Monday, October 26 at 7:30pm | $8 | Buy advance tickets here.
Sonic Cinema presents PARADISE IS THERE, A MEMOIR BY NATALIE MERCHANT.
Singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant released “Tigerlily” 20 years ago. The album went on to sell 5 million copies and touched countless numbers of fans. Now Merchant has re-recorded the album and uses the opportunity to tell her story, the story behind the songs, and the impact the album has had on her audience.
This film is a personal account of the beloved singer’s journey. Told through her voice and the voices of her fans, it illustrates how powerfully the songs from “Tigerlily”—’Carnival,’ ‘River,’ Wonder,’ ‘The Letter,’ and more—have impacted her audience.
Through the film, we get to know Merchant in a new way and appreciate the humanity of the woman that is reflected in her songs. Filled with archival footage from her early days fronting the seminal alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs, live performances, and interviews with musicians, friends, and fans.
- See more at: http://hollywoodtheatre.org/paradise-is-there-a-memoir-by-natalie-merchant/#sthash.MJJovy1o.dpuf
Join XRAY DJs for a night of fun. Drink, Food and Game specials for XRAY Members and DJs!
SEE YOU THERE from 7pm-1am! Facebook Event Invite here!
XRAY is invading Ground Kontrol for a night of pixels, drinking, and music. Come meet the people behind the station, pick up your member keytag, and get down to the sweet stylings of XRAY DJs Keegan, DDDJJJ666, and Magnolia Bouvier.
This night is a benefit for XRAY.FM, with drink specials and a portion of proceeds going to the station. Bring your friends!
These rad designs come to us from Lulu Martinez (http://lulumartinez.us/)
Time to break out your party hats and favorite flannel – Oregon Wild is celebrating 40 years protecting Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters and we want you to celebrate with us!
A camp-inspired night of festivities, Call of the Wild is a chance to see stunning photography from our 10th annual Outdoor Photo Contest, mingle with wilderness and wildlife lovers from across the state, and celebrate everything you love about Oregon. In honor of Oregon Wild’s 40th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, this year’s benefit features:
- A special brew from Migration Brewing Co., crafted just for Oregon Wild!
- Local wine and specialty ‘Wild’ cocktails served in signature camp mugs featuring spirits from Big Bottom Whiskey and Bendistillery
- Delicious bites from Simpatica Catering & Dining Hall, Pacific Pie Co., Tastebud, Papa G’s,Thrive Pacific NW, & more!
- Live music from local blues/roots guitarist Joe McMurrian!
- Trail mix station
- Photobooth
- Silent auction featuring framed prints of the finalists of the 10th annual Outdoor Photo Contest, rafting and adventure trips, outdoor gear and apparel, packages for hikes, photographers, climbers, fishing enthusiasts, kayakers, beer lovers, foodies, and more (click here for the growing list of great prizes)
Entry, beer, wine, food, and entertainment are all included with your $40 ticket!
Fri OCTOBER 16, 2015
Back Fence PDX: RUSSIAN ROULETTE
DOORS 7:00PM | SHOW 8:00PM | 21+
DISJECTA 8371 N INTERSTATE Ave
Featuring the audience-voted winner from the August show + Writer/Director of Bath Night Sketch Comedy, SEAN McGRATH (PDX), along with returnees, Award-Winning News Producer + Teacher, COLE KAZDIN (LA), Two-Time Russian Roulette Winner + Office Manager, SHANNON BALCOM (PDX), Comics Professor + Author of Calling Dr. Laura, NICOLE J. GEORGES (PDX, past runner-up), Winner of Samuel French Short Play Off Off Broadway NY Play Festival + Squirrel Loving Nudist, JENNIFER JASPER (SEA) — taking on first-timers, Adman + Once Had a Sweet Rat-Tail, BRITTON TAYLOR (PDX), Holistic Health Coach + Master Cake Baker, REBA SPARROW (PDX), and Co-Founder Kickstand Comedy Space + Former Professional Video Game Emcee, DYLAN REIFF (PDX)!
$15 – $20 ADVANCE | $18 DOOR
At the end of the night, the audience will select a winner who will receive 50 bucks and some other cool prizes, like bragging rights for life. The winner will be invited to come back to the next show!
*Storytellers subject to change without notice. Stories may contain explicit language and/or subject matter.
