Music Stories [KIDZ POP] Folks in the indie world recording music for children is not new. For the past 10 years or so, dozens of artists and bands have taken either a quick detour into    More

Music On Tuesday night, two of Willamette Week's most venerable music critics, Jay Horton and Robert Ham, attended the Lady Gaga show at the Rose Garden Arena. Let's just say that neither of them fit the show's core demographic. Afte...   More

Music Stories [GARAGE POP] Speaking with Andrew Savage is similar to listening to Parquet Courts, the New York-based band he fronts. Just as he does throughout the group’s debut album, Light Up Gold, the si   More

Music The word dulcimer is derived from a combination of dulcis, the Latin word for sweet, and the Greek word for song, melos. The word quite literally means "sweet song." And generally speaking, the hammered dulcimer, and its sonic partner the Appalachian dulcimer, is often used for the creation of sugary tunes, even if its lyrics may express deep longing and sorrow. It was, of ...   More

Music Seems strange to call the Woolen Men's upcoming album on Woodsist the band's "debut album." Haven't they been with us for ages, releasing a wealth of material to their many fans? Yes, indeed they have, but all of those have come out on seven-inch single or short-run cassette releases....   More

Movies & Television Not Fade Away screened after WW press deadlines. Critic Robert Ham thinks it should disappear entirely.
Critic's Grade: D
In the last moments of Not Fade Away, the first feature film written and directed by The Sopranos creator David Chase, one of the film's minor characters appears on screen. She looks right in the camera, and slowly speaks about...   More

Music Stories Sitting down for coffee in the Ace Hotel lobby, Pete Swanson is quite a sight. He flew back to Portland the day before, returning home from New York, where the prolific experimental musician att   More

Music Stories [ELECTRONIC] In the past 20 years, there have been at least three upswings in the popularity of electronic music: the rave/ecstasy period of the early ’90s; the big-beat and trip-hop explosion   More

Brew Views In 1999, Leos Carax’s Pola X landed with such a resounding commercial and critical thud that, until recently, no one would hire him. So with nothing to lose, and the financial backing of a hal   More

Music Maybe it's my obnoxiously catholic taste in music, but narrowing my favorites of 2012 down to a mere 10 was a Herculean task. The past year was filled with sounds that threw me sideways, broke my brain, or had me reaching for the heavens out of sheer bliss. The list I've been keeping since January of my favorites seemed to grow exponentially by the week. So, when thinking about compiling a to...   More