractions, activities and art, the promoters are already hard at work adding new and exciting elements to create yet another legendary weekend. Since it’s inception in 2002, the festival has evolved into an incomparable multi-faceted entertainment experience, swiftly earning its status as the country’s premier music and arts event.

Bonnaroo continues to make a strong impact on the American music industry. The festival has served as a launching pad for such popular artists as Norah Jones, Jack Johnson, Robert Randolph, My Morning Jacket, Ray Lamontagne, Matisyahu, and many others. A creative and cultural mega-success, Bonnaroo has also featured a staggeringly diverse range of world-class acts such as Bob Dylan, Metallica, Neil Young, Radiohead, Willie Nelson, The Police, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty, Tool, Wilco, The Dave Matthews Band, James Brown, The White Stripes, The Dead, Regina Spektor, Widespread Panic, Death Cab For Cutie, Elvis Costello, Amadou and Mariam, Beck, Against Me!, The Black Crowes, Alison Krauss, Bright Eyes, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle, Jurassic 5, Modest Mouse, The Mars Volta, Common, Burning Spear, the Flaming Lips, among so many others.

The festival is also starting to make quite an impact on the comedy industry as well, as it has featured some of today’s best comedians working today. From Chris Rock, Lewis Black, Flight of the Concords, David Cross and Fred Armisen to Jim Norton, Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Janeane Garofalo and Brian Posehn, Bonnaroo is considered to be an essential play in any comedian’s touring plans.

For more information, go to:

Bonnaroo Festival Official Website
Bonnaroo MySpace

read more

Why Mexican wine specifically? I set out to see if I could discover the reason, but first I had to find some actual Mexican wine. I’d been hearing for years that the wines of Baja, California were getting better and better, but when I scoured local liquor stores to find examples, I came up empty. Chalk it up to New York’s liquor stores being so small, or maybe Baja wines are still too obscure.

Eventually, I stumbled on a bottle at LaNell’s in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a place that specializes in organic wines, female-made wines, and New York State bourbons. The wine was a Jubileo 2005, made in Guadalupe, Baja, Mexico, a desiccated valley with 20 wineries, 40 miles southeast of Tijuana. The wine is a Meritage, which means that it’s a Bordeaux-style red made with a combination of grapes (usually including cabernet sauvignon and merlot, among others) permitted by California, U.S.A.’s Meritage Association. The winemaker is Laura Zamora, who qualifies as something of a Mexican winemaking superstar, and some of her vines – which require no irrigation, a big plus in Baja’s arid climate – are 60 years old, making them Mexico’s oldest.

• Bank of West Hollywood
  
• Trains on Santa Monica Boulevard

8151 Santa Monica Blvd

The Bank of West Hollywood was located at the northwest corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Heights. The bank opened in May of 1926.   

Santa Monica Blvd. looking east to Crescent Heights

LAPL photo data base: date unknown

Photo by Thompson & Watson

View today

2008 photo: tlc

Next to the bank was Sam Seelig's Company Crescent Heights Public Market.

The bank was a brick building with adjacent paved parking. The building was arranged like a typical bank building for the time.  On the ground floor was the lobby, teller/cashier station and desks for the vice presidents.   Of course, at the rear there was a vault room where all the valuables.

Stairs led up to the upper area where there was a balcony overlooking the central main lobby,    two conference rooms and a private office and bathroom.

 

The Bank of West Hollywood sold shares of bank stock to the public.

scripophily

However, the stock market crash was just around the corner (Oct. 1929).

In 1929, there was a run on the banks. Like many banks at the time, the Bank of West Hollywood did not keep enough money on reserve for the panic. 

The Bank of West Hollywood was forced to close it's doors in June of 1931. State regulated stated that  its cash reserves had fallen below legal requirements. 

The building sat vacant for many years. 

Trains on Santa Monica Boulevard

When West Hollywood was a working-class railroad town. Not much was out here except a few movie studios and aircraft plant. 

People living in the surrounding areas of Los Angeles (where land was cheap) needed a convenient way to commute to work and shops.

In 1896, Moses H. Sherman and his business associate Eli Clark bought 5.6 acres on Santa Monica Boulevard southeast of San Vicente (now the Pacific Design Center) in an area of unincorporated Los Angeles County. 

Colonel Moses H. Sherman

Arizona Memorial Project 

This land was to be the headquarters for their new railway system called they called Los Angeles Pacific Railroad Company. 

Moses H. Sherman's set out to provide a mass transit system using streetcars, light rail and buses that would connect downtown Los Angeles with points to the surrounding neighborhoods such as Hollywood,  Burbank, San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica. 

The complex of steam power houses and shop buildings was called Sherman. 

source: Los Angeles Transit History

In 1906 the Southern Pacific bought a controlling interest in Sherman's company.  With more cash to spend - a large steam powerhouse was built along with a power substation, a massive brick car barn, an iron foundry, a brass foundry, a carpentry shop, repair and storage buildings, a large blacksmith shop, an oil house and power house. 

Sherman's Railroad car barn and shop- West Hollywood

Santa Monica Blvd between Palm Ave and San Vicente Blvd

West Hollywood by Ryan Gierach

Same view today -Metro Division 7 Headquarters

Looking southeast from Santa Monica and Palm Ave.

2008 photo: 2008

2008 photo: tlc

Also at this time, Henry Huntington began buying land in growing areas not yet reached by public transportation. In 1901 is established the Pacific Electric Railway. The Pacific Electric Railway was also know as the Red Car system.  

