Mount Eerie No Flashlight (P.W. Elverum & Sun) 1/2 “Knowing no one will understand these songs/I try to sing them clearer/Even though no one has ever asked/’What does Mount Eerie mean?’” From the very first line of No Flashlight—the first proper full-length release since abandoning his critically acclaimed Microphones moniker in favor of Mount Eerie—songwriter/producer […]
Adam Gnade
Posted inMusic
On Donner! On Blitzen!
Blitzen Trapper Screws With Yr Head
Blitzen Trapper Fri July 8 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd DEAR STUMPTOWN, I’m stumped. Every comparison one can make with Blitzen Trapper falls short. The Grateful Dead? Yeah, but the Dead were a joke. Neil Young? Close, very close, but a quieter, happier, less maid-needing Neil. Wilco? Maybe if Wilco still had brains and a […]
Posted inMusic
Hell Bent for Halford!
I Was a Teenage Judas Priest Stalker
Judas Priest Mon July 4 Clark County Amphitheater DON’T CALL IT STALKING. Let’s go with… hunting. I have hunted Judas Priest’s Rob Halford many, many times. When I lived in San Diego, Halford was quite the man about town. “Town” being Hillcrest, San Diego’s gay district, and “man” being a fading metalgod that totally blended […]
Posted inMusic
Slate Wiped Clean
Pedro the Lion Goes Secular with Headphones
Headphones Sat, June 11 Doug Fir 830 E Burnside It started the second Dave Bazan, leader of Pedro the Lion, announced he was forming a “synth band.” The great collective rock writer voice rose from the dirty depths of its cum rag drawer and began to chant Dave! Bazan! Goes! Postal! Service! But then the […]
Posted inMusic
Newsflash!!!
Out Hud Doesn’t Suck
Out Hud Mon June 6 Holocene 1001 SE Morrison ALRIGHT, I TAKE IT BACK. In reviewing Out Hud’s latest record for the Mercury I gave it a quick spin, then took to tearing it a new asshole. I decided–and decided fast–that it wasn’t worth the hype, that Out Hud was no better than its lukewarm […]
Posted inMusic
It’s Who You Know
When Minmae was San Diegan
I remember Sean Brooks, naked and drunk, smoking a cigarette and laughing in the middle of a houseparty. I remember him leaning over the orange table at a taco restaurant saying, “Adam, see that band over there eating? Fuck that band.” And I remember him leaving a Safeway bag of records on his porch for […]
Posted inMusic
Pressure Drop
Ex-Swan Becomes an Angel of Light
Angels of Light Tues April 26 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd Devendra Banhart talks some wild voodoo in interviews: Bulldogs plastic-surgery’d to look like the senior member of Venezuelan families; rambling, rhyming word associations to innocent questions like “What inspires you?” So when he brings up “the angels of light,” it seems like yet another […]
Posted inMusic
Kiss Me, Kill Me
Of Death, Joy, and Crooked Fingers
Crooked Fingers Tues April 19 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd FUNERALS ARE GAY. When I die I want a wake, and I want Crooked Fingers to be the house band. Eric Bachmann’s music has always been perfect for wakes, even back when he played indierock in Archers of Loaf. Unlike a lotta sadsack singers, our […]
Posted inUncategorized
Up All Night
Original Hotcake House is Your Best Friend
Original Hotcake and Steak House 1002 SE Powell 236-7402 FORGET DIVE BARS. Anytime anything’s marketed around shabby chic or local color, you know its time is up. For a true slice of Portland life–life sans themes, cute menus, and hipster music on the jukebox–the all-night diner is your baby. And my baby is the Original […]
Posted inMusic
Still on Drugs
The Deerhoof State of the Union
Deerhoof Thurs Apr 14 Nocturnal 1800 E Burnside ELVES, SPIDER QUEENS, toads with red, velvet capes… the images conjured on Deerhoof’s last full-length were fantastic, freaky, and totally on drugs. But as great as the year-old Milk Man was, what are they up to nowadays? For all intents and purposes, they’re just gettin’ weirder. Which […]
Posted inMusic
Erase Errata-tat-tat!
Bullets and Bombs for Wartime Blues
Erase Errata Fri March 25 Nocturnal 1800 E Burnside AS EMO AS IT SOUNDS, we all drown our sorrows in music. Weepy R&B for weepy breakups, screaming hardcore for when we’re mad at the world–whatever’s your poison. And I’ve been feeling low for awhile now. After Sept. 11, and the subsequent shitstorm of Bush-brought ball-busting, […]
Posted inMusic
Go Huge or Go Home
Ireland’s The Frames Make Godzilla-Size Rock
The Frames Sat March 12 Aladdin Theater 3017 SE Milwaukie I wrote this band off forever thinking they were the old school Welsh punks the Frames, imagining another buncha old dudes playing their old songs, which is always pretty depressing, especially when it’s punk rock. So, hearing these guys, Ireland’s the Frames, was a big […]