Pitchfork, please shut up about Portland. Yes, they have good music. And Nick Jaina seems to have a lock on P-Town’s vagabonds, an inspired mix of Paul Simon/Elvis Perkins–esque folk, country, and indie Americana. The others in his show—playing the fiddle, the upright bass, and the antique ice-cream maker—hail from the likes of Invisible Rockets, Laura Gibson, Heroes & Villains, and the Music for Robots favorite, Loch Lomond. In late January, he’ll release WOOL, a solo album (with piano) of “soft lullabies.” But now his live shows are even poppier than the tunes on his previous release, The 7 Stations. Don’t believe me? Ask for “Singing the Devil’s Tune,” and try not to explode with joy afterward. With Kitchen Syncopators and Gill Landry.

Listen to Nick Jaina’s “The Whim of the Ruling Class.”

var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.seattleweekly.com/players/vvmMiniPlayer.swf?audioFile=http://media.newtimes.com/id/1649449/&autoPlay=no”, “theSWF”, “91”, “32”, “8”, “#FFFFFF” ); so.write( “player” );

Fri., Nov. 23, 9 p.m., 2007