the hum / By Bob Doran

Experimenting

Eternal Tapestry trips out, plus Trinity Tribal Stomp and Leon Russell

(July 22, 2010)  Like a number of Humboldt music people, Ryan Carlisle relocated to Portland Ore. a few years back. He’ll return this weekend for three shows playing mutant sax with the experimental psychedelic rock band Eternal Tapestry.

In Humboldt Ryan played in High School, Pubic Zirconium and Daytime Minutes (full disclosure, that band also included this columnist’s son, Spencer Doran, and Ryan also plays in his band, Cloaks). Last year he joined the already extant Eternal Tapestry, originally started in 2005 by guitarists Dewey Mahood and Nick Bindeman, now with Nick’s brother Jed on drums and Yoni Kifle on bass. “They were all friends of mine and when they were going on tour, I wanted to go just to hang out,” said Ryan. “They figured I should play on a couple of songs, and that turned into being in the band full time.”

Ryan Carlisle PHOTO BY BOB DORAN

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I wondered, what difference has he found between the Humboldt music world and the seemingly vibrant scene in Portland?

“Oh, man,” he began, hesitating. “Portland is a town full of musicians and bands, too many bands. The scene’s kind of chopped up — there’s no sense of family to it like in the Humboldt County scene. The scene down there is full of people helping each other out — like in a family. I miss that. Someone told me the sound system we bought when I was with the Placebo is still floating around; people are still using it.”  (Carlisle and Abe Ray, another Humboldt expat now living in Portland, were the original founders of the Placebo. The sound system he’s talking about is indeed still around — it will be used extensively for next weekend’s Golden Road Music and Art Fair, a multi-stage Ink People benefit at the Old Creamery in Arcata on Sunday, Aug. 1.)

Expect some new songs when the Tapestry boys come to town. The semi-major indie label Thrill Jockey recently signed E.T. and there’s a CD in the works. “They gave us an advance and we used it to buy recording equipment,” said Ryan. “There may even be money to be made. We’re lucky to do this deal with Thrill Jockey. It’s a good deal — something like 50/50 — so if we really make it, we’ll get something out of it.” Thrill Jockey notes, “The new material will come from the band’s current live set, a combination of fast punk-inspired songs and epic krautrock-influenced guitar improvisations,” which is what you’ll hear at their three Arcata shows in three days.

Eternal Tapestry plays Saturday night at the Alibi. Then on Sunday the band helps provide the soundtrack when The Crafty Mavericks take over the Arcata Plaza for a Summer Craft Extravaganza with dozens of booths selling vintage items and alt. craft goods. Also performing that day, Plankton Wat (Dewey Mahood’s solo guitar project), plus locals Jeeze Louise (with the crafty Aimee Taylor from Monster Women) and the Neil Diamond tribute The Solitary Men. Monday E.T. plays for Budget Rock Night at the Jambalaya with Starving Weirdos along for the ride, either as a band or as DJs.

Also in the experimental vein, a bonus Budget Rock Night this Thursday at the Jam with two bands from Seattle, the epic tribal sludge band Wildildlife and their friends Emeralds, who play something they call “psychedelic thrash.”

Arcata Theatre Lounge goes alt. alt. Saturday with more wildly experiment sounds: Peace Season with David Jaberi, Weirdos associates Manilapede, Medicine Ball with Ishan and Willoughby, and a resurrection of the amorphous thelittlestillnotbigenough.

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