Anyway, if there’s a silver lining to today’s big dump (besides, you know, the economic gain for local snow-dependent businesses), it’s that Dick Dale — the King of the Surf Guitar — is riding a wave of reverb-drenched sound into town tonight for a show at the Domino Room, and he’s just the man to transport your mind from blizzard-y Central Oregon to some faraway beach where the big barrels roll in like a game of Donkey Kong on the hardest level.
What was I saying again?
Oh right: Tonight, be sure you show up on time (that’s 8 p.m.) for an opening set by local rockers Shade 13, a trio that makes old-soul surf and rockabilly that could be the soundtrack of some grainy Spaghetti Western film. The band has been playing regularly around Central Oregon for a while now, but this is, I think, their highest profile gig yet, so get out and support ‘em.
Still unconvinced? Check out the three videos below, shot by my colleague Adam Sears when Shade 13 played at Grover’s Pub back in December.
Attention folks who like to moooove to live music: If you play your cards right, you could turn tonight into an epic, all-night dance party without ever leaving downtown Bend!
First, at 7 p.m., get down to the new-school soul of Seattle’s Pickwick at McMenamins Old St. Francis School. It’s free. We wrote about ‘em here.
Next, around 9 p.m., wander over to Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom to absorb the thick Afro-funk juices of (also Seattle’s) Polyrhythmics. This one’s $10, and we wrote about it here.
After you’re nice and warmed up, cross Greenwood Avenue and check out the Slipmat Science party at the Domino Room, featuring the melodic, New Wave-inspired bass music of San Francisco’s Comma in the headlining slot. Here, you can probably boogie till morning, or close to it, for $5. Read what we wrote here.
Musically speaking, this is a busy, busy, busy Thursday evening in our fair burg, with interesting options whether you want to go out or stay in. Let’s get to it:
I’m guessing the guys in Calling Morocco are about my age, because I hear tons of sounds I recognize floating through their songs, including the heart and heft of Braid, the bar-room brawn of Lucero, and the power-pop charm of the Gin Blossoms.
Most of all, I think Calling Morocco sounds like alt-country cult faves Slobberbone and Drag the River on their happiest and most upbeat days.
Calling Morocco, “Pale Blue Eyes”
Meanwhile, over at The Horned Hand, local alt-folk cellist Third Seven (aka Billy Mickelson) will play his final show in town before setting off on a three-month tour across the U.S. and Europe. Billy is one of my favorite local musicians because his experimental streak seemingly knows no bounds. More details on the show are here, and it sounds like the fine Bay Area indie rock bands Slow Trucks and Oceanography are going to play, too, so you should probably get there around 7 p.m. to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Then at 9 p.m., Western-states wanderer and Bend fave Jerry Joseph will take the stage at Players Bar & Grill, which is ramping up both its atmosphere (from dive to repainted dive) and concert calendar under new ownership. (The Astro Lounge owner Josh Maquet is part of the group that bought Players. More on that later.) Here’s my story on Joseph from last week’s paper.
Jerry Joseph, “Most Beautiful Day”
Last but not least, if you’re like me — deathly afraid of venturing away my rocking chair, much less my home — you should tune your television to OPB tonight, where Oregon Art Beat will feature Bend’s own rapper/painter/teacher/poet/all-around good dude Jason Graham and his hip-hop ‘n’ rock fusion band Mosley Wotta. OPB has a story about the band and video of a recent performance right here.
(Just kidding near the end, there, by the way. I’m going to try to hit at least one, maybe two of these shows, right after I watch my beloved Kentucky Wildcats play hoops on TV.)
Pretty much all you need to know is in the subject line. Longtime Frequency fave Erin Cole-Baker is moving to New Zealand (where she grew up) on Monday, so her set at tonight’s Maiden Bend Music Fest at the Tower Theatre is the last time she’ll play here for quite a while.
Bummer for Bend, but best of luck to both Erin and her husband Bruce.
