Check out Bellingham’s The Ames, Juniper Stills (formerly Wyatt Parks & the Mute Choir) and Minor Plains this Saturday, May 25, in a FREE locals showcase sponsored by What’s Up! Magazine. Doors at 8 p.m., music at 9 p.m.

RSVP for the event on Facebook: facebook.com/events/370080659776124

Help Make.Shift, at 306 Flora St. in downtown Bellingham, raise money to get their building up to fire code by attending one of three (or all three!) benefit shows throughout the next few weeks.

The best part? On the night of all the benefit shows, 100 percent of proceeds from La Fiamma’s PIEHOLE are going toward Make.Shift. There has literally never been a better excuse for you to listen to live music and eat pizza.

Friday, May 17
Pan Pan, Manatee Commune at the Redlight
9 p.m., $5-$10 suggested donation
Facebook event: facebook.com/events/150248685155228

Thursday, May 23
Dog Shredder, The Narrows, Orcco at The Shakedown
10 p.m., $5-$10 suggested donation
Facebook event: facebook.com/events/537059703000046

Thursday, June 6
The Palisades, Keaton Collective, Black Beast Revival at the Wild Buffalo
8 p.m., $5-$10 suggested donation
Facebook event: facebook.com/events/197723800351352

From the Downtown Bellingham Partnership Facebook event:

“The Downtown Bellingham Partnership presents the 5th Annual Ladies’ Night Out on Thursday, May 16 in downtown Bellingham. Sponsored by Greenhouse and Gary’s Men’s and Women’s Wear, the event features unique promotions for event attendees offered by participating businesses that will support YWCA, Lydia Place, Women Build (an extension of Habitat for Humanity) and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services (DVSAS). Attendees are encouraged to wear purple, painting downtown with the color that represents power, passion and purpose for empowering women.”

And for the moms: For $20 per child, Perch & Play will include dinner, craft time and a child-friendly movie for your child 5-8 p.m. so moms can attend Ladies’ Night Out.

Check out a list of participating vendors and see some of the sneak peek discounts on the Downtown Bellingham Partnership’s Facebook page:

LNO Sneak Peek: Backcountry Essentials will be raffling off purple-themed items every half hour during Ladies’ Night Out! These items include purple backpacks from Opsrey and Deuter, a purple yoga mat from Prana, purple trekking poles from Black Diamond and a purple clothing piece from Smartwool. All proceeds from the raffle will benefit Women Build!

LNO Sneak Peek: Mi Shoes has chosen to support the YWCA’s Back to Work Boutique. Bring in a pair of gently used shoes to donate and you will receive a coupon for $20 off a future purchase. Mi Shoes will also be having a store-wide sale!

Kulshan Brewing Company, 2238 James St. in Bellingham, is hosting a pint night fundraiser for Whatcom Volunteer Center on Wednesday, April 24, beginning at 5 p.m. The event includes free live music by Bellingham’s Wyatt Parks & the Mute Choir from 7-9 p.m.

The fundraiser is in support of National Volunteer Week, which takes place from April 21-27. $1 per pint will be donated to the Whatcom Volunteer Center and its Human Race event.

Check out the music of Wyatt Parks & the Mute Choir below.

From the group’s Reverb Nation profile:

“Wyatt Parks is a local musician who has been writing and performing his own music for five years, and his band, The Mute Choir, exists as a loosely knit coalition of musicians that has played with him under various monikers. The latest incarnation, made up of old friends and new faces, gives a high-energy boost to Wyatt’s folk trappings, filling out introspective acoustic tunes with tight harmonies and full-bodied instrumentation. Wyatt Parks and The Mute Choir are first and foremost a live band, eschewing professional recording (for the moment) in favor of a DIY attitude and a love of performance.”

Kulshan Brewing Company on Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Kulshan-Brewing-Company/114462868651493
Whatcom Volunteer Center: www.whatcomvolunteer.org

From the event at calendar.bellinghamherald.com (slightly edited):

Now celebrating its tenth year, the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival (BEAF) takes place April 25-28 in downtown Bellingham and at Western Washington University. The festival features a compelling roster of international, national and regional artists presenting and performing a wide variety of electronic music, visual art and installation art, including electroacoustic composition, electropop, sound art, electrojazz, experimental hip-hop, noise, electronic dance and ambient music.

BEAF 2013 artists include avant jazz icon Wayne Horvitz (Seattle), major club circuit producer MiMOSA (Los Angeles), ambient guru Rafael Anton Irisarri (Seattle), acclaimed sound artist Chris Kucbick (Oakland); and the NYC piano-percussion duo of Denise Fillion/Chris Graham, who will perform Stockhausen’s 1960 masterpiece Kontakte alongside new works by Northwest composers.

