Music Marv Ellis Mental Picture Machine
(Self-Released)

[VIBE MUSIC] Positive, laid-back hip-hop isn’t any less palatable or critically acceptable than the hardcore rap that takes up most of the space at chain record stores across America. The problem is that laid-back, sunny-day hip-hop too often attracts lazy MCs without the hunger to hone their craft or hustle th...   More

Music
Words: Jim Sandberg
Photos: Keith Casper


The split stairwell at the Roseland divides the drinkers from the all-ages crowd, which w...   More

Music Just say no to drugs—unless, of course, drugs make your band better.
by Saxon Baird
[PSYCHEDELIC U.K. POP] The music of the Clientele is very English and very sad. Its songs are full of regretful reflections and a longing for the return to fleeting moments of happiness. Despite the somber tone, lead singer and primary songwriter Alasdair MacLean asserts not all is hopele...   More

Music Mimicking Birds Self-Titled
(Glacial Pace)

[SOFT PSYCH POP] I don’t envy the task of transforming Nate Lacy’s spiraling, naturalist and homemade acoustic pop songs into fully produced album form. So strange and singular are those songs (which he’s been recording on his own for the past four years as Mimicking Birds) that it’s almost a shame t...   More

Music Sure, some blogs just TELL you that Pickathon has a great lineup this year. Maybe they even tell you this information "in a timely fashion." But here at LocalCut, where our slogan is "You Read Here Because We Let You*," you'll take your Pickathon news two weeks late and loaded with YouTu...   More

Music by Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin And Wood)

Duke Ellington, Money JungleDuke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach having one of the most powerful musical conversations ever. It’s a very powerful trio.Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah UmFor me, this record says it all.Max Roach, Percussion Bitter SweetClassic example of a great drummer, comp...   More

Music Portland legends the Dharma Bums hit the stage again after 18 years.


by JAY HORTON & BETSY DAVIS
“Touring both the U.S. and Europe together with these brothers in arms, the Young Fresh Fellows were nightly witnesses to the evangelical fire of the Bums shows. At the lonely work of spreading the rock ’n’ roll gospel and baptizing a new audience...   More

Music by AARON MESH

[LACONIC, IRONIC TONIC] If brevity is the soul of wit, well then, we’ve found the source of Stephin Merritt’s genius and can go home to listen to our Magnetic Fields albums. Merritt, the dour composer and Fields frontman who has been called this era’s Cole Porter so many times that another comparison wouldn’t thrill him at all, saves most of his...   More

Music The L.A.-based trio proves there’s no place like home.

by Rebecca Raber

[WALL OF POP] “The West Coast is the best coast!” proclaims born-and-bred Californian Bethany Cosentino. And the 23-year-old means it; she started her latest musical project, appropriately called Best Coast, after a cold, depressing year studying in New York sent her scurrying ho...   More

Music PDX Speedwagon (Charmparticles and Jonah), “More Than a Feeling”Boston’s coke-and-backseat-sex anthem gets the local treatment. Love it.Gentlemen, “Power of Love”Huey Lewis’ classic (which you remember from Back to the Future) is a total classic of blue-eyed soul. The Gentlemen are just sleazy enough to pull this off.Adrian H & the Wo...   More