Japanese Karaoke Afterlife Experiment Sat July 17 Million 120 NE Russell IT’S A HUGE CLICHE but going to Japan is like landing on Mars: Skyscraper-size TV screen billboards; shoebox-size sushi diners; food that looks like plastic farm animals; all-night video arcades. Preemptively striking, I brought a crapload of crazy records when I went to Tokyo […]
Adam Gnade
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Jazz Haaands!
Gorge Trio Gives Jazzbos the Finger
Gorge Trio Thurs July 15 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd IT IS A QUIET SUMMER evening in 1982 and the sunset is coloring the ocean a deep red orange. The beach is long and white and deserted. The boardwalk, empty and dark. The shops and lifeguard towers, closed for the night. Not a creature is […]
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Righteous Jolie
Porch Songs and Country Prayers
Jolie Holland Tues May 25 Aladdin Theater 3016 SE Milwaukie The floorboards creak as the singer, a girl your age with long dark brown curls, shifts in her chair, tuning an acoustic guitar. She coughs, taps the mic, and squints out into the audience. Somebody laughs loud near the back of the club–a hard, drinker’s […]
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Never Mind the Molars
Holy Molar Hates Our Guts!
Holy Molar Sat April 26 Disjecta Ha! See! I toldja Holy Molar’s a real band! But y’all didn’t believe me! Naw, busters were like, “Uhhh, it’s just a one off!” “Uhhh, that prison tour was faaake!” Well friends, there’s a real, live Holy Molar outside that very door about to scream and prance and honk […]
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Reality Sandwiches
Relevance vs. Escapism
Milemarker Blood Brothers The Intima Mon Mar 3 Blackbird The Blood Brothers sandwiched between Milemarker and the Intima? How’s THAT for irony? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been down with the Bros’ buckwild wraith skronk since they were in diapers, but it’s like putting, say, Rimbaud on a book tour with Noam Chomsky […]
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Eat a Dick, Pussy!
Ten Reasons to Boycott Nashville Pussy
Nashville Pussy Fri Feb 21 Dante’s 1) They have no respect for their audience. If you think Nashville Pussy wants to entertain you, you’ve been hoodwinked. What’s their true, real-deal agenda? They want to kick your girlfriend in the face, set her hair on fire, and take your money. 2) Passing off dumb rock as […]
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Woooo, Doggie!
Hank Williams III’s “Hellbillies” Want Me Dead
Hank Williams III Wed Jan 22 Dante’s If part of being a rock critic is pissing folks off, I just earned my Audience Aggravation badge. Back in October, I reviewed Hank Williams III’s Lovesick, Broke, and Drifting (Curb) for Anti-Complacency.org. Besides detailing how hard the music sucked, my central thesis was that Hank’s marketing is […]