Music After I happened upon a gem of a pop song by Béisbol via a Rontoms email, I was immediately curious of both the group's influences and its guilty pleasures. The pair's rhythmic pop is decidedly more sunshiny than Portland's typical weather. Luckily the brothers Jeff and Ryan Burian who make up the up-and-coming duo gra...   More

Music While browsing Facebook yesterday, I noticed that AgesandAges was about to play a show at Valentine's. Immediately my mind jumped to trying to figure out how the band would fit into the small space, let alone the band and an audience. So, of course, I had to go scope it out for myself.
Fresh off the group's    More

Music Though the name Lilly Wolf would seem to denote that this project is but one person, it is in fact equal parts vocalist Lilly Wolfson and producer Alex Neuhausen (aka Dr. Nu). The two make electronic pop together under the guise of the frontwoman's moniker, kinda like Goldfrapp and La Roux. However, this duo does more than split duties within the group—it also splits its time between Portland an...   More

Music It's been years since I've thought of the band Soul Decision. Many, many years. During high school I had a bright orange tank-top emblazoned with its name, a souvenir from seeing the group open for Christina Aguilera at the Rose Garden. I just admitted that. Why? Because a member of the ultimate party popsters Sex Life just admitted tha...   More

Music It's always great to catch a band live just as its buzz is building, which was exactly the case when it came to up-and-coming electronic act Polica headlining at Bunk Bar this Saturday. The show was heavily sold-out with ticketless hopefuls loitering outside, a jam-packed doorway and an overstu...   More

Music This past December, I was seated at Backspace when DoublePlusGood took to the stage for a Friday night show. I had been at a couple of shows that the Portland pair had played, but I had always been fulfilling another duty such as running a coat-check and therefore unable to turn my full attention to the group's onstage performance. This December night had laid itself out to be no different, for no...   More

Music Last night Deer Tick graced Portland with a set at Bunk Bar. The band was originally due in Portland in mid-December of last year (it visited last in November), but its recording sessions in the Rose City with producer Steve Berlin were pushed a couple months forward and are underway this week. Shortly after 10 pm the quintet took the sta...   More

Music For some, disco might be a genre counted as a guilty pleasure, but for the band Ancient Heat, it's a springboard. When it comes to disco and electronic-infused groove, the eight-piece certainly has its bases covered. It was super fun watching the group onstage recently as a part of the PDX Pop Now/School of Rock benefit show at the Crystal Ballroom, and the performance made me all the more curious...   More

Music Last night, Dandy Warhols frontman and newly minted graphic novelist Courtney Taylor-Taylor was on hand at Music Millenium for the launch of his new graphic novel and tie-in album One Model Nation. Standing alongside his collaborator artist Jim Rugg, the two signed autographs to promote the hardcover work of fiction that tells the story of a...   More

Music When I was roughly four years old, I experienced a reoccurring dream in which I'd find myself deep in a forest full of towering evergreen trees and low-lying fog. There'd be a clearing in the trees and there I would find a picnic and a boy to be my companion. It was very magical and alluring. I would find myself hoping beyond hoping that I would dream it again each night before I went to sleep. ...   More