rob and friends featured in xlr8r magazine

PORTLAND'S VIBE TRIBE

"It’s a formidable scene–one that also is home to something as awesomely ridiculous as Rob Walmart, an imperfectly perfect, impromptu node of Portland’s posi-vibe crew. The first time I saw this… band (collective? gathering?) was in the parking lot outside a New Year’s Eve indie-rock show headlined by Quasi. I’d heard about Rob before from Forkner, but could never tell how much I was being fucked with. Rob gets spoken of in the third person, always; Rob is concerned about lawsuits and would appreciate Rob details being left out of Willamette Week.

Sometime between 11 and midnight, something started thumping from the lot in back of the now-defunct art space Disjecta. A pale blue minivan with “Rob Walmart” written in soap or paint all over the windows was parked there with all of its doors open. Dudes–Forkner, Audio Dregs honcho Eric Mast (a.k.a. E*Rock), and others–huddled over sound gear, blasting out thick, crunchy off-time beats over mottled skronk and droning loops. Another gentleman, local poet Tom Blood, freestyled verse, almost as though he were rapping, into a microphone. (It should be noted that this display didn’t attract a crowd.)

“[Tom Blood] is like the visionary speaker psychic,” explains Valet’s Honey Owens. “The other guys are like the producers. I feel like Rob Walmart is kind of like the Wu-Tang Clan.”

“One person that’s a part of Rob put it well when they said, ‘Rob has no motivations to ever get better or to ever succeed. Just to stay weird,’” Forkner tells me from his home in Portland, adding, “Pretty much anybody can get in to play if they really want to. But usually Rob is something people try to get as far away as possible from.”

Rob Walmart is ill-defined and fluid–factors that make it one of the most resonant signifiers for a subculture that characterizes itself less by a sound than by a feeling."