Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Saturday, February 19th

Hello Dear Readers,

I have been on the McMinaamen's Great North West Tour as Y La Bamba/Meyercord. It was kind of a last minute thing for Meyercord. I went on a Y La Bamba/ Meyercord tour years ago. It was pretty fun. Double duty. I am excited to be doing this. But it also means that I am unsure of my blogging time. I guess we will see how it goes. Anyways, here are the shows that look good tonight:

The Arlene Schnitzer aka the Schnitz is having a show with The Decemberists and Mountain Man. Personally I go back and forth on how I feel about probably the biggest band in Portland. I initially did not like them. Then I came around. Then I wanted to like them but wasn't 100% on board. I have not listened to their new album enough to make a judgement call on my current feelings towards the band. The main reason I am writing up the show is because of the opener. Mountain Man is beautiful music. I believe it is three women who sing together to make some of the loveliest harmonies you will ever hear. Check out this band. The show is about $40 and starts at 8 PM.

Backspace is having a show with Awol One, Ceschi Ramos (New Haven, CT), Cars & Trains, and Demune. With the exception of Dumune all of the artists are part of a west coast tour entitled the "Landmark Tour". I don't know much about the other artists. I do know that Cars & Trains is my jam. I really like the guy's music. It is somewhere between glitch-hop and indie folk. A weird place to be for sure. But a place that I love to visit. The ALL AGES show is $5 and starts at 8 PM.

Mississippi Pizza is having a show with Alex Arrowsmith, The We Shared Milk and Massive Moth (Salem). I remember writing up Alex Arrowsmith when I first started writing the blog. Way back when. He was one of the first people I took notice of. I was listening to a lot of pop music back then. He recently made a "not pop" album which you can download for free here, but it is not representative of what he plays live. It is however very pretty. The We Shared Milk is a band that I have written about a few times. I haven't seen them live. I have been listening to one track of theirs a lot. "Drag" is a song that is destined to make many playlists of mine. Car trip mixes, jogging mixes, riding my bike mixes. mix for the one I like. This could fit on any of those. The show is at 9 PM.

The Knife Shop is having a show with Friendly Skies, Armed with Legs (Seattle), Ports Will Call, and Design.Drift.Distance. Friendly Skies are a post rock duo that used to play shows with the post rock band that I used to be in, AristeiA. I was always impressed with the looping skills of John who plays a electric piano and a baritone guitar. I was always even more impressed with Jason who was able to keep the constant tempo required to pull off live looping all the while doing really cool stuff on the drums. Jason now drums with many other groups including one of my favorites Secret Codes. Design.Drift.Distance also has a Secret Codes member. You should check them out too. It is really good angular post-punk or whatever. Ports Will Call are pretty cool and mathy. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

House of Preblon is having a show with Nucular Aminals, Orca Team, The Woolen Men, and Rico of All Time. Dang. This is a good line up. I have written very positive things about all the band except Rico of All Time. I am not familiar with them. If you like house show high energy house show pop, then you probably already know about this show and are going. If you don't then you should give all of these bands a listen. I am a sucker for Orca Team especially. But I also really like Nucular Aminals. Oh, I am not gonna get into who I like the best. Just click on the links already. The ALL show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows, you would be mistaken as I will be in McMinnville.

-Ben


Nucular Aminals play House of Preblon tonight for FREEE!