Music It's been a busy month for local hip-hop, both in the studio and on the screen. Here's how some emcees have spent the Portland autumn. TxE, "Swing Set" In case you couldn't guess from the title of this new track from TxE—that's rappers Tope and Epp and producer G-Force aka Calvin Valentine—or the title of the their new EP, Tetherball, the group has been in a nostalgic mood recently. It ...   More

Music This is a second draft. I began this post with a long essay called Why Sandpeople Matters. It talked about race, DIY culture and Portland's reluctance to embrace locally grown hip-hop. I still think there's a piece to be written, but maybe it's bigger than me. I'm no ambassador to the local hip-hop scene. There's plenty I am unaware of and plenty of stuff I just plain don't like. So all I really wanted ...   More

Music A handful of items of note from the local hip-hop world, in case you, like me, are bad at Twitter. Seriously, I can't remember a time when this much good stuff was pending or seeing release all at the same time, so I had to give it one big rundown. Lots of free music here, so get your ears and your clicking-finger ready.But first, two items:1. I have very specifically avoided chiming in on the Luck-One/DJ ...   More

Music We know the video you're all waiting to see right now is the footage of Portland indie-pop army Typhoon's performance from tonight's The Late Show with David Letterman that'll surely be all over the local blogosphere tomorrow (you've probably already seen Sallie Ford's Letterman appearance from Wednesday night -- apparently Dave's mistaken our city for a young intern, 'cause he's clearly got a hard-on ...   More

Music On the first edition of These Are The Days for 2010, we've got an interview with the organizers of Music In The Schools, the student led group responsible for booking an annual benefit concert to raise money for music programs in Portland Public Schools as well as a conversation with members of And And And, one of the most promising and exciting bands of the year. And of course, there's some music, ...   More