Because creativity and real human connection simply make life better
Things We Love
We Can Be Loved Print
$ 42.00
- Because you're perfect just the way you are. Spoken by a man we're proud to call our "neighbor," it's a sentiment that never goes out of style. 11" x 14". Screen-printed by hand on 100% cotton Cranes 110 lb lettra paper.
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People I’ve Loved is a few individuals longing for connection / a small printmaking workshop based out of Oakland, California. They specialize in hand-printed & assembled objects, in an Oakland farmhouse with a lemon tree.
Diamond Hoops
$ 52.00
- Delicate but with an edge and extremely lightweight, the Diamond Hoops are the perfect everyday earring. Handmade by Polaris in Brooklyn, NY using sustainable practices and materials. Available in 14k gold filled and sterling silver, these hoops measure approximately 2” in length.
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Polaris Jewelry The word Polaris means polestar or North Star, singular and bright. Characterized by clean lines, exceptional quality, and sustainability, artist Kaliska Sweetwater is passionate about sourcing reclaimed metals and hand-making every piece in small batches. Polaris jewelry began in Portland, Oregon and is now made in Brooklyn, New York.
Flat Zip Pouch
$ 62.00
- "Perfect wristlet that fits the essentials. Great on it's own or to keep things organized inside a larger bag. Complete with brass zip closure & removable clip on leather strap. Choose black or vegetable tanned leather (will darken to a golden patina over time), hand finished with carnauba wax. H: 6.5" W: 11" "
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xobruno is inspired by classic design, love of travel and the kind of bag that will stick around through thick and thin. All of their bags are handcrafted in their Portland, Oregon studio with the best leather, tools, materials and care. The "BRUNO" in xobruno is a tribute to maker Michelle Kline's grandmother and all of the extraordinary women in her family.
Small Flared Mug - Coral Satin
$ 38.00
- A sweet, simple and small handcrafted mug with just the right amount of flair. Measures 3.75" wide by 2.25" tall.
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Alexandria Cummings Alexandria is a ceramist living and working in Portland, Oregon. She also co-operates Hey Studio, a ceramic focused space for people of all levels and practices.
Turmeric Polish
$ 13.00
- Look turmerifically spicy in this Turmeric nail polish inspired by the exotic spice and handmade in Portland, Oregon! Palate Polish is small batch and 5-free, excluding the toxic chemicals: toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde resin and camphor. It’s vegan, completely pet and baby safe, and never tested on animals.
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Palate Polish is a small batch 5-free and vegan nail polish line with food inspired names.
Wild Thing Hoodie
$ 44.00
- Like a cute little mushroom growing in a big adventure-filled forest, it’s a joy to watch your little wild thing grow and discover who they are along the way, wild side and all.
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At Brave New People we believe that kids are resilient, hilarious, creative and brave! This line was inspired by our own children, along with a desire to help all brave, new people grow into strong, amazing adults. Not only do we promise to create the most awesome kids apparel we can muster to outfit your little ones through the seasons, we also promise to give 10% of our profits to child-centered charities! Thanks for helping us make the future brighter for all the brave, new people out there.
Besties Necklace
$ 65.00
- Like two peas in a pod, this necklace may become your new bestie. Buy two and wear your bestie with your bestie! Each circle is free-moving between one another and the chain. This necklace is handmade by Baleen, a small jewelry studio in Seattle, WA. The entire pendant (both circles) measures approximately 1” wide from a 16” chain. All components are sterling silver.
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Baleen began in 2013 by Leah and Billy, a couple whose shared passion for well-designed, thoughtful and beautiful objects were propelled by their respective backgrounds in design and metalsmithing. The pair decided to start Baleen from the belief that handmade things don't always have to be expensive, and that good design is for everyone! They now design and create everything from their studio and storefront in Seattle, Washington.
