Vision Facilitator

June already? Sheesh. I feel like the first half of May was all bitching about the weather. Too cold, too rainy, holy shit it’s hot now, too cloudy, OMG where’s the sunscreen, yadda yadda yadda. Okay, sure, I even complained a little about this spring (it really did seem exceptionally lousy) and I try to never bitch about the weather. Why not? Cuz what are ya gonna do?!? Weather’s gonna weather, yo. Life’s hard enough without stressing about the cosmic shit that’s out of our control. But here we are. Yes, we had an unusually cold and wet spring, we had a splash of unseasonably hot, and now we're back to something closer to “normal” (whatever that is in 2023). Like the tide of every season, meteorological or emotional, full of sleet and rain, or sorrow and loneliness, there’s an ebb and flow and we really need to just learn how to ride each out and accept that control is something that our little hands will never grasp. (Apparently, it’s gonna be real hot again on Tuesday. So it goes.)

Blah, blah, blah, did we see any music this month? We did! Etran De L’Aïr. Wow, so good. As I’ve made well known, I’m a total sucker for this Taureg, guitar led, Sub Saharan rock sound, and these guys were every bit the magical purveyors of that sound that they were billed to be. Apparently the first time they’ve toured the states. Hot damn.

Xiu Xiu. I’m pretty sure I saw them way back when, but when I try to conjure up a picture of that, I can’t. Did I not? I guess I need to consult my most trusted music comrade and see if they remember. Anyway, this was a real good show. The new stuff that I didn’t know well was mixed in with a little bit of the old stuff, including a perfectly overly intense, unvarnished version of “Ian Curtis Wishlist” that I didn’t expect, the very song that hooked me on Xiu Xiu almost 20 years ago. It was sold out and packed, but I was there by myself, and somewhere, as the their arrestingly emotional set wore on, I definitely felt some sad, holy shit I’m 35 years old again, finally an “adult”, the world my oyster, but I don’t yet know the red hot dreams from that time would leave nothing but ashes behind kinda shit. It wasn’t like I was at a Pharmakon show where the whole world felt like it was about to collapse on me, but the weight and melancholy were there. Control as something our little hands will never grasp, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Don’t start. If I was better read I’d throw out some classic quote here, maybe some pithy Wilde or some predictably saucy Henry Miller, something that would elicit both groans and applause, but, alas, I’m just a dipshit with a surprisingly positive attitude, a hot wife, and too much liquor.

Bonnie “Prince” BIllie. I think I mentioned last time that somehow, despite being a fan for 25 years or so, I’ve never seen Will Oldham live (although, again, I suppose I should verify this with said most trusted music comrade, cuz that seems kinda implausible). His newer stuff leans maybe a little too clever and I miss the bleakness of the I See A Darkness era records. I know, he’s a dad now, and his brain has been rewired by the gods of protecting your flock to be kinder and less misanthropic, but still. On that note, new dad Bill Callahan. I don’t know what’s left to say about the guy who I’d argue is the best songwriter of our generation. Y’all know how I feel about his mid to late 90’s Smog output, from 1995’s Wild Love (the magical transition from the wonderfully noisy, Lisa Carver inspired, home recording stuff like Julius Caesar) through 2000’s Dongs of Sevotion (and if you wanna argue that the next two, Rain On Lens and Supper, deserve to be added to the list, you won’t get an argument from me), he churned out all time classics (there are a couple of solid EPs mixed in there too!). Okay, maybe Wild Love isn’t quite on the level of The Doctor Came At Dawn, Red Apple Falls, Knock Knock, or Dongs of Sevotion, but still. Has anyone made four records in a row that are that incredible, that perfect?! I think, no. Not even Sonic Youth. Not even Siouxsie. Not Einstürzende Neubauten. Not Neil Young. Not even Leonard Cohen. And this show? It was real good. But maybe that’s it. He played a few oldies, a lightly amped up "Bathysphere" plus "Let’s Move To The Country", but much like Will Oldham a couple nights prior, the newer stuff just doesn’t hit me the same way. And I legit don’t think it’s just a matter of familiarity. But I dunno.

I think some among us might’ve gone to see Suzanne Ciani at the First Congregational Church, I’d love to hear how that was. I’m disappointed in myself for not getting off my lazy ass and going to see Thomas Lauderdale Meets The Pilgrims at Crystal. A (very reliable, insider) source told me that the show was just good, maybe a little rough around the edges (apologies if I’m misrepresenting!). There’s gotta be a lot of weight to finally presenting twenty year old songs and performing live together for the first time; I bet us regular folk woulda though it was great.

The Tinariwen show at Wonder sold out before I even saw it on the calendar. I really want to see them some time (see earlier comment about loving the Taureg, guitar led, Sub Saharan rock sound). Anybody see them?

