Music Stories In 2006, Ben Parrish of the Portland- and Olympia-based record label Kill Rock Stars received a demo from a 31-year-old New York singer-guitarist named Marnie Stern. At the time, the label was bei   More

Music Ask any local music fan who won 2011 and the answer is clearly Typhoon. From appearing on David Letterman to having its EP, A New Kind of House, named the best of the year by Paste Magazine, it's been a stellar 12 months for the Portland google-tet (seriously, how many people are in this fucking band, anyway?). As a cap to its banner year, the group sold out three shows at Mississippi Studios earlier ...   More

Music Alicia Rose, the former Doug Fir promoter who became Mississippi Studios' primary booker after the club's expansion in 2009, was fired on Friday. Rose, who was also one of five club co-owners (she was given "a very generous severance package," according to Mississippi Studios founder Jim Brunberg), blamed a bad economy and a change in direction from the club when she met with WW at Northeast Portland ...   More

News If a candidate's election-night plans are any indication of their campaigns' mindsets, we found recent announcements from Karol Collymore and Loretta Smith particularly interesting. The two women are vying to represent North and Northeast Portland on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. Collymore's friend, Stephen Marc Beaudoin, sent out Facebook invitations last week to "join us in ...   More

News   If a candidate’s election-night plans are any indication of their campaigns’ mindsets, we found recent announcements from Karol Collymore and Loretta Smith particularly interesting. The two women are vying to represent North and Northeast Portland on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. Collymore’s friend, Stephen Marc Beaudoin, sent out Facebook invitations last week to “join ...   More

Music When you toy with time signature changes as much as Wax Fingers do, it's hard for a fan to keep up. Three head bobs is all you get before your downward nod has switched from the accent to the offbeat. Realizing this and eager to keep up, the Wax Fingers faithful have invented a dance I'd like to call “The Catch Up.” The dance involves helpless flaying, air drumming, and a fish-out-of-water ...   More

Music One of my favorite young Portland bands, And And And, just made me like them even more by sending a couple of leaks from their forthcoming record, A Fresh Summer With And And And. This particular recording is a great combination of low fidelity and smart orchestration. The horn lines almost drown everything else out of the mix, with a ghostly sing-along chorus echoing somewhere in the distance. The ...   More

Music On a disappointing night that saw the Blazers exit the playoffs after an emotional six-game series, Eddie Argos' new group brought some comic relief to Mississippi Studios. More like story time with Eddie than a full-fledged concert, the Art Brut frontman brought his three piece satire group to a small north Portland audience. Crowd members in the balcony giggled from desks while a couple dozen ...   More