JENNY LEWIS, SPRINGTIME CARNIVORE
(Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside) With her Tommy Petty-esque swagger and cheeky videos, former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis is living proof that former child stars don’t ALWAYS end up totally fucked. Lewis’ most recent album, The Voyager, is like listening to ACTUAL rainbows and lollipops, while also being about heartbreak and death. She is magic. MEGAN BURBANK
94/7 BIRTHDAY PARTY: OF MONSTERS AND MEN, CAKE, MATT AND KIM, ROBERT DeLONG, GLASS ANIMALS, CHET FAKER, JOYWAVE, SAINT MOTEL
(OMSI, 1945 SE Water) To celebrate its 20th year on the airwaves, 94.7 (KNRK) has booked itself a birthday bash with a roster of bands bound to delight (or at least not outwardly offend) listeners more than twice as old as the radio station itself. Iceland’s Of Monsters and Men haven’t relented with their irksomely popular grocery-store folk, featuring gentle strummy harmonies that just scream 2011. (Also, did you pick up some frozen peas?) Cake’s fedora alt-funk is even more desiccated, but don’t worry—they hate the fact that they have to play “The Distance” every single night even more than you do. And Matt and Kim continue to spread those last thin butter-pats of goodwill they earned from that naked video by following the paycheck. It’s precisely the sort of mini-festival you’d expect from a radio station that claims to play “alternative” music in the year 2015. But there’s little use in me grumping about it: Tickets for this afternoon’s show, which takes place outside of OMSI on the east bank of the Willamette, sold out long ago. Hooray for terrestrial media! NED LANNAMANN
AAN, REGULAR MUSIC, BITCH’N
(Rontoms, 600 E Burnside) What happens when you combine the female forces behind projects such as Duover, Orquestra Pacifico Tropical, Point Juncture WA, Ioa, Great Wilderness, and Sallie Ford? This is where Bitch’n brews. The fresh, all-woman punk-meets-pop five-piece came together in spring 2015, recording epic free jams that they later wrote lyrics over. Including Rebecca Rasmussen, Amanda Spring, Emily Overstreet, Nefertiti Porter, and Shana Lindbeck, Bitch’n is equal parts Fugazi and Tom Tom Club, with the playfulness of Dirty Projectors and Hot Chip, keeping it bumpin’ with catchy songs accented by dark bass, psych-pop guitars and keys, driving drum beats, and all five women’s voices singing and sometimes shouting in unison. Experimental in nature, Bitch’n expertly weave a tapestry through their songs, keeping the project from falling into a single box, while simultaneously following a cohesive thread. With Lindbeck leaving for Germany soon, catch them in their full glory while you still can. JENI WREN STOTTRUP
SABONIS
(Music Millennium, 3158 E Burnside) Arvydas Sabonis is far from being the only former Trail Blazer on the minds of Portlanders these days, but you can expect to hear the Lithuanian legend mentioned more frequently, thanks to the local pop-rock quintet sharing his name. It’s rare that a band emerges sounding as fully formed as Sabonis does on its Good Cheer Records-issued self-titled cassette, and it’s no surprise to learn that members of the group have been previously intertwined, playing in bands like Your Rival, Forest Park, the Bustling Townships, and Zoogirl. Sabonis’ barbed take on nostalgia-dripping, emotionally charged pop music brings to mind the Kinsella brothers, if Cap’n Jazz had taken a foot off the gas and veered into dream-pop territory. “More Time” finds guitarist/vocalist Maya Stoner luring listeners in with a bittersweet vocal hook for the ages. And by the time the turbulent, fuzzed-out closer “Gone” brings things to a halt, you’ll be left completely gutted. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
CHET FAKER
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Nick Murphy—AKA Chet Faker—released his official debut album in 2014, and has already won various music awards, continuing to rise in global popularity. Raised in Melbourne, Faker currently resides in Brooklyn, where he records electronic music that he sings over, and also produces remixes, sometimes collaborating with similar artists such as Flume. Faker’s name is an homage to jazz musician Chet Baker, who heavily influenced his winding yet melodic songs, and Faker’s ambient electronic sound is just passionate and rhythmic enough to bring into the bedroom. Though he probably won’t be performing his own material at this DJ set—he’s playing earlier in the day at 94/7’s Birthday Party—his jazz and Motown influences should prove to be fruitful for an unusual dance night. ROSE FINN