THURSDAY 5/20

XLR8R 11-YEAR ANNIVERSARY: DAEDELUS, ADVENTURE TIME, CAURAL, DJ KENNETH JAMES
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) In a glut of dance-music mags, from DJ Times to the sadly defunct Muzik, none in the U.S. can compare to the fresh-spirited, distinctly American (and more specifically, West Coast) magazine XLR8R. Started 11 years ago in San Francisco (when dance/rave trends were seriously more abbrev'ed), XLR8R combines cutting-edge music and culture coverage with brilliant design, and a progressive thinking policy that spans from new gear to politics. And they like Portland, so they're giving us a super party. SoCal electronic/ hiphop producer Daedelus headlines; he can be found cavorting with Stones Throw associates like Madlib (a song on Madvillainy samples one of Daedelus' tracks) and magicking Tipsy/Dim Dim-type melodies of quirk and whimsy for The Weather (with iconoclastic emcees Busdriver and Radioinactive). It will be awesome. I think it is fucked up that RJD2/Diverse, Daedelus, and Lifesavas are all in the same night, especially since RJ is on the cover of this month's XLR8R. WHATEVER WILL I ATTEND? JULIANNE SHEPHERD



JOHN WEINLAND, BONESET, THE SUMMER LAWNS
(Rabbit Hole, 203 SE Grand) A fun folk/jazz event in support of Books to Prisoners. JWS See CD Review pg 11



COME UNITY: LIFESAVAS, ELEMENTAL FOUNDATION, DJ DLYTE
(Crystal, 1332 W Burnside) Combining live hiphop (from Portland's favorite Lifesavas) and a silent-auction fashion show, this event benefits Come Unity, an outreach program to keep kids from gang violence. JS



THE BORN LOSERS, NATURE, STARANTULA, DJ SEW WHAT
(Grand Central Bowl, 801 SE Morrison) Of course you've seen the wily antics and stage bravado of Seantos and Starantula by now, but check out rockers the Born Losers, who I believe are from Alaska. People from Alaska are always kind of weird, and so are shows in hyper-bright bowling alleys. Take an ephedrin and freak the fuck out. KATIE SHIMER



DIDO, AQUALUNG
(Schnitzer, 1001 SW Broadway) Dido flaunts the performative power of a tumbleweed, so if you don't mind spending your week's earnings on a nap, you can come watch the beauty breeze by. Getting a Dido song stuck in your head is like contracting mono after months of alcoholic make-out fests at house parties: you just can't imagine why you're starting to feel so tired and weak all of the time. Come see this airy siren lull an entire concert hall to sleep. EVAN JAMES



FRIDAY 5/21

OLIVIA WARFIELD PROJECT, LIBRETTO, MADGESDIQ, L-PRO, ARKITEK
(Ohm, 31 NW 1st) Misfit Massive rapper Libretto is about to release the "Volume" 12" on punk-up-til-now label Dim Mak. With production by Jumbo from Lifesavas (possibly the best he's ever done) and Libretto's grimy-smooth "illoet" rap style, it's going to hit even harder and hotter than last year's PDX party jam "Dirty Things" 12. More coming next week on this super-talented emcee. JS



ALICE DONUT, BLOODHAG, IOMMI STUBBS
(Dante's, 1 SW 3rd) One of the original acts to come out of New York City's Lower East Side punk underground (they formed in 1987), Alice Donut has come off a long hiatus for a rare spat of shows. KATHLEEN WILSON



TIC CODE, CAN THE CHATTER, CIRCLES INTO LINES
(Jasmine Tree, 401 SW Harrison) Tic Code is an able-fingered instrumental prog band that flips figure-eights around guitar scales, noodles in unison, and flaunts it 'round your head like a helicopter. On two of their demos, the composition runs straight through with little variation but for timing, so for now it's their technical proficiency that's most compelling (that is, if you're compelled by technical proficience). JS



TORTURED SOUL, ROB UPTIGHT, SIRROUND, PURA VIDA
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Dance bands of newfangled oeuvre, your ante is officially upped: Tortured Soul, a trio from New York, plays sometimes-deep and jazzy polyrhythmic house music, live, with drums, vocals, bass, and keys. Its members have roots in R&B and samba rhythms (and actual dance lineage, having been involved with producers like Armand Van Heldon and DJ Spinna); the result is certainly 4/4 slow-jammed and lite soul-funky. There are no !!! style grittifications of Paradise Garage throwbacks here; like their billmate Tortured Soul is pura vida, straight out the house. JS