Lest you wonder what the big deal is, Cole-Baker’s pretty folk-pop songs have powered three of the best locally made albums of the past six years, in my opinion. Here’s what I wrote about the middle one, “Talon and Spur,” in 2009:
The world can be sweet and sad and confusing and rad, sometimes all at the same time. Local folk-pop machine Erin Cole-Baker leaves none of it out, pouring her heart into simple, catchy tunes that feel like tiny peeks into the mind of someone who breathes in all of life’s quirks, both good and bad.
That sums it up pretty well. Easy, irresistible melodies just seem to pour out of Cole-Baker, and she’ll be missed.
Here’s the video for the wonderful title track from her most recent album, “Big Sky”:
Maiden Bend is tonight; it starts in five hours. More details are here.
Last time Rubblebucket was in town, I went and saw them, steeling myself against a letdown. The hype around their previous show here (at The Bite of Bend) was loud enough to I figured they couldn’t possibly live up to it.
But they’re a very, very, very good and fun band, especially live. Here’s what I wrote after that show:
The octet … plays exuberant, globally inspired pop music that sounds like the stuttering polyrhythms and vibrant horns of Afrobeat dancing with the steady, motorik pulse of the English band Stereolab, all fronted by the terrific vocals of Kalmia Traver, who is clearly influenced by Icelandic pop superstar Björk.
If that sounds like a stylistic mishmash, well, it is. But it’s pretty amazing how well it works.
The thing about Rubblebucket is they play music that is unique, and discernibly different from pretty much any other band you’ll hear. That’s not hard to do. Anyone can start a band that blends, I don’t know, polka and dubstep.
What Rubblebucket does well is take in their influences and push out a hyper-prismatic sound that comes off as totally natural and totally unforced. And that is hard to do.
Here’s a new video the band put out today. Details on their show in Bend tonight are below.
The Omegaween Ball, featuring performances by Rubblebucket and Empty Space Orchestra; 9 tonight, doors open at 8 p.m.; $15 at the door; Century Center, 70 S.W. Century Drive, Bend; www.parallel44presents.com.
The Horned Hand has an evening full of rustic indie-folk music tonight with local band Rural Demons, plus Coloradans The Ghost of Michael Clark and The Changing Colors. Things will get going shortly after 8 p.m. and cover is $5. Here’s what I wrote about The Changing Colors in last week’s GO! Magazine:
Led by twin brothers Conor and Ian Bourgal, The Changing Colors come from the rustic Colorado music scene, where it’s easy to imagine their sad, sweeping folk tunes caroming around the craggy face of the nearby Rockies. The Bourgals excel at making sparse songs sound resonant and atmospheric.
Upon further review, these dudes write some seriously gorgeous songs. Imagine a less wild-eyed Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Palace Music) if his songs were set free in a wide-open space to breathe. But still super-bearded. That’s The Changing Colors. Here’s a sample:
I don’t know much about The Ghost of Michael Clark, but I’m sure the link above and/or a search engine will help you. Besides, I want to make sure to tell you to get there on time tonight to see the Rural Demons, a Bend-based “western gothic doom country” band led by James Ryan Adams that has been playing a bunch recently. They also just released an album, “Ghost Lights,” that I’ve been spinning a ton. You should do the same (stream it free here), because it’s very, very good.
While working on this week’s music stuff for GO! Magazine, I studied up on Delhi 2 Dublin, a collective of global villagers who take Irish fiddles and Indian drums and vocals, run ‘em through dance-friendly electronic beats, and turn out a pretty fresh, interesting sound. The band will be at the Domino Room tonight, and this video should give you a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen:
Of course, fans of the world’s music might be already planning on catching reggae son-of-a-legend Ziggy Marley tonight. Not to worry! Delhi 2 Dublin will start after Marley is done, and Shawn Jackson, the guy behind the D2D show, wrote this morning to say that anyone who shows their Ziggy ticket at the Domino Room door will get in for $5. That’s more than half off the listed door price, so take advantage and dance this Friday night away!
