There’s a cool cheap show tonight at Dunes, one of Portland’s void-of-sign hipster hideouts nestled in the industrial area of NE not far from the Wonder Ballroom.

Fake Drugs has two members from Pyramiddd (formerly Starfucker), Keil Corcoran and Shawn Glassford, as well as Ian Anderson of Guidance Counselor. The trio produce fuzzy and dark electro/disco jams that I can see fitting nicely into the dark corners of the stage at the venue.

Tunnels is fronted and ended by Nicholas Bindeman who produces and plays his own breed of dirty and electro-pop. I expect these two artists to complete the bill nicely.

Kick back a couple of cold ones, and don’t be to surprised if after a couple more the head-nods evolve to dance-party status.

Check out the above live vid of Fake Drugs. The audio is tolerable, though not perfect, but you’ll still get the idea. 

 – Joel Sommer

My friend turned me on to Bombs Into You a couple of years ago. I remember thinking at the time that this Portland band had a unique electro sound, and an enormous amount of potential; but as a music reviewer, it’s easy to let bands slip from your mind as you move on to the next review. That is why I am so excited to cross paths with them once again and to see that they are not only living up to their potential, but that they have exceeded my expectations with their album Metaphorically Yours (Vol. 2).

There are some bands that you only have to hear once and you are in love. Bombs’ music gives me that same teenage crush feeling I got when I first heard The Cure. They make me nostalgic for the ’80s new wave sound, but happy that they have brought that sound into the 21st century.

A combination of electro-savvy tunes on one track and raw, organic mixes and catchy upbeat chorus lines on another make these guys an explosive force, and my new favorite Portland band. As good as they sound blaring out of my laptop, Bombs’ music is best heard live. I picture them playing in a darkly lit club, where everyone would be smoking (if Portland didn’t have that fabulous no-smoking-in-bars law), and androgynous showgoers would be jumping around to Bombs’ mind-blowing beats.

A place, perhaps, like Dunes (1905 NE MLK Blvd.) on March 6th at 9 p.m. with Amber Voltaire and Post Harbor.

– Deanna Uutela

2010 is shaping up to be a good year for Blue Horns. In fact, as far as I can tell, they’ve played somewhere around 1,000 shows since January. This is in no small part thanks to the boatloads of talent these fellows possess.

It’s no surprise that the wild, stylish sound of Blue Horns has become so popular in a city where hipsters strive to look like lumberjacks and you’re as likely to party in nature as you are in a nightclub. They make the kind of music that should have accompanied Max Records on the big screen if Max had a leather jacket on and Karen O wasn’t so literal in her translation of "Wild Thing."

The band brings a teenage energy to the music, without letting it become angsty or obnoxious. Their talent lies not just in making raucous, joyous sounds, but in knowing where to bring them back and tone them down before they lose sight of the song. Nowhere is this surprising restraint more obvious than in their new single "Daughters," available on their MySpace page.

Not only can you finally hear what Park is singing, but the sound in general has mellowed and matured. Needless to say you should probably check it out, and if their recent schedule is any indication you will have plenty of chances to.

– Emilie Clark

Ocean Age is three boys and two girls who all live in the same neighborhood and make some pretty rad music together.

Their official debut EP release, Forests, was exposed to the public this week during a show at Backspace. The first track on the EP, "Dalvik Tide," can be streamed from the Willamette Week blog or their MySpace page (which has most of the tracks found on Forests).

The band crafts songs with steady rhythms that are both very organic and tribal; they throb, build and fall like the ocean, waves or other forces of nature. Obvious influences such as Animal Collective can be spotted quickly by the listener, as well as more subtle nuances. The vocal melodies remind me of Fleet Foxes at times, while they also have brilliantly picked up on modern trends found in the dreamy production by the likes of Taken by Trees and perhaps even Beach House.

The vocal tracks soar up and down above the groundwork provided by the percussion and other instruments, mainly bass, guitar and keys. After listening to Forest, I am completely excited to see these young musicians (the oldest being 23) exhibit their craft in person. The band’s next scheduled performance is at the Hawthorne Burgerville at 7 p.m., apparently, and is totally free.

Take a listen and then vote for a truly worthy contender for Band of the Month. It’s a fun ride. I fully recommend it.

– Joel Sommer

When winter gets drizzly and cold, it’s nice to bounce around inside to sunny pop.

Van Go Lion have just the right blend of sugary sweetness coating their smooth electro-pop, and they’re making their live premiere at Ash St. Saloon on Saturday, February 27th with loop-ninja Tony Smiley and indie sentiments from Just Lions.

