Flowers are essentially tarts; prostitutes for the bees.

Although I didn't have the cash to front for Deerhunter or Gang Gang Dance , who respectively put out two of my (and everyone else's) favourite albums of the year, I managed to take in some more fiscally-accessible (hah) shows.


Fist Fite at Plan B



Last weekend, I saw The Mint Chicks, Lickity, and Fist Fite at Plan B.


The Mint Chicks are a noise pop band that moved from New Zealand to Portland. I like noise and discord in an accessible, fun context, and that's why The Mint Chicks are really fun to watch.

Lickity is a synth punk project backed by the drummer of the seminal L.A. punk band "Fear". They have these epic shows where the frontman wraps his head in tape, screams a lot, and makes all the fifty-something ex-punkers rock out. It's a definite experience.


Bald spots surrounded me as Lickity played
Fist Fite is gaining a lot of popularity. They backed the Klaxons on tour and they're super fun to watch (if anyone wants a visual, the frontwoman had a thing with Vancouver's Garrett. I didn't want to know that either). I love the bar Plan B, because they make the strongest drinks I've ever tasted. My drink was nine-tenths gin, one-tenth tonic.

When my dad came down to visit me, he told me that I should give walking tours of Portland bars since he told me that, in two months, I've been to more bars in Portland than he's been to his lifetime in Vancouver. For a relatively small town, there are some super rad bars here.



Last week, at Backspace, I saw Hecuba, Pit er Pat, and Lucky Dragons on tour together. They're from Chicago and L.A. and all play experimental electronic music which encapsulates performance art and music.

The documentary on Luke Fishbeck, aka Lucky Dragons, "make a baby" project.



This weekend, I saw the Portland band Starfucker play with my friend's band Flaspar at the Someday Lounge. Starfucker (the frontman's former band was Sexton Blake) has gotten a ton of buzz lately, which isn't surprising considering that they're cute boys in tight pants who write accessible indie pop with cheeky lyrics.

The recording isn't much to listen to, and, despite our world-weary cynical comments during the early part of the set list that "this is music I'd like to wash my dishes to and not stay up late at a bar for," their set gradually became more exciting. The songs "Florida" and "German Love" are irresistibly fun, and by the end, I found myself shaking off my music-snob preconceptions and enjoying myself. Being a child of the 1990s, I am a sucker for a little lo-fi pop now and then. They're a tight, enjoyable band that really excited the mixed crowd of hipsters and the bridge and tunnel ilk. I'd see them again live, but I wouldn't buy them on vinyl. That being said, if I was 16, they'd be plastered all over my locker.

Flaspar is an electro-dance project of Keil's, and he's also in the other dance project Guidance Counselor, which is appropriately titled considering their effect on teenage girls.



Guidance Counselor: why do all the bands wear animal masks now?

I have been having too much fun lately. Too much fun, not enough photogenic-ness.

Also, I really need a haircut, but I am paralyzed by indecision (aren't we all?). I've really let myself go to the point where I actually lost my blowdryer since I hadn't used it in 3 months. My beauty routine for the past three years takes about 3 minutes: wake up, shake my hair so it gets even bigger, put on way more eyeliner than is socially acceptable, and walk out the door. The only thing that's separating me from a suburban soccer mom is the short skirts and obsessive skincare regimen. Clearly, I'll never lasso a husband unless I put more effort into looking hot and less effort into being a nerdy hermit.