Big Ass Boombox Announces 2013 Lineup

Forty bands, 15 writers, four venues, two days, zero cost!

Music A music festival with an all-ages component, emphasizing Portland talent and free to the public? Sounds like PDX Pop Now! But in the damp months of winter, that annual Stumptown summer spectacular feels eons away. Thankfully, Big Ass Boombox is here to help you gorge on live local musi...   More

 

Monday, November 19, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER

PDX Charts

Top selling albums and songs in Portland, Nov. 5-11

Music Every Tuesday, we list the top selling albums from local record stores Music Millennium, Jackpot Records and Everyday Music, and the top streamed tracks in Portland on Rhapsody, for the previous week. The week's in-...   More

 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER

Siren’s Echo: Wednesday, Nov. 14

Portland’s only female hip-hop duo returns—but don’t call it a comeback.

Music Stories [TIMELESS HIP-HOP] To hear Toni Hill and Sabrina “Syndel” Britt, of singer-rapper duo Siren’s Echo, discuss their artistic relationship, you’d think they were twins separated at birth. O   More

 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Top Five Red Hot Chili Peppers Songs Pre-“Under the Bridge”

Top 5 “True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes,” Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984)Less funk-punk than tribal new-wave, the lone highlight of the Chili Peppers’ first outing finds Anthony Kiedis embodying the col   More

 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Cut of the Day: "Blue Babe," Woodwinds

Music In this week's print edition, Jonathan Frochtzwajg reviewed the debut EP from Portland indie pop group Genders, who are celebrating the record's release Sunday at Rontoms. Well, there's another artist playing that night who's also enjoying an album release. Kismet is the first full-length effo...   More

 

Friday, November 9, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER

PDX Charts

Top selling albums and songs in Portland, Oct. 29-Nov.4

Music Every Tuesday, we list the top selling albums from local record stores Music Millennium, Jackpot Records and Everyday Music, and the top streamed tracks in Portland on Rhapsody, for the previous week. The week's in-st...   More

 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER

Portland Street Performer "Working" Kirk Reeves Has Died

UPDATE: Oregon State Medical Examiner confirms musician died of self-inflicted gunshot wound.

News "Working" Kirk Reeves, the longtime Portland street musician known for serenading motorists with his trumpet at the eastbound onramp of the Hawthorne Bridge, has died. He was 56 years old. A former computer analyst, Reeves became a fixture along Hawthorne Boulevard after moving to Portland from Boston in 1991, performing renditions of classic standards (including the Loone...   More

 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER

Extended Q&A with Thrill Jockey Founder Bettina Richards

Music In this week's print edition of Willamette Week, we spoke with Bettina Richards, the founder of venerable Chicago-based independent record label Thrill Jockey, about the label's 20th anniversary. Here is an extended version of that conversation.Willamette Week: What was the impulse to start the label in the first place? ...   More

 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER

The Thrill of it All

Thrill Jockey Records founder Bettina Richards talks 20 years of music without borders.

Music Stories Twenty years ago, Bettina Richards lived in a cramped fourth-floor walk-up in a particularly heroin-infested section of pre-Giuliani Manhattan. Out of that apartment, Richards, a self-professed    More

 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 MATTHEW SINGER

Cut of the Day: "Wreck My Life," Slim Fortune

Music Here's what we know about new Portland band Slim Fortune: It's a group featuring Rex Marshall and Max Avalon of electro-R&B trio Mattress and Jay Winebrenner of 31Knots. It's making its debut performance this We...   More

 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 by MATTHEW SINGER