Festival passes and tickets to individual WWU shows will be available at the WWU Box Office online and in person after April 17. Tickets for other shows will be available from the venue websites and/or at the door. Festival passes are $25; show prices are below. The festival pass provides a $5 discount to the Wild Buffalo show and free access to all other shows.

Galleries
April 24-28
Commercial Street Theatre, 1302-1310 Commercial St.
Chris Kubick (Oakland), Christopher DeLaurenti (Virginia), Evan Bridges (Portland), free

Short Films
Thursday, April 25
10:30 p.m.: Pickford Film Center, 1318 Bay St.
Kevin Belli/Craig Colorusso: INSTALL, 60×60 Presenters Mix, free

Concerts
Thursday, April 25
8 p.m.: WWU Performing Arts Center room 16
Denise Fillion & Chris Graham (New York City) performing electroacoustic music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Luther Adams, Bruce Hamilton & Adam Haws, $10 general, $7 students

9:30 p.m.: Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St.
MiM0SA (Los Angeles), in collaboration with Boogie Universal, $20

Friday, April 26
7 p.m.: WWU PAC Concert Hall, 516 High St.
Wayne Horvitz & friends (Seattle), Christopher Bailey with Shiau-uen Ding (New York City), $10 general, $7 students

9 p.m.-late: Rumors Cabaret, 1119 Railroad Ave.
Short Wave (Bellingham), DJ Postal (Bellingham), $3

10 p.m.: Make.Shift, 306 Flora St.
The West (Seattle), Eagle Teeth (Bellingham), VR Trainers (Bellingham), $5

Saturday, April 27
4 p.m.: WWU Performing Arts Center room 16
Rafael Anton Irisarri (Seattle), IG88 (Seattle), WWEAMS showcase: Jon Bash, Kramer Elwell, Matt Pollock (Bellingham), $10 general, $7 students

9 p.m.: The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St.
Jiminy Glitch (Bellingham), Dropsquad (Bellingham), Soffos (Bellingham/Tokyo), Sensebellum (Bellingham), Jaderade (Bellingham), $5

Sunday, April 28
6 p.m.: Commercial Street Theater, 1302-1310 Commercial St.
Sunshine (Bellingham), heatsink (Bellingham), Sea Frailty (Bellingham), $3

More information: beaf.org
BEAF on Facebook: facebook.com/BellinghamElectronicArtsFestival

Bellingham’s The Ames is hosting an EP release party Saturday, April 20, at the Green Frog, 1015 N. State St. The group is sharing the stage with Vancouver, B.C.’s folk cabaret band Maria in the Shower, so be sure to get there early to catch them perform.

From The Ames website, theamesband.com:

“Three piece collective The Ames — drummer Michael Lanz, bassist Dan Swan and multi-instrumentalist Sam Carlton, who contributes lead vocals, keys, banjo, guitar, harmonica and the occasional kazoo — make a type of music that fits their hometown of Bellingham: quaint, charming and a little off-kilter. The band has only been together since August, but the seven songs on their self titled EP already offer a good lesson on how folk can be fun — theatrically woeful vocals and loose, freewheeling melodies backed by plinking strings and a pounding ragtime piano. It’s foot-stomping, saloon-style folk!”

Give ‘em a listen below, and RSVP for the event at facebook.com/events/243855889091205.

Year of the Rat by The Ames live at The Jet 1/4/13 from Lively Sound on Vimeo.

From Avalon Music’s Facebook event, facebook.com/events/185375938277042 (slightly edited):

“We celebrate Record Store Day in lots of different ways: limited releases, huge sales, free giveaways, general shenanigans, but our most popular event is the free outdoor show we put on in front of the store!”

It all takes place on Saturday, April 20, at the record store, 1330 Railroad Ave. in Bellingham.

Lineup
1 p.m.: Ben VonWildenhaus
facebook.com/benvonwildenhaus

2 p.m.: The Shadies
facebook.com/pages/The-Shadies/129422857123280

3 p.m.: WATERBEAR
christophernunn.bandcamp.com/track/home

4 p.m.: Girl Guts
facebook.com/GirlGuts

Noted for his mix of world music, Latin rhythms and both funky and smooth jazz, guitarist Jesse Cook plays at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Mount Baker Theatre. Tickets: $20-$45.

Cook’s success can be measured by his seven albums, with influences that evolved from his classical and jazz guitar studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston to immersion in the oral traditions of gypsy guitar — a rhythmic, flamenco-rumba approach heard in the “Gypsy barrios” of France.