I was having an email "conversation" this morning with a friend about the Midas touch, about people who can't lose and drop goodness every time they decide to put their shit out there. Going through the music calendar an hour or two later I began to see a ton of acts that have that innate and rare quality. Weird thing was, it wasn't necessarily the big-time bands or headliners. What I saw were the little guys, the openers, and (a few) unknowns that really have the magic going on.

First off, local artist Rob Tyler is handling projections for the Rollerball show at Holocene on Wednesday. If you haven't seen Rob's work (beautiful psychedelic graphics set to music) go to vcr100.com and read up on his Color + Modulation DVD, which is a supremely gorgeous thing to see. Rob's hand-painted 16mm films are full of light (warmth shimmers off them) and work great with the provided music or with anything else you decide to throw on. Color + Modulation plays in my house for days sometimes.

Also shitting bricks of pure gold is Portland's Silentist. You can read all about them on pg. 17. If perfection shines best in imperfection, Silentist is the best band of the week. They're playing Tube on Monday.

If you're around Southeast Portland on Saturday, make sure to stop in at Rotture and check out Ghost to Falco, who is quietly becoming one of Portland's best experimental pop-rock-folk-etc. bands. (Check out Ghost to Falco's collaboration with fellow toucher of gold Argumentix, Widow Masters, on BelowPDX Recordings.)

For a little Sunday noise worship, go down to Ground Kontrol and check out SubArachnoid Space. Finally, if you wanna see a savage grindcore band with the Midas touch, check out the great blowupnihilist playing Friday at Someday Lounge.

Talk: adam@portlandmercury.com