About Growing Pains
Growing Pains is Kalia Storer (bass/vocals), Carl Taylor (guitar), Jack Havrilla (guitar/vocals) and Kyle Kraft (drums). The members met each other playing covers at the School of Rock in Portland, Oregon when they were 16 and 17; six months later, they were trying out their own material at Portland all-ages mecca Black Water and in basements around the city, quickly turning heads at early shows that, according to more than a few of those in attendance, sounded like “if Mazzy Star were an emo band.” Lesser bands might have been content to stop there, but not Growing Pains. Six years of house shows and opening slots for buzzing national acts like Beabadoobee, Franz Ferdinand, and Ekkstacy helped the young act sharpen a sound that could only have emerged from the post-mordial soup of internet-era rock. Sure—listen for the past, and you’ll hear the orchestrated chaos of My Bloody Valentine; the instrumental pyrotechnics and compositional sleights-of-hand that unite Smashing Pumpkins with the mathier end of emo; the patient hookiness common to 80s and 90s dream pop acts and their slowcore contemporaries. But their latest EP ‘Thought I Heard Your Car’ is no jaded nostalgia revue. It’s an undeniably contemporary record made by people who listen too widely to suffer from the anxiety of specific influences.
About Mauve
“If you were to look at a map, Portland, Oregon, looks pretty far away from the Midwest, but you wouldn’t know that listening to Mauve. Portland’s resident fifth-wave emo rockers formed during the pandemic and emerged from the other side with a rock-solid collection of songs in the vein of bands like Riley, Origami Angel, and Remo Drive. Making a name for themselves playing across the Pacific Northwest in backyards, basements, and bars that the members aren’t even old enough to drink in, Mauve quickly established themselves as part of a new class of bands emerging from Portland’s bustling post-pandemic music scene. Throughout their debut album, you’ll hear jittery guitar taps and sticky vocal hooks perched atop an impressively energetic rhythm section. Saccharine croons, cathartic group chants, and the occasional growl articulate late-teenage turmoil, transporting the listener to an alternate reality where Pacific Northwest Emo became a legitimate scene rivaling the Midwest. With any luck, there’s still time for that to happen, and when it does, Mauve will be at the forefront.” – Taylor Grimes Swim Into The Sound
About Rhododendron
Formed in early 2019 in Portland, Oregon, Rhododendron have spent the last 4+ years honing in on a sound that is both a reflection of the wide array of music they love while also being entirely their own. Their music is dense, technical and dynamic, relying on Gage Walker’s dissonant basslines, Ezra Chong’s noisy, effects-laden guitar and occasional shrieks and Noah Mortola’s relentless, jazz-influenced drumming to get their point across. Due to the encapsulating nature of their music and their intense live shows, they have built a substantial following in their local music scene and beyond. They have two releases under their belt and will be releasing their second full-length in 2024.
