AltWeeklies Wire
Once More With Feelingnew
There are numerous highlights to Real Emotional Trash, the new album from Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, but I'd wager the most striking one is that the album will not make you long for a Pavement reunion.
The Portland Mercury |
Ezra Ace Caraeff |
02-28-2008 |
Reviews
Caretakers of the Heartnew
Shearer's songwriting voice has got one foot in the self-affirming whisper of Elliott Smith, and the other in the mud puddle of Gold Rush-era Neil Young.
The Portland Mercury |
Ned Lannamann |
02-28-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: La Lamentor, Weinland
The Original Sin of Gutter Twinsnew
The idea of combining the heavily tattooed, sullen skulk of Mark Lanegan -- he of ex-Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age fame -- alongside the glutinous howl of Greg Dulli -- he of Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers fame -- is just plain wrong.
The Portland Mercury |
Ezra Ace Caraeff |
02-28-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Gutter Twins
The Pen, the Piano and Nick Jainanew
While he has a library of finished recordings -- including other solo work and time spent fronting the Binary Dolls -- Wool is the moment that Jaina arrives.
The Portland Mercury |
Ezra Ace Caraeff |
02-21-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Nick Jaina, Wool
The Question of Danavanew
The storied rise of Portland's hippest metal band is by now so familiar to indie rockers and headbangers alike, it might as well be in book form: Young malcontents escape the cornfields, form a band in psychedelic Portland, and score a big-label contract.
The Portland Mercury |
Mike Meyer |
02-21-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Legend of Ornette Colemannew
There was a time when jazz was one of the most radical of art forms. And at the vanguard stood Ornette Coleman.
The Portland Mercury |
Kevin Friedman |
02-14-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Ornette Coleman
The Swerving Orchestra of Kay Kaynew
When Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground take the stage, they can be up to 17 people strong.
The Portland Mercury |
Trent Moorman |
02-14-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Zoroaster's Guide to Bar Fightingnew
"He was trying to pick a fight," says Zoroaster guitarist/vocalist Will Fiore, recounting the incident that would inspire the name of their debut full-length, Dog Magic.
The Portland Mercury |
Mike Meyer |
02-08-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Baby Dee's Erratic Mythologynew
In her storied life, this multi-instrumentalist and songwriter has progressed erratically, backwards, sideways.
The Portland Mercury |
Kurt B. Reighley |
02-08-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Baby Dee, Safe Inside the Day
The Painful Descent of Black Mountainnew
There was a time I saw Black Mountain as torchbearers of soulful, gritty, classic folk and rock—a necessary band to fight the drift toward the laptop-toting, knob-twisting digital wash. Unfortunately, they're no longer that band.
The Portland Mercury |
Andrew Tonry |
02-01-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Black Mountain, Into the Future
Yeasayer Devours Styles, Goes Popnew
While Yeasayer's bizarre but enchanting debut, All Hour Cymbals, hardly aims for that kind of narrative focus, it shows the band similarly gorging itself on a host of styles and sounds.
The Portland Mercury |
John Motley |
01-24-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: All Hour Cymbals, Yeasayer
The Conundrum of Cool Nutznew
With his next record scheduled to drop in the summer of 2008 on a nationally known label, and his recent work the best of his career, why is Cool Nutz still fighting to gain a reputation as a legitimate artist in his hometown?
The Portland Mercury |
Graham Barey |
01-24-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Cool Nutz
The Return of the Frog Kingnew
The enigmatic Jeremy Enigk.
The Portland Mercury |
Ezra Ace Caraeff |
01-17-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Our Town Could be Your Lifenew
In a move to match January's sun-less gloom, Swan Island -- Portland's preeminent practitioners of post-punk, pre-apocalyptic proto-metal -- announced this week they are going on "indefinite hiatus."
The Portland Mercury |
Cary Clarke |
01-17-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Swan Island
Trans-Europa Expressnew
With The Legend of God's Gun, Los Angeles' Spindrift have recorded one of the greatest film soundtracks ever set to tape.
The Portland Mercury |
Ezra Ace Caraeff |
01-17-2008 |
Concerts