Tim Hecker at Holocene. It was early evening and it was crowded and you couldn’t really see him anyway, so we lollygagged around and ended up listening from the lower level, which worked pretty well, after all, it’s just a guy with some electronics and no lights on. He’s great. The music was lovely. But when I found space to slide in through the side door that’s up by the bathrooms and really feel the sound, well, that sure did help. Tip to my fellow oldsters- it’s okay to still want to be up front. And I haven’t been to Holocene during the early evening, still daylight hours in a minute, it’s pretty lovely in there. Wouldn’t be a bad place for a wedding or something…

And last night, a few locals at Mother Foucault’s bookstore. We missed the first dude, appeared to be pedals, electronics and whatnot, as was the second guy, who was pretty good, fairly harsh noise, but the set had cohesion that a lot of lesser noisemakers lack. Then Broken Crow, a band that includes Caspar Sonnet, a guy who single handedly seems to keep these rad noise shows going in Portland. And they were fantastic. He played percussion- kinda, a stick spun on a cymbal on top of a drum for resonance-, a guy on violin, some sax dude from L.A., and another guy playing some sort of wind up electronic noisemaker. You really need to see these shows because I’m not enmeshed in the scene enough to accurately describe some of the ways people make noise acoustically. Droney, but tense, each perfectly filling a part, clearly working off each other. Terrific. Was their first show, keep an eye out.

Okay. I kinda think I’m missing something else, but I don’t know. Cherubs, Fri 6/2, Dante's. Tonight. Does anyone remember Cherubs? I’ll admit, I do not. Early 90’s Austin band, very of the era noise/hardcore, Unsane-ish, but with a lighter sound, maybe even a mix of fellow Texans Butthole Surfers irony mixed in. Sounds kinda meh now, but I’d bet may have been rad at the time. Also, while Portland was a musical backwater in the early 90’s (and maybe still is, this town is still tiny and not super forward thinking), Austin must’ve been even worse (and probably still is)- there was (briefly) Scratch Acid and…. yeah. So, good on Cherubs, I guess. Wipers, Dead Moon, Poison Idea all look even better every second. Ermagerd, I don’t mind Austin, but my anti-Texas juices just got accidentally set to flow, sorry. This Cherubs show is with Ils, who I’ve wanted to see for a while, and that 90s noise rock usually works great live, so, maybe?

Djunah, Sat 6/3, High Water Mark. 90s influenced noise rock, not totally sure about this one, could be good but it could definitely be cheesy, we’ll see. Locals Still/Form, who I’m intrigued by, open. Looks like a few of us are going to this, meet us there.

Bob Log III, Tues 6/6, Mississippi Studios. I still have a Doo Rag t-shirt and I’m still a sucker for his schtick. With absolute local favorites Mattress and Sea Moss! Can we please have a big contingent that shows up for this?! I will buy drinks.

Sea Moss, Wed 6/7, High Water Mark. Didn’t see ‘em open for Bob Log last night? No worries, Sea Moss plays at our favorite little northeast hole in the wall the very next night. https://www.treetix.com/event/198588/highwatermark

Clan of Xymox, Sun 6/11, Star Theater. Some classic 80s, Dutch goth. Sounds like maybe only one of the original guys is still involved.

Riki, Tues 6/13, Doug Fir. “L.A. based synth-pop songstress” is what her Bandcamp page says and that says it all. Just dark enough to be lightly interesting though. One of the openers is Light Asylum doing a DJ set, we saw her perform at the Campout last summer, she was super good. Also Xibling opens, I feel like I’ve seen them and liked them?

Mehtods Body, Thurs 6/15, Lollipop Shoppe. Hey, maybe I’ll finally get to Lollipop Shoppe! Record release party for Methods Body, who I first saw last summer, also at the Campout, and then open for William Basinski. Two piece, jazz influenced sound collages (is that a thing?). Dude, I’m tired of labels, how bout they’re real interesting. With DJ set from Papi Fimbres. This will be crowded. The Soul Rebels, Wed 6/21, Star Theater. Updated take on the classic New Orleans brass band, these guys are fantastic. Liturgy, Sun 6/25, Star Theater. I’ve written about their evolution a few times now, and how I think they may be sneaky great. Black metal is just the tip of the Liturgy iceberg. With Big Brave, who aforementioned most trusted music comrade raves about and told me to check out. I’ll be just back from New Mexico and will probably go to this. Godflesh, Wed 6/28, Hawthorne Theater. What year is it? As I’ve recounted before, Slavestate was an important moment in my musical evolution, to hear something that heavy but without live drums, that was so surprising to me. Opened my eyes to things that stretched the bounds of guitar based rock in ways I didn’t expect.

Slender Gems, Fri 6/30, No Fun. Friend of a friends band, very polite indie rock, but not bad.

That’ll do. Stay current. Keep listening to new artists, to local artists. Talk to each other about the stuff you discover. Make music. It doesn’t have to be great, just play. It all keeps us young. I’m sure there’s all kinds of stuff I missed, you know the drill, as always always, additions, corrections, and/or subtractions welcomed.

DW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eht6ylrIuJQ