Smoke be damned, the weather’s about to get cooler, and tonight’s as good a night as any for a cold brew and some great local music. Tonight at GoodLife Brewing Co. in the Century Center (70 S.W. Century Drive, Bend), local Americana powerhouse Moon Mountain Ramblers will play the third week of their five-week residency, in which they’re offering a themed set each Tuesday through Sept. 13.
Tonight’s theme: “Dawg Music” (eclectic bluegrass by and inspired by David Grisman)
The rest of the series:
• Sept. 6 — “British Invasion” (music of the 1960s, including the Beatles and Stones)
• Sept. 13 — “Happy Birthday, Bill Monroe” (tunes by the man who invented bluegrass)
The music runs from 7 to 9 p.m. and it’s free.
Here’s video of the band playing the Flatt & Scruggs classic “Doin’ My Time” from last week’s tribute to great bluegrass vocalists.
Monday nights are generally pretty sleepy in Bend, but tonight isn’t playing along. Besides the Kottonmouth Kings show at the Domino Room, a couple of downtown bars are hosting bands that are worth your time. They’re also worth more ink than they got in last week’s GO! Magazine, but I didn’t know about them then, so let me make up for that by telling you about them now:
– At the new Astro Lounge (939 N.W. Bond St., Bend), the California indie/pop/rock band Montë Mar will get going around 8 p.m. It’s free. “California indie/pop/rock” tells you most of what you need to know about this quintet. They specialize in breezy, bouncy pop, with sun-dazed melodies draped in reverb, and just a hint of electronic influence here and there. Think The Beatles and The Smiths, or Death Cab for Cutie if they’d come from a sunny coast instead of the gray Northwest. They also sound like a cross between Aveo, Voxtrot and The Lassie Foundation, if you know any of those bands … which, if you do, send me an email. We should hang.
Find listenables at their website, MySpace and Facebook. Here’s a taste, too … stick around till the end to hear this catchy tune climb into the heavens:
– Down at the Madhappy Lounge (850 N.W. Brooks St., Bend), a couple of interesting rock bands — The Palisades and Rubedo — will play a free show in the bar’s cozy corner starting around 9 p.m. The Palisades are a trio from Bellingham, Wash., that does a rough-hewn kind of thing that reminds me of mid-’90s post-punk heroes Braid, complete with the rhythmic zigzags and hoarse melodies. Hear their newest EP here.
Rubedo, from Denver, brings to Bend an eclectic sound that vacillates between wispy, murky quietudes and blasts of abrasive rock, always coursing with threads of experimental jazz and funk. It truly is hard to get a handle on. Bewildering, even. Rubedo is working with some heavy hitters (connected to bands like The Dodos and The Mars Volta) on their debut album, which is due out soon (I think). Visit their website to hear some music and find their various social media outposts.
This week features a ridiculous number of opportunities to catch quality live music in Central Oregon, so I’m highlighting some of the best options for each night. But remember, you can always find lots more at The Bulletin’s online event calendar.
Tonight’s treat is a free show at Munch & Music by powerful blues singer Shemekia Copeland. You can read more about her here. M&M gets going around 5:30 p.m., and Copeland will take the stage … sometime after that. Just be there and be ready.
Also tonight, a couple of local CD-release shows worth mentioning:
–Bend-based pop-rock band Cadence has a new EP ready for the world, and they’ll celebrate with a show at tonight at the old Boomtown location (910 N.W. Harriman Street, Bend). Mosley Wotta and Symmetry/Symmetry will also perform. I think it starts at 7 p.m. and cover is $5. This band writes grand, sweeping songs that are super catchy, so go check ‘em out.
–Longtime local musician Brad Jones also has a new CD to release, his first under the name Keez. He’s also throwing a release show at 9 tonight at Madhappy Lounge (850 N.W. Brooks St., Bend). It’ll be free to get in. Read up on Jones here, and listen to some of his tunes here.
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