Talk Demonic. Pic: Alicia J Rose

Today, we introduce a weekly spotlight of Portland-area concerts that we think you should put on your radar. A new edition will be featured here every Thursday.

Holocene 6 Year Anniversary - Friday & Saturday @ Holocene (1001 SE Morrison) One of Portland’s best venues celebrates their sixth birthday with a two-day extravaganza, featuring a fantastic lineup of music. The concerts showcase the two sides of this club’s personality, with Friday highlighting Holocene’s love of forward thinking electronic and dance music. That night’s lineup includes a DJ set from Brooklyn-based house DJ Marcos Cabral and a set by local favorites Linger & Quiet. Saturday leans heavily on indie rock with recent Willamette Week Best New Band pick Explode Into Colors and the drums/viola electro-pop instrumental duo Talkdemonic (pictured) headlining.

Basshaters/Peninsula Project - Friday @ The Wail (5135 NE 42nd Ave) A duo featuring drums and double bass in which neither instrument is played as expected. This San Francisco group ekes out scratchy noise and horn-like tones from the strings and uses their trap kit as a device to rattle instead of roll. The band is touring the Western U.S. with a likeminded bunch of noisemakers from Norway (with a instrumental lineup that includes bass, guitar and tuba) known as Peninsula Project.

Michael Hurley - Saturday @ The Press Club (2621 SE Clinton) One of the many great things about Michael Hurley is that you never really can pin the man down. His name seems to pop up on concert calendars without warning, leaving fans scrambling to rearrange plans so they don’t miss out on one of his peerless performances. Tonight, this long-time blues/folk veteran will be filing the cozy confines of the Press Club with his wizened vocals and arch lyrical visions.

Imaad Wasif - Saturday @ Mississippi Studios (3939 N Mississippi) You can catch this brilliant singer-songwriter opening up for Neko Case at the second of her two shows at the Crystal Ballroom. Or you can make it a late night and stop by Mississippi Studios at midnight on Saturday when Wasif will be performing what’s sure to be either a sleepy or boozy set of beautifully rendered acoustic pop.

The Juan MacLean - Sunday @ Doug Fir Lounge (830 E Burnside) If you ever need proof as to the hypnotic power of dance music, I suggest you drop your tone arm on the masterpiece that is “Happy House” by The Juan MacLean. It wraps the history of house and disco into a tight, 12-minute package custom made for a sweaty dance floor. It’s going to get mighty muggy in the Doug Fir once this group hits the stage.

Portland Radio Authority Benefit - Tuesday @ East End (203 SE Grand Ave) This online, non-commercial, listener-supported station is seeking out a little extra help during this wintry economic climate via this well-curated benefit show. On the bill is art rockers Iretsu and filmmaker Matt McCormick playing minimalist electronica under the name Very Stereo.

Here we are at the end of another year, in fact almost the end of a new decade, and the musicians of the world continue to turn out amazing work. The CD industry continues to slump and digital sales are not filling the gap, yet amazingly I am able to play on average 26 new songs over 2 hours on my twice weekly radio show here in Portland. It’s an honor to be able to expose brand new music from artists old and newly discovered to both my blog readers and my listening audience too.

Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit Are The Very Best

So how does one come up with a smart list of hot bands? Who is deserving, and why? Well its never easy..I just went back through all the music submissions for just one week and extrapolated the numbers out over a year - in 2008 so far I have been sent, on average, 6,134 MP3s and 1,304 CDs. That’s a lot of music, [especially as I'm the main writer for Pampelmoose,] and creates lots of decision making every day as I try and filter the good stuff on behalf you the reader or the radio listener.

In a nutshell, I came up with this list based simply on which artist’s work stirred me the most as I listened to it as dispassionately as possible. To some it won’t make sense, to others it will because they understand the eclectic nature of my blog and radio show. Others still will be outraged that I didn’t include their favorite band and others will decry me as a self-serving-know-nothing music snob [this has happened in the past, sort of makes me proud] but its all water off a duck’s back at this point.

