Album Reviews [MOOD PIECES] There’s no way around it: Swim, the fourth album by local jazz institution Blue Cranes, is as heady and dark as anything the group has done in its six years together. The big cha   More

Album Reviews [PUNK METAL] As the Minutemen’s Mike Watt once observed, a good song title is worth a thousand lyrics. With Gaytheist, that advice is well-heeded: Lest anyone feel fatigued by the bulldozing pun   More

Album Reviews [HEARTBROKEN ROCK] Don’t be fooled by the picture on the cover of Scout Niblett’s new album, a photo-booth shot of a couple in full make-out mode. The heart of It’s Up to Emma is not a rom   More

Album Reviews [PSYCH-PUNK] One does not simply record Sun Angle. Feeding psychedelic guitars and pan-global rhythms through punk tempos delivered with free-jazz abandon, the band—a collaboration between thr   More

Album Reviews [ELECTRO-POP] Kevin Robinson has already made his name as one half of dream-pop duo Viva Voce and the countrified Blue Giant, and he’s got enough cultural currency saved up to indulge in whateve   More

Album Reviews [GARAGE POP] True fans of the Shivas have already heard the songs on their second album a dozen times over, either through seeing the quartet’s sensational live show or by purchasing a copy of W   More

Album Reviews [PSYCH-POP] Boone Howard is bummed. On the second album from Portland trio the We Shared Milk, the singer-guitarist sings and plays like he’s trying to navigate through the fog of a particularly   More

Album Reviews [HIP-HOP] Myke Bogan is a sad-clown rapper. Almost all the material released by the twentysomething MC has filtered heartbreak and loneliness through the sound of an empty PBR can getting crushe   More

Album Reviews [PUNK ’N’ ROLL] When Portland garage-rock trio the Woolen Men signed with New York label Woodsist late last year, you could almost hear the city gasp. Would our beloved, punk-tinged lo-fi grou   More

Album Reviews [BLUES ROCK] Portland’s Tango Alpha Tango is best experienced amid a crowded room of sweaty guitar junkies. Logically, then, a well-mixed live album is the next greatest thing. Captured last y   More