JENNY HVAL, BRIANA MARELA (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) While the spotlight has been dominated lately by Holly Herndon's fine Platform, Norwegian experimentalist Jenny Hval has surpassed it with her startling fifth album Apocalypse, Girl. The Sacred Bones-released LP is a stirring commentary on gender politics set to the tune of synth melodies performed on a slowly crumbling computer and crawling hip-hop beats. Hval doesn't so much sing as let her thoughts drip from her lips as she calls out "soft dick rock" and "the capitalist clit." Clips from her recent festival performances in Scandinavia reveal an even more theatrical side with extra performers that flank Hval, splashing themselves with red paint and adding an unsettling surreality to her already disquieting music. ROBERT HAM Also, read our article on Briana Marela.
THE CANNANES, KNIFE PLEATS, THE WORLD RECORD (Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water) For 31 years, Sydney, Australia's the Cannanes have been steadily churning out an off-kilter mix of indie twee-pop and angular post-punk. Their extensive catalog suggests a folk-punkier Beat Happening just as often as it suggests a scrappier Au Pairs, while also holding songs in the early years that seem to be templates for the indie-disco of Modest Mouse's This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About and the airy story song jangle of Belle and Sebastian's The Boy with the Arab Strap. It's almost bizarre that the Cannanes are not more commonly referenced as an influential band. Tonight's show is their first time in Portland (or the West Coast at all) in 17 years. If that weren't enough reason to make it out, Knife Pleats, the excellent new project from Rose Melberg (the Softies, Tiger Trap), opens the night. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON
VIC MENSA, TOWKIO (Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) Ever since Chief Keef rapped the hardest bars ever spit on house arrest from his grandma's basement, Chicago's been pumping out a steady clip of young rap sensations, from bop kingpins Sicko Mobb to Auto-Tuned emo thug Lil Durk. Possibly the city's biggest export since Kanye, though, is the SaveMoney crew, specifically Chance the Rapper and tonight's main event, Vic Mensa. Very few artists can lay claim to the level of near-ubiquity these dudes achieved off of little more than charisma and a couple scene-changing mixtapes, going from rapping at all-ages open mics to collaborating with Mr. West himself in the span of a year or two. A welcome change of pace in both content and sound, Mensa's tough but warily optimistic lyrics ride atop futurist beats that nod to trap, jazz, house, and even juke, without being beholden to any of them. As if you needed any more reason to love this dude, he recently called Oasis "racist dickheads." KYLE FLECK
NEW MOVE, THE DOMESTICS, NEWROTICS (Dig a Pony, 736 SE Grand) When last we heard from New Move, they were celebrating the release of a trailer for a new video that's still scheduled to see the light of day. It was the latest "new move" in a release strategy that can only be described as measured—a slow reveal that has seen the Portland quintet doling out aural morsels for over a year now. But that was back in May, and it's been a curiously quiet summer for the band, who also removed much of their online audio presence somewhere along the way. Those circumstances had some of us worried—was this promising band closing up shop after barely getting started? Oh, hardly! New Move celebrates another new single ("Take What You Can Get" adds some "Mr. Blue Sky" bounce to their T. Rex-y vintage pop) tonight with a rare Dig a Pony live-band show. It's the beginning of an onslaught of new material culminating in the release of the band's full-length debut later this year on Tender Loving Empire offshoot Bughunt Records (in two versions). Rejoice! JEREMY PETERSEN
DEIPHAGO, CRURIFRAGIUM, CEMETERY LUST, SLUT VOMIT (Panic Room, 3100 NE Sandy) Deiphago has been kicking around on and off in some incarnation or another since 1989, first getting their start in the Philippines and then relocating to Costa Rica in 2004. They've only produced four full-lengths in the interim, but every one has some reference to Satan or the Antichrist in the title, so there's no mistaking these black metallers' muse. Theirs is an ultra-barbaric version of black metal, one that commits wholeheartedly to the sloppy, snotty approach of Venom and Hellhammer, but played by a band that has no idea how to rein it in. The end result is a glorious mess. MATTHEW W. SULLIVAN
PETER FRAMPTON, CHEAP TRICK (Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon) Apparently, there are two types of people in the world: Those who haven't really considered Cheap Trick's existence, and those who realize Cheap Trick are one of the most important and influential bands in the annals of rock. You'll find me firmly in the latter camp. The group's 1977 self-titled debut, while existing slightly outside of the punk genus, feels essentially related to the era's seminal punk rock records in its grit, economy, and black-and-white packaging. Cheap Trick represented a warped version of the power-pop ideal established years earlier by groups like Badfinger and the Raspberries, but bubbling under the record's tuneful refulgence is an eerie, iconoclastic sense of Midwestern anguish and isolation that distinguishes them from every Fab Four idolater they both followed and inspired. MORGAN TROPER See All-Ages Action!
NORTH WEST HESH FEST: PENTAGRAM, ELECTRIC CITIZEN, SONS OF HUNS (Dante's, 350 W Burnside) You could say Jonathon Galyon first dreamed up North West Hesh Fest as a teenager growing in Tennessee attending rock shows—from sweaty punk affairs to lit-up arena performances. "Almost every band is connected to some part of my past," he says. "I never imagined I'd be doing this." Galyon's Southern drawl is still thick, but his connection to the Pacific Northwest is not so distant. He moved to Portland from Kingston in 1999 and lived here until 2003 (he also did a short stint in 2007)—years during which he worked at Dante's and went to plenty of rock shows. It seemed only a matter of time before Galyon would do something in Portland. In addition to bands like Pentagram and Acid King, North West Hesh Fest—his first production here—includes plenty of local heavies and rock 'n' rollers, including Sons of Huns, P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. and Dead Moon. "To me Fred Cole is up there with Johnny Cash," says Galyon. "He's a great American songwriter who did everything from scratch." MARK LORE Read our rundown of North West Hesh Fest.
KIMYA DAWSON, HAMELL ON TRIAL (The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th) Kimya Dawson writes sweet, posi children's folk songs that sad adults eventually come to realize have been ingrained in their subconscious. Whether you found Dawson through the Moldy Peaches (her anti-folk project with Adam Green); her extensive back catalog with Rough Trade, Plan It X, and K Records; the Juno soundtrack; or that random radical zine you found in a friend's bathroom, you have at one time or another found yourself humming one of Dawson's oddly but beautifully arranged tunes. And even if you haven't heard her music in years, you can somehow muster all the words to at least one of her songs. Dawson is a special artist in this way, and with every note of melodic melancholy comes a deep sense of empathy and understanding of people's complexities. There's hardly anything more grounding and comfortable than that. CAMERON CROWELL
Senior Editor Ned Lannamann writes about pop culture, music, film, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, politics, Portland, and other things.
