Sunday, November 14, 2010

Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Sunday, November 14th

Hello Dear Readers,

Yesterday I was unable to blog. I wanted to. I had the time to. But I had people at work who made it so that I could not. Then as it turned out, I had a show to play in Eugene. It was as a part of Sean Flinn & The Royal We. It was a pleasant surprise that we played with And And And. Apparently several members of that band used to live in Eugene and it was the CD release show for local tune smith Leo London. It was a good show. And with the exception of when I accidentally swallowed an entire clove of garlic with out chewing (pizza can be tricky if you eat to quickly), I had a good time. But I left straight from work to Eugene. So basically I left my house at 7:30 am and got home at 4:00 am. I was a bit wiped out. I might not be able to go out tonight if I wan t to start functioning properly. These are the shows that look good should I change my mind:

Valentine's is having a show with Benoit Pioulard, Cinéma Vérité (Quebec), Charles Stanyan, and Pioneer. Benoit Pioulard makes pop music that is a bit dreamy and honestly at times incorporates aspects of ambient music textures or even straight up ambient tracks. It is a really nice balance of influences. Tom Meluch is the man behind the project. He doesn't play much here in Portland but from what I understand is pretty big in other places. What I am saying is that that we should tacked this show for granted. He is going to doing a West Coast tour with Canadians Cinéma Vérité. They sound even more of a pop band. They incorporate minimal electronic textures and some beats to create a sound that is pretty compatible with Benoit Pioulard. Charles Stanyan is a guy who like live sound manipulation. He is friends with Matthew Copper aka Eluvium and creates music with him as Concert Silence. Pretty cool. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Ella Street is having a show with Harlowe & Thre Great North Woods, The Shalants (California), and Rey Villalobos. Okay, so I first heard of Harlowe & The Great North Woods from my friend Brittain Ashford. She told me about this band that had moved to Portland from California and were going to be her backing band. She told me that their music was awesome. I was like, "I am totally going to check them out". Britain and Harlowe & The Great North Woods have since formed a new band called Prairie Empire. Fast forward to today. I am finally checking out the band. She was right. They are awesome. It kinda has the feel of a more fleshed out Horse Feathers or something. Shalants is a pop band from California. It is good and really well crafted. It would be a treat to see them. Rey Villalobos is a guy who used to front a band called The Coral Sea. Now he has gone solo and I love it. He recorded in Portland with incorporating some of our best players (see Corey Gray and Brian Wright of Carcrashlander). It reminds me of the late underrated Jeff Hanson. Who reminded me of an elf version of Elliott Smith. Seriously it is really good. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

East End is having a show with The Intelligence (sacto, portland, new orleans, bakersfield), Nucular Aminals, Spurm (Seattle), and Terraform. The Intelligence seem to be from a lot of places. As do their influences. They seem to be influenced by pop, lo-fi, 60's psych pop, and whatever else they could listen to. The results are band with a great energy that could fit in house shows or clubs, or just about anywhere. Nucular Aminals could also use that description sans the surf. They play excellent "mutated pop". Spurm reminds me of the first Panther record if he had chosen to use lo-fi pop instead of electro to use as a bed for his zany vocal freak outs. This music is clearly the work of crazy people. I think you will like it (unless of course you hate it). Terraform create music that has spastic energy of house punk with sax. The show will cost money and start at show time PM.

If you see me at any of these shows please say, "Hi". You'd be the coolest kid in school if you did.

-Ben


Binoit Pioulard will play Valentine's TONIGHT!

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