Street roots., June 24, 2016, Page 4, Image 4

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Page 4
Street Roots • June 24-30, 2016
The Woolen Men -from left, Alex Geddes, Rafael Spielman and Lawton Browning - released their latest album, “Temporary Monument,” in the fall.
‘Wave of optimism’ amid
Portland’s gentrification
The Woolen Men’s work has been inspired by their changing hometown, whose residents and music venues
are being displaced from the inner city. Yet the musicians see a community spirit that brings them hope.
BY JASON COHEN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
n April, The Woolen Men were set to play
the VFW on Southeast Mill Street, an
occasional but stalwart non-traditional
venue for punk rock bands, art films and
more than a few bagpipers. The gig was a
record release party for the Portland label
See My Friends’ compilation “Secret City,
Volume 1,” with The Woolen Men headlining
as (slightly) elder statesmen on the 10-band
bill. Mere days before the show, the label had
to scramble for a new location on a different
date. The building had been sold and all
bookings canceled without warning.
This was both disappointing and
appropriate, since See My Friends had
described “Secret City, Volume 1” as “a
product of rapidly gentrifying inner SE PDX.”
On top of that, the Woolen Men’s most recent
album, the frustrated, furious and thoroughly
catchy “Temporary Monument,” takes a great
deal of its thematic inspiration from the
current state of the city.
I
“Our hometown has been buried under an
avalanche of condos and pointless businesses
catering to the newly rich,” the band wrote
when the record first came out on New York
indie label Woodsist last September. “Noise
complaints shut down our shows and pulled
the plug on countless DIY venues. The places
where we lived are being torn down; the rent
keeps climbing up. Bom too soon or too late,
the recession’s effect on our youth was as
invisible as it it was profound. Music today is
rendered powerless - white noise made in
the echo chamber, for the great Smooth Face
that gazes once and moves on.”
The Portland trio - guitarist Lawton
Browning, drummer Rafael Spielman, and
bassist Alex Geddes - didn’t set out to make
a concept record, and “Temporary
Monument” isn’t one. Many of its songs are
as ambiguous and open to interpretation as
the tarot cards on the back cover.
“But living here and being part of a
community, it was hard to ignore that stuff,”
Spielman said.
And “that stuff” turned out to be an
irresistible media hook, since what’s
happening in Portland is happening in just
about every city. The subject matter
resonated with journalists, left-of-the-dial DJs
and other bands the Woolen Men
encountered while on tour.
“I liked that,” Browning said. “We could
talk about what’s happening here, and people
could share their own stories about what was
happening to them.”
Ilie Woolen Men’s perspective on their
city comes in part from the fact that it really
is their city. While Geddes is from Newport,
Wash., Browning and Spielman are both
Portland natives, graduates of Lincoln High
School - in 2002 and 2003, respectively -
who have lived here all their lives except for
college and played in local bands since they
were teens.
“I feel like it’s a little bit easier for us to
talk about these issues because (most)
everybody is from somewhere else,”
See WOOLEN MEN, page 5