Music Stories [ROCK OPERA] When called up to the majors for 2006’s The Crane Wife, the Decemberists brought their conceptual A-game. For the follow-up, they’ve gone fully long-form with a 17-part, hourl ...   More

Music
Chris Robley Movie Theatre Haiku
(SMART POP)
After being impressed with Chris Robley's 2005 debut, This Is The, and by his work with sometime band the Sort-Ofs and other projects, I took last year's terrific baroque-pop album, The Drunken Dance of Modern Man in Love, to be something close to the full flowering of his songwriting and production gifts. This paper duly dubbed it...   More

Music [UNDERGROUND MUSIC] Creative sparks come in the strangest places, and several local songwriters recently found macabre inspiration in one of Southeast Portland’s oldest and most beautiful spots, Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery (est. 1855). An enchanting new collection titled (D)early Departed: True Lies in Song Unearthed from Lone Fir Cemetery gathers tracks by some of Portland’s fine...   More

Music Stories [UNDERGROUND MUSIC] Creative sparks come in the strangest places, and several local songwriters recently found macabre inspiration in one of Southeast Portland’s oldest and most beautiful spots, ...   More

Special Section [ALT-FOLK APOTHEOSIS] On first listen, I was dazed—and, yes, confused—by Fleet Foxes’ massive, immaculate vocal harmonies, contrasted with the odd dissonance in their eclectic blend ...   More

Music Hey all, she may not be from "'round these parts," but I wanted to post a quick note for a gig that slipped by our radar—mostly because the folks at Dante's seem to have launched it with some sort of radar-deflecting stealth technology.

In brief, Cindy Lee...   More

Music [ROOTS] Portland's “little roots-music festival that could,” Pickathon, turns 10 this year. Cozily settled into its dream home, Happy Valley's convenient and beautiful Pendarvis Farm, the event continues to grow in stature and success. You may be familiar with the bigger names on the bill (like reunited Austin punkgrass legends Bad Livers, featuring noted NW transplant Danny Barnes), a...   More

Music Stories [ROOTS] Portland’s “little roots-music festival that could,” Pickathon, turns 10 this year. Cozily settled into its dream home, Happy Valley’s convenient and beautiful Pendarvi ...   More

Music [What follows is a continuation of this week's music feature, a Q&A with sometime-Portlander and ex-Ohm owner Dan Reed. Some answers are more fleshed out than those in the print story. Some questions and answers are brand new! -Ed.]</...   More

Music

Those of us old enough to have gotten our hair done or bought clothes back in the '80s lived to regret it. Most, though, are thankful those unfortunate choices aren't immortalized online—unlike the ultra-permed, acid-washed image of Dan Reed inhabiting videos by his old band, the Dan Reed Networ...   More