Deer or the Doe

Deer or the Doe might be Portland's most generous band. In addition to bankrolling wantstogiveyou.com, a website offering free downloads of some of the best sounds of PDX, the songwriting and design team of Cassie Neth and Aaron Miller have collaborated on some of the most iconic album covers over the past few years, from Point Juncture WA's Handsome Orders to Petoskey's Bombs Away. It's not surprising, then, that Neth and Miller have built a family for themselves in Deer or the Doe. Joined by Carlos Segovia, Blake Carillo, and Clint Cunningham, they've stayed the course for two EPs and one split live album. Do the math and that's five years altogether, an eternity for an unsigned band. Listening to Tonight We Love You, their debut full-length, it's impossible not to be moved by their resilience and patience. Deer or the Doe have always been one of the loudest, most passionate live bands in Portland, and on these eleven songs, recorded with V.P. Nash at Church Modes, they manage to pull off the big-hearted reach of The Wrens or Broken Social Scene. With Neth's soaring melodies anchored by Miller's manic, ragged emotion, here is a slice of rock 'n roll for the not-quite-ready-to-get-a-day-jobs. In a town brimming with great frontwomen, Neth might be our most underrated. Who cares about waiting / about failing? she sings on album standout "I Can See." Deer or the Doe certainly don't, and we're lucky for that.