My, What a Busy Week!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20

On their records, epic indie poppers Of Montreal create exhilarating, hallucinogenic mixes of soaring, orchestral compositions—upbeat, Beatlesque harmonies; melancholy lyrics; and melodies so catchy you’ll be singing them for weeks on end. Live, they do all that too—only much more loudly, and with frontman Kevin Barnes‘ glam theatrics thrown in for good measure. They’re brilliant. EH

w/HEALTH; Roseland, 8 NW 6th, 8 pm, $15, all ages

Local35 is five and alive! Come celebrate the store’s anniversary tonight, with an ice-themed bash hosted by party people from the Swedish line (and store favorite) WeSC, danceables by DJ Beyonda, art by Alex Steckly, drinks, Voodoo Doughnuts, and frozen headphone décor. MS

Local35, 3556 SE Hawthorne, 7-10 pm, FREE

The Portland Art Museum offers two-for-one admission tonight—a perfect opportunity to check out an installation by MK Guth, a local artist whose “Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping,” a lengthy braid of synthetic hair woven of scraps of fabric on which people across the country were invited to write things that matter to them, was recently shown in the Whitney Biennial. AH

Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, 4-8 pm, $10 for two

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21

Local record label Arena Rock celebrates a triple release show tonight, with new records—all on sumptuous vinyl!—from heavy improv instrumentalists Stiffwiff, dark and moody folksters Sabertooth, and the brain-scraping ambience of Wroom. It’s a local show you won’t want to miss, and it’s totally free, so there’s no excuse. NL

Dante’s, 1 SW 3rd, 9 pm, FREE

If taking your date to a screening of a Neil Young documentary featuring classic footage of his 1971 BBC performance doesn’t get you laid, maybe you should be dating girls more like me. It’s part of the Clinton Street Theater’s Friday night Classic Concerts series. LS

Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, 9:30 pm, $6

It was absolutely inevitable that author Marc Acito would pen a show for the Portland stage. This weekend, Acito—best known for his 2005 Oregon Book Award-winning novel How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater—debuts a show this weekend at Artists Rep, about a suburban family that takes in a pregnant homeless girl for the holidays. AH

Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison, opens Fri, runs Tues-Sun 7:30 pm, Wed 11 am, Sun

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22

You have got to be kidding me. The Drive-By Truckers, those Southern icons of all things good in rock music, alongside the infallible party kings the Hold Steady? Together? On one stage? If this is some sort of glorious dream, please don’t pinch me, because I don’t ever want to wake up. EAC

Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside, 9 pm, $20-22, all ages

Let improv comedy troupe Super Project Lab turn your frown upside-down tonight with “Meet Your _____!”, a Saturday-night series featuring local luminaries as guest improvisers. Tonight Storm Large and improv colleagues the Liberators are on, so it’s bound to be a good one. MS

Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 8 pm, $12 (w/two cans of food $2 off tickets; three cans of food $4 off tickets), all ages

Get a jump on your Thanksgiving feast with fresh local produce and a whole bunch of chef demos at the FEASTival at the PSU Farmers Market today. Don’t know crap about cranberries? They’ve got your back. PAC

South Park Blocks between SW Harrison & Montgomery, 9:30 am-2 pm, FREE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23

Cancer sucks, but here are two things that don’t: art and music. Tonight’s benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has plenty of both. There’ll be sets by excellent Portland bands like Menomena, Dolorean, Eluvium, and Tractor Operator. What’s more, comic book and life drawing artists will be drawing the bands before your very eyes, then they’ll auction off the artwork! NL

Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 8 pm, $12 (sliding scale)

An accomplished singer/songwriter with a stellar resume that stretches back some 13 years, Scott Garred is ready to deliver his 12th release under the (somewhat) solo moniker of Super XX Man. There’ll Be Diamonds; sparkles with delicately placed lyrics, tempered melodies, and an overwhelming sense of introspective beauty. EAC

w/Shoeshine Blue, Team Evil; Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th, 9 pm, $6-8

Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland is organizing the Cranksgiving Food Drive; you’ll ride to five locally owned grocery stores, buy food at each, then ride to a men’s shelter to donate the food. Plan to spend three to four dollars at each store. MD

Ride begins at noon at the People’s Co-op, 3029 SE 21st, ends at the Clark Center Shelter, 1431 SE MLK

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24

If Obama’s brand of change isn’t enough for you, catch activist rapper Immortal Technique in town tonight. The Peruvian-born and Harlem-raised musician delivers intelligent rhymes about rebellion, revolution, and the streets. LS

w/Hasan Salaam, Da Circle, Mic Crenshaw; Roseland, 8 NW 6th, 8 pm, $18, all ages

While it’s not without its flaws, Jeff Kaliss’ I Want to Take You Higher: The Life and Times of Sly and the Family Stone has something that all the other speculators, and fans, of the band will probably never get: one-on-one face time with the reclusive and severely drug-damaged Sly Stone himself. EAC

Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne, 7:30 pm, FREE

I guess we can just put this one in the win column right now. Nothing like watching the Blazers roll over the Sacramento Kings tonight at the Rose Garden. We used to be as bad as them. Used to. PAC

Rose Garden, 1 Center Court, 7 pm, $10 & up

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25

Olympia’s cutest band, LAKE, comes back to the Northwest for a homecoming show, after a tour on which you wish you could have tagged along. The group serves laidback, family-loving attitude alongside slow, melodic songs and sweetly awkward stage banter. SM

w/Desolation Wilderness; Rotture, 315 SE 3rd, 9 pm, $5

Back by popular demand, the Grindhouse Trailer Spectacular is returning to the Hollywood, promising “nonstop mind-melting 35mm mayhem!” It’s a program packed full of super-rare trailers for grindhouse classics and not-so-classics, from horror flicks to spaghetti westerns to revenge epics to Pam Grier-led blaxploitation films to—yes!—Jim “Dragon” Kelly’s 1977 masterpiece Black Samurai. This’ll be a blast. EH

Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, 7:45 pm, $7

What could you possibly be doing on a Tuesday that’s more fun than putting on your dancing shoes, hitting the hippie pizza parlor, and jumping along to Eastern European folk beats? That’s right: nothing. SM

It’s a Beautiful Pizza, 3342 SE Belmont, 9-11 pm, FREE

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26

With plenty of bluegrass, twang, and mud-booted folk stomping, the timeless songs of Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs—actually just Holly and her percussionist/partner-in-crime Lawyer Dave—inhabit a world where everybody has one of only two things on their mind: love or murder. NL

w/Tom Heinl; Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $12-14

Miami’s recent signing of former clutch Kansas guard Mario Chalmers and number two draft pick, power forward Michael Beasley, has reenergized the franchise—and star Dwyane Wade—following their loss of Shaq to Phoenix. And not to be entirely discouraging, but there’s always a chance Greg Oden will be fatally injured on the court tonight. Go Blazers! MD

Rose Garden, 1 Center Court, 7 pm, $10 & up

What the eff happens at a “turkey call“? You’ll have to ask dance party mistress DJ Rhienna as she gets your ass shakin’ and bakin’ at the third annual Turkey Call at the Fez Ballroom. Call me a betting woman, but I’ll wager that there will be more than one “gobble, gobble” thrown out over the PA. CF

w/DJ F, Virginia Jones; Fez Ballroom, 316 SW 11th, 9 pm, $2