Sunday, December 6, 2009

Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Sunday, December 6th

Hello Dear Readers,

So last night was fun. I ended up seeing two out of the four shows I thought I might be able to do. I saw the Folk thing at Waypost but to honest there was kinda a weird vibe. I was very happy to see The Sarcastic Dharma Society and Padraic Finbar Haggerty-Hammond play. They both debuted some new material that was just great. They both play on each others music and both added drums and glockenspiel into the mix. I loved their sets (it was a round robin style thing). Then I walked three blocks down to Ivy house and caught Duck, Little Brother Duck. They are very math, and play very fast, and it is hard to bob your head to, but very fun to try. I think that they are very very very good. After that I wanted to see if World's Greatest Ghost was playing but apparently was spent. Oh well. Here are the shows that look good to me today:

Sunday, December 6th

Rontoms is having a show with ioa and Paper Upper Cuts. ioa is the band that Amanda Spring (Point Juncture, WA) created for the songs she has been writing lately. There is some overlap in the sound of Point Juncture. It is hard to not sound kinda like a band when you have as distinctive voice as hers. The instrumentation is Baritone Ukulele, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, timbales, trumpet, French Horn, Flute. That being said it is not as "indie rock" sounding as her other band, and in fact I would say it has more of a Latin flavor with the rhythms that she uses (and maybe some of the brass). Anyway it is worth checking out. Her drummer in ioa is David "Papi" Fimbres who is the person behind the other band playing, Paper/Upper/Cuts. It is usually a one man affair but he is open to collaboration. He has played with like a million bands and has a long list of past collaborators for this project. But all the videos I have seen show Papi alone at the kit looping his keyboard, flute or vocals ore whatever and making some phresh beats to go atop the loops. It is very cool. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Valentine's has a show with Gulls, Hexlove, and Sustentacula. Gulls is a band that I saw play PDX Pop 2007 that I was very impressed with. So much so that I bought a CD of theirs. As I recall, it was instrumental and had really cool beats, some flute and a lot of synth and samplers going. I really like it. Also I recall it sometimes approaching dub. Whatever it was, it was really cool. Hexlove is not that different in idea. It is a drummer who also plays loops other instruments, though he uses his voice a log more. Put the sounds are heavily effected and sometimes get kinda far out there. Sustenacula is a duo that plays whatever they feel like sometimes it is all samples and loops, sometimes it is acoustic guitars and singing sometimes it is keyboards with sick beats. But it is consistently interesting and, as far as I can tell, good. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Rotture is having a show with Bastard Noise (LA), Thrones (Salem), Rabbits, and Nux Vomica. Bastard Noise is experimental Hardcore from LA. I am mostly listing this show because I think Thrones is pretty bad ass. Though he is lives in Salem, he plays Portland an awful lot. He one man show, of Joe Preston (of every cool heavy band) consists of a bass a drum machine a microphone run through a vocoder and a whole lot of amps and cabinets. It is loud and heavy and, yes he plays with a drum machine but it is still intense and the drum machine is programed to fit the weird progressions that are made. It is often slow and sometimes quite pretty. And always epic. Honestly the other bands are heavy and not really my thing. But Thrones is great. The show is $7 and starts at 9 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows please say, "Hi". I will say it back. Honest.

-Ben


Hexlove will be doing something like this tonight at Valentine's.

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