richard shirk (vox/gtr left). paul notley(bass/gtr), tim yates (theremin/keys & auxiliary bass),
gordon nickel (vox/ drums/ bow gtr), brad meyers (auxiliary gtr), nick ocon (drums). (adam jones [gtr, vox]) is on a short hiatus and should be returning to the band in the fall.
Influences
go-betweens, R.E.M., velvet underground, smiths, orange juice, wire, elephant six bands, flying nun bands, La's.
Sounds Like
...something analog.
from mercury april 16
SOFT TAGS, PINEHURST KIDS, GREENLADIES
(Slabtown, 1033 NW 16th) Soft Tags don't really sound typical of music that bears the tag "lo-fi"—in other words, they don't sound a lot like Guided by Voices or Sebadoh—but their four-track home recordings have a similarly cast-off air, an of-the-moment quality that's devoid of pretension. Their debut full-length, Blue House, arrived in February after countless EPs that showcased the band's murky pop gems, and the album maps the uniquely strange sonic landscape that their primitive recording rig emits. Live, Soft Tags hurtle forward with the thrust of overdriven guitars, pounding drums, and Richard Shirk's sharply nasal vocals. If that's not enough, some of our very favorite people are also on the bill: Pinehurst Kids are the evergreen power pop of Joe Davis—who daylights as the Mercury's head of production—and Greenladies, whose ranks include former Mercury News Editor Scott Moore, open the proceedings with bouncy, leftfield pop-rock. NL
from mercury feb 19
POP ROCKS: CROSSTIDE, THE PUNK GROUP, MINMAE , SOFT TAGS, MASSIVE MOTH
(Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th) Soft Tags' newest full-length, Blue House, is grander, wider, and more haunted than anything the Portland quartet have recorded thus far. Amassing tracks onto TDK 90-minute tapes—some of which appear of their own volition, the band members having no recollection of recording them—the Soft Tags' sound is definitively lo-fi but exquisitely nuanced, and the songs alternate between extended, hallucinatory chants and folk-pop nuggets. Richard Shirk's vocals are ghostly wails buried in bottom-of-the-well echo, detailing metaphysical encounters with Toshiro Mifune and Joan of Arc. Their set should be among the strangest, and best, of the mini Pop Rocks festival, which crams a bunch of local bands onto one bill. How does that make this "bite-sized" fest any different from any other night with an all-local bill? Not sure, really—but like Soft Tags' incantatory songs, if they say it be so, it be so.
NL
from willamette week feb 18.
The Soft Tags release new disc Blue House is a characteristically lo-fi, cool-sounding recording. But where the Tags normally grab a melodic idea by the throat and shake it for the entire length of a song, the most successful songs on Blue House put real effort into songcraft as well as sonic weirdness. And when the Tags throw in those Soft Boys-style backup harmonies, look out! CASEY JARMAN. 9 pm. 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. $8. 21+.
from willamette week's localcut.com music blog friday feb 13...
I don’t think the guys in Soft Tags accept the fact that they live in Portland, Oregon in the year 2009. In their minds, it is 1965 and they reside in New York City, partaking in the art scene Andy Warhol birthed, consuming massive amounts of LSD, recording psychedelic rock with Lou Reed and touring with Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators.
By no means do I consider this a flaw. The quartet creates static-infused, gritty, psych rock that I could’ve sworn died in the ’80s.“Dig The Beret,” the second track off the band’s soon-to-be-released debut album, Blue House, illustrates their murky, lo-fi sound that separates them from other Portland acts.
The band recorded the album using only analog equipment, as it did with its 2008 EP, Projectors, giving Blue House a fuzzy, organic sound that I must admit is quite appealing. Richard Shirk’s voice possesses the anxious tone of Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock with the fluidity of Lou Reed. His vocals are drenched to the bone with reverb, rendering them virtually impossible to understand.
This muddy form of mixing lends to the music as well as the vocals. All of the instruments mesh together (is that an accordion or a keyboard?) but the sloppiness is intentional, and therefore, it works. The rest of the album comprises that same vintage sound.
In a city wrought with electro pop and acoustic folk, it is refreshing to hear an album that does not revolve around synthesizer blips or fragile guitar chords, but rather tube amps.
