The less I write here, the more Dolorean’s Al James gets to eloquently make his case, so I will keep it short. The new Dolorean album, You Can’t Win, is not only hands-down James’ best album to date, it’s my favorite local release of this young year. The new album seems to be pretty open […]
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
It’s Oh So Quiet
The Polite Hum of the One AM Radio
The cops all know you’ve been sleeping in your car, but you’re so polite when you step outside, they’ve let it slide so far. You tried once again to find the house that you once knew, but streets seem rearranged. The names have changed and it’s not coming back to you. —”Coming Back” Imagine that […]
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Stay Sweet
Au Revoir Simone Is Fake French
To look at the ladies of Au Revoir Simone, you’d think they waltzed hand in hand off the pages of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. They sparkle with enough childlike innocence to win your heart like little more than a carnival prize, attainable by just knocking over a few milk jugs with an underhanded toss. […]
Posted inNews
Portland’s Sexiest Places!
We really went and shot ourselves in the foot when we asked Mercury readers to dish on the best places to have sex in Portland—turns out your favorite places are our favorite places, too! Now we all have to find new places, unless we want to be running into each other in compromising positions. Which, […]
Posted inMusic
Born Anew
Say Hello to the New Modest Mouse
Can we all stop caring about the old Modest Mouse now? The days of the arrests, meltdowns, random member shifts, talking to God… those days are over. Modest Mouse, in its current—and arguably, most stable—incarnation is not the same band. Other than the still-cute moniker, this is a different creature than the bratty little indie […]
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The Curse of the Sea Dog
Her Name Is Assbring. Hey, Stop Laughing
The Rhino box set of One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found elbowed its way into my music collection last year, and has never left. At three CDs, it features unearthed gems from Cathy Saint, the Rev-Lons, the Honeys, and tons of other ’60s-era girl bands I had never heard […]
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Once More with Feeling
Small Sails
The gentle atmospheric hum of Small Sails has never sounded better than on their latest album, Similar Anniversaries. Using a wide array of both organic and electronic sounds, the band is deliberately subtle and wildly creative, with a live show that incorporates film projections alongside the band’s performance. Guitarist/singer Ethan Rose takes a minute to […]
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Once More with Feeling
Paleo
365 days, 365 songs. That is the goal of Brooklyn’s Paleo, an eclectic singer/songwriter who has been steadily posting his daily Song Diary music for the past 318-plus days. What makes this project even more stunning is that Paleo has been touring this whole time. Christmas Day? Chicago, Illinois and a song called “Across the […]
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The Non-Marching Band
Run Away with the MarchFourth Marching Band
The pageantry and sheer insanity of the 35-member (give or take a few here and there) MarchFourth Marching Band is completely lost on you while you wait outside their practice space in Southeast Portland. Standing near the entrance of the arts collective The Egg, while the muffled horns and muted drums bleed through the door, […]
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Once More with Feeling
The Annuals
There are small glimpses of pure genius on Be He Me, the debut album from Raleigh, North Carolina’s the Annuals. But these moments—and they are just that: quick fleeting moments—are scattered haphazardly throughout the album, making it the most uneven recording you could possibly imagine. It’s not ideal to pick and choose tracks on the […]
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The People’s Punk
Dumpster Diving for This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb
At their very best, This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb is a complete and total mess. Good intentions aside, this Pensacola folk-punk band is as unorganized as a co-op meeting, and one would assume their songwriting duties are divvied-up via a “chore wheel” or possibly by whoever is holding the “community talking stick.” Vocals overlap […]
Posted inMusic
Once More with Feeling
Supernova
Hailing from the planet Cynot 3, and currently residing in the suburbs of Orange County, CA, the goofy space-punk trio Supernova has been pretty dormant as of late. Earth living will do that to you, but as the band was recently working on new material, they were sidetracked by the cruel world of reality television, […]