music»TheShortList Ray Wylie Hubbard THURSDAY, MAY 31
5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 8 p.m. $15. MA’CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR
Destroyer SUNDAY, JUNE 3
Destroyer’s Dan Bejar has long been an indie rocker with poetic/literary scope. Lately, as of his most recent album Kaputt (2011), he has also taken on an odd new persona: not a neo-folksinger or indie-rock bandleader, but a reclining soft-rocker. The album—easily one
TED BOIS
Hubbard’s career, begun in 1965, has seen him fly outside the mainstream spotlight that’s illuminated his Lone Star contemporaries like Willie, Waylon, and Jerry Jeff. This may have more to do with his subject matter than anything else. Hubbard takes his cues from Muddy Waters, not Hank Williams, and everything he writes about—from his frequent unapologetic exhalations on the virtues of unstable women to topics like tornadoes ripping down farm shanties—are not only intensely compelling but oddly sexy. The man is a master painter,
The fiery Dan Bejar.
for whom the blues is a canvas and his palette the creepy, Jesus-drenched underbelly of Texas’ feel-good music scene. Tractor Tavern,
of his very best—is full of foamy, spraying synthesizer pads, bright but rounded guitar textures, and, yes, saxophone solos. And although Bejar’s lyrics can be self-deprecating and sharp, there’s nothing ironic in this pointedly mellowed musical atmosphere—it’s all done smartly, without winking, and it works. The title track’s cautionary character— chasing cocaine and girls “through the backrooms of the world all night”—could hardly exist on any other soundtrack. With Nurses. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 7 p.m. $18 adv./$20 DOS. All ages. ERIC GRANDY
Welcome to Doe Bay
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Here’s a new SIFF documentary about the one percent: the connected and/or savvy music fans who know how to procure tickets to an intimate music festival at a resort in the San Juans that sells out in less time than it’ll take you to read this review. In chronicling the annual multiday festival on Orcas Island, local filmmakers Nesib Shamah and Dan Thornton provide a respectable primer of our Northwest music scene: the mix of rock, folk, and hip-hop acts that swim together (and are
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Egyptian, 805 E. Pine St., siff.net. 9:30 p.m. $11. Repeats at SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9:30 p.m. Tues., June 5. The filmmakers will attend both screenings. CHRIS KORNELIS
Jason Molina Tribute TUESDAY, JUNE 5
Since 2009, singer/songwriter Jason Molina, of Magnolia Electric Co. and Songs: Ohia, has been “in and out of rehab facilities and hospitals in England, Chicago, Indianapolis, and New Orleans,” according to his label Secretly Canadian, which posted the news in a solicitation for help with his medical funds. (He’s currently “working on a farm in West Virginia raising goats and chickens for the next year or so, and is looking forward to making great music again.”) You can take this story a variety of ways: as a testament to the link between sad songs and real-life depression; as an example of the failure of our nation’s healthcare system and the music industry’s meager safety nets; as an individual tragedy. In any case, tonight’s show features some fine Seattle musicians raising awareness for Molina and paying tribute to his songs. With Pickwick, Jason Dodson, Cataldo, Lotte Kestner, Ben Fisher, Alexandra Niedzialkowski (Cumulus), Song Sparrow Research, Alex Jones (Keaton Collective), Trever Hadley. Barboza, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $8. ERIC GRANDY
EDITOR’S PICK
LEARNING TEAM WEDNESDAY, MAY 30
This pop-rock quintet, one of Bellingham’s most notable current players, has released three FreePs via Bandcamp since their inception in 2011, the most recent being this March’s Daypack. The five-track EP contains such tasty offerings as “Oreo” and “Iced Coffee,” sweet and appealingly pleasant songs driven by strumming guitars and humming vocals. The band’s frontman, Emile Panerio, is a lovely vocalist—his easy singing style reflects youth and sharp perceptions best heard on Daypack’s standout track, “MLK,” an atmospheric coalescence of tranquilizing rhythms and swirling strings. Good summer vibes all around. With The Royal Sea, The Underwater Tiger. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $8. ERIN K. THOMPSON
COLE CRAMER
Seattle weekly • M AY 30– June 5, 2012
SUNDAY, JUNE 3
unendingly impressed with themselves for doing so). Inadvertently, the directors also capture the selfrighteousness and exclusive spirit that exists in pockets of that scene. That’s the fest’s biggest selling point: All those other people aren’t here. “If you do provide for more people,” according to Doe Bay organizer Kevin Sur, “you ruin the experience.” This is a doc about how good it feels for a select group of people to celebrate their tribe without the hassle of the unsophisticated masses and the Budweiser signage they attract. “I’d rather be heard authentically by 100 people,” says one musician, “than inauthentically heard by 10,000 people.” The message is clear: This is the real experience, these are the real people, and everything else is just a bloated orgy of massmarket beer and MySpace hot dogs.