A light holiday week for new releases finds plenty of live action in the area, including the annual Waterfront Blues Festival, a veteran solo artist or two, and a Canadian act that has been helping to hail the return of rock and roll. To begin with the latter, The Constantines play the Doug Fir Lounge on Monday night along with fellow Canadians Ladyhawk. The Toronto-based band released their fourth album earlier this year with Kensington Heights, another collection that showcases their no nonsense, blue collar brand of rock and roll-- indeed, frontman Bry Webb has been called a cross between vintage Springsteen and Joe Strummer. As good as their catalog has always sounded, word is their performances verge on transcendent.

MP3: The Constantines, from Kensington Heights- "Hard Feelings"

Also this week, an interesting pairing Thursday night at the Wonder Ballroom features Seattle's Long Winters and heralded locals The Builders & the Butchers. LW frontman John Roderick, he of the golden personality and hook-filled songwriting, was just in Portland a couple of weeks back previewing new songs for the LiveWire! crowd (he wrote about it in the process, waxing positively on Portland and making the rest of us feel inadequate with his mad blogging skillz). Word is that that new stuff may not see the light of day until early '09, but that doesn't mean they won't be mixing it in with the hits on Thursday. The other half of the bill, meanwhile, is the reigning Best New Band around these parts according to the annual poll taken by the Willamette Week. Their manic live shows are well known for their inordinate amount of shouting, noisemaking, and crowd participation.

MP3: The Long Winters, from Putting the Days to Bed- "Pushover"

MP3: The Builders & the Butchers- "When It Rains"

Finally this week, the annual Waterfront Blues Festival gets underway Thursday at Tom McCall Park and runs through Sunday. A diverse line-up of dozens of artists makes up this year's bill, from locals like Colin Lake & Wellbottom and Mary Flower to touring headliners like Issac Hayes, Canned Heat, and James Hunter, ensuring several shades of blue in the process. While some of them test the bounds of the "blues" label, none is quite the stretch represented by The Legendary Shack Shakers, who take the stage Friday evening (and also play Dante's later that night). By all accounts a madman on and off the stage, Col. JD Wilkes leads the band's sizzling stew, a manic musical makeup that often elicits labels like "hellbilly" and "Dixie-core," though neither of those fully capture a sound that also incorporates elements of blues and klezmer, among other styles. The Shack Shakers' most recent release, Swampblood, came out last year on yep roc.

MP3: The Legendary Shack Shakers, from Believe- "Agony Wagon"

Also this week, Mark Knopfler plays the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (Tuesday); Fernando, Amelia, and Warren Pash form a great bill at the Doug Fir Lounge (Friday); and Jonathan Richman plays the Aladdin Theater (Saturday).

Ain't no thread like an open thread....

Posted by jpetersen on Sunday, June 29 at 9:50pm