Thursday October 15th at Holocene // SMART (Start Making a Reader Today) is presenting FORWARD: a concert benefiting Children's Literacy. The fundraiser will feature stand up comic Alex Falcone, and Music by DJ Anton and XRAY's own DJ Ronin Roc (heard on XRAY Saturdays at 10pm)
More information about SMART can be found at http://getsmartoregon.org/, and event details can be found at holocene.org
October 15th is now officially the Hip-Hop Day in Portland! After the event at City Hall, which will include Vinnie Dewayne, Mic Capes, Jon Belz, DJ Juggernaut, Lady X and Oz Rock, with StarChile and DJ O.G. One, the Portland Trail Blazers' resident DJ, hosting the show, come peep the After Party with DJ Shortkut, DJ Rev Shines, DJ O.G. One, and DJ Ronin Roc.
Free before 10pm/ $5 before 11pm
Portland will honor its hip-hop community for the first time on Oct. 15, with a Hip-Hop Day celebration and live concert at City Hall, with the help of StarChile and DJ O.G.ONE, honoring hip-hop as an important piece of the identity as a city. The event will include Vinnie Dewayne, Mic Capes, Jon Belz, DJ Juggernaut, Lady X and Oz Rock, with StarChile and DJ O.G. One, the Portland Trail Blazers' resident DJ, hosting the show.
All Jane Comedy Festival is an all-female comedy festival devoted to inspiring, encouraging, discovering and promoting the quality and diversity of women in comedy. This curated festival focuses on selecting the very best women stand up, improv and sketch comedians working in comedy today.
THIS YEAR we have Page Hurwitz (producer of Last Comic Standing), Karen Kilgariff (Conan, Mr. Show), Alice Wtterlund (Silicon Valley, Girl Code), Nicole Byer (Girl Code), Ms Pat (LCS) and 37 more!
ALL JANE 2015 LINE UP
Details at alljanecomedy.org/schedule/
TO PURCHASE A FESTIVAL PASS, FOLLOW THIS LINK: https://www.boxofficetickets.com/go/event?id=305493
WED 10/14 @ CURIOUS COMEDY THEATER
7:30 - Pacific Northwest Showcase:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-pacific-northwest-showcase/
THURS 10/15 @ CURIOUS COMEDY THEATER
7:30 - Karen Kilgariff and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-karen-kilgariff-and-friends/
9:30 - Naomi Ekperigin and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-naomi-ekperigin-and-friends/
FRI 10/16 @ ALBERTA STREET PUB
7:30 - Subhah Agarwal and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-subhah-agarwal-and-friends/
9:30 - Rants Off/ Dance Off:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-rants-off-dance-off/
FRI 10/16 @ CURIOUS COMEDY THEATER
7:30 - JV Club with Janet Varney:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-jv-club-with-janet-varney/
9:30 - Random Acts of Comedy:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-random-acts-of-comedy/
SAT 10/17 @ RED ROSE BALLROOM
7:30 - Page Hurwitz and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-page-hurwitz-and-friends/
9:30 - Minority Retort:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-minority-retort/
SAT 10/17 @ CURIOUS COMEDY THEATER
7:30 - Janet Varney and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-janet-varney-and-friends/
9:30 - Alice Wetterlund and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-alice-wetterlund-and-friends/
SUN 10/18 @ CURIOUS COMEDY THEATER
5:30 - All Jane Podcast:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-podcast/
7:30 - Nicole Byer and Friends:
http://www.curiouscomedy.org/events/all-jane-nicole-byer-and-friends/
Sunday, Oct 11th, 2015
9pm / 21+ / $8 at the door
adv tix: http://holdmyticket.com/event/222026
XRAY FM, Sound and Salt, Dirtnap Records, and Soundcontrol PDX Present:
RADIOACTIVITY!
https://www.facebook.com/radioactivitytx
Radioactivity is a continuation of The Novice, Jeff Burke's band while living in Japan. Jeff has since moved back to Texas, and out of respect to the Japanese lineup of the band, has changed the name to Radioactivity. Some of these songs are re-purposed Novice tracks, while others are brand new. Jeff is one of the most distinctive songwriters in the punk rock underground, and these songs will sound instantly familiar to any fans of The Marked Men or Potential Johns. Band members include Jeff Burke, Mark Ryan, and Gregory Rutherford, whose credits read like an all-star lineup of Texas punk and garage rock royalty, including members of The Marked Men, Mind Spiders, Bad Sports, Wax Museums, The Reds, VIDEO, and The Novice.
