Latest LivePDX Music Blog

With The Dells' "Stay In My Corner" playing in my head....

The best moment of the Oscars evening came when the crowd at the Mission Theater booed and hissed each and every song from Enchanted as it was performed. The free admission, seeing the ceremonies on the big theater screen and the communal drinking/watching experience drew a nice crowd. There may have been differences of opinion on who should have won what, but nobody disagreed that the songs from Enchanted were about as bad as Hollywood ever gets.

FYI…That was Kristin Chenoweth who sang the dreadful "That's How You Know." Even worse was "So Close" sung by the instantly despised Jon McLaughlin. Look for that song to begin a run at "first dances" at dismal wedding receptions all over America.

Not that the drippy song from Once was much better, or the Gospel knock-off either.

How big has March Fourth Marching Band gotten? Big enough to stretch their Fifth Anniversary celebration to three days! It starts Sunday, March 2 with an all-ages show, continues the following night as they open for the wild Balkan Beat Box band and then winds up with a huge show on (yes) March 4th. All shows at the Crystal Ballroom.

They're still working on a new studio album. The wonderful live album that they brought out in time for their national fall tour captures them just fine. It was recorded all over…here, Austin and other points of the globe.

I wish I had gotten to ride on their new bus on that tour. I was on their old bus and it was…memorable, shall we say.

Bye-bye guitarist Dan Balmer. He's not leaving town for good, just for two months on the road with Diane Schur.

Four Portland-based blues musicians are nominated for what they used to call the W.C. Handy Awards, but since W.C.'s family decided they wanted a taste of the dough are now called the National Blues Music Awards. The nominees are: Insomniacs (Best New Artist Debut), Fiona Boyes (Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year), Mary Flower (Best Acoustic Artist) and Franck Goldwasser (aka Paris Slim).

All of them are appearing on Saturday, March 1 at Jimmy Mak's.

In my rant last week about the lack of full-time jazz clubs, I overlooked, as many do, the Tugboat downtown. You won't find a music schedule on their site, but it's worth the effort to find the place right off Broadway downtown (across the alley from what used to be the Church of Elvis). Sometimes you can just walk in and find Glen Moore playing solo. Saxophonist David Valdez plays there sometimes. It has the feel of a beatnik joint. I've actually overheard intellectual conversations going on. Not that I was a part of one.

Artist-Musician Ron Rogers will be at Cannibals art gallery (518 NW 21st Ave) on Thursday night, Feb 28, as part of their one year anniversary.

He tells me "I will be showing my coffins and paintings along with my friends Kitty O'Keefe and Brian Belfast. Kitty does VouDon Art (that's VooDoo for you non-HooDoos). This includes masks, walking sticks and great VooDoo Dolls made from all kinds of materials. Brian does wonderful photography, photographs taken through liquids, very different and striking."

I have one of Ron's "coffins" (James Booker) hanging in my living room.

Then Saturday and Sunday, March 1& 2, Ron will be participating in the SE Area Art Walk. At 1:00pm he'll be reading excerpts from his 1979 "underground classic" (he says) The Story of Sand and "my as yet unpublished autobiography Cranium Drip: The Real Story of Ron Rogers and His Struggle For Artistic Freedom in Today's Mundane, Bar-Ditch World." He promises "Strip Karaoke" on Sunday morning.

I'm extending my KMHD radio show till 2:00am every Saturday night starting this weekend.