Van Dyke Parks - Wednesday @ Mississippi Studios
If you’re a music geek, the name Van Dyke Parks is music to your ears, considering the man’s pop pedigree. He has contributed lyrics to many great Beach Boys songs (”Heroes & Villains”, “Surf’s Up”), performed with The Byrds, produced albums by Ry Cooder and Randy Newman, and provided string arrangements for Joanna Newsom’s album Ys. As well, he recorded the intricate and far-reaching LP collector favorite Song Cycle. He comes to town not in support of any new music, nor is there any indication of what he will be up to tonight. But considering the man’s track record and his fascinating solo work, you would be foolish to miss out on a performance of this magnitude in as intimate a venue as Mississippi Studios.

Slabtown Bender - Friday through Sunday @ Slabtown
Busy this weekend? Not anymore you’re not, as you’ll want to have yourself parked in the friendly confines of Slabtown if you want to walk around town calling yourself a rock ‘n’ roll fan. Over the course of one weekend, a ridiculous number of incredible garage, punk and rock acts will take over this NW Portland bar and there is plenty of gems to be found in this overstuffed lineup. This includes the fuzzy rumblings of Ty Segall, the pub rock/glam hybrid Sir Lord Von Raven, two of the Bay Area’s best pop garage outfits Shannon & The Clams and The Dirty Cupcakes, and a bevy of local favorites like Pierced Arrows, The Bugs, Pure Country Gold, and The Foxgloves.

Daedelus/Nosaj Thing/Jogger - Monday @ Rotture
A fine package tour this. It brings together three young bucks from the world of electronica. All are from the Los Angeles area, and when they’re not remixing each other’s work, add a warm glow to the their own liquidy grooves. The emphasis throughout is on wowing synthesizers, dripping bits of sonic ephemera and beats that stir together elements of hip-hop, electro, deep house and smatterings of disco. Even if you play the wallflower for this night, you’re going to have plenty to chew on from the sidelines.

Ok Portland, I’m doing a DJ set at the Beaux-Arts Ball at Portland Art Museum this Saturday night, February 6th. Proceeds from the show will benefit education programs at the Portland Art Museum. Other than myself, entertainment is provided by Morningwood and Lily Verlaine. For tickets and information click here.

The Rumble skipped January but returns again on February 2nd at its usual location, Holocene. For this month’s show we have Jaguar Love, about whom Pampelmoose contributor Robert Ham has great things to say here. Also on the bill are Logan Lynn and DJ A-Train. And as always it’s a FREE show.

Read the entire article and see the slideshow at the Wall Street Journal here.

To paraphrase what I wrote in my 2009 Best of.. List a few days ago, “here’s a list of Portland artists that I spent the most time with in 2009. This is not meant to be a ranked list..” Portland never ceases to delight, with fresh new music popping up every month or so. Here’s just a handful that meant something to me this year.

The Builders And The Butchers

I saw The Builders And The Butchers at the Sasquatch Festival this year and was amazed to see the audience spontaneously begin to sing along with the band. It turned out to be one of the best performances of the weekend. Buy Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well

When It Rains by The Builders & The Butchers

Alela Diane

Early this year Alela Diane delivered, To Be Still, a wonderfully elegiac follow up to her album, The Rifle. I reviewed it at the time. Although she moves to and fro between Portland and Northern California, we should claim her as our hometown girl, as there is no doubt she is moving steadily toward greater renown.
Buy To Be Still

White As Diamonds by Alela Diane

Ramona Falls

Brent Knopf steps out of his Menomena world to bring us a startlingly fresh solo album, Intuit, under the moniker Ramona Falls. The release was accompanied by an amazing video.
Buy Intuit

Russia By Ramona Falls

Lackthereof

For ten years or more, Danny Seim, also of Menomena, has been releasing his own work as Lackthereof. In 2009 Barsuk released a retrospective of his decade’s work. This is a must have collection that will help you catch up with the work of one of Portland’s more creative and experimental musicians.

Buy A Retrospective 1998-2008

Last November By Lackthereof

Nurses

I’ll let this music fan, who left a review of the Nurses album Apple’s Acre on Amazon, have her say:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best albums of 2009, August 10, 2009
By J. Marler “Trendkill” (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

“This is a truly one of a kind album. I’ve never heard music like this before, not even from their first album. It’s an absolutely beautiful album, my personal favorite tracks are Mile After Mile, Technicolor, Man At Arms, Lita, Apple’s Acre… I guess I should just list the whole album every song is 5 stars. I can’t help but dance and sing with every track. My favorite album so far this year.”

Buy Apple’s Acre

Caterpillar Playground By Nurses

Panther

This is Portland’s loss. A word from Kill Rock Stars:

We are very sad to announce that Kill Rock Stars artists’ Panther are calling it quits. They have scheduled their last show for Dec 20 at Rontom’s in their hometown of Portland, OR. It will be a free show to thank their fans and friends for all their support.

Panther started out at the end of the 20th century as a solo project for Charlie Salas-Humara, then of the noisy prog band The Planet The. His shows were legendary - his signature falsetto over blown out beats making a bizarre form of damaged r&b along with his insane Merge Cunningham inspired dance moves and crowd heckling made for chaos that (mostly) won even the most uptight crowds over. He released a few records in this vein on local Fryk Beat records and made an AMAZING video before adding drummer Joe Kelly to the band and signing to KRS.

Buy Entropy

Love Is Sold [Lips and Ribs Remix] By Panther

Bobby Birdman

I love this video from Bobby Birdman and Audio Dregs and Fryk Beat Records. Click the image to play.

Buy New Moods

Thao And The Get Down Stay Down

Thao and her band had a busy year. There was the new album Know Better Learn Faster as well as her participation with the Portland Cello Project. I’ve a feeling that she will go far.

Buy Know Better Learn Faster

When We Swam By Thao And The Get Down Stay Down

Tallymarks By The Portland Cello Project feat. Thao

Bladen County Records

Bladen County Records continued to support and promote great music.

Pickathon and MusicFestNW

And it was another good year for two of our best music festivals. Pickathon and MusicFestNW.

Dr Dog at Pickathon

Crowd at Pickathon

Tu Fawning at MusicFestNW

OPB and WOXY iPhone Apps

And where would I be without my OPB Music and WOXY.com radio iPhone Apps?