The Great Northwest
The Widespread Reign Of the Great Northwest (Kora)
By Caroline Evans
Published: August 6th, 2008 | 9:00am
In 2004, Portland native Brian Coates began hosting “Everything Parties” – events that served to delight all six senses at once: featuring burning incense, light shows, and free booze and cigarettes – in the dim warehouse spaces of his erstwhile home of New York City. The soundtrack to the Everything Parties was provided by Coates’s own the Every Thing, a small group that gradually grew to include over 20 people. As Coates worked his way back to Portland, the Every Thing gathered more members, wrote more songs, and became a prog/psychedelic chronicler of his journey back home to the Great Northwest.
The dreamlike, psychedelic sound of Coates’ debut album is not surprising considering his connections to the Dandy Warhols and Dead Meadow, but his work is a far cry from the polished sugar pop of the Dandys and the rootsy sounds of Meadow. Coates and Co. form a deliberate, molasses-thick brand of psychedelia in which all the songs run together in a rich blend of electric and electronic instruments, acoustic drones and ragas, and fuzzed noise. Despite the “slowcore” assignation and the admittedly down-tempo nature of the album, the Great Northwest does show some variety. Songs like “The Key” and “Did It Once” — with their piercing keyboard parts and spacey background noise — contrast nicely with folkier offerings such as the melodic finger-picking delight, “Split.” The album is filled with many hidden sounds and tracks that bleed through one another, and holds great reward for the diligent listener.
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Issue #30
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