This Week in the Mercury

Glass Chimes and Good Ideas

Music

Glass Chimes and Good Ideas

Pizza Deliverance with Divers


Real Gay

Film

Real Gay

True Stories of the Sixth QDoc



  |  

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Tonight! Tonight in Music: Parenthetical Girls, Generationals, Owl City

Posted by Arian Jalali on Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 11:02 AM


PARENTHETICAL GIRLS, VICE DEVICE, EXTRA LIFE, SAM MICKENS
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Like most of the better local bands, Parenthetical Girls don't whore themselves around town until we take them for granted. These masters of literary, orchestral pop music know when to save it and when to give it up, but tonight we're going to get lucky. MARJORIE SKINNER


GENERATIONALS, GARDENS AND VILLA
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) New Orleans duo Generationals make speedy, shuffling pop that has its roots all over the place, from '60s AM sunshine pop to early-'80s new wave to the most recent Phoenix album. With an expanded live lineup, the band should boast a batch of fine songs from its contagiously good new record, Actor-Caster. They're joined on the bill by Santa Barbara's Gardens and Villa, whose self-titled debut was recorded in Cottage Grove, Oregon, with Richard Swift (who's quickly becoming one of the top producers in the Northwest and is opening up shop in Portland). The record, just released on Secretly Canadian, has blocky synths doing the work of fuzz guitars, with melodies meandering around a sparse electronic landscape like a pixilated ball bouncing around the Pong screen. NED LANNAMANN


<
OWL CITY, MAT KEARNEY, UNWED SAILOR
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) Much like Serpentor, Owl City's Adam Young was created in a lab using extracted DNA from the remains of Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, and, um, Ben "the Sensitive" Gibbard. This soulless Postal Service karaoke act is responsible for the fluffiest of Jesus-approved pop ballads, "Fireflies" and "Vanilla Twilight" (the latter's title says it all), both of which are inescapable nuggets of disposable pop music with all the staying power, yet none of the irony, of LFO's "Summer Girls." Young's latest is All Things Bright and Beautiful, a dramatic departure from his synth-pop roots that's loaded with creative arrangements and originality. Naw, just kidding, it's the same old crap. Unless you are taking a road trip to Cornerstone in your mom's Taurus, there is no way anyone should be listening to Owl City of Ga'Hoole. EZRA ACE CARAEFF

 

Comments (1) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
I don't think there's any real worry that the vast majority of people in Portland are going to worry themselves with the possibility that they've taken the Parenthetical Girls for granted anytime soon.
Posted by jake on July 17, 2011 at 11:35 PM · Report

Add a comment

Tip for End Hits?
Email them here.

Friends of End Hits

Enemies of End Hits

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use