Low Culture - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Low-Culture/292105234150979
Divers - https://www.facebook.com/pages/DIVERS/106213376120283
Ariel Pink and Black Lips are heading out on a fall North American tour together. Ariel's touring in support of last year's pom pom and Black Lips are supporting last year's Underneath the Rainbow.
All Ages | Bar w/ ID
This is s $3 show curated by XRAY.fm! RSVP to join us for this Red Bull Sound Select show by clicking this link!
8pm | $12.00 day of show
JUST $3 AT THE DOOR WITH RSVP IN ADVANCE ATRED BULL SOUND SELECT !
RSVP does not guarantee entry, so we recommend arriving early.
After three years of non-stop international touring with the likes of the XX, Grimes and the Gossip, when it came time to record their sophomore album Olympia, Toronto-based band Austra had evolved into a complex collaborative effort between its six members. "Previously, I would flesh out songs before I brought them to the band, but this time I left them bare and let the others fill them in" explains Katie Stelmanis, the principal songwriter/vocalist.
Olympia is also the first confessional record for Stelmanis as evidenced by the heartfelt lyrics of piano driven lead single "Home" (stream now). "Home" expresses the anxieties of waiting up all night for a lover to return. "I was mad and upset and the song just wrote itself," says the singer. The album touches on a range of sentiments that stem from a relationship ending, a relationship beginning, and friends' struggles with addiction and motivation. Despite the sometimes dark lyrics written in collaboration with band member Sari Lightman, Olympia is bubbly and buoyant-- fundamentally a dance record, which Stelmanis says was the band's aim all along. "We are really into dense harmonies and big beautiful melodies, but I also love techno and dance music. I wanted to bring those elements together."
Though Olympia is filled with electronic and synthetic sounds that reference everything from Trax Record classic cuts to Yazoo's Upstairs At Eric's, it's free of programming and loops. Everything was played live by the band in the studio and all of the percussion including a wild set up of marimbas and congas is drummer Maya Postepski. "Maya played a huge role in the production of the album," says Stelmanis, who has been playing with the drummer for eight years since their previous band, Galaxy. "There is a major percussive element running through every song," Stelmanis laughs, "this is the album where we discovered rhythm."
All of the things. Come see all episodes of the first season of The Lyric Project, including two premiere episodes and a few remixes of early episodes. The event consists of live performances, give-aways, and dancing.
Event Page, $3
When it came time to make the fourth Telekinesis album, drummer/songwrit- er/principal architect Michael Lerner found himself in a predicament that will sound familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in the lore of rock bands. In just under five years, he had released three fantastic records—Telekinesis! (2009), 12 Desperate Straight Lines (2011), and Dormarion (2013)—each more ambitious than the last. He had toured all over the world, shared stages with great bands (Death Cab for Cutie, Portugal. The Man, Aimee Mann and Ted Leo’s The Both), and enthralled fans of his infectious, ebullient power pop. Newly married and happily ensconced in the home studio he’d assembled in his West Seattle basement, Lerner found himself asking the question that has haunted modestly successful bands down the ages: What do you do after the rock and roll dreams you had when you were 19 have come true? The obvious answer was to make another Telekinesis record—that was his job, after all, and he was grateful for it. So he got to work. It didn’t go well. At least not at first.
“I went down to the basement,” Lerner recalls, “and started playing the same chords I always play... I just felt like I’d exhausted everything I knew. I was not excited at all. I just could not make another power-pop album.”
He sought inspiration in music that bore little relation to the familiar Telekinesis sound, and soon found it in the swooning, synth-driven pop of early ’80s UK bands like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Glasgow’s The Blue Nile (whose 1982 debut album, A Walk Across the Rooftops, Lerner had been given by Merge honcho Mac McCaughan), as well as more up-tempo numbers like Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder’s 1977 disco master class “I Feel Love” and, even further afield, Drake’s 2013 summer jam “Hold On, We’re Going Home.” Though Lerner is a drummer with a strong affinity for loud electric guitars, he found himself irresistibly attracted to the powerful atmospheres stirred up by the gorgeously inorganic sounds and simple arrangements of these wildly disparate inspirations. A new idea began to take shape, as did a somewhat obsessive collec- tion of old synthesizers and drum machines.
