Valet

Honey Owens of Portland helms the solo endeavor known as Valet, whose droning soundscapes center on her own vocals and guitars while she also performs in groups such as Jackie O Motherfucker and Nudge. Between January and May 2006 she captured the material for the project’s first album, Blood Is Clean, describing the process as “channeling sounds from an unknown place” and completing most tracks in single passes before adding only a handful of overdubs. Yarnlazer, the CD-R imprint Owens operated with White Rainbow’s Adam Forkner—her partner in the duo World—issued the record initially; Kranky brought out a reissue in spring 2007. The following year saw the arrival of the fittingly titled Naked Acid. After releasing the False Face Society EP in 2009, Owens paused Valet activity to concentrate on Miracles Club, the psychedelic dance outfit she launched with Rafael Fauria. She and Fauria also began raising a family, so it was not until 2014 that she resumed Valet sessions, this time alongside Fauria and multi-instrumentalist Mark Burden. Those efforts yielded 2015’s Nature, a collection of psychedelic folk-pop songs in which Owens contemplated the transformations her life had undergone.