The unique blend of pop / rock / indie / and alt-country have given this Portland quintet a successful niche in the musical world. Many high-profile shows and radio play have made The Imprints a familiar act in the Pacific Northwest. With two commercial releases under their belt, their music has also been licensed by CBS ("How I Met Your Mother"), and by Hewlett-Packard.
The Imprints contribution to this year's project is called, "Please, Please, Please, Please, Please."
Scotland Barr & the Slow Drags
Where the collective unconscious meets a dusty west coast reality, Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags live, write and play. Gritty songs float between an old school 60/70's songwriter aesthetic and a contemporary alt-country Americana furnace blast. Their songs burn with a slight literary edge, they take you somewhere but they don't just drop you off, they bring you home again too, even if home is no place you want to be.
Matt Vrba
One of Portland’s most prolific songwriter/performers, Matt Vrba has had his music featured in a numerous commercials, movies and national network television programs in the past several years. Vrba averages about 150 shows a year ranging from intimate acoustic performances to full-band assaults at some of the national largest summer festivals. His unique brand of alt-country is demonstrated beautifully in “It Just Won’t Be Christmas”. Although this is Vrba’s first recorded holiday song, he is no stranger to lending himself, and his music, to good causes. Vrba was recently featured on a benefit CD for the Pacific Oncology Cancer Center, has played dozens of benefit concerts for everything from Tsunami relief to Clackamas River Clean-up, and several years ago he created and undertook a 3200-mile walk across America to benefit Teach For America. For “It Just Won’t Be Christmas” Vrba called in some of Portland’s finest to help out with Chris Chard (Rye Hollow, Keegan Smith) on bass, Dave Kendall (Colorfield) on drums, and a guest vocal appearance by Breanna Paletta (Rye Hollow), in addition to a number of other local talents.For more info go to www.mattvrba.com or www.myspace.com/mattvrba
Michael Jodell & Matt Brown
After playing for years in the clubs of Salt Lake City, UT (voted best female vocalist City Weekly reader's poll 1995-1997), Michael moved to Portland, OR where her milky melodies meshed beautifully with the weeping skies. "Possessing one of the dozen or so most amazing human voices this reviewer has ever heard in action, this gal is, as they say, going places." - Willamette Week
Chris Robley
Music tends to keep Portland's "Stephen King of Indie-Pop", Chris Robley, pretty busy most of the time. He fronts the Agitprop-Prog-Pop outfit THE SORT OFs whose politically charged 2006 album "Anxiety on Parade" garnered rave reviews. He also leads a cinematic folk-pop band called Chris Robley & the Fear of Heights who tour up and down the West Coast performing music from his critically lauded solo debut "this is the" and 2007's "the drunken dance of modern man in love".
Rachel Taylor-Brown
"If singer-songwriter Rachel Taylor Brown's third release, "Ormolu," needed to be summed up in a single word, it would have to be "melancholic." But "pensive" could work well, too, as would "brooding," or to keep it simple, "sad." And "beautiful" would be apt as well.....And that's the difficult artistic trick Brown has pulled off with "Ormolu." She's managed to construct a quick listen that feels almost epic, an album that demands to be encountered and examined again and again."
The Oregonian
Justin Jude
Recently named Oregon's Best Singer/Songwriter 2007 at the Bite of Oregon, Justin weds right-on rock with flagrant folk to make a musty mix rough to the touch and sweet on the tongue. Drawing on rock, folk, R and B, gospel and his classical training, Justin's music can appear in any guise at any time – like the spirit when it decides to move you.
Justin's music has been called "Pete Seeger meets Pete Yorn." He has been compared with everyone from Ryan Adams to David Gray to Bruce Springsteen. Turning out a huge repertoire of songs in a short time, he earned a reputation as a prolific writer and a dazzling live performer.
Speechwriters LLC
Speechwriters LLC is/are difficult to describe, unless you're ready to take some liberties with the English tongue. They was (am?) initially conceived as a cautious alliance between West Coast songwriters Dave Lowensohn and Misha Chellam, who quickly became inseparable and have spent most of the 21st century touring the country in borrowed minivans. They have since managed to strike a delicate balance between California sunshine and Northwest navel gazing, resulting in a weirdly three dimensional folk-pop that resonates with Red and Blue staters alike. The Speechwriters have won countless, meaningless awards, and once loaned Jay Farrar their amp. They currently divide their time between Portland and Vietnam, which isn't nearly as impressive once you realize there's two of them.
Kevin Breuner
Kevin began his musical journey in the Atlanta-based band, Smalltown Poets, who recorded two albums for an EMI label and earned a Grammy nomination along the way. Heading back west, he ended up in Portland where he's played on a number of indie projects including a band he co-founded called The Covering. Now, venturing out on his own, he spends his time creating instrumental landscapes with dreamy guitars and mellow beats.
Morgan Grace
Like all great musical movements, and more specifically groups of classic quality, they seem to come from nowhere. Morgan Grace is no exception, WITH the exception of the pedigree of the drummer (the obviously very talented Sam Henry, who handled percussion in not one but two bands of great cult status - the Wipers and Napalm Beach).
Maggie Sayles
Maggie Sayles has a beautiful voice. That was my first thought when I heard some samples of her new CD Trust. Initially I thought that she had the perfect voice for pop or jazz, and she does, however she manages to wrap that silky voice around rocking guitars and comes out sounding something similar to female fronted prog-rock bands like Mostly Autumn, which by no coincidence is one of my favorite bands.
