Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Tuesday July 27th

Hello Dear Readers,

Yesterday was a looooong day for me. I ended up working 15 hours. I normally work 7 hours. That's over twice as long as I am used to. I was about ready to call it a night when I got off but I ran into my roommates on the way home who convinced me to go to Valentine's. I caught most of the set of The Reservations (i.e. Don Hellions and Mattress). I was kinda bummed I missed Blood Beach. According to Rex of The Reservations, "They Murdered it". I was not sure of what to expect from the band but I could not help but think of The Halo Benders. Those of you who do not know, The Halo Benders is an amazing collaboration of Doug Martsch (Built to Spill) and Calvin Johnson (Dub Narcotic Sound System/Beat Happening). In that two voices one high and one low mix together in a very cool way. In The Reservations the singer from Don Hellions (sorry I don't know your name) fills the Doug Martsch role, and Rex from Mattress fills the low end as the Calvin Johnson role. Pretty cool. Also tonight at The Gerding Theater the is The Portland Plan Arts Town Hall Meeting. "Come discuss how to effectively prioritize and weave arts-related issues in the City of Portland's road map for the next 25 years." Get your voice heard if you have an opinion. There will be a presentation by Mayor Sam Adams and probably some food and stuff. Anyways, here are some Portland shows happening today:

Music Millennium is having an in store performance by Menomena. Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod the new Menomena is out today! I have not heard Mines yet, but I bet it will sound awesome. Plus I bet it will be awesome to see them play a lot of it live this evening. Seriously this band tries and succeeds so hard. It is ALL AGES and FREE.

Valentine's is having a show with Sad Horse, Ron Burns (probably not this), Chris Johanson, and Brian Mumford. This might be an art show thing. Sad Horse is a noisy rock duo. The rest of the people on the bill are artists. You may recognize Brian Mumford as being Dragging an Ox Through Water. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Dunes is having a show with Tiny Moving Parts (Minnesota), Sunrise Sunset (Fargo), and Kidcrash. Experimental rock? Whatever. Start stop rock is more like it. Tiny Moving parts is the "experimental screamo" band that is on tour with Sunrise Sunset. That band seems like it will be cool to watch. They are a rock band but it sounds like there is a lot of brass. Kidcrash is a band that I have been meaning to check out for a while. It is kinda mathy with some screaming. Perhaps they too are experimental screamo? It will probably be a fun show. The show is probably FREE or very cheap and starts at 9 PM.

Mudai Lounge is having a show with Battlehooch (San Fran), Prescription Pills, and Weak Steel. I ran into Tony Prato who puts on the Mudai Shows last night. He told me that this was gonna be a good show. He said it was gonna be a dance show. He did not say so out right but he indicated that he thought that people were gonna dance. He also mentioned that Weak Steel is the new project of Josh who was in that band Newspapers who broke up to form the awesome band Yeah Great Fine and SAFARI (Cleavland). Also, I would like to say for the record that I think that Battlehooch is a hilarious name. The show is FREE and starts at 8 PM?

If you see me at any of these shows please say, "Hi".

-Ben


Kidcrash play Dunes tonight.