Mountain Lion Unisex Long Sleeve
$ 34.00
- Mountain lions are solitary creatures, they find their own way in life. Inspired by this journey of self, this long sleeve shirt represents the solitary work we all must do to find strength, purpose, and inspiration. 100% Organic Cotton Long Sleeve Shirt. USA Made.
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Tender Loving Empire is a hybrid handmade marketplace and record label based in beautiful (and sometimes rainy) Portland, Oregon. We have years of experience designing and creating high-quality handmade items, including cards, prints, t-shirts, and more.
Music We Love
Pre-order 'Natural Beauty' by Mo Troper (releases 2/14)
$ 20.00
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Listen to the song "Jas From Australia"
In November 2018, Mo Troper announced on social media that he had written the theme song for the upcoming James Bond movie, Never Dream of Dying. The song—full of the sort of orchestral flourishes and soaring choruses that wouldn’t have sounded out of place two generations ago on A.M. radio—dropped on YouTube a few weeks later and was followed by a profile of Troper on the now-defunct “culture blog” ‘Reel News’ that sought to explain why in the world an artist like him would be tapped by the Bond franchise in 2019. Generous comparisons to Harry Nilsson and breathless quotes from *Hollywood producers* notwithstanding, Troper was certain that anybody who read the profile would instantly realize it was a joke, and that he was the author.
“So a week or two later,” he confesses to me now, “I found out that this guy whose band I was recording had told his dad about it. The dad had never really respected his decision to pursue music. But now it was like, Hey Dad, look at the kind of people I’m working with! And the dad—who I guess was a giant Bond fan—told his son for like the very first time that he was proud of him for being a musician.”
“Yikes,” I say. “I don’t even think that’s gonna be the actual title of the movie.” “I’m sure he’ll figure it out at some point,” Troper says, wincing at me over his cup of coffee. “I feel kind of bad about that.”
I first saw Troper perform when he was a brazen twenty-year-old college student fronting the power-pop band Your Rival. Upon hearing him climb into the upper reaches of his multi-octave range, my friend Lisa (who had been tight with the Exploding Hearts and has some expertise upon the subject) nudged me in the ribs. “This is punk as hell!” she said.
Now twenty-seven, Troper looks fatigued beyond his years and admits to a growing discomfort with his reputation in the Portland music community as being a bit of an enfant terrible. The fallout from the Bond stunt isn’t the first time he’s brought somebody grief with his music.
“I’ve considered removing some of those early recordings from the Internet,” he says, “stuff about my relationships that caused a lot of drama, or stuff that’s been critical about people in this town, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”
At least some of Troper’s fatigue must be due to having finally finished mastering his third solo album, Natural Beauty, a pristine collection of pop songs that represents a giant step forward from the hook-laden angst of his earlier recordings. “I’ve always wanted to make a record like this,” he says, “but the arrangements are much more intricate than anything I could have attempted a few years ago.”
It’s not the first time he’s used strings—they showed up on the anthemic millennial self-own “Your Brand” off 2017’s Exposure and Response (via Roger Joseph Manning Jr. of Jellyfish and Beck’s live band, one of Troper’s professed idols), a song that might have been huge in the ’90s, or in a parallel universe where petulant guitar music still charted—but with Troper’s caustic wit turning inward on Natural Beauty, the music in turn has become prettier, subtler, more timeless, and the strings no longer cry for attention. Natural Beauty was recorded in the uneasy yet fertile time after Troper returned to his hometown of Portland from two brief, failed experiments of living elsewhere: first in Los Angeles and then in New York. Album opener “I Eat” explores one of the less flattering corners of his life in LA: binge-eating.
“It’s a pretty funny song,” I tell him. “The melody is so gorgeous, but then you notice the lyrics—It’s the spice of life that I’m after / or at least something to die for—” “I don’t think it’s funny at all,” he says sharply.
Troper has generally embraced his reputation for being an “asshole.” Casey Jarman, co-founder of Party Damage Records, who released Your Rival’s debut album Here’s To Me back in 2013, even used that word to describe him in an early bio.
“Mo thinks his music should be huge,” Jarman confided in me last week, when I told him I’d agreed to write this bio, “but probably a little too often he’s let that ambition—and accompanying bitterness—seep into his lyrical subjects.”
That bitterness is not entirely unfounded—with his old bands Your Rival, TeenSpot, and Sancho, Troper was producing excellent emo-flecked “nineties-core” a good half-decade before the blogosphere caught on. And as a music columnist for the Portland Mercury and co-founder of Portland’s Good Cheer Records, Troper was, for a time, a tireless documentarian of his hometown’s “rock underground”—a scene whose vitality was eventually sapped by “wrongheaded, coke-addled moralizers” and “private school-educated opportunists.” (His take, not mine.)
Yet herein lies the enormous appeal of Natural Beauty: instead of the “snot-nosed pwnage” of his earlier music (so said Pitchfork in their 6.0 review of his debut solo album), this new record presents the salient details of Troper’s life without the juvenile editorializing that has, at times, kept listeners at arm’s length.
Album highlight “Jas From Australia” features a melody as buoyant and sweet as anything Ray Davies ever wrote, with a dash of Internet-age urgency mixed in. The song’s straightforward storytelling—Jas was Troper’s first love, they met online when they were teenagers, and never met in person—sets the listener up for this gut-punch two-thirds of the way through the song: “I said I was moving to Melbourne but I lied and now you know.”
It’s easy to take music this catchy for granted, and confuse beauty with superficiality, but these songs are remarkably durable. At a recent show at Portland club Rontoms, I found the choruses just as thrilling as on the record, and Troper’s range more audacious than ever. He seems, at long last, to feel at home in his hometown, and admits that he is more motivated by the idea of playing a festival like PDX Pop Now! than of getting another Pitchfork review.
“When I got back to Portland,” he says, “the joke was that I ‘faked my own death.’ Only a handful of people knew that I was here, and I was unemployed and living at my parents’ house. I would drive to Northwest and spend hours scoring the string and horn arrangements for these songs, and then I would put the arrangements on my phone and walk around the grounds of MLC—my old school—listening to them, making mental revisions. Although I didn’t realize it then, it was maybe the most inspired period of my life. And maybe the last time that things will come this quickly to me.”
–Michael Heald
TLE-087 (2020) - 1. I Eat
2. Your Boy
3. In Love With Everyone
4. Your New Friend
5. Everything
6. Jas From Australia
7.Almost Full Control
8. Potential
9. Come And Get Me
10. Lucky Devils
11. Business As Usual
12. Cameo
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Natural Beauty is the Tender Loving Empire debut for the Portland power-pop stalwart Mo Troper. No stranger to a catchy hook, Natural Beauty is loaded with infectious melodies and memorable choruses that are sure to get lodged in the deepest part of your short term memory. Natural Beauty is available everywhere 2/14/2020.
Dark Thoughts
$ 20.00
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Listen to the song "Gloria"
For The Shivas, the show has always been the thing. That thing being a bombastic, explosive and thoroughly communal live rock and roll experience where barriers between the performers and their audience seem to dissolve into the sweat and sound. It’s the stage—or the basement, or the living room—that’s the Portland band’s true element. It’s their raison d’etre. It’s their religion..
The album is a defining sonic achievement for the band, which began booking their own tours in high school. The group blasted their way through Portland’s storied and unsanctioned mid-aughts house show scene. Since then they have played over 1,000 shows spread over 25 countries, meeting new fans and friends from Belgrade to Mexico City. But The Shivas—guitarist/singer Jared Molyneux, bassist Eric Shanafelt and drummer/singer Kristin Leonard have all been with the band since its earliest days; guitarist Jeff Boyardee joined in 2017—still speak about their project with a DIY humility that sounds like their native Pacific Northwest. They talk up their own favorite bands, play all-ages shows whenever possible, and they bring a sort of blue-collar humanism to the live performances they relish so much. “We just want to make people feel good,” guitarist/ singer Jared Molyneux says. “We want them to forget they have to work tomorrow.”
Dark Thoughts is the sound of a tight-knit band whose members have learned not just how to trust each other, but how to grow together. “Being adults now,” Leonard says. “We’re starting to talk a lot more philosophically about why we do what we do. Some of my favorite music came from people needing to find a space. Music is just such a visceral place to find a release.”
That’s what The Shivas are here for: to help people get free, if even just for an hour.
If they drop a few great albums along the way, so be it.
TLE-086 (2019) - 1. Gloria
2. Turn Me On
3. Playing On The Radio
4. If You See Me
5. Start A Fire
6. IDC Lucky #13
7. Sometimes II
8. Can't Relax
9. I Want You
10. Feels Surreal
11. Over & Over
12. It's All In Your Head
13. Can You Feel It Too?
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The Shivas are a rock and roll band from Portland, Oregon formed in 2006. In the 10 years since forming they have brought their raucous dance party to almost all 50 states, and over 25 countries worldwide, meanwhile releasing five full-length albums and three EP. The bands fifth studio album is due out fall of 2019.
Entre Los Dos
$ 16.00
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Listen to the song "Rios Sueltos"
How far does our sentimental strength go? When do we turn to the other without any resistance? What is the breaking point? By showing emotional connections we become vulnerable. Existing together, we can not conceive without the other. "I am another you" is a Mayan thought that blurs the limits of personal bonds, extending individuality to any being that we choose to look in the eyes, allowing us to find something shared in each others stare.
Entre Los Dos is the follow up to critically acclaimed Mujeres (NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard), Y La Bamba's most recently released full length album (February 2019). This EP comes as a collection of portraits, affinities, and new visions birthed during Mendoza's frequent stays in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. These are songs and powerful prayers, created with their purpose being to protect the land and its people, recognize the ancestry that burns in our hearts, and treasure wisdom weaving healthy bonds that reflect self-love with dignity.
Through the veins of front person Luz Elena Mendoza, runs Purepecha blood. Adapting to new environments over and over again, she has become someone who constantly questions and empowers through music: her great teacher and tireless companion.
The creative flow of Entre Los Dos moves without stopping, without resisting its own form. It adapts, migrates, and fuses with its environment and receptors. The adrenaline of a new beginning moves us, but also leaves a fragile space where the fear of being cornered and devoured may exist. When you float in foreign waters, you can not do more than surrender to doubt and become one with the death. The world is dangerous, and even more so when it comes to surrendering blindly to love.
TLE-085 (2019) - 1. Gabriel
2. Entre Los Dos
3. Rios Sueltos
4. Octavio
5. Soñadora
6. Las Platicas
7. Los Gritos
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Entre Los Dos is the follow up to critically acclaimed Mujeres (NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard), Y La Bamba's most recently released full length album (February 2019). This EP comes as a collection of portraits, affinities, and new visions birthed during Mendoza's frequent stays in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. These are songs and powerful prayers, created with their purpose being to protect the land and its people, recognize the ancestry that burns in our hearts, and treasure wisdom weaving healthy bonds that reflect self-love with dignity.
Friends and Friends of Friends Vol 12
$ 15.00
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Friends & Friends of Friends is an annual 2-disc compilation of music curated by Tender Loving Empire. We collect submissions from our friends and (as the compilation title might suggest) from their friends. We request specific songs that we love and include our favorite jams from bands on our own record label. This year it's time for number 12, and we've put together 40 songs that reflect the best of what we're into now.
