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Sunday, January 20 This Week: Decemberists, Langhorne, etc.
The weekend may be about over, but there's plenty to look forward to this week, including anticipated new releases, dynamic (and free!) opbmusic approved performances, and some big ticket mid-week shows. To begin with the latter, when we last checked in with The Decemberists they were checking out, so to speak, curtailed by a mysterious illness within the group that abruptly halted their planned "Long & Short of It" tour. The band returns this week, presumably healthy, with two shows at Portland's Crystal Ballroom, Tuesday the 22nd and Wednesday the 23rd. They make up the first half of a four show run in the Great Northwest, the other two planned for Seattle next week. Credit the band, too, for spreading the exposure to their Portland musical brethren: after San Francisco-based act Dead Trees open Tuesday night, the other three bills include stellar locals Pseudosix, The Shaky Hands, and The Builders & the Butchers, in that order. This all comes just after news of a full-length live release from frontman Colin Meloy coming in April on kill rock stars.
Elsewhere this week, nor'easter Langhorne Slim and his band continue their area run as part of the McMenamin's Great Northwest Music Tour with five shows beginning on Wednesday night at the Old St. Francis School in Bend. Your friends here at opbmusic are sponsoring the event, which moves later in the week to the Kennedy School in Portland (Thursday), Edgefield in Troutdale (Friday), the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove (Saturday), and the Crystal Ballroom in Portland (Sunday) as part of their 94th birthday celebration and a bill that also includes the Long Winters, Bobby Bare Jr., The Builders & the Butchers, Renegade Saints, and more. All of these shows are free, all ages, and begin at 7pm, with the exception of the Crystal Ballroom show, which is an all-day event. We'll be out in force at several of these venues throughout the week passing out opbmusic goodies and such-- we'd love to have you come out to say hello.
Much else going on throughout the week, too, including an intriguing bill at the Doug Fir on Wednesday night featuring Musee Mecanique, Michael Hurley, and MBilly. The Stolen Sweets play the Doug Fir on Thursday, along with 3 Leg Torso and Amoree Lovell; another all locals bill the same night features Echo Helstrom, Leigh Marble, Chris Robley, and Jon Garcia at Berbati's Pan. Friday is the busiest night of the week, as Seattle's Cave Singers play the Doug Fir with Tu Fawning and White Hinterland. Also from Seattle, also Friday, is Barton Carroll at Mississippi Studios on a bill that also features Dolorean's Al James. Carroll has a new release out this week called The Lost One. More shows Friday include Toumani Diabate at the Aladdin Theater, Swati at the Hawthorne Theater, White Williams with Health and Linger & Quiet at Holocene, Shelley Short (as part of the Triple Dare Reading Series) at the Someday Lounge, and Ryan Adams & the Cardinals at the Elsinore Theater in Salem.
The new release week is no less active, with Tuesday shaping up to be the first truly busy new release date of the year. Included are new full-lengths from Cat Power (Jukebox), the Drive-By Truckers (Brighter Than Creation's Dark), Jack Penate (Matinee), and Matt Costa (Unfamiliar Faces), among others.
The thread is open....what's on your minds?
Comments:
On Monday, January 21 at 4:49pm, jsauls said:
I'd add the debut from Liam Finn (I'll Be Lightning) to the new releases list. Sounds like the talented fruit didn't fall very fall from the talented tree in this case.
On Monday, January 21 at 4:59pm, jpetersen said:
Oops, is that out this week? Apparently I need to switch my sources. Thanks for mentioning it-- what I've heard from it has been impressive. He's coming to Portland March 5th, by the way, playing with Pela at the Doug Fir.
On Monday, January 21 at 9:26pm, gunky said:
Was that Ry Cooder singing and strumming on the Pops Staples version of "I shall not be moved"? Seemed unmistakable, but I don't know Pops Staples. Soundeth good, though.
On Monday, January 21 at 9:39pm, dchristensen said:
Yep, that was Ry. He's only credited with strumming, though. Maybe he snuck in a little singing.
On Monday, January 21 at 10:03pm, erik said:
great selection of music guys.. i'm loving the show every time i turn it on. thanks for all your efforts. i couldn't ask for a better music selection.
On Monday, January 21 at 10:20pm, jpetersen said:
Wow, good ear, Chauncey. I had no idea. It's amazing how much that guy has done in his career.
Thanks for the kind words, Erik. Nice to hear stuff like that every once in a while.
On Thursday, January 24 at 10:10pm, Jeremy Trabue said:
Truly, you guys and this show are awesome.
But is sucks so severely that they took you off the air. I listened almost every night on the radio but now will only be able to on the rare occasions I happen to be working late or in front of a computer for some reason. Seriously, it's tragic. I am thinking about cutting down my membership level in protest. 22 hours a day of talk talk news news wasn't enough?
Phooey, but keep up the excellent work.
--JT
On Thursday, January 24 at 11:44pm, jim said:
i'm amazed... all this great music and smart music commentary coming from opb... i actually took the time and trouble to follow you folks over here from fm... well worth it. i suspect this is all part of a opb/public radio effort to build a new audience to replace the old folks (me)... peachie keen
On Saturday, January 26 at 7:03pm, gunky said:
I'd just like to point out that, even though JT sounds like he was coached by me, I've never met him and don't know him at all. ;-)
And in keeping with the theme, very nice show right now guys (via DSL line). I liked that Robert Plant & Alison Krause. Though I've heard a lot of discussion / hype about the album, somehow I've managed to not hear much of it at all except one song (no idea which) that I wasn't that impressed with. Does it live up to it's potential?