The latest issue of Paste (which you can read online via this handy magazine-style web format thingy) has named Portland’s Music Millennium as one of “America’s Finest” record stores. Hot damn! Well, that’s not news to us. It’s also not news that they call MM owner Terry Currier a “Weird Al doppleganger,” which I assume […]
Ezra Ace Caraeff
Ezra Ace Caraeff is the former Music Editor for the Mercury, and spent nearly a third of his life working at the paper. More importantly, he is the owner of Olive, the Mercury’s unofficial office dog. His writing has appeared in The Fader, The Stranger, The Onion's A.V. Club, ESPN's TrueHoop network, and countless fanzines that are thankfully long out of print. He makes a mean tofu scramble and yes, Ace is really his middle name.
Posted inMusic
PCPA to Bring Music, Traffic Jams, Downtown
The PCPA has just unveiled year number three of their Music on Main Street series—where they block off Main Street, between SW Broadway and Park, for an evening of free local music—and the lineup looks pretty promising. Highlights include Fernando, All Girl Summer Fun Band (although the press release referred to the band as the […]
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Vince McMahon vs. The Telephone
Recently I had a conversation with my mother about ringbacks, and it was akin to trying to teach a gorilla to use a camera. While we all know that technology and old folks do not mix, I truly felt bad for her since she wants to know why her phone is playing a song instead […]
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PDX Pop Now! CD Release Party – Tonight!
Listen up, kids! And, yes, I do mean kids. Not only is tonight the PDX Pop Now! CD release party at Holocene, but the event is all ages! Thanks to the OLCC’s recently reformed minor postings rule, the ‘Cene will be open to everyone. It’s true, I even saw the floor plan. It was exciting. […]
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This Week’s Mercury Music Section
Another week, another Mercury music section to read while you patiently hunt the ultimate game, man a unicorn that looks suspiciously like a Photoshopped deer. So maybe their sophomore record (Arm’s Way) isn’t everything you wanted it to be, Islands are still a pretty damn amazing band. Too bad their Portland show isn’t going to […]
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Full Circle
Southern Belle Got Next
Birthed in basements with a sound polished amid the sweet chaos of a summertime house party, Southern Belle represent the wide-eyed second shift of Portland’s music scene. Long before the Oregon Liquor Control Commission wised up and amended their archaic rules on minor postings, Portland’s musical youth had already gone underground (oftentimes literally) to the […]
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Once More With Feeling
Hockey
You wouldn’t know it from their sports-centric name, but relatively new Portland band Hockey represents the shimmering cutting edge of the local all-ages dance party scene. The band, which not that long ago swelled from two members to four, recently released Mind Chaos, which utilizes the bare bones hipster funk of Jamie Lidelll alongside the […]
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Up Da Punk with Resist
In between the bouts of Nigerian pop and whatever new crosses my desk, I keep coming back to the Profane Existence (yes, they actually exist outside references in Hold Steady songs) released Resistography by famed Portland punk band Resist. Huh, punk rock in the Mercury? Aren’t you guys just a bunch of emo bedwetters who […]
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Sabertooth Sign to Arena Rock, Hate Evil Agribusinesses
New kids on the local music block (also know as NKOTLMB to savvy tweens), Sabertooth have announced that they have signed to the local Arena Rock label (Talkdemonic, Swords Project) . Clearly influenced by those trendsetters at Fred Meyer, the September release of their debut recording, Old Days and the Island, will be absolutely loaded […]
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This Week’s Mercury Music Section
Another Mercury music section to read while you crack open a sixer of Drank, the world’s greatest (“popular in Houston”) anti-energy drink. I prefer my sizzurp in a Dixie cup, thank you very much. Another damn article about local singers and WWII battle tanks. What, no room to cram in a mention of the mighty […]
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Once More With Feeling
Holocene
You cannot deny that in the five short years since Holocene set up shop on the once-barren stretch of SE Morrison, everything has changed. We look at clubs differently, and thanks to Holocene, we expect more. The space, operated by Scott McLean and Jarkko Cain, celebrates its fifth anniversary with a pair of excellent (and […]
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The Ego Has Landed – Kanye West, Live in Portland, June 3rd, 2008
Kanye West is in trouble. Marooned on a strange planet that resembles the set of this movie, a futuristic miniature golf course, and the cover of Dianetics, Mr. West is alone in space (like The Little Prince with a Rocafella Chain) and spends his time spitting rhymes and conversing with his sensual computer pal, Jane. […]