The first week of the new season brings with it another busy week for live and new music, including an appearance from the veteran cerebral popsters
They Might Be Giants. It's been over two decades since John Flansburgh and John Linnell first unleashed their quirky, skewed musical vision upon the world, and a solid case can be made for their responsibility in altering the pop landscape during that time. These days the duo has lately been alternating between children's albums (2005's
Here Come the ABCs and next year's
Here Come the 123s) and proper rock releases, the recent
The Else being the latest. The new effort finds them paired with the production of the
Dust Brothers, which updates their sound a bit, though song titles like "Bee of the Bird of the Moth," "Feign Amnesia," and "The Mesopotamians," suggest the kind of unlikely and arcane subject matter we all loved them for in the first place. They Might Be Giants play Portland's Roseland Theater this Thursday night.
Also at the Roseland this week, an interesting pairing featuring the Brooklyn-based
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and singer-songwriter
Elvis Perkins and his band. Offspring of the famous, Perkins has more or less made people forget his familial connections with the rather stunning debut release,
Ash Wednesday. The album in fact draws much of its intensity from the deaths of Perkins' parents, actor Anthony Perkins and photographer Berry Berenson (who was a passenger on one of the hijacked 9/11 planes), and while this was obviously a lot of negative to process, the results couldn't be more positive. Elvis Perkins In Dearland opens for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Roseland Theater this Friday night.
Also this week:
Oakley Hall plays with local openers
John Weinland (Monday, Doug Fir),
Josh Rouse and
Jason Collett form an interesting bill (Tuesday, Aladdin Theater), underrated Australians
The Lucksmiths come to town (Tuesday, Holocene) and
Voxtrot joins the
Arctic Monkeys (Friday, McDonald Theater in Eugene).
We'll also hear from several releases due out this week on a busy new release Tuesday, including new efforts from
Georgie James,
Nellie McKay,
Jose Gonzalez,
Steve Earle, and more.
PLAYLIST
MP3s: Georgie James, from
Places (out Tuesday)-
"Need Your Needs" and
"Cake Parade"
MP3: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, from their debut-
"On This Tidal Wave of Young Blood"
Posted by jpetersen on Sunday, September 23 at 8:44pm
Listen now 
Comments:
On Sunday, September 23 at 10:35pm, Nicole said:
This New Pornographers song... Is it a cover? It sounds VERY familiar.
On Sunday, September 23 at 10:46pm, jpetersen said:
It's original-- I'd chalk it up to AC Newman's ability to tap into the pop music collective consciousness that exists in all of us. For real.
On Sunday, September 23 at 11:11pm, June Hog said:
Hey, Mr. Peterson:
Quit saying "They're touring in support of their new album," because, as Ani DiFranco has said, that's not what they're doing. They are players, and if they're all about their records, then they're not preformers.
But the real problem with this show is that after a while, all the music sounds the same. There is no Radiohead (til their record comes out), no Bach, no Miles, no Coltrane, no Badhi Assad, no Victor Wooten. We just barely got one Richard Thompson tune a couple weeks ago, and that's only grudgingly because he did a (great) show that weekend.
Let's face it: Steven Cantor is STILL very missed. Peterson does what he does, but we listeners are still impoverished.
On Sunday, September 23 at 11:16pm, June Hog said:
PS--
I beg your pardon--I spelled "Petersen" wrong. My regrets.
JH
On Sunday, September 23 at 11:31pm, Richard Anderson said:
Jeremy:
WOW! Tonight's show is simply wonderful; particularly the third hour so far.
To June Hog:
I too was dreading the transition from Steven Cantor to... WHOM? Well, each week Jeremy's program gets better -- what more can we ask? And face it, every so often Steven could drift perilously close to the dreck of "John Diliberto's 'Echoes'".
-rvta
On Monday, September 24 at 0:35am, jpetersen said:
Hey Richard-
I appreciate the listening... and the defense, as I suppose we have to call it.
June, you seem intent on trying to put me on the defensive. This is no top down set-up: people generally make requests when they're looking for something specific. It's also not static-- I can assure you that there are no ideas on this end of some kind of perfection that doesn't absolutely require (constructive) feedback from listeners. On the contrary, that kind of feedback is essential.
Also, why would I "grudgingly" play Richard Thompson? I don't recall doing it "grudgingly," just so we're clear. And I'm a huge Radiohead fan-- would you like to hear some Radiohead from time to time? I'm afraid I just haven't gotten to playing them yet (although I have played Thom Yorke's solo album a couple of times), nor have I gotten to scores of other artists I feel passionate about. There's time.
On Monday, September 24 at 6:20am, Loren Depping said:
Wow, Jeremy...
Thanks for the mention. The show went well. Partly Dave (our band) played a reunion, of sorts, in the middle; a first for us. More to come? I hope so. Sorry you couldn't make it (though I hear you might've been busy???).
By the way, could you play something by Portland's Trick Sensei? They're a great local power-pop band. I think you'd like them.
Best and thanks for the plug.
LD