Music Early on in our conversation, Bob Priest, the curator behind March Music Moderne, a monthlong celebration of 20th and 21st century sounds, started to quiz me on what spawned my interest in modern classical and experimental music. I cited the Stanley Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film that famously featured the opening ...   More

Top 5 Soundwalk (Saturday, March 9, at Mount Tabor Park, 1 pm) Artist and composer Susan Alexjander leads a structured listening session for curious souls to drink in the raw sounds of nature. The La   More

Music SubArachnoid Space was one of the more fascinating bands of the psych rock underground, in that you could feel that, with just the slightest push, the long-running group’s sound could evolve into something far more proggy, more evil and, yes, more metal. And to hear the sound of Ei...   More

Music Ask the enthusiasts of the over 200-year-old spiritual choral music style known as Sacred Harp about their favorite song, and the conversation quickly becomes as esoteric as Deadheads discussing their favorite live version of “Dark Star.”
“I really like '181,'” says Thom Fahrbach, a doctor with a passion for singing that b...   More

Music Stories Formed: In 1969 in San Mateo, Calif. Sounds like: The history of popular music and modern art as viewed through a funhouse mirror, with aspects coming into focus then warping out of proportion.&n   More

Music The first album by Unknown Mortal Orchestra was exactly that: a first album—the creation of a fine band which had the pieces of a unique ‘60s psych-soul combination in front of it, yet could only construct the ...   More

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