TEN MONTHS after loggers in rural Clark County stumbled upon a dead body in an open field, authorities believe they've now got Robert "Bobby" Huggins' death figured out.

Six people associated with the Portland chapter of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club were arrested April 27 in connection with the brutal killing of 56-year-old Portland resident Huggins, a former member of the club. Portland Police Detective Jim Lawrence tells the Columbian that Huggins "died a horrible death," which the Clark County medical examiner ruled a homicide.

Four people—Mark Dencklau, Earl Fisher, Tiler Pribbernow, and Malachi Watkins—are charged with kidnapping and murder. They are accused of abducting Huggins in Northeast Portland on June 30, 2015, killing him, and dumping his body in Ridgefield, Washington. Two others—Ronald Thompson, 51, and Kendra Castle, 43—are charged with hindering prosecution. More arrests could be coming soon.

Huggins' murder offers a glimpse at a different type of gang violence than Portland's been accustomed to lately. The Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club was founded during the motorcycle boom in post-World War II San Francisco, and its members headed north to Oregon and Washington in the late 1960s and '70s. These days, news linking the club to serious crimes doesn't surface often, but the Gypsy Jokers are listed by cops as a local street gang.

While details are scant at this point, police believe that Huggins had left the motorcycle club. And a detective with the Clark County Sheriff's Office confirmed the Columbian's report that Huggins was a suspect in a 2012 shooting in Ridgefield.

"I think his friends found out that he was doing things they didn't like him doing," Detective Lawrence told the Columbian. "His death was a result of his recent activity."

In a show of solidarity for their busted comrades, about a dozen Gypsy Jokers associates and supporters lined the benches of a Multnomah County courtroom last Thursday for the suspects' arraignment. They were less than thrilled when the Mercury attempted to ask them questions afterward, and declined comment.

But here's what we know, so far, about the men accused of killing Huggins:

Mark Dencklau, 56, is, or was, the president of the Portland Gypsy Jokers, according to a 2007 press release from a biker-friendly lawyer who successfully sued the City of Portland on behalf of the Jokers after a failed 2004 police raid at the club's NE MLK headquarters.

"The club had to take a stand," Dencklau said in the release. "We need to tell the police that we won't be treated as second-class citizens. We won't sit by and be their target anymore."

According to court records, Dencklau has one felony conviction, for possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute.

Earl Fisher, 46—a large, bearded grandfather—has lived in Portland his entire life. He's also amassed quite a rap sheet, with five felony and four misdemeanor convictions, and seven parole violations. His most recent non-driving bust was in 2009 when he was convicted on two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

Tiler Pribbernow, 34, is an Iraq War veteran and a methamphetamine addict. He was already in jail when the sweep happened last week, after a March arrest on meth possession and gun charges. He has at least eight prior felony and four misdemeanor convictions.

Pribbernow's been in the news before—most recently for a 2015 police chase that started in Oregon and ended in Vancouver. Cops discovered stolen license plates in his car, and booked him for driving under the influence of drugs, reckless endangerment, and eluding police.

He was also prominently featured in a 2007 Willamette Week story for having shot a man, Kent Kotsovos, in Northeast Portland. He was arrested for attempted murder in 2005, but a grand jury said it was self-defense. Per the story, "Pribbernow told police Kotsovos stepped out of the car and reached under his belt. Pribbernow grabbed a 9mm handgun from his dashboard and shot him in the face, chest, and arm. 'I made it through the war without getting shot or killed,' Pribbernow told police. 'I sure wasn't going to die right here in the street by my house.'"

Pribbernow is Facebook friends with Huggins, whom he's now accused of helping to kill.

Malachi Watkins, 32, is from Camas, Washington. He's been in prison in Washington after his 2015 arrest for failing to register as a sex offender and witness tampering. Among other convictions, he pled guilty to three counts of child molestation and one count of incest, per a 2009 Marysville Globe story.

Police and prosecutors stress that the investigation is not over, and more people could be going down soon.

"A lot of man hours have gone into it over 10 months now and there's still an investigation ongoing," says Detective Scott Kirgess with the Clark County Sheriff's Office. His department and the Portland Police Bureau are leading the investigation. "We're still digging and finding out and talking to people."

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IN A CLATTERING lot behind Benson Polytechnic High School, the future of Portland homeless camps is coming together piece by piece.

Two or three days a week, 100 of the school's freshmen have been taking up saws and ladders, hammers and levels, and slowly building what teacher Tim Hryciw calls "basically finished garden sheds"—64 square feet, with two windows and a door.

For the school, it's an engaging way of teaching geometry, clearly enjoyable to the 14-year-olds busying themselves around the lot on a recent Monday. For the City of Portland, it's a way to tinker with how homeless camps will soon look in this city.

The four structures being built behind Benson today won't just house homeless people when they're completed in coming weeks. The city says they'll also serve as prototypes for an untold number of similar structures going forward—"sleeping pods" that can be cheaply and quickly built for organized camps as Portland wrestles with a housing emergency.

"The whole idea is to mass produce," says Josh Alpert, chief of staff to Mayor Charlie Hales. "Clearly there is a demand for camps and it's not going to end any time soon."

Welcome to the next step in Hales' strategy to combat an increasingly visible homelessness problem. As business groups and neighborhoods take up legal and rhetorical arms against the tents that dot the landscape, officials are quietly working toward a system where these small sheds, pre-approved by city code enforcers, can be built and mobilized en masse, and connected to sites with social services.

The sleeping pods—also weirdly called "hard tents" by city officials keen on ensuring they're allowable under Portland's zoning code—were mentioned when Hales rolled out a newly permissive camping policy in early February. Back then, Alpert was calling them "disaster relief pods," and it was unclear where they'd come from.

That question is quickly resolving itself.

At Benson, in the "tech geometry" course Hryciw began a couple of years back, the Portland Bureau of Development Services (BDS) is working with the freshmen on a plan that will meet code standards for a small, habitable structure. It has to be smaller than 200 square feet, with no electricity or plumbing. It has to be stronger than an average shed, built to withstand gales and damp mud. And, perhaps most importantly, it has to be portable.

The goal is to get BDS to formally sign off on a design that can be replicated at sites zoned for "community service" use, with no need for construction permits. (It's the same zoning the city's using to justify relocating rest area Right 2 Dream Too to the Central Eastside, a move that's being challenged by nearby businesses.)

"We promised four [units]," Hryciw said recently, amid an unending string of questions from students. "If I were smart, I would have said three. We've been cranking."

As it progresses toward approved blueprints, the city's also working with a grassroots group made up of existing organized encampments, advocates, and a steadily growing stream of nonprofits and neighborhood representatives. This group, calling itself the "Village Coalition," came together a few months back through the ReBuilding Center on North Mississippi. It meets every other week.

"We're trying to learn what may work to address the housing crisis from the perspective of those who are houseless," says ReBuilding Center Executive Director Stephen Reichard. "I think that everybody in the coalition feels it's part of their job to do that."

The Village Coalition quickly landed on a suggestion: If the group could identify a warehouse where it could build tiny homes, the space could serve as a training ground for homeless people seeking new skills, and a handy source for the pods the city's been seeking.

Hales' people agreed to help. Alpert is talking with labor organizations about offering apprenticeship programs to houseless residents, and the city's looking at sourcing materials via a new law that ensures older homes are taken apart piece by piece.

City staffers are also trying to find a warehouse.

"The city is currently looking to see if there are any warehouses within the city-owned properties to be considered as a staging and training facility for the production of sleeping pods," says Bob Kieta, a recently retired city facilities manager who's been helping Hales with his homelessness efforts.

Under the city's plans for a "community village system," Kieta says, the sleeping pods would be clustered around a central building that has toilets, showers, and a kitchen. Those services hubs would have to be at least 170 square feet for every 10 pods.

"Sleeping pod camps are seen as transitional spaces into permanent housing," Kieta says, "and as populations move and needs in different areas grow, we will be able to move the sleeping pods to address the housing and shelter needs of different communities."

Sites like the one Kieta's proposing have been successful in places like Eugene. But they might also be roped into a lawsuit filed recently against Hales and the City of Portland, which argues, in part, that Portland has exceeded a state limit on transitional camping sites.

Officials have been trying to figure out how to rapidly produce sleeping pods for much of 2016. Local architect Mark Lakeman remembers a call he got from the city roughly four months ago "asking where they could rapidly get a bunch of tiny homes."

