(Crocodile) Back around 2007, seeing Blake Lewis perform was probably not unlike some of the images I’ve seen of Beatles crowds from the ’60s—girls screaming, clutching their necks… CRYING. Lewis, from Redmond, Washington, used to go by the moniker “Bshorty” when he was a local heartthrob beatboxer, and rose to national fame as a favorite contestant on American Idol, Season Six. Surely still many a teenage girl’s supercrush, Lewis released his third album this month, Portrait of a Chameleon. It’s 14 slick, Auto-Tooney, sappy-romantic dance tracks—not my cup of tea, but I’m sure there’s plenty of young Northwestern girls who’ll go bananas for it. KELLY O
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(Blue Moon Tavern) Terminal Fuzz Terror is the perfect name for this chaotic psych-rock band. Like most good psych, after a time, the repetitive throb will put you in a slight trance—one that sounds better with your eyes closed and your head locked in a slow-motion headbang. Then, suddenly guitarist/singer Darwin Rodriguez’s howling yowl snaps your head up, and your eyes open. Guitars crash, and you’re awake and front and center again. Then the throb comes back, and the cycle repeats itself. Their self-released debut, Anachronisms, also has a song called “Electric Nothing” that sounds most suspiciously like Black Sabbath—if only those boys in the original Sabbath smoked about 120 percent more marijuana. Weeed (the band) and Dynamite Nugget open. Smoke it, if ya’ got it, babies. KELLY O
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Sadly, Bonkers!’s second phase is ending. After a few-year hiatus, the freewheeling, left-field electronic monthly came back in January, but attendance wasn’t where it should be, so Ian Scot Price and his loyal crew are folding and will focus on special one-off events. This final Bonkers! features residents Naturebot, Eric Moon, Retrig, and Neuro-Statique, all of whom embody the idiosyncratic, wild creativity that this event has fostered over the years. This loaded bill also includes Portland’s Proqxis (super-intricate, glitchy IDM), Seattle enigma Algebra of Need (highest of highbrow electronic composition—disorienting, madly dynamic, and oddly beautiful in equal measure), and Air Jackson (a baffling mix of emo-electro pop and ambient). Bonkers! is fading out in style. Keep your eyes peeled on Price’s future moves, as he invariably books exciting maverick talent on which nobody else wants to take a chance. Re-bar, 10 pm-3 am, $TK, 21+. DAVE SEGAL
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(Barboza) If you dig power pop, you’re going to this show. It’s a foregone conclusion. (If you don’t dig power pop, I feel mighty bad for you.) Paul Collins led the Beat (not to be confused with the great British group of the same name), an American power-pop band that flourished in the late ’70s and early ’80s—power pop’s peak era. Power pop was new wave’s less edgy, more euphoric sonic cousin, or maybe bubblegum’s more serious offspring, and when it’s good, it’s some of the tightest, catchiest, most vibrant music ever created. Paul Collins does it as well as anybody. Before forming the Beat, Collins played in the Nerves, who are famous for the brilliant “Hanging on the Telephone,” which Blondie covered so stylishly. Dude’s a legend in his field. DAVE SEGAL
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(Black Lodge) Long Beach, California’s Gang Wizard have been an ongoing, mutating concern since 1995. And one feels foolish for only now getting into them, because they sound like they took cues from Royal Trux’s Twin Infinitives and tried to make that crazy masterpiece rock harder. Gang Wizard’s clangorous jams amass a powerful centrifugal force and they’ve been known to gouge out a relentless riff until insanity ensues (but it’s the good kind of insanity). Their songs flirt with chaos but maintain an unruly order amid the frayed, metallic (but not metal) power moves. Score their recent album, Important Picnic (MIE Records), and try to get on Gang Wizard’s intensely manic level. Clearinghouse—featuring members of Mr. Epp & the Calculations and WaMü, and guitarist Eric Ostrowski—gush out lo-fi, rumbling improv anarchy that’s catharsis for catharsis’ sake. (Show me the human who doesn’t need catharsis now and then.) The Colour Out of Space use heavily FX’d trombone and guitar to create infernos of noise-jazz chaos. DAVE SEGAL
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(El Corazon) If you’re anything like me, your first exposure to SNFU (short for “Society’s No Fucking Use”) was sometime in the mid-’90s from the ever popular Punk-O-Rama $5 compilation albums released by Epitaph Records. But these dudes weren’t just another new band on the scene; they had been raging up in Edmonton and Vancouver 10-plus years prior as one of the mainstays of the Canadian punk scene. Chances are, they played their fare share of shows with Michigan hardcore legends Meatmen. Fast forward to 2014 and both of these bands are sharing the road together again, remaining true to their teenage dreams. KEVIN DIERS
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And here's all our recommended music events—tonight, tomorrow, and beyond!
