The Hanged Man was crowdfunded on Kickstarter. One of the reward tiers was a special 7-inch box set edition of the album, with each album track receiving an exclusive B-side. Another tier included a cassette mixtape of demos spanning 1987–2012 from a variety of his bands (most of which are covered in this series).
In the last 5 years, he’s also released a handful of (mostly) previously-unreleased songs in a series of digital singles and EPs, as well as appearing on some compilations (mostly benefits).
Aside: During this time (2021), I saw him perform live via Zoom for the Lookout Zoomout #3, an online show featuring former Lookout Records artists. Between songs he quipped that he had a box full of Hearts Of Oak CDs in his basement that he wanted to unload. That was the one TL/Rx album I didn’t have, so I figured it’d be win-win if I could buy one of his garage CDs. I sent a message to the show promoters afterwards asking if that was possible, but never heard back. (I finally bought a copy of that album from a seller on Discogs a couple weeks ago.)
For my second PDXWLF night ride, I joined the BikeLoud SE/East February chapter ride, led by Tom Howe. As is the case with BikeLoud rides, there was a mix of infrastructure and activism along with sightseeing and merrymaking. Our route went through the recently-reinstalled bike boxes at SE 26th Ave & Powell Blvd, then headed to Save the Giants Park. (The Eastmoreland neighborhood’s “historic district” designation can get bent — it’s a thinly veiled attempt at keeping the poors out of the neighborhood — but I will concede that conserving these specific Sequoia trees on this small and unremarkable lot wasn’t inherently a bad idea.)
From there we rolled onward to the “Goat Garden of Lights” at Three Stinky Goats Farm in Milwaukie. The display included a fun variety of 3D-printed “crystals” along with 3 actual goats who were in fact a bit stinky. We then closed the loop and headed back westward to Oaks Park Amusement Park (after a brief stopover at the Portland Puppet Museum). The rides and midway were fully lit, though most rides and attractions were closed as it’s decidedly the off-season for amusement parks in Oregon. At that point the ride officially ended, so I rode back north with a few folks, splitting off through Oaks Bottom to arrive back in Brooklyn.
Aside from The Both, Ted Leo didn’t perform or release much music from 2011 to 2016. In a 2017 interview, he discussed how he wasn’t making ends meet as the music industry changed and the broader economy tanked, and also about personal struggles from that period and earlier. (CW for the linked interview: miscarriage; sexual abuse.) He mostly receded from performing and writing for a few years, but returned in 2017 with a new, crowd-funded full-length, The Hanged Man. Released under his own name, he performed and recorded most of the parts himself. It also explores some new styles and song writing in addition to the more familiar styles of his previous work.
In 2012, Aimee Mann went on tour and brought Ted Leo (solo) as the opening act. The two performed together on stage occasionally during that tour, then continued collaborating and writing songs together afterwards as The Both. The song “Milwaukee” on their self-titled album is about their experience in that city and together on that tour. They’ve continued collaborating together in the years that followed, though so far have released only one full-length album.
After Lookout’s operations dwindled, TL/Rx moved to Touch And Go and released Living With The Living. It (re-)introduced some different styles, harkening back to some of his earlier solo(-ish) work. They also released the digital-only Rapid Response EP, as a benefit for Democracy Now! and Food Not Bombs St. Paul following protests and mass arrests at the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Alas, in 2009 Touch And Go also scaled back operations (though did not entirely fold as Lookout did); the band moved to Matador for their next album. The Brutalist Bricks would prove to be the last album under the Pharmacists name (to date, anyway).
Now with a full band formed, Ted Leo / Pharmacists joined Lookout Records and released a string of albums and EPs. From 2001–2005 they put out some of their best-known material, and became one of the label’s stand-out acts in its later years. (Unfortunately not long after their third album on the label, Lookout’s financial problems came to a head and the label had to start scaling down.)
Even with the full band, across these releases a number of songs appear variously in solo or full band versions, continuing to blur the line between Ted Leo as a solo artist and Ted Leo / Pharmacists as a group.
Starting with the title itself, tej leo(?), Rx / pharmacists, the first Ted Leo / Pharmacists record betrays the fact that it’s not quite a Pharmacists record. Despite the name, it’s primarily a solo project; it’s also more experimental than later records, including sampling, remixing, heavy editing, dub, and more. The following Treble In Trouble EP was the first proper release with a full band and sets the stage for their next (first?) album.
In another redux of last year, my destination for the night was the Portland Winter Light Festival. This time I rode solo from home to downtown, and met my wife and some friends at Pioneer Square for the festival’s opening night fire performance. The square was already fairly packed by the time I got there; I didn’t have the best view from where I stood, but even so, I could still see the accompanying pianist’s flaming candelabra and the occasional performer on stilts. At any rate, as I looked around at the huge crowd out in the city on a cold February night, it was a solid refute to the bozos that say pOrTLanD iS DyINg.
Pioneer Square, full of people and light-up exhibits
A nearby street full of people viewing store-front light exhibits
After the performances we decided to spread around downtown a bit and get away from the crowds, so we wandered up & down some nearby streets and checked out the various light displays. We stopped for some dinner for a bit, then returned to the square for a less-packed opportunity to explore the exhibits. We then sauntered over to the World Trade Center area to check out another cluster of installations; after the official end at 10pm when some exhibits started closing, I remounted my ride and pedaled home.
Chisel was formed while Ted Leo was in college at Notre Dame, along with some of his classmates. (They later relocated from Indiana to Washington, DC.) This band overlapped some of his hardcore projects, but Chisel leans into a more melodic, post-hardcore sound. (At times I hear shades of Hüsker Dü, Fugazi, and Drive Like Jehu, among others.) It’s a bit rougher on the edges than his later work with the Pharmacists, but you can see a clear arc in that direction.
Carry the Banner 