NEON INDIAN, PREFUSE 73, MINIATURE TIGERS
(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) See My, What a Busy Week!, pg. 17.
DIRTY PROJECTORS, DOMINIQUE YOUNG UNIQUE(Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie) There is still no deft group of words that exists to pin the exact sound of Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors. We all know that David Longstreth and company have a penchant for the experimental deconstruction and subsequent remodeling of the music we're used to, but that description doesn't do them enough justice. So for now, we'll just casually mention that in the midst of constant touring, the band recently collaborated with Björk to make a conceptual EP (Mount Wittenberg Orca) in which each member sings the part of a whale family swimming together near San Francisco. Naturally, Björk is the mother whale. And though your ears may have a good time panning in and out, from left to right, while trying to hear the musical mechanisms of each song on 2009's acclaimed Bitte Orca, the live show is by far the best way to experience this well-oiled machine at work. RAQUEL NASSER Also see My, What a Busy Week!, pg. 17.
HAYES CARLL, QUIET LIFE, BONNIE WHITMORE(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) In a perfect world the Texas-tinged, husky voice of Hayes Carll would be omnipresent: Ford truck commercials, voiceovers (I wager he's cheaper to hire than James Earl Jones), and of course on turntables and jukeboxes the world over. Carll and his rambunctious backing band could just as easily hold their own behind chicken wire at a jukejoint, or steal the show (as they did) at a roots festival like Pickathon. On 2008's Trouble in Mind Carll takes us back to the days of Steve Earle's Guitar Town (way back before Earle's looks and thin frame escaped him), a place where country and rock and roll fit so nicely together. Granted, Carll doesn't show a whole lotta range, but he doesn't need to. His hard-luck tales of bad breaks, bad women, and liver-bruising booze are all any man needs, and in the end, it all comes together like the pearl snaps of your granddad's old H-Bar-C shirt. EAC
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