I have lived many places and know that people are generally not as reasonable or contented as they are here.
Enjoying the outdoors, each other, and good food. One can find peace and contentment out here in rural Oregon doing some simple things that have made people happy for generations. A band played, the kids were dancing, my wife picked dahlias for a bouquet while I met some strangers. I enjoyed local beer from a truck while sitting at a picnic table, eating grilled sausages and homemade pickles. When I came here for the first time on a sunny Saturday years ago, I realized right then that I was experiencing something very special. You would be remiss in not visiting Sauvie Island during your Summer or Fall trip to Portland if you have a car at your disposal. They wanted $0.75 per ear!! We ended up going down the road to the Maze where they had better produce selection as well as better looking corn (2 varieties). The produce area was sparse compared to previous owner. But instead of putting the flowers there, perhaps at least 2-3 tables in the shade under the covered area. They moved all the picnic tables into the grassy area rather than keep it under the covering.
I timed other people, their wait time was approximately the same (30-40 minutes). You would think, it being lunch time that they'd be better prepared to handled the crowd. Took 15 minutes to get through the line and another 20 minutes to get 2 dogs and 2 corn on the cob. 1 taking orders, 3 cooking, and 1 pouring beer. We got in line at 12:30P, There were at least 5 staff members behind the tables. For the price, Costco dogs are much better! Due to COVID they had to put all the fixins on these TINY dogs. We arrived Sunday 12:30p hoping for the (former owners) butter dipped roasted corn, husk on. New owners made nice updates to the landscape, but the produce selection was sparse and the food was way too expensive. Either way, your best bet is to stick to the first two records and hope they can recapture some of their initial spark in the future.Used to be Kruger Farms. If you want to be charitable, chalk it up as a holding pattern on the way to something better, maybe even a "grower." If not, call it the death knell of the Helio Sequence. Not as innovative as the Flaming Lips, say, but certainly better than South or Elbow. Maybe to a fresh set of ears, Love and Distance might sound like an interesting take on the whole modern Radiohead-y guitar rock with electronics thing.
Perhaps the palpable sense of disappointment here comes from loving the band's first two records so much. Not exactly what the Helio Sequence used to do but better than bland. The only song that really makes much of an impression is the closing "Looks Good (But You Looked Away)." It's the kind of cosmic country that Beachwood Sparks do so well, with a very nice laid-back, outer space feel. The music all just washes past it's the kind of record you can sit through and at the finish not remember a thing about it. It must be something about the plaintive voice and ponderous tempos, the Stones guitar riffing, the bluesy feel of songs like "People of the Secret." Growing up doesn't have to mean growing bland, but it seems to be what happened to the Helio Sequence. Parts of the album are even reminiscent of the Stone Roses' bloated Second Coming fiasco. Instead of sounding like the teenage spawn of My Bloody Valentine and Mouse on Mars, now they sound like Radiohead's very earnest cousin. The tempos drag, the lyrics are nothing special, the electronics nothing much to care about. The guitars no longer howl and crash about they are layered carefully and applied cautiously. Instead of dreamily floating along with the waves of noise, now Brandon Summers grittily shouts over the top. It is still fairly loud, dreamy rock, but the wall of sound has been pared way back and the vocals have been brought to the forefront. Their third album, Love and Distance, is not exciting, not very melodic, and quite mature. The Helio Sequence's first two albums were dense, exciting blasts of noise, melody, and electronic wildness that seemed to jump out of the speakers.
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