THURSDAY 6/10

PING PONG PANDEMONIUM PARTY: STLS, NEAL MORGAN, PERMANENT WAVE, DAN MOE

(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) See My, What a Busy Week!

RICHMOND FONTAINE, KEVN KINNEY, SCOTT MCCAUGHEY

(Dante's, 1 SW 3rd) See My, What a Busy Week!

PLANKTON WAT, HORDE OF TWO, MANGLED BOHEMIANS, SAUDADE

(Backspace, 115 NW 5th) Guitarist David Lester of Mecca Normal has teamed up with bassist Wendy Atkinson to form Horde of Two, a defiantly experimental project where guitar and bass create abstract, watery backdrops. Atkinson's lowing bass alternates between pluck and groan, while Lester's crystal-clean guitar twinkles and hums. The Vancouverites (Canadian, not Washingtonian) are a good match for an otherwise all-local bill of textured ambience: Mangled Bohemians create creeping, eerie songs that flirt with pop and folk melodies but might be closer to the realm of Goblin soundtracks, while Plankton Wat—the project of Dewey Mahood—is a hazier brand of noise: sun-flared psychedelia that's either gracefully beautiful or blunt and heavy as a rock. Plankton Wat's splendid and diverse 2009 LP Dawn of the Golden Eternity has been followed up by a new cassette of sparser fare called Shadows. NED LANNAMANN

DELTA SPIRIT, EZRA FURMAN AND THE HARPOONS, THE ROMANY RYE

(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) Delta Spirit returns triumphantly with their sophomore effort, History from Below, keeping intact their wholesome indie rock with much homage paid to the music of our country's nether regions. Hailing from a southern region themselves (not the one where Robert Johnson pawned his soul to the devil, but one where many others have—in the unending California sun), the band's first full-length, Ode to Sunshine, was quite literally that. This time around, the curtains are weighted by the pain of loss, and seem to be reeled by the man downstairs himself (as singer Matt Vasquez mentions his name multiple times throughout the album). However, the record is not a satanic burden by any means, and its lightness is best experienced in the stripped-down Americana track "Scarecrow," which sounds as if it was recorded on the front porch and features notable vocal stylings from a few winged, non-touring members: a series of chirping birds. This is not a show to miss. RAQUEL NASSER

LOCH LOMOND, HEY MARSEILLES, YLANG YLANG

(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) It's a credit to the great work Loch Lomond has been doing this past half-decade that the more novel elements of their presentation ("Hey, that guy's playing a bass clarinet!") are completely dwarfed by the great songwriting. Chamber pop runs the risk of coming across as hilariously self-involved, but lead singer Ritchie Young keeps the Portland sextet's sound thrillingly intimate, giving the strings reason to swell around him. It's beautiful to hear symphonic instruments stripped of pretension and in complete service to songs so rewarding in their gracefulness. DAVE BOW

MICHAEL HURLEY, TARA JANE O'NEIL, AWESOME VISTAS SOUND SYSTEM

(Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny) Michael Hurley has been playing more shows as of late, and that's a good thing. The nomadic, inscrutable Hurley has been writing songs for about four decades, and I'm still not sure he gets the attention he deserves. About as fine a storyteller as there is, Hurley is one of our last true bluesmen, spinning yarns over sparse folk guitar arrangements and squeezing notes for all they're worth. Also on tonight's bill is local folk songstress Tara Jane O'Neil, who added her own touches to Hurley's latest record Ida Con Snock. Expect a full house, likely a low-key affair where audience members politely hang on Hurley's every word. MARK LORE

FRIDAY 6/11

CHIEF, SHOESHINE BLUE (6 PM)

(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) Santa Monica's Chief have been quietly churning out sparkly indie pop for years, having relocated to California from New York in 2008. The quietly portion of that statement should change with the release of their forthcoming full-length on Domino Records, Modern Rituals. Frontman Evan Koga's vocals have been quickly compared to those of the Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser. Fair enough. But these SoCal lads have their own thing going on here. The first single "Night and Day" is a lush pop tune loaded with crystalline piano lines, jittery drums, and lush harmonies. Chief manages to make melancholy music a little more joyous—sounds like the California sun has been doing them right. ML

THE PRIDS, LOOKBOOK, CRYPT OF THE GRAVE, DJ WEDNESDAY (9 PM)

(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) The Prids deserve this. A long-running fixture in our local music community, the band walked away (or, to be exact, was airlifted) from a devastating tour van accident a couple years back, leaving the state of their health—not to mention the band itself—in grave doubt. Yet the Prids soldiered on, hunkering down in the studio to create what is without a doubt their finest work—Chronosynclastic. Parting the dark goth cloud that lingered above, Chronosynclastic is a deftly assembled recording of shimmering keyboard pop intertwined with atmospheric arrangements, vulnerable lyrics, and even a cameo from Shreddy McBeardington himself, Doug Martsch from Built to Spill. While the Prids have been around for years, only now with Chronosynclastic does it feel like they've truly arrived. EZRA ACE CARAEFF

DARK TIME SUNSHINE, RAFAEL VIGILANTICS, LIVING PROOF, DESTRO, CLOUDY OCTOBER

(Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash) For local heads, as well as the curious but uninitiated, there are myriad reasons why tonight is an ideal showcase of the current Northwest hiphop scene. Chief among them is Dark Time Sunshine, which features Onry Ozzborn (AKA Cape Cowen, AKA the emcee from Seattle who has more aliases than John Doe). Living Proof is comprised of Prem and Tope, the latter of whom is gaining a lot of well-deserved buzz regarding his latest excellent solo joint, Soul Music. But whatever you do, do not sleep on Cloudy October, a Portland emcee whose wildly inventive lyricism matched with his amazing stage presence creates one of the most exhilarating live sets in town—regardless of genre. All apologies to the estate of Biggie Smalls, but this lineup proves how inspiring and fun hiphop can be when it's not limited to "Party and Bullshit." RYAN FEIGH

IRETSU, ADAM ARCURAGI, DJ LINCOLNUP

(The Woods, 6637 SE Milwaukie) Iretsu's new album was written in four improvised sessions, but Fang isn't a quartet of burly, extended compositions. Rather, it's a string of 14 brief, interconnected songs, which bear pop hooks over an experimental foundation. Electric piano and guitar drive the majority of the tracks, and Iretsu harness full-throttle rock on "Humbuzzer," with slice-and-dice guitar riffs and a relentless drumbeat. Elsewhere, "Sexy, No?" flirts with a funk strut, "Hey You" makes use of found dialogue by a woman who sounds like Jane Fonda, and the title of "Nuclear Whistles" is more or less what it sounds like—high-pitched drones whooshing before a guitar riff drives it into the following track, "Waves." Iretsu has evolved capably over the past eight years, embracing a number of guises. With Fang, they've made some of their most approachable material yet, balancing it perfectly with some of the weirder shades in their palette. NL

BLACK BREATH, NORSKA, RAW NERVES, PROFITS

(Branx, 320 SE 2nd) It's ballsy naming your band after a Repulsion song, especially if you're not a grinding, gurgling, gore-obsessed death metal band. Thankfully for Seattle's Black Breath, they have enough speed and ferocity to justify their moniker. BB plays riff-tastic, crust-influenced metal with some flashes of hardcore—the band recently released their debut full-length Heavy Breathing on Southern Lord Records. Heavy's sound is similar to Black Breath's previous EP, only this time it has a giant opaque cloud looming over it; the result is much more dark and dreadful. The riffs are explosive and seemingly driven by terror. It's almost as if the band scares you into loving them. ARIS WALES

HEALTH, INDIAN JEWELRY, GOLD PANDA, SOFT METALS

(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Like tourmates Health, Indian Jewelry have progressed from tribal noise beginnings into more accessible—albeit still harsh and warped—territory. Though their new album, a damaged, darkwave soundtrack to the apocalypse appropriately titled Totaled, was recorded in both Houston and Los Angeles, it unfolds into a captivating whole without the excessive sprawl of the cities that gave it genesis. By confining miles of dark synth, spacey electro beats, and fuzzed-out guitar noisescapes within three to four minute borders, they've created more concise, fully realized gems of gothic psychedelia without wandering off into the jam'n'drone zone they navigated on previous albums. ETHAN JAYNE Also see My, What a Busy Week!

SATURDAY 6/12

SCHOOL OF ROCK: TALKING HEADS' STOP MAKING SENSE

(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th) See My, What a Busy Week!

BERT JANSCH, PEGI YOUNG

(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) See Music.

ATOLE, DJ STRATEGY, BROKENWINDOW

(Backspace, 115 NW 5th) It's a call that even Jim Joyce couldn't screw up: "Strike Zone," the latest 7-inch from Atole, looks and sounds terrific. With hand-drawn Mayan/Aztec artwork that resembles a pop-up book, this Community Library release raises the visual bar for 7-inch artwork. Musically, Atole frontman Manny Reyes still blasts out his vocals in a hurried paroxysm of overlapping words and playful yelps that are perfect for equally-as-spastic dance floor maneuvers. B-side instrumental "Dirty Bird" is composed of a massive keyboard hook and a funky basement groove so irresistible that !!! would give it a fourth exclamation mark. EAC

THE SHAKY HANDS, RAYMOND BYRON, INSIDE VOICES

(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) The Shaky Hands are hard at work on album number four, and considering their streak so far, there's no reason to expect it will be anything less than great. After a bubble of attention at the start of their career, the Shaky Hands have settled nicely into their role as Portland's solidest bet for good-time rock 'n' roll, with Nick Delff's natural melodies right at home within the band's crackling musical interplay. They're sharing the bill with Raymond Byron Raposa, who sometimes goes under the name Castanets, and sometimes doesn't—and who sometimes lives in Portland, and sometimes doesn't. His warped, winding, shadowy music plods with a mixture of dread and beauty. Expect him to send you to dark depths during his set, and for the Shaky Hands to lift you right back out. NL

