What is the 3900 Festival?

33 indie bands. Camping. All ages. The 3900′ Festival is a novel idea–you take a bunch of unsigned or indie label bands and you put them all together. Throw in some camping and a beautiful location and you have all the ingredients for a magical weekend. And this has to be the cheapest festival around Portland all year. For $53 you get a two-day pass which includes camping–not bad at all! Granted there are no marquee bands on the bill, but admit it, the headliners are always disappointing anyway. This is the festival of the opening acts-a scrappy, hungry lot that takes nothing for granted and always aims to please. In other words, this should be good!

3900′ Festival : June 27th & 28th : Horning’s Hideout : North Plains, OR

For more info, the band lineup and for tickets, visit the festival website.

Colin Meloy - Wonder Ballroom

Fresh off the release of his first sans-Decemberists album, Colin Meloy Sings Live! (Kill Rock Stars, 2008), Mr. Meloy is wrapping up a mini-western US tour with a show in his home base of Portland, Oregon. He will be playing the Wonder Ballroom on Saturday May 3rd w/ Laura Gibson, a fellow Portland-based singer/songwriter.

Wonder Ballroom and Cafe Wonder : 128 NE Russell St. : (503) 284.8686
May 3rd, 8pm (doors at 7) $20 advance, $23 door

Stumptown Comics Fest 2008!

Want to meet Nicholas Gurewitch, creator of the much-loved Perry Bible Fellowship comic? Feel like picking the brain of Dark Horse Comics creator Mike Richardson and hear what’s currently on their table? Have you ever wanted to join forces with like-minded people to create an entire comic in one day? Well you can accomplish all this and more in one weekend in Portland, Oregon. This weekend actually. It’s time for Stumptown Comics Fest 2008! What started as a very small gathering in 2004 has turned into a large-scale national comic festival. Come on out and support these artists and innovators!

Stumptown Comics Fest (www.stumptowncomics.com)
Saturday & Sunday, April 26th and 27th, 10am-6pm
Lloyd Center Double Tree Hotel (1000 NE Multnomah)

National Record Store Day

Remember the last time you moved and swore you would never buy another record again for the rest of your life? Well it’s time to forget all that nonsense, because this Saturday (April 19th) is National Record Store Day! So get out and support your favorite local record store! God knows they need all the help they can get these days. In the age of free downloads and pirated music, fewer people appreciate the unique experience that a record store can offer. Below are a few of the events planned in Portland for this sacred day.

Jackpot Records Downtown (203 SW 9th Ave)

Local Portland band, MENOMENA will be challenging Jackpot Records customers to free foosball for National Record Store Da If your lucky enough to beat the band, your name will go in a hat and one lucky winner will win free special gifts. The band will also be bringing their private collection of vinyl and DJ’ing during the event.

Music Millennium (3158 E Burnside)

Music Millennium is celebrating this landmark event with a day of celebration, including free live music, giveaways, and prizes. Chris Margolin is performing at 1 and 2 PM, and Dylan May is performing at 4 and 5 PM.

A Streetcar, Revisited

Without changing a single word of the original text, Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre has turned a classic play on its head. Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning A Streetcar Named Desire is well known for its exploration of madness and the human psyche. Director John Kretzu, in his adaptation, has brought that element of the play even more to the forefront. Told through memories of a now-institutionalized Blache DuBois, this adaptation forces you to question everything you thought you knew about this famous American play.

Artists Repertory Theatre - 1515 SW Morrison - (503) 241-1278
Tues-Sun 7:30 pm, Sun 2 pm, through May 18, $20-35

Rilo Kiley Coming to Portland

Jenny Lewis is the quintessential Indie Rock Goddess: quirky, intelligent, enigmatic, young and beautiful. Too bad she doesn’t live in Portland. Luckily for us though, she’s coming to town this Saturday with her band Rilo Kiley, featuring herself, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder and Jason Boeseln. Without getting too lost in the convoluted logistical labyrinth of North American indie rock connections, let me just say that Rilo Kiley have musical ties to bands like the Postal Service, Bright Eyes, the Elected, and (needless to say) Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins. With their latest release, the tongue-in-cheek (as some would have you believe) commercial venture Under the Blacklights, Rilo Kiley has taken a critical beat down. But with a wealth of previous material to draw from, it will be interesting to see how much the band pushes its new M.O. onto a savvy (and at times fickle) Portland audience. I’ll be there to find out for myself.

Sat.| April 19, 9 p.m | $20-22
Roseland | 8 NW 6th Ave. | 503.224.2038
w/ Whispertown 2000 and Michael Runion

* image courtesy of trombontim at Flickr

Buckman Bash in Portland

Can you think of a better way to support a good cause than watching two of Portland’s finest songsters rock solo sets at the Jupiter Hotel? Well for $50 (hey, no one said a good cause would be cheap!) you can witness Stephen Malkmus sans Jicks and James Mercer minus The Shins. Come on, this could be your big chance to hear Malkmus do “Zurich is Stained” solo acoustic! The Buckman Bash is a yearly event to benefit Portland’s Buckman Elementery School, an arts-integrated school in SE Portland’s Buckman neighborhood. There will also be a live auction with donated artwork from many local artists. The festivities get underway this Friday, April 11th, with the doors opening at 7pm. Read more

Portland Musicians Cover Songs

Portland musicians bound together this past year for a good cause. Bridging the Distance is a compilation of cover songs from some of Portland’s best-loved musicians. All proceeds from the album, released by local label Arena Rock Recording Company, go to p:ear, a local non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth transition off the streets through a program of education, art and recreation. Some Portland, OR artists featured on the compilation include The Decemberists, The Dandy Warhols, The Thermals, Viva Voce, Talkdemonic, The Minus 5, Point Juncture WA and Blitzen Trapper. Find out more or purchase the album here.

Free Events This Weekend

Check out these FREE EVENTS going on all weekend right here in Portland.