Album Reviews [HEAVY POP] Amateur Hypnotist opens with 3½ minutes of queasy, warped-tape instrumental fare. That shaky stretch of sound serves as fair warning to ye brave souls who dare venture beyond. Thoug   More

Music Bret Vogel makes no point of hiding his distaste for self-promotion. Last September, the local singer-songwriter—and frontman for one of Portland's perpetual Next Big Things, Crosstide—released a wonderful record of lo-fi power pop under the name Incredible Yacht Control to little fanfare. Though the songs were conceived as nothing more than demos for a new Crosstide album, they were the ...   More