Like all matches made in heaven, singer (and former Deli Portland Associate Editor!) Amy Paige met keys whiz Josh Loerzel on Craigslist. A love of Prince, Tears for Fears, Hall & Oates, Eurythmics, early Madonna, and some Boyz II Men made this pair swoon together. Hunched over their MIDI boards and Macbooks, they got serious about pop music and wanna bring some R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the genre with their self-titled debut of “retro-electro-pop.”

Through floating, downtempo ballads, punchy beats, and humming synths, Van Go Lion is a happy-go-lucky dance party for growing up and making mistakes.

Show starts at 9:30 p.m., $5.

– Chris Young

Party Girls are relatively new to the Portland scene, but I can already tell they are the misfits of indie music.

Their motto (well, their MySpace mantra, anyway) is “We came to impregnate,” and they describe their own sound as being “so heavy we induce labor.” The trio consists of vocalist Ryan Wolf, guitarist and ex-Bad Dudes member Gabe Castro, drummer Zach Richards, and synth/bassist Jim McBride. With a mixture of indie, metal, rock and some old school hip-hop, the best way I can describe them is if NOFX and Social Distortion had a threesome with Rage Against the Machine.

You won’t find any iron-on kittens emblazoned on any of their shirts, but you might discover a badly drawn penis and the band’s name scrawled across Wolf’s baby-smooth hairless chest – if you are willing to get that close. It is obvious these guys like to be the outsiders and to keep audiences guessing.

Their record cover, which has a very manly, buffed-up unicorn charging through the air, is a great representation of their sound. They have taken the indie music scene and injected it with some serious steroids, and even though they might look all cute and friendly on the outside, these guys kick some serious ass.

The lyrics to Tenacious D’s “Explosivo” sums up Party Girls well, “Climb upon my faithful steed, then we gonna ride, gonna smoke some weed. Climb upon my big-ass steed, and ride, ride, ride.”

Party Girls is opening for local fave Jaguar Love during their March 4th CD release at Satyricon. $7, all ages, 8 p.m.

Be sure to bring some form of birth control, and vote for the band in our Band of the Month poll if you dig it.

– Deanna Uutela

The Round is one of those impossibly chic convergences of art, poetry and music that makes you wish you had thought of it first. But, guess what? You didn’t.

Founded in Seattle in 2005 by arts curator Nathan Marion, The Round has now expanded to Tacoma, Portland, Austin, and Lebanon, PA. The setup is so simple it’s genius: feature local musicians on stage with interspersed slam poetry sets and live painters for an amazing, one-of-a-kind art-o-rama. There are rules to keep the event fresh each go around, too. Musicians can only perform at an edition of The Round once a year; slam poets twice a year; and painters just three times per year.

So what’s in store for Portland Round 12 this Tuesday at The Woods, you ask? Just your ho-hum, average triple threat of Portland underground rock luminaries John Vecchiarelli, Y La Bamba’s Ben Meyercord, and Autpilot is for Lovers vocalist/accordionist Adrienne Hatkins on the music side of things. I’m not even positive as to what this merging of such disparate styles will produce. I just know I want to see it. And so should you.

Live painting will come courtesy of returning artist Michelle Tuffias, with layered spray-painted art from Beth Myrick, and poetry from slam poet Melissa Rose.

The rain is coming back, y’all. And your brain’s no doubt been fried by the Vitamin D-struction of the fleeting sun. Support everything local, always; and open your senses to the combined infiltration of an evening of amazing performance.

Doors are at 8 p.m.; show at 9. $8 cover. 21 and over.

– Ryan J. Prado

Nurses were the latest PDX band to visit the Horseshack and lay down three live tracks for Daytrotter, which you can download for free!

In their worming and brooding manner, Nurses took three psychedelic tracks from Apple’s Acres, put two together as an eight-minute amalgamation ("Technicolor/Man At Arms"), and recorded an unreleased beauty.

Sadly, Nurses just played their last PDX gig this week (opening for Atlas Sound) and won’t be back for a while when their tour with The Tallest Man On Earth comes to the Mission Theater on Tuesday, May 11th. In other big Nurse news, the trio will be rocking this year’s Sasquatch Music Festival on Saturday, May 29th. Other PDX acts playing the three-day Memorial Day weekend fest include YACHT (who rolled Holocene this week), Quasi, Portugal. The Man… and if we can count them as one of ours… the Pavement cash-grabbin’, alt-rockin’ reunion show. Frontman Stephen Malkmus does live here after all!

– Chris Young

Sean Flinn – The Pageantry from Live From Your City on Vimeo.

You may think you don’t know Sean Flinn & The Royal We, but trust me, you know more about this band than you think. If you are a fan of the local indie darlings, Y La Bamba, I guarantee you are a fan of Sean Flinn, for they are one in the same…almost.

