It’s been a long time since the Mercury dropped a Music Issue. So long, in fact, that we’re throwing a party about it and you’re invited!
On May 14, the Mercury ne’er-do-wells are taking over (THE NOT CLOSING) Turn! Turn! Turn! for a two-part concert featuring four of our favorite Portland artists. This here Music Issue launch party will have door prizes, raffles, and exclusive—very VIP—merch. It’s also a fundraiser for the incredible work being done at Ethos Music Center.
Two-parts, one night, that’s an odd way of describing a concert taking place in one location on the same night. Well, you can blame the ageist CHUDs at the OLCC for that one. By law, to sell alcohol in their space—AKA to make money—Turn! Turn! Turn! (TTT) must transform from an all-ages glass slipper into a 21+ pumpkin when the clock strikes 8. But fret not, Cinderella, we’ve booked two powerful sets with four powerful bands. Isabeau Waia’u Walker and The Barbras for the all-ages among us, and Keeks and La Isla Electronica for the 21+ revelers. 1) We love our under 21 friends and will be back with more for you ASAP, and 2) your $10 donation gets you into both sets if you’re a 21+ hun.
Exceptional local music, enchanting atmosphere, and supporting an exquisite cause—what more could anyone ask for? Oh, you wanna know about the bands, huh? Well, in this house we love a mixed bill…
Opening the whole shindig are sisters Sallie and Weezy Ford, AKA The Barbaras. Champions of Portland’s currently popping off country music scene, the Barbaras released one of the Rose City’s best albums of 2025 with Rollercoasters. The album takes you up, down, and loop-de-loops you all around on its 12 songs, spinning yarns with the best of them. Love, heartbreak, dumb boys, and boobs are highs (and lows) to expect on this ride. Though the sisters are playing a duo set, the gals are bringing infectious smiles, positive attitudes, and their devastating harmonies to the hoedown.
Related: Read our album review of the Barb’s Rollercoasters in preparation for your country baptism.
Headlining the all ages portion of the program is Isabeau Waia’u Walker. As a Hawaiian native, Walker’s personal expressions of Indigeneity mix and swirl with those of the Pacific Northwest to hypnotic effect in her music. Her lush, singular voice comes on like the first drink of crystal clear spring water after a parched hike through the rugged emotional terrain of the mind. An ancient, pre-colonial energy flows through Walker, putting her more deeply in touch with herself and the lands she calls home. Her music is powerfully cleansing any time of year, but is especially potent in the spring.
Trying to get better at Spanish and cutting post-punk shapes on the dancefloor? Let Portland’s La Isla Electronica (LIE) be your guide to both. The quartet came in hot last year with a short, four-song EP of unrelenting Spanish-language rockers designed to get your body moving and your mind gears turning. Synth textures rain down like so many PNW atmospheric rivers, coupled with a sloppy (non-derogatory) backend allowing for a looser, more uninhibited expression of self on the dancefloor. If rumors are to be believed, LIE is putting out their debut full-length this year—a release that will no doubt make its way to the top of the Mercury’s Best Portland Albums of 2026 list.
Related: Work on your Spanish, your moves, and read our review of LIE’s self-titled EP from last year.
Doing the Mercury an unbelievable honor by headlining our first Music Issue launch party in almost 10 years, it’s Keeks! Speaking of albums of the year, if I was more on top of my shit, Keeks’ (kind of) self-titled album Gwendolyn would have made the tippy top of the list for 2025. It’s a cutty release filled with heaters alternating between R&B slowburns like album-openers “Cry Baby” and “Refresh,” then, mid-album, Keeks takes her gloves off to flex her speed and flow on “The Chillest” parts one and two, and “Heated.” I’ve been Keeks-pilled since hearing her spit “I do not do blow I am a fucking lady / If I’m in your venue you gon’ fuckin’ pay me” last year. Portland’s rappers do be gettin’ up lately, don’t say no one told you Keeks is poised to soar in the coming years.
If all this wasn’t enough, the Music Issue launch party is also a fundraiser for Ethos Music Center directly across the street from TTT. Founded in 1998, the Ethos Music Center nonprofit provides youth music education to the historically Black, Brown, and Indigenous Albina District and beyond. After school programming, group and private lessons, summer camps, and more define the indescribable value of Ethos. The Mercury is paying the bands, TTT takes the bar, and Ethos Music Center gets every single dollar dunked into the donation jar at the door.
Music is community, the Mercury is for community, this event is for the community. Hope to see you there!
