Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Tuesday, August 31st

Hello Dear Readers,

Oh no. I didn't make it out to any shows last night. I hope that you guys did. Did I miss anything that is going to go down in Portland Music Scene History? Well, I am gonna go out tonight for sure. But to what show? Hmmmm...how about one of these?

Valentine's is having a show with Aliens, ASSS, and Desert Moans. I could not find out any information about Aliens. I kept coming up with the band that formed from the ashes of Beta Band. I am pretty sure that this is a different Aliens band. ASSS on the other had is easily found. I finally saw them at PDX Pop this year. It was pretty cool. The music was mostly created by two floor toms and vocals. But there are some noisey synth sounds and a sax was also brought out at one point. Experimental! I also could not find out and information about Desert Moans aside from the fact that they are indeed a band and once played East End with Ghost Mom and Fag Rag. That shows description from Garage Punk Hideout said this about Desert Moans "?????? ...but good." So maybe its garage punk. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Backspace is having a show with Junius (Boston), Orbs (not Portland), and Ghosts & Monsters. Junius is a very cool band from Boston. AristeiA played a show with them last time they played in Portland. They are kinda shoe gaze, they are kinda heavy. It is like The Cure if they tuned down and turned up their guitars. Orbs is a band that they are on tour with. They sound like a rock band. The vocals are nasally kinda like early Hot Hot Heat (rember them?). The music is kinda dark and kinda progressive. I would say that it will be impressive live. Ghost & Monsters at a band that I have not heard of from our local area. It is pretty crazy. A lot of screaming a lot of weird stop starts and a whole lot of cool sounding guitars. The ALL AGES show is $7 and starts at 8 PM.

Someday Lounge is having a show with On The Tundra (Eugene), Monarchs, The Jezebel Spirit, and Yeah Great Fine. On the Tundra is an instrumental post-rock band. If you like Explosions in the Sky or bands like that, their sound will be familiar. Monarchs is a band I could not find information about. Unless it is this band (which it probably isn't). The Jezebel Spirit is one of the many band associated with the BroFam Collective. The collective is kinda of a mixture of Elephant 6 and the Wu Tang Clan. Except with math rock instead of indie-pop and hip-hop. Anyway the players of Jezebel Spirit are pretty incredible. Seriously just watch them play and be amazed. Yeah Great Fine is one of the many bands that I have only seen once but mean to see a whole lot more. They play a pretty awesome take on pop music that incorporates some mathy and electronic flourishes. Cool stuff. The show is $ at 9 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows please say, "Hi". Then we can get our show on

-Ben


The Jezebel Spirit sound a whole lot less distorted in real life. You can see them at Someday tonight.