Photo by Katie Summer / Feelfull Photography

We are excited to announce that Portland record labels Amigo/Amiga and Self Group Collective are joining forces! In these present times of great uncertainty in the music industry and into the future, we believe that working collectively allows us to broaden our work within our community while continuing to create the records and art that we love, as well as—in some version of the future—the shows and tours we play.

Amigo/Amiga began in 2009 in an old rental house off SE 37th Ave as a way to release the music we were recording in our basement. The first year, we released a/b singles, which culminated with our first full-length releases: Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives self-titled album and Kelli Schaefer’s Ghost of the Beast. A lot has happened in the decade since, including records from Modern Kin and Bombay Beach, follow up releases from Grow and Schaefer, countless tours, videos and a crazy livestream of 7 shows in 24 hours from Modern Kin in 2013 titled Hello, World. The independent, self-sustaining, collective-minded principles of Amigo/Amiga have made for a productive and exciting decade, and we are eager to move forward with Self Group Collective to release the next batch of new work.

Self Group Collective officially launched in early 2010 with a similar style of DIY collectivism and rapidly evolved into a broader coalition where the means of production, control and ownership of rights, royalties, and all else governing each individual artists’ career is decidedly theirs alone, while each operating as a member of the shared collective. The principles of anarcho-syndicalist creative collectivism also represent the group’s commitment to community benefit work most notably through Rx Fest (all profits from the festival are donated to local non-profits while providing another outlet and opportunity for community engagement), as well as the donation of a percentage of all sales from the Mart (web store). Self Group Collective boasts releases from Yardsss, Morher, Institute For Creative Dying and more.

From Self, to Self Group, Amigxs, Amigas, Amigos, now Self Group Collective, our work has consistently embodied the notion that there is “no lone straw holding the cup;” that an accomplishment for one is an accomplishment for all; “a rising tide lifts all boats;” and whatever idiom best represents the lived experience that we all do better when we work together. We look forward to continuing to expand that work moving into the future.

Keep an eye out for previously unreleased material, updates, new releases, and someday, tours.

SG051 Institute For Creative Dying release new and third full-length album 'Siphonophore' on December 21st!  ICD is the solo project of Yardsss ∅∀‡ Paul Michael Schaefer.  Read more about the album below.

Paul recorded Siphonophore in Little Debee’s bedroom while sheltering in place awaiting the birth of their daughter. This collection of guitar lullabies diverges from the characteristic audio-environments of Institute for Creative Dying. These emergent melodies shimmer with a kind of bioluminescence suspended within the cold depths of a watery void—a nightlight.

Artist Page • SG Mart • Bandcamp • iTunes • Spotify
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​Yardsss ∅∀‡ releases new video for 'Cultus IV', a fourth and previously unreleased track from the three part album Cultus.  The video was filmed and edited by Sadrday at Haywire Recording Studio in Portland, OR during the recording of the album which is entirely improvisational.

This is the first of two videos for the album which was originally released on September 11th 2020 via the Self Group Collective.  You can stream the audio and learn more about the record via the following links.

Proceeds from the album go to local Portland nonprofits and organizations including Outside In and Defense Fund PDX.

Artist Page • SG Album Blahg • Bandcamp • iTunes • Spotify

We are re-launching Self Group Promotion into the public sphere!  Founded in 2005 we are the leading and only professional poster distributor in Portland, OR.  In 2010 however we stopped publicly advertising to the public and instead exclusively focused on our roster of clients (Monqui Presents, Wonder Ballroom, Doug Fir Lounge, Crystal Ballroom/McMenamins, Mississippi Studios and more and more).

At least until we can get back on our feet in the concert industry we are re-opening for one-off campaigns for outdoor distribution.  We are not currently offering retail at this time.  That means your campaign posters on poles throughout the city.  Additionally we've been doing poster and graphic design since 2005 as well for our roster of clients as well as for Self Group and the collective as a whole.  We can design your poster, send it to print and distribute all in one-stop.

We are also opening our doors to button-making!  This is something we've done ourselves for our own SG collective, Rx Fest as well as artist buttons but are now offering it as a service.

Also also, we are offering website building and development!  Either an initial build that you can maintain thereafter with graphic design and layout included or we can maintain and update your website for you for a monthly fee.

Also also also, we can do all of your album design, layout and get everything prepped to send off to the printer!

A practice space in SE Portland was broken into on the AM of Sunday, October 4th.  Three local bands were affected and had equipment stolen (Charts, The Woolen Men and Yardsss).  If anyone has information or leads regarding the theft please contact us at info@selfgroup.org.  Feel free to share the full manifest jpg to social media and the pdf with any individuals, gear or pawn shops.

