Music Stories Everyone’s a critic—even artists, who are predisposed to hating critics. So, with several major Portland albums dropping Feb. 19, we let the artists do our jobs for us and take a shot at rev   More

Music And now for your weekly dose of Into the Woods. Once again we're taken to the home of a local band, in this case experimental-pop act Parenthetical Girls, who debut the new song "The Common Touch" for their "Feels Like Home" series. Singer Zac Pennington seems uncharacteristically reserved as the song begins, singing the opening line ("I came out of my mother") sitting down on a couch before rising ...   More

Music Set your calendars, folks: The 2010 PDX Pop Now! festival is coming in a short seven weeks. Today the free, all-local, all-ages festival announced the lineup for this year's fest—set to take place July 30-August 1—and it's predictably great. Au! Parenthetical Girls! Cloudy October! Joggers! But even with the bigger names, this fest has always been about discovery, about seeing a band you've ...   More

Music As far as bands go, you couldn't get two acts with a more disparate aesthetic than Joggers and Parenthetical Girls. Joggers play "indie rock" before the term became a basterdized catchall for anything written about on the blogosphere—think Merge Records stalwarts Polvo or Superchunk—with a perfect blend of sloppy minimalism and technical craft (those guitar sounds!). Parenthetical Girls' ...   More