You might know Ben Barnett as the raw-voiced singer of Kind of Like Spitting, the long-running Portland band with the tumultuous past. In fact, odds are, you might have actually been in the band at one point, since KOLS’ lineup has easily had over 50 members throughout the years. But this is not about Barnett […]
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
The Year in Lists
2007, Five Records at a Time
Everyone loves lists. At least, everyone loves making them— there’s no telling if people actually take the time to read them. So instead of waxing on and on about our top 10 of the year, we’re cutting the number in half. Just the top five, no double digits here, and we’ve asked some of the […]
Posted inMusic
Once More with Feeling
Top Five Albums of 2007
While those whose impact on local music is far greater than mine get only a few lines to list their top albums of the year (See Music, pg. 17), I have the advantage of writing in long form about the musical bounties of 2007. And while it seems to be standard procedure for some critics […]
Posted inMusic
History Lesson
A Moment with This Moment in Black History
It’s easy to assume that a band name like This Moment in Black History is the work of a few trust-funded white hipster kids, tongues firmly planted in their cheeks, fishing for some desperately craved attention. In reality TMIBH is a skull-rattling noise punk quartet hailing from Cleveland, one with a bio that boasts of […]
Posted inMusic
Once More with Feeling
OLCC and You
For the longest time I viewed the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) as this scary, faceless bureaucracy gone horribly awry. It was everything government should never be—an intimidating force with unchecked power—and it seemed that its power spilled over into countless other elements of my day-to-day life. While I’ll never understand why I am forbidden […]
Posted inMusic
This Just In
Reporter Changes and Stays the Same
Hunched close together in a bustling Stumptown location, the three members of Reporter waste little time explaining themselves. “We are a different band,” says frontwoman Alberta Poon. “It’s not a name change. We think of it as being the same people, but a new project.” While that statement might come off a bit blunt, her […]
Posted inMusic
Once More with Feeling
Eux Autres
Despite a name that belongs in the City of Lights, Eux Autres (it’s pronounced ooz-oh-tra, by the way) hang their berets in Portland, where the brother and sister duo of Nicholas and Heather Larimer flaunt their Francophile interests via gorgeous bouncy pop songs. The pair migrated from Omaha a few years back and have been […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Patron Saint of Punk
Even Bono Can’t Ruin Joe Strummer
There is a large segment of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, the new documentary from Julien Temple (The Filth and the Fury) that is so sloppy and haphazard that it borders on unwatchable. That segment in question is actually the entire first half of the film, which deals with arguably the most important band […]
Posted inMusic
Hollywood Ending
The Good Life and the Human Condition
The conflict-of-interest police insist that I come clean with my relationship with the Good Life. Fine. During the swelling optimism of election week 2004 I found myself not campaigning for the end of the Bush regime, but instead drunk in Tokyo, Japan, tagging along with a band that was not the Good Life. But, as […]
Posted inMusic
Once More with Feeling
Jackpot Records
10th Anniversary
While other record stores struggle to make ends meet in an industry that has seen better days, Jackpot Records is breaking out the cake, candles, and pointy party hats in honor of their 10th anniversary. In addition to the party supplies, there will be a real bash this Saturday, featuring performances from Saturday Looks Good […]
Posted inMusic
King Swede
Jens Lekman and a Prize Pig with a Little Ribbon on It
I had that dream again. Jens Lekman—the dry-witted Swedish singing sensation, the most relevant of modern-day pop musicians—live in Vegas, recklessly swinging his hips and his mic, blinding the audience with a sequined jacket that would make Liberace blush, and all of this on a stage with a floor-to-ceiling J-E-N-S neon backdrop. I assume this […]