Music Proving that they are the nicest band in the world, the Decemberists announced that they will be doing a presale of tickets for their upcoming Rout of the Patagons Tour. The tour, which coincides with the release of the band's major label debut, The Crane Wife, kicks off in hometown Portland with two da...   More

Music The beauty of a well-placed "whoo" is unmatched, whether it is at a basketball game, a live concert, a G8 Summit or on a meticulously crafted recording. At Dusk has it down on this track, placing the "whoo" on the second beat of the slow-it-down chorus, allowing the listener to pause and take a breathe after l...   More

Music According to the oxymoronic PR Newswire, Portland's own melodramatic digi-pop group Stars of Track and Field have been signed to Wind-Up Records (cue confetti). For anyone who hasn't run across the label's website while looking for shirtless photos of Scott Stapp, Wind-Up Records is the largest independently o...   More

Music Sometimes life gets in the way of life's most important moments. An enormous zit appears the day of the big dance. A parental notification law is passed the day before your abortion. An airplane flies into a skyscraper on your 21st birthday. Or, maybe, you experience a nervous breakdown the day one of the most...   More

Music Yesterday Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced 54 statewide grants being awarded through the Oregon Cultural Trust. Huzzah! Yay for culture and all that. But where is the support for the tennis-shoe wearing music community. Of all the recipients, shown below, only the Friends of Chamber Music, Portland Youth Philharm...   More

Music While down in Tucson recording its next album at Wavelab Studios, Richmond Fontaine was asked to contribute a track to a Hurricane Katrina relief compilation being put together by the studio called Graciously. You would expect the Americana band to throw down an afterthought b-side or a hokey theme-base...   More

Music Last night, the folks behind this weekend's PDX Pop Now! Festival screened PDX Popped! at Holocene. Twenty or so showed up for the reveal of the Skratch Films production, which documents nine performances from last year's pop fest. But we think more people need to see it, so we snagged almost all the fo...   More

Music Nick Jaina, the singer-songwriter so good that yesterday I wrote a Cut of the Day begging someone to release his latest, The 7 Stations, is without a label no more. Jaina, who also fronts the Binary Dolls, sent this message:

Thanks for the kind words re: my album. It won't be unreleased ...   More

Music The city commissioner heats up the city's tepid support for local music.

[POLITICS] Last Wednesday City Commissioner Sam Adams helped introduce about 500 music fans and three local bands (Pseudosix, the Minders, Quasi) to City Hall during a late-afternoon concert in front of the municipal building. The concert, put on in conjunction with the PDX Pop Now! Festival, was promoted by Ad...   More

Music While he is most certainly the hippest of Portland's City Commissioners, Sam Adams is still considerably square. Sitting in his City Hall office, Adams looks exhausted in a very cool way, his five o'clock shadow pronounced, his baby blue dress shirt unbuttoned two down to reveal a v-neck and a hint of a gold c...   More