If you haven’t seen Bodhi live before, now is your chance. The trio just announced a last minute show at Berbati’s Pan tomorrow, December 14th, and the price is a whopping zero dollars and zero cents (so you basically have no excuse not to go).

With the recent(ish) arrival of a debut album, the at times garage-style, at others rockabilly threesome will have plenty of material (and hopefully some new stuff) to aurally appease us. If a free show isn’t tempting enough, let me dangle $1 Pabsts as an incentive. Oh, and did I mention Bodhi was crowned winner of The Deli’s Band of the Month Poll in September? If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.

Show starts at 10 p.m. (doors at 9 p.m.) FREE!

-Katrina Nattress

The sounds of winter just got a little more minimalist.

Portland shoegaze (no ocular evidence thus far has proven this allocation false) trio Mimicking Birds will be releasing their self-titled debut album on Isaac Brock’s Glacial Pace Recordings on February 9th, after spending most of 2009 either hunkered down in Brock’s Glacial Pace home studio, opening for Modest Mouse on a mondo U.S. tour, or touring again with Blind Pilot. They’ve been very busy, and their deeds do not go unnoticed.

Mimicking Birds started out as a solo project for Lacy under the moniker Neight, but has since recruited the efforts of childhood friends Tim Skellenger on guitar, and Aaron Hanson on drums.

The band recently enjoyed some huge shows opening for Modest Mouse during MusicFest NW 2009, and have slowly, but steadily ascended the stairwell of northwestern taste-making.

There’s a sneak peek of Mimicking Birds’ tracks on the Glacial Pace Web site, including "Burning Stars," a lovely, sweeping ballad espousing a more focused detail to resonance, as well as sonic aural aesthetics. It’s a slightly folkier take on the group’s ethereal soundscapes, and it’s a great sign that this album could be the soundtrack to your winter malaise.

Thumbs WAY up to "The Loop" while we’re at it. The quality of the recording, and the looping, repeated acoustic riffing of OG Bird Nate Lacy make for a disarming listen.

– Ryan J. Prado

Oregon loves it’s folk, roots, americana–whatever you wanna call it–and now a new generation is embracing some sort of blended indie-folk that combines strings and foot stomping with banjos and pow-wows; somethingsooo poppy you’ll jiggle and smile inside and out.

This brand is not better typified than Boston-to-PDX transplants The Ascetic Junkies. Mixing vocals from Kali Giaritta and Matt Harmon make for a melodic hootenanny tingling with folk-country and bouncing indie.

Obviously literary nuts, The Junkies took their name from a group of misfits in a Kerouac novel and after moving to Portland in 2008, they broke onto the scene with their self-produced and released debut One Shoe Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

A little older, a little wiser, and a little more mixed-up musically, The Junkies release a glorious new four-track EP, Don’t Wait For the Rescue Squad, tonight at Backspace and everyone who attends gets a free copy of the album.

The band says this: "In an attempt to avoid wasting plastic that we assume you won’t use for anything other than ripping the album onto your computer, we’re just going to bring a laptop with us that you can feel free to plug your iPod/flash drive/CD-R/etc. into at any point during the show to steal the EP. Or if you want to sign your email address on a piece of paper, we’ll email it to you when we get home that night."

So come kick it up and swing around to some pop/bluegrass/folk/indie rock with The Ascetic Junkies. Show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $6.

-Chris Young