Best new showcase

As many have surely noticed, the Willy's "Best New Band" issue came forth this week and though this year's choices have resulted in some contentious words from certain Vanguard staffers we can at least all agree that free shows are a good thing. And the Willamette Week has provided us with just that.

This Saturday Berbati's will host BNB winner Explode Into Colors as well as Nurses and local riddilin junkies White Fang in a celebration of their best-new-band-ness.

I'd recommend showing up before the official start time of 9 p.m. as this one is likely going to be packed to the gils.

Berbati's Pan, May 9, 9 p.m., FREE, 21+

Jim Henson: Commercials and Experiments

by Jeff W Guay

I can hardly think of a director's body of work worth revisiting quite as much as Jim Henson's. The craft, creativity and sheer entertainment value of a his early commercials and experimental films, showing this weekend at the Northwest Film Center, at once reinforce the charm and skill of his puppetry, but also illuminate his ability as a filmmaker of other strengths. The program begins with black and white commercials, starring early versions of favorites such as Kermit and Rowlf, for everything from bygone domestic products to homeowners insurance. There's an innocence and transparency to these 1950's advertisements, and Henson's comic timing and farcical nature make these commercials feel more like sketch comedy than the manipulative advertising we're more used to these days.

“Do you drink Wilkin's coffee?” a tadpole, perhaps an early inception of Kermit, asks a chubby, gruff-voiced monster while pointing a cannon in his face. “No!” replies the monster, and the tadpole blows him away, then points the cannon at the camera. “Do you drink Wilkin's coffee?”

The commercials are sure to be the audience pleasers of the program, but Henson's experimental, non-puppet short films are worth seeing as well. “Time Piece,” a 1965 short stars Henson as a sex-obsessed hospital patient, in the throws of a psychedelic identity crisis between caveman and proper dinner guest. The editing is meticulous, with everything from Henson's footsteps to the flow of inner-city traffic moving to the beat of its jazz soundtrack.

The program in its entirety gives us a chance to absorb Henson's technical wizardry, and to appreciate his knack for comedy in pieces that are not particularly intended for children. The commercials are perhaps some of the best of their day if not of their century, and rare interviews with Henson and the opportunity to see “Time Piece” in it's entirety are all wonderful reasons to catch this screening.

MUPPETS, MUSIC & MAGIC: JIM HENSON'S LEGACY
COMMERCIALS AND EXPERIMENTS

Sunday, May 3rd
4PM
Whitsell Auditorium

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Local duo Experimental Dental School released their new album, Forest Field, as a free download today on their website www.experimentaldental.com.

Originally from Oakland, where they shared stages with Bay Area bretheren Deerhoof, they moved to PDX a couple years ago to hide in a basement and record. This is their first album as a two piece, and it follows suit that it's their tightest yet. Gone is the smorgaasbord of sound from earlier efforts like Jane Doe Loves Me or Hideous Dance Attack. They've stripped it down quite a bit, I mean they still sound like a dissonance-dance party/rock and roll science experiment, but Forest shows a lot more of the bones and muscles of their sound.

Shoko's voice is absolutely perfect, and her drumming, sexy, dancey and to the point, really holds these songs down. It makes sense that her presence is more relevant now that the band is a two-piece, and thats a wonderful thing. Jesse Hall seems more confident as a vocalist, and while he still bends his guitar riffs into dissonant weirdness, he does so with a new bareness. It's like a no-nonsense approach to a whole lot of nonsense, craziness applied in a straightforward manner. This record is the best no-money you'll spend today.

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Pink Tentacle has an image-rich post on the ancient Japanese art of stitching together various dead animals to create "demons" and then mummifying them. Why did this never catch on in the West?


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Next time Jen, stick with Great Clips

From the New York Post:

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More details here.