PHOTOS: Covered in Bees and Sylvia rehearsing for upcoming shows
Last night, we were at Raia rehearsal spaces on an assignment for the new-and-improved Dispatch. Our job was to take photos of a new, as-yet-unnamed band for an upcoming series by Nick Schroeder, but, after the shoot, we were lured like sailors onto the rocks by the siren songs of Covered in Bees and, later, Sylvia — two awesome bands who rehearse in the same complex.
So, we figured, why not awaken the corpse of Post Mortem for a brief installment.
Covered in Bees’ rehearsals are every bit as lively as their stage performances, and their practice space is just as you would imagine it: wall-to-wall worship of cult movies and pop-culture heroes.
The band busted out a song they haven’t played in years — “(George A. Romero’s) Song of the Dead” — which they will unleash tonight during their show at Geno’s. It’s a doozy. See this show.
Then, we wandered over to Sylvia’s practice space — a vast example of squalor-meets-museum. It’s like the self-storage unit in Silence of the Lambs — we were almost certain we’d find a lipstick-smeared head in a jar.
Sylvia was rehearsing for their upcoming show with Full of Hell, Conifer, and Eastern Spell later this month. Be sure to follow Last Mercy Emissions for more info on that show and many others.
Post Mortem 
Keep doing this!
Yes… and please expand your area of interest beyond the few bands you always cover… They’re good, but there’s so many more groups I could name that are deserving of some coverage…
If they’re not heavy, no fucks will be given.
I’m not sure what you consider heavy…unless your definition of heavy is covered in bees… I like them of course, but you seem to cover them very closely at the expense of others who get no ink at all…
Well, this discussion is largely moot, because Post Mortem is (mostly) dead (https://postmortemportland.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/farewell-for-now/). But, I get where you’re coming from. There’s a lot of great stuff in Portland. Too much for one person to cover well.
I chose to focus on metal, because it speaks most sweetly to my heart and — despite it being nearly wholly contrived (and I’m sure most metal musicians would agree) — it feels a lot less contrived than many indy rock bands and other Portland flavors out there. When I was putting this thing together, I knew there would be nights when I was tired and wouldn’t want to leave my apartment to cover shows, but I knew that getting out the door would be a lot easier if metal were to greet me on the other side.
Naturally, there was a little blurring of the lines when I followed noise projects or bands like Awaas. And, yes, Covered in Bees is more punk than metal, but when they play metal it is metal as fuck. Also, with those outside-the-lines bands, the pedigree was always there, and so was the authenticity.
I figure I covered about 30 local bands over the course of Post Mortem’s life, plus any touring acts that played with them. And the coverage (coupled with grown up responsibilities like work and child-raising) burned me out quickly. If I had tried to take on other bands, Post Mortem would have fizzled out much, much sooner. If, however, there are Portland metal bands I somehow missed, please let me know because I owe them an apology.
Otherwise, I’m satisfied with the parameters I chose and I’m proud of the work I did.
Thank you for the elaboration… Well said…