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D+ release party, Bird Names headline DoS art exhibit opening Thursday
July 02, 2008 - 12:00 PM
by Elaine Walker

Chicago avant pop band Bird Names performs during an art exhibit opening and CD release party for Anacortes band D+ at Department of Safety Thursday.
As if a performance by avant pop artists Bird Names and a grand opening of the remodeled gallery with an exhibition by San Francisco artist Joshua Pieper wasn’t enough excitement to pack in an event, the Department of Safety is also hosting a CD release party for the new D+ retrospective “On Purpose: Hits, Rarities, & Live Cuts 1997-2007,” all starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 3.

Admission to the all-ages event is $5. Call 293-8361.

Also on the bill that night are Photosynthesis and Electric Lemonade Project.

The new D+ release is the first of several projects coming from Bret Lunsford’s revitalized Knw-Yr-Own label. D+ is an indie rock trio consisting of singer and guitarist Lunsford, and singers and multi-instrumentalists Karl Blau and Phil Elverum. Knw-Yr-Own’s Web site describe Lunsford’s work as “organic lo-fi songs from a folk-punk perspective that are unmistakably rooted in the graceful clunkiness of his first band’s music.” Wikipedia lauds his droll vocals, witty wordplay, and minimalist, “charmingly ramshackle” sound.

With a claim that it was born under a heavy star, Bird Names “has obliged the psychic charter of avant pop” for several years, according to the band’s Web site. Reviewers have lauded the band’s pop experiments as “childlike and terrifying,” “incredibly great” and “one of the brightest products of Chicago’s art damage scene in some time.”

The Chicago Reader called one Bird Names release “undomesticated, raucous, urgent, and alien like the ’20s and ’30s stuff on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music,” and called the newest album “a piece of weirdo pop brilliance that sounds pretty much unlike anything else happening right now.”

Also this week:

• Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., presents Frankly Moanin’, July 2; Mary McPage Band, July 5; the Stilly River Band, July 9. Music is 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 to 10:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays unless otherwise noted. Call 588-1720.

• Watertown Pub, 314 Commercial Ave., offers live music most weekends. Saturday is ladies night with top 40 DJ Ben Brown; Wednesday is karaoke night with DJ Steve, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Call 293-3587.

• Johnny Picasso’s, 501 Commercial Ave., presents John Van Deusen of Lonely Forest from 6 to 9 p.m. second Mondays.

• Brown Lantern Ale House, 412 Commercial Ave., presents live music most weekends, about 9 to midnight, $3 at the door. Open Jam Thursdays with Mike Rothmeyer are 9 p.m. to midnight. No cover. Call 293-2544.

• Randy’s Pier 61 presents Mr. Entertainment, Jack Hamilton, at 6 p.m. Saturdays.

• Star Bar, 416-1/2 Commercial, presents Phat Friday with DJ Mardi Gras 9:30 p.m. every Friday; Jerry Jones Quartet, July 7. Call 293-6747.

• Flounder Bay Café in Skyline presents jazz with La Rosa Trio 5 to 8 p.m. Sundays.

• Swinomish Northern Lights Casino presents Jazz Lunches geared to seniors 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays. Call 293-2691.

• Anacortes Eagles presents live music 7:30 to 11 p.m. first and second Fridays and Saturdays; Ray Peake plays 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays. Members and guests only. Call 293-3012.