"I said there's nobody who has this kind of stuff in stock in a way the city could afford," says Lakeman, who's been working with the Village Coalition. "The best thing we could do is get a big warehouse and some skilled carpenters. They go, 'That's too messy and we don't do things like that.'"

Now, it appears, the city does things like that.

Hales, in fact, has long had an interest in using tiny homes as a balm for the city's affordability crisis. In August 2014, the Mercuryreported on the possibility that the mayor would support small affordable communities on city property. The homes being proposed under that plan would have been more expensive than the "sleeping pods" under construction these days—something like $12,000 a pop compared to the $1,500 officials are shooting for now.

They never panned out. The latest effort seems more certain.

"We are actually very, very close to being able to talk about our first sanctioned camp," Alpert says, meaning the first organized camp under Hales' months-old policies.

But there's an unavoidable question that permeates all of these plans: Even if they survive legal challenges, how long will new pod camps be around? After all, Hales is only in office for another eight months. Ted Wheeler, the person most likely to replace him according to what little polling we've seen, has repeatedly voiced misgivings about temporary camps.

"I don't think they're compassionate," Wheeler said at a KATU-sponsored mayoral forum on Monday.

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WEDNESDAY 5/4

HAR MAR SUPERSTAR, LOVE COP
(Dante's, 350 W Burnside) Har Mar Superstar is the sleazy alter-ego of Sean Tillmann, who often performs in nothing but undies and a thin mustache. Despite this jarring performance style—which resulted in a 2002 public lewdness allegation—Tillman's greasy R&B is surprisingly smooth, rich, and velvety, not unlike creamy Jif peanut butter. Following 2013's Bye Bye 17, this month he unleashed a brand-new record, Best Summer Ever, which was produced by friend and Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas. Its 10 tracks set Tillmann's sexy croon to synthy electro-pop beats, punk-infused fuzz ballads, and a one-minute acoustic serenade to his radiator. CIARA DOLAN

TOUCH CONFERENCE: PHILIP JECK, MARK VAN HOEN, SIMON SCOTT, DANIEL MENCHE, TOUCH
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Philip Jeck is probably best known for his 1993 performance of Vinyl Requiem, involving 180 record players and 11 visual projectors. After 20 years, Jeck continues to sample and repurpose discarded vinyl recordings into verdant soundscape compositions. He is a career-long Touch artist, and the label's Touch Conference West Coast tour presents a unique opportunity to see his newest directions sharing a bill with the minimal "damaged" modular synth work of Mark Van Hoen, the natural sound manipulation of Simon Scott, and the unpredictable sometimes-he-hits-himself-with-a-metal-pipe noise music of Portland's Daniel Menche. SUZETTE SMITH

THURSDAY 5/5

AVISHAI COHEN QUARTET
(Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th) Not to be confused with the famed jazz bassist and composer of the same name, this Avishai Cohen is a trumpeter, born in Tel Aviv and based in New York City. In February, he released Into the Silence, his debut for the revered ECM record label and an absolute stunner. Cohen composed the album's six songs after the November 2014 death of his father—they're mournful, as you'd expect, but they never feel heavy. Instead, Cohen and his band simply glide, delivering spirited melodies, tasteful arrangements, and blue moods beautifully captured by producer (and ECM founder) Manfred Eicher. Into the Silence is downcast but never dour, warm and inviting even as Cohen's quartet (plus tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry) paint a convincing portrait of loneliness and loss in their elegant phrasing. Jazz fans: Cohen's stop at Jimmy Mak's tonight is a can't-miss. BEN SALMON

GOLDEN HOUR, TWELVE GARDENS, IVY HOUSE
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) Portland's Twelve Gardens is the melancholy pop duo of guitarist/vocalist Chetty B. (of the now-defunct Sister Palace) and drummer Katie Krussel (of Golden Hour). Their music sounds like a solitary rainy-day bike ride under the umbrella of cherry blossoms—earlier in the week the trees were in full bloom, making the street a tunnel of reds and pinks, but now they're wet, wilting, and fluttering downward with the raindrops. Twelve Gardens has sporadically played shows since last summer, culminating in the February self-release of their debut tape, no more cool '93. It's characterized by a slow-fast/quiet-loud approach to songwriting reminiscent of Pixies and the Softies, with just one song extending past the three-minute mark. Despite its brevity, no more cool '93 is notable in its breadth of emotionality, which is perhaps best exemplified on the repetitive track "Bicycle." CAMERON CROWELL

FRIDAY 5/6

JOAN SHELLEY, MICHAEL HURLEY
(The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th) Read our story on Joan Shelley.

KID CONGO & THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS, HIGH HORSE, HOODED HAGS
(Dante's, 350 W Burnside) Despite a résumé that includes extended stints in the Cramps, the Gun Club, and the Bad Seeds, these laurels merely serve as a backdrop to the primordial bounce Kid Congo Powers creates with his band the Pink Monkey Birds. Rhythm masters Kiki Solis, Ron Miller, and Mark Cisneros flow effortlessly between class and crass with Kid's bespectacled charm at the helm. They fuse their talents into a sinister psychedelic strut that recalls either the funkiest Russ Meyer soundtrack never produced or a fictional Vincent Price/James Brown collaboration in a Back from the Grave wonderland. On their brand-new full-length, La Arana Es La Vida, Kid Congo & Co. once again utilize that vaunted Monkey Bird cave rave to highly infectious and darkly danceable results—there's no doubt this monster mash is going to be an absolute must! CHRIS SUTTON

SEE THROUGH DRESSES, MOONCHILD, BUD WILSON, BEACH PARTY
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) On their October-released EP End of Days, Nebraska's shoegaze punks See Through Dresses sound like they're burying family photo albums in sludgy mud in the backyard—it's sad, angry nostalgia that explores the painful catharsis of sobering up from your youth. Sara Bertuldo's vocals and brutally emotive lyrics call to mind Colleen Green's powerfully subdued bedroom punk and the euphoric grunge of All Dogs' Maryn Jones. "I don't have a coupon/I don't save enough for me to get out of here," Bertuldo sings amid a clangor of sour guitars on the EP's opener, "Haircut," while on "Little Apple Rot" she warns a lover, "Oh, careful see, we're not in love/I keep you to stay warm," before the song implodes in angsty chaos. CD

KING BLACK ACID, CAT HOCH, DAYDREAM MACHINE
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Since the mid-'90s, King Black Acid has earned a devoted following in the Portland underground rock scene. The group has released several albums on Portland label Cavity Search, making a name for themselves alongside some of the Pacific Northwest's most notable artists. Founder and frontman Daniel Riddle has a vision that keeps unfolding, giving a glimpse into a poetic mind that shines in the emotional depth of their sound. Recently released track "I'm Rolling Under" is a good taste of the epic spirit of the band's songwriting—it's musical escapism at its finest, kissed by a love of psychedelic space rock. Tonight King Black Acid will present songs from their highly anticipated forthcoming EP. CHRISTINA BROUSSARD

SATURDAY 5/7

HEY LOVER, THE LAVENDER FLU, MOPE GROOVES
(Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water) See My, What a Busy Week! and read our story on Hey Lover.

NIGHT MOVES, JACKSON BOONE
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) Formed in 2009, Night Moves might be the most exciting indie alt-folk band to come out of the Twin Cities since the Jayhawks. Not to be confused with the Portland band of the same name, the Minnesota trio's oeuvre is more than just Bob Dylan-inspired hominess—they have transcended acoustic heights and found the perfect harmony between folk and synth-pop. It's most apparent in their latest album, Pennied Days, which features dreamy tracks like "Carl Sagan" and "Denise, Don't Wanna See You Cry." Despite the mellow sound, every note and lyric by Night Moves has been expertly crafted within a nostalgic, classic American rock milieu—it seems fitting that singer John Pelant, bassist Mickey Alfano, and multi-instrumentalist Mark Ritsema named their band after a Bob Seger song. Although Night Moves' debut album, Colored Emotions, was well received, the band's sophomore album feels more self-assured. If you hate the pretentiousness of Ryan Adams but love alt-country, check out Night Moves. ZARA ZHI

