HOSMANEK, GLASS KNEES, QUEEN CRESCENT, LKN
(The Foggy Notion, 3416 N Lombard) “It’s easier here for me to feel human,” says Andrea Genevieve. For years, Genevieve occupied a small corner of Portland’s music community as the guitarist for the all-powerful heavy psych trio Purple Rhinestone Eagle. She’s speaking now about her home in Oakland, California, where she moved from Portland in the summer of 2012. She’s finding the city’s diversity to her liking. She’s also found a new community of musicians, and a new band in Queen Crescent. The four-piece—which includes flutist/vocalist Melissa Vu, bassist Marisela Guizar, and Amy Martinez on drums—is a natural extension of Purple Rhinestone Eagle, mining early Black Sabbath records, Frank Frazetta paintings, and the Buddhist writings of Pema Chödrön. MARK LORE Read the full article on Queen Crescent.
ALL-AGES ACTION PRESENTS: LEE COREY OSWALD, MR. BONES, BLOWOUT
(Anarres Infoshop, 7515 N Alma) It’s kind of mind-boggling that the press hasn’t dedicated more attention to Lee Corey Oswald. They formed six years ago while founding members Lee Ellis and Corey Ciresi were still part of the short-lived modern sock-hop band Monarques, and their early material as a folk-punk duo felt indebted to bands like Against Me!, early Kind of Like Spitting, and the Mountain Goats. Those influences are still markedly apparent in Ellis’ songwriting, but the group has expanded to a fully amplified quartet, and their latest effort, Regards, is a rare jewel of a contemporary punk record, showcasing the aforementioned influences in addition to ’90s alternative touchstones like Superdrag, Teenage Fanclub, and Knapsack. It’s a record that’s literate without being pedantic, and it flirts with the best, most enduring aspects of pop-punk—specifically, vintage Green Day—without totally surrendering to the expectations placed on them for (technically) being a Warped Tour band. MORGAN TROPER See All-Ages Action!
THE WEATHER MACHINE, TANGO ALPHA TANGO, HUMAN OTTOMAN
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) The Weather Machine routinely gets labeled as a folk or folk-rock band—owing to Slater Smith’s early, mostly acoustic music under the Weather Machine moniker—but with the new album, Peach, Smith has thoroughly Dylanized his folksinger roots. He and his band have gone for something bigger, louder, and more dynamic than their debut, and they’ve never sounded better. Peach is a catchy, well-crafted rock record, with songs more suitable for dance parties than campfires. Pulling out all the stops, the band sounds at moments as though they are trying to out-Typhoon Typhoon. Smith’s singing style is often compared to Josh Ritter, which is still a fair comparison. He keeps his voice even and composed throughout, until the seventh track, the Libertines-flavored “Breakup Song,” where he opens up and goes all in, casually breaking into a ragged falsetto. Peach does not quite mark a moment of complete reinvention for the Weather Machine, but it is certainly an impressive re-imagining. SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY
ANVIL, LORD DYING, WERESQUATCH, SUNLORD
(Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy) See My, What a Busy Week!
RLLRBLL, ZOUAVES, BLESST CHEST
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) It’s been a couple of years since freak-rockers Rllrbll dropped their most recent full-length, 4 Corners, but the band has been releasing mind-melting collections of outsider noise since the ’90s. The genre-confounding 4 Corners relishes in experimentalism, crafting weirdly catchy art-rock in expanses as varied as syncopated acid-jazz dust-ups (like “Prince Charles in a Can”) and bat-shit loony tunes (like the driving industrial track “Cyclops”). The trio’s omnipresence in the local live circuit is a testament to the hidden fissures of old, “weird” Portland—an increasingly ostracized faction of the populace who recall when the entire city wasn’t one big condo. BUT I DIGRESS. Rllrbll is all kinds of interesting, and really is one of those projects that has something for everyone. RYAN J. PRADO