Lo Fives, Mini Blinds, Public Pleasure

Lo Fives is a garage rock band from Portland, OR. Their fuzzy guitars and frenzied drums evoke a DIY aesthetic that captures a PNW basement studio with ample amounts of vitamin D. Lo Fives is an analog band in a digital world that harkens back to time-honored underground rock tropes in the vein of Swell Maps or Mission of Burma, despite the trends that may come and go. Formed as a duo in Portland, OR in late 2015, both Beth Ann Dear (Appendixes) and Devin Welch (Shoplifting, Past Lives, Vice Device, Appendixes) have been playing music in the Pacific Northwest in some form for most of their lives. Drawing influences from 90s female fronted alt-rock, 80s British twee & shoegaze, the Paisley Underground, and K records, they have created a sound with many layers and a common thread. In 2016 they released their first 8 song album “Air Signs”. The songs were bouncy and minimal, held together by layers of analog drum machines. In September 2018 the group released their EP ‘Dust’. Over time a natural evolution in the sound of the band has developed. Joined by Quin Dickinson (Jet Man Jet Team, Kingdom of The Holy Sun, Appendixes, Soft Shadows, and solo project Warm Static) on drums in early 2019 their sound has become much more dreamy and slightly harder and eerie with propulsive drums and more guitar feedback and noise. Since the pandemic the band has been working on writing their third collection of songs in hopes to release it sometime in late 2023 or early 2024. Mini Blinds have been on multiple Pacific Northwest tours and played notable music festivals such as PDXPop, Spokane’s VolumeFest, Homiefest, Mississippi Street Fair and Treefort Music Fest. Public Pleasure weaves shrieking feedback, distorted drones, and buzz saw guitar hooks into discordant yet approachable pop structures. Calmly provocative vocals float atop the maelstrom, riffing off of pop culture reference points while contemplating queerness and disenchantment at the end of the world.