Michele Wylen
  • Charley Zheng
  • Michele Wylen
Another week, another Mercury music section that doesn't trample on the graves of dead rock icons. Look, only an idiot would assume that Paul McCartney would be insensitive enough to perform Nirvana songs with the remaining members of the band tonight—the man happens to have a few songs of his own, you know—but let's get real. If anyone were to do such a thing, Macca's the best man for the job, being not unfamiliar with lionized dead songwriters himself.
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Michele Wylen is something of an anomaly in Portland: a mainstream pop artist whose music would fit in with anything else in the Top 40. But that's just a hint of what Wylen's got going on—her live show this weekend promises to be a multimedia extravaganza.
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Pinehurst Kids have been playing in Portland since before you moved here, kiddo. Their new EP, Nobody Talks, isn't some shadow of emo's past, but the excellent work of a band still at the peak of their powers.
LISTEN:

Pinehurst Kids - "River's Edge"
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The Mayan apocalypse is right around the corner. Fittingly, the hooded fellows in Sunn O))) make long, drawn-out riffs that signify the end of the world.
LISTEN:

Sunn O))) - "Big Church"
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The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle says he's still an optimist, and generally happy. Of course, that was before he accidentally wedged a throw rug under a heating vent during our phone interview.
LISTEN:

The Mountain Goats - "Cry for Judas"
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Plus a stacked deck of this week's Up & Coming shows.