The Bollard Bulletin: September 23, 2024
Local Music Monday: The irresistably uncool charms of Suns So Far...
LOCAL MUSIC MONDAY
Really now, what is the appeal of blatantly uncommercial outsider music beyond the cool points one accrues when counted among the cognoscenti who, for example, can correctly use Jandek in a sentence (it’s a project, not a person — jeesh)? Well — lucky you! — you’re about to find out…
Suns So Far… is the sonic project of Portlander Jason Lambert, a white music nerd about my age (he was sporting the same GBV t-shirt I have at Dan Knudsen’s recent birthday party) who, verily, has no business trying to pull off smooth R&B vocals. Yet he does — try, that is, and earnestly so — on “Fly Girl,” the opening track on Pastels, which dropped about three weeks ago on the streams and at local shops Strange Maine and Bull Moose.
A healthy portion of America would suspect this stuff in an SNL spoof. The other portion (all 50 of us) are in the booths at DTL telling each other how much they love this record, and sure enough, I’m telling you now: I freakin’ love this freakin’ record!
Go ahead — I dare you! — try to resist the many charms of a Suns song like “So Sad.” Corny? Fine, sure. Catchy? AF! But that breakdown toward the end… Exactly what makes this album pure gold.
As on the 2019 Suns release Avant Pop, Lambert collaborates here with Portsmouth musician and producer Marc McElroy, who adds guitar, some bass and more synth to the Korg lines Lambert concocted. They’re joined by Boston-based bassist Dylan Sullivan and singer Ruth George again, plus the lovely named Nova Mullineaux contributing backing vocals.
Other irresistible tracks on Pastels include the ’80s funk sneaker “Aftertouch,” “Update” (which sounds like the club mix of a song from Lean Meats’ synth-punk Crusades of the Web EP), “Vaporwave” (Ibid.) and “Synth Streets,” which, in all seriousness, sounds cooler to me than all the crap rock gods like Clapton, Collins and Winwood were squeezing out during the regrettable Reagan Era. For what that’s worth.
Welcome to the Suns So Far… cognoscenti, kid! And careful with that DTL Scorpion Bowl — as The Wizard warns, it’ll sting ya…
MUSIC
Congress Square Park
Hip Hop in the Park
6 p.m., free (all ages)
Flask Lounge
“Monday of the Minds” CommUNITY Hip Hop Showcase
8 p.m., no cover (21+)
Geno’s
Cancerslug, SS&TTB, Street Trash (metal)
8 p.m., $15-$20 (21+)
Hi-Fidelity
Open mic feat. Vanessa Jones
8:20 p.m., no cover (21+)
Merrill Auditorium
The Portland Symphony Orchestra presents a Community Sing-A-Long
6 p.m., free
The Porthole
Henry Lowery
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Portland House of Music
Talisk (folk)
8 p.m., $25 (21+)
Portland Lobster Co.
Josh Robbins Trio
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Three Dollar Deweys
Justin Carver
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
club guide (cool font edition)
