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  Patty Schemel's 'Hit so Hard' screens Thursday This 5th edition of Siren Nation, a celebration of women in music, art, and film and takes over many venues throughout this weekend. They’ve had some great music acts over the years, including a Team Dresch reunion that was not to be missed. This year the fun begins with an epic looking art show at the Albina Press opening Thursday. It features over 40 local artists including the fabulous Alicia Rose and occasional qPDX photo contributor Anna Campbell. Tunes from DJ Safi will set the stage for the weekend at this all ages event.
This year also has a much more robust film portion in comparison to former years, kicking off with Hit So Hard: The Life and Near Death of Patty Schemel. It’s the perfect combo to exemplify the fest encompassing both music and film. When it premiered in Portland at QDOC last June we not only reviewed the film but interviewed the former Hole drummer. So go ahead and read or even listen to audio of Patty Schemel talking Hit So Hard to get excited because Schemel herself, along with producer Christina Soletti will be live and in person to for a special Q&A after the Thursday screening. And visit the SN site for previews and trailers of the rest of the incredible lineup including animation from local Laika studios and several films premiering in PDX for the first time.
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  Heather Perkins among her many instruments This week a celebration of women in Electronic Music and Art, Electrogals: Gals Gone Wired has already begun. This long running concert series focused on bringing more attention to the scarcity of women in electronic music was started by Heather Perkins over 15 years ago while she studied electronic music at Mills College and is now a staple in the Portland electro scene. We were able to nab her from her busy conference schedule to answer some questions about the festival below. You can visit their website for info on all the participating performers and check out the full schedule in the events calendar.
qPDX: How and why did you get started with Electrogals? Do you have a mission statement or publicly stated goal?
Heather Perkins: Electrogals started in 1995 at Mills College, where I was studying Electronic Music. Although Mills is a women’s college, the grad program is co-ed, and I was surprised at how few women there were. The faculty – also mostly male – would even remark on the imbalance, and ask me for ideas on how to rectify it. And although the guys in our program were all pretty great one on one, in class there was still the pervasive culture where the guys did most of the talking and got most of the critique time for their work. So I put on a concert featuring all female composers. The title “Electrogals” was kind of a light-hearted way to seriously address the imbalance. We were active and presented our work as a group, instead of passively sitting there by ourselves and not being heard. It was also a great show, and a lot of fun.
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  "Not Enough! chimera" painted by Sergio Torres and decorated by Not Enough! volunteers. It is a representation of the Not Enough! chimeric spirit. Disparate heterogeneity united in one. Photo by Mary Christmas. This weekend sees the second annual Not Enough! Festival, a weekend long event aimed at creating more opportunities for queer art and music in a collaborative setting. The art/music/film/performance festival that showcases, encourages and supports new work by queer folks regardless of experience and/or “skill” level will take place throughout the weekend at Cathedral Park Place.
qPDX sat down with creators Sheana Corbridge and Edgar Frias to talk about what to expect from Not Enough’s sophomore outing and how it came about.
qPDX: What’s your involvement with Not Enough!?
Sheana Corbridge: I started it with Marlena Chavez, Sergio Torres and Edgar Frias last year and the group of organizers has grown to around 10. I mostly deal with music and bands and took the title of Executive Director last year-but we all work fairly equally within the group. I played in a band last year, my first band playing drums and I am playing guitar in a band this year.
In case you weren’t at Dante’s on Saturday for what must surely have been a sissy bouncing inferno. I heard that it was off the chain so I figured I’d give us all a taste of what we missed at the MFNW Big Freedia show with DJ Beyonda and CJ and the Dolls.
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  Former Sleater-Kinney frontwoman Corin Tucker (center) now leads her own band at MFNW this Wednesday night Portland’s big music festival, MusicFest NW, begins tomorrow spewing hip PDX-approved music of many genres over multiple days. And though the conglomeration of music love and music snobbery come in all flavors, they are gleefully mixed. So I’d like to shed some light on the performers dear to a gay audience you won’t want to miss as you delve into the fray.
Wednesday
Corin Tucker Band at Mississippi Studios
Well loved as a founding member of seminal OlyWa grrl punk band Sleater–Kinney, Corin Tucker‘s new project takes stage the first night of the fest at Mississippi Studios. Softer and with more poise and maturity Tucker still infuses her singer/songwriter new work with her signature vibrato and sass.
Friday
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  Samuel Thomas, the man behind the music Portland may be known for both its music and its queerness but the two have never come together in quite the cohesive way that this Saturday’s Portland Queer Music Festival aims to. A full day and two stages of back to back acts at Red Cap Garage for only 3 bucks is one of the most reasonable prices I’ve ever heard too, in true PDX fashion. Plus, despite the dive drink prices, Red Cap’s bar menu is quite delicious, with that unpretentious but slightly upscale goodness that Portland bars are starting to do so well.
Bands, producers and DJs of multiple genres and genders have come from our own backyards as well as across the country to participate. You can see a lineup of all 30 in an earlier post for just a taste of the days never-ending aural pleasure.
And the man behind it all? That would be Samuel Thomas, director and founder of the Portland FREE Music Project and an organizer of the (nearly) weekly Maricon dance party. This hard workin’ man booked all 30 acts himself. He’s hopeful that the fest will be a success, anticipating over 800 attendees over the course of the day. Here’s what he had to say on the eve of his inaugural summer celebration of queer music.
qPDX: What made you want to start a queer music fest in Portland?
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  Big Freedia gets the sissies bouncin'! Besides books, bikes and beer Portland, Oregon is also known for its local music. And the space between summer and fall is when we choose to put it center stage with MusicFest NW starting today and running through the 12th. There’s a smorgasboard of both local and out-of-town bands, DJs and performers and no lack of queers among them. Here’s where to find the gays amidst all the action.
Thursday the 9th sees sissy bounce New Orleans based Big Freedia self-dubbed queen diva, dick-eater, and late night creeper. The culturally queer, hot dirty south bounce has been called rap goes drag by Vanity Fair and is one of the most exciting things to happen to dance music disco. PDX could use an infusion of booty and color and I’d personally be excited to have other bounce-able bums at my back. This may be the most exciting performance of the entire fest.
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  Palo Verde's Lauren K Newman (left) and Terrica Kleinknecht
C.L.I.T. Fest (Combating Latent Inequality Together) is a DIY punk fest with music, workshops, discussions, a flea market and picnicking organized to address sexism, homophobia, and transphobia in punk and to celebrate the strengths and potential of our community.
And it’s a big community. The lineup includes a vast array of local and international bands (I think about 25…and 1 is from Sweden) including Palo Verde featuring the guitar god(des), long hair-swinging, riffs of Lauren K Newman, who is at once frightening and awe-inspiring.
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