Someday Lounge hosts Blue House’s album release show w/ Crosstide and Minmae on Saturday, Feb. 21.
from willamette week dec 30
Radar Skinny, Gunbunny, Soft Tags
[FLYING NONE] Although Soft Tags hails from Portland, the band's sound—a grainy, lo-fi shamble that borrows heavily from the Kiwi rock scene and R.E.M.'s early jangle—is located thousands of miles and 20 years away. Most of the Tags' songs are rooted in buzzing acoustic guitars run through layers of amp fuzz and singer Richard Shirk's anxious voice—all the more amazing if you believe Shirk's story that 2008 EP Projectors was recorded with an 11-year-old Yamaha MT50 for a measly $7. Playing solo tonight, most of the band's murk will be ditched for stripped-down simplicity and well-worn, Go-Betweens-lite grandeur. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Ash Street Saloon 9:15 pm. Free. 21+.
from portland mercury thursday oct 23rd.
SOFT TAGS, THE MINT CHICKS, CROW CANYON
(Towne Lounge, 714 SW 20th Pl) Soft Tags have sifted through their stack of TDK 90s to given us another fine EP of spooky, spindly four-track pop. Reportedly recorded for a whopping $7 (take that, economy), the songs on Projectors filter indie rock through a low-fi graininess to create unimaginable, fish-eyed, exquisitely textured pop. "The Revenge of Mario Savio" braids electric and acoustic guitar together for a rumbling, murderous folk tale, while "They Live by Night" has an uneasy, warbling vocal over the relentless momentum of their steady strum. Soft Tags have whittled their low-fi limitations into a genuinely engaging sound, with warmth in all the appropriate places, ample degrees of shading, and a tugging pop undertow. After Halloween, the intimate Towne Lounge is shuttering its doors, so this show may be one of your last chances to drink an enormous can of Pabst while hanging out in the former funeral parlor. NED LANNAMANN
from willamette week, wed aug 20th.
Someday Lounge | 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030 | more info
Prids Benefit: Soft Tags, Mint Chicks, The Oblik
[FUNDRAISING ROCK] Soft Tags’ lo-fi, psychedelic ramble pop may seem a far cry from the blistering New Wave punk of the Mint Chicks and upstart PDX New Wavers the Oblik, but then tragedy (or near-tragedy, in this case) has a way of bringing people together. The California van accident that had the entire Portland music community holding its breath left the Prids with medical bills aplenty, and as we’ve seen time and time again, Portland is coming together to chip in. Nice to know that scrawny, malnourished rockers care more about your health than the government does, huh? But I digress. It doesn’t hurt the cause that tonight’s show is a great showcase for both new and longtime Portland talent. CASEY JARMAN. 9 pm. 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. $6. 21+
from the portland mercury thurs. june 5:
'In the current age of affordable recording software, Soft Tags keep the spirit of lo-fi alive with four-track opuses that gleam like excavated relics. Richard Shirk's vocals occasionally poke their way out of the murky froth like a Pentacostal howler, while chords are bludgeoned with all the subtlety of a battering ram. Live, acoustic guitars are cranked through amplifiers and the drum setup dispenses with cymbals entirely, for a thumping, simplistic groove that will have your foot stomping the earth and your fist unconsciously crushing your can of beer. The flyer for this show boasts an appearance by 'The Optophonic Carousel Lightshow,' which could be promising and "Free Books!" So expect some visuals and some book-learnin' along with your raw, bare-bones, indier-than-indie folk 'n' roll. NL.'
from eugene weekly...
Getting a press kit from the Portland band Soft Tags is like getting a gift from a really creative boyfriend. Housed in a modest brown box with a Spanish vocabulary sticker on the front (mine said "El Cantarito"), the Tags’ EP and introductory materials were lovingly nestled amidst quirky goodies like a Stash tea bag (orange spice) and a frayed guitar string (either an A or a D). Cute as a button. Oh, and there was a really cute button in there too. After opening something so precious, I really wanted to like these self-declaredly lo-fi, DIY fellows and, luckily, the tracks they sent lived up to their promotional promises ("fuzzed-out acoustic guitars, songs in waltz time, a rejection of chorus-vs-chorus song structure"). There’s a kind of Mazzy Star-ish, Joy-Division-y, recorded-in-a-bathroom sound to the winchester mansion EP that deeply satisfies the indie rock lover in me. And while I have no idea how the low-budget-and-proud recording quality will translate into a live performance, the lyrical quality of their songs combined with the multi-media lightshow they tour with and their general sense of whimsy and style make Soft Tags a pretty appealing prospect for a Saturday night.
from willamette week....
