Mountain Goats Mon Oct 6 Berbati’s Pan Six cassettes, 10 seven-inches, 16 12″/CD/10″ records, a gianormous collection of songs on comps and collabs, plus the terrific, music-obsessive fanzine Last Train to Jakarta–this is what John Darnielle has to show for himself. The prolific songwriter, known to the drooling masses as Mountain Goats for his eloquent […]
Julianne Shepherd
Posted inMusic
A Pleasant Unsurprise
Outkast’s Tag-Team Split
OutKast Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below (Arista) *** Dre or Big Boi? In the OutKast double-album brouhaha, wherein the Atlanta duo splits the artistic difference in two individually created discs, this is the million-dollar question: Are ya gonna side with Dre (The Love Below), or Big Boi (Speakerboxxx)? It’s not really that simple. For one thing, […]
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Life Sucks, Dickhead
Aesop Rock’s Pistol-Sharp Steelo
Aesop Rock Bazooka Tooth (Def Jux) Aes Rizzle is on some serious fantasy shit. For his second Def Jux full-length, Bazooka Tooth, he re-imagines the sci-fi desolation of NYC, which his pal El-P purveyed on Fantastic Damage. But if El-P is Harrison Ford in Blade Runner, Aesop Rock is Charlton Heston in Omega Man. (Hence […]
Posted inArt
A Tale of Two Graffitis
How One City Embraced Urban Art, and Made Their World A Beautiful Place
Graffiti covers the world. Across Germany, France, and Italy, it resides on the Eurail tracks and the tops of buildings. But the graffiti in Barcelona, Spain is particularly beautiful. The city towers with famously elaborate architecture–wrought-iron castles and Gaudi cathedrals puncture the sky. Beneath its endless vistas, giant, colorful murals–influenced by Miro, Dali, Picasso–populate the […]
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Like a Phoenix from the Flames
Ratatat’s Epic Hybrid Jams
Ratatat Wed Sept 24 Holocene Triumph and drama are two of my absolute favorite devices in music, especially when they’re at their most mountainous extremes. While I’m not embarrassed about anything I like, sometimes triumph and drama manifest themselves in what some would consider cheesy pleasures–YesÉ JourneyÉ “I Hope I Get It,” from A Chorus […]
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Unconditional Joy
Lightheaded Reps for Positivity
Lightheaded Fri Sept 19 Ohm “When somebody pops in a Lightheaded album, I want it to feel like they’re hanging out with us, rather than we’re ‘talking to you’ or ‘come sit in my class,’” explains Braille, emcee for Portland hiphop group Lightheaded. “That’s the vibe we like to give off–I’m gonna share myself with […]
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It’s About Time
Some of the World’s Greatest Visionaries of Performance Art Converge in Portland for the First-Ever Time-Based Art Festival
Tickets available by phone or in person at PCPA Box Office, 1111 SW Broadway, 248-4335; each individual show: $10 for PICA members, $15 general. A pass to the entire festival costs $125 member/$150 general. If you consider yourself even the least bit artsy, dig this: The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) is cooking up […]
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Picky Choosy
Food Fight! Discriminates in the Best Way
Recently at Powell’s, I found a vegan feminist cookbook from the ’70s–totally awesome, but totally wonkalicious in its execution, juxtaposed by dainty illustrations of lavender and thyme and ovaries and fallopian tubes. Call me a child of the Millennium and/or Adbusters, but those drawings were a total turn-off. I like things to look design-y or […]
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Midwest Pride
Atmosphere Does it Minneapolis Style
Atmosphere Tues Sept 16 Roseland “She’s got the action/You’ve got the issues” –Lifter Puller “You kiss like you already came/ and that’s a Lifter Puller line for those without any game.” –Atmosphere Hardcore fans of Minneapolis punks Lifter Puller get “LFTR PLLR” tattooed across their knuckles, but after Rob Osbourne (Ozzy’s adopted kid) appeared on […]
Posted inMovies & TV
God is Lame
And Screws You Over
The Rapture dir. Tolkin Opens Fri Sept 5 Clinton Street Theatre In 1991, Nirvana’s Nevermind was released, and an entire nation found itself relating to music written by a misanthropic, suicidal heroin junkie. The Rapture was released the same year; if that’s any indication, American society was having a serious existential crisis about the coming […]
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Form and Function
DJ/Record Label Guru Bio: Ken Dyber
Aesthetics Records Showcase Thurs Sep 4 Fez Ballroom Kenneth James Dyber has been running Aesthetics Records for six years; about a year ago, he relocated his whole operation to Portland. Half of Pulseprogramming, whose records he releases, live here; they’re joined by a diverse, yet consistently artful roster that includes hiphop artist Seth P. Brundel, […]
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Keep It Simple
Fun Deerhoof Charms the World
Deerhoof Sat Aug 30 Blackbird “Simple is the basics. Deerhoof starts with simple, and if there are any songs that sound not-simple, I think it’s just that it turned out complicated.” This is what Deerhoof singer/bass player Satomi Matsuzaki tells me about their music, and it seems obvious enough. Deerhoof started out with simple, and […]