Touring the Election Night Parties: Who's Out, Who's In—and Who's Dancing to November

LISTEN:
The Mercury Music Hour: Episode 25
Playlist after the jump!
Everyone will be posting that U2 song, that Death Cab song, or that Walkmen song this weekend. Alternately, here's a little wisdom for the ages from Pulp to pop your NYE party balloons:
I'm not saying the fine upstanding journalists of End Hits got incredibly fucked up at this year's Pickathon—I don't remember—but there were some questionable Twitter posts from the festival that I do not recall sending. Included in these was a hashtag campaign that just failed to catch on like we had hoped it would: #fakewillyvlautintweets
From @endhits
Lost all my rent money on a bad parlay & ended up sleeping at the Reno bus station. Later I got drunk with a horse. #fakewillyvlautintweets
From @alisonhallett
Car broke down at the strip club on the way to my kid's birthday party. Luckily, his mom was working. #fakewillyvlautintweets
From @mightytoycannon
An old man with urine stained pants handed me half of his cheeseburger and asked where I was headed. #fakewillyvlautintweets

Local musician Miles Kurosky—also known as the songwriting chops behind defunct indie rock beloveds Beulah—swung by The Horseshack for a succinct-but-enjoyable session with the dudes from Rock Island. I assume he spent the rest of the time posing for the signature cartoon portrait.
Here's fifty percent of said session, an excellent song from Kurosky's first solo effort, The Desert of Shallow Effects, released in March of this year.
Miles Kurosky- "The World Won't Last the Night" (Daytrotter Session)
Hear the rest and read Sean Moeller's surprisingly tactile piece on Kurosky here.
DISTURBING and why is it that ONLY WHITE PEOPLE DIE IN THIS VIDEO? I bet no one will bring that up! And the only black people that die in this video are LYNCHED in the very beginning!! Look deeper people this is a devil worshiping song/video with a sociological spin.BILLIONS13 32 minutes ago 3
Another week, another Mercury music section to distract you from this visual history of Daft Punk helmets through the years. I liked them before it was cool to like them, back when they wore jai alai helmets.
Behold! Our very comprehensive guide to all the musical events going down on New Year's Eve. Are you going to party with Talib, drink your weight in whiskey with Crooked Fingers, or make a baby at Keith Sweat? Or maybe all three?
LISTEN:
Keith Sweat - "Make it Last Forever"
Awhile back it was announced that Berbati's Pan was joining the great venue graveyard in the sky (say hello to 17 Nautical Miles for us) after their final show of 2010. We asked various Portlanders—from Colin Meloy to former Mercury music editrix Julianne Shepherd—and a few former Berbati's employees about their most cherished memories of the club. In fact, here's audio from one of my favorite Berbati's Pan shows...
LISTEN:
Okkervil River - "Westfall" (Live at Berbati's Pan, September 9, 2007)
If this was any other week that didn't involve a major holiday or the shuttering of an iconic venue, Mahmoud Ahmed would be our lead article. The godfather of Ethiopian music, Ahmed is a legend and his Portland appearance has brought together a nice cross section of music fans with varied backgrounds.
LISTEN:
Mahmoud Ahmed - "Embwa Bèlèw"
We spill the beans on Sporting, the new improvisational project of Luke Wyland (AU) and drummer John Niekrasz. Sadly they don't have any recorded music, so the way I see it we have two options of what song we should post here: either something from AU, or a live bootleg from Sports, Huey Lewis' 1983 masterwork. I wish all decisions in life were this easy.
LISTEN:
Huey Lewis - "Walking On A Thin Line" (Live in Portland, OR December 1986)
BOOM!, WHITE FANG, DJ KEN DIRTNAP
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) Get over your hump day with a boozy good time, and blast your face with punk rock tunes from party-starters extraordinaire Boom! and White Fang. The show is brought to you by the illustrious Green Noise Records, whose proprietor Ken Cheppaikode (AKA DJ Ken Dirtnap) will spin between sets. NED LANNAMANN
KASEY ANDERSON, LEWI LONGMIRE, STAR ANNA
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) It doesn't take a crystal ball to determine that we'll probably be spilling plenty of ink on Heart of a Dog, the new full-length from Kasey Anderson due out next year. But until then, the local gruff-voiced troubadour will be taking the stage at Mississippi Studios, likely previewing new material in addition to all those liver-damaging booze ballads of yore. Use that Christmas cash Grandma sent you to order a double; you're gonna need it. EZRA ACE CARAEFF
THE MARTYRS, SEXY WATER SPIDERS, THE HUGS, TIGER HOUSE
(Rotture, 315 SE 3rd) Over their four-year history the Hugs have often been compared to the Dandy Warhols. It makes sense: Both were young Portland groups who effectively channeled (or shamelessly aped, choose your verb) popular bands of yesteryear, garnering them buzz everywhere but their hometown, where they were mostly met with sometimes hostile indifference. If the comparison continues to be apt in another three years, Danny Delegato and crew will have their "Bohemian Like You" moment and have the opportunity to give Stumptown the finger for good, and I wouldn't completely blame them. I suspect that part of what has always put fans off of the Hugs (and, in part, the Dandys) has been the way they sprung out the forehead of Cleveland High pre-formed, hooky and cuddly as hell. Portland has never felt ownership of this band, and they never seemed to need its support in the first place. DAVE BOW
Reva DeVito, and a link to the complete show listings, after the jump!