HERE COMES A BIG BLACK CLOUD!!, THE SHIVAS, WHITE FANG, MAMA SUNSHINE & MORE

(Camel House, 7503 N Kirby) We have a policy around these parts to not write about local house shows, since we'd hate to see other Portlanders slam their heads into low-hung plumbing pipes during a raucous basement show. Well, that and the fact that it just seems rude to publicize someone's home address. But the Camel House crew gave us their blessing for this all-ages event that is more festival (they are building a stage) than mere house shindig. The occasion is the release of Mama Sunshine's bouncy self-titled debut EP, five glorious little nuggets of ambitious, off-kilter pop. They'll be sharing the stage with a bevy of local acts for this all-day (the music starts at the ungodly hour of 1 pm) event. EAC

ERIC JOHN KAISER, LES ETRANGERS

(Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th) Every year on the summer solstice, professional and amateur musicians take to the streets of Paris to play and mingle with one another for the Fête de la Musique. The festival has spread to various cities all over the world, and Portland chanteur Eric John Kaiser is hoping to inspire a similar kind of impromptu musical celebration after his set at the release show for his new EP, Portland Rendez-Vous. It's a trio of covers (plus one original) of French songs you might not realize you know very well: Joe Dessin's "Les Champs Élysées," Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam," Edith Piaf's "Padam Padam." Kaiser performs them with an expert balance of typical French instrumentation and a more urgent American rock backing. And you'll be able to join in the Fête after his set: Wear a beret and bring an accordion. NL

GRAND HALLWAY, QUIET LIFE, BRIER ROSE

(The Woods, 6637 SE Milwaukie) Despite increasing presence at events like SXSW and Sasquatch!, Grand Hallway is still a pretty well-kept secret. The Seattle group's majestic, low-tempo, classically rooted compositions appeal to urban twentysomethings in the same dreamy vein as Fleet Foxes, anchored by the mesmerizing, tremulous vocals of singer and bandleader Tomo Nakayama. A mini-orchestra of backing musicians, in the style of Blind Pilot, adds grandiose layers of strings, chorus, and brass to otherwise simple and elegant modern pop songs—including "Sirens" from last year's Promenade, and the anthemic "Seward Park" from their breakout Yes Is the Answer. MARANDA BISH

SUNDAY 6/13

MATT POND PA, WINTERSLEEP, THE LONELY FOREST

(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) See My, What a Busy Week!

BATHS, THE GREAT MUNDANE, NATASHA KMETO

(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) See Music.

MALAIKAT DAN SINGA, JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER

(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) The latest project from Old Time Relijun front-shaman Arrington de Dionyso is a record sung (or more frequently sputtered, yelped, and howled) entirely in Indonesian, self-titled Malaikat Dan Singa, which translates as "Angels and Lions." For other artists, this might be a strange move, but strange moves are pretty much the only kind Dionyso's got. Underneath the other-tongued incantations (and occasional throat singing), Dionyso and crew stir up their "usual" roiling stew of swamp-boogie rhythms, nervy guitar riffing, and bleating clarinet drones. And it's not like you really knew what the guy was singing about even in English (many-headed beasts, maybe?). ERIC GRANDY

ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA WITH DWEEZIL ZAPPA

(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) For $82.50 plus convenience charges, you'd better get to gently caress the zombified mustache of Frank Zappa. Otherwise, avoid this like the musical plague that it is. EAC

MONDAY 6/14

LANA REBEL AND THE LOVE LASERS

(Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick) One of the true underappreciated voices in town, Lana Rebel channels the bygone era of outlaw country and the rhinestone flair of Gram Parsons, plus just enough punk rock flair (after all, she did deafen the masses in Last of the Juanitas for so many years) to tie it all together. Joined by her rambunctious backing band the Love Lasers, Rebel mixes her own material with manipulated classics—the band's honky-tonk version of Bob Wills' "Stay All Night" is great example of this. Plus it's a free show on a sleepy Monday night, as if you have anything better to do. EAC

TUESDAY 6/15

Happy 41st birthday to Ice Cube. He (still) makes dough, but don't call him Doughboy.

WEDNESDAY 6/16

ATHLETE, CARNEY

(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) See My, What a Busy Week!

JAMIE LIDELL, ALEX B

(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) See Music

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SUBHUMANS, ARCTIC FLOWERS, SALTED CITY, VIVID SEKT

(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th) Let's see: Oil is pissing into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate beyond our ability to calculate, much less stem. Unemployment is at its highest in 30 years. Wall Street bandits get a bailout while homeowners get the boot. The festering war in Afghanistan is becoming another Vietnam. Congress is broken. America's status quo is circling the drain and there's only one place left to turn: punk. It's time to tune into some truly different ideas, and for the last 30 years, few have been more consistently driven by radical, populist, anti-consumption, and peace-loving politics than Subhumans. The stalwart British band (and their ska alter ego, Citizen Fish) tour relentlessly, earnestly sharing their model for a better world. And in days like these, theirs is the only one making any sense. ANDREW R TONRY