One of the best things about taking over as music editor here at the Mercury is all the local CDs that were left behind. As (now retired music editor) Zac Pennington was filling his mailer crate with pens, comp bottles of booze, and old business cards, he sighed and pointed to a massive bookcase of […]
Adam Gnade
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New Age, Redux
Argumentix is Soothing Napalm
NEW AGE MUSIC makes me wanna bust fools’ grills with a tire iron. All that airy fairyness and “dreamy” ambience adds up to nothing more than yuppy-hippie mating music. But sometimes new age ducks through the backdoor, hat pulled low over its eyes, and infiltrates good music. (Listen to most post-rock and tell me there’s […]
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It’s Who You Know
God Save the King-King!
“It’s been a long, long time coming/but I know a change gonna come,” sang Sam Cooke in 1964. It was a time of big change, wild-eyed revolution, and cultural upheaval. And those are the words that came dog paddling through my head during the Mercury’s recent change of ownership. As you might’ve read on page […]
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Seth Who?
Death Cab Plays Music, Remember?
WHAT A YEAR Death Cab’s had! They’ve played hard, toured hard, and handled their fame with grace and dignity. (Not to mention the Grammy nomination they just grabbed for Best Alternative Album.) The one thing that doesn’t sit well with me is their press. Over the course of the last 16 billion magazine articles I’ve […]
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New Favorite Band
Jigsaw Gentlemen, I Salute You
FALLING IN LOVE is better than most anything. It sounds (and is) obvious but it’s true—the hulking swell of new emotions, the weird little tics and mannerisms that are cute as puppy piss no matter what your cynical friends say. But just as good is what comes afterward, when the jittery excitement subsides, the unexplored […]
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It’s Who You Know
Rabbit-Free LocalMusic News
HOLY CRAP we’ve got a lotta news racing down the waterslide this week. First off some worthless, shit-hearted swine broke into Another Cynthia’s van after their show at Kelly’s Olympian on November 20, making off with their instruments, cables, amps, and tools. If you’ve got any leads, hit up Andrew Galler at andrewg@johnlscott.com. But if […]
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Almost Shameless
The Bravery is Terrible and Great
HE LOOKS LIKE ELVIS. Big, swooping pompadour. Black leather suit. Gaudy, grinning sneer. And he dances on the TV screen above me while I hold a cue stick and stand at the glowing golf green of felt, straining to hear the song over the woody clack of pool balls. Sam Endicott, singer from New York’s […]
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Bias Blues
Skeptical Hating on the Crystal Skulls
I WAS FIRED UP at first. Dave Bazan from Pedro the Lion was telling me about his “new favorite band,” Seattle’s Crystal Skulls. “They’re so good! Have you heard them?!” he asked excitedly. And I bought it. Really fast. Fishhook-pierced-through-lip. But then skepticism flooded in; I remembered dude was touring with them. Of course he’d […]
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Malformed Jock Jams
Mommy and Daddy: the Anti-WKs
IF ANDREW WK is America’s party-time, NASCAR-watching, Kit Kat-munching, white knight superhero, New York’s Mommy and Daddy is his nasty hipster shadow. Where WK’s jock jams are positive and preaching and fulla we-can-make-it-if-we-try! sloganeering, these kids go dark—vocals shout and cheerlead totally WK-ish, but they’re pinched, squawking, like birds battling in midair, or bats eking […]
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It’s Who You Know
Happy Gossip
As we roll balls-deep into the holidays, it looks like Portland bands are getting some early Kwanza presents. Local duo Swallows has signed to Sarah Dougher’s label Cherchez la Femme Projects. Their debut CD will be produced by Radio Sloan (ex-the Need) in February. Swallows play Tuesday at Porky’s Pub. If you missed psych-folk pioneer […]
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It’s Who You Know
Psych-folk Spirit Guides! Total Donut Boners!
How far does the long arm of Portland’s music scene reach? All the way to trendy, gross Silverlake, as I saw last week on tour. Loading in at Zen Sushi and damn bummed at having to play Los Angeles, I came across a big, fat “minmae” tagged in red spray paint on the otherwise blank […]
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It’s Who You Know
Fat Juicy Local Music/Stripper/Steak News
Thanksgiving’s coming and Blitzen Trapper have a shit-ton to be thankful for. First off they inked a licensing deal with Good Time Folk, who will release their wonderful Field Rexx album in the UK. The band also just finished their third record and are now shopping it around to labels here in the States. If […]