Live music fans of Portland, we can only hope you've been soaking up your musical catbirdseat as of late. Mixed metaphors? Who cares? Sleep? Who needs it? We're already the envy of every music lover at least this side of Chicago for our front row seats at the likes of the PDX Pop Now! Fest, not to mention tonight's Hold Steady date at the Crystal Ballroom, and now barreling toward us on the horizon all dust and twang is next weekend's 10th Annual Pickathon Roots Music Fest. We all deserve a quick breather after tonight's late action, I suppose, but the musical week begins in earnest on Tuesday. Look alive!
Speaking of The Hold Steady, the Kerouac- Berryman- Strummer- Springsteen- loving band from Minneapolis by way of New York City brings their rollicking act to the Crystal Ballroom tonight with openers The Loved Ones. As you may have noticed, they recently finally got around to issuing the tangible version of Stay Positive, their fourth full-length release, after it made the rounds in digital form for nearly a month. Craig Finn's manic energy and self-psychoanalyzing lyrics continue to lead the way, helping to make them perhaps the closest thing we have today to the mythologized likes of the E Street Band or The Replacements (though time, as it tends to, will tell).
A busy Tuesday night finds the return of Thao & the Get Down Stay Down to Portland as part of a stellar bill at Holocene (Horse Feathers and Harper Simon open). To refresh, We Brave Bee Stings & All is the full-length debut out earlier this year on kill rock stars from Thao, and its refreshing, slightly off-beat pop songs have not gone un-noticed. Indeed, it showed up on many a best of 2008 (so far) lists and led to opening dates for Rilo Kiley.
MP3: Thao, from We Brave Bee Stings & All- "Swimming Pools"
Stream: Thao's opbmusic in-studio session
Plenty of other choices that same night, including Super XX Man at Pix Patisserie (with John Vecchiarelli). The mysteriously-named band is readying both an EP and a full-length for release in '08, in the process apparently shedding their lo-fi roots (for the better, we'd assert). Also Tuesday: Missouri's Repulic Tigers, sounding decidely un-midwest, at Towne Lounge, and Chris Isaak with Nicole Atkins & the Sea at Edgefield in Troutdale (how cool would it be if he didn't play "Wicked Game"?)
Did we mention choices? The downside of having those, sometimes, is the part where you have to make them. Friday's a bit like that, and it's not going to be easy. Eef Barzelay, for example, only fronted one of the most consistently brilliant and enjoyable indie-pop bands of the past decade or so with the now dearly-departed Clem Snide, including such nuggets as "Joan Jett of Arc," and "Mike Kalinsky," for those of you familiar with the band's discography (and you really should be if you're not). Out on his own these days, Barzelay's new solo album, Lose Big, is full of the kinds of songs we came to expect from his band, twisting titles and meanings from unexpected places, leaving us wondering how he got here from there (see the angry young man-chiding "The Girls Don't Care" for evidence). Barzelay plays Towne Lounge with The Sleepover Disaster Friday night.
Oh, but then again Pickathon X (the 10th annual, hence the X) kicks off Friday afternoon with the likes of Bombadil, The Everybodyfields, Chatham County Line, Langhorne Slim, and Jolie Holland, among others at Pendarvis Farm just outside of Portland. It's the start of three days of various shades of roots music, boasting several stages, workshops, campsites and kids' activities, among other things. The line-up, as always, is impressive, including touring acts like The Gourds, The Cave Singers, and Justin Townes Earle, as well as local lights like Laura Gibson, Loch Lomond, and The Old Believers. Gates Friday open at noon.
Much more to come both here and on the stream throughout the week, including photos, in-studio sessions, previews, reviews, and the like. The thread is open..
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