Bluegrass Intelligencer is a bluegrass-based satire website—yes, such a thing does exist. Just imagine The Onion but with plenty of humorous pokes at banjoist Noam Pikelny. Honestly, I don't get any of the jokes here, but here are a few of my favorite headlines for some reason or another:
Dennis Rodman to Join Tornado Rider Band as Sideman
Skaggs, Statman Plan Apocalyptic Mandolin Extravaganza To Bring End Times to Bluegrass
Sparrow Quartet feat. Bela Fleck Puts Crooked Still Out of Business
Thank you, internet.
h/t: Marc Hawthorne
How old is this Blue Moon commercial scored by the Parson Red Heads? Over a year, at least. But we just got CompuServe dial-up here at the offices, so we're a little behind on this internet thing. Plus, this advertisement has been making the rounds during NFL broadcasts, so we thought we'd post it here.
The newish-to-town Parson Red Heads are wrapping up recording for their forthcoming LP which should be out sometime in 2011. As for Blue Moon, it's still the best of the bad corporate beers you feel obliged to order when you are at a chain restaurant with your in-laws.
DEATH SONGS, HOOKERS, WILL STENBERG
(Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny) Before closing out the year at Backspace with his band the Shaky Hands, Nick Delffs plays a set with his other band, Death Songs. Conceived as a side project with brother Nathan Delffs (a former Shaky Hand himself), Death Songs recorded a self-titled debut that was released on cassette in very limited quantities by U|H|U Tapes in 2009. Showing a slightly more tarnished aspect of Nick Delffs' songwriting but in no way as dark and dirge-y as the name suggests, Death Songs is every bit as good as a Shaky Hands record—meaning very damn good indeed—and would be well worth reissuing in a greater capacity someday. With a new Shaky Hands record on the horizon, that probably won't happen anytime soon, but tonight's a fine chance to check out some tunes you may have missed. NED LANNAMANN
Complete show listings can be viewed here.
HOT FACE, LIGHT HOUSE
(Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny) It seems like only yesterday that Hot Face played their first show—a generator-powered, nails-on-a-chalkboard eight minutes of happily anachronistic, experimental punk that further gunked up an unsuspecting patch of beach on Swan Island. The whole punk-as-fuck experience was refreshing for a number of reasons—seeing ASSS's Alex Smith and Sean Sumler pick up guitars for the first time since their disbanded weirdo-punk outfit Syrup, for one—but now, just six months and a handful of confrontational, blink-and-you-miss-it sets later, Hot Face is calling it a day. Though all four members will surely have other creative projects in the works before I finish typing this sentence, their short time together was a necessary, noisy jolt to any Portlander who imagines themselves as thinking outside the punk box. ETHAN JAYNE
Complete show listings can be viewed here.

Episode number 25 of the Mercury Music Hour is on the air, RIGHT NOW! Music from Akron/Family, The Wipers, Blind Pilot, Parenthetical Girls, The Exploding Hearts, and plenty more. Stream the show online at 947.fm or listen live on 910 AM. If you missed it, the same episode will be on this Wednesday and Friday at noon.
Our playlist for episode number 25 is after the jump.
BABY KETTEN KARAOKE
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Keep the cheer alive at a special holiday installment of the best karaoke night in town. The boys of Baby Ketten promise a "hi-fi dance party holiday sweater karaoke sing off special!" Christmas, as it was meant to be celebrated. ALISON HALLETT
NEIL DIAMOND TRIBUTE
(Tony Starlight's, 3728 NE Sandy) Tony Starlight's Supperclub & Lounge presents its very own cure for the post-Christmas (song sung) blues: a holiday-themed tribute to Neil Diamond, featuring 30 hit songs by the Jewish Elvis and no fewer than five glittering, flowing, and revealing costumes. DENIS C. THERIAULT
GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH, BOOM!
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) There is more to the prolific Guantanamo Baywatch than tastefully crafted, reverb-soaked, vintage surf rock. Granted, their throwback style could most definitely make Frankie and Annette cut a rug, but the local trio isn't merely mining the idyllic days of yore for material. Their raw sound is equal parts garage punk and the Cramps, and as they combine these styles it creates a sort of live-sound spectacular you won't soon forget. More importantly, Guantanamo Baywatch have been known to drop trou from time to time while onstage, and that's something you'd much rather see them do than Dick Dale. Trust me on this one. EZRA ACE CARAEFF
Apes Tapes Label Showcase, as well as a link to the complete show listings, after the jump!
BLOW PONY: AIRICK, KINETIC, YER MOMM, TRANS FAT, ILL CAMINO, JODI BON JODI
(Rotture, 315 SE 3rd) Phew, you've gotten Christmas out of the way. Time to blow off some steam at Blow Pony, the hottest queer dance party in town. DJs Airick, Kinetic, Yer Momm, Trans Fat, Ill Camino, and Jodi Bon Jodi will make sure that by the end of the night you've shaken off all of those holiday shackles. NED LANNAMANN
Complete show listings can be viewed here.