TLE-084 (2019) -
DISC 1
1. Vita and the Woolf - Sun Drop
2. Bells Atlas - First Gen Pisces
3. Ural thomas & the Pain - Smoldering Fire
4. Arthur & The Antics - Jennifer Said
5. The California Honeydrops - Live Learn
6. Aftercare - Still Love
7. Slow Corpse - Lonely 3000
8. Blossom -Moi å Moi
9. Ripley Snell - Manifinessea (ft. Old Grape God)
10. SISTERS - Y Do U Take So Long ft. Sol (Budo Remix)
11. Brijean - Show And Tell
12. PALMCO - Don't Let Me Down
13. Small Skies - Faces
14. Pure Bathing Culture - Moonrise
15. New Body Electric - Peaceful War
16. Human Ottoman - Maraca Who
17. Martha Stax - Rock and Roll
18. Jeff Bond - We Are Getting Closer
19. Little Wins - Let Me Into Your Heart
DISC 2
1. Y La Bamba - Boca Llena
2. Neptuna - Las Margaritas
3. The Shivas - Turn Me On
4. Elly Swope - Habits
5. Balto - Black Snake, Mojave Blues
6. The Rare Forms - Under The sheets
7. Help - Skeletons
8. Mega Pacific - Weed Police
9. Laundry - Junkyard Robot
10. Patrician - Your Friend
11. Sama Dams - Mounted On The Wall
12. Rum River Cult - Strangers Now
13. Melt - Snow
14. Shadowgraphs - Sun Is Rising
15. Mo Troper - Never Dream Of Dying
16. Perhapsy - 34th & West
17. Souvenir Driver - Admire
18. The Jerry Cans - Makiliqta
19. John Craigie - Virgin Guitar
20. Kelly McFarling - Pacific
21. Perlo - Masters -
The players: Vita and the Woolf, Bells Atlas, Ural thomas & The Pain, Arthur & The Antics, The California Honeydrops, Aftercare, Slow Corpse, Blossom, Ripley Snell, SISTERS, Brijean, PALMCO, Small Skies, Pure Bathing Culture, New Body Electric, Human Ottoman, Martha Stax, Jeff Bond, Little Wins, Y La Bamba, Neptuna, The Shivas, Elly Swope, Balto, The Rare Forms, Help, Mega Pacific, Laundry, Patrician, Sama Dams, Rum River Cult, Melt, Shadowgraphs, Mo Troper, Perhapsy, Souvenir Driver, The Jerry Cans, John Craigie, Kelly McFarling, Perlo
We Can Get Together
$ 4.99
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Listen to the song "Y Do U Take So Long feat. Sol (Budo Remix)"
SISTERS continues their world takeover dance revolution with their second album, Wait Don't Wait. Building on their reputation for creating instantly crowd-pleasing dance anthems, Wait Don't Wait is replete with catchy, quirky corkers overflowing with joy. Emily Westman's bouncing beats make it impossible to remain seated—even while writing this!—while Andrew Vait's soaring vocals and keys create an ethereal, optimistic announcement that good times are ours for the taking, even in these unstable times.
All LP and CD purchases include the full digital file for immediate download on release day.
TLE-078 (2019) - 1. We Can Get Together feat. Tilson XOXO
2. Queer Life
3. Y Do U Take so Long feat. Sol (Budo Remix)
4. Sleepy Eyes (The Seshen Remix)
5. Heart Beats (Remix) -
Sisters is Emily Westman and Andrew Vait. They play music, dance, and spread joy from their secret headquarters in Seattle, WA.
Paradise Hotel
$ 20.00
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Listen to the song "The Situation"
Paradise Hotel was borne out of years of collaboration in the Portland music community. The thirteen-track vinyl compilation was produced by Jesse Bettis of New Move Studios, in tandem with each featured songwriter, and is built on the sense of discovery between Bettis and each artist. “The reason collaboration is so powerful is the vision that every person brings to the table—and the result is much greater than the means,” says Bettis.
Thematically, each artist comes from their own place of struggle; the songs range from feminist anthem (Y La Bamba) to melancholic ballad (Aan). The sonically eclectic and exciting collection melds under shared production values and instrumentation, like the synthesizer, for a common aesthetic. Paradise Hotel’s distinct sound palette is a groovy, upbeat vibe, a la vintage 70s vinyl.
