Category: announcement

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chickfactor 25: portland edition

chickfactor presents

chickfactor 25: a celebration of 25 years of music, friendship & community

Saturday, December 9 at Bunk Bar, 8pm starring…

ROCKETSHIP
KITES AT NIGHT
LIDA HUSIK

Tickets available here. On sale Aug 18 at 10am PST.

***

Sunday, December 10 at the Toffee Club, 11am–2pm

special chickfactor indiepop brunch featuring DJs jen “the softies” sbragia, gail chickfactor & janice chickfactor + a pop quiz

Rocketship

 


Kites at Night 

Lida Husik

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Rocketship
Originally from Sacramento, Rocketship has been beloved among indie kids ever since releasing some early singles and A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness LP back in the early-mid-’90s. Currently based in Portland, Oregon, singer-guitarist-keyboardist Dusty Reske is still making music these days along with Ellen Osborn (vocals, keyboards). The lineup tonight also includes Adam Bayer (drums), Angie Fritz (bass) and John Jessee (keyboards). They will be playing a mixture of old and new songs from their new/forthcoming album, Thanks to You. Two of the songs, “Outer Otherness” and “I Just Can’t Get Enough of You“, from the new record have been released, with more to follow. The album is being mixed right now.  This will be Rocketship’s first live show in Portland since 1996 (which Dusty thinks was with Boyracer, Henry’s Dress & the Softies), so it’s a huge deal and honor that they’re playing tonight. 

Kites at Night
Formerly known as Imaginary Pants, the Vancouver, BC–based Kites at Night feature Rose Melberg of Tiger Trap & Softies fame and Lost Sound Tapes label boss Jon Manning, who have released an EP together already under the original name and played at some chickfactor parties. This will be their first official show in Portland. They’ll be joined by Jen Sbragia on bass. You guys know that everything Rose does is golden so do not miss this one!

Lida Husik
Originally from Washington, D.C., Lida has released eight full-length albums, and other EPs, singles, remixes and collaborations since the late 1980s. Her most recent release was an EP called Future Ghosts of America (2016), a collaboration with Danish cellist-vocalist-composer Soma Allpass. Lida was on the cover of chickfactor 9 back in the day and we can’t wait to see her play again! She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

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chickfactor 25: a series of fortunate events

The Softies


The Pastels

chickfactor & the hangover lounge are thrilled to present a celebration of 25 years of pop, friendship & community at the Lexington in London

Saturday, November 11 // Doors 7:30, Show 8

Sunday, November 12 //  Doors 7:30, Show 8

THE SOFTIES
STEVIE JACKSON (from Belle & Sebastian)
THE WOULD-BE-GOODS
THE CATENARY WIRES

Both nights will feature MC Gaylord Fields (WFMU)
& chickfactor / Hangover Lounge DJs downstairs

 

Lois


Kicking Giant

Kites at Night

Stevie Jackson

The Would-Be-Goods

The Catenary Wires

 & & &
ABOUT THE BANDS:
 
• THE PASTELS — The pop geniuses Stephen McRobbie, Katrina Mitchell & Co. came down from Glasgow to play at CF20 in London. We are thrilled to have them back.
• LOIS — Lois Maffeo is indie royalty from Olympia, Washington, where she has made many great albums for K Records.
• KICKING GIANT — Tae Won Yu & Rachel Carns formed this powerful union in New York via Olympia, WA, in 1989. This is their first-ever show in the UK. A double LP reissue of their early work, This Being the Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989–1993, will come out on Drawing Room Records later this year.
• KITES AT NIGHT are Rose Melberg & Jon Manning (with Jen Sbragia on bass for this show), whose previous band was called Imaginary Pants. This is their first show in London.
• THE SOFTIES — Indiepop queens Rose Melberg & Jen Sbragia (from Vancouver BC & Portland OR, respectively) reunited for the chickfactor 20 shows in 2012 in NYC, Portland and SF. This is their first-ever show in London.
• STEVIE JACKSON is the amazing guitarist, singer and songwriter in Belle & Sebastian! He also happened to write a song named after our zine “chickfactor.”
• THE WOULD-BE-GOODS — Jessica Griffin, Peter Momtchiloff, Debbie Greensmith & Andy Warren are indie legends based in London & St Leonards.
• THE CATENARY WIRES — This super-duo formed in 2014 when Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (ex-Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research, Tender Trap) moved out of London.
• Gaylord Fields is an excellent WFMU DJ, a music writer and a longtime MC for chickfactor events.
• The Hangover Lounge is a much-beloved event that happened for years at the Lexington, a label and a community that’s often collaborated with chickfactor before.
• chickfactor is a fanzine started by Pam Berry and Gail O’Hara in 1992. Currently based in Portland, Oregon, it will publish a new print zine in late 2017.
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coming soon!