Lerner dedicated himself to learning the intricacies of antiquated keyboards with names like the Roland JX-10 (the very model Angelo Badalamenti used to com- pose the music for Twin Peaks), the Teenage Engineering OP-1, the Moog Sub Phatty, the Elektron Octatrack, and even a Speak & Spell. “If you buy a guitar,” observes Lerner, “people always say ‘oh, there’s a song in that guitar.’ That’s how it was for every piece of equipment I acquired over the last two years.” Finding the songs was one thing; making sense of the elaborate technical requirements that would allow him to sync the multiple generations of machinery with digital record- ing software was another. There were plenty of easier ways to go about the process, sending MIDI versions of the vintage sounds and letting a computer do the heavy lifting, but that would have missed the point. There was joy in getting his hands dirty; part of the process was to invent the process. It took months of diligent effort (“pulling my hair out, for real”), but when the literal and figurative dust settled, what emerged looked and sounded like a legitimate breakthrough. The previous three Telekinesis LPs had been recorded fast, on tape, in professional studios with accomplished producers—Chris Walla on the first two, Jim Eno on the third—at the helm. This new one had been painstakingly assembled by Lerner alone, work- ing without a map, using an entirely unfamiliar palette of sounds, and discovering an entirely different tonal vocabulary in the process. And though the total running time is a tidy 33 minutes, it had taken what seemed like forever to get there (hence the album title).
And yet, for all the new methodology and instrumentation, the DNA of Ad Infinitum is oddly familiar. The melodic hooks that have endeared Telekinesis to the world of pop music aficionados are flagrantly front and center. The pinging pong of an instrumental figure on album opener “Falling (In Dreams)” sounds almost like a permission slip for Lerner to let loose with a soaring head voice in the chorus. It’s a chilling entrance to an album that soon veers into the much faster new-wave thrills of “Sylvia,” the ironically technology-averse retrofuturism of “In a Future World” (which sounds like the missing link between Speak & Spell-era Depeche Mode and the birth of Erasure), and onward. The hyperactive gem “Courtesy Phone” proves that no matter how many stylistic obstacles he places in his own path, Lerner’s knack for perfect power pop is irrepressible. But the high- energy dance rhythms of “It’s Not Yr Fault” and the gorgeous, McCartney II-esque polyphony of “Ad Infinitum Pt. 1” are totally unprecedented in the Telekinesis oeuvre. The whole album is a relentless marriage of old and new, memory and imagination, deconstruction and rediscovery.
While artists like M83 and Blood Orange (among many, many others) have made fruitful use of vintage sounds and production techniques in recent years, Ad Infinitum is a different animal. It’s less like a time capsule and more like a time machine. In the movie version of the story, Lerner would stumble on his way down the stairs, hit his head, and wake up in 1983, and the only way he could get back to the present day would be to make a record using available instru- ments. Then he’d wake in 2015 to discover he’d been in his basement studio all along. And the record he’d made in that strange dream state would turn out to be Ad Infinitum, the most ambitious and assured Telekinesis release to date.
‘band’ Say Hi). Back then he’d taken his exposé deep behind the trenches of post Buffy vampire life (death?) with his record Impeccable Blahs. There, he found a culture ripe with individuals as complex, moral, stupid and romantic as their human counterparts.
They just happened to get their sustenance from drinking
blood. But that was before the complications the Twilight series introduced. Suddenly, things were different. Garlic wasn’t really a thing any more, mirrors couldn’t be relied upon to not have reflections and, gasp, apparently the cloud cover of the Pacific Northwest was enough to give them a we-can-now-walk-around-in-the-sunlight loophole? Let’s just say things didn’t really sit quite right with the vast majority of blood suckers. They rebelled. Subtly at first. But, before us humans knew it, they’d infiltrated the very fabric of our society.
Bleeders Digest is their story. It’s polaroids of their patience, resilience and wrath. In opening track “The Grass Is Always Greener,” the vampires are content with coexisting until the song’s protagonist cartoonishly hurls a giant boulder at them (thanks a lot, Jenny). By the time we reach the chugging anthem “Pirates Of The Cities, Pirates Of The Suburbs,” the fang-ed demons have driven most of us from our homes in a bloody wash of brute force and Darwinian eminent domain.
