Pullout: Mercury Music Issue
Adam Gnade
Posted inMusic
Kitchen Confidential
Calvin Johnson and His Many, Many Cooks
OLD DOG/NEW TRICK politics don’t mean shit when you’re Calvin Johnson. If anything, the man is historically unpredictable. Calvin’s first solo CD, What Was Me, was a minimalist showcase for his voice—a big, booming, craggy baritone, a rumbling semi-truck of a voice that’s one rustic, moaning step away from Johnny Cash. Most of the record […]
Posted inArt
The Little Art Festival That Could
Reed Arts Week Lays Low, but Comes Out Swinging
More than any city we know, Portland loves to get its art fix in concentrated, multi-vitamin bursts of festivity. PICA’s Time-Based Art festival is the leading example, of course; it boasts two year’s worth of programming stuffed into barely more than a week, and draws a far bigger audience than PICA’s more traditional performing arts […]
Posted inMusic
New All-Ages Club!
Former Meow Meow Owner Steps in to Book Brand New North Portland Hot Spot.
POSTED March 1, 4:45 pm I just talked to Todd (ex Meow Meow dude) and he’s doing a NEW ALL-AGES VENUE! Here’s part of a form letter he’s emailing out explaining his deal. “On May 12th, there’s a new cafe/all-ages venue opening in North Portland called K ST. CAFE AND THEATRE. The owner, Charles Lewis, […]
Posted inMusic
Countrypolitan?
Jenny Lewis in a Pop Country Nutshell
CRITICAL MASTURBATION. Journalistic compartmentalizing. It’s bullshit—and boring. What we really want—what any music fan reading this wants—is to know what the music sounds like. I don’t think I’m alone when I say most music writing is written in an exclusive language for other critics to read and it says a whole lotta nothin’ about the […]
Posted inMusic
It’s Who You Know
Bon Jovi IS Local Music News
Whether you think he’s a douchebag or god’s gift to rock it’s hard to discount Jon Bon Jovi as one of music’s most recognizable faces. THUS, if you can snap a photo of JBJ while he’s in town for his Rose Garden show on Sunday, you could win a chance to write this column for […]
Posted inMusic
Early Man!!!
Walking the Non-Ironic Heavy Metal Walk
“Early Man, eh?” you think to yourself. Nope, you’re still a few million years too early—you’ve landed in the time of the dinosaurs! Above you, pterodactyls float on the air currents, their bony beaks swinging as they survey the land beneath them. Massive plants and trees surround you, and the humid air is filled with […]
Posted inBooks
Yeti: ‘Zine Heart, Book Mind
As ‘zines go—and this one’s more of a book—Yeti is their kind’s New Zealand: beautiful, sprawling, epic, immense. I am nowhere near finishing Yeti #3, and I think the thing will carry me through into next week. Its 242 pages are voluptuous with content: interviews with William Burroughs, Naomi Yang, and Eileen Myles; photo spreads […]
Posted inMusic
It’s Who You Know
New Beautiful Mutant Art Nexuses
Local guy Garett Strickland is up to some big things. His new series, Phase One: Words and Music brings together writers and musicians in hopes of birthing some new, beautiful, mutant art. Says Strickland, the intent of the monthly series, which debuts Sunday at Towne Lounge, is to “showcase a variety of musical and literary […]
Posted inMusic
These are Importland Things
Holocene Launches Record Label—All is Good
ON BAD DAYS, a music scene can be a dark, treacherous forest populated with giant, soulless spiders, toxic flowers, cowardly but poisonous snakes, and fallen, martyred heroes. Positivity and proactive evolution, then, are paramount to making all this trying and sweating worthwhile. Fight the malaise through honest productivity; it’s an ancient remedy—one of the best. […]
Posted inMusic
Adam Forkner’s White Rainbow
Leads Holocene’s Church of Psychedelia
FIRST, AN ENDORSEMENT: I have friends who’ve moved to Portland hoping it feels like Adam Forkner’s music sounds. With records out on the K and Ba Da Bing! labels, Forkner’s great Yume Bitsu has a solid body of work full of big epic drones and stately updates on what bands like Pink Floyd and Hawkwind […]
Posted inMusic
It’s Who You Know
One Step Further Than One Step Beyond
So local guy Nick Jaina tells me he’s looking for music videos from Portland bands to showcase at a venue in the not-too-distant future and I’m all, “Cool—tell me more.” So he’s like, BAM: “I’ve booked the Holocene for Sunday, April 16. We just shot a Binary Dolls video that my friend Melanie Brown directed. […]