Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for June 16th to 18th

Hello All,

Well, I am about to go away for a bit. Y La Bamba is going on a West Coast tour starting tomorrow. So that means I have tonight to see Portland shows, and then I will see what California has to offer.

Tuesday, June 16th

Mississippi Pizza is having a show with Black Heart Moon, Sam Cooper and Pancake Breakfast (White Salmon, WA). I have had the pleasure of playing shows with both Black Heart Moon and Sam Cooper. THey are both really good. The songs of Black Heart Moon are really good. I highly suggest you check them out. Sam Cooper is an amazing musician. he's played with just about every band in Portland. Plus his songs are so good. The show will be by donations and starts at 9 PM.

Someday Lounge is having a show with The Prids, Martin Bisi, and Valentine's is having a show with Oregon Painting Society, Wraiths, and Wooly Mammoth Comes to Dinner. I mostly mention this show because of Wooly Mammoth Comes to Dinner, the improv modern dance group. They use whatever is at their disposal including sometimes t=doing some Voltron type stuff (what with locking their bodies together and all).The show is FREE (donations?) and starts at 9 PM.

The Wail is having a show with Our Brother the Native (Ann Arbor), Religious Girls (East Bay, CA), Carson McWhirter (of The Advantage), and Summer Blondes. I could not hear any music on their page, so I don't if they are a band or not. I have heard Our Brother Native and liked what I heard. The ALL AGES show is $6 and starts at 7 PM.

Wednesday, June 17th

Berbati's Pan is having the show with Leather Tom and The Dirty Dudes and Pigeons. I want to experience the Leather Tom show. I also have been meaning to catch Pigeons for a while. The recordings sound pretty good, my friends who have seen them said it was pretty good too. The show is FREE and starts at 10 PM.

Ash Street Saloon is having a show with Mut (Olympia), Sound The Shout!, vs. the sea. I am writing about this show because Vs. The Sea has a really good songwriter at the helm (Jared Brennen). The show is $5 and the music starts at 9:30

The Know (the website is down, 2026 NE Albert st) is having a show with Stiffwiff and The Winebirds. The band Stiffwiff is a band that usually does improv jams, but I have been told that on Wednesday they are going to play songs that have already been written. I am curious as to how it will go. Also, I have heard good things about the Winebirds. It will be FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Thursday, June 18th

Disjecta is having an event called Art Words. Check out this email I got, "Disjecta and Tin House return to a winning formula for the next installment of Arty Words, the literary/art/music sensation too unwieldy to be called an event. Vol. II features Los Angeles artist and writer Zak Smith, Portland's own Jon Raymond and a very special musical performance by Quasi. Zak Smith does for alt porn what Hunter S. Thompson did for motorcycle gangs and Tom Wolfe for psychedelica. Punk artist and icon Zak Smith made a name for himself by visually re-creating Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and drawing pictures of girls in the "naked girl business." His artistic pedigree and acute observation landed him in high-profile exhibits at the Whitney and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Somewhere along the line, Smith went from the observer to the observed, from the guy with a sketchpad to the guy on-screen doing the unnamable for anyone eighteen or older to see. We Did Porn follows Zak Smith (aka Zak Sabbath) from the New York art scene to Los Angeles's seedy, yet colorful, underbelly-the world of alt porn. Through memoir and more than one hundred drawings, Smith narrates his foray into pornography and gives his readers a new understanding of the industry, its players, and its audience. Jon Raymondis the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of stories, two of which were made into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. He is an editor at Plazm magazine, a former editor at Tin House, and his writing has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, the Village Voice, and other publications. He lives in Kenton, home of Disjecta." Ummm...did you see that Quasi is playing? Rejoice! The show is $7 and starts early at 7:30 PM.

Backspace is having a show with Hexlove, PWRFL Power (Seatlle/Tokyo), The Naked Hearts, and Tunnels. This is a Potlatch Presents show. If you have not heard of Potlatch, get with it. They are an awesome bunch of people who promote good local music. Hexlove make very pretty ambient music. I love PWFL Power and his songs and his guitar playing. I also have been meaning to see Tunnels for some time. The show is $7 and starts 7:30 PM.

Rotture is having a show for Rock'n'Roll Camp for Girls. It will feature Feelin' Alright, Dirty Mittens, Anaturle. This is for a good cause folks. And just so you know, Fellin' Alright has members of Team Dresch, Errase Errata, and Dear Nora (Super Group!). Dirty Mittens are so good. You should totally check them out if you haven't already. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

The Wonder Ballroom is having a pretty awesome show with The Builders & The Butchers, Loch Lomond, and Ah Holly Fam'ly. Both The builders and Loch Lomond have gone on tour with the Deceberists. Will Ah Holly Fam'ly be next? No. Blind Pilot is going tour with them, but I still think that Ah Holly Fam'ly is really good and deserves any exposure they get. Plus I think that Loch Lomond is great. The ALL AGES show is $12-14 and starts at 8 PM.

Mississippi Pizza is having a show with Dear Ether and Brass Clouds. Dear Ether is a band that was started as a one man recording project in Seattle. Since he moved down to Portland it has grown to a band and then to a sometimes band. I am not sure if tonight will be a band or solo show. but it will probably be fun wither way. The show is probably by donation and starts at 9 PM.

So if you see me tonight then
-Ben