Yes, I'm looking for a new column name. No, I haven't found one that sticks. Yes, I'm asking for readers' suggestions. Yes, I have a big, absurd box of prizes for the winner. No, there's no use rhyming my last name with "Plaid" or "Laid." (It's pronounced "Guh-Nah-Dee.") Please keep sending submissions. The prize box continues to grow and swell up like a bullfrog's neck. Don't let it pop and splatter us with gore.
Photographer Yoni Kifle is known both for his band shots and warm, human, alive-feeling portraits. He shoots with a Polaroid Passport, but it's not the sort of grainy, muted throwaway shit most people get (like, is that somebody giving someone a blowjob or a statue of Pinocchio?) His work has depth, solid original composition, and the kinds of colors that glow right off the page like heat mirages. (In some it looks like you could dip your fingers into the frame and pull 'em out coated in honey or light beer.) On May 4, Reading Frenzy shows a series that Yoni shot on Akimbo's latest tour. Check out his stuff at plrds.com and stereobird.com. Also, the Cult Static Label will release a postcard set and full-color book of Yoni's later this year. Akimbo plays Monday at Food Hole.
The Continuum 33 1/3 Series book on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea album is out now and it's actually pretty decent. Locally, Ross Beach is quoted extensively about playing guitar and singing with the band, as is Yeti publisher Mike McGonigal, whose own 33 1/3, on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, is in the works. Ross, who plays solo and in Ross and the Hellpets, recently published a diary of his tour with the Curious Hands at rossbeach.com. His next solo show is Monday at Mississippi Pizza. Curious Hands are at Acme on Saturday.
Gang of Four has a limited edition 7" at shop.gangoffour.us free to the first 40 people who buy more than 50 bucks worth of GOF stuff. The record, originally released by URB Magazine, has a Blood Brothers remix of the song "Anthrax" and Tommie Sunshine retouching "At Home He Feels like a Tourist." Also, check out pampelmoose.com to read Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen's blog, which always has a ton of interesting shit about Portland.
New column names here: adam@portlandmercury.com