Part-Time Poet

John K. Samson is a genius songwriter. He might quit.

Music Stories In his 15-year career as frontman for the Weakerthans and as a solo artist, John K. Samson has written dozens of increasingly masterful story songs from the perspectives of bed-ridden hospital p   More

 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

The Lumineers: Friday, March 30

You can totally go home again.

Music Stories [FOLK POP] Leaving New York is never easy, or so latter-day R.E.M. would have us believe. Ask Jeremiah Fraites of the Lumineers, though, and he’ll tell you it’s really not that difficult. He    More

 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Primer: Megafaun

Music Stories Formed: 2006 in North Carolina. Sounds like: Improvisational folk musicians prone to frequent jazz, experimental and rock seizures.  For fans of: The Grateful Dead, Blitzen Trapper, Akron/Famil   More

 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 EMILEE BOOHER

Seven Secrets To Loving SXSW

Advice for wayward travelers from a four-year festival veteran.

Music Stories Every year I learn a few more what-not-to-dos at Austin’s SXSW music festival: Don’t sleep in too late or you’ll miss the free tacos; RSVP for everything, just in case; don’t make elaborat   More

 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Michael Gira: Friday, March 23

The Swans frontman has the energy of five punks half his age.

Music Stories [SINGER-SONGWRITER-BLEEDER] Watching footage of Michael Gira fronting the earliest incarnation of his band Swans, you almost expect him to either self-immolate onstage or spontaneously combust.    More

 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 ROBERT HAM

Howler: Monday, March 26

Howlin’ like loons.

Music Stories Howler’s Jordan Gatesmith is the first to admit he and his bandmates are adept at what the Brits call “taking the piss.” If you’ve ever read anything about the band—and it’s more likel   More

 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Album Review: Luck-One & Dekk

Beautiful Music Part 2

Music Stories [HIP-HOP] First things first: Beautiful Music Part 2 is the best album Luck-One has recorded to date. It’s a fine mix of the personal, the political and the spiritual. Dekk’s beats stagger d   More

 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Mic Check: The Candlelight Room

Music Stories For the past 28 years, the CandleLight Room has been one of Portland’s most diverse and laid-back clubs. Though it sits on the edge of the Portland State University campus, the club has long bee   More

 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

The King of Hymns

Trinity Episcopal goes beyond the U2charist with a Radiohead liturgy.

Music Stories In a sunlit, bookshelf-lined waiting room upstairs at Northwest Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Church, the Rev. William Lupfer talks casually across a coffee table about the Beatles, Carl Jung and   More

 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Mic Check: Seun Kuti

Music Stories Although he usually performed barefoot (and covered in little more than sweat and face paint), when Fela Kuti died in 1997, he left behind massive shoes to fill. For 30 years, the Nigerian bandl   More

 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER