This band is totally fun and dresses in wacky costumes. They played for us on the grass in skinner’s butte park. Check them out here. I enjoyed their originals about elephants and bunnies and their cover of Radiohead’s “national anthem.” I feel I really got loose for these drawings and drew them in a Jules Fieffer and or William Blake kind of style. Shaded with copics.
Isaac and the Awkward Situations
Comics, Vaudeville, Art Education, and Music
Category Archives: art
Texture explorations with black ink
Though it’s often good to plan a drawing out with pencil before the process of inking, this assignment just has you ink right away. Make a grid on yor paper 5×6 is a fine way to do it. Fill in each square with a unique texture. If you are familiar with zentangles, it’s similar to that.
When each square has a unique texture they might look something like this: 
Then we put food coloring and water in spray bottles. We cut out stenciled and put them on photocopies of our original art and sprayed color on them.
Wowwwwwww so pretty!
Busted monks
This wild two piece blues band rocks the house!
Check out their recordings here.
Candace
Portland Witchpop/ stargaze dream pop band Candace shook the roots at Luckys in Eugene, on tour with The Shivas.
These are swirling huge pop songs with shimmering guitars and wavy variable tempos.
I asked how their sound is so huge, and Sarah Rose told me it was a secret. She also said their drummer moved from Minneapolis to Portland and the whole band for followed her. They have songs posted online but i liked nearly every one of their songs live and didnt like the recordings nearly as much.
Mt. Eerie
Phil Elverum, aka Mt. Eerie, aka “The Microphones” played Wow Hall. This was an important show for me because I used to play Microphones’ songs on KSUA back in the 90s and that’s how I discovered The Blow. Once Phil was playing in Anchorage and my friends and I tried to catch a ride down to see him play (must have been 2001 or 2002). We couldn’t fit in the car and we didn’t get to see him so 16 years later I see him play at the Wow hall.
This show was intense and really powerfully emotional. Phil played songs from his most recent album A crow looked at me” and they were all about the loss of his beloved wife. Each song seemed to have the same tempo and mood. Many lines in the songs echoed each other and seemed as if they could have been swapped with lines in different songs. Each had touching lines and sorrowful imagery. These are songs about surviving loss, seeing people who knew the deceased at the grocery store, trying to explain what happened to children, and being moved to tears by throwing away a toothbrush or some other intimate object. The whole crowd was silent. We were all on the edge of our seats.
Mosley Watta
Mosley Watta, or MOWO is a fast humorous poet/mc with great diction and flair. One of his lines that made me laugh was “black is more than a penis size.” and “Black is not a trend is the new black.” He is available on Spotify! Check him out if you like Bus Driver, Sammus, Q-Tip, Childish Gambino, Ugly Duckling, Mos Def. I opened for him at Oregon Country Fair and saw him do a whole headlining set at Sam Bonds.
Legendary jazz pianist Dick Hyman
This hip jazz cat provided music for several Woody Allen films and pbs’ Beale Street Caravan. He played an all New Orleans Jazz set for us at the Shedd. I do not know the names of the musicians who played with him at this gig. Check out his touring schedule here.
Beats Antique
Beats Antique played the McDonald Theatre. There was some shadow puppetry, a giant inflatable dragon, several belly dancers and of course the band, playing middle eastern dub dance on violin, clarinet, sax and some wild eastern instruments like maybe a tar? I think they fit alongside RJD2, OTT, Balkan Beat Box, and Lindsay Sterling.
You can listen to their music at bandcamp. The geometric pyramid shapes that decorated their stage were a fun challenge to draw.
The Coathangers
The Coathangers play stripped down rock and roll. Some call it “punk.” There’s no pedals to mess with the sound of pure guitars and that makes even the occasional “weeoo” back up vocal stand out and make the song shine. Stephanie drummed on most songs but on a few she played guitar and Julia switched over to drums. One song stood out where they played a squeaky toy as if to stand in for cursing in a song. These three put on a good show! Down Down is a great song and has an amazing music video!
Isaac and the Awkward Situations 