MONARQUES, MINDEN, BOONE HOWARD
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Formed by singer/songwriter Joshua Spacek in late 2009, self-described Portland "soul pop" band (think Marshall Crenshaw, not Daptone) Monarques swiftly rose to prominence on the strength of a stellar, five-track EP and a frighteningly energetic live show. In early 2010, the group was invited to perform on the NPR-syndicated Prairie Home Companion, and there were rumors of a sizable label bidding war to sign the band. Despite a deluge of well-deserved accolades that continued over the following year (including a coveted slot in the other weekly's Best New Band poll in 2011), the big crossover everyone thought was inevitable never really materialized. The group released the mini-LP Let's Make Love Come True in 2012 before quietly disbanding. Tonight marks the band's first show together in nearly four years, and according to a Facebook status update, they'll debut new material in addition to "old favorites." Cross your fingers they're back for good. MORGAN TROPER

TAURUS, EYE OF NIX, ORDER OF THE GASH, DISEMBALLERINA
(Panic Room, 3100 NE Sandy) There's something to be said for a band that can conjure up evil solely through their music. Taurus plays the soundtrack to bloody knives and flies on open wounds, and it's stunning and disturbing. The Portland two-piece takes an unholy trinity of death metal, black metal, and psychedelic rock and transforms it into something completely new. Their LP No/Thing is the stuff of nightmares, and I want more. Seattle's Eye of Nix is equally adept at creating unsettling, atmospheric (emphasis on the "fear") music, punctuated by Joy Von Spain's vocals, which bounce from a soothing lilt to rabid scream. Black metal thrashers Order of the Gash and neoclassical doomers Disemballerina round out a bill that will surely sound like hell on earth in all the right ways. MARK LORE

AESOP ROCK, ROB SONIC, DJ ZONE, HOMEBOY SANDMAN
(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) Ian Bavitz, more popularly known by his rap moniker Aesop Rock, might just be one of the best white dude rappers around. Armed with his characteristically deep-pocket vocabulary and a new sense of vulnerability, his latest effort, The Impossible Kid, touches on the realities of living with anxiety and depression. In the recently released video for "Lazy Eye," Bavitz raps while navigating the cluttered and appropriately weird hallways of Portland's Peculiarium (an oddities museum that used to somewhat-famously feature an ice cream sundae topped with live worms). The video doesn't quite incite fear, but it does provide a fitting backdrop for the song, and further Aesop Rock's career, which is best described as a mixed bag. Whether it's been collaborating with cult-following folk legends like John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats and Kimya Dawson of the Moldy Peaches, sampling funk, or peppering the listener with abstract and complex lyrics, Aesop Rock has taught us to expect one thing: the unexpected. JENNA FLETCHER

SUNDAY 5/8

THE CACTUS BLOSSOMS
(Music Millennium, 3158 E Burnside) You don't have to be brothers to make spooky-great country harmonies, but it definitely doesn't hurt. Just ask the Louvin Brothers, the Everly Brothers, and the Cactus Blossoms' Jack Torrey and Page Burkum. Despite having different last names, those last two brothers are absolutely on the same page musically, and their splendid Minnesota-based band the Cactus Blossoms has among the highest shiver-per-minute ratio in the business. Portland discovered them during their remarkable performances at 2013's Pickathon, and they've recently released their first album, the JD McPherson-produced You're Dreaming. It's the kind of record that makes you want to turn the lights down low and slow dance with that special someone and write a letter home to mama. Performing this type of aw-shucks retro-roots music can be artistically limiting, but Torrey and Burkum's harmonies are the kind that inspire ear-to-ear grins. They play an afternoon in-store at Music Millennium before opening for Pokey LaFarge at the Wonder Ballroom later tonight. NED LANNAMANN

SALES, BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT, HASTE
(Analog Café, 720 SE Hawthorne) Orlando, Florida, duo Sales is reminiscent of a stripped-down, lo-fi Beach House: rhythmic, textured guitars layering over tight, muted synth beats. Vocalist Lauren Morgan delivers lyrics that often read like shadowy, clever, sassy poetry. Her voice can fluctuate from a high, sweet sigh down to a low, languid moan. Songwriter Jasmine Wood fronts local opener Haste, providing dreamy Cat Power vibes with her lovely ethereal voice. It's pretty much just her and an electric guitar picking out sweet and simple tunes that'll make the room feel hushed and balmy. FIONA GABRIELLE WOODMAN

MAYER HAWTHORNE
(Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark) There's something endearingly cheesy about sonic seducer Andrew Cohen, who performs under the moniker Mayer Hawthorne. With song titles like "Lingerie & Candlewax" and a voice like Curtis Mayfield, you might not expect to find a nerdy white guy from Michigan behind Hawthorne's throwback sound. But the guy can actually sing, and he confidently pulls off the whole schmaltzy, red wine-stained, sex-on-a-faux-fur-area-rug vibe. Since his 2008 debut, he's upped his style game, earned a Grammy nod, and even collaborated with Kendrick Lamar. While he's moved away from Motown parody, Hawthorne still finds the fun in bringing the world baby-making jams. ANNA McCLAIN Also see My, What a Busy Week!

POKEY LaFARGE, THE CACTUS BLOSSOMS
(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) There was a good stretch of time—let's say, approximately, the 10 years that followed the release of the Coen brothers'O Brother Where Art Thou?—when old-timey music was the thing, and aspiring young musicians lined up to trade in their electric guitars for banjos and washboards. Mercifully, that trend finally appears to have gone the way of the post-Swingers swing music craze of the '90s, but apparently no one has bothered to tell Pokey LaFarge. Born Andrew Heissler in the green pastures of Bloomington, Illinois, Heissler's adopted pseudonym befits his ongoing commitment (now over a decade strong) to a bygone American way of life, as represented by ragtime jazz, country swing, barrelhouse blues, and ample amounts of hair pomade. No doubt, there are still a precious few clinging to their striped vests and herringbone tweed caps, and for them, Pokey LaFarge endures. SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY

MONDAY 5/9

BABELFISHH, JUICY KARKASS, TIG BITTY, DMLH
(Anarres Infoshop, 7101 N Lombard) See All-Ages Action!

DUNGEN, BOOGARINS
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Like "psychedelic," the formerly verboten term "prog" is increasingly being used as a catchall for any kind of exploratory rock music that doesn't fit into an easy genre. Which is why you'll find Swedish band Dungen—when they're not being labeled as "psych"—regularly described as "prog" (not to be confused with the term progg, which refers to Sweden's left-wing, anti-commercial music movement in the '70s that decried hitmakers ABBA as pre-packaged antichrists). Psych and prog are about as accurate and inaccurate as any term you could choose: Dungen make flowing, metamorphic music, often without vocals, that features heavy-rock guitar, easygoing rhythms, jazz flute, ripe acoustic strums, garage-rock riffs, and an undercurrent of otherworldliness. The noctilucent sounds they create evoke imagery of both natural wonder and unlikely magic, places where trees converse and demigods rest near the water's edge. Dungen are quite simply one of the most engaging and musically interesting bands on the planet, and their 2015 album, Allas Sak, continues to defy pigeonholing even as it delivers on their established strengths. NL Also see My, What a Busy Week!

LUCIUS
(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) The salty-sweet harmonies of Lucius returned this spring with their infectious, layered, and smart new release, Good Grief. Onstage the LA-Brooklyn duo of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig make perfectly timed double drums and harmonizing look easy. In a world where artists like Sia and Tune-Yards have made space for drummer/producers, Lucius stands out, making a statement with songs that range from tender to electrifying. From the Prince-esque "Something About You" to the touching "My Heart Got Caught on Your Sleeve,"Good Grief feels like a breakup album for the modern woman, expressing past struggles with raw emotion and pop fire. JENI WREN STOTTRUP

TUESDAY 5/10

GIVERS, ANNA WISE
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) See My, What a Busy Week!

DREAM THEATER
(Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) Read our story on Dream Theater.

