Woolen Men are a trio from Portlandia, a city with the same ad agency as Austin, with their slogan “Keep Portland Weird” but with famous residence like Kyle Macglaughlin, Fred Armisen, and Carrie Brownstein. So, like Austin, gentrification is spreading like a rash, and Temporary Monument is an album set against the changes, but will probably just make it worse. This album is that good, this band is that good; they are a reason to move to Portland. I fell in love with woolen men in 2013 when they released their self-title album. I reviewed it with lots of names like “velvet underground” and “jonathan richman” named in bold, and all that still holds. The songs are about feeling out of place (“Life in Hell” or “Alien City”) and semi-diatribes against clean-cut lives (Clean Dreams) or the most popular way to waste your youth (“University”) and regret (“After the Flood”) .
