Movie Reviews & Stories Gil Reyes isn’t sure what to expect when he finally screens his 2009 film, Searching for Elliott Smith, in Portland on Friday, eight years after the singer’s death.   More

Music Stories [NEW CLASSIC HIP-HOP] In 2002, Sacramento’s Blackalicious had it all: The duo was at the helm...   More

Album Reviews [DEAR DIARY HIP-HOP] When people tell me they’re not really feeling the Portland hip-hop scene, I point them to Cloudy October. The Portland MC resides at the corner of massive ego and crushing a   More

Music Because my album review won't see daylight until tomorrow's WW hits newsstands, why not take the next 24 hours to decide for yourself what you think of Cloudy October's The Metal Jerk? The most elaborate free download we've heard in a long-ass time is available over at Fieldwerk's website. If you're only going to download one free hip...   More

Music Man, break-ups can be tough. From the sound of it, Portland MC Vocab is taking his real, real hard.
"You won't get no tears from me," he raps. "No, not even a drop/ If I saw your dead body on the side of the road/ I'd drive off and just leave you to rot."Yikes. I'm going over my mental Rolodex to think of people I might not even call the cops about, were I to find their carcass on the side of t...   More

Music Maybe Ray Raposa likes surprises. Maybe that's why no two albums from his band, Castanets, sound the same—they go from near-ambient sound experiments to outlaw country-styled rock records—and why Castanets shows in Portland are often such last-minute affairs. We like surprises, too, and we were surprised to hear that Raposa had been working with beloved singer-songwriter-composer Sufjan Steven...   More

Music Portland singer-songwriter Rebecca Gates will soon release her first solo album in over 10 years (she occasionally talks about that here), but the ex-Spinanes frontwoman would rather talk about surveys than new tunes. One survey, in particular: The Future of Music Coalition, an organization she works for, is attempting an ambitious project...   More

Music Stephen Malkmus has done a lot of interviews in his 20-odd years fronting Pavement and the Jicks. So when we talked on the phone in advance of the latter group’s Portland stop—it will be the first time the latest incarnation of the band, which features Jake Morris of the Joggers on drums in addition to longtime Jicks Joanna Bolme and Mike Clark, has played Portland—I wasn’t surprised...   More

Movie Reviews & Stories In contemplating Clarence Reid’s career touring the world as septuagenarian soul singer/rap inventor/pussy lover Blowfly, it’s hard not to think of a tired old circus lion. Occasionally he roars   More

Music Stories Stephen Malkmus has done a lot of interviews in his 20-odd years fronting Pavement and the Jicks.
   More