__Thu Jun 28th__ Sam Adams, James & The Drifters, The Illegitimate Sons

Thursday June 28th, 2012
Sam Adams
James & The Drifters
The Illegitimate Sons
10PM

About Sam Adams
Sam Adams has worked as a singular recording artist since he was in his early teens, building a sound that straddles the weary lo-fi beauty of the Microphones and the textured clarity of Radiohead and Brian Wilson. He writes songs that are all at once uncompromising in purpose yet celebrate the colorful space between absolutes – evoking the view of a mystic in an unfair but beautiful world. With a voice often compared to Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley, Sam and his band create a distinct live chemistry, injecting his sharp melodic songwriting with strains of noise and the avant-garde.

Made up mostly of former Midwesterners, Sam and his collaborators reside in Portland, OR where they are promoting 2011’s Draw This Bitter Blood ep. They are also currently planning a tour across the Plains in the Summer of 2012.

“It might have caused some mix-ups in recent years (City Club members showing up at night clubs, etc.) but really, local singer- songwriter Sam Adams sharing a name with Portland’s mayor can only help him stand out from the pack. Not that Adams needs the name to distinguish himself; his ambitious avant-rock does that perfectly well. On this summer’s Draw This Bitter Blood EP, Sam uses an expansive instrumental palette and digital textures to raise what might have been standard-issue boy-meets-guitar songs to inspired, even experimental, compositions. And if the arrangements don’t set him apart, Adams’ dynamic, haunting voice (think Radiohead’s Thom Yorke) certainly will.”

– Jonathan Frochtzwajg, Willamette Week