The Very Best represent to me all that is possible in music. Back in October when I first received the mixtape I was thrilled. I was equally thrilled to find today that Scott Plagenhoef at Pitchfork gave the mixtape a great review and how he shares my findings of their music ….”Mwamwaya and Radioclit are open here to everything from South Africa’s marabi and kwaito music to Hans Zimmer scores to French and American hip-hop to Michael Jackson– and in most cases, it’s the tracks that lean furthest away from the familiar that work best. The regal “Sister Betina”, BLK JKS collaboration “Salota”, and Radioclit productions “Funa Funa” and “Kada Manja” are as immediately likable as the rest of the mix.”
And in a moment of headiness created by listening to the mixes I wrote of how this mashing of cultures even beyond music may engender a more peaceful global society - Fighting Terror via Art, Supper, Double Club and Sapeurs.

Here’s the top ten winners, in order this year:

01. The Very Best - Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit Are The Very Best [Mixtape]
Available for free here.
02. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig!!!
Buy Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! here
03. Nightmares On Wax - Thought So…
Buy Thought So.. here
04. Susanna - Flower of Evil
Buy Flower of Evil here
05. Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball
Buy Wrecking Ball here
06. Brightblack Morning Light - Motion To Rejoin
Buy Motion To Rejoin here
07. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cardinology
Buy Cardinology here
08. Booka Shade - The Sun & The Neon Light
Buy The Sun & The Neon Light here
09. Ume - Sunshower EP
Buy Sunshower EP here
10. The Happy Hollows - Imaginary EP
Buy Imaginary EP here

Check out a track from each artist here:

The Very Best - Kamphopo
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Nightmares On Wax - 195lbs
Susanna - Jailbreak
Dead Confederate - Goner
Brightblack Morning Light - Hologram Buffalo
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Magick
Booka Shade - Dusty Boots
Ume - The Conductor
The Happy Hollows - Tambourine

Another PDX POP NOW! is ‘in the can’. Once again it came, it saw, it kicked our ass.

I took some behind the scenes pics on Saturday and Sunday. Also, here’s a group of ‘POP’ pics I put together (for you, baby), including the one above of Fist Fite’s Jonnie Monroe. Aw Yeah. She kicks out the PWRFL keyboard jams and still finds time to make CUTE POP PIX.

I’ll spare you my verbage regarding the weekend whirlwind of sweet Portland musical artists, junk foods, and how many people I hassled into posing in front of that wall that said ‘POP’ on it. I don’t have the energy to type, I need to get to work in a half hour, and frankly, I think these peeps have it covered:

There’s a shit-ton of blogging about PDX POP 08′ hap-nin’ on urban honking. Seriously. >>>>WOW<<<<.

The Portland Mercury did a snazzy fest preview.

Also, Localcut’s Michael Mannheimer has detailed reports of days two and one.

ONLY 352 days ’till PDX POP NOW 2009!!!

Post by Jon Ragel

It’s day (and night) three of PDX POP NOW!, arguably Portland’s best damn music festival ever (and it’s FREE!). I snapped a few pics of yesterday’s behind the scenes action, including the above shot of Norfolk and Western drumkit specialist Rachel Blumberg. What started out as relatively gentle Saturday afternoon culminated around 2 am inside a (very) packed Rotture with a hot-and-balmy set by Starfucker, a caped stage diver, and some karazy kid out in the street in his underwear. YEA.

(to be continued today and this evening)

Post by Jon Ragel

Mr Jarman is on the right….

Casey is obviously too humble to post the news himself but the chatter around town here in Portland is that he has been promoted to Music Editor at Portland’s biggest alt-weekly newspaper the Willamette Week. Luciana Lopez over at the Oregonian broke the news first. [I would link to Luciana's story but I can't find it in the epic tangle that is OregonLive.com] I emailed Casey yesterday and he confirmed his ascension to the ranks of long, sleepless nights writing about bands and music, hanging around in clubs and generally being harangued for not covering enough of the Portland neu-Metal scene…I forgot to ask if he’s still going to run the LocalCut blog too.
Anyway Casey, congrats and I’ll buy you a beer next week in Pendleton at Rock Camp as we try and teach those kids about the Rock!