Music In an era when many long-defunct bands are settling differences (or simply realizing how much money there is to be made) and reuniting for bigtime tours, music fans can at least rely on one thing: The Smiths are never going to get back together. The egos of the folks involved are still too big, the dismissal of the band's rhythm section by frontman Morrissey too painful, and the ink on those lawsu...   More

Music Now that you've hopefully read my profile on the return to the recorded world of art pop duo AU in this week's print edition, I felt it would be good to provide another wrinkle to the story here on Local Cut. As I said in the piece, the band's new album is coming out on one of Portland's best loca...   More

Music Stories [POP] In recent weeks, Youth has been pulling opening-act duties across the West. This is the band’s first, as drummer Stephen Leisy puts it, “non-house-show tour.” “Typhoon has wanted to br   More

Album Reviews [DUNGEON JAZZ] As a member of Million Brazilians, Grant Corum helps listeners and band members alike reach ecstatic heights with a dark, saxophone-laden sound the group calls “dungeon jazz.” F   More

Music Any music writer/lover worth his or her salt loves to dig for new tunes to listen to and fall in love with. We spend inordinate amounts of time on music blogs like this one, reading up on new bands or old artists we've never heard of before, and tearing through the shelves at record stores like animals (but careful animals who want to make sure not to bend the corners of a record sleeve and deprec...   More

Music The Posies are pure pop incarnate. Ever since emerging from the Seattle music world with the 1988 album Failure, the two mainstays of the band—singer/guitarists Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow have moved in and around the pop universe, adding in the influences of '70s power rock, psychedelia, and punk into the mix. And during the almost...   More

Music Maybe it's the two fingers of Jameson I just finished, but I've searched my memory and can't think of a recent band/label marriage that makes more sense to me than the news that one of Portland's best art rock duos AU signing with local label Hometapes. 
Sarah Padgett Heathcott, one of t...   More

Album Reviews [BLUES PUNK] For a blues musician, Poor Boy’s Soul—the one-man-band project of Portlander Trevor Jones—has a story that’s a PR person’s dream. The young artist learned how to play slide    More

Music Bands of the universe, take note: a little honesty and directness will get you very far with the folks here at Local Cut HQ. Case in point: this e-mail we received from one of our favorite local folk-pop acts, St. Frankie Lee. It read, in total: I understand that our news-worthiness-score is lowered by our lack of live shows but that's...   More

Music If you're one of the many followers of the band YACHT, you are likely already aware that vocalist Claire L. Evans has a huge advocate on the role of science in our world. She has spent a number of years blogging about the subject - showing an especial interest in those projects and with those people that connect science and technology and art....   More