SUMMER CANNIBALS, HUSTLE AND DRONE, EDNA VAZQUEZ AND NO PASSENGERS
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) See My, What a Busy Week!
LA LUZ, PROM QUEEN, IS/IS
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) These wet and soggy winter weekends make it extremely easy to fall in love with the sun-drenched sounds of Seattle surf-rock quartet La Luz. Let's take a moment to treasure the band's commitment to letting Portland share the warmth of their live show in these crucial winter months. It was just a few short weeks ago that La Luz turned the dance floor at Rotture into an indoor beach party along with Shannon and the Clams; now they're back in town to headline a show at the Doug Fir and keep the good times rolling. Tonight they're joined by another excellent Seattle band, Prom Queen, who deliver dreamy lounge pop with a cinematic flair. For their latest release, Midnight Veil, frontwoman Celene Ramadan shot videos for each track to create a full-length film that accompanies the vivid scope of the album. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
THE WOOLEN MEN, WIMPS, G. GREEN
(Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water) If there were a need for a trio of acts—one from each state—to represent the West Coast in a garage-punk summit, the bands playing tonight at Bunk Bar would be a perfect delegation. Seattle's Wimps have the snotty attitude covered with their short, spiky odes to getting ripped on canine meds, quitting dead-end jobs, and all the fun things you can do on a couch (sleep, sex, dig for loose change). The Sacramento outfit G. Green gives off more laidback vibes, as if the narrator of Parquet Courts' "Stoned and Starving" decided to make music instead of hunting for licorice whips. And our own Woolen Men split the difference between the two approaches with each barbed lyric and jangling guitar chord. ROBERT HAM
CULT OF YOUTH, HIVE MIND, CAUSTIC TOUCH
(Beacon Sound, 3636 N Mississippi) Led by Sean Ragon, Brooklyn quintet Cult of Youth record for the hot/cool label Sacred Bones, usually a sign of quality in underground rock of a darker bent. Their hard-charging, windswept post-punk carries unexpected folk-rock undertones, sounding like a weird hybrid of Theatre of Hate and Death in June. The two vocalists get right up in your grill with Ian Curtis/Michael Gira-like stentorian angst and a blue-collar, punky truculence. Final Days, Cult of Youth's latest album, exudes the urgency of said end times with a kind of heroic refusal to cave in to futile despondency. They weave acoustic guitar and cello with electronics in a very organic, cohesive manner, maximizing the contrasting timbres of these elements. Check out "Empty Faction" for an exemplary dose of this. DAVE SEGAL
WHITEY MORGAN AND THE 78s, JOE FLETCHER AND THE WRONG REASONS
(Dante's, 350 W Burnside) The first couple of times Whitey Morgan played Dante's, he wondered if they should try and book a hipper room. "Then I said, 'What am I talking about?'" Morgan said to me recently. Dante's is a rock club. Kind of dirty. "In a sketchy spot downtown," Morgan said. "That's my spot. To me, that describes my band." That's the band that comes barreling out of Born, Raised & Live from Flint, the live album Morgan and his band recorded in 2011 but only released recently. It's all the booze, bravado, and badassedness you'd expect from a 21st-century honky-tonk hero. Then check out Grandpa's Guitar, Morgan's new acoustic record. It's like having Morgan over to your place after the show to work through his favorites with a bottle. RYAN WHITE
FAMINE FEST NW: ENGORGED, NEKROFILTH, BLOOD FREAK, & MORE
(Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy) If you're curious what vile terror and gurgling mayhem is belching up from the bowels of the extreme metal underground, look no further then this year's Famine Fest. The two-day fest features over two dozen bands, EACH with a gnarly axe to grind. Come for the local speed-barrier-breaking thrash of Raptor and the gore-caked sleaze of Blood Freak, stay for the breakneck foulness of Colorado's Nekrofilth and the churning death metal of Seattle's Drawn and Quartered. Saturday features Los Angeles grindcore champions Terrorizer, who will play their 1989 classic World Downfall in its entirety. Famine Fest promises to be two days of the most nihilistic sonic violation that's fit to offend. You've been warned. ARIS HUNTER WALES
