Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Friday, April 22nd

Hello Dear Readers,

Last night I played in Olympia as a part of Y La Bamba. It was super fun. I had some water from a well in the middle of a parking lot. I also saw a band, Spencer Angelo, play a show with cameras attached to their heads and instruments. They were also pretty awesome. Anyways, here are the shows that look good to me tonight:

Mississippi Studios is having a show with Y La Bamba, Dark Dark Dark, and Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?. I think that Y La Bamba is a pretty good band. Yes, I am part of it, but I am really stoked on a lot of new material that we are trying out on this tour. There are at least two songs that we have not played on any other tours. This is the Portland stop for this current tour. It is the first time that I have been a part of a three band tour. So far so good. The great thing is that I really like the other bands. Dark Dark Dark is a band i had heard before but didn't really listen to until we got word that Y La Bamba was a part of the tour. I have really fallen for their music. On paper they sound kinda like Y La Bamba. Female fronted band with accordion and male backing vocals. But I assure it is way different. Their sound is way more piano based and they have all sorts of brass on stage with them. I really like what they do. I actually ended buying their LP last night. I also bought the LP of Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship?. They have even more brass and on this tour are sharing their accordion and bass player with Dark Dark Dark. Walt the accordion play fronts the New Orleans based band. His energy is nervous and jittery. But in a very great way. The show is $13 and starts at 9 PM.

Worksound is having a show with Capillary Action, Why I Must Be Careful, and Ryan Francesconi. Capillary Action sounds like sped up jazzy tropical jazz with some nicely place guitar feats and a lot of cool percussion. It also has a bit of Mr. Bungle feel as far as crazy changes and heavy guitars placed n key moments. Why I Must Be Careful is an awesome free jazz duo of drums and rhodes. They must be seen to be understood. It is crazy but works really well. Ryan Francesconi is a guitar composer. He recently put out a instrumental acoustic guitar album, Parables. You may have heard him on Joanna Newsom's Have One on Me. I admit to listening to much guitar compositions, but this is good stuff. The show is at 8 PM.

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

Ben


Y La Bamba play at Mississippi Studios tonight. See you there?