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Ryan J. Prado
Posted inSpin Cycle

Spin Cycle: Three Albums of Transition and Calm in the Face of Oppression

Recent releases from The Delines, Anjimile, and Ora Cogan offer a salve in these changing times.
by Ryan J. Prado

If music truly is a salve for the weary heart, then I hope we’ve all been slathering it on nice and thick the past couple weeks. With the onrush of spring blossoms and the doldrums of wintertime peacing out in the rearview, it’s a time for transition, and for emphasizing the importance of breathing, of […]

Posted inMusic

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back for Portland’s Music Venues

Independent music venues look for an upturn and answers after a recent spate of closures.
Ryan J. Prado

Whether you’re an avid reader of these pages, or just a Portlander with a discerning live music landscape radar, it’s been hard to avoid story after story of independent live music venue closures and fundamental business model changes to some of the city’s most esteemed entertainment sites.  Over the past 18 months, venerable establishments like […]

Posted inSpin Cycle

Introducing Spin Cycle, the Mercury’s New Album Review Column

Three albums to lock in with every two weeks: local, international, whatever we want! 
Ryan J. Prado

Welcome to Spin Cycle! It’s the biweekly aural hygiene you deserve in a handy-dandy cheat sheet format for albums of particular note from Portland and beyond! The Rose City is not unlike a homing beacon for discerning audiophiles, semi-professional appreciators of physical media, and folks who spend three-quarters of their waking lives with headphones fastened […]

Posted inAlbum Review

Album Review: We’re Heading to the Lake With Portland’s Guitar

From bedroom beatmaking to touring the US with a band that has bad SEO and good sound. 
Ryan J. Prado

In an age where search engine optimization is a vital consideration for news headlines, business upstarts, and pretty much all creative endeavors, you’d be forgiven if you thought that a band called Guitar would drift into eternal, unsearchable obscurity. But ask Guitar brainchild Saia Kuli about the would-be gaffe, it’s the innate humor in such […]

Posted inMusic

Monqui-ing Around Lloyd Center

Update on Monqui Presents teaming with AEG for new music venue in Lloyd Center.
Ryan J. Prado

It might not have a name yet, but the realization of the much-ballyhooed mid-sized music venue by Portland’s Monqui Presents and AEG Presents is well underway at the corner of Northeast 9th and Multnomah.  Demolition at the site of the former Nordstrom inside the 1.472 million square foot footprint of Lloyd Center Mall has been […]

Posted inMusic

Wherefore Art Thou Doug Fir?

The beloved Portland music venue will (hopefully) make its grand return soon! 
Ryan J. Prado

Despite a renaissance of new music venues sprouting up around Portland’s Central Eastside, the delayed relaunch of one of the city’s most beloved venues is on the tip of many local showgoers’ tongues. The reopening efforts of the Doug Fir Lounge in the former Le Bistro Montage digs has encountered ongoing bureaucratic speed bumps due […]

Posted inMusic

Album Review: Times Infinity’s Boy on Horse Is Worth the Wait

The heater new LP delivers the sonic assults we’ve been missing
Ryan J. Prado

When Portland five-piece Times Infinity first began writing songs for what would become their fifth album, Boy on Horse, they were in the midst of their rollicking 2018 West Coast tour, at which time it looked as though the country might finally escape from underneath Donald Trump’s grubby thumb. By the time the band was […]

Posted inMusic

Portland’s Chameleonic Artists Deliver on Tender Loving Empire’s New Compilation, Paradise Hotel

Ryan J. Prado

Various Artists Tender Loving Empire There may have been some sort of overarching “Portland sound” at one point or another—who knows? It’s a pointless debate, and besides, the cross-pollination of genres—not just in Portland but all over the world—has broken those arguments wide open. Paradise Hotel, a compilation of songs by various artists from Portland’s […]

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