The seeds for writing and producing Paradise Hotel were planted over two years ago, when Bettis heard a demo of Boone Howard’s “Limit Of Love,” and was inspired to record it. More recently Cameron Spies (Radiation City, Night Heron, Gold Brick Studios) and Bettis became neighbors and joined forces on two songs, “The Situation” and “Astronaut Lover.” Bettis says, “New Move Studios was formed for the Portland music community. It’s a space dedicated to supporting creativity and releasing music and videos regularly.”
With Portland undergoing increasingly more change every day, it’s important to carve out a place where ingenuity and collaboration happen. The neon sign atop a decaying building on Paradise Hotel’s cover is reminiscent of Portland’s past, while looking ahead to a hopeful future. “The picture of decaying leisure class culture is also a new beginning,” Bettis says.
Paradise Hotel is a pillar of the Portland music community and its amazing creativity, and it represents just the beginning of a new, exciting body of work to come out of New Move Studios. Bettis says, “Everybody needs a community, and the more you can connect with the people around you, the better off everyone is.” .
TLE-083 (2019) - 1. Dan Dan - Circuit
2. Michael Finn - Good Heart & Full Support
3. Y La Bamba - Something Wild
4. New Move (feat. Night Heron) - The Situation
5. Tribe Mars - Ya Yea Yeah
6. Minden - Turned
7. Melt - Saltwater Taffy
8. Night Heron (feat. New Move) Astronaut Lover
9. PG-13 - Happy Birthday Trevor
10. Laura Palmers Death Parade - Heartbeats Dancing
11. Mat & Ritchie - Get It On
12. Boone Howard - Limit Of Love
13. Aan - Fell Into A Hole -
Paradise Hotel is a pillar of the Portland music community and its amazing creativity, and it represents just the beginning of a new, exciting body of work to come out of New Move Studios. Bettis says, “Everybody needs a community, and the more you can connect with the people around you, the better off everyone is.” .
the mystic
$ 20.00
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Listen to the song "Belly"
Bells Atlas’ latest offering the mystic digs further into their soulful buoyancy to explore both sound and storytelling. Sandra Lawson-Ndu, Douglas Stuart, Geneva Harrison, and Derek Barber stumbled upon a new, more production-oriented process for songwriting-- which included sampling grainy phone recordings-- that elevates Bells Atlas’ already unique approach to psychedelic R&B. The spontaneity of the mystic’s creative process results in a raw, cosmic sound that is mirrored in its lyrics. The record can be seen as sci-fi fantasy of two first-generation Nigerian American women coming to terms with a mental health diagnosis, and at the same time, a very universal exploration of how we make sense of reality. “It’s about a truth seer and a skeptic trying to make sense of what’s mystical and what’s clinical,” frontwoman Sandra Lawson-Ndu says. The listener is made to consider the possibility of magic. Is it possible, for instance, that someone who navigates the world differently may have a deeper understanding of the universe? The mystic is a spectrum of deep emotionality, impulse, and even humour; a tool to explore the full dimension of our reality.
TLE-082 (2019) - 1. Hazelwood
2. Rogue Dream
3. The Khamsa
4. We've Been Here Before
5. Belly
6. Downpour
7. The Mystic
8. First Gen Pisces
9. Na Change / See Clear
10. Final Ceiling -
Bells Atlas’ latest offering the mystic digs further into their soulful buoyancy to explore both sound and storytelling. Sandra Lawson-Ndu, Douglas Stuart, Geneva Harrison, and Derek Barber stumbled upon a new, more production-oriented process for songwriting-- which included sampling grainy phone recordings-- that elevates Bells Atlas’ already unique approach to psychedelic R&B. The spontaneity of the mystic’s creative process results in a raw, cosmic sound that is mirrored in its lyrics. The record can be seen as sci-fi fantasy of two first-generation Nigerian American women coming to terms with a mental health diagnosis, and at the same time, a very universal exploration of how we make sense of reality. “It’s about a truth seer and a skeptic trying to make sense of what’s mystical and what’s clinical,” frontwoman Sandra Lawson-Ndu says. The listener is made to consider the possibility of magic. Is it possible, for instance, that someone who navigates the world differently may have a deeper understanding of the universe? The mystic is a spectrum of deep emotionality, impulse, and even humour; a tool to explore the full dimension of our reality.