But all is not lost. Behind closed doors, some vague but jovial remnants of humanity sprout anew. They’d never show it to the outside world, but mansion-roommates Aldo and Tina fill their daylight hours sailing sofas and penning crosswords for the New York Times in “Creatures Of The Night.” It’s a fun distraction from the necking they’ll do once the sun goes down … Which actually brings us to our next point.
Is there a better metaphor for intimacy than the vampire? The sharp teeth and fluids, the romance of eternity. Besides, it wouldn’t be a Say Hi record without some good stories of lovin’. Throughout Bleeders, we see things from the vampire’s perspective. On “It’s A Hunger,” our protagonist literally starves for what the female gender offers to all five of his senses. Elsewhere, as on “Galaxies Will Be Born,” the seduction of immortality is eclipsed only by the tenderness of the act of turning, itself.
And so, from his tiny home-studio in Seattle, WA, Say Hi updates the vampire genre with another chapter via eleven rump-shaking vignettes and a giant still-beating heart.
Say Hi is Eric Elbogen. He lives in Seattle, WA and has been making records since 2002. His ninth, Bleeders Digest, is a record about vampires and the sequel to Say Hi To Your Mom’s Impeccable Blahs. It will be out on September 18th via Barsuk Records, with a lengthy North American tour to follow. All are welcome, but please
check your fangs at the door.
BED
For fans of The Delgados, Grandaddy and Sonic Youth.
The Thesis returns for a very special night brought to you by We Out Here Magazine and XRAY FM.
Tope
https://tope.bandcamp.com/
His first Portland show since moving to the Bay Area last spring.
Dre C
https://soundcloud.com/imdrec/sets/dre-c-for-the-art-ep
Dre C returns to rock #TheThesis off the heels of his brand new EP.
Zoo?
https://soundcloud.com/dylanmuldrew
Perhaps the most underrated member of Portland's Renaissance Coalition, Zoo? has been on our list of must-have artists since this concert series was conceived. So happy to have him on this bill.
Verbz
The Sensei of #TheThesis, always on the 1's and 2's.
Always $5
9 PM
The Back Fence PDX storytelling series is showcasing 5 Tradeswomen telling their true stories about their lives and experiences as well as raise much needed funds for Oregon Tradeswomen. There will be a raffle and other fun surprises.
Hosted by B. Frayn Masters & Mindy NettifeeAdvance tickets and more info at http://BackFencePdx.com/.
Evolving the sound of their first two full-length records, Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012), Moon Duo -- Ripley Johnson, Sanae Yamada and John Jeffrey -- have developed their ideas with the help of their newly acquired steam engine, Canadian drummer John Jeffrey (present on the band‘s last release, Live in Ravenna). The unchartered rhythms and tones present on this record are reflective of Moon Duo’s strive for equilibrium in this aforementioned new environment. You can hear it is the result of months of wrangling with a profound feeling of being unsettled – there are off-kilter dance rhythms, repetitive, grinding riffs, cosmic trucker boogies and even an ecstatically pretty moment. Mixing with Jonas Verwijnen in Berlin, allowed for a creative catharsis and dissolved the album’s formal technique into a cool and paradoxically sane sound of confusion.
Shadow of the Sun is available now. In a nod to a great pop tradition, “Animal” will appear as the A-side of a 7-inch, packaged with each copy of the vinyl edition, and exist as the final track of the album on the CD and digital versions. The song has an early West Coast punk viciousness to it that is entirely unique to the Moon Duo catalog.
Nurses
Spectrum Control
Electric guitar, amplifier, effect and loop pedals, ebow, cassette 4-track.
Meredith Axelrod is a singer and multi instrumentalist who specializes in American roots music.
As a solo artist, she has headlined her own shows at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood, CA, opened for the Cheap Suit Serenaders at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, opened for David Bromberg at the Sweetwater Music Hall, and toured as far as Australia and New Zealand. Because of her distinctive voice and style of singing, Meredith was featured on the weekly public radio series Voice Box with Chloe Veltman.
DJ Klyph with Neka & Kahlo, Mic Capes, Jon Bel, and Theory Hazit.
Also featuring Zoo? and a beat set by Stewart Villain
A part o TBA!
Man Man
MAN MAN
Shilpa Ray
Wednesday September 16, 2015 8:00 PM
Hawthorne Theatre
All Ages | Bar w/ ID
No refunds or exchanges.
Get tickets here
http://www.mikethrasherpresents.com/dbmonkey/event.cfm?cal=thrasher&id=129610