Tender Loving Empire

Portland is a freakin' goldmine, the place is teeming with great music... I have though become sadly complacent the last few months, accustomed to a plethora of shows to pick and choose from each weekend - the enthusiasm I had in my first few months for seeing live music faded with the winter. Portlander's love music but there is sooo much of it. It's hard to rally a group of friends every weekend when there's a lot going on - I began to long for my days in Wellington... when a good show came to town the excitement was palpable and you were sure that everyone you knew would be there.

Well, warm weather is upon me and I'm looking for some new bands to fall in love with. I've been scrounging about myspace for new tunes which is my usual method, and perusing show listings... and then I stumbled upon an old friend -

Tender Loving Empire is a Portland based independent record label/store/gallery/art collective.


or in their own words:

"We represent driven, high caliber and culturally conscious authors, musicians, fine artists and designers who work to consistently expand the barriers of their chosen forum but have not necessarily gained a great amount of public exposure. Our goal is to give these artists the attention and exposure their art deserves.

Our customers are those who have burned out on the products of mass culture and desire a more intimate and unique experience with the music, literature, fine art and fashion which they purchase and subsequently interact with on a daily basis.

We believe that participating in the creative process and witnessing others do the same makes our world a nicer place. "

Boy Eats Drum Machine and Super XX Man are playing this weekend at Backspace and RonToms respectively (check out their myspace for show times)

All you Wellingtonians, check out their myspace and website for some great bands and great art.