DO YOU REMEMBER the first time you heard Joy Division, or My Bloody Valentine, or any musician who’s dark and somehow literary, but also instinctual? Remember how you felt–like there was some heavy thing pressing on your chest, this new beautiful melancholy, this strange and wonderful sepia-toned sound, and maybe you didn’t really know where […]
Julianne Shepherd
Posted inMovies & TV
Mercury Video Picks
MAJORITY RULE
You’d think employees of world-renowned SE video store Movie Madness would have more “arty” films for their favorite movies, like Wings of Desire or Trust. In actuality, they didn’t even mention Jean-Luc Godard! Movie Madness Employee: Angelo Favorite Movie: Repo Man Why: “It’s pretty zany. I like Alex Cox’s style.” Movie Madness Employee: Jamie Favorite […]
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Elliott Don’t Get Fooled Again
DJ Bio
SPIN SPIDER SPIN: He’s the electronic music director at KPSU, and he’s got a “future jazz jive” radio show on which he spins Detroit techno, Afro-Cuban house, Latin jazz, downtempo, hip-hop, and more (Mondays 5-7 pm). Do you have a mission statement for your show? “I want the show to be an alternative to the […]
Posted inMusic
Kitty Diggins
DJ Bio
MEOW: Ms. Diggins is the connoisseuse of go-go nights, spinning ’60s psych garage, instrumental spy, and surf soundtrack music. She’s also the hostess of the Strange Fruit of Summer Burlesque Review this Fri (Aug 11, Berbati’s Pan), in which she joins the Cantankerous Lollies, Third Floor Sketch Comedy, Tony Mangini, Jackie Hell, Ursula Android, End […]
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Antidote to Myopia
Peripheral Produce Breaks the Paradigm
THE NEGATIVLAND EXPERIENCE is so enjoyable–they’re chaotic deconstructionists who eschew copyright laws, warp our familiar images, and feed them back. In their newest film with Trevor Maloney, Gimme the Mermaid, they bake their traditional humor-and-clusterfuck pie by co-opting Disney’s The Little Mermaid. A big-haired Ariel spouts gutteral threats of “It’s mine, you can’t use this […]
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Coming Uncoiled
The Worst Interview Ever
YOU SEE, I wanted to talk to Cracker’s David Lowery about Camden Joy’s latest book, Boy Island (Camden Joy being the most brilliant rock critic alive and Boy Island being a semi-surreal rock/culture novel about Cracker). Admittedly, I know very little about Cracker, and I was too young to “get” Camper Van Beethoven during their […]
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Displaced Cosmonaut: David Lowery
Music Bio
David Lowery is the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band Cracker. He was also in now-defunct, late ’80s college cult band Camper Van Beethoven. He owns a small record label called Pitch a Tent. He and Cracker play at the Crystal Ballroom Thurs Aug 3. Do you like karaoke? “I’ve done karaoke […]
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Portland’s Inner Thighs
Ugly Parade Hurts So Good
THE MOST FABULOUS living room in Portland belongs to Sol Burbridge and Greg Arden. It’s decorated like a crazy grandmother had her way with it: orange ashtrays, a dish of taffy, silk roses, oil portraits of people presumably long dead. It’s the sort of place that, if it already didn’t smell lightly of cigarette smoke, […]
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DJ Aquaman
DJ Bio
GOING SWIMMINGLY: Aquaman’s famed and fabulous Soul Stew night debuts this Wednesday at its new home (Ohm, every Wed thereafter). What’s your most anal retentive trait? “Checking E-Bay for the funk 45″ selection.” Have you had a really triumphant record purchase? “Every new record is a triumph…I’m literally like a child, because every new record […]
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Beasts of Burden
The Coens Want Us to Want Their Characters Dead
In Blood Simple, there is a scene in which a man, nearly dead from a bullet in his heart, drags himself away from a car parked on a lone highway. The car’s driver watches him with equal parts horror and disgust. He is clearly unable to react, but knows he must do something. Suddenly, to […]
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Pop Psychology
Ms. Julianne Administers the Rohrschach
Memo: RE: Micro POPFEST ’00 July 20, 21 at Meow Meow Problem: How do the psyches of individuals participating in said event translate musically? Examination: After evaluating and discounting several test possibilites (pH testing, chemical fusion, psychoanalysis) the research team settled on the ever-reliable Rohrschach Test, also known as the “Inkblot Test.” We opted for […]
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Mercury Video Picks
The new video releases for July 18 are a gentle reminder that, even with a famous cast, Hollywood can still make a pretty entertaining Grade B Movie. Break out the gravity bong! € The Whole Nine Yards (2000)–In his most challenging role to date, Chandler from Friends plays a dentist. In his least challenging role […]