There are like a million good shows happening tonight. These are the ones I endorse.
Saturday, August 8th
Backspace is having a show with BOAT (Seattle), New Century Schoolbook and Ron Hexagon (LA). BOAT and New Century Schoolbook are both gleaming examples of modern indie-pop. I love both. Rex Hexagon is uh...well, remember when you were a kid and would make up songs. He is like that. The ALL AGES show is $6 and starts at 9 PM.
Worksound is having a show with Pelican Ossman, Rickshaw, Ages and Rush-N-Disco. It is apparently the Record Release (actual vinyl) show for Pelican Ossman. They claim to be a family band. They range from Silver Jews-esque country to lo-fi rock. Rickshaw plays with a similar lo-fi rock aesthetic. Rush-N-Disco performs YouTube videos. Live. Acapella. It is pretty weird, and but even more so hilarious. The show is FREE and starts at 8 PM.
Doug Fir is having a show with Portland Cello Project and Jared Mees & The Grown Children. This a night dedicated to dance covers. It is essentially if you took a bunch of Portland "rock stars" and had them doing karaoke with a bunch of cellos instead of a karaoke machine or whatever. That being said it will probably be a lot of fun.
Mississippi Studios is having a SMYRC Benefit with: We're from Japan, Swallows, Southerly and Jon Garcia. It is a good cause. Plus if you have never seen the awesome instrumental post-rock that is We're From Japan!, then you are missing out. Swallows is pretty fun. And I have yet to see a bad Southerly show. The show is $8 and starts at 9 PM.
Rotture is having another installation Supernature: Bobby Birdman (LA), Deelay Ceelay, and resident DJ's: DJ Copy, DJ BJ (one of the dudes from Atole and E*Rock. Bobby Birdman used to live in Portland. I think he is really good. He mixes electronic music and old school crooning. Deelay Ceelay are a very visual band. If you are blind you will still enjoy it but you are not getting the full dry ice/projections experience. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.
Mississippi Pizza is having a show with All My Pretty Ones (Berkeley/Oakland) and Sam Cooper. All My Pretty Ones makes very good folk pop. Extremely good. I only listened to a little bit of it but I really want to see the shoe. I am also a fan of Sam Cooper. His music is all good and his songs are often very verbose and well written. He has a very awkward stage presence that I find endearing. The show is early and starts at 6 PM.
The Waypost is having a show with Invisible River (Olympia), Eleanor Murray (Olympia), Arrington de Dionyso and Ohioan. Invisible River and Eleanor Murray are both cool indie folk groups from Olympia (one led by a boy, one led by a girl). They both sound pretty good. Arrington, of Old Time Relijun, is crazy. Or at least his music is. Just crazy. Ohioan is really good indie experimental country (or something like that). The ALL AGES show is FREE and starts at 8 PM.
Kelly's Olympian is having a show with M. Bison (Seattle), Yeltsin and Grey Anne. I have heard of M. Bison before. I don't remember when or where. But listening to their my space page they sounded pretty good. Sometimes kinda like classic pop, sometimes a bit noisey, sometimes three part harmonies. Yeltsin is a really good rock band. Straight up very little amount of chords and a lot of melody. Grey Anne is an entertainer through and through. Her songs are good and often clever. Her voice is beautiful. Her stage presence is way above average(not that she goes crazy or anything, she just knows how to engage an audience). And she can use a looping pedal like nobodies business. The show is $5 and starts at 10 PM.
The Artistery is having a show with Guidance Counselor, Tunnels, Jeffrey Jerusalem. This is a show for your ass. Specifically for it to shake to and frow and all about. I have seen both Guidance Counselor and Jeffrey Jerusalem and they are both so fun to see. It is very upbeat, positive, and dancey. Tunnels is one that i haven't seen but what I heard was kinda darker almost Joy Division-esque dance music. The ALL AGES show starts at 8 PM.
14th Place is having a show with Nomenclature, Dinner and the Main Course, Monochrome, DJ Appleseed, and Pardee Shorts. This looks like a classic house show. All the bands are really pretty upbeat and fun. Nomenclature make indie-rock that is sometimes reminiscent of Pavement, sometimes of Animal Collective (if I recall correctly). Dinner and the Main Course are screamy female led punky band with saxophone (or some sort of brass instrumentation). Pardee Shorts are a pop band with really crazy drumming. Again I cannot stress how fun this looks. The show is FREE and starts at 9:30 PM.
So if you see a man that looks like me, say "Hi". You never know, it might be me.
-Ben
Guidance Counselor 7-4-09 from Andrew Sloan on Vimeo.
Guidance Counselor advises you to dance. They will be playing tonight at The Artistery.
4 comments:
Awww. An endorsement from Ben is a ticket to the top :).
I would like to mention that New Century Schoolbook and Boat are now playing with Peacock & LeBeau, rather than Mr. Hexagon. (No worries, there was some confusion on this on my part as well, because it was originally on Boat's myspace as Ron Hexagon, and then I checked again after updating my Facebook band page and it was P & L. How embarassing! Well, not realy.) They seem to have equal amounts of goofiness but a more laid-back sound with less electronics.
Yeah. I saw one website that mentioned them and two that mention Mr. Hexagon. So I went with him.
Weird, it ended up that we did play with Ron Hexagon, anyway. I just went off Boat's myspace. So you were correct, and I stand corrected.
Yay! I am right!
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