chickfactor 18: the print fanzine
(please send us vinyl, books, etc. to review!)
publication date: late 2017

chickfactor 25: a series of fortunate events
(to celebrate our 25th anniversary)
PDX: late october (TBA)
NYC: early november (TBA)
LONDON: november 11 & 12 at the Lexington (TBA)

be there!
we all need a “friend-iversary” to distract us from the daily political nightmares. 

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new pastels!

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we are pretty excited to hear today that the new album from the pastels, slow summits, will be released on may 28! when they played at our chickfactor 20 party in london in november, they sounded as ace and fresh as ever, and we are chomping at the bit waiting to hear this one! recorded in glasgow by john mcentire and bal cooke, and mixed in chicago by mcentire, it features stephen mcrobbie, katrina mitchell, tom crossley, gerard love, alison mitchell and john hogarty. guests include annabel wright and norman blake. contributions from members of to rococo rot and tenniscoats too! watch the trailer here.

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revel in portland launch party.

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a launch party february 22 at the cleaners (ace hotel) for a new book called revel in portland, which features interviews with and city picks from locals including bridge & burn designer erik prowell, illustrator carson ellis, filmmaker-photographer lance bangs, architect jeff kovel, chef john gorham, designer tinker hatfield, photographer ray gordon, artist alicia mcdaid and chickfactor editor me (gail) — I was interviewed and photographed by the awesome shayla hason. any donation gets you in and gets you a copy of the book. I will have a table set up with some chickfactor 17s, chickfactor mixtapes and maybe some photos! come down. you can also get the book here.


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chickfactor 17!

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chickfactor 17 features interviews with grass widow, bill callahan, black tambourine, caitlin moran, fence records / king creosote, frankie rose, joe boyd, joe pernice, liam hayes / plush, maira kalman, rachel blumberg, sharon van etten and tae won yu; a jukebox jury with the corin tucker band; lots of silly polls and expertly written music and book reviews. click here to mail order a copy or pick one up at these prestigious establishments….

stores selling chickfactor 17:
Other Music (NYC)
Beacon Sound (Portland OR)
Powell’s (Portland OR)
What Cheer? (Providence RI)
Needles & Pens (SF)
End of an Ear (Austin)
Quimbys (Chicago)
Atomic Books (Baltimore)
Skylight Books (Los Angeles)
Criminal Records (Atlanta)
Grimey’s (Nashville)
Landlocked (Bloomington IN)
Monorail (Glasgow, Scotland)
The Telegraph (New London, CT)
Sonic Boom (Seattle)

• Are you a book or record store that wants to sell chickfactor? Send us a message here.

• We also have a new Etsy store where you can buy a bundle of back issues, letter-press coasters from half pint press, lovely posters by tae won yu, chickfactor mixtapes and (soon) limited-edition prints and vintage clothing.

• Follow us on this thing or that thing.

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huge thanks to all the bands that played our shows this year!

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we had a pretty fabulous 20th-anniversary year, with 12 nights of amazing events: two nights at artisphere in arlington, va. one at maxwell’s in hoboken. three at the amazing bell house in brooklyn. one at bunk bar in portland, oregon. one at bootleg bar in l.a. one at the rickshaw stop in s.f. three in london: horseshoe pub, bush hall and the lexington. thanks to the bands (quite a lineup if we do say so), the audiences, the soundpersons, the merch sellers, the amp bringers, the putter uppers, the drink getters & esp hangover lounge, other music, mike slumberland, and todd abramson for everything!

the aislers set

allen clapp

amor de días

black tambourine

bridget st john

dan searing

daniel handler

dot dash

dump

fan modine

frankie rose

franklin bruno

gaylord fields

hangover lounge djs

harvey williams & josh gennet

honey bunch

the jim ruiz set

joe pernice

john lindaman

kim baxter

ladybug transistor

ld beghtol

the legendary jim ruiz group

lilys

lois

lorelei

the lois plus

mark robinson

musical chairs

the pines

pipas

pam berry

the pastels

paul kelly

phoebe summersquash

rose melberg

the real tuesday weld

selector dub narcotic

small factory

the softies

the starfolk

stevie jackson

sukhdev sandhu

tender trap

versus

would-be-goods

photo by tae won yu