Music

Pete Bernhard's left index finger still hurts and that's a problem for a guy who makes his living playing lazer-quick guitar riffs. It's starting to heal, but it's been less than a month since The Devil Makes Three front man sliced the end of his finger while sharpening a knife.

Blonde Redhead
Penny Sparkle
4ad Records
It's hard to be critical of Blonde Redhead. The longtime New York trio always has gorgeous vocals, unique instrumentation and an otherworldly sound. Even at their weakest, this is a band that never lacks taste.
That's my long disclaimer for this: I am disappointed by Penny Sparkle. I'm not mad at it. It doesn't make me want to puke. It's just that it seems to lack the depth and range of emotion of 23 and Misery is a Butterfly – and I think Blonde Redhead fans need that diversity. Because when Kazu Makino, the band's singer, is sad, she's suicidal. And when the band picks her up off the ground and speeds things up, she's still no cheerleader.

The Revival Survival Guide
Now in its fifth year, the Bend Roots Revival, the most significant celebration of local and regional music in our area, has gotten even bigger. Previously spread between the Parrilla Grill and the Victorian Café, Bend Roots quickly outgrew that location. With some 100 acts and workshops going down between Friday and Sunday, Bend Roots has now moved to the Century Center (see next page).
Mark Ransom, the local musician who serves as the festival's creative director, says that Bend Roots had outgrown its old spot, but is excited as ever for this year's expanded version of the increasingly community-oriented event. Not only is its venue considerably larger, but Bend Root s continues to stretch the definition of “roots” music, bringing in an even more eclectic lineup with rock bands like The Autonomics (6pm, Saturday, BIGS Stage) and The Dirty Words (6pm, Saturday), but keeping popular local acoustic acts like Moon Mountain Ramblers (8pm, Friday, BIGS stage) and Blackstrap (5:30pm, Sunday, Dave's Garage) high up on the lineup.

The thing that gets me every time – be it on a Bad Seeds' album, in his fiction or with Grinderman – is how human Nick Cave is. He is a flawed, soft-fleshed mortal creature, just like the rest of us. His humanity comes out in the way he sings like he's speaking in tongues, repeating a word or a phrase over and over again until he's wrung all the blood and fluids from it. The way he growls and hums lyrics. And the way he talks of the nightmares in his head: of eating inchworms, of swearing off God, of black unicorns, slave dwarves and Steve McQueen.

Deb Yager didn't start playing guitar until she was in her mid 30s, but you wouldn't know that by listening to the smartly crafted folk numbers on the six-song EP that she recorded in her former hometown of Austin, Texas. Yager has been in Bend for the past five years, playing music with her band Little Fish, which includes her husband, Bo Reynolds, while creating songs of her own on the side.

Atmosphere, the indie hip-hop super group coming to Midtown on Tuesday, is one of those groups whose fans are just as cool as they are. More of a College Radio Top 10 chart topper than Top 40, Atmosphere is about as introspective as hip-hop can be without getting all emo. That hipster girl who you've seen studying race and pop culture at Thump? She's an Atmosphere fan. So is her professor, probably.
The group, which includes frontman Slug, producer Ant, Erick Anderson on keys and Nate Collis on guitar, has been making waves on the underground rap scene since 1994 and is a major reason you should head to Midtown on Tuesday. Their new album, a double EP titled To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy, will only be for sale digitally on iTunes and Amazon, with CDs sold exclusively during the tour and through Fifth Element (fifthelementonline.com).

“This year's festival has a really bluesy feel to it,” says Sisters Folk Festival artistic director Brad Tisdel of the event's 15th anniversary lineup.
He's right. Sisters Folk has always strayed from pure folk music, but this year's festival, taking place this weekend throughout the city of Sisters, features a lineup that's as eclectic as ever. The fest is headlined by John Hammond, but still features folkies like Ray Wylie Hubbard and a parade of other singer songwriters. In the past few years, Tisdel has focused more and more on exposing fans to new artists who they otherwise might never encounter.

Westin Glass is the drummer for the Thermals and last week when he checked in from North Carolina where he was visiting family, he wanted to talk about friendships. More specifically, he wanted to talk about his relationship with his two band mates.

It's a soundtrack for a movie about being a teenager. In love. And beating the shit out of the world and shoving it in his pocket. At least, that's what I gleaned from the trailer – and even more so, the soundtrack. The Twilight franchise
shocked everyone with its (admittedly) amazing soundtracks, and Scott Pilgrim's tunes follow suit here. Beck happily throws himself back to his bizarre Midnite Vultures phase as the fictional band Sex Bob-omb for four super-fuzzed, video-blippy garage rock tracks.