The Right Time
$ 14.00
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Listen to the song "Vibrations"
It’s one thing to make a 60’s throwback record. It’s another thing to have been there in real-time singing backup alongside legends Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding and James Brown, to name a few. In the case of 78 year old Ural Thomas, it’s never too late to find The Right Time.
TLE-077 (2018) - 1. Slow Down
2. No Distance (Between You & Me)
3. Vibrations
4. You Care Very Little
5. Smoldering Fire
6. The Right Time
7. Gotta Say (I Love You
8. Time
9. Show Ya
10. Eenie Meenie
11. Smile -
If life was at all fair Ural Thomas would be a household name, his music slotted into countless sweet, seductive mixtapes between James Brown, Otis Redding, and Stevie Wonder (all of whom Thomas has performed with.) Straddling the line between hot soul shouter and velvety-smooth crooner, Thomas released a few singles in the late 60’s and early 70’s; most notably “Can You Dig It”, which featured backing vocals from soul luminaries Merry Clayton, Mary Wells and Brenda Holloway. Thomas played over forty shows at the legendary Apollo Theater before turning his back on an unkind business and heading home to Portland, OR. It goes without saying that a man practically built out of rhythm would never stop playing music. Thomas began hosting a regular Sunday night jam session at his home that ran for nearly twenty years. A de facto mentor to many of the younger players, Thomas reminds us all that “If you care about what you’re doing, you need to build those muscles and do the work. Don’t get discouraged, do it for love. Even if you’re digging ditches, do it with passion.” In 2014, local soul DJ Scott Magee sat in on drums. The two became fast friends and at Magee’s urging Thomas decided to give his musical career another shot. Magee became the musical director, they put together a band, and in 2016 released a self-titled album on Mississippi Records. In 2017 Thomas signed with Tender Loving Empire and began work on what, in many respects, will be his debut full length. Diving deep into lifetime of melodic creativity, Thomas and his band got to work. Recorded in Magee’s studio Arthur’s Attic, The Right Time features the air-tight work of Magee on drums, percussion, and backing vocals, Bruce Withycombe (The Decemberists) on baritone sax, Portland jazz scene fixture Brent Martens on guitars and vibraphone, Arcellus Sykes on bass, Steve Aman (Lady Rizo) on piano and organ, Dave Monnie on trumpet, Willie Matheis (Cherry Poppin’ Daddies) on tenor sax, and Jasine Rimmel, Joy Pearson, Sarah King, Rebecca Marie Miller on backing vocals. The Arco Quartet performed the strings, and the record was engineered and mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Blitzen Trapper) and mastered by JJ Golden (Sharon Jones, Ty Segall). One might think after a sizeable taste of early success Thomas would be more than a touch bitter – yet the opposite is true. “We have to be positive if we want the world to get better” Thomas advises. “We’ve come a long way, but if you carry a grudge with the whole world you’ll stop your growth. We’re a family, all just brothers and sisters, descendants of Adam. You can’t get anywhere without an open heart.” A developing artist at nearly eighty years old, for Thomas music has always been about bringing people together. “If we play for twenty people we cook it like it’s twenty thousand” says Thomas. “If we make someone smile we’re satisfied. They’re ain’t no difference between us. It’s all love and brotherhood. If folks listen to my record and feel that I’ll feel very blessed.” Standing in bold defiance of the idea that aging is a reason to slow down and stop living, for Thomas the right time to get down is the next time someone plugs in a guitar or puts on a record. Ural is ready – are you?
Happening Now
