The Year in Portland Music, Ranked

1. The Slants finally win their trademark case.

2. Aminé is named part of XXL's Freshman Class.

3. The Last Artful, Dodgr teases a collaboration with Mark Ronson and Christina Aguilera.

4. Portugal the Man has the biggest alt-rock song of the year.

5. Russell Westbrook rocks a Dead Moon shirt onstage at a Lil Wayne concert. (MATTHEW P. SINGER)

1. Dead Moