Mean Jeans Jose Corona Jr. You know that quiet weirdo in the back of the class? The one who draws band logos and mutants instead of studying? The one who might be an alien imitating a teenager? That kid plays dumb, but they’re the sharpest tack in school. They understand the silly sadness of this […]
Chris Stamm
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With Gigantic Sike, Portland’s Mean Jeans Are Pleased to Present Good, Simple, Stupid Music
Mean Jeans members Billy Jeans and Jeans Wilder discuss Gigantic Sike, selling out, blacking out and burning out.
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The Mercury’s 12 Must-See Acts at Pickathon 2019
Mt. Hood Stage Erin Riddle This year’s Pickathon lineup is the definition of stacked. In addition to touring acts like Makaya McCraven, Khruangbin, Damien Jurado, Ibibio Sound Machine, and Lido Pimienta, the weekend-long fest is rounded out by locals like Help and Laura Veirs. The best part: Festivalgoers get two chances to see each artist. […]
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A Who’s Who of Pickathon 2019
Before you wander aimlessly into the dusty wood (and remember to grab your Klean Kanteen cup!), read the Mercury’s 12 must-see acts for Pickathon 2019.
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Duster’s Return Feels Like the Tail End of an Epic Cross-Dissolve
DUSTER Tues 1/22 Mississippi Studios Unrecovery.com Many of indie rock’s critical darlings were floating in outer space in 2000. Radiohead, Modest Mouse, Grandaddy, and Sigur Rós released landmark albums that played like astronaut dreams, their sounds stretched between past and present, heaven and earth, day and night. Duster’s millennial offering, Contemporary Movement, was similarly inclined […]
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Alien Boy’s Debut Funnels Agony into Art
Sleeping Lessons Is Full of Pop Hooks and Devastating Feelings
Sleeping Lessons Is full of pop hooks and devastating feelings.
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The Lavender Flu’s Sophomore Album Is More Focused (Though Still Chaotic)
Recorded over five years with a rotating cast of collaborators, the Lavender Flu’s sidewinding 2016 debut Heavy Air is a headphone masterpiece of deconstructed rock ’n’ roll. Thirty songs deep and 76 minutes long, the album re-introduced ex-Hunches guitarist Chris Gunn to the world as a visionary tinkerer who could transform dissociative head trips into […]
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Record Review: The Lavender Flu, Mow the Glass
The Portland Band’s Sophomore Album Is More Focused (Though Still Chaotic)
The Portland band’s sophomore album is more focused (though still chaotic).
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Mope Grooves’ New Record Documents Moonlit Fear
ILLUSTRATION BY RAF SPIELMAN Mope Grooves’ Joy was one of 2017’s most beautiful and necessary albums. Despite its title, it isn’t exactly a cheery record, but it’s infused with a weird kind of enervated bliss, and perfectly captures the feeling of crawling out of depression, of starting to remember what light and life are like. […]
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Record Review: Mope Grooves, Vanished
The Portland Band’ New LP Documents Moonlit Fear
Mope Grooves’ Vanished documents moonlit fear.
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Mean Jeans Wrote an Album of Unsolicited Jingles for Brands Like Applebee’s and Capri Sun
MEAN JEANS JOE LEONARD The goofball wits of Mean Jeans have never shied away from product placements. The band’s carefully constructed wasteoid universe, which lives in the brilliantly silly zone between Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Rock ’n’ Roll High School, is a burnout paradise of Cheerios and Jäger and Kraft and Coors Light. […]
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Mean Jeans’ Jingles Collection Is Wonderful Junk
The Portland Band Wrote Odes to Applebee’s, Capri Sun, and More
Mean Jeans’ Jingles Collection is full of odes to Applebee’s, Capri Sun, and more.