Ryan J. Prado

Guantanamo Baywatch’s Desert Center moves beyond surf.

GOLDEN RETRIEVER Not pictured: a goddamn golden retriever. Golden Retriever The radiant summer sidewalk outside Southeast Stark juice café Canteen seems too exposed an environment to be talking with Portland experimental duo Golden Retriever. The contents of the music created by Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson are dark, cerebral, and brooding. One imagines they make […]

The duo makes experimental but deeply human music.

LOVEBOYS (Not to be confused with the red-leather-clad Canadian rockers.) Courtesy of the artist Following the death of his mother in early 2015, Adam Fight left Southern California for Portland with a quiver of blunt, enraged songs. Fight began playing bass in the local music scene, where he met Elly Swope and Victoria Valenzuela. Then […]

Loveboys’ debut EP reaps what it sows.

TODD WALBERG Boone Howard’s charm is a blend of his misfit stage persona and his musical talents. Never has this magnetism sounded so gloriously despondent as on his new LP, The Other Side of Town. Howard’s who’s-who ensemble of Portland ringers (members of the Domestics, Hustle and Drone, Howard’s former band the We Shared Milk, […]

On The Other Side of Town, Boone Howard transcends the confines of dark indie-pop and moves into something headier.

THE YEAR 2016 marked the 75th anniversary of one of the more notable months of Woody Guthrie’s distinguished songwriting career. Hired by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to write a series of songs touting the wonders of the coming hydroelectric revolution, Guthrie left Los Angeles penniless, and drove himself and his young family to Portland […]

DOWN GOWN “We are playing stuff that’s out of style.” James Clark GATHERED AROUND a table in the noisy Slingshot Lounge, the members of local post-rock band Down Gown appear bonded and respectful as they listen and encourage each other in conversation. This cooperative atmosphere seems to reflect the thoughtful focus of the Portland band’s […]

A new collection of covers by Pacific Northwest artists pays tribute to Woody Guthrie’s BPA song cycle.

Down Gown’s debut draws from past and present.

RYLEY WALKER No Joe Perry. Tom Sheehan CHICAGO GUITAR PHENOM Ryley Walker is amusingly complicated. Steeped in free jazz experimentalism and dream-folk whimsy, Walker’s work is a natural progression from artists like John Martyn and even John Coltrane, though he’s also a steadfast contemporary of Cian Nugent, Steve Gunn, and William Tyler. “I don’t have […]