Since moving to Portland from the upper peninsula of Michigan, Chris Hoganson has performed in a number of bands in venues all throughout the city. As the years have passed, his projects have grown more distinctive. Recently, he has self-released an album with his latest project, the Don Hellions, entitled In Yer Underwear. The album is as invigorating a slice of lo-fi pop rock as Portland has seen in a good while, made all the more interesting by a refreshingly original lineup.
Of lovely young Hellions
Since moving to Portland from the upper peninsula of Michigan, Chris Hoganson has performed in a number of bands in venues all throughout the city.
As the years have passed, his projects have grown more distinctive. Recently, he has self-released an album with his latest project, the Don Hellions, entitled In Yer Underwear. The album is as invigorating a slice of lo-fi pop rock as Portland has seen in a good while, made all the more interesting by a refreshingly original lineup.
Live shows feature Hoganson on vocals and keys, as well as Thomas Maximus on saxophone and Vinh Nguyen on drums. On the record one can hear occasional guitar riffage, but its absence is hardly noticed live.
While many bands from this city and beyond make use of unconventional instrumentation as a novel attempt at originality, their lack of production and arrangement often backfires. Fortunately for the Hellions, Hoganson is also the resident sound engineer at Flaming Deathtrap Studios, whose experience there recording and mixing the albums of several eclectic local bands has more than prepared him for this challenge. His approach is decidedly effective in conveying a full spectrum of sound while tweaking and toying with the various genres evoked by Maximus’ sax.
Maximus is one of the most compelling sax players this city has seen since Menomena broke out the bari a few years back. On “More Than Yer Used To” he plays a main riff that drunkenly stumbles between surf rock and carnival music while Chris pounds out haunted house organ chords. Much credit is due to drummer Vinh whose steady percussion effortlessly maintains the momentum of the track, which sounds as though the band attempted to play the song any longer they would implode. Elsewhere he nimbly sees his way through the ADD tempo shifting of “My Ship Was Sunk,” while sax, keys and vocals bounce back and forth in unison around the beat.
Most of the tracks hover around the two-minute mark. Near the end of the album a track called “Plates” hardly makes it this far, but somehow manages to sound like the Hellions took Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” ran it through a couple distortion pedals and then edited it down into a one-minute-long post punk anthem. The spazzed out keyboard solo that comprises of the song’s coda makes for one of the better noise solos this city has recently heard.
Ultimately the Don Hellions are what happens when garage band kids pay a little more attention to the sheer variety of sounds they are capable of producing, while at the same time defiantly sacrificing none of the ramshackle charm or bouts of gleeful noise that define the genre. Fans of late ’90s Modest Mouse and Fugazi would do well to catch them at The Know on Alberta on Nov. 17, with Here Comes a Big Black Cloud.
Don Hellionsw/ Here Comes a Big Black ClowdNov. 17The Know8 p.m.21-plus
