Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks May 10th

Hello Dear Readers,

Call your Mom! Its mothers day. Then go out and see some music (bring the old lady if you want).


Sunday, May 10th

Berbati's Pan is having a show with Deelay Ceelay, Gratitillium, Jeffrey Jerusalem, and Y La Bamba. It is day two of the celebration of Willamett Weeks "Best New Bands". This is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Valentine's is having a show with Graves, Augury and Son of May-tooth. Son of May-tooth is a Sabertooth side thingy or something. Graves are great. This is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Mississippi Studios is having a LEP High School Benefit: Stephen Malkmus, Alec Ounsworth, Steve Berlin, Storm Large, The Minus 5, The Dimes and Linda Hornbuckle. Its a benefit. Stephen Malkmus. You should go, right? This one is $25-75 and starts at 8 PM.

Sooooo... I did have no time to link this bad boy. Might I suggest google? If you see me tonight send a "Hi" my way.

-Ben

Read More >>

Out-Of-Town Music Review - Turnpike Glow

Turnpike Glow is composed of two Italians and two British guys now all living in the UK. The band was started by Giuseppe and Sandro in Italy, and after starting to play a few shows in the UK, they decided that London was the place for them, and Ben and Anthony joined the band to complete the rhythm section.
Unfortunately, I only have three of their songs to listen to, Monday Suitcase, Warranty, and Poppy's Portrait. Through these songs, I have a good picture of the band. It's immediately obvious why the founders decided to emigrate - their sound is very brit-pop, though the electronics on Monday Suitcase and to a lesser extent Poppy's Portrait remind me of the Super Furry Animals from a neighbouring isle. Monday Suitcase starts out slow with sustained guitar chords and piano, shortly bringing in a strong beat and some electronic sounds, with vocals following. The vocal arrangements are one of the strongest points of the band - catchy tunes with well-placed harmonies. (And as a sometimes backup singer, I know it's not as easy as it sounds.) Warranty opens with some aahs and oohs and develops into a tight, guitar driven pop song. Poppy's Portrait is more slow, quiet and simple. I do have one serious complaint about these guys.. they just haven't produced enough material. I would like to hear more, and now!
Groovy brit-pop with an electronic touch, showing that Italians do, in fact, do it better. Their Myspace suggests that new music is forthcoming soon.. I can't wait!

Read More >>

Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for May 7th and 8th

Hello Dear Readers,

So I thought I was going to be able to see shows. And then yesterday I went to the dentist. Afterwards (more specifically after I paid the bill) I realized that I was not seeing a show that night. Luckily there are some FREE ones tonight that I might be able to check out.

Thursday, May 7th

• Crystal Ballroom is having night two of two featuring The Shins and The Delta Spirit (CA) play. As I mentioned previously, these show are totally sold out. You will have to do some shameful things to get into this show (unless of course you have already bought a ticket, in which case, do you have an extra?). The ALL AGES show starts at 9 PM.

• Tender Loving Empire is having a first Thursday event with Finn Riggins and Church. I think I read somewhere that TLE will be putting out the Church full length. I am so stoked for that to come out. This is a FREE event and starts at 8 PM.

• East End is having a John Lennon Tribute: The Lark, Dantronix, Jeezum Crow, Soft Paws, Beyond Veronica, Oh Captain My Captain, Viola Rose, Zack Blei and Brace Paine. I must admit that I am only listing this because I think that Oh Captain My Captain is awesome. Plus this Show is FREE. And John Lennon was a cool guy. The show starts at 8 PM.

• Plan B is having a show with Les Flaneurs, Chores and Tractor Operator. I have been meaning to see Les Flaneurs, and Chores for a long time. I also have not seen Tractor Operator in a looong time. It is $5 and starts at 9:30 PM.
  

• Nest Lounge is having Rian O'Hara, Gregory Miles Harris and Tommy Suitcase all play. Do you like quirk-core (a genre I just made up?). These are some of quirk-cores finest contemporaries. I am pretty sure it is FREE and even more sure that it starts at 8 PM.

Friday, May 8th

• Backspace is having a show with Y la Bamba, Odawas (Berkeley) and Sabertooth. Hey guess what. I play in Y La Bamba! Is this a conflict of interest? Maybe. Is that why I am listing this shows first? Yes. I think we are awesome. But apparently I am not the only one who thinks so as we were voted #6 Best New Bands by WW. Anyways, the ALL AGES show is $6 and starts at 8:30 PM.

