Artists from Elton John to Blue Oyster Cult have gladly handed lyric-writing duties over to an outside party. Yet even with their deep knowledge of that tradition, psych-pop quintet Eyelids approached the prospect of recording an album using the words of Larry Beckett with some trepidation. Some of that was to do with the poet/lyricist’s […]
Robert Ham
Robert Ham is the Mercury's former Copy Chief. He writes regularly about music, film, arts, sports, and tech. He lives semi-consciously in far SE Portland with his wife, child, and four ornery cats.
Posted inMusic
Press Play: Music News for the Week of February 14
Laura Veirs Shelby Brakken Happy Valentine’s Day, fellow music lovers! Ready for another roundup of music news from around our fair city? Let’s not waste another moment then. Press play! On Wednesday, the Oregonian reported that the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had fined Pickathon and GuildWorks $31,000 after determining that their lack […]
Posted inRecord Reviews
Record Review: Eyelids, The Accidental Falls
Eyelids hand the lyrical reins to Tim Buckley collaborator Larry Beckett and come away with a glorious psych-pop delicacy.
Posted inMusic
RIP Lyle Mays, Keyboardist For the Pat Metheny Group
Lyle Mays Ralph Quinke Lyle Mays, the jazz keyboardist best known for his membership in the Pat Metheny Group, passed away on February 10 after what his niece has called “a long battle with a recurring illness.” He was 66. Mays was essential to the PMG’s sound and their success. He co-wrote much of the […]
Posted inMusic
How Will the Fire At Apollo Masters Affect the Local Music Industry?
photo by Adam Gonsalves Last Wednesday, news broke of a fire at Apollo Masters, the California-based business that was one of only two factories in the world that produced the lacquer used in the creation of master discs—one of the first steps in the manufacture of a vinyl album. While all the employees made it […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Review: Michael Apted’s 63 Up Stares Down Mortality and Post-Brexit England
courtesy of Britbox “This has been a glimpse of Britain’s future.” Each installment of director Michael Apted’s documentary series ends with those words, spoken over footage of 14 boys and girls, all aged 7, romping and playing. At the time that statement was recorded—in 1964, for a one-off episode of Granada TV’s World In Action—it […]
Posted inMusic
Sinead O’Connor Hides In Plain Sight
Sinead O’Connor Press Here Now In the vast landscape of pop music circa 2020, Sinead O’Connor is all but invisible, a speck on the horizon that most people over the age of 35 have to squint to recognize. If she does ring any bells for those folks, it’s usually connected to incidents the 53-year-old singer/songwriter […]
Posted inFood and Drink
KEX Brewing Brings Icelandic Beer to Portland
Aaron Lee Photography KEX, the new “social hotel,” and its ground floor restaurant Dóttir—both imported to Portland from their birthplace in Reykjavik—seem almost too perfect for our city. Suspiciously perfect. The artfully weathered interior, filled with Nordic furnishings and staffed with young people sporting perfectly manicured facial hair, feels like the creation of an alien […]
Posted inMusic
Lloyd Cole Talks Guesswork, Touring, and Making Music in the Spotify Era
Lloyd Cole Paul Shoul Lloyd Cole is a little keyed up. When I reach him on the phone, he has been adrenalized from getting an invitation from friend Chris Hughes (a former member of Adam and the Ants who produced, among other things, the first two Tears For Fears albums) to record his next album […]
Posted inMovies & TV
This February, Celebrate Bob Marley’s Birthday with the Mercury’s Picks at Movie Madness!
On February 6, stoners will fire up their gravity bongs and crackly LPs of Exodus to celebrate Bob Marley’s 75th birthday. While that’s all well and irie (as long as you stop bogarting the frickin’ spliff, DENNIS), we also want to celebrate the impact Marley had on our culture by looking at films that prominently […]
Posted inMusic
A.C. Newman On 20 Years of the New Pornographers, Clown Rooms, and More
The New Pornographers Ebru Yildiz For the past two decades, the New Pornographers have been a steady, reliable presence in the world of indie rock. Since the release of Mass Romantic in 2000, the US-Canadian ensemble has dropped a new album blending shades of new wave, glam, psychedelia, and pure pop every few years. And […]
