Instead of cohorting with the rest of the Stranger's drug-addled music staff at Sasquatch!, I decided on a long overdue trip south to our lovely (and way more fun) neighbor city Portland. And there I stumbled upon my new favorite Portland band—that is as long as the Hunches are no longer with us.

Anyway, dig Breakfast Mountain, who played second, just before Double Plus Good at Rontoms, which by the way is also great—expansive, with a giant back patio, spacious, retro-ish interior, and cheap drinks. (On a side note, why does Portland have so many more good bars than Seattle? They're fucking everywhere.)

Breakfast Mountain was comprised of two wildly energetic emcees, a squad of preprogrammed samples and effects, keyboard, what I assume was an MPC and a bunch of other shit, all manned by another dude, and finally, at least on this night, a hired gun on live drums.
Live, I felt like Breakfast Mountain are something like Portland's version of Champagne Champagne, but that's not quite telling the whole story. The tracks on Breakfast Mountain's demo, which you can download for free from their aforelinked site, feature all manner of swirling samples, big, meaty synthesizer chords, party-rap beats, and almost no vocals (See "Log Jamm" among others). It's happy stuff, and I can't wait to hear the album, but it's quite different than I remember seeing them Sunday night. This probably owes to the live drummer and the seriously amped-up crowd. (Dear party-rock outfits: stick with the live drummers.) Either way, my advice to you the reader is to see Breakfast Mountain, because they bring it live. Sometimes I feel like Portland, too, just brings it better live.

Here's really the most representative video I could find of Breakfast Mountain, and it's short, but hints at what I saw Sunday night.

Also, confidential to Breakfast Mountain: Please come play Seattle.

Pictures by me and/or Amy Dials.