Sean Flinn & The Royal We comprises all of the Y La Bamba members, excluding percussionist Mike Kitson, and adds three other members on pedal steel, organ, percussion and drums. The beautiful Y La Bamba front lady, Luzelena Mendoza, takes a step down in this project, with the roll of backup vocals and percussionist, allowing Flinn, lead guitarist in Y La Bamba, to flex his vocal muscles.

Flinn and Mendoza’s vocal harmonies are ethereal in “Patient Heart,” the title track of the band’s first release, a digital E.P. Morose minor chords and waves of percussion fill all of the empty space, giving the song a full yet fragile sound. The rest of the songs on the Portlanders’ Myspace are in the same vein. The band does a good job of incorporating every instrument to create solid, emotive music.

The octet expects to release its debut LP, Write Me a Novel, this June and is playing shows around town in the meantime, including Mississippi Studio’s one-year anniversary in March. You can check out Sean Flinn & The Royal We tonight at Doug Fir, and if you like what you hear, make sure to give them your vote on our Band of the Month poll. Show starts at 9 p.m. $10.

-Katrina Nattress

We’ll let the video for Bodhi‘s "Warm Side" speak for itself. If, for some odd goddamn reason, you had not heard or seen the band before, here’s your chance. This is part of the ongoing rad film featurettes over at Into the Woods. These series’ are fast becoming the talk of the indie-rock film game, and I’m glad to see them representing such a vibrant, diverse scene like Portland’s.

I’m almost tempted to write more about how awesome this song is, too. But, well, you’ve got eyes and ears, right? Besides, I’m pretty sure Bodhi knows we love them at the Deli Portland already.

Apologies to those deaf, dumb, blind kids who stumbled onto this site all willy-nilly. We’re sure you play a mean pinball.

– Ryan J. Prado

If you are anything like me – a total attention whore – you would jump at any opportunity to get your name and/or face shown to the public. Instead of spending countless hours trying to make a video to be on the soul-sucking, brain-numbing Real World, why not be a part of something local and that doesn’t require utter humiliation?

Portland’s Archeology is looking for extras for their video shoot for “By the By,” which is a single off their new album Memorial due out next month. The shoot will be this Saturday, February 20th. The locale is Sauvie’s Island and St. Helens. The feel of the video is creepy mixed with celebratory angst, and the band asks that everyone dresses in ’30s-’60s period clothes.

Meeting time is 12 p.m. on Saturday at the parking garage under the NW Burnside Fred Meyers. This sounds like a ridiculously fun time and a great chance to support a local band. If I wasn’t whoring myself out somewhere else this Saturday I would be there fo’sho’. Oh, and don’t forget to come out for Archeology’s show at Mississippi Studios this Wednesday, February 17th with fellow Portland mellow-rockers Oh Captain, My Captain, and Seattle’s The Globes. Doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m. $8

– Deanna Uutela

To put it mildly, Tu Fawning is a force of nature – a pulsing, bubbling, organic quartet of able-bodied musical sponges wading in the suds of Portland’s post-rock puddles. To get serious about prodding their muses and defining their sound would take the combined efforts of a self-writing quill, an encyclopedic understanding of synergy and the language of trees, and the tears of a Cherokee raindancer. So I’ll try to keep it mild.

Tu Fawning is the spawn of Portland musical luminaries Corrina Repp (of Corrina Repp and Viva Voce fame) and Joel Haege (the explosive force behind art-punk-funk trio 31 Knots). The duo recently became a foursome, inviting in the key-tinklin’ talents of Liza Rietz (also a popular PDX fashion designer), and multi-instrumentalist/mostly brass-ist Toussaint Perrault. The quartet unhinges a fluid, tribal, melancholy melange using tambourines, samples, shadowy percussion, modest guitar, trumpets, layered vocals and more to stitch together a hollow, holistic version of minimalist orchestral rock. It’s hypnotic, to say the least; and a goddamn religious experience live. 

Here, Haege’s spastic, choppy guitar squalls – so patented within the carnival realm of 31 Knots – are replaced by plaintive, subtle notation. His secondary presence is due foremost to the equally engaging aura of Repp, whose fluffy-gruff vocal melodies drive the songs to parts unknown, while Perrault’s brass and percussive elements mix with the shaky-hands of Rietz and her generous key contributions.

"Multiply A House" sounds like a neo-Squanto day trip recorded in an empty jail cell with Glenn Miller’s Orchestra tripping on LSD and playing the same, echoing lines forever and ever. For clarification: This is amazing.

Go see this band right now. Even if they’re not playing. And vote for them in our Band of the Month poll to the top right of this blog if you dig.

– Ryan J. Prado