Social Media Tags (Instagram):
Charts • @chartspdx
The Woolen Men • @thewoolenmen
Yardsss • @yardsssart

#weprotectus
#community
​#solidarity
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SG050
​Yardsss ∅∀‡
Cultus
​9/11/2020
Stream ≠ Download • Bandcamp • iTunes • Spotify
Artist Page​ • Artist Mart

Proceeds from 'Cultus' go to local Portland orgs and nonprofits including Outside In and Defense Fund PDX as well as local mutual aid including support for evacuees of the Oregon wildfires * If you'd like to donate directly you can do so through Self Group's PayPal
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ABOUT THE ALBUM [DIRECT FROM YARDSSS]
It may not be apparent given the instrumental nature of the project but Yardsss is very much a political band.  We stand on our anarcho-syndicalist and collectivist principles; we release our recordings independently through a collective we established, all decisions are made utilizing direct democracy and must be unanimous, we navigate our creative sphere with a known responsibility and requirement to support our community, to take accountability for the wellbeing of others. One way we actively exercise that is by making all of our releases, shows and tours benefits with proceeds going to local Portland organizations, nonprofits and mutual aid.  Communities raise each other, catch one another when we fall on hard times, keep each other safe and provide support when needed to get back on our feet.

We chose 9/11 as the release date for this album as the events in 2001 and the US Federal Governments’ response to those events very much apply to what is continuing through the present day.  Nearly fourteen months after, then-President George W Bush, announced the formation of the Department of Homeland Security; an agency that would combine twenty-two law enforcement agencies under one central bureau.  DHS effectively locked-down the borders with TSA and later ICE alongside response units like BORTAC, created militaristic checkpoints at all ports of entry (most visibly and notably airports), vastly expanded the mass surveillance of American citizens with the hasty passing (forty-five days after) of the "Patriot Act" (see the ACLU's infographic) and effectively and otherwise quietly declared martial law on the United States.

In 2003 DHS absorbed the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) and in doing so divided the agency into two separate new agencies being ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services).  Among its many atrocities, ICE agents are known to abduct immigrants and future citizens at courthouses while they attempt to file immigration and naturalization paperwork.  All of this under the guise of “keeping Americans safe from ‘the terrorists.’”  The attacks on the World Trade Center towers and building seven killed 2,976; the US retaliation two years later under false premise and incorrect intel has killed 1,690,903 Iraqi, 80,644 Afghani and 80,000 Pakistani people as well as the imprisonment and torture of individuals, many solely on suspicion, at prisons like Guantanamo Bay.

The means and methodologies of Governments to suppress dissent is vast and not new to the world, especially the United States.  What occurred with the post-9/11 creation of DHS, the militaristic arming of local LEO’s, the lack of oversight and recourse against both the Federal as well as local Governments, qualified immunity, police unions and an array of defense methods to evade accountability all play a role in the enhanced brutality, lawlessness and terror that law enforcement enacts on citizens.

Post-9/11 also saw the drastic rise of hate crimes directed toward Islamic, Middle Eastern and BIPOC individuals within the US including the burning of Mosque’s and Middle Eastern-owned businesses among countless other horrific acts of violence committed by citizens on other citizens.  This racism and bias was given license and direction to violently act out through paranoia seeded at the highest levels of Government and validated by the militarization of public spaces.

It’s been known by the FBI since at least 1992 (and antifascists well before) that racist, far-right white nationalists had enacted a plan to infiltrate police forces throughout the US; in the Pacific Northwest especially.  If you think that LEO’s are impartial or neutral we implore you to look at the events even just in the last decade through this lens to understand that in part what is happening has been known for three decades; that racism absolutely and unquestionably exists within the agencies from local police through DHS and that since the advent of the Department of Homeland Security license has been given, though publicly applauded in the last almost four years by the “Office of the President”, for decades.

Abolish the police.  We need community-driven organizations and mutual aid that support our communities directly, that are specific to the needs of those communities.  We do not need a brutal force that only serves to punitively punish by incarceration, fine, show of force through physical brutality and murder.  We must as a community collectively and uniformly abolish systemic racism and act every day in ways that make us safe, that protect our community members, while bearing witness and intervening directly when our community is at risk.