CROSS RECORD, C^VES
(Analog Café, 720 SE Hawthorne) Wabi-Sabi, the latest album from Texas duo Cross Record, is a gorgeous, haunted, contradictory thing. Minimal and ornate, weighted in seemingly incompatible ways, it nods to PJ Harvey one moment, Steve Reich the next, as it sits in a glorious no-man's land between Chelsea Wolfe's Apokalypsis and the Microphones'It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water. It's ominous twee; sludge chamber-pop; an ethereal western soundtrack. The seamless vocals of Emily Cross keep it all together, managing to be both barely noticeable and completely enveloping, holding you tight throughout the album's twists and turns. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON

SANTIGOLD, LEILEKI47
(Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside) Philly-raised singer Santigold is praised for her genre fluidity, hued urban style, and avant-garde creative choices—such as an interactive video for her single "Can't Get Enough of Myself," which highlights self-absorption. Her February release, 99¢, was the highly anticipated follow-up to 2012's Master of My Make-Believe. Previously named Santogold, the indefinable mezzo-soprano gained exposure by touring with rapper MIA—to whom she's commonly compared—in 2007, Coldplay in 2008, and then embarking on her own Goldrush Tour soon after. This show has been a long time coming for Portland Santigold fans: Her We Buy Gold tour stop was originally scheduled for April 6 at the Wonder Ballroom, then was moved to the Crystal to allow for more space. After becoming ill that week, Santi postponed the date to May 10 at the same venue. I'm not mad about the switch, as long as I hear "Shove It" and up-tempo rallying anthem "Banshee"—with little-to-no lip-synching. JENNI MOORE

FIELD AGENT, APARTMENT FOX
(Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny) Stephen Lee Clark is best known as bassist for the highly acclaimed shoegaze-influenced post-black metal band Deafheaven, but with his solo project Field Agent he explores grinding techno-noise sprinkled with the sounds of early electro drum machines and murky vocals. His 2016 tape Re-Entry Malfunction soundtracks a disastrous return to earth for an unknown cosmonaut. The album builds from ambient meditations to acid-flavored techno before culminating with the tense and chaotic title track, one that dismantles itself and fades into static before the final message from Mission Control, "Transmission Lost." Part of Seattle's Motor Records collective, Portland's Apartment Fox delivers crisp and dubby techno with an ear for textured minimalism. DANIELA SERNA

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TERAH BETH BALTZER VARGA and Justin Varga played their debut show as Hey Lover on their wedding night. In a serendipitous twist of fate, the duo—who moved to Portland from Tennessee in 2004—were given all of their first equipment.

"We had no gear or anything, but one of Justin's friends was moving back in with his parents. We got an electric guitar, we got an amp, we got a PA, we got all the cords," says Terah Beth. "It just fell in our laps, in a way."

For the past two years, Hey Lover have toiled away at their forthcoming third full-length, Sinking Ships. Listening to their music delivers the same kind of joy that comes from savoring a mouthful of Pop Rocks: It's uplifting, sweet, and a little bit explosive. Their self-titled 2007 debut ran on unbridled punk—the album begins with a scream from Terah Beth. 2011's Tennessee slowed down for more tempered, romantic garage-pop without abandoning Hey Lover's surging undercurrent of frenetic energy.

Sinking Ships is their first with bassist Tim Janchar, a longtime friend of the husband-wife duo who put out their first two full-lengths on his and his brother's local lo-fi label, Hovercraft Records. Adding bass to Hey Lover's riotous commotion of guitar and drums has grounded the band's sound, allowing Justin freedom to "noodle" and experiment with more nuanced guitar work. Justin, the primary songwriter, describes his creative process: "Stabbing out in the middle of nowhere; tinkering until something catches my imagination." This hasn't changed much on the new record, though the execution of big ideas has evolved with Janchar in the mix.

"The first album was faster, more full of crazy energy, the second one was more refined," says Terah Beth. "My drumming is a lot different with the bass. I don't feel like I have to do that much, I just have to keep the song going."

The cover of Sinking Ships is a picture of artist Pat Moriarity's huge eight-by-eight-foot "Your Face Here" cutout featuring all three members of Hey Lover in the arms of a sea monster. It's inspired by the trio's goofy infatuation with carnival-esque cutouts.

"It became a thing—anytime we saw one, we'd put our heads through," says Janchar.

On the new record they glide between punk, garage, and bubblegum pop, never allowing themselves to be pigeonholed into a single category. Tracks like the slow-dancing love song "Nancy" somehow feel right at home on the same album as "Underground," a 41-second sonic brain scrambler that feels like a manic ride on a pogo stick from hell.

Opener "I Wanna Be With You" erupts out of a flaming wall of fuzz, spawning one simple, catchy guitar hook and pairing it with the Vargas' perfectly complementary harmonies. Here you can feel Janchar's bass line supporting and mediating frenzied, ebullient pandemonium.

The album's standout and giddiest moment is "I've Got a Car," when Justin sings, "I've got a car, I've got keys, I can drive/Let's get out of here" and later, "We ain't savin' up for nothin'." It's a romantic revelation, but also thunderously punk, like a Bonnie and Clyde escapist love song.

The album's coda, "Drifting Again," finds Hey Lover after the storm, and sounds like they're floating on a piece of driftwood after their ship has sunk. It's at once calming and awash in discontent as Justin sings, "I'm out in space/But I'm stuck in a rut" over Janchar's rolling bass and Terah Beth's sea of "sha-la-la" harmonies.

Hey Lover navigates these dichotomies with skillful precision, greeting uncertainty with uncontainable chaos, dullness with blinding sunshine, and endings with blowout farewell parties. Despite the album's name, Sinking Ships finds Hey Lover buoyant as ever.

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ON LAST YEAR'SOver and Even, Joan Shelley stitches together a vivid patchwork of distant memories and melancholy daydreams, of anger, longing, and loneliness, and love both poisonous and understated.

Intertwined with these deeply human emotions are fragments of the natural world: falling leaves and glowing stars, singing birds and rotten fruit, the smell of split wood, a patch of grass bent and warm from the weight of a human body.

For Shelley, a rising folk singer from Louisville, Kentucky, the art of songwriting and a keen awareness of the surrounding world go hand in hand.

"It's something I've worked on as a practice for just enjoying this life. It's something that amplifies my experience of the world: 'What kind of tree is that?' and 'What kind of clouds are those?' and 'What does that mean about the way the world is changing around me?'" she asks. "I just like learning the names and appreciating those things because if I forget to do that, I go through the days and don't remember them. They mean less to me."

Shelley finds herself edging toward a sort of woo-woo new-age sentiment, before pausing to clarify: "It's not that I feel a totally hippie inclination. It's just a universal experience. The stars have been our thing forever."

If there's one word that best describes Over and Even, it's "timeless." Sparsely arranged and simply recorded, the album leaves acres of space for Shelley's gorgeous songs to shine. "Stay on My Shore" (a duet with Will Oldham) floats and flutters like a love letter caught in the breeze. The yearning title track follows a dusky groove and pulses in circadian time. The album closes with "Subtle Love," a gentle waltz with a wordless coda that rattles around your head long after the record is over. Along the way, Shelley's accompanied by highly skilled guitarist Nathan Salsburg, who lives a block away from her in Louisville.

Shelley's father was a painter and her mother played music in college, though not around the house, she says. But it was her mom's abandoned guitar in the attic that first found its way to Shelley, who grew up listening to pop songs, Enya, and oldies on the radio. It wasn't until later that she discovered folk music through local jams.

"I was in my own bubble. I really wrote stuff even before [I started playing] the guitar. I wrote melodies and songs and things without any contact, it feels like," she says. "I mean, I listened to whatever was around, but the first traditional music I fell in love with was old-time music, pre-Civil War stuff... that just sounded alien but also so natural and human and good for the soul."

Shelley's show Friday at the Old Church will be her first in Portland proper (she played Pickathon last year), and the tour that brings her here will be her first run up the West Coast. She's looking forward to it—"I love it out there," she says—but in the meantime, there's music to be made while the weather's still reasonable in Kentucky.

"Porches are very important, especially right now," she says in a quiet drawl, always in tune with the Earth. "There's no mosquitos."

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ON TUESDAY, MAY 10, Long Island, New York's most ridiculous progressive metal band, Dream Theater, brings its latest work to Portland's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The Astonishing is a two-hour-and-10-minute concept album (or rock opera, or whatever the fuck) that tells the story of a dystopian future—and redemption through the power of music. Pilfering unabashedly from works like Rush's 2112, Kevin Bacon's Footloose, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, God's the Bible, and Disney movies of recent vintage, it's basically one long power ballad stitched together by some blippy-bloop science-fiction noises, quadruple kick drums, and sterile musicianship. It is, indeed, astonishing.

Four Mercury music writers of varied musical backgrounds and tastes convened to listen to all 130 minutes of The Astonishing together; they have provided us with the running commentary excerpted below, to run alongside Dream Theater's own preposterous libretto. (Plot synopses are excerpted from the album's hilariously thorough Wikipedia page.)