• Mississippi Pizza is having Blue Cranes and Andrew Oliver Sextet. If you don't like hip indie rock bands, perhaps you like hip indie jazz bands. I like both. This show is $8 and starts at 9 PM.

• Holocene is having PDX Film Fest Karaoke Throwdown: Rush-N-Disco, Hooliganship and DJ BJ. This looks like it will be loads of fun. Most crowd participation type events are. Plus if you haven't seen Rush-N-Disco, you really need to. Just ask Goldie. This show is $7 and starts at 9 PM.

• White Eagle is having Sera Cahoone, Celilo (Seattle) and Betsy Olson (Seattle). I admit that what caught my eye was Sera Cahoone (Ex-Carissa is Weird, and Band of Horses). I think she is pretty darn good. But What I did't know was that Celilo is was good. I have seen the name around town but have somehow managed to avoid actually listening to it. I think that maybe you should too. It is $8-10 and starts at 9:30 PM.

• Doug Fir is having Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. Do I really have to try to sell you on this guys? Really it is a no brainer. Janet from Quasi is the new drummer. I have not seen her drum with them yet. But I do know it will be rock. This show is $15 and starts at 9 PM.

• Quetzo Lodge is having a show with Reporter, Yeah Great Fine, Skip Rroxy, Deau Deau, Followed by a raucous dance party with DJ Royal. I think this is a house show. House shows are fun. Yeah Great Fine is pretty rad. Reporter is pretty rad. The ALL AGES show is FREE.

So those are some shows to start off your weekend (assuming that Thursday is still the new Friday). I hope that I make it out to some of them (I know I will be at Backspace on Friday). If you see me, You should give me a slight kidney punch followed by a "Hi". Once my bewildered look fades, I will say "Hi" back. That is how conversations start. Yes?

-Ben


Celilo a while back. You can see them on Friday at White Eagle.

Read More >>

RE: WW Best new bands 2009

This is Goldie Davich coming to live from the home office desk of me, Goldie Davich your fair and balanced news reporting blogger. Bitttttttch pleeeeeeeeeze.

YAY BEN!!! Woo Hooo #6! I love you. I am happy you are living the dream. You make Crappy Indie Music proud. You also lend us some sweet, sweet cred. For that I am grateful and giddy! You know I love it.

Each person who voted got a total of 15 points to divvy up between 5 bands as they saw fit. That is 121 people and 1815 votes.

I am so happy the WW gave us the amount of votes each band got! Who knew I would grow to love math?!

Here is the math:

#1 Explode Into Colors
80 Points
4.40% of all points

#2(tie)Blind Piolt
66 Points
3.63636363% of all points

#2(tie)Nurses
66 Points
3.63636363% of all points

#4 Grouper
65 Points
3.58% of all points

#5 White Fang
48 Points
2.64% of all points

#6 Y La Bamba
38 Points
2.09%

#7 Ah Holly Fam'ly
33 Points
1.8181% of all points

#8 Guidance Counselor
31 Points
1.70% of all points

#9 Old Believers
30 Points
1.65% of all points

#10 Jared Mees and the Grown Children
28 Points
1.54% of all points

Here is the detailed list of who voted and who they voted for: The Chosen Few

I'm leaving town this year. Not Ben. This is more or less an "insiders" post due to the fact that I am simply giving you the cold hard numbers and leaving you to do the REAL MATH...

Keep it real!
Love,
Ste. Goldie

Here, play with this while I'm gone!

Read More >>

Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for May 6th

Hello Dear Readers,

What's the haps? I am excited about this weekend. There looks like there will be many shows worth going to, but I am getting a little ahead of myself aren't I? Here is what is happening today. I will get to those other shows in a bit.

Wednesday, May 6th

After somewhat of a lackluster Cinco de Mayo, we have a lot of good shows happening tonight.

• Holocene is shaving a show with Grouper, Hauschka (Duesseldorf, Germany), Chrome Wings, and Saudade. Grouper is quite good. Though it is not a show to be seen by everyone. There will not be spectacle. There will not by jumping around. The times that I have seen her, she has sat on the floor with her pedals and just did what she does (ambient droney stuff sometimes with some vocals). But really it is good. She got #4 in the WW's "Best New Band List" for a reason. Saudade sounds like it is very akin to Grouper but less "folk". The show is $8 and doors are at 8:30 PM.