We wish to make it very clear; if you are racist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic, islamophobic or otherwise attempt to enact violence on our community (human or animal), don’t buy our records and don’t come to our shows. #weprotectus

"America is just a word but I use it." - Ian MacKaye / Fugazi
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​With love and solidarity,

Yardsss

#BlackLivesMatter

To further study and inform yourself about the Patriot Act we suggest the following sources (also used as references  for this article):
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ACLU: The Sun Must Go Down on the Patriot Act
ACLU: Surveillance Under the USA Patriot Act
ACLU: Summary Of Conference Report on Patriot Act Reauthorization
Crimethinc: The Age of Conspiracy Charges
NY Times: In Debate Over Patriot Act; Lawmakers Weigh Risks vs Liberty
US DOJ: The USA Patriot Act
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REVIEWS
"Where runs the line between drone, ambient, and post-rock? It sometimes seems as if the borders between these genres are often blurred and porous as dexterous bands navigate them without much trouble. The feedback and delay on post-rock’s guitars elongate, the atmosphere of ambient quivers with the shattering, world-erasing susurrations of drone and all falls before just sheer music, no labels needed. Incidentally, this is exactly how I’d describe Yardsss‘ upcoming release, ∅∀‡ | Cultus. It’s an expansive slow burn of an album, taking its time to build towards some really fascinating crescendos, sounds, and musical ideas.

This sort of album can be super hard to unpack but, luckily, Yardsss aren’t going to just leave us hanging. “Cultus I” starts off with a long ramp of slowly unraveling and building silence, all the way to its cataclysmic end. Pay special attention to all the instruments going off in the background of this explosion of energy, the way the guitars swim together into a million and one shattered tracks, coming back together into a whole. It will probably make sense to you if, in these moments of musical chaos and cohesion, I told you that this entire thing was recorded live and was completely improvised. Makes sense, right? You can feel that raw energy on it as the first collapses around you.
If you still have doubts, perhaps the punk infused, no holds barred guitars and drums that usher in the middle segments of “Cultus II” will convince you? They harness that unbridled energy even more, running wild with the core of Yardsss’ sound on this release. And then there’s “Cultus III”. Actually, I’m going to leave the third track for you to explore. It’s a ride and then some, clocking in at just below twenty two minutes." - Heavy Blog Is Heavy

"On September 11, Portland experimental group Yardsss ∅∀‡ will release their new album, Cultus via Self Group. The album is a trio of extended improvisational pieces that prominently feature drones, dissonance and an ominous aura, bringing to mind the epic and eerie sounds of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or the no wave symphonies of Glenn Branca. It’s at times chaotic, beautiful and overwhelming, and today they’ve shared the lead track from the album, titled “Cultus II.” It’s a pulsing piece of dark psychedelia, underscored by a krautrock pulse, that builds up into something powerful and hypnotic, eventually boiling over into a climactic post-rock roar.  The symbols in the group’s name indicate which lineup is involved, and in this case, Yardsss ∅∀‡ signifies the full lineup of Paul Michael Schaefer, Robin Levy and Krist Krueger." - Treble Zine

"Free your mind and your brain cells will follow! WTF – Portland’s Yardsss is the straight up JAM and so is their soon to be released album ∅∀‡ | Cultus. Their improvisational Space Kraut Rock never fucking misses a beat, and that’s why I have their song “Cultus I” on repeat. Listening to their music makes me happy and stoked to be alive!" - Cvlt Nation

#rxfest2020 #musicismedicine

Yardsss ∅∀‡ have announced new dates in the pacific northwest including stops in Bellingham and Seattle!  These are likely to be the last two shows of the year, both all ages and sliding scale.

10.26 Bellingham, WA • Make.Shift
​EVENT/RSVP

10.27 Seattle, WA • Teatro de la Psychomachia
EVENT/RSVP

​Yardsss tends toward the dark and droning and bombastic, with heady, swelling orchestrations.  Perhaps because human voices appear so rarely and the music is so evocative, it occasionally brings to mind Emeralds' Does It Look Like I'm Here?  It doesn't take many listens to understand that Krueger is breaking boundaries not for the sake of being (or seeming) transgressive, but to make sounds that awaken actual feelings—uplifting, inspiring emotions. - Portland Mercury

​The first full-length album from Portland's Yardsss ØØØ is now available to stream and download wherever fine music is sold and streamed.  We'll let the album speak for itself... as well as some music writersss...

"Regarding Krist Krueger's Yardsss: If you read about it before listening, you'd likely mistake it for a liberal arts master's thesis.  Where most bands play "shows," Yardsss puts on "performance case studies" and multimedia installations, including a collection of songs inspired by—not covers of!—avant-garde composer John Cage.  All this could be completely obnoxious except for one thing: Yardsss is transcendentally, earth-shatteringly gorgeous. If you can make music like that, you get to call your show a case study." - Portland Mercury

"Masterfully cohesive listen not for the faint of heart; immerse yourself in chaos and find wabi-sabi in the soothing ferocity of an album straddling shoegaze, electronica and psychedelia as one unifying tone for the present day.  It will blow your fucking mind." - Echoes And Dust

"Delves into soaring drone noise and melody as cacophony reminiscent of late-80s/early-90s Swans, Emeralds and Popul Vuh." - New Noise Magazine

Artist Page • SG Mart • Bandcamp • iTunes • Spotify

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