MATCHBOOK ROMANCE, MAXEEN, THE MATCHES, BOYS NIGHT OUT
(Nocturnal, 1800 E Burnside) The band name Matchbook Romance (formerly The Getup) makes me think of wimpy twee boys crying in their hot chocolate, but that's not the case. Their emo-core assault is actually cool, although I feel like I'm too old to buy any of their albums. The non-stop drumming is pretty profound, and the dual guitar interplay is hella awesome. KS



RAVEN FENBAHN, FIREWORKS, ADELAIDE
(The Orange Room, 10818 NW St. Helens, Apt. A, free) Eager and bombastic as a high-school marching band, Raven Fenbahn races across the drumline, with lovingly ramshackle, peculiar pop melodies onÉ a Rhodes? A trumpet? An orchestra of bells? An oboe? Truly magical, they are, at times expressing the same disconnected but curiously gut-wrenching sense of melody as the unstoppable Curtains/Deerhoof dyad. It's at a new venue, too, on the not-downtown-side of the St. Johns Bridge (try

www.orange-room.us for directions), deemed the Orange Room out of descriptive functionality. JS



CARDIGANS, JONATHAN RICE, CHRISTIAN KJELLVANDER
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) To accurately put things in perspective, when the Cardigans hit buzz-bin pay dirt with "Lovefool" (the band's leftfield hit from the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack) they were sequenced a few tracks away from another group that seemed destined for the cutout bins: Radiohead. Alas, to hold them accountable for their semi-fame in the mid-'90s is to miss out on a band with nearly as interesting a trajectory; one that has just released the most comprehensive album of its decade long history, Long Gone Before Daylight, after spending the past five years without an American label. Abandoning the contemporary high-stepping that was such a detrimental part of their career-sinking third album, Gran Turismo (an album so late '90s it was named after a Playstation game) the Cardigans' latest is a gentle comedown of Fleetwoodian proportions, and while it may not alter the public's decision to sleep on them or unnecessarily feel their pain, they make for better underdogs than starlets. TREVOR KELLEY



SATURDAY 5/22

PARTY TIME, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, BIG BUSINESS, BIRDS OF WAR
(Berbati's, 231 SW Ankeny) The party's over. Local unabashed indie-metal superstars Party Time are calling it a day. These guys could have been the Nirvana of Portland, but the rainy winters won and sunnier climes beckon. They don't have a Bleach or Nevermind to cling to, so make this event (and it's memory) count. But from death springs new life and your new favorite band Night After Night make their pdx debut. This quartet features the mountain-levelling talents of Eric and Tina from Lost Goat along with Brian Hill (ex-Buzzoven, Acid King) and one of the Dead and Gone boys. SF continues to harbor the best underground metal in the country and Night After Night will be a household name by this time next year. Big Business is the most recent "it's clobbering time" vehicle for Jared from Karp and the late great The Whip. A bludgeoning evening that will go down as one of the great hard rock shows in Portland history. NATHAN CARSON



DERRICK CARTER, THE DONWONSHOW
(Level, 13 NW 6th) If house music is a religion (and the legions of true believers out there could persuade you it is), Derrick Carter is at least a top-ranking bishop, if not its pope. Carter has been a crucial figure in Chicago's house scene (and hence the genre itself) since the mid-'80s. His sets typically deliver spiritualized uplift and incomparable funkiness (or "boompty boomp," as he likes to call it). DAVE SEGAL



U.S. MAPLE, THE PLANET THE, NICE NICE
(Dante's, 1 SW 3rd) In the same way that the first few Meat Puppets records felt weird but sounded pleasing, U.S. Maple simultaneously assault the sensibilities while stroking the senses. Their music contains some blues alongside noise experiments, guitar butchery, fractured rhythms, and all the other indescribable '78-'82-vintage oddness currently being attempted by a bunch of semi-famous bands in New York these days. But U.S. Maple are from Chicago, which is apropos of nothing, except to say their willful bizarreness is more compelling than most of the folks trying to occupy similar cultural space. SEAN NELSON



RADIATE: NIZ, 31 AVAS, LA KENDALL, MS. J, SAMIRA, XJS, FOREST GREEN, SERAPHIM, LEG & PANTS DANS THEATRRR
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 8 pm) It's Women's Health Week: have you kicked it with your ladies, lately? Sister PDX, the local support network of women DJs, is holding this fantastic fashion show/film installation/dance party as a benefit for other sisters: Sisters of the Road. DJs from Sister SF and Sister SEA chapters are up, too, adding to the festive, positive vibe. These are your allies in turntablism. JS



PORTLAND GAY MEN'S CHORUS: "JOURNEY TO THE INNER CHILD"
(Reed College) I know you've been having trouble finding it, and AS USUAL the gays know where it is. The Gayest Choir in Portland will be happy to help you mine your darkest, most repressed personal regions and reawaken your shattered childhood joy with a collective flick of the wrist. Journey into that psychological vacuum you call your "self": next to your heart, there's a waiting room where you'll find a weeping, lonely inner child. Now allow hundreds of singing gay men to enter that place, turning it into the summer's most FABULOUS SUMMER HOUSEWARMING PARTY!! To make your search a little easier, here's a little hint: the inner child can be found comfortably seated next to the inner fag. EJ



LERKER, BONES OF GIANTS
(Porky's, 835 N Lombard) I can't quite nail down the year that Lerker sounds like they're from, but it's some time between Nirvana and Silverchair. They play the heavy alterna-rock, sometimes going dopely punk and chugging on the guitar, making their music seem more fun and inventive. This is the perfect soundtrack for Porky's, a bar that seems right out of a 1990s twenty-something movie about disillusionment, except decorated with your grandma's patio chairs. KS



ANBOT RODROID, PUMA FRENZY, THE KINGDOM, LACO$TE
(Tonic, 3100 NE Sandy) Though they "rap" in accents thicker than fondue, Laco$te are not actually French. They are from Los Angeles, and fronting French is part of their shtick. While this does not bode well for their shelflife (except maybe in LA, where anything can happen), their pastiche of sampled orchestras and thumping, armchair bass is decent, and these types of bands always go for a ridiculous spectacle of a live show. JS



VALIS, WADSWORTH, IOMMI STUBBS
(Sabala's Mt Tabor, 4811 SE Hawthorne) For a while Wadsworth ruled. Then they didn't rule. Then they seemed to disappear into obscurity. Then they poked their head out of the ground. And then I lost track. I can say for sure that at one point Wadsworth's tight mathy instru-metal was some of the best in Portland, rivaling even the mighty Bozart, so it's not too much of a gamble to try them on for size. KS



MONIKA ENTERPRISES DVD SCREENING W/DJS KENNETH JAMES, JULIANNE SHEPHERD
(Aesthetics HQ, 205 SE Grand Ste 204, 7 pm) Check out the second official party at Aesthetics, the storefront for the eclectic Portland-based record label. They'll be showing a DVD of Berlin's Monika Enterprises' label event, which should be a thrill for you electronic music nerds, with footage of their artists Barbara Morgenstern, Komeit, Cobra Killer, and Contriva. Afterwards, there'll be DJing by Kenneth "Aesthetics label head" James and Julianne "plays Ellen Allien too much" Shepherd, so you can dance away that boner you got while watching the DVD. And hey, a raffle. KS



SUNDAY 5/23

T-MODEL FORD, PAUL "WINE" JONES, KENNY BROWN, CEDRIC BURNSIDE
(Aladdin, 3016 SE Milwaukie) Now THIS is lookin' like a real git down BLUES par-tay!!! Shit, like gettin' pound-dead by some "he's ALWAYS locked onna groovy groove" Mister T-Model Ford ain't ENOUGH... we also get the, a bit more "city, but no less for it," style of Mister Paul "Wine" Jones... AND what looks to be RL Burnside's former sidemen Kenny Brown and Cedric Burnside' s new outfit. Turns out, as Kenny Brown, he and Cedric have themselves, with a fella playin' bass, a new LP just issued, which I've heard, and well, JADED as I am to contemporary blues, the KB shit is GOOD, their pedigree shines. Honestly, the KB LP is what I needed ANY of the Rolling Stones records from like... the past 15 years to be. So, there you go, this lineup is guaranteed to get your shook-ables a-shakin'! MIKE NIPPER