"Descent of the NOMACs"/"Dystopian Overture": "In 2285, the northeastern region of the United States has turned into a dystopia ruled by the oppressive Great Northern Empire of the Americas. The only resemblance to entertainment that exists is the electronic noise of the Noise Machines (NOMACs). The empire is ruled by Emperor Nafaryus, Empress Arabelle, Crown Prince Daryus, and Princess Faythe."

CIARA: Does NOMAC mean they are pro-Windows?

NED: This sounds like the haunted castle level of a video game.

MORGAN: Welcome to the machine.

NED: This plot sounds like King's Quest IV. The bad guy's name is "Nafaryus"!

MORGAN: You can really hear those four kick drums.

NED: Imagine being the 52-year-old dude who bought this album at Best Buy on the day it came out. Right now this is the best drive home ever.

"The Gift of Music": "In a distant village called Ravenskill, a man named Gabriel possesses the natural ability to make music and sing."

CIARA: In the Bible, Gabriel is an angelic messenger. Symbolism!

MORGAN: Is this song in 7/4?

ARIS: There's gonna be tons of odd time signatures throughout.

Gabriel sings, "People just don't have the time for music anymore."The room LOLs.

CIARA: How do people dance to this?

ARIS: People who listen to this aren't interested in dancing.

CIARA: How would you know which beat to fist-pump to, even?

NED: This production is so pristine, I feel like I'm INSIDE Pro Tools right now.

"The Answer"

MORGAN: Barnes & Noble is currently selling The Astonishing four-LP set for $123.49.

NED: Is this song from Godspell?

MORGAN: This sounds like that Randy Newman song in Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear jumps off the second story and realizes he can't actually fly.

"A Better Life": "Gabriel has an older brother, Commander Arhys of the Ravenskill Rebel Militia, who has a son, Xander, with his deceased wife, Evangeline."

ARIS: Would you consider them to be a modern Rush? Odd time signatures, sweeping concepts...

NED: I'm sure they are huuuuge Rush fans. And this story is basically 2112.

ARIS: They also sound a little like an Italian symphonic power metal band called Rhapsody, but way worse.

NED: Rhapsody... by way of Billy Joel.

"Lord Nafaryus": "Nafaryus hears a rumor about Gabriel being the savior of the people. He and his family travel to Ravenskill to see him for themselves."

NED: This is totally the Pontius Pilate song from Jesus Christ Superstar. You can tell Lord Nafaryus is evil because his song has lots of sweet evil guitar runs.

MORGAN: I'm getting a Styx vibe. Also, the first two Queen records.

ARIS: I feel like if they distilled this down a bit it wouldn't be as ridiculous. The scope is just insane and we're only on track six.

NED: I predict that Gabriel and Lord Nafaryus are not going to see eye to eye.

"A Savior in the Square"/"When Your Time Has Come": "In the Ravenskill town square, Gabriel is performing for the people when the royal family shows up. He continues playing at the emperor's request, nearly bringing them all to tears."

CIARA: Did he just sing, "I will treat them all to sonic ecstasy"?

ARIS: The kick drum sounds so triggered.

NED: Which one? There are four.

MORGAN: This is like super early Freddie Mercury. Like those acoustic songs on Sheer Heart Attack. Which sucks because that stuff is great.

NED: This keyboard part is a little Genesis-ish.

ARIS: They're prog-rock pirates, man!

NED: I bet Gabriel is blond and has a sweet surfer tan.

"Act of Faythe": "As Gabriel plays, Faythe remembers how she found a music player when she was a child and kept it a secret all her life, and as she and Gabriel stare at each other they fall in love."

NED: That is how people fall in love in the future. They just stare at each other.

MORGAN: Apparently the vinyl includes an 18" x 24" double-sided full-color map of the Great Northern Empire of the Americas.

CIARA: I want a board game with that map.

MORGAN: I'm going to get a Faythe stick-and-poke tattoo.

NED: Faythe has pink hair so you know she's young and edgy.

"Three Days": "Nafaryus, though briefly moved by Gabriel's song, sees him as a threat to his rule and gives the people of the town three days to deliver their savior to him or he will destroy the town."

MORGAN: Three days. Just like the Bible.

ARIS: I love concept albums, but this sounds more like the soundtrack to a musical.

CIARA: It's theater, Aris.

In the song, Nafaryus giggles maniacally. The song segues into a Dixieland jazz section.

NED: It wouldn't be a prog-rock masterpiece without some insane laughter from the villain.

CIARA: I feel catatonic. Sensory overload.

MORGAN: That ruled.

NED: THAT SONG BLEW.

"The Hovering Sojourn": more spaceships sounds from the NOMACs."Brother, Can You Hear Me?": "Arhys hides his brother and refuses to give him up."

ARIS: Uh, paging the Who's Tommy.

NED: Wait, go back. What does the phrase "hovering sojourn" mean?

CIARA: It means the NOMACs hover, Ned.

"A Life Left Behind": "Back at the emperor's palace, Faythe decides she must see Gabriel again. Disguising herself, she begins to travel back to Ravenskill. Arabelle, knowing about her daughter's intentions, instructs Daryus to follow and protect her. Daryus feels he has always been overlooked by his father in favor of his sister, so he travels to the town with his own intentions."

NED: This album is the aural equivalent of a video game cutscene.

ARIS: Way too much cheese, not enough meat.

"Ravenskill": "Faythe arrives in the town and finds Xander, who trusts her and leads her to his father Arhys. Faythe convinces Arhys that she can help, so he brings her to Gabriel's hideout. Gabriel and Faythe embrace, and she tells him that she believes she can get her father to give up his hunt for Gabriel."

NED: There is not enough socioeconomic background in this story. Who are the townspeople? What is their situation? Why are there only eight characters in a two-hour-and-10-minute story?

ARIS: You're right about the production, Ned. It sounds like a supercomputer produced this record.

CIARA: A NOMAC.

ARIS: It's too synthetic to be made by men of flesh.

NED: I'm also hearing a fair amount of Kansas. This album is like "Dust in the Wind" for 130 minutes.

MORGAN: It's crazy how 23rd century America is actually just the Middle Ages.

"Chosen": "Gabriel tells Faythe that if he could just meet with the emperor, he could inspire him to restore peace to the land using his gift of music."

MORGAN: The rocker-to-ballad ratio on this album is really askew.

NED: It's, like, zero to 34.

MORGAN: How many ponytails do you think are in this band?

NED: I'd guess one ponytail and four totally balds.

"A Tempting Offer": "Meanwhile, Daryus finds Arhys' home and takes Xander captive. Daryus promises he will guarantee the safety and health of Xander in return for Arhys bringing Gabriel to him. Daryus does this hoping that it will gain him respect from his father."

MORGAN: Guitarmonies!

"Digital Discord": Another NOMACs interlude.

NED: Why are these on here? Do you think the keyboard player was like, "Hey dudes, let me get some of my noise experiments on the album"?

"The X Aspect": "Arhys is forced to agree to the deal, remembering a promise he made to Evangeline to protect their son."

MORGAN: There's a part of me that admires how earnest this is. I'd listen to this over Mac DeMarco.

NED: They must release so many doves during the live show.

"A New Beginning"/"The Road to Revolution": "Faythe travels back to her father's palace and learns that her music player once belonged to her father." [Huh?—Eds.] "After a while, Nafaryus bows to the pleas of his daughter and agrees to meet with Gabriel at an abandoned amphitheater called Heaven's Cove."

NED: Is this song in, like, 13/9? Super technical.

MORGAN: Dream Theater invented the ninth note.Would you say that The Astonishing is a cautionary tale?

NED: Yes. Caution: Do not listen to this album.

ARIS: Don't mess with the emperor's daughter.

NED: They are called Dream Theater because their music is like a theater. Of dreams. Whoa, now they are playing in straight 4/4 and it is blowing my mind.

MORGAN: This music is like if punk never happened.

"2285 Entr'acte"

CIARA: What does that title even mean? Is that Gabriel's address?

MORGAN: I think we are in the year 2285? Maybe?

"Moment of Betrayal": "Arhys informs Daryus that Gabriel will be at Heaven's Cove that night."

CIARA: Arhys = Judas. Heaven's Cove = Gethsemane. The Christian undertones are pretty hard to deny.

NED: I like how when the characters sing about a moment of betrayal, they use the actual phrase "moment of betrayal."

ARIS: I bet these guys have some sweet endorsement deals.

MORGAN: Like Diet Mountain Dew.

"Heaven's Cove"/"Begin Again": "While the meeting time approached, Faythe decides that she wants to use the power of her royal status to change the world for good."

