Shy Girls at Doug Fir Lounge w/The Last Artful, Dodgr

Shy Girls performs at Doug Fir for a hometown performance, in support of his debut full length album Salt (out in January on Hit City U.S.A. ) Support from the unique and versatile rapper-singer The Last Artful, Dodgr SHY GIRLS: For an LP likely to be placed in the R&B aisle, Salt is noticeably impressionistic. At times it bears the painterly, frank essence of a Blue/Court and Spark Joni Mitchell. At others, it strides toward the progressive and cinematic. There is a striking viscerality in the crashing percussion and detuned piano of “I Am Only A Man” and in the hypnotic woodwind outro of “What If I Can.” The mournful guitar dressing “Watercolor Dreams” seems to nod to Ennio Morricone — like a future-Western ballad. And even in the stark songs that bookend the album, Vidmar delivers swelling sentiment fit for the screen. Despite its sonic magnitude, Salt never surrenders its intimacy. Salt was self-produced by Vidmar, who also played and recorded the majority of its instrumentation. The beautiful result is a testament to craftsmanship executed almost single-handedly by one author. Rife with tender imperfections, at its core Vidmar’s heartrending vocals are still as silken as ever, as the singer reaches new heights. Lyrically, Vidmar explores the ambiguous territory in which many so-called “millennials” find themselves, hovering somewhere amidst a pre-internet nostalgia and post-recession tech absorption. He takes an honest and unflinching look at the tension between growth and decay, existential-level FOMO, and the nagging inertia of time. Shy Girls first came to attention in 2013 with his slow burning, sax-tinged “Under Attack,” followed by the release of his buzzed-about Timeshare EP and subsequent 4WZ mixtape. Vidmar has collaborated with artists such as Cyril Hahn, Tei Shi, Rome Fortune, Antwon, Junglepussy, and ODESZA, and has toured with HAIM, Little Dragon, and Maxwell. Salt is his debut full-length album and will be released on Jan. 20, 2017, via Hit City U.S.A. THE LAST ARTFUL, DODGR Sometimes in life, you come across a voice so present and singular in its tone that it makes your entire world stop for a moment and all the hairs on your neck stand up. The Last Artful, Dodgr has proven to be one such phenomenon. Born in Los Angeles and currently inhabiting Portland, Oregon - her own unique brand of rap-singing, made up of casually delivered triple entendres, unforgettable melodies and an ever-changing stream of cadences, has begun to spread like a wildfire in recent months. From her noteworthy singles "Squadron" and "Oofda" topping Spotify charts, to her manifested-thru-song appearance on the legendary Sway In The Morning radio show, everything has been coming up Dodgr in 2016. And really, she's only just getting started - with all of this leading up to her forthcoming duo LP, Bone Music, a collaboration with producer Neill Von Tally, due out in early 2017. It's not too early to get in on the ground floor of this star on the rise.