Gritty Birds and Revolver Studios present:
Gritty Birds 2 year Dance Party!
SECRET FORMER GUEST HEADLINER
Hosted by Comedy Lady Kellie Irwin
Sponsored by XRAY.FM, Revolver Studios and Vortex Music Mag
XRAY.FM Radio show and podcast Gritty Birds is celebrating it’s second anniversary Friday May 12th at Kelly’s Olympian with a diverse line-up of women artists including recent WW Best New Band honoree Coco Columbia, upcoming Vortex Artist to Watch Skull Diver, comedienne Kelly Irwin and a secret headlining performance from one of the show’s former guests. The performances will be recorded and released with studio interviews in late spring/early summer. The dance party is sponsored in partnership with XRAY.FM, Vortex Music Magazine and Kelly’s Olympian.
Skull Diver is a plush pink nightmare of sultry vocals, heavy lyrics, reminiscent synths and dark dreamy guitars. Fronted by sisters Mandy and Ally, the trio derives inspiration from grindhouse film, classic Americana and 70’s cult-culture. A captivating mix between doom metal and psych-pop, their upcoming full length Chemical Tomb is out later this year.
https://www.skulldivermusic.com
Music school drop-out Coco Columbia burst into the Portland music scene in 2014 with her debut, Kickstarter-funded album, “The Weight.” Columbia set aside her passion for jazz drumming to teach herself how to write songs, record, make beats and play piano. Having never performed live, she put together a group of young Portland jazz musicians to learn her material. Columbia released her sophomore record, “When the Birds Begin to Walk” last August to critical acclaim in the Portland Music scene. Her music fuses infectious indie-pop melodies, off-kilter rhythmic feels, dreamy-eyed electro-soul soundscapes, and jazz harmony to create her own brand of bumpin’ future-pop.
http://www.cococolumbia.com/
Kellie Irwin is a comedian, writer and host. She has just made her way back to Portland, after spending 10 years in Wyoming, where she studied the effects of stupidity and alcohol on mend and women, in a small town habitat. Her research as a comedian, scientist has proven to be fascinating an draw. Kellie’s biggest accomplishment to date, would be her undying ability to take life’s worst situations and make them unforgetabbly laughable.
In April 2014, soul/rnb songwriter and vocalist Jeni Wren had a panic attack on stage headlining a Soul’d Out Music festival date at Doug Fir Lounge.
Conflicted between the love of songwriting, producing records and managing a 7 piece band, Wren had questions about what it took to be successful and creative with the increased pressures of today’s music industry.
Shifting from music production to audio production, Wren interviewed friends from around Portland includingJared Mees(Tender Loving Empire), Alicia Rose(Benefits ofGusbandry), Fahiym B. Acuay(We Out Here Magazine), and Jeremy Wilson(Dharma Bums) to find the answer, releasing the first season May 11 of 2015.
The original summer season, running 11 episodes, planted a seed that germinated a year later. After losing her job as an elementary school teacher as her anxiety continued to grow, Wren found her feet again with Gritty Birds, reimagining the podcast for radio inpartnership with XRAY.FM. The second “season” debuted April 12, 2016.
In a year that included a RACC funded trip to Podcast Movement and facing for the first time, publicly, her experience with sexual assault, Wren interviewed over 50 artists(Ken Stringfellow, David Bazan, Thao Nguyen, Reva DeVito, Logan Lynn) in several states and at multiple music festivals(Treefort, Pickathon), expanding and refining the series to an NPR-style narrative form.
Moving into the 3rd season, Wren is taking a strong stance as a mental health advocate for working artists and producers. The 3rd season will be exploring the narrative format in a deeper way, featuring multiple stories and narratives in episodes, moving to a bi-monthly release schedule and expanding her conversations up and down the West Coast.
Gritty Birds Media will continue to grow this with an upcoming Kickstarter and increased focus on the show’sblog, YouTube channel and Anchor.FM show.
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