Music Believe this, music fans: if No Kind of Rider are not in contention for Best New Band in 2012, something is definitely amiss out there in the Portland scene.

This urgent and tuneful quintet already managed to impress the socks of me when I happened upon their performance at Rontoms last year. Seeing NKOR since then and now hearing ...   More

Music Stories [EASYGOING COUNTRY-POP] Hanging out with the Parson Red Heads, you get the sense that nothing in the world could shake this band’s inner calm and outward joy. Sitting around a table at Bar Bar ta   More

Music Despite its physical above-ground location, the Mudai Lounge always had that underground feeling. A similar experience to seeing a show at Dunes or in someone's basement; that delicious charge locked into your spine that felt like you and the bands were getting away with something.

It was that same feeling that kept Tony Prato, the man who until very recently booked shows at Mudai, bringing...   More

Music Towards the end of my article on Blood Beach in this week's edition, bassist Ethan Jayne made reference to the band's current obsession with heavy metal. During our hangout at the Florida Room, they talked about listening to current acts like Toxic Holocaust, and joked about how that would s...   More

Music Stories For many young musicians, “jamming” is one of the worst things a band can do. When I spoke to Nucular Aminals...   More

Music I can think of no better accompaniment to the misty, transcendental lo-fi pop of Chrome Wings than a video like this. There's no plot line to wrap yourself up in, or wackiness going on. Just a random array of colorful images fading in and out of one another in time with the analog drum machine beat that carries this song on its merry, cotton mouthed way.
The title of this track (which will be ...   More

Music As of this writing, you have four hours until the first band—Jared Mees & The Grown Children—takes the stage at the 2011 edition of the PDX Pop Now Festival! Taking place all weekend at Refuge PDX (at 116 SE Yamhill), the free, all-ages music event boasts a lineup that marks it as one of the best PPNs to date.

Today, alone, they bring the joyous pop of The Minders (10:15 p.m.), the...   More

Album Reviews [DEATH METAL] Is it possible to record an understated death-metal album? I certainly didn’t think so, but Dusks Embrace has proven me wrong. Certainly, the second full-length by this Salem quart   More

Music Stories One of the more striking moments from last year’s MusicfestNW was watching a packed Berbati’s Pan lose its collective shit to the jumpy, giddy pop of Dirty Mittens. The band, especially firebra   More

Music David J's slim figure and sunglasses have cut a striking figure in the worlds of Goth and underground rock scene for nigh on 40 years now. The 54-year-old musician is best known for his work as the bassist in legendary dark rock outfit Bauhaus, and as one-third of the equally dark but much more pop minded trio Love & Rockets. Along the way, he has joined up to create music with figures like author Alan Moore and the arch pop outfit The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, as well as releasing a fine series of solo LPs along the way. David is gearing up to release a new album in September entitled Not Long For This World, a concept LP that centers around death and dying, and includes covers of Smog, Tom Waits, and Dennis Wilson alongside some original work. David J is coming to town twice this month, with a stripped down acoustic show to be held this Saturday at Lovecraft, a new "horror-themed" bar on SE Grand, and then a full band performance on the 22nd at Dante's.    More