Music
Ilyas Ahmed Goner
(Root Strata)

[EXPERIMENTAL] The blurry bio of Pakistan-born outsider musician Ilyas Ahmed—who bounced around the country before landing in Portland—is as perplexing as the moody clutch of CD-Rs and small-label releases on which his music can be found. That lost sound—hypnotic Fahey/Basho-cycles on druggy Spacemen 3 trips&mda...   More

Music
Portland Cello Project The Thao & Justin Power Sessions
(Kill Rock Stars)

[SYMPHONY OF CELLOS] The cello is the one stereotypically classical instrument that always sounds cool in an indie-rock context. But what happens when you try to meld a suite of traditional compositions against a bed of low-key folk rock? That’s the basic question that the Portl...   More

Music Bryan Webb’s favorite Canadian comedy shows.

SCTV
The fictional television station where John Candy, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Harold Ramis, Catherine O’Hara and Rick Moranis got their start. Best sketch: “Great White North” with Bob Doug McKenzie. The Kids in the Hall
Toronto-centric surreal anti-satire madness from five o...   More

Music A pair of “bizarre old souls” take PDX to lookout point.

[FRENCH VANILLA POP] With the Zac Efron swoop ’do and Huck Finn cutoffs of a perennial cool kid, Jason Davis hardly embodies the adult byproduct of an awkward childhood. Yet the 24-year-old Archeology singer speaks of himself and his equally American Appareled bandmate, Daniel Walker, as if they were card-ca...   More

Music Okay, Portland. Here it is. Your 2009 Best New Band Poll Results. We could go on for days about this stuff. In fact, we wrote like five thousand words about it. Now we're getting drunk to celebrate. The issue comes out tomorrow morning, so you're the first people to know. Check wweek.com for a...   More

Music Richard Speer is Willamette Week's primary Visual Arts writer. He's also a Thievery Corporation fan. Jennifer Newsted is an ace photographer and regular LocalCut contributor.

It's great to see hippies and hipsters coexisting as famously as they did when Thiever...   More

Music Jock Jams We Can’t Live Without (Go Blazers!)

69 Boyz, “Tootsee Roll”
The imagery here—you go, mounds of oceanic chocolate flesh—is totally unbeatable, and the fact little kids dance to it always makes us laugh.EMF, “Unbelievable”
I used to have this recurring nightmare where this and Jesus Jones’ “Right Here ...   More

Music Albums on rotation in the WW music cave.

Bosko, The Good Life Movement (Self-released)
Packed to the brim with D’Angelo-style three-part harmonies and old-school funk riffs, L.A. via PDX superproducer/crooner Bosko is clever, dirty and a master of the talk box. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca (Domino)
Though it isn’t released until June, Dirty Pro...   More

Music Upcoming local releases we're stoked about

Mirah, (a)spera March 10
The great Mirah returns with a lovely, gentle full-length that isn't a concept album about the insect world (though its cover screams '70s sci-fi). It's just like old times!

Celilo, Bending Mirrors March 19
We keep hearing increasingly promising material from alt-country rockers Celilo, ...   More

Music
Leonard Mynx Vesper
(SELF RELEASED)

[DEATH SONGS] I first heard Leonard Mynx at an open-mic night. He played “Mary,” an aching tune about a young girl's hard-knock life. As he finger-picked his guitar, his voice came out low and calm, like an alt-country Leonard Cohen. “Mary quit school and decided she'd take a train out west,” he began. &#8220...   More