Blitzen Trapper, and Davis grad Marty Marquis, have arrived

Blitzen Trapper is busy.

Over this weekend and next, the Portland-based low-fi experimental folk-rock outfit will play Bumbershoot in Seattle and
MusicFest NW in Portland. Recently signed to Sup Pop, the DIY band's fourth album "Furr," comes out Sept. 23, then they hop the pond for a European tour, followed by more dates in the states -- and all that's before Christmas.

"We'll be spending a lot of the next year on the road," says Blitzen Trapper multi-instrumentalist Marty Marquis, a 1993 Davis High School graduate.

One of the band's six members, Marquis grew up in Yakima, where he got a taste for being on stage as a kid at the Warehouse Theatre Company -- his dad, Randall, was a regular there. And instead of rock 'n' roll, the now 33-year-old Marquis cut his musical teeth on show tunes.

"My parents were too old for the Beatles," he says. "We never got that growing up, but tons and tons of show music."

Marquis eventually picked up the guitar after finally hearing the Beatles, and 30-something locals may remember him from his high school band Bone Yard Jack.

"We played like four or five shows in three years," he says with a laugh.

After graduating, Marquis kicked around for a while. He spent time in Alaska, worked as a ski lift operator at White Pass, and hitchhiked.

While hitchhiking, Marquis would strum at coffee shops, "but I never thought I'd play in a rock band," he says. "Music to me, especially rock music, seemed like this revolutionary thing because my parents didn't listen to it."

A hitchhiking trip in summer 1995 eventually led him to a Bible college in Lookout Mountain, Ga., where he met Blitzen Trapper singer-songwriter Eric Earley, an Oregon native.

"We used to play Neil Young songs for the people in the dorm," says Marquis.

After earning his degree, Marquis move to Portland and looked up Earley. In 2000, Blitzen Trapper was born; most of the members grew up together in Salem, Ore.

Admittedly, though, that's the boring version. Primarily, the band likes to say it was formed after the "crystallization event" at a psychedelic outdoor festival up on Mount Hood.

"Our music back then was conducive to that," says Marquis with a laugh.

What Blitzen Trapper plays now is an experimental mix of folk, indie-rock and back porch country jamming. Blitzen Trapper throws nods to everyone from Bob Dylan to the Grateful Dead to indie-rock favorites Pavement.

"To me," says Marquis, "it's like a modernized version of classic rock. It's reminiscent of all the kinds of music I love.

"I've always thought the music is really good, but the last record had a lot of critics enthralled."

Blitzen Trapper's 2007 rollicking release "Wild Mountain Nation" caught the ears of numerous critics, from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone, which ran a small feature on the band in its August 2007 issue. (A touring slot opening for the Hold Steady and hiring a good publicist also didn't hurt.)

"That was always our goal," says Marquis, who's been married for nine years and just had his first child, a daughter.

"We had kind of an informal 10-year plan. It was, let's work really, really hard (at making good music) ... And now we feel like we're a little ahead of schedule. Especially getting signed to Sup Pop -- that was a little surreal."

BLITZEN TRAPPER PLAYS:

* From 2:30-3:30 p.m. Monday on the Rockstar Stage at Bumbershoot in Seattle.

* From 9-10 p.m. at the Crystal Ballroom Sept. 6 in Portland as part of MusicFest NW.

Blitzen Trapper joining in on the MusicFest NW fun

If you miss Blitzen Trapper at Bumbershoot this weekend, you can catch the band at Portland's growing MusicFest NW, which runs Wednesday through Sept. 6. (Actually, a number of bands will be banging away at both festivals.)

Spread throughout multiple venues in the Rose City, the festival began in 2001 after the demise of North by Northwest.

On this year's bill are Battles, Bobby Bare Jr., Calvin Johnson, Del The Funky Homosapien, Fleet Foxes, John Vanderslice, Les Savy Fav, M. Ward, Nada Surf, Old 97's, Pierced Arrows, The Blakes, The Cool Kids, These Arms Are Snakes, Throw Me the Statue, Trans Am, TV on the Radio and Vampire Weekend, among many others.

For complete festival and ticket information, visit www.musicfestnw.com.

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