Red Car

wiki: red car

In 1922 Sherman's railway system was acquired by the Pacific Electric Railway System and it became part of PE's  Western District.  The route was called Sherman West Hollywood Line.

PE considered the Western District a suburban service. When PE took over - the West Hollywood Sherman railroad station continued to be used as a maintenance center for the lines based there.

Western District Substation - Santa Monica Boulevard

Metro photo archives

Looking southwest at Santa Monica Blvd. at Holloway Drive and Croft Ave.

 - across the street is Barney's Beanery

1927 photo: USC photo archive collection

Barney's Beanery was founded in 1920

North side of Holloway just east of La Cienega Blvd.

2008 photo: tlc

In 1927 the Western District had ten inter-urban lines. 

Looking northeast along Santa Monica boulevard in 1931

The railroad yard is in center of photo

(where the Pacific Design Center is today)

Photo: USC photo archives

 Santa Monica Boulevard ends on the east at Sunset Boulevard 

Los Angeles Transit History

The Pacific Electric's famous Red Cars operated from West Hollywood were controlled from the Subway Terminal building.  There were over 250 miles of narrow gauge track spreading from downtown into the valley and out to the beach at Santa Monica. 

It was just a 20 minute ride on the Pacific Electric to the Hill Street terminal in downtown LA. 

Santa Monica Boulevard followed the tracks of the Pacific Electric Railway.

Pacific Electric Western Division Substation - Sherman (West Hollywood)

West Hollywood by Ryan Gierach

Near the railroad - worker's homes and commercial businesses  sprang up.   The homes and shops encompassing the station became know as the town of Sherman. 

PE on Santa Monica Boulevard

 LAPL photo data base

date: n.d.

For years freight trains and trolleys regularly ran down the center of Santa Monica Blvd.

The West Hollywood train stop was at Palm 

- across the street is the PE electrical substation

Los Angeles Transit Authority

Same view today

2008 photo: tlc

In the 1920's West Hollywood had no large industries other than a few motion picture studios and an aircraft plant.  Lumber yards, hardware stores, auto mechanics, welders, and factories emerged along Santa Monica Boulevard to support these industries along with bars and restaurants.

Typical types of commercial businesses along Santa Monica Blvd.

West Hollywood by Ryan Gierach

For years there was a lack of building regulation and enforcement in West Hollywood, especially along Santa Monica Boulevard. 

LAPL Photo Data Base

After WW2 all remaining Western District rail lines were downgraded and  classified by PE as local. Tremendous population strangled the rail lines.

Looking east on Santa Monica Blvd. towards La Cienega Blvd. 

Metro photo archive

Same view today - Santa Monica Blvd looking east toward La Cienega Blvd. 

2008 photo: tlc

2008 photo: tlc

The rail system eventually failed. Automobiles began crowding the rail cars. There were numerous crossing accidents. Major highways and freeways were built.  Rail lines could not compete with the more flexible bus lines.  There was lack of public support and public over site. Eventually the privately run inter-urban rail and street car system changed over to a bus system.

Metro photo archive

In 1954 the red car passenger service was discontinued at the West Hollywood division.

The big brick car house was torn down. The last trolley wires came down in 1958. 

Demolition of the old car barn

Metro photo archive

Freight service still operated on Santa Monica Boulevard until 1974. 

Southern Pacific train going east on Santa Monica Blvd.

1971 photo

  Rail support buildings were demolished to make room for the Pacific Design Center and Sheriff Station. 

The old railroad yard - West Hollywood

2008 photo: tlc

------------------------------------------

[POST-JANGLE] Almost every question I have for Blue Horns is interrupted by joyous shouts from the regulars at Southeast Portland’s Holman’s Bar and Grill, and hollers from the band itself. That’s what I get for scheduling our interview for 7 pm on Election Night.

“Our sets are always super-short,” guitarist/songwriter Brian Park says during a short lull, the 28-year-old’s eyes barely visible behind long, stringy hair restrained with a headband. “We only like to play for half an hour. Even if we’re really great, it should just make people more excited to see us next time.”

There should be many more next times for the group—Park, guitarist Colin Howard, drummer Brian Kramer and bassist Andrew Stern—whose self-titled debut is out this week. The album (recorded in two days last spring at Justin Higgins’ Old Standard studio) is full of catchy, throwback rock; at eight songs and just over 30 minutes, it’s sequenced like the vintage LPs the band reveres.

Most of the album is composed of skittering, incessant foot-stompers; the kind of songs that sound good on first listen but five times better after frequent spins and a few beers. Taking cues from early-’80s post-punk and jangle pop, Blue Horns is the rare guitar band that can actually get a Portland crowd to dance.

Part of that is due to Park’s unusual vocals. His wobbly, nervous chanting is a mix between Wilderness’ James Johnson and a rabid dog. His lyrics are declarations—“This is all we have,” or “Let’s go hunting”—and the band’s sturdy, intricate dual-guitar attack, coupled with the shuffling rhythm section, continually pushes tracks forward before they come to sudden, abrupt halts.

“There’s always a point like two minutes into [a song] where you’ve heard pretty much the whole song, and then it carries on for another five minutes with two breakdowns and it never ends,” Howard says, looking up from his drink at the increasingly favorable election results. “That’s what we try not to do.”

SEE IT: Blue Horns plays Backspace with Bark Hide and Horn, and Resin Hits on Saturday, Nov. 15. 8 pm. $5. All ages.