My old friend David Peixotto was visiting Portland for the holidays and this morning we snagged breakfast at Stepping Stone. Dave and I have been working hard on a stealth iPhone application to be published by our company, Neutrinos. Backspace in northwest and Urban Grind in northeast have been some of my favorite haunts so I showed them off to him and took the opportunity to extol on him the freshest virtues of the city I hope he’ll return to.
I showed Dave a print of an owl in a suit I bought at Crafty Wonderland barely touching on variety in the vendors and size of the crowds out that day to explore the local fare. I remember walking among the booths, looking at a velvet painting of Michael Jackson and hearing The Thermals playing overhead. It was Portland art celebrating Portland art.
Something I’ve noticed through an array of networking and business meetings I’ve set up is that Portland has attracted a powerhouse of technological and artistic talent. There aren’t a lot of jobs, but there is a creative class of people ambitious to combine creativity with entrepreneurial behavior to produce amazing things. This is starting to attract publicity.
James Mercer, The Shins and Broken Bells
What does all this have to do with Broken Bells? Let’s take a look at the context around the release. James Mercer, frontman for The Shins, decided to move to Portland a few years back. Recently keyboardist Marty Crandall and Drummer Jesse Sandoval were replaced by by Fruit Bats’ bassist Ron Lewis and Modest Mouse’s Joe Plummer.
Mercer suggested in May that a new Shins album could come in early 2010, but then in September announced a collaborative project with Brian Joseph Burton aka Dangermouse titled Broken Bells. The release of the first single off Broken Bells, “The High Road” on the 21st of this month was quickly overshadowed by what some are calling the “best Christmas present ever,” the complete leak of the album.
One listen and it is clear that Mercer aimed for and delivered a dashing mix of phonics and verse, doing well to combine his creative style with a bang up set of instrumentation from Burton. When the album makes its official debut it is certain to be a hit.
In light of this new work it seems hard to believe a new Shins album will be dropping any time soon. And to celebrate Broken Bells as a Portland achievement hold less water than to simply say it is heavily in association with the city. The idea that Portland would influence the creation of an effort like Broken Bells seems to jive with what I’m seeing on the ground. There are no doubt wonderful things yet to come from this city and I’m excited to see what else shakes out.