ogre
Ogre - Photo by KC Jones ( @thelonius_punk )
“The parameters around being in a noise rock band somehow don’t apply to Portland, Oregon-based noise-rock trio Ogre. “We’re not breaking the rules. We made the rules—we’re Jackson Pollock-ing this,” laughs rhythm bassist/vocalist Grace Crane. The three-headed monster adheres to a strict no guitar policy. Its visuals are clean, minimalistic with the occasional pop of red. Verbiage is always in the Arial font. And instead of a menacing onstage demeanor, the group favors absurdist theatrics. Imagine the antics of Andy Kaufman melded with the post-hardcore abrasiveness of A Place To Bury Strangers. “Shows are not a place to just deliver songs. The entertainment value is the most important,” explains lead bassist/vocalist Ace Jennings.
An ogre is the perfect name for the band’s wild and wooly sonics. The band once had a hilarious t-shirt with a paragraph long description of its sound. That said, clamorous experimental post-hardcore in the vein of Osees, Hella, Melt Banana, and Lightning Bolt are apt comparisons. Key components to the Ogre onslaught are its twin bass lineup with rhythm bassist Grace holding down the fort like a post-hardcore James Jamerson while lead bassist Ace summons harsh and grimy ethereal soundscapes from his spaceship-vibing pedalboard. Drummer/vocalist Nils Niswonger negotiates the jarring dynamics, adeptly alternating between dexterous drum climaxes and pile-driving pocket beats. “I’ll put it this way, if three of us joined another band, we would be the ugly ducklings. Someone would have to help us because we don’t have traditional music vocabulary,” Nils says. Ace adds: “We learned to play our instruments together by ear.”
Ace had the vision of Ogre as an avant two-person rock band when he responded to a flyer Nils put up in a popular Portland music store called Music Millennium. At the time, both guys were fresh transplants, newbies on their respective instruments, and neither had been in a gigging group. “I picked drums because I wanted to be in a band, and I knew people needed drummers,” details Nils. “When I met Ace, he had that crazy pedalboard, and I could tell he was creative but not a trained musician.” Grace didn’t join the pair until after Ogre’s sophomore album. She was Nils’s roommate in the large house where Ogre rehearsed in the basement. “I could hear them playing the same songs over and over again from my bedroom,” Grace recalls. She had a lot in common with the guys. She was also a recent transplant who had known Nils back in high school, and she was teaching herself bass. When Nils and Ace wanted to replicate live additional bass parts on recordings, Grace was the natural choice to fill out the sound. Her first show with Ogre was her first show ever playing music onstage. “I was so nervous! I told them ‘I think I might hate this, you should look around for another member,” remembers Grace. It worked out and Grace became a permanent member of Ogre, first appearing on the group’s third album. Now, she has an expanded role as a songwriter and one of the group’s lead vocalists, alongside Ace and Nils who have been the group’s primary singer-songwriters.
Look out for Ogre roaming the Northwest and beyond on tour. “The next few years are about leaving our comfort zone and hitting the road,” says Nils. Ogre now has a booking agent and the support of CorpoRAT Records behind them. “These are things you always hope to achieve as a young person
interested in music,” says Ace. “If you told the 15-year-old me that my music would be released on vinyl, I would be incoherent.” - Lorne Behrman