Music There were a lot of damn good shows happening last Saturday in Portland: Lightning Bolt, White Rainbow, Metal, The Shaky Hands, Robyn Hitchcock, Swan Island, Plants, Parks and Recreation, Clorox Girls. What the fuck is a boy to do? Last Saturday, poised on the fence between them all, I went with the oddball. I...   More

Music I reviewed this album last fall, something of a retrospective of the shadowy band/collective, thinking that Rob Walmart wasn't likely to be heard from again. Something to do with their name involving a certain corporation...and them really liking the name. Anyhow, they've resurfaced in relatively legit form, givin...   More

Music [SUPER MARIO BROS. GRUNGE ROCK] When's the last time someone's cell phone blurted some jagged, half-identifiable, Nintendo-y rendition of "Baby Got Back" or the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, causing you to grit your teeth and dream of throwing said phone out the bus window? Well, the Pittsburgh-born duo of Christopher Doulgeris and Peter Burr, a.k.a. Hooliganship, would rather you didn't...   More

Music Stories [SUPER MARIO BROS. GRUNGE ROCK] When's the last time someone's cell phone blurted some jagged, half-identifiable, Nintendo-y rendition of "Baby Got Back" or the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, ...   More

Music A week ago, the 6th edition of Local Cut's Portland Lounge Series went down in front of an absolutely packed Towne Lounge. All three performers put on ridiculously awesome sets, and all three did a fine job of answering my ridiculously awkward on-stage questions. Scout Niblett (implicitly) warned of the danger...   More

Music What do you get when you mix a roomful of cellists with one MC? I have no freakin' idea, but the Portland Cello Project is on a mission to find out. See, the grand collective of scattered Portland cellists (including borrowed folks from Bright Red Paper, The Ahs, Polly Panic, Horse Feathers and more) has been ...   More

Music [FOLK PUNK] “This is the Modernstate band,” announced core member Sam Humans. “You don't need to sit down.” This introduction to Modernstate's short set (it was less than 30 minutes) last Thursday was a rare call to stand—a call to, presumably, rock out. Instinct would have Modernstate fans tilting toward disbelief, as Humans' project is often a one-man affair (two on...   More

Music [AMBIENT] I'd put Metal's Aaron Shepherd at no more than 30 years old—which places him pretty firmly in the post-Jacques-Yves Cousteau generation. Given that alone, I love to death the fact that Metal's three releases—The Silent World, its precursor EP, World Ocean, and 2005's Sounds of Our Seas...   More

Music Stories [AMBIENT] I'd put Metal's Aaron Shepherd at no more than 30 years old—which places him pretty firmly in the post-Jacques-Yves Cousteau generation. Given that alone, I love to death the fact that ...   More

Music Stories [FOLK PUNK] "This is the Modernstate band," announced core member Sam Humans. "You don't need to sit down." This introduction to Modernstate's short set (it was less than 30 minutes) last Thursday was ...   More