NED: Ugh, Faythe so is lame.

MORGAN: James LaBrie: modern bard.

ARIS: And now it sounds like a Christmas song.

NED: I hate all music now.

"The Path That Divides": "At the amphitheater, Arhys changes his mind on the deal, and when Daryus shows up, they fight. Daryus overpowers Arhys and kills him, unaware that Xander followed them and saw the whole scene."

NED: Sword fighting! With sound effects! This is the best album ever. I take it all back.

"Machine Chatter": Fucking NOMACs again.

MORGAN: This is like the interrogation scene in Star Wars.

NED: Aargh, what is the point of these?

"The Walking Shadow": "As Xander runs to his father's dead body, Daryus sees the silhouette of someone approaching him. Assuming it to be Gabriel, he attempts to kill him, realizing too late that it is actually Faythe."

ARIS: I bet this album sells like hot cakes in Europe.

NED: [looks online] This album reached #2 in Finland and Hungary. Woah, this album reached #1 in South Korea.

ARIS: What did it do here?

NED: Number 11, if you can believe it.

More sound effects.

NED: Is he eating crackers?

ARIS: Why are they fighting with swords? It's the future. Shouldn't it be lasers?

"My Last Farewell": "Gabriel arrives at the scene and sees his dead brother and the dying Faythe. Covering Xander's ears, he unleashes a scream that causes Daryus to go deaf and that is heard by Nafaryus, Arabelle, and the entire town."

NED: I think if a scream can cause someone to go deaf and be heard by an entire town, putting your hands over a kid's ears isn't going to do much.

CIARA: I want the scream to happen so bad.

After much buildup, Gabriel screams... weakly. It is superlame. Everyone groans.

ARIS: You call that a scream? He sounds like someone who went out to pick up the paper and stepped on a slug.

"Losing Faythe"/"Whispers on the Wind": "Nafaryus and Arabelle arrive and beg Gabriel to use his gift to save Faythe, but Gabriel is unable to sing after screaming so loudly."

MORGAN: This is fucking beautiful.

"Hymn of a Thousand Voices": "The people, attracted by the scream, show up and start singing, giving Gabriel hope. He finds his ability to sing and brings Faythe back to life."

MORGAN: Sounds like Rusted Root.

NED: This song gives me hope. It's a brave new morning in future America! This song makes me want to vote Republican.

MORGAN: Dream Theater's moms must be so proud.

"Our New World": "Nafaryus, realizing what he has done, decides to end the conflict with Gabriel and shuts down the NOMACs for good. Daryus is forgiven for his actions, and Gabriel and Faythe raise Xander as a family."

ARIS: Happy endings are bullshit.

CIARA: I want to rage quit this album.

"Power Down": End of the stupid NOMACs.

CIARA: Technofart.

MORGAN: Keith Emerson just rolled 180 degrees.

NED: Why were there NOMACs again? I forget what the point of them was.

CIARA: They're floating music machines that uphold new the Great Northern Empire's hegemonic ideals, duhh.

ARIS: What were the empire's hegemonic ideals again?

"Astonishing": "Nafaryus promises to govern the empire as a fair leader in a new world where music is appreciated again."

ARIS: I'm "astonished" we all aren't bleeding from our ears.

NED: It is "astonishing" that this album exists.

CIARA: This is when the crowd pulls out their lighters.

ARIS: ...And lights themselves on fire.

NED: Les Miz was better.

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THURS MAY 5

Motion City Soundtrackw/the Spill Canvas, Microwave; Roseland,8 NW 6th

Out of all the second-wave emo bands that rose to prominence in the early- to mid-'00s, Motion City Soundtrack has been, somewhat surprisingly, the most enduring—they sound like a more mall-friendly version of the Smoking Popes. The group's most listenable album is still 2007's Even if It Kills Me, an indelible, recklessly sincere pop-punk record that saw their more histrionic tendencies tempered by no-frills production from the Cars' Ric Ocasek and Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger—two guys who, if nothing else, clearly know how to reel it the fuck in. Tonight's date is in support of last year's Panic Stations, but this stretch of shows also doubles as a "farewell tour" for the band, who in March formally announced they'll be breaking up. Meaning this will probably be the last time you have an opportunity to sing along to "Everything Is Alright" at the top of your lungs in a room full of sweaty, reformed punks—you're probably getting too old for that shit, anyway.

MON MAY 9

Tig Bittyw/Babelfishh, DMLH, Juicy Karkass; Anarres Infoshop, 7101 N Lombard

Listening to Portland hip-hop anomaly Tig Bitty evokes memories of tinkering around in FruityLoops and GarageBand as a high schooler—something pretty much every millennial with even a vague interest in the genre did at one point or another. Tig Bitty eschews humorless rap tropes and revels in her own amateurishness—songs like "Eggs Sausage and Buiscits" [sic] marry amorphous beats with tongue-tied rhymes like "Is that a pickle in your pocket?/Or did you see me and want to dock it?" The artist's self-titled EP from 2014 is still one of the strangest, most original releases by a Portland musician in years—hip-hop or otherwise.

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Man, it must suck to live in your skin and breathe your air. You were yelling at a car waiting for another car to parallel park. Then you were flailing your arms at a cab at an intersection who was waiting for a pedestrian to cross. And then you started grumbling at a pedestrian trying to cross the street at the same intersection. Then you did a skid out, speed away with your arm out the window. All this in a city block, within a minute to reach the very next stop sign. That was funny. I laughed out loud at you when I caught up to you. That's downtown. Deal with it. Or get out, walk, take in the sights, and breathe. I forgot, there's too much fumes in those lungs of yours. Just chill with your big truck friend.

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I was waiting for the bus in the early, early morning which could be argued as being still up from last night. Which could then be argued as still miller time.

So a chick with a bike came walking up and asked where the max was. I tried to explain it to her but it was tricky since I knew where it was up a roadway a bit, and I could tell she was on meth, probably after being kicked out near the SpringWater trail. You know the one. The bus was coming. I thought about saying maybe the driver will take you there. I didn't. Some drivers are real uptight, ya know. I told the driver a meth girl was trying to get to the max and I said go down 10 blocks and take a left. He said he would've taken her there. Shit. So I said she was on meth and I'm not trying to judge. Then he said you aren't judging, you were observing.

When I left the bus, I said, I hope she made it to the max. The driver said, she's fine, I saw her coming down. I took it literally and thought, how'd you see her get there. Then realized what he meant. Clever, sweet guy that driver. And I fart my brains out in the morning.

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The tide kept rising, and rising, and rising, until a sneaker wave came in and just dragged Portland out to sea. This loss was inevitable, as the Warriors are just relentless. Portland played three quarters of damn near flawless basketball and still lost by eleven points.

For three quarters, it was beautiful. A lead as many as seventeen, an eleven point lead heading into the final frame, a Portland team that had found its rhythm and was on the attack. For every Golden State run, the Blazers had an answer. Until they didn’t. Until the Warriors put together one of the most impressive quarters you’re likely to see and ran Portland straight out of the gym. The champs stay the champs.

Courtesy NBA

Goddamn, the Blazers were that close. They weren’t even supposed to be here, yet still almost took home a win. To be so close and still get blown out? The sting of this loss is going to stick.

In a complete role reversal from game one, the Blazers were the ones that jumped out to the early lead. Damian Lillard and Al-Farouq Aminu hit a couple of threes. CJ McCollum was firing away. The defensive gameplan switch, with Moe Harkless guarding Klay Thompson and Dame on Harrison Barnes, seemed to be working perfectly. It was 19-5 in an instant.

The Blazers first quarter couldn’t have gone much better—Aminu racked up ten points, the Blazers got some easy dunks out of the pick and roll, and Klay was missing from deep. The Blazers had more rebounds, more assists, and were the more aggressive team. The 66% clip from both the floor and deep didn’t hurt, either.

It was all about pace. The Blazers kept pushing and pushing and pushing, picking up some easy fouls for all the speed. With just four minutes gone in the second, the Blazers were in the penalty. CJ was still on one. Portland’s lead swelled to 45-28.

It wasn’t until Barnes threw down a couple of rim-rattling dunks that the Oracle crowd finally woke up. Portland held tight to an eleven point lead amidst the noise, but against the Warriors a double-digit lead might as well be a tie. As it often does, Portland’s offense then predictably cratered. After everything was clicking so well early, the Blazers missed eight straight shots and Golden State kept coming. A 14-2 run got the Warriors to within five.

