Ted Leo at Revolution Hall Mon 11/7 Morgan Troper Halfway through Ted Leo’s set last night at Revolution Hall, his band, the Pharmacists—which in its current incarnation consists of two additional guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, and a saxophonist—walked off the stage, leaving Leo to perform a few songs by himself. This mini solo set […]
Morgan Troper
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Diving into the Mouth of Country Music—and Red-State America—at the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival
SAMANTHA SUTCLIFFE I am not wanted at the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival. For better or worse, I’ve grown accustomed to getting into shows and music festivals for free. Along with the hate mail, it’s the main perk of being a music writer. Event organizers can be almost slavishly accommodating; after all, they’re vying for […]
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Song of the Red States
Diving into the Mouth of Country Music—and Red-State America—at the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival
Diving into the mouth of country music—and red-state America—at the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival.
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Dreamdecay’s Yú Is One of the Most Accessible Heavy Records in Years
DREAMDECAY Heavily obscured. Courtesy of the artist The first thing you’ll notice about Seattle punks Dreamdecay is that they are very loud. This was fully put into perspective earlier this month, when they played the Know with bands significantly less loud than them—historically a faux pas, especially in Portland. (See Portlandia’s “Battle of the Gentle […]
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Dreamdecay’s Noisy Punk Is Strangely Catchy
Their New LP, Yú, Is One of the Most Accessible Heavy Records in Years
Dreamdecay’s Yú is one of the most accessible heavy records in years.
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The Domestics PR Disaster Makes Me Feel Bad About the Music Industry
The Domestics Jason Quigley Nearly a month ago, news broke that Portland indie rock darlings the Domestics had launched a bizarre viral marketing campaign to promote their new album, Little Darkness. Paste first reported that the band sent out 63 tapes labeled “Trump/Comey Recordings” and emblazoned with fake red “CONFIDENTIAL” stamps to a variety of […]
Posted inVideo Games
Sonic Mania Is Great—Because It Was Made by a Fan
Sega Few, if any, video game icons have fallen from grace as dramatically as Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic went from being one of the most recognizable game characters in existence—and the epitome of playground cool—to an anachronism hailing from the era when anthropomorphic animals could be considered badass. (Also see: Jazz Jackrabbit, Street Sharks, and […]
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Yousef Hatlani’s Bit by Bit Painstakingly Reinvents Retro Game Sounds
YOUSEF HATLANI Portland’s friendliest “tastemaker.” AARON SHARPSTEEN For the better half of the past decade, Yousef Hatlani has been one of those everywhere-at-once scene notables; he worked at the now-shuttered Backspace and Someday Lounge, was a co-host on the music podcast Faces on the Radio, and remains a tireless photographer and documentarian of live music […]
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Yousef Hatlani Reworks Classic Video Game Music
Bit by Bit Painstakingly Reinvents Retro Game Sounds
Bit by Bit painstakingly reinvents retro game sounds.
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Satirical Punk Blog The Hard Times Skewers the Scene
The Hard Times When Bill Conway and brothers Matt and Ed Saincome started The Hard Times—a fake punk news site based in Portland and heavily inspired by the Onion—in 2014, they knew they weren’t working with the most accessible concept. “We kind of just figured 10 friends would like it, and then 10 other people […]
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Fake News for Punks
The Hard Times Skewers the Local Scene
The Hard Times skewers the local scene.
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Get Off David Crosby’s Lawn
The Legendary 75-Year-Old Songwriter Found Twitter (And We Are All in His Crosshairs)
The legendary 75-year-old songwriter found Twitter (and we are all in his crosshairs).