Primer: Alt-J

Music Stories Formed: In 2007 in Leeds, England. Sounds like: A poppy, sonically schizophrenic take on what it’s like to search for authentic folk in a world burgeoning with wobbly dubstep and cryptic trap m   More

 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 BRANDON WIDDER

Vice Device: Monday, April 8

Coming in from the coldwave.

Music Stories [DARK SYNTHS] Even if you didn’t know the members of Vice Device play in a band together, you could probably guess just by looking at them. Seated in a booth at Liberty Glass in North Portland   More

 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG

The Girls With the Golden Egg

When the folk gets going, Shook Twins get weird.

Music Stories The phrase that gets tossed around most often when publicists and writers talk about the music of Portland’s Shook Twins is “quirky folk.” It’s a simple enough descriptor that’s great to   More

 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013 ROBERT HAM

Flashback: The Git-Rights Gospel Revue

at the Ponderosa Lounge, Aug. 27, 2011

Music Stories “This was our ‘farewell’ performance at a truck-stop bar in North Portland. After the band’s five-year run, I was leaving Portland to return to Austin, Texas. The somewhat straight-laced r   More

 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013 WW MUSIC STAFF

Commentary: On Bob Seger

Music Stories I am on a long and lonesome highway west of Saginaw, Mich., when a voice comes wafting through the speakers: “On a long and lonesome highway/ East of Omaha.” The voice is raspy and deep. It’   More

 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013 AP KRYZA

1939 Ensemble: Friday, March 29

What can you do with just drums and vibes? A lot.

Music Stories [POST-ROCK] A person can learn a lot about surviving in the music business from sharing a tour bus with Kim Deal. In the 13 years Jose Medeles has spent drumming alongside the Pixies bassist in    More

 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013 MATTHEW SINGER

This Is Hell

The godfather of punk has written his life story. It’s not pretty.

Music Stories Richard Hell is punk rock’s patient zero. Born Richard Meyers in Lexington, Ky., in 1949, he ran away to New York at age 17, where he traded poetry for a bass guitar, spiked his hair and saf   More

 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 MATTHEW SINGER

Primer: Joey Bada$$

Music Stories Born: In 1995 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Sounds like: Your older brother’s favorite hip-hop cassette tape from the early ’90s.  For fans of: Nas, Gang Starr, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. Late   More

 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 REED JACKSON

Kim Baxter: Wednesday, March 20

Blending real life with the pop life.

Music Stories [POP] Last April, Kim Baxter, former member of Portland power-twee group All Girl Summer Fun Band, released her first solo album, The Tale of Me and You, though you’re probably unaware of it.    More

 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 ROBERT HAM

Big Youth

The Hugs’ Danny Delegato is ready for a comeback—at age 24.

Music Stories In 2007, 18-year-old Danny Delegato sat across from the head of the U.K. branch of Columbia Records and listened to him explain how he was going to make Delegato and his band, the Hugs, into sta   More

 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013 MATTHEW SINGER