Album Reviews [ABSTRACT ELECTRONIC] The term “mind-blowing” has lost a little of its potency. It always seemed like an incomplete thought to begin with (blowing up? blowing out? blowing smoke?), but at the he   More

Album Reviews [RAP TO THE FUTURE] With each new release, veteran Portland MC Cool Nutz believes he is completely reinventing himself. He’s only partly right. The Cook-Up indeed represents a change in direction   More

Album Reviews [PIANO SONGS] Rachel Taylor Brown knows how to make an entrance: With a roomful of 50 pianos playing the same notes for two minutes straight. After that, one half expects Liza Minnelli to jump out    More

Album Reviews [DEATH METAL] Is it possible to record an understated death-metal album? I certainly didn’t think so, but Dusks Embrace has proven me wrong. Certainly, the second full-length by this Salem quart   More

Album Reviews [BASEMENT POP-PUNK] Most bands struggle with the 7-inch format: Picking a pair of songs that put an act’s best foot forward, while working within the time constraints of the medium, is no easy ch   More

Album Reviews [TRUE FOLK ROCK] Lewi Longmire has been around the block a few times. In 2008, he traced his musical “family tree” for WW and the result was a vast spider web of connections: Longmire has played   More

Album Reviews [PSYCH ROCK] You’d never know Viva Voce had such a tumultuous recent history—the duo of Kevin and Anita Robinson has had side projects, full-band experiments and label switches since 2009—from   More

Album Reviews [BIG BEAT FROM STUMPTOWN] As much as I loved Mattress, something about Rex Marshall’s basso profondo voice never seemed to jibe too well with that band’s lo-fi electronic leanings. But with his    More

Album Reviews [ONE-MAN POP BAND] Sometimes a little love gets you further than a lot of polish. So while it sometimes sounds like the technology on Quiet Countries’ third disc, The Ancient Motorcade—loop ped   More

Album Reviews [ROOTS-ROCK COCKTAIL] If opening tracks are meant to forecast an album’s mood, then “Long Fall,” the first cut off Redwood Son’s two-disc debut effort, The Lion’s Inside, signals clear sk   More