Honorable Mention: Pitchfork Motorway

Pitchfork Motorway is built for power and speed. Mixing high octane guitars with an oil smoothed low end that punches like pistons firing overtime; this band has been fighting the good fight in the bars and clubs of rain drenched Portland Oregon since 2008.
With an apparent need for speed, musically the boys of Pitchfork Motorway put the foot to the floor and don't let up. Raw and aggressive front man Barry Williams dose more with three chords than Einstein could have imagined in all of his quantum thinking. Backed by the thick bluesy smut of Shiggy on lead guitar, who can peal iron from ore with his vicious licks. While the on the rhythm end, keeping the mad timing of the band is Doug Layton's drum attack that's worthy of state ordered anger management and the rambunctious bass fills and on stage antics of Swede reveals him as the obvious love child of Paul Simonon and a kangaroo. This foursome is a wildly fun band whether live or recorded. Their 2010 debut self-titled album is a hyper-speed collection of great tunes that captures the bands fun loving punk energy.
If you don't know about them yet make sure you take the chance to, as this band is well worth mention.

Here's a little of what they have to say about it:

BLS: Putting asidemoney and notoriety, what is it that you'd like to accomplish with this band? What makes you continue to do it day after day?

PM: I feel we have already accomplished what we set out to do. Initially all we wanted to do was to be part of the Portland R'n'R community and now I feel that we are. In the future we would like to grow our audience as well as our presence in the press. We also want to continue to release our music ourselves; desiring to release 1 album a year starting with last years self-titled CD.
As far as why we continue? We are four guys that never grew up and are still chasing a dream. Also it is a wonderful excuse to hang out with your buddies and drink beer. The only time we ever question continuing what we're doing, is in the morning when we have to crawl out of bed and go to work after a late night.

BLS: In your own words how would you describe the sound of your band?

PM: I would have to say we have a lot of Ramones influences in our music. I learned the guitar playing to the Ramones and after 20 years I haven't really gotten away from the 3 chord progression. Shiggy on the other hand is a very skilled guitar player and is influenced a lot by Johnny Thunder. All the raw bluesy energy comes across in his style of playing and which complicates the band very well.
Doug, our drummer, just beats the hell out of the drums at all times with an explosive energy. He just doesn't know how to play softly which also works for us. I had another drummer describe his style and similar to DJ Bonebraker from X.
The final piece of the puzzle is our newest member and bassist The Swede. His style changes from song to song and plays with a lot of spirit, heart and soul. He has also nailed the art of jumping.
So to describe our sound of the band I would say: The Remones meet Johnny Thunder while partying with X and jumping around a lot.

BLS: You always have great flyers ad posters for your shows. Why do you work so hard to cultivate the visual persona of your band? Do you guys do them yourselves or dose someone else do them for you? Who?

PM: Swede is in charge of the fliers. He has a brilliant and twisted sence of humor and is an Art school grad. We did the math and he was hired on the spot as the flier guy. He is very fond of monkeys and congenital twins and these things come across in his art.

BLS: If you could design the perfect concert to showcase your band and other local acts. Who would be your dream lineup and at which venue would you hold it?

PM: We'd like to do one of those parking lot shows that Centaur Guitar dose each summer, where it's and all day and night event. It's fun because they showcase so many Portland bands and the PBR is flowing.

BLS: I know that there is an endless list of great Portland bands, but give me the name of three bands worthy of mention?

PM: The Vacillators

Thundering Asteroids!

The Food (Which Sweed fronts.)