N x NE

Jose Ayerve and the Coaxial Festival

by Tanya Whiton

The First Annual Coaxial Music Festival runs
August 24 through 27 at the Skinny, (207) 871-8983.

Jose Ayerve, musician, producer, and all-around fixture in Portland's little-pop-scene-that-could, picked up and left our fair city last June, looking to satiate his indie-pop cravings in historic Northampton, Massachusetts, the birthplace of indie icons the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., and Sebadoh, and current home to Sonic Youth. The chance to run into Kim Gordon at the grocery store aside, the bilingual Ayerve also wanted to be closer to the rest of his band, Spouse, and to find work as a translator.

But he's hooked on Portland, too. Since his move, he's filled in with local pop outfit Tin Tin's Rocket, and he continues to lend guitar and backing vocals to the straight-up rock of Bully Pulpit. Ayerve also produced Tin Tin's self-titled first release, and is currently producing Bully Pulpit's debut effort, as well as fellow Spouseketeer Michael Merenda's new album. And this weekend he's paying what he hopes will be a regular visit to his old stomping grounds, with upwards of 15 Northampton bands in tow, for the First Annual Coaxial Festival at the Skinny, with some of Portland's finest adding up to about 28 bands in all.

Explaining his partial exodus, Ayerve says, "The history of music is different in Northampton. It's embedded in the '80s. And there are a lot of bands from that area that have been better received on a wider scale." Ultimately, Ayerve felt there weren't enough bands around town mining the spangly, smart-pop vein to complement Spouse's "drenched in mid-to-late '80s Replacements-and-Pixies era" sound.

It's true, Ayerve does sound a lot like Paul Westerberg, but with a twist. Spouse's fresh-off-the-press first album, Nozomi, sports the moody, quirky vocals and guitar-centric pop rhythms of his heroes. But the multi-talented, multi-cultural background of Ayerve and the other members of Spouse -- Dan Pollard, Michael Merenda Jr., Naomi Harnby, and Liz Bustamente -- lend a non-Western texture to the album that makes it unique.

"Pop," says Ayerve. "I love the word pop -- contagious, catchy. I studied a little bit of classical music and I couldn't understand how there was such a set structure. It was the antithesis of what I wanted to hear."

But isn't pop the most formulaic of musical genres next to, say, New Country?

Yes and no, but definitely not the way Spouse play it. The line of separation between radio-ready pop -- exemplified these days by the boy-band invasion -- and the indie-variety, though harder and harder to separate, is still intact in Northampton. "The whole reasoning behind Spouse is to create varied songs," Ayerve explains. The catchiest numbers off Nozomi -- "Androgynous," "Telephrenic," and Michael Merenda's disaffected musing, "Drag Queen" -- are the kinds of hook-laden constructions that draw listeners in for Spouse's more esoteric, experimental, and slow-moving songs.

"Still, we keep it under three minutes," says Ayerve. "You know, people have things to do."

Even the enigmatically simple Spouse song "Ni Una Sola Vez," is able to grab the listener with a hook. As Bully Pulpit's Doug Cowan puts it, "I'm not sure what it is, but it's got one." His admiration for Ayerve's aesthetic is evident. "José joined [Bully Pulpit] as second guitar player, keyboard player, noise-maker. Whatever he wants to do. I trust him."

Ayerve is asking Portlanders to trust his aesthetic as well with the ambitious Coaxial Festival. The rock extravaganza, hosted and co-coordinated with Johnny Lomba at the Skinny, begins Thursday evening with newcomers Ultimate Fake Book, Hot Rod Circuit, and Extendo-Ride All Stars -- a Ween-esque gang of youngsters with a reputation for great live shows. Later on that night, the spoken-word/music ensemble Chiaso will perform with psychedelic popsters Aloha Steamtrain.

Friday night will include locals Tin Tin's Rocket followed by Claudia Malibu, and Kahoots.

Saturday's installment begins at noon with sets from a variety of pop/rock stylists: Ostrich Farm, Satellite Lot, the Figments, and others. And Saturday night, Spouse play with Peepshow, Bully Pulpit, and a countrified, eclectic outfit calling themselves the Drunk Stuntmen.

Finally, on Sunday, hardcore-demon-turned-angst-filled-crooner Mark Schwaber will perform with his band Hospital! sporting a melodic combination of cello, guitar, bass, and drums, followed by D'mericans, String-builders, and rustic, twangy local act Sleepy Bo'weevil.

"I think Portland could gain from an influx of Northampton bands, and vice versa. Mix it up," he says. He and Lomba intend for the First Annual Coaxial Festival to lead, obviously, to the Second Annual Coaxial Festival, and Ayerve, hankering for a regular dose, plans on hosting a similar event in Northampton in the spring featuring a clutch of Portland acts.

Ayerve and Lomba have a simple philosophy for the First Annual Coaxial Festival: the more music, the better. As Lomba says, while juggling phone calls and riffling through press releases in the Skinny's chaotic upstairs office; "The ultimate goal is to work towards something that's just a real big damn deal."

Tanya Whiton can be reached at twhiton@ime.net.