Layperson’s Last EP Was a Race Against His Changing Voice, But His Debut Album is Fully Formed

Molly MacGilbert
March 29

The Year in Portland Music, Ranked

The good, the bad and the weird of 2017, in 19 lists.

WW Staff
December 27, 2017

CONCERT PREVIEWS

Zaytoven’s Made a Career from Making Other Artists’ Careers. Now It’s His Turn.

Patrick Lyons
April 27, 2018

MUSIC NEWS

Portland’s The Last Artful, Dodgr Is Featured on a Track with Alicia Keys on the New Mark Ronson Album

Matthew Singer
April 12

PROFILES

Christopher Neil Young Wants to Challenge the Tortured-Artist Trope by Sharing His Own Story

Donovan Farley
April 9

BEST NEW MUSIC

The Video for Lake Oswego Rapper Wynne’s Debut Single Features a Damian Lillard Cameo

Shannon Gormley
September 13, 2018

NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Needle Exchange: A DJ Questionnaire with Pocket Rock-It

Matthew Singer
May 3, 2018

ALBUM REVIEWS

Shy Girls Trades Brooding Bedroom Pop for Blissed-Out R&B on His New Album

Cervante Pope
2 days ago

TOP 5

Five Recently Announced Concerts You Can Still Get Tickets To

Matthew Singer
May 9, 2018

CONCERT REVIEWS

In Between Coachella Sets, Maggie Rogers Brought Her Self-Positivity and Wholesome Dance Moves to Portland

Andrew Jankowski
2 days ago

MORE MUSIC

In Between Coachella Sets, Maggie Rogers Brought Her Self-Positivity and Wholesome Dance Moves to Portland

Overall, Rogers’ concert was self-positive, inoffensive and apolitical. She and her band played a baker’s dozen songs, including a John Prine cover and a duet of her most popular song, “Alaska,” with opener Melanie Faye, who, like Rogers, experienced a viral rise to fame.

Andrew Jankowski April 18 at 12:37 PM

Here Are the Shows We’re Most Excited to See at This Year’s Soul’d Out Festival

This year’s schedule ranges from golden-age duo Eric B. & Rakim’s first Portland show to a showcase of up-and-coming futuristic producers, and full of carefully curated bills headlined by underrated artists and rounded out by new support.

Andrew Jankowski, Cervante Pope, Molly MacGilbert April 18 at 12:21 PM

Shy Girls Trades Brooding Bedroom Pop for Blissed-Out R&B on His New Album

The album offers a different side of Vidmar’s emotional and sonic sensibilities. His sound is still rooted in R&B, but it’s warmer and more fleshed out this time around. Album opener “Drain” is chill, subtle, pleasant and loosely neo-soul. The song’s slinky bass beat drops sensuality into the flow of the album from its first jump. Then, Bird on the Wing slides into “Hallelujah,” which sounds like the classic Maxwell track “Ascension,” especially Vidmar’s vocal foray toward the end.

Cervante Pope April 18 at 12:05 PM

Portland’s The Last Artful, Dodgr Is Featured on a Track with Alicia Keys on the New Mark Ronson Album

Two years after posting coy Instagram videos of her in the studio with the “Uptown Funk” producer, we appear to be on the verge of seeing the fruits of that session.

Matthew Singer April 12

Christopher Neil Young Wants to Challenge the Tortured-Artist Trope by Sharing His Own Story

In 2013, Young moved from Oregon to Nashville. Like countless songwriters before him, Young was lured by Music City’s glitz and Grand Ole Opry grandeur. But Young soon found himself getting lost, adrift in a sea of dream seekers. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities, Young became entrenched in Music Row’s dark side. A storm of untreated mental illness and severe alcoholism soon robbed Young of his will to play and to live.

Donovan Farley April 9

Natasha Kmeto Shows a Different Side of Herself on Her New EP, “Verse/Versus”

Kmeto has mentioned that with the EP, she wanted more of a bedroom-pop feel, as opposed to the crafted weightiness of her previous works. Goal achieved—each track has the feeling of a late-night emotional release that some would bury deep within the pages of a diary but that Kmeto coos into a microphone. On “Eyes,” she wastes no time unleashing her sultry voice. Over a slo-fi indie trap beat, she bellows, “I’ve been singing sad songs for too long not to know exactly what’s going on,” in a way that’s strikingly personal.

Cervante Pope April 9

Weezer’s Portland Show Involved Rivers Cuomo in a Rowboat, a VCR Player and, of Course, “Africa”

Former theater kids must have cringed at Weezer’s midsong set changes, which told an unnecessary story the band barely, if at all, engaged. Astroworld it was not: Rivers Cuomo circled the floor-level seats in a rowboat for a few songs to get closer to the audience and to distract from a staging revamp.

Andrew Jankowski April 9

Best New Band 2018

Our Best New Band poll shows Portland music has never been so diverse, stylistically and demographically, as it is right now.

A Guide to Portland Record Stores

In Portland, every day is Record Store Day. This is a guide to all of them.

The 21 Best Songs About Portland

In honor of MusicfestNW, which starts Friday the 21st, we are counting down the top 21 best songs ever written about Portland.

Willamette Week

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