But it was all Dame out of the timeout. He hit a three and picked up a steal and foul for two freebies at the line. As they did for three quarters, the Blazers responded to Golden State’s run with one of their own. It was 59-51 heading into the half.

Portland started the third with six straight empty possessions, their first point coming on a technical free throw. Once again the Warriors were knocking, but once again Lillard was there for the answer—dude straight took the game over. Dame was cooking. After Klay hit a three, Lillard came right back to the other end and knocked down a step-back triple of his own that hit front rim and bounced in. His next three, right as the third quarter buzzer sounded, gave him seventeen for the period. Portland held tight to an eleven point lead going into the final frame.

But then the Warriors happened. The inevitable Warriors. Festus Ezeli was dusted off for some huge defensive minutes, Draymond Green owned the restricted area, and the screws were tightened tight. The Blazers were plagued by turnovers due to the cramping Warriors defense, and when they weren’t turning it over, Mason Plumlee was being humiliated at the rim by the Golden State shot blockers. It was a slugfest, with both teams throwing haymakers, but the Blazers eventually ran out of gas. Those tough shots that were falling earlier starting bouncing out. The Warriors found that extra gear.

After an impeccable third quarter, Dame was held scoreless in the final frame. Klay Thompson finally found his range from distance. The Blazers had done so well to counter all of Golden State’s runs, but the final one was too much. The crowd came alive, the Golden State defense came alive, Frampton came alive, and the Blazers were dead in the water. It was tied at 91 with six minutes left. The Blazers lost 110-99, getting outscored 34-12 altogether in the fourth.

The Blazers just aren’t ready for this stage yet. They played amazing basketball...until they didn’t and the inevitable Warriors wave swept away all good will. This wasn’t even a moral victory—there are no moral victories in the playoffs. The Blazers will need some good luck and some home cooking to try and steal a game. The Warriors haven’t lost to a team twice all season. They haven’t lost two games in a row. Winning four of six is going to be impossible, so now it’s all about avoiding the sweep. I mean, if the terrible Rockets were able to take a game, the Blazers have to be able to win one as well, right?

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GOOD MORNING, BLOGTOWN! I've got to make a play to make my lover stay. So what would an angel say, the devil wants to know. LET'S GO TO PRESS.

Our Blazers lost a heartbreaker of a game last night in game two of the Western Conference finals, forfeiting a 10 point lead to the Golden State Warriors in the fourth quarter to lose 110-99. But it's only the second game, right? Check out our recap here!

Avril Lavigne is arrested for not registering as a sex offender! (Wait... not that Avril Lavigne... this Avril Lavigne.)

A transphobic preacher loudly shouting about who is and who isn't allowed to use bathrooms at the Cascade Station Target is jeered and tossed out on his transphobic ass. HA. HA. HA.

A massive homeless sweep went down at the Springwater Corridor near 82nd Ave yesterday, and since they have nowhere to go, no one is really happy about it.

Donald Trump won the Indiana GOP primary last night, giving him a clear path to the Republican nomination. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz dropped out of the running, and to celebrate, elbowed his wife in the face.

Looks like Kasich has dropped out, too—no word yet on whether or not he plans to elbow someone in the face.

And in a surprise upset, Bernie Sanderstook Indiana as well, making Hillary Clinton's jaw drop like this.

Okay, I'm just going to leave this here:

The California-based husband and wife founders of celebrity-endorsed vegan restaurant group Cafe Gratitude say they have received death threats after it was revealed last week that they are raising, slaughtering and eating animals on their farm north of San Francisco.

A Navy SEAL killed in Iraq on Tuesday has been identified as Charlie Keating IV, who also just happens to be the grandson of Charles H. Keating Jr., the disgraced financier who served time in prison over a 1980s savings and loan scandal.

If true, this is GREAT news: President Obama is preparing to create a national monument to celebrate the contributions made by the LGBT community. WHAAAAAAAT? YES!

Another reason not to go to school in Tennessee: Legislators have passed a law allowing students to carry guns on campus at public colleges and universities.

Unrelated, but completely related: "Gun owner trying to break up dispute fatally shot in Texas parking lot."

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the team assisting Prince called an opioid addiction specialist the day before he died reporting a "grave medical emergency."

Now let's check out the WEATHER situation: Cool and showery today, but the heat returns starting tomorrow.

And finally, let's watch Ted Cruz elbow his wife in the face again.

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Now that Ted Cruz has dropped out of the race and Donald Trump is certain to be the GOP presidential candidate, we must do what it takes to prevent Trump from winning in November. Keeping Trump out of office is more important than whomever you or I want to win the Democratic nomination. It’s time to set aside politics and embrace game theory.

Anyone who doesn't want Donald Trump to be the next president should support the Democratic candidate more likely to defeat Trump. That means supporting the candidate who is currently beating Trump by 13.6% instead of 6.2% in the latest polls, and who has always polled better against Trump than the other Democrat still in the race. That means supporting the candidate who currently has a 51.8% favorability rating with the American people instead of a 41.7% favorability rating, and whose unfavorability rating is 40.5% instead of 54.8%. That means voting with your head and not with your heart. That means voting for Sanders.

Eight years ago the superdelegates who had supported Clinton shifted their support to Obama when it was clear he was the choice of the Democratic voters. It can happen again, but only if the current Democratic voters in the remaining primaries recognize which candidate actually performs better against Trump in the general election and vote accordingly.

If you choose unwisely and America ends up with President Donald J. Trump, you’ll feel like quite the schmuck.

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Love the podcast, Dan.

I'm in my very early 20s, gay cis male, living in the Emerald City. I've been seeing a guy for a few months now and I really love spending time together with him. He is a total catch: great personality, sane, good looks, etc. We're not really a couple, but we are spending several days a week together: going to parks, bars, events, getting dinner, things like that... I'd really like it to evolve into something more long-term.

Unfortunately, it's been horribly awkward when it comes to sex. I have zero sex drive when I'm spending time with him and I cannot get that hard at all. It's fairly embarrassing and problematic because he has a fairly high sex drive compared to my other/previous partners. I've never had this issue and if I'm hooking up with someone else, I can get harder than a rock and will hump practically everything that moves.

I don't really know what I should do. I feel like if I just tell him, "Sorry, my wiener doesn't really like having sex with you," it'll just ruin the relationship... or perhaps he might think it's my way of telling him that I'm not interested (when I really am). What do you think I should do? Is there anything that I should be doing differently? Should I tell him about my problem? Should we just part ways?

Sincerely Over Feeling Terrible

You don't have to tell him about the problem—he's already aware of the problem—you just need to broach the subject so you can discuss the problem.

And here's what the problem is...

Sex with him is consequential. The stakes are high—or you perceive them to be high—because He Could Be The One. (No one is "The One," as you know, since you listen to the podcast. But, hey, could be the .64 you've been looking for.) So it’s not just sex. You’re good at “just sex.” It’s sex that could potentially lead to something more.

What you need to tell yourself is…it’s just sex. You need to give yourself permission to fuck him like he's "someone else," i.e. just another hookup or rando. And you'll be able to that if you can accept—really take to heart—a few things: sex isn’t going to make or break this relationship; he may or may not be The One/The .64 (odds are better he isn’t The One/The .64); almost all relationships "fail." Force yourself to stop seeing this/him as a high-stakes prospect—stop thinking MY WHOLE FUTURE IS AT STAKE when you get naked with him—and see him instead as someone you really dig, someone you enjoy spending time with, and someone can fuck without the rest of your life being on the line. Because that shit is a boner killer, as you now know. And it’ll help you get there if you can laugh about this with him, if you guys can shrug this off together, and if you can both acknowledge together that, hey, this is great—but who the fuck knows where it’s going? And in the meantime, let’s fuck!

Finally, SOFT, there's also a chance that you just don't click sexually or chemically and that you're destined to be friends. If you can get yourself to calm down about The Future and you still can't get it up for him, SOFT, then you should listen to your dick and part ways.

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Me: A jogger who loves to run the Mt. Tabor trails every week. You: An asshole dog owner who lets both of your precious snowflakes run off-leash, shitting in the middle of the trail. I ask you to pick up your dog's giant steaming dump. You respond, "Fuck off!" Charming. Look, if you want to let your little fur babies run around free, you can walk FIVE MINUTES down the trail to the actual dog park attached to Mt. Tabor. To all of you dog owners who let your dogs run free on Mt. Tabor, you are the fucking worst. Stop being lazy. Take your dogs to the fenced-in dog area, or leash your godamn dog. You're ruining the best park in Portland.

