listen & love it

The title of this post is the song title of another provocatively-titled entity (or problematically-titled entity, depending on whom you ask), 3 Leg Torso, a band I saw perform tonight. I've never been good at describing genres, but I'll call it a mashup of Klezmer/Chamber/Gypsy/Circus/Carnival/(see, this is why I don't write music reviews). The point is, it was one of the best shows I've seen in years. My mouth hurt afterwards because I had a perpetual smile through almost the whole show. Equally impressive was the opener, Fish Tank Ensemble. Please check them both out.   

Earlier in the day, I let my friend Ben convince me to accompany him to a professional basketball game between the Portland Trailblazers and the San Antonio Spurs.

Allow me to set the stage (even though really, you had to be there to understand)... 

It's the Bitch podcast!

Well, it's going to be. At long last, we're thrilled to announce that our very own podcast is in the works. Look for more details soon, but for now I want to give a quick shout out to podcaster extraordinaire Julie Sabatier, creator of DIY, Portland, who's graciously agreed to serve as our podcast producer. She and I met over pizza and beer (guess that seems to be a recurring theme lately) and hammered out a sketch of our first podcast: excerpts from the new Wired issue, some highlights from our upcoming pop culture debate club, and voices from folks about technology and feminism.

The Shondes are a Brooklyn-based band that remind me a bit of Sleater-Kinney with their strong female vocals and pro-lady rock n’ roll attitude; but there’s a twist. The band throws in violin and ethnic melodies, for an unusual punk-melodic-traditional combo that doesn’t sound like anything else right now. More often than not, they are powerful and driving, though sometimes a bit too

The SF band Cryptacize, composed of Nedelle Torrisi (singer/songwriter, The Curtains), Chris Cohen (The Curtains, Deerhoof) and Michael Carreira, plays wonderfully dreamy, eclectic pop. Their first album Dig That Treasure (Asthmatic Kitty) is filled with spacey melodies, minimalist guitar strums and unexpected twists and turns. The result is strangely beautiful.

Check 'em out: