Primer: Kreayshawn

Music Stories Born: In San Francisco in 1989 as Natassia Gail Zolot.  Sounds like: An undergrad exercise in hip-hop compiled by a fitfully charming lass of compelling backstory and rather more friends tha   More

 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012 JAY HORTON

Guitar Shorty: Thursday, Dec. 13

Fifty-plus years on, a tireless bluesman is still searching for the crossroads.

Music Stories [BLUES] Guitar Shorty gets no respect. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Among hardcore disciples of the blues, the 73-year-old singer and guitarist—did you think he played flugelhorn?—i   More

 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Northern Exposure

A tour through the Vancouver music scene.

Music Stories Compared to spending a Friday night circling the streets of downtown Portland looking for a free parking spot, venturing 15 minutes north on I-5 and slipping into Vancouver’s city center at nigh   More

 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 ROBERT HAM

Antibalas: Saturday, Dec. 8

America’s premier Afrobeat orchestra proves you can go home again.

Music Stories [AFROBEAT-AMERICAN] If Afrobeat has a mecca, it is, appropriately enough, the Shrine. Like New York’s CBGB for punk rockers or Hamburg’s Star-Club for Beatles fanatics, the nightclub, located    More

 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Primer: Sufjan Stevens

Music Stories Born: In 1975 in Detroit.  Sounds like: The musical equivalent of childhood wonder. For fans of: Highly conceptualized folk, choirlike vocal richness, unobtrusive biblical references, found s   More

 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 MARK STOCK

Meeting the Old Boss

The many legends of Springsteen.

Music Stories Every American—anyone “born in the U.S.A.,” if you will—has a connection to Bruce Springsteen. It doesn’t matter if you treasure his rusty-throated, denim-collared rock-’n’-roll anth   More

 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Nasalrod: Saturday, Dec. 1

One big, happy punk-rock family.

Music Stories [OFF-KILTER PUNK] Looks can be deceiving, and the members of Nasalrod are some deceptive motherfuckers. Gathered together in the fastidiously beige North Portland living room of bassist Kat Know   More

 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Primer: John Cale

Music Stories Born: In 1942 in Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales Sounds like: Pop music filtered through classical training and imbued with a confrontational spirit.  For fans of: Patti Smith, David Bowie, Bri   More

 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 ROBERT HAM

A Long, Bizarre Ride

The Pharcyde’s classic debut turns 20.

Music Stories In 1992, four L.A. misfits snuck in through the backdoor of hip-hop history. As the media’s attention focused on rap’s cop killers and mean-mugging gangsters, the Pharcyde—Imani, Bootie Br   More

 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Primer: World Party

Music Stories Born: In Prestatyn, Wales, in 1957. Formed: In 1986 in London. Sounds like: Beatlesque melodies and gentle-Jagger vocals mixed with Neil Young-aspiring lyrics and Prince-ly production touches. For    More

 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 JEFF ROSENBERG