Music Wednesday, May 22 Akron/Family, Avi Buffalo, M. Geddes Gengras [PSYCH YOUR MIND] Akron/Family actually has more ties to Portland than the city in Ohio—drummer Dana Janssen is a Rose City transplant—but no matter: The band's new, senses shredding psychedelic opus Sub Verses, like much of the group's output, doesn't have roots in any particular place oth...   More

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

Music Matthew Singer wasn't the only Willamette Week writer at this year's South By Southwest. Here are how two other contributors, Nathan Carson and Emilee Booher, experienced the festival.Nathan Carson's Top 10 Favorite Moments from SXSW 2013 1. Nik Turner performing Hawkwind's Space Ritual on a four-foot high sta...   More

Music Stories “This is a picture from the end of our first-ever West Coast tour. We were so excited for this one. We had played absolutely empty venues in California prior to this. We drove from San   More

Music Stories The “post-national bass dance party,” founded by Anjali, E3 and the Incredible Kid in 2003, started at Holocene just a few months after the club opened, and over the years has introduced a v   More

Music Stories “The band was put together for a party on March 4, 2003. On March 20, we joined the anti-Iraq War protest, figuring that we just learned these seven songs, and since we called ourselves a ‘mar   More

Top 5 “Even if it’s jazz or the quiet storm/ I hook a beat up, convert it into hip-hop form.” —“I Ain’t No Joke” (Paid in Full, 1987) “Thinkin’ of a master plan/ ’Cause ain’t nothin�   More

Music Stories Her performance of “Spell” that night, during which this photo was taken, appeared on the 2002 compilation Land. Photographer Jeff Bizzell recalls what happened after the show: “[Patti Smith] c   More

Top 5 Warm weather I love the hot tropical weather we get in New Orleans. I couldn’t ever live anywhere cold. Po’boys on every cornerI grew up on these. Can’t live without my hometown cuisine. Seco   More

Top 5 Forever Changes, LoveThis album took me years to understand properly. The denseness of it is something that can’t be digested on the first listen. Arrangement, melody, lyrics, instrumentation—   More