Last week I interviewed the Holy Modal Rounders in preview of their Aladdin Theater show and they had nothing but great things to say about their friend/collaborator Michael Hurley, who plays Sunday at Rotture (315 SE 3rd). Hurley, if you haven’t heard of him, has been making weird-ish, psychedelic folk for as long as 16 […]
Adam Gnade
Posted inMusic
Do the Right Thing
Talkdemonic Is a Portland Band
2006 WAS THE YEAR Talkdemonic blew up. As bands everywhere clamor for press with all kinds of marketable gimmicks (“We write songs about 18th century noblemen!” “We dress like aliens!”) and pull publicity stunts that have zip to do with their music, Talkdemonic got big by writing a great record. The Arena Rock-released Beat Romantic […]
Posted inMusic
Stronger Wine, Madder Music
Holy Modal Rounders’ Last Go ‘Round
WHEN YOU INTERVIEW bands, you tend to get a lot of half-ass, boring answers that don’t reveal jack shit about anything. Peter Stampfel is the direct opposite. Stampfel’s Holy Modal Rounders did things in the ’60s that’d still be considered weird or outsider or insane these days. Forty years before the BBC drooled its brains […]
Posted inMusic
The Scene Report
Local Music News
Goddamnit if 2007 isn’t starting out beautifully. Just a few days in and we get this one dropped on us: the Children of the Revolution festival, going down Saturday, January 6 at AudioCinema (226 SE Madison). The schedule is as follows: 3-3:25 pm Ghost To Falco 3:30-3:50 pm Argumentix 4:00-4:30 pm Show Me The Pink […]
Posted inMusic
The Scene Report
Best Local Records of 2006
As a rule I’ve never been much for writing year-end top 10 lists—and confining Portland’s massive onslaught of great local releases to such a small number is a crime worthy of some heavy punishment. Thus, I’m going to say eff it to the top 10 format and cram as many favorites as I can into […]
Posted inNews
19 Things Not Invited Back to 2007!
Tired of all the annoying annoyances you had to put up with in 2006? Well, instead of crying about it, we’ve come up with a simple solution: “HEY, TOP 19 ANNOYING THINGS OF 2006! YOU’RE NOT INVITED BACK!“ Non–Sexy Emails from Former Police Chief Derrick Foxworth Yeah, yeah. WE KNOW. It’s supposedly “morally repugnant” to […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Totally Nuts
Yaji and Kita‘s Excellent Adventure
I hope this doesn’t sound racist, but Japanese people are fucking insane—and goddamn I love them for it. Japanese clothes put American designers to shame. Japanese music is otherworldly. And, above all, Japanese film—at least the film I’ve seen—is like porn for surrealists. Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims is a gay love story that’s […]
Posted inMusic
The End Is Now
A Dead Moon Retrospective
THE GOODBYE NOTE was simple, short, and delivered unpretentiously on the band’s website: “After 20 years, Dead Moon is retiring. It has been a journey we will always treasure and feel that a worldwide family has emerged in its place. Dead Moon became much bigger than the band itself, it became a DIY underground hopeful […]
Posted inMusic
The Mercury Presents
Portland Music’s Top 10 of 2006!
I THINK I’M generally pretty optimistic at the end of the year, but I really do feel confident saying 2006 was a damn fine year for music. Here’s a few Portland heads and their picks. Ken Cheppaikode Dirtnap Records and Green Noise Records 1. King Khan & BBQ Show – What’s for Dinner 2. Marked […]
Posted inMusic
The Scene Report
Local Music News
Saying this past year was a good one for shows is too easy. It’s also stating the obvious. We live in Portland. All years are good show years. This one, however, happened to be my first full year in Portland so most days it seemed like the promised land. Below is my list of 2006’s […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Rocky Used to Be Kind of Zen
So the new Rocky film, Rocky Balboa, is out—and as much as it pains me to say this, it’s fucking ridiculous. Anticlimactic ending, gross treacle, and way too many starry-eyed, “touching,” wisdom-of-the-fool moments… it’s painful and sad. What isn’t sad, though, is the whole Rocky legacy. Let’s recap! • Rocky (1976)—Funny, sad, great dialogue, unbeatable […]
Posted inMovies & TV
It’s Our Daily Bread
Say Good-Bye to Taco Bell
AMONG THE DELUGE of media imagery pumped into us every day, there are a lot of things that make me want to take the big step off the grid. Our Daily Bread pushes pretty far, reminding me that until I can grow all my own food and take myself out of the supermarket/fact-ory farm/pesticide/mass-produced ghetto, […]