The highlights:
-Ty Segall and Sic Alps tearing shit up, making all the ladies in the audience swoon.
-Scamming free drugs from an incredibly sketchy person.
-Thee Oh Sees almost collapsing the smoking porch out back..or so I heard.
-Missing the Teenage Cool Kids on the second night, but having them play again before Fergus and Geronimo.
-Fergus and Geronimo kicking ass to a less-than-awesome crowd.
-Bitching out a girl who threw a bottle at my head.
-Chatting and barbecuing with Teenage Cool Kids on a hungover Sunday afternoon. Free barbecue, free beer, free drugs, nice company!
-I didn't attend…

7/23: Nobunny @ Worksound
7/28: Thurston Moore DJ set @ Jackpot + Japandroids @ Holocene
7/30: Soul Clap Dance-off @ Rotture or Magic Johnson @ Camp Rainbow
8/7: The Younger Lovers @ Rotture
8/21-23: SMMR BMMR!!!

In other words, rad summer full of shows.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v23/ivorysaur/dmmrbmmr.jpg

I'm back from the temporary confinement of Alaska, with things to share.

First, Wednesday's show with Jay Reatard and Thee Oh Sees (its true, Thee Oh Sees totally stole the show): http://endhits.portlandmercury.com/endhits/archives/2009/06/19/jay-reatard-and-thee-oh-sees–live-at-dantes-061709#more

And then, the final return of the long-forgotten taping I went to with Fred and Toody Cole. They are absolute legends and deserve the attention: http://www.vbs.tv/watch/soft-focus-season-3/dead-moon

Go watch.

I don't normally write about shows I go to, even if they are amazing, which they sometimes are. The amount of quality shows this year seems to be rising, and not just quality in the musicians, but quality in the venue and the crowd participation. Still, there is rarely anything worth writing about. Some bands always put on an amazing performance, and other performances are lost in the chatter and drunkenness (I went to the most amazing house show ever in someones living room, and I still, to this day have no idea who was playing).
I feel that the…

Nite Owl Record Show fell on record store day this year. I dug through approx. 100 boxes. Paid less than 20 dollars for everything. Finally, there is something good about this economy: desperate dealers. As per my budget, this is mostly soul and old rock and roll..very few dealers were offering cheap punk rock and hardcore, at least without having to look through stacks and stacks of unwanted Rancid singles.
Here's the list:
7":
I'll Come Running Back to You / Forever
Little Sally Walker / Baby Walk
Going to a Go-Go / Choosey Beggar
The Nitty Gritty / Give…

I was going to write a post about typical Portland show procedures, full of witty anecdotes and name dropping. But all the fun has been taken out of it recently for two reasons:
#1 I'm sick.
#2 Everyone and every band I would want to see is at SXSW anyways.
So I'm sitting here in my long johns, writing this, instead of drinking booze at showcases and eating tacos, and seeing about 1 million awesome bands. I'm missing out on the spring break destination for music nerds, and I hate myself for it.
Look at this:
http://sxsw.com/music/shows/schedule
Highlights include a…

So, first Pete Seeger plays Woody Guthrie's anthem, "This Land is Your Land" at the inauguration, and everyone sings along without a hint of irony. Then, tonight I'm watching the Mae Shi live, and we're all jumping around, waving a huge rainbow tent above our heads that encompasses the entire audience, singing along even though I don't know the words, while the band, half screaming, half singing, jumps down from the stage to join us. It is on this purely personal basis that I predict that musically and emotionally, 2009 will be all about optimism, escapism, and, dare i say,…

Its a movie. I saw it tonight. Its about James Brown. See, he played a concert after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. It saved the city from rioting in the streets. Seriously. He met the President of the United States and got thanked for it.
The Audience tonight was 55% white indulgent baby boomers who kept laughing at James Brown's dance moves like it was the funniest shit ever. James Brown's dance moves are deadly serious, people. Those people must have been the 55% of white Americans that think that racism is over, or some bullshit.
I've got my…

Its about midnight, six or seven drinks in, and I'm begging money from an assortment of friends and well wishers at this hole in the wall. "You've had enough," they tell me, which is rather condescending coming from someone who's been drinking whiskey and beer all night. "Just one more song" I plead, trying to swipe the bartender's tip on the table. "You can listen to music when you get home," they tell me. They just don't know the siren song of the bar jukebox. The one there was a fancy newfangled digital affair, where they take your money, then…

12.04.08:
Soft Focus is taping in Portland, so I go. The guests are Fred and Toody Cole of Dead Moon fame, and Steven Malkmus, who everyone knows. Fred and Toody are amazing. Malkmus is just boring as hell. The interviewer, Ian Svenonius, is a pretentious dick, as always (and I mean that in the best possible way). Later, Courtney and I hit up the afterparty, with Svenonius and Calvin Johnson djing. I feel like I'm on the set of some sort of Portland hipster soap opera, with the whos who of influential indie rock semi superstars. Except Calvin Johnson just…