LYNDSAY DIARES, SPILL CANVAS, DAY OF LIONS, CONSUMING THIS EVENING, CALL IT ARSON
(Meow Meow, 320 SE 2nd) Preachers, leave them kids alone. With a line-up that reads more like a sophomore-year poem than a group of bands playing at an all-ages punk space, no one here needs to chide this new lot of emo's young and hopelessly embarrassing: they do all the work for you. Local duo Day Of Lions are lead by the rarest of things in this genre (a female), and while vocalist Gena Gastaldi can often miss the point by trying to sound like she's in Bedhead, her presence alone is enough to illustrate the otherwise foreign concept that girls don't have to be the enemy. St. Louis-based solo act the Lyndsay Diaries is a rib-tickling take on Dashboard-like acoustic soul bearing, and it doesn't get more eem or teen than when cherubic former hardcore kid Scott Windsor bravely steps forward to proclaim: "Your parents split up and I'm left here to feel sorry for you." TK



BARFLY 5TH ANNIVERSARY STARRING STORM LARGE & THE BALLS
(Sewickly's, 4901 SE Hawthorne) It's hard to believe it's only been five years since the inimitable Jen Lane started publishing the ultra-useful Barfly magazine. A user-friendly directory of every single liquor shack in town, plus creative writing from local talents. Talk about a winning idea. For every time you read it cover to cover while waiting for a tardy date, or cross referenced it when you were too unmotivated to decide where to go, come say "Thank you, Jen Lane. Thank you Barfly staff. Let's get retardedly drunk." And you shall. MS



VOLUMEN, OBLIO JOES, FIST CITY
(Twilight Café, 1420 SE Powell) The Volumen have been voted Missoula's best band for the second year in a row by the Missoula Independent. Allegedly, the jokster-y thrash artists put on a hell of a show. JWS



MONDAY 5/24

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, VINNY MILLER, WE RAGAZZI, DJ DICKEL
(Berbati's, 231 SW Ankeny) There are plenty of indierock bands that take folk as the cornerstone of their sound, but the Mountain Goats are one excellent example. Helmed by John Darnielle, a sometime music journalist, the Goats' latest album, We Shall All Be Healed, is a deeply satisfying song cycle of lives askew or agitated into disintegration. The rush of clever words and shoehorned phrasing recalls Dylan by way of poet James Schuyler. Most exciting about the Mountain Goats is that they tap the left-field impulse of folk, where rock and post-punk influences are the springboards, rather than the oft-mined Nick Drake and Tim Buckley vein (both of whom I love, but really now). NATE LIPPENS



TUESDAY 5/25

RASPUTINA, AUDIO LEARNING CENTER
(Dante's) See MWBW pg 9



GOD FORBID, MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, THE DEAD UNKONWN, STILL ILL
(Meow Meow, 320 SE 2nd) It's nice to see some diversity in the mostly Caucasian world of thrash: God Forbid, an outfit from central New Jersey with four African American members out of five. But GF makes it clear in their press materials they have no "issues" in their lyrics, and that they do not "bust a rhyme or drop phat grooves" (not that we assumed that anyway, right?). And sure enough, they're just straight-up, kick-ass death rock of the best kind; the kind that rips at your eyes and feeds on your soul, bringing people of all backgrounds and races together into perfect ear-destroying harmony. JWS



WEDNESDAY 5/26

LEG AND PANTS DANS THEATRRR, THE ARM, THE FORMLESS, A VERY DEAD HORSE
(Disjecta, 116 NE Russell) Leg and Pants Dans Theatrrr (nee Janet Pants Dans Theatre) is a Los Angeles-based dance trio which choreographs jittery, new-world motion to punk and electronic music, with elements of performance art. Barring last year's appearance by New York's Donna Uchizono Company, they are still as innovative as any contemporary choreography I've seen, and are possibly still the only dance ensemble to tour like (and with) punk bands. JS



SIMPLE KID
(Lola's, 1332 W Burnside) The music of Simple Kid (aka Irishman Ciaran McFeely) veers all over the map of influences, at times taking up a Dylan-ish folk protest posture. At other times, he veers into ambient electro, or really bad synthy anthem pop. The most succinct comparison is probably with Beck, given the erratic direction of the songs, and his first album, 1, is evidence of an overall penchant for adding gadgets to stripped acoustic and playing with eight-tracks. MS