Portland

VAN MADNESS

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Well, shit. As if And And And didn’t have enough on their plates from last year, the chainmaille slingin’, bemohawked drummer Bim Ditson has rigged up the Van Van Van with a hoop of gloriously ghetto proportions. Welcome to Rigsketball 2011, Portland. 32 bands over the next four weeks playing street ball like you’ve probably literally never seen it. It will drive you crazy. It could actually drive you somewhere – the hoop is on the back of And And And’s van. The games started Monday and are already forming some furious feuds and joyous moments. Catch a game, come hang out, place your bets. 

Check out the Rigsketball 2011 Kickstarter for the full schedule. 

Portland

ELECTRO BURLESQUE for KPSU

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What better to support your local college radio than some (almost) sex. I mean, (almost) stripping is more accurate. Despite my inadequate description of burlesque, you should tote yourselves down to Mt. Tabor to support KPSU. $10 gets you in, $20 gets you into the VIP section with 2 bottles of wine. They’re not kidding around. Of course, our favourite local musical sex-hounds, Adventures! With Might will be leading the night into consensual oblivion.

The breakdown: 

May 31, 2011

Featuring hosts Rocket and Vera Mysteria, live music by Adventures!With Might, and burlesque entertainers Lady Stockholm, Lark the Fire Dancer, Fleur De Sel, Sandria Dore’, Bracken, Luka Bazooka, Tucker, Vera Mysteria, Paris, and Rian! Where: Mt Tabor Theater (4811 SE Hawthorne)

General admission: $10 at the door

VIP: $20 – this gets you a seat in the VIP section and complimentary wine (2 bottles per table of 4)

Doors at 9, show begins shortly thereafter. 21+

Portland

Wiggle Hard And I Can Promise You Mystical Sweat: E*Rock’s The Clock & The Mountain

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PAY ATTENTION. E*Rock is back and he’s made you something beautiful. The Clock & The Mountain LP/CD, off his own Audio Dregs label, will take you on that quest you regret not taking – the one that was supposed to define the mastery inside of you. Your odyssey. That surreal teenage voyage, where body all hot and heavy, you were meant to drag your shaking ass through some crystal-studded battleground, through the bowels of your own reality, in tandem with the one we all share.

They say that youth is wasted on the young. Well, they didn’t have E*Rock.

The Clock & The Mountain is an intergalactic minefield, where young soldiers dressed in black leather do their formations in yellow sand, saluting the pyramids and demanding more for their platoon. These are hot blooded songs of fury, laced with a surreptitious battle cry for something better. These are the songs to dance one’s heart out; the songs of a generation. Wiggle hard and I can promise you mystical sweat.

I hate to get into particular tracks because this thing is such a vigorous, swelling procession, but know that "Hardcastle" is this trippy, zoned-out disco jam. It’s what you hear when it’s just the two of you, combing your fingers through each other’s hair, slow dancing. It’s the ultimate end of the night jam – the good taste left in your mouth. And "Carlisle" is this slippery, cloud-9 jazzy soiree – a slapdash makeout session in the rain. Prepare yourself for microchip locusts and robot percussion, hearty beats and so-deep funky bass lines. Even some inflamed Latin riffs.

Listening to this album straight through is like traveling all of the warm climates alone, by bicycle, having the best time of your life. But it’s not all fun and games – you’re also finding enlightenment in the muted zone, and you’re deep in it. Seriously, just pay attention. – Morgan Brothers

Catch E*Rock live with DJ Copy, DJ Zan Eno, and Strategy at Rotture this Friday for the record release party of The Clock & The Mountain

 

Portland

Morning Teleportation

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From the unabashed yelling and screaming at the beginning of “Boom Puma,” you know Morning Teleportation’s newest album isn’t going to hold anything back. In fact, that first track could sum up the album: full tilt fun with winding song forms and loud choruses tempting sing-a-longs.

But the album stands better than a single totem; “Expanding Anyway” is solid if not long-winded at times. Where Morning Teleportation is best is the shorter songs, by which I mean under five minutes. The longer epics have their draw, but namely in that they sound like multiple songs squished together and no one hit the track break button. “Wholehearted Drifting Sense of Inertia” was originally one of my least favorite tracks, clocking in at nine minutes and switching gears from catchy rock to carnival boot-stomp to dream pop. But as it careens seemingly at random to and fro, the pieces start to fit together and it becomes more than a mash of songs and evolves into a full landscape. “Eyes the Same” and “Banjo Disco” are shorter numbers that still give that warm hug of completeness but without all the extra minutes.

At its heart, this is an album of movement. Jilting stops and starts and whimsical arcade noises dot the album giving a fresh feel for foot tapping and road tripping. The longer songs feel more like a compilation of short stand-alone songs and the vibe is happy without the sorrow or irony of much of current releases. Like Franz Ferdinand with horns or Animal Collective with less reverb, it is a feel good album conducive to camping, driving fast along tree-lined highways and making out in the sunshine. What a happy coincidence then that Memorial Day weekend is coming up! – Shelley Gaske

Portland

Somewhere’s Sunshine and Sandwiches

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I’ve said a thing or two about Aan in the past, and they just keep getting better. Following their latest EP, I Could Be Girl For You, Aan will be releasing two crisp tracks tonight at Bunk Bar on freshly pressed vinyl – a 7" that might scare or serenade your turntable, or do both. The show starts at 10, and it’s free, so the wiser part of my show-going would recommend getting there a bit early. The hungrier part of me would recommend the same. Maybe get there early enough to take a nap after eating your intense sandwich, so you can be rested for the intensity of Aan. 