[BEDROOM POP] Richard Shirk's echo-heavy lo-fi pop project the Soft Tags reminds of early Mountain Goats and Robyn Hitchcock B-sides. The Goats because of Shirk's near-monotone, rambling storytelling, and Hitchcock because of the accessible psychedelia that flows throughout the recent limited-edition Winchester Mansion EP. Jangly guitars shoot down empty hallways, and Shirk's voice bounces off the walls in somewhat schizophrenic fashion. Hearing the Soft Tags' reverb-heavy music isn't unlike having a talented but noisy musician living next door—you can only imagine what it would sound like if there wasn't a barrier between you and the music. And it's sorta cool that Shirk never really shows his hand. CASEY JARMAN.
[INDIE] The band's recordings—which were probably made in a basement—are kind of like "Beginning to See the Light" from the Velvet Underground's self-titled album. But Soft Tags aren't quietly playing the same song over and over, waiting for a chance. Once in a while, this shoegazing trio breaks out into a guitar-driven rock song, sounding less like the Smiths and more like the Stone Roses.
taking place over the course of a particularly spooky and fog-gauzed november, tags debut full length BLUE HOUSE (their fourth record in just over a year and a half and best)
is a collection of short story songs that find strange transmissions coming through on radios, volcanoes about to explode and cults taking over abandoned SETI dishes in order to communicate with the dead.
most of the current tags songs began as a series of dreams. other draw from lead singer richard shirk's ability to happen to be near bizarre events - aside from being on a commuter train that was struck by lightning and later having a waking vision of joan of arc (these are within the last six months), he spent a bizarre childhood in the midwest where he lived in a haunted house and had 3 run-ins with what is described in journals of the paranormal as a poltergeist. three years later outside of newton, iowa, he saw a UFO from about a hundred feet away.
along with a penchant for waltz-time, fuzzed out acoustic guitars played through vintage tube amps and non-traditional song structure, all of these things contributed to journalists dubbing our sound 'indie beat.' these songs - which sometimes land between spooky lo-fi folk/psych and the kind of chiming cant-get-outta-your-head tune you might hear on college radio circa 1981 - are narrative, strange vignettes that were sometimes beamed straight from the rock satellite ala 'VALIS.'
our latest LP, BLUE HOUSE and our previous EP PROJECTORS are available from our webstore at www.cdbaby.com/all/softtags. our latest record, SEAFOAM GREEN EP will be released at our July 29 Doug Fir show!
please contact us with any questions, postcards, letters or photographs.
Playing at the Someday Lounge in Portland with The Mint Chicks and a bunch of other cool bands on Saturday, June 6th. Hope you can make it. Should be awesome! Looking forward to the Doug Fir show!
Hi Richard and friends. I am excited because my trip to Seattle on the 30th coincides perfectly with your matinee show. I'll be there! You guys are great. I love to dance at your shows. hearts, Kate K.
We are Luna Events, an arts collective based out of Portland, OR. This Friday we are hosting Nellfest, a themed all-ages arts extravaganza, featuring live music from a wide range of genres including indie, folk, jam, and dance. Experience live music by Dan Cole, Brett McConell, Ineffectuals, Jake Lesiak, and Alex Weinburg. With a costume theme of "Come as you aren't,” and rooms full of visual arts and live music, everyone will enjoy this interactive experience, so bring your friends!
Nellefest will be hosted at a recently opened public art space, Circadia Center for the Arts at 4705 NE Columbia Blvd, Portland, OR 97218. Show starts at 7 pm. There is a suggested donation of $5 for the event with all proceeds going to Circadia in order to fund future classes and events.
Check out our myspace to listen to music and get links to the websites of all of the participating artists and musicians. www.mypsace.com/lunaeventsportland
Feel free to forward this email to people who would be interested in such an event, such as artists, yoga practitioners and teachers, and festival-goers! Hope to see you there!