• galleryHOMELAND is hosting PDX Film Fest Party. This will feature a CARTUNE XPREZ curated event including music by Deelay Ceelay. This looks like t will be really cool. You like film stuff right? Film and music are inherently linked right? Visuals plus sound are what make a good show. Plus I want to see Deelay Ceelay real bad. It is FREE and starts at 7 PM.

• Crystal Ballroom is having night one of two featuring The Shins and The Delta Spirit (CA) play. The tickets are a whopping $35 (not that it matters because it is totally sold out). The Shins are a band that I think I totally take for granted. I would love to see them again. But the likelihood of that happening becomes less and less each year. Sigh. The ALL AGES show starts at 9 PM.

• Dale Ann's Ladd's Inn is having a show with Castanets, Ohioan and Chick Korea. Castanets and Ohioan are kinda similar. I mean, they boy range from solo to various states of a band. They both play kinda experimental country music.(do not think psychedelic). I have been meaning to see both for a long time. The dude from Castanets sometimes lives here, but a lot of time he does not. So if you want to see them, now would be the time. It is FREE and starts at show o clock (i.e. I could not find a time listed).
  

• Laurel Thirst Public House is having Dolorean play. Sometimes they are not the most exciting to watch, but they are certainly good. Especially when they have a lot of people on stage. It is the kind of music that lends itself to many layers of instrumentation. The show is for FREE. It happens really early at 6 PM.

• The Fez is having The Human Revolution, Medicine for the People and The Volt per Octaves play a horribly mismatched show. The bands that have human and people in their title sound awfully hippy-dippy. The Volt per Octaves are awesome and cold and mechanical. I like them (I got nothing against humans). This will cost you $8 and starts at 8 PM.
  

So if you see me tonight. tap my shoulder and say "Hi". I will then proceed to tell you how much I like whatever band is playing.

-Ben


Deelay Ceelay play with videos and it looks cool, right? They play tonight for FREE.

Read More >>

Classic Rock Racism

What!?!?! Do you know the lyrics to the Rolling Stones classic Brown Sugar? I didn't until I read the blog post listen to racist music from the blog Stuff White People Do.

Tell me what you think:

Brown Sugar
(The Rolling Stones)

gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields,
sold in a market down in New Orleans.
Scarred old slaver know he's doin' all right.
Hear him whip the women just around midnight.

brown sugar
how come you taste so good
brown sugar
just like a young girl should


drums beating cold
English blood runs hot
lady of the house wondrin
where its gonna stop.
house boy knows that he's doin' all right.
you shoulda heard him just around midnight.


brown sugar
how come you taste so good
mmm, brown sugar
just like a young girl should

aw, get down on your knees
brown sugar
how come you dance so good?
aw, get down on the ground
brown sugar
just like a young girl should

I bet your mama was a tent-show queen,
and all her girlfriends
were sweet sixteen.
I'm no schoolboy but I know what I like,
You shoulda heard me just around midnight.

brown sugar
how come you taste so good
aw get down
brown sugar
just like a young girl should.

I said yeah, yeah, yeah,
how come you taste so good?
yeah, yeah, yeah.
just like a young girl should.




logo of the Anti Nazi League by countryscape

Read More >>

I wanna see photo's of my daydreams...

week 7 -Kim Haggstrom

I wanna see it now. Wanna see it nooooow.

Guitar solo.

Man, I love Kim Haggstroms photography. Her style celebrates whimsy, romance, color, contrast and magic. Captivating, enchanting... god I wish I was an art critic so I could use words as beautiful as her photographs to describe them! All I know is that... Her work make me happy a lot.

Kim has two photo's in the CIMTB calendar. I hand picked her to do February 2010-The Original Bloggers and March 2009-Adam Steinfink


Her most recent project is 52, a photo a week for a year. Each week she posts a photo and each week I think "damn that would make awesome album art.".

I asked her if she would be interested in doing some rock photography and she said yes!

If you know of any musicians who want some original album art or new band photo's please leave a comment and I can hook you up with her email address.

week 8 - Kim Haggstrom

Read More >>

not about indie music per se!

Read More >>