Portland

Fin de Cinema: BLOW-UP at Holocene This Thursday

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Dive into mod London with the story of a photographer who believes he’s photographed a murder! The thrill and chill of the plot aside, the film is filled with the flash of 60’s-soaked, large-haired London, Vanessa Redgrave doing what she does best, and Holocene has invited three of our favourite locals to bring it all to life. What more could you ask for than Monarques, Rocky & The Proms, and The Reservations playing a brand new score for your dancing selves? The film starts promptly at 9. Wear your finest mod attire! You won’t be able to tell London 1966 from Holocene 2011. 

Portland

YACHT at The Wonder this Saturday!

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The mish-mash party sounds of YACHT are streaming back to the Wonder Ballroom this Saturday the 14th. Their stop in Portland for their “Road to Utopia” Tour will have some fresh songs from the forthcoming album and the earworm “Dystopia,” which you need to be careful with as it lodges into you your head and everything becomes “the [thing], the [thing], the [thing]is on fire…” Jona Bechtolt, shameless creator of catchiness, has been at the helm of the band for nearly a decade, getting people to dance and go crazy all along the way. The platinum blonde Annie Lennox-a-like is Claire Evans, who sings, chants, claps, and dances her way around the stage. With supplemental reading and pamphlets at their shows about finding your inner truth, the show should rock your chakras off. Not often do you get a little self-help and a lot of musical bang for your buck! Leading up to the main event, Bobby Birdman, Light Asylum and Jeffery Jerusalem will be checking your auras and helping you get ready to dance in the present moment for YACHT. – Shelley Gaske

Portland

This Week’s Menu: The Deli Portland’s Show Picks for May 9-15

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(Leviticus Appleton is EL MNO this Sunday at Rontoms)

For a moment, I thought it was going to be summer. Just for a moment, though. What’s on our plate this week to hold us over till the sun stays out for more than 25 minutes? (A little Holocene-heavy this week, I know, but they just have a spot on set of bills right now!)

Monday May 9: The Donkeys, Yours, Social Studies @ Holocene. $10, 8:30pm. 21+

Tuesday May 10: Air Waves, Joan of Arc @ Holocene. $12. 9:30pm. 21+

Wednesday May 11: Medicide For The People, Kelli Schaefer, Destroy Nate Allen, Seth Martin & The Menders @ The Farmhouse. $Donations. 7pm. All Ages!

Thursday May 12: Fin De Cinema: Blow-Up (1966) with The Reservations, Monarques, Rocky & The Proms @ Holocene. $6. 8:30pm. 21+ 

(also: Hole in My Soul @ Rotture tonight! Eeee!)

Friday May 13: Pigeons, Point Juncture, WA (record release show!), DJ Bill Portland @ The Woods. $8. 9pm. 21+

Saturday May 14: YACHT @ Wonder Ballroom. $14. 8pm. 21+

Sunday May 15: Leviticus Appleton is EL MNO REDNAILZ release show! with Dopebeds @ Rontoms. 8pm. FREE. 21+

Portland

And And And The Winner Is….

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Willamette Week has counted the votes of so many local music devourers, and the results are in in in. I mean, they won our poll for Portland’s best new band, too. Is it any wonder? And And And is an album producing machine, well-oiled with the chaos of Portland summers. Wily voiced and lo-fi as they come, a garage band writing youthful symphonies that can double as anthems, these guys have done it right. Over and over and over again. Want to see it in action, if you haven’t caught one of their thousand albums from the past year or one of their thunderous live shows? Mississippi Studios hosts &&& for free this Friday, along with Brainstorm and Wild Ones (two more top-fivers from WW‘s list!). Just a taste of what else is in store:

PACIFIC | WILD ONES from Calvin Waterman on Vimeo.

Portland

Album of the Month: The Ram Project of Dave Depper

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When I heard that someone was going to attempt to cover Paul McCartney’s Ram, I was skeptical, to understate. Ram is one of my favourite non-Beatles albums by a Beatle, in contention alone with All Things Must Pass. To take on such a project, an artist would have to be filled with foolishness or musical zeal – or perhaps a hearty serving of both. In either case, the artist that tried this would have to have a musical background versatile enough to battle just the thought of McCartney’s career.

The gregariously multi-project-bound Dave Depper might be one of Portland’s best bets for such an endeavor. Taking a month to himself and starting with “Heart of The Country”, Dave dove right into The Ram Project. The skill behind Dave’s guitar, piano, drums, and Paulesque vocals were never a question. From the opening tenor-stretch of “Too Many People” to the extended growling end of “Monkberry Moon Delight” and back to the scatting interlude of “Heart of the Country”, Depper is spot on. The biggest question that loomed over listening to this record was the soul behind it. Would Dave, along with the darling Joan Hiller, really be able to transform into Paul & Linda?

As I let The Ram Project play in the background while I went about my days listening to the album, I was (and also, wasn’t) surprised to find that I would get lost in those lulling copies from Ram. I honestly must admit that the echo from another room of Dave’s voice hanging in the air during “Long Haired Lady” sparked such a feeling that made me forget that it wasn’t Paul behind the microphone.

Musical zeal and a lot less foolishness than you’d expect, the well-traveled notes of Ram couple perfectly with Dave’s well carved collection of past projects. It amazes me that it was just a month he took to record every part alone, but after looking at his musical experience it’s not surprising. He just rammed on and did it. And did a damned good job. – Mike Harper (review also featured on Words Cut Open)