World of Noise

This week, Bob Ham speaks with earthy singer-songwriter Jeffrey Silverstein (jeffreysilverstein.bandcamp.com) about his spacious and dreamy new album You Become The Mountain, and Monica Metzler, the artist who performs and records as Forest Veil (forestveil.bandcamp.com), discusses her ritualist electro-folk sound.

On this week's show, the members of post-punk band Yuvees (yuvees.bandcamp.com) choose a handful of songs that are important and influential to them, including tunes by Captain Beefheart, Brainiac, and Lithics; and electronic musician/sound artists Patricia Wolf (soundcloud.com/patriciawolf_music) talks about her time in Soft Metals, creating music for cellphones and synthesizers, and the joys and pains of going solo.

On this week's show, Bob Ham speaks with Nate Preston, a member of the beloved noise rock quartet Sleetmute Nightmute. The band just had its complete discography reissued by Helicopter Records, the label run by noise artist John Wiese. And he sits down with the members of Zyl, a duo that plays in the fields of heavy rock and experimental music, and will be performing at this weekend's Ceremony of Sludge.

The show begins with Bob Ham interviewing Chris Slusarenko and John Moen, the singer/guitarists for psych-rockers Eyelids, about their band's new album The Accidental Falls, which was recorded using lyrics from Tim Buckley collaborator Larry Beckett. Closing out the show, Bob talks to Jana Cushman, leader of the post-punk trio Darkswoon about the therapeutic qualities of music and the development of their seamy, electronic rock sound.

Bob Ham spends the hour with Dave Allen, co-founder of International Anthem, a record label from Chicago that has making huge waves around the world through its well chosen roster of artists that exist in the fluid realm where jazz, hip-hop, experimental, and ambient flow together. Allen stopped by the XRAY studios to talk about the history of the label, its recent partnership with Nonesuch Records, and its unique aesthetic.

Bob Ham sits down with Nicholas Salas-Harris, PDX Jazz's new Artistic Director, to talk about the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival and his long career in the music biz, and, in a new installment of Take Five, singer/songwriter Mo Troper chooses five tunes—including classics by XTC, Dear Nora, and Bob Dylan—that were important to his development as an artist and that helped inspire the work on his new album Natural Beauty.

On this week's show, Bob Ham spends the hour with Keeley Davis, a recent transplant to Portland who is a rock lifer, having started his career with the beloved post-hardcore group Engine Down and moving on to play guitar in Sparta and, in 2016, joining At The Drive-In for their reunion tour and most recent album in•ter a•li•a. These days, he's using his creative energies fronting Via Vale, a heavy rock trio featuring Red Fang drummer John Sherman.

This week, Bob Ham spends the hour with Prashant Kakad, aka DJ Prashant, the DJ, promoter, dancer, and musician who, 10 years ago, started Jai Ho!, a regular dance night celebrating Bollywood, bhangra, and world beat music. He's having a big blow out on January 31st at the Whiskey Bar to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Jai Ho! and stopped by the XRAY studios to talk about how the show began and where it's going.

On this week's episode, Bob Ham speaks with experimental artist Avola (avola.bandcamp.com) about finding her way into the noise scene in San Francisco and Portland as well as collaborating with Australian duo Dead and local hero Daniel Menche. Later in the show, you'll hear a new edition of Take Five with singer/songwriter Bart Budwig (bartbudwig.com), who chose five songs important to his development as an artist including a Stax Records classic, a bit of alt-rock, and some outlaw country.

On this week's episode, Bob Ham is joined by the musician and sound healer Treneti (treneti.com) to talk about the evolution of her work and her first album Psalms of Saturn, and Steve Rosborough, a recent transplant to Portland and the founder of the brilliant label Moon Glyph Records (moonglyph.com), who will share music from the label and the story of how it all began.