food (Thai, Italian, Mexican, Japanese), bike ride.,.,.watches movies,.,.makes art,.,. funny things,.,. sad things,.,.
Kindness & respect for animals, people and nature.
NEW XDS MUSIC VIDEO!!
Our first video ever,
we shot it in the basement & our wonderful friend Jeff Guay was the director.
See Shoko flying over Portland while playing drums, and Jesse's amps dancing,.,.
hope you enjoy:
PRESS RELEASE FOR FOREST FIELD:
Experimental Dental School are a musical duo from Portland Oregon that somehow sound like a 12 piece marching band. Their new album FOREST FIELD is a unique blend of pop melody and compact punk rock power. Shoko pummels the drums like a jazz great while chanting like a sweet catholic nun. Jesse sings as if his voice were made from an old telephone, and plays the guitar like a feral cat. The duo recently finished a 6 week US tour with the esteemed Deerhoof and have shared stages with The Shins, Trans Am, Deerhunter, Errase Errata, etc. This Spring will find XDS on their 5th tour of Europe. The new XDS album, FOREST FIELD is FREE on-line, and is patently waiting for download at their website: http://www.experimentaldental.com
BIO BY XDS:
The guitar bends to the breaking point.
Drums pump. Drums crack.
Synthesizer samples crisp & crackle.
One voice howls, the other coos.
A sea of bass over a lake of pedals.
Here is some nerdy dirty Jazz. hmm..
or is it vintage garage pop?
psychedelic world music?,,
synth fractured dance beats.
Pretty? yes. Ugly? yes.
"Experimental Dental School is one of the most exciting and stunning bands I've heard in a while.", "There's a life and energy behind their work that's rare and jaw-dropping"
-Michael Mannheimer, bibabidi.com (Jane Doe Loves Me review)
"There's nothing not to love about these 12 off-kilter stabs of exuberantly creative freak rock."
-By Scott A. Gray, Exclaim Magazine (Jane Doe Loves Me review)
"In a Word: Bold", "Grade: A-"
-Aidan Castori, Aquarian magazine (Jane Doe Loves Me review)
"some of the strangest, yet musically impressive melodies concocted within the past three years."
-Jay Ziegler, consequenceofsound.net (Jane Doe Loves Me review)
"Experimental Dental School's second full-length album is as fun and clever as it is categorically indefinable." (2 1/2 Creatures review)
-Samuel Sharkey, Performer Magazine
"it's is easy to understand why the band's music sends their fans into hysterics at their live shows."
-Stephen Cramer, AllMusic.com
"This is the affirmation of the thesis that music can indeed be art. "
-yellowisthenewpink.com
"Experimental Dental School creates music filled with vision, wit, and vitality"
-Alex K. Fong, SF BAY GUARDIAN
PORTLAND MERCURY ARTICLE:
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/the-flower-and-the-machine/Content?oid=1472431
"The Flower and the Machine"
The Two Sides of Experimental Dental School
by Ezra Ace Caraeff
SHOKO HORIKAWA and Jesse Hall are sprawled out on the grass of a Southeast park. There is wine. A little dog stomps through our interview. The sun is out. It's just about perfect. If there were ever a pair of musicians that can appreciate such a time, it's Experimental Dental School. Back in town after a Canadian tour, and prepping for yet another five-week American trek, Horikawa and Hall are undeniably content squinting beneath the soft haze of the summer sun.
But for Horikawa and Hall, it's not all lazy afternoons in the grass. In fact, it's two against the world. To them, Experimental Dental School is not a hobby, it's their life: They follow a daily practice regimen. They pack up a compact car—the true advantage of playing in a two-piece band—and spend weeks upon weeks crossing the American interstate grid. They board a plane and traverse Europe—where the band is best appreciated—and are preparing for their inaugural tour of Japan later this year. Hall best describes their move-or-die philosophy: "I'm not really happy unless we're playing or spending time writing."
It's a constant hustle for the relocated pair, who, in abandoning their hometown of Oakland, lost a band member in the process. Drummer Ryan Chittick remained in the Bay Area when the band headed north, but EDS failed to miss a beat, with Horikawa rotating to the kit as the band thinned down to a close-knit duo. After a pair of recordings that illustrated a sprawling range, but little direction, the latest incarnation of EDS released the superb Forest Field. While the 10-track album is available in tangible CD format, its main distribution point is as a free download (experimentaldental.com/free). "The idea, from the beginning, was 'let's give it away,'" says Hall. "Obviously that's not an original idea—that's being done a lot—but when I really thought about it, it's so awesome to be able to not have $10 stand in the way of somebody enjoying our music."
Forest Field is both caustic and gorgeous. Hall is all rough edges, a technically precise guitar/bassist—his custom-assembled guitar is modified with a lone bass string—with a rough and unyielding post-punk howl. He is the masculine foil to the amorous coo of Horikawa. Yet while her voice is left exposed amid the difficult time changes and technical wizardry of most EDS material, Horikawa holds her own behind the kit. A ferocious drummer with a tender voice—"I have an explosive side and a very soft side," she politely explains—Horikawa is the post-punk equilibrium to Hall's untamed recklessness, the balance that holds this duo together, and in the live setting she is one of the most entertaining figures you'll ever find onstage. The sheer skill and unbridled joy she expresses is enough to renew the faith of any doubter, those whose musical appreciation has numbed over the years.
A fragile balance is the crux of what EDS creates on Forest Field. A battle played out in song, the two dismantle their stiff arrangements (think meticulous blasts of math rock, akin to A Minor Forest), with a steady dose of visionary pop music (Blonde Redhead's Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons is a good comparison). "Shoko's personality is very different than mine," Hall explains. "She has more of a flower side, I have more of a machine side."
thanks for being friends with us you are a really great band i saw you guys in eugene at the u of o in some random room with the Mood since then i tell every one about you guys hope to play a show with you one day
it was lovely meeting you both last night! loved the show...thanks for everything (the good musicccc, the shirt, the pitcher of beer)! have a great rest of the tour and hopefully we'll be seeing you again :)
