Scoop: Gossip Destroys the Best Minds of its Generation.

1. OLD FRUIT: Fruit Bats, the Portland-via-Chicago indie-folk band, is calling it quits. Like, right now. On Nov. 11, frontman Eric D. Johnson told the online magazine Paste that the band would end its 13-year run following a series of shows celebrating the 10th anniversary of its fan-favorite sophomore album, Mouthfuls, the last of which is Saturday, Nov. 16, at Aladdin Theater. “There is no major or dramatic reason,” Johnson wrote in a press statement. “I’m not gonna launch into one of those ‘the changing face of the music landscape in the digital age,’ things.” Johnson, who started Fruit Bats as a solo project in 2000 and has kept a revolving membership, says he’s drifted more toward producing bands and writing movie scores lately (the last Fruit Bats album, Tripper, came out in 2011) but adds he will continue to make records in some capacity. “[T]his is just the start of chapter two, really,” he wrote.

1. SPRUCE NOT GOOSED: Despite news reported by The Oregonian on Nov. 8 that Evergreen International Aviation may close at the end of this month, Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum spokeswoman Melissa Grace says Spruce Goose fans need not fret. “Obviously they’ve supported us in the past,” she says of the airline, “but the museum is able to financially sustain itself.” In 2011, the last year for which there are public records available, the McMinnville museum ended the year with a surplus of over $1 million, mostly from revenues. However, the Oregon Department of Justice is investigating money transfers between the nonprofit and the airline.

1. UNION-MADE: The folks at West End shopping arcade Union Way—home to Boxer Ramen, a littler Little T Baker and boutiques with $335 blue jeans—have managed to get a glowing write-up in The New York Times travel magazine. The piece contains the now-obligatory quote from a Portlandia star to help readers understand the significance of it all. “Union Way both comments on and embodies all of Portland’s lifestyle and aesthetic aspirations,” says Carrie Brownstein, referred to as our “de facto mayor” in the piece. “It says, ‘This is Portland,’ but at the same time it asks the very same thing: ‘This is Portland?’” In October, The New York Times ran a 650-word piece about a New York couple who spent almost a half-million dollars remodeling their $300,000 Portland home.

1. OPEN ROOM: Record Room, the North Portland record store, music venue and bar, is closing at the end of November. According to owner Rachel Rhymes, the plan was to close for remodeling in December, but a deal with an investor fell through. Record Room’s final show, featuring an auction of remaining merchandise, will take place Nov. 22. >> Meanwhile, Ramzy Hattar—a financial backer of Oven and Shaker, Lardo and the forthcoming Kachka restaurant—will open a bar called the River Pig Saloon at 529 NW 13th Ave., in the space vacated by the Ready Paint Fire! ceramic painting spot. According to the bar’s Facebook page, it will “add some grit back to the Pearl District.”

WWeek 2015