Zac Pennington, Author at Portland Mercury

For a person whose prevailing psychological condition teeters with equal consistency between states of paranoia and anxiety, there are very few irrational fears in my life that stick out as being particularly head-and-shoulders above the teeming masses. There are two, to be absolutely precise: one is raccoons, the other is Steve Albini. The reasons for […]

Music

No Free Lunch

Shellac Could Not Be More Awesome

Zac PenningtonAugust 25, 2005 4:00 amJuly 12, 2022 7:15 pm

Exacting, costly packaging; meticulously custom-made gear; as much as five years (and counting) between records; brief, infrequent touring that rarely coordinates with record releases; playing

Music

Surf’s Up

Brian Wilson Owes Us Nothing

Zac PenningtonAugust 25, 2005 4:00 amJuly 12, 2022 7:15 pm

I hope you’re happy with yourself. You, with your seemingly bottomless sense of entitlement. You, who couldn’t leave well enough alone. You, who just had to ask “What if Brian Wilson

Movies & TV

Wanna Hear a Dirty Joke?

Getting Filthy (and Funny) with The Aristocrats

Zac PenningtonAugust 25, 2005 4:00 amJuly 12, 2022 7:15 pm

To begin with, The Aristocrats is about a joke, and the film’s title is that joke’s punchline. I know that sounds like a spoiler—and well, maybe it is, a little bit—but the punchline is hardly the point of The Aristocrats. So what exactly

Music

Me vs. Cass

The Elusive Shroud of Cass McCombs

Zac PenningtonAugust 18, 2005 4:00 amJuly 12, 2022 7:15 pm

Cass McCombs Sat Aug 20 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside As any hack music writer can tell you, there’s nothing like classic infatuation to completely curb the creative impulse. I can (and usually do) sit in my office cranking out dismissive, semi-clever quips about fair-to-middling indierock all day long without so much as breaking […]

Feature

Estacada: Why Aren’t You There Yet?

Wm. Steven Humphrey, Katie Shimer, Erik Henriksen, Marjorie Skinner, Phil Busse, Zac Pennington, Justin Wescoat Sanders, and Will GardnerAugust 11, 2005 4:00 amJuly 12, 2022 7:14 pm

While every other newspaper and magazine in town are popping out “Best of Portland” issues like a Gresham teen makes babies, let’s be honest: How many times

The Best of Estacada

Music

Happy Accidents

Relieving Your Liz Phair Anxieties

Zac PenningtonAugust 11, 2005 4:00 amJuly 12, 2022 7:14 pm

I know that this might come as an extremely difficult thing to come to terms with—to look back over the stretch of the last decade and realize that the very foundation you’ve built a healthy

Just Can't Get Enough?