Saturday night, April 25 at Kelly's Olympian, The Deli Portland celebrates the winners of their Best Emerging Artist of 2014 poll - where local music industry insiders, tastemakers and listeners alike democratically elect their favorite new Portland artists. Headlining the night, 2014's poll winners The Domestics will croon their way through your ear and into your hearts with their lyrically-charged, heartfelt indie rock and roll reminiscent of the late Heatmiser. The fall of 2014 saw the release of their self-titled debut LP and made The Domestics an instant classic. Support by the folk tinged dream psych wizardry of Jackson Boone, and openers The Tamed West with their more upbeat reverb washed garage pop blend of psych rock. Doors at 8:30, 21+, $5 in advance or $7 at the door.

Give us some Steak n’ Eggs! Yummy, greasy, deliciousness! Flamingo Báy serves it up with their second album ‘Steak n’ Eggs’, giving us plate licking rock n’ roll goodness that has us asking for more. Keeping their raw rock n’ roll sound from their first album ‘Loco Pony’; Flamingo Bay adds a little more salt and pepper to Steak n’ Eggs. The single, “Killer Flamingo Báy”, opens with a raw vocal that rhythms its way to body swaying bass tones, hard hitting drum beats and guitar riffs that take you for a ride.The entire album shows Flamingo Báy’s creative diverse rock n’ roll energy. Don’t miss their cd release party Friday 4/24 @ This Ain’t Hollywood… come get your Steak n’ Eggs!

Yeah Great Fine hasn’t released any new music for quite some time, and their single release at The Liquor Store on SE Belmont was a perfect snapshot of the articulate, experimental beauty that can only be found in the swells and lulls of math rock. 

Glass Knees played first, drawing the small crowd in with simultaneously melodic and hard-hitting jams, soaring synths blended with highly technical drums and guitar. They closed out their set in a very unique way, by inviting the entire audience to use an assortment of small percussive instruments to play along with the band, which might sound hokey, but made the audience come alive.

By comparison Mothertapes played a much slower set, starting out with exactly what you’d expect from a two-piece: pure rhythm. But as their set progressed they developed lilting melodies that built upon themselves through unexpected guitar effects and vocals. Watching their live show feels very much like watching a scientist discover a new element: every piece is so calculated, so intentional, and symmetrical—everything you crave from an evening of math rock.

Yeah Great Fine closed out the night and the two new tracks they premiered displayed an element of refinement that their previous EP and album lacked. That isn’t to say the new songs aren’t as energetic, but rather, they have focused their energy, which can be hard to do with six members, but somehow, even on the small stage in The Liquor Store basement, they pulled it off, with an air of playfulness that had the entire crowd completely captivated.

Check out Yeah Great Fine’s new singles, “Ketsu” and “Stallion” on Bandcamp. AND, check out Katie Summer's photos of Yeah Great Fine, Mothertapes and Glass Knees from their show Wednesday night at the Liquore store. 

-Sarah Eaton 

The Two Koreas call themselves glacial-garage. I call them pure rips! Their latest EP "LP Winner" kicks off with a straight rockin' title track. You could rock the QEW from Hamilton to Toronto in about 15 minutes with this EP on. You could actually go straight through the Gardiner nonsense and not get caught. The organ that comes in hot near the end of the title track adds a whole different level to an already mind spinning track. The rest of the EP keeps the blood flowing. They're at the Magpie Taproom on Friday. If you can handle some in your face rock n' roll I suggest you go see what The Two Koreas are all about. -Kris “Big City” Gies

It’s been a while since a song happily shocked me with a good screaming section, but local band Breathtaker just did it. This group, of which I had been previously ignorant, submitted their music to us this week, and I put on their newest album Revelations without knowing what to expect. The submission was listed as Indie, the album art suggested maybe something a little avant-garde; only the name seemed a bit more dramatic than most indie groups, but even that, I thought, I could see from some indie groups.

Partway through opener track “Kingsbury,” when I was thinking Breathtaker might be going for a kind-of dreary, melodic indie with a post-rock bent kinda thing (which I was digging, by the way), a wild dissonant note hit and the screaming began . It was actually a little hair-raising in a literal way, after me not expecting it. And that's because it was good screaming, earned and welcome and well-done, exceptionally balanced against the instrumentation and used as one ingredient in the wider paradigm of a well-structured piece of music. I liked it, and the rest of the 11 track album was thought out with equal attention and care if not quite as surprising as that initial screaming shock.

I wouldn’t dream to genre a band differently than they do themselves, but indie here more represents the “independent musicians” definition than it does a sound for Breathtaker, at least in relation to what “indie” bands in Austin typically sound like. If, however, I were to try and describe Breathtaker to one of my high school friends from Amarillo who were into the surprisingly extensive screaming music scene there in the mid 2000s, I’d say that they’re a band that’s on the artsier side of what some people call hardcore, and which some just call emo. That last term is culturally deficient to describe these guys - it is far too broad and I really doubt they use it to refer to themselves at any point - but it does the trick in 2015 to get you in the right mind of what to expect from Breathtaker. If you are or ever were the kind of person who thought that screaming rock music had something awesome to offer (like we do), Breathtaker is a new entry in that particular segment of Music with Screaming. That people keep making interesting things happen with music like this proves that it's a segment that is a powerful space where quality experimentation can occur, and out of which some damn good tracks, like "Kingsbury," can come. Get listening below.