Ryan J. Prado

Bearing witness to the careful blooming of Weezy Ford’s musical identity has been fun. Evolving from the snarling, rockabilly understudy of her big sister Sallie, Weezy Ford has carved out an autonomous, though no-less-rollicking figure of rock ’n’ roll abandon. On her sophomore album, Sugarcane, Ford zeroes in on wanderlust for inspiration, with ghosts of […]

On Sugarcane, Weezy Ford’s sugar-sweet vocals and razor-sharp songwriting offer a satisfying volley for her reverb-drenched rockers.

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 […]

Mama Bird Recording Co. Taylor Kingman’s frequent performances at venues like the Laurelthirst have garnered him a strong local following, made all the more powerful when he’s backed by his band, the Holy Know-Nothings. The group’s debut LP, Arguably OK, possesses a gruff kind of poise, thanks to Kingman’s smart, relentlessly honest songwriting. Heavy-lidded country […]

Mary Kang When Khruangbin released their 2015 debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You, the Houston trio was still relatively unknown. The record’s groovy instrumentals reframe Thai psych jams and surf pop, reveling in a globally inspired paradigm of lush 1970s cool. With their sophomore record, Con Todo El Mundo (released in January via Dead Oceans), […]

Courtesy of the artist If you’re a local music fan, you’ve probably witnessed Elly Swope performing with some of Portland’s best bands: Genders, Sunbathe, Loveboys, Kelli Schaefer, Deathlist, and her own solo project, Focus! Focus! But this year Swope ditched that moniker and began to allow the magic of her vulnerable, skewed pop songs to […]

ALEXANDRA SAVIOR Sun 7/29 Doug Fir ELIOT LEE HAZEL Forget the fact that Alexandra Savior was tipped by Courtney Love as the next big thing while she was still in high school, or that she’s got a collaborative relationship with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. The proof of the Portland singer/songwriter’s creative cool is […]

Lance Bangs Floating Room’s sophomore album False Baptism is an uber-confessional crusher that neither singer/guitarist Maya Stoner nor her multi-instrumentalist bandmate/boyfriend Kyle Bates was in a rush to release, though it’s been finished for about a year. Stoner wrote Floating Room’s 2016 debut, Sunless, in the aftermath of an abusive relationship. That album’s self-described “gray […]