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On Monday, Jimmy Kimmel gave Sarah Palin the what-for because of her dum-dum theories on climate change. (Spoiler alert: She doesn't believe in it, because she's a dum-dum.) However, there are more people who are siding with Sarah Palin than you'd think, and they mostly live on internet comment sections. Here, Jimmy reads some of the best (and grammatically challenged) feedback he received from viewers. Prepare to welcome the coming apocalypse.

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Thinking about who you should vote for? Consider these words from the I, Anonymous blog called, "Vote Smart or Get Trumped."

Now that Ted Cruz has dropped out of the race and Donald Trump is certain to be the GOP presidential candidate, we must do what it takes to prevent Trump from winning in November. Keeping Trump out of office is more important than whomever you or I want to win the Democratic nomination. It’s time to set aside politics and embrace game theory.

Anyone who doesn't want Donald Trump to be the next president should support the Democratic candidate more likely to defeat Trump. That means supporting the candidate who is currently beating Trump by 13.6% instead of 6.2% in the latest polls, and who has always polled better against Trump than the other Democrat still in the race. That means supporting the candidate who currently has a 51.8% favorability rating with the American people instead of a 41.7% favorability rating, and whose unfavorability rating is 40.5% instead of 54.8%. That means voting with your head and not with your heart. That means voting for....

To find out WHO this person thinks you should vote for (if you haven't already guessed), read the rest here. And while you're there, drop in your own words of advice, rants, or confessions in the I, Anonymous Blog—which has a 43.5% favorability rating.

"Bye, Felicia Cruz."a katz / Shutterstock.com

And before you get too excited about Hillary devouring Donald in the coming debates, just remember: smugly dismissing Trump is what got Republicans into this mess.

For now, it's looking pretty good. In a head-to-head race, Hillary beats Trump by 54 to 41 percent. Of course, popular votes don't matter; it's the electoral college votes that win the general election. And polling in May doesn't always reflect November. Donald's spent the last few months meticulously eviscerating his Republican rivals, and we can probably safely assume he has an even more diabolical torture chamber prepared for Hillary. And the nation.

Trump's attacks on Hillary will be as bad as you can possibly imagine, and worse. When she said, "I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak,"Trump responded with a dog-whistle for misogynists who are terrified of being on equal footing with women: "It was almost as though she’s going to tell us what to do, tell men what to do ... It was a real put-down."

Yeah, can you imagine? She may be one of the most powerful women in the world, but the idea that she might tell men what to do? The nerve. It's unthinkable.

And it'll only get worse. Trump just had lunch with Ed Klein, a conspiracy fabulist whose main body of work consists of wild gossip tales about Democrats based on conveniently anonymous sources.

Among Klein's claims: Chelsea was conceived when Bill raped Hillary; Hillary has brain damage that causes frequent fainting; Bill and Obama once physically fought. He's entirely comfortable making up stories, then changing them, then making up new ones — and now he's taking lunches and writing approving columns about Trump's tactics.

(ThinkProgress called Klein a "disgraced writer," but he's really neither of those things—he never shown the least bit of shame, so I don't think you can call him disgraced. And his gossip columns show no love of language; print may be his medium, but cruelty is his craft.)

And yeah, Cruz was bad. Everyone around him was bad. Right before he dropped out, one of his surrogates said "Ted Cruz is going to do very well tonight," and added that the party would never back Trump because "we're never going to nominate Hillary Clinton with a penis." (I recommend watching, just for the horrified look from the guy's friend at 1:30.)

But boy oh boy, just you wait until Trump sinks his teeth into Hillary. Donald's a walking permission slip for everyone's worst selves to boil to the surface.

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Andrea Tsurumi

Good morning, Portland.

Make sure you don't miss this week's featureon real-life Portland dating stories. It is good:

"Met up with a dude off of OkCupid. He showed up wearing house slippers and sweatpants because he'd been 'day drinking to get rid of his hangover.' (It was 10 pm when we met). He told me he was still hungover from an OKC date he had the night before. When I asked if he wore condoms, he said aggressively, 'What? No. I'm 34 and never wear condoms—I'm clean. I mean, I probably have HPV, but I dunno, men can't get tested for that shit.'"He paid for my drinks and I ordered him a Lyft home from his phone."—JoAnn Schinderle, dating podcast co-host

ICYMI: Meet the next wave of Portland homeless camps.

You may be aware that it's May 5th today. I'm not exactly sure what the date translates to in Spanish, but the Portland Guadalajara Sister City Association is putting on its 32nd annual Cinco De Mayo fiesta today at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Portland's Doernbecher Children's Hospital, the Oregonian reports, "is experiencing a surprising and perplexing increase in patient infections caused by central lines that are inserted to deliver drugs, fluids or nutrients."

There's no use crying over spilled fuel. A semi-truck crashed ands spilled 100 gallons of fuel on the Marquam Bridge ramp to southbound I-5 this morning..

Gawker: "The Best of New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat’s Incorrect Predictions That Trump Would Lose the GOP Nomination"

Terrible:

During a single week in April, four toddlers shot and killed themselves https://t.co/lfEnLt1ZADpic.twitter.com/wvCDJf3Cnx

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 5, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration made final sweeping new rules that for the first time extend federal regulatory authority to e-cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have grown into a multibillion-dollar business with virtually no federal oversight or protections for American consumers.

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole had a hell of a time at last night's Capitals-Penguins game. I love his passion.

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Alicia J. Rose

Check it out!

Tix for 2016's Pickathon are on sale over at the festival site. Thanks to Pickathon for providing the video and to New Belgium Brewing for underwriting the series.

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Lauren WinterMikola Accuardi

Backtalk will host the aptly named first Thursday event Feminist as Fuck, which will feature work from Chicago artists Leah Ball and Meghan Lorenz of Cities in Dust, and local designer Lauren Winter. Ball is an artist and feminist activist with a background in graphic design and metalsmithing. Her ceramic art objects have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Nylon, and Real Simple.

Cities in Dust came about after Lorenz’s experiences working for designers Fred Segal, Kelly Whitesell, and Elizabeth Del Castillo of Eskell, as well as stints working as a visual merchandiser and set designer in Los Angeles. She realized she wanted to create the kind of jewelry she wanted to wear.

Winter has a sustainability-focused clothing-design studio in Portland. Her goal is “to create high-quality, statement designs that reflect the individuality of the wearer and evoke an air of timelessness.” Sounds like a groovy night with some bad-ass chicks, in my opinion.
Backtalk, 421 SW 10th, Thurs May 5, 6-9 pm

Strange VacationPhotographer: Hattie Watson, Model: Vox

The ladies of motorcycle clothing company Strange Vacation sent their Original Jacket to 18 of their favorite photographers, who took photos all over the country. They’re putting them on display during Worn: A Photography Show. Participating photographers include Laura Austin, Ashley Clark, Meredith Devine, Forde Photo, Herb George, Ray Gordon, and tons more.
See See Motor Coffee Company, 1642 NE Sandy, Thurs May 5, 7-10 pm

MOORE

MOORE, a mens and womens street fashion and custom goods brand, will host a party to launch their new S/S 2016 collection. Make sure to stop in and see the newest styles from this up and coming Portland designer.
Moore Custom Goods 1720 NW Lovejoy, Fri May 6, 4-8 pm

Union Rose will host a trunk show featuring work by clothing designer Carolyn Hart and jewelry designer MOSS HANDMADE. Receive 10% off items from both designers during the event, and grab some of the provided snacks and bubbly while you're at it.
Union Rose, 7909 SE Stark, Fri May 6, 5-9 pm

Coalesce, a carefully balanced curation of some of Portland's most talented makers, will feature locally made goods including apparel, jewelry, hats, art, vintage and books. Sip the special event cocktail from local distiller Wild Roots Vodka while perusing wares from Machine Apparel, This is Folklore, Sparkle Press, Copper Union, MOORE, Elysium Jewelry, State of Wellness, Katie Guinn Designs, Daniel Elder, ElizaBeth Rohloff, Rogue:Minx, Becca Grace Design and more. All drink sales will benefit American Legion Post 134.
American Legion Post 134, 2104 NE Alberta, Sat May 7, 12-6 pm

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