Ocean Age is three boys and two girls who all live in the same neighborhood and make some pretty rad music together.

Their official debut EP release, Forests, was exposed to the public this week during a show at Backspace. The first track on the EP, "Dalvik Tide," can be streamed from the Willamette Week blog or their MySpace page (which has most of the tracks found on Forests).

The band crafts songs with steady rhythms that are both very organic and tribal; they throb, build and fall like the ocean, waves or other forces of nature. Obvious influences such as Animal Collective can be spotted quickly by the listener, as well as more subtle nuances. The vocal melodies remind me of Fleet Foxes at times, while they also have brilliantly picked up on modern trends found in the dreamy production by the likes of Taken by Trees and perhaps even Beach House.

The vocal tracks soar up and down above the groundwork provided by the percussion and other instruments, mainly bass, guitar and keys. After listening to Forest, I am completely excited to see these young musicians (the oldest being 23) exhibit their craft in person. The band's next scheduled performance is at the Hawthorne Burgerville at 7 p.m., apparently, and is totally free.

Take a listen and then vote for a truly worthy contender for Band of the Month. It's a fun ride. I fully recommend it.

- Joel Sommer

When winter gets drizzly and cold, it's nice to bounce around inside to sunny pop.

Van Go Lion have just the right blend of sugary sweetness coating their smooth electro-pop, and they're making their live premiere at Ash St. Saloon on Saturday, February 27th with loop-ninja Tony Smiley and indie sentiments from Just Lions.

Like all matches made in heaven, singer (and former Deli Portland Associate Editor!) Amy Paige met keys whiz Josh Loerzel on Craigslist. A love of Prince, Tears for Fears, Hall & Oates, Eurythmics, early Madonna, and some Boyz II Men made this pair swoon together. Hunched over their MIDI boards and Macbooks, they got serious about pop music and wanna bring some R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the genre with their self-titled debut of “retro-electro-pop.”

Through floating, downtempo ballads, punchy beats, and humming synths, Van Go Lion is a happy-go-lucky dance party for growing up and making mistakes.

Show starts at 9:30 p.m., $5.

- Chris Young

Party Girls are relatively new to the Portland scene, but I can already tell they are the misfits of indie music.

Their motto (well, their MySpace mantra, anyway) is “We came to impregnate,” and they describe their own sound as being “so heavy we induce labor.” The trio consists of vocalist Ryan Wolf, guitarist and ex-Bad Dudes member Gabe Castro, drummer Zach Richards, and synth/bassist Jim McBride. With a mixture of indie, metal, rock and some old school hip-hop, the best way I can describe them is if NOFX and Social Distortion had a threesome with Rage Against the Machine.

You won’t find any iron-on kittens emblazoned on any of their shirts, but you might discover a badly drawn penis and the band's name scrawled across Wolf’s baby-smooth hairless chest - if you are willing to get that close. It is obvious these guys like to be the outsiders and to keep audiences guessing.

Their record cover, which has a very manly, buffed-up unicorn charging through the air, is a great representation of their sound. They have taken the indie music scene and injected it with some serious steroids, and even though they might look all cute and friendly on the outside, these guys kick some serious ass.

The lyrics to Tenacious D’s “Explosivo” sums up Party Girls well, “Climb upon my faithful steed, then we gonna ride, gonna smoke some weed. Climb upon my big-ass steed, and ride, ride, ride.”

Party Girls is opening for local fave Jaguar Love during their March 4th CD release at Satyricon. $7, all ages, 8 p.m.

Be sure to bring some form of birth control, and vote for the band in our Band of the Month poll if you dig it.

- Deanna Uutela

The Round is one of those impossibly chic convergences of art, poetry and music that makes you wish you had thought of it first. But, guess what? You didn't.

Founded in Seattle in 2005 by arts curator Nathan Marion, The Round has now expanded to Tacoma, Portland, Austin, and Lebanon, PA. The setup is so simple it's genius: feature local musicians on stage with interspersed slam poetry sets and live painters for an amazing, one-of-a-kind art-o-rama. There are rules to keep the event fresh each go around, too. Musicians can only perform at an edition of The Round once a year; slam poets twice a year; and painters just three times per year.

So what's in store for Portland Round 12 this Tuesday at The Woods, you ask? Just your ho-hum, average triple threat of Portland underground rock luminaries John Vecchiarelli, Y La Bamba's Ben Meyercord, and Autpilot is for Lovers vocalist/accordionist Adrienne Hatkins on the music side of things. I'm not even positive as to what this merging of such disparate styles will produce. I just know I want to see it. And so should you.

Live painting will come courtesy of returning artist Michelle Tuffias, with layered spray-painted art from Beth Myrick, and poetry from slam poet Melissa Rose.

The rain is coming back, y'all. And your brain's no doubt been fried by the Vitamin D-struction of the fleeting sun. Support everything local, always; and open your senses to the combined infiltration of an evening of amazing performance.

Doors are at 8 p.m.; show at 9. $8 cover. 21 and over.

- Ryan J. Prado

Nurses were the latest PDX band to visit the Horseshack and lay down three live tracks for Daytrotter, which you can download for free!

In their worming and brooding manner, Nurses took three psychedelic tracks from Apple’s Acres, put two together as an eight-minute amalgamation ("Technicolor/Man At Arms"), and recorded an unreleased beauty.

Sadly, Nurses just played their last PDX gig this week (opening for Atlas Sound) and won’t be back for a while when their tour with The Tallest Man On Earth comes to the Mission Theater on Tuesday, May 11th. In other big Nurse news, the trio will be rocking this year’s Sasquatch Music Festival on Saturday, May 29th. Other PDX acts playing the three-day Memorial Day weekend fest include YACHT (who rolled Holocene this week), Quasi, Portugal. The Man... and if we can count them as one of ours... the Pavement cash-grabbin', alt-rockin' reunion show. Frontman Stephen Malkmus does live here after all!

- Chris Young