Good call on the Blitzen Trapper reference. They were the first emissary that I encountered from Portland and I moved here about a year and a half after I first heard them. Mission accomplished!
The thing about outlandish Portland bullshit that gets the hackles raised, for the last far too many years it is hardly even something that can be called 'Portland'. Okay, I was born and raised here, I lived in a semi squalid artist slash punk house off 17th and Alberta in the late 90's through early 2000's, I made self awarely lame art to sell to tourists at First Whatever. I am guilty of all the crimes that resulted in dominant Portland culture. But what I see today, it is like the masses who swarmed here after reading New York Times or whatever because they like the sound of our funky aesthetic came here, took all the most ridiculous bits and things that even the hardcore of the Clownhouse Weirdos would roll their eyes at and amplified it by a factor of 20.. and doing nothing else.. so it all became a parade of the ludicrous whose din and everlasting youth perpetuated by a constant stream of fresh faced new arrivals drowned out the aging natives who were never quite so very.. very.
Or I am just old and no longer with it. It'll happen to you, too. You'll hit an age, and suddenly start enjoying The Monkees on an unironic level.
Or I am just old and no longer with it. It'll happen to you, too. You'll hit an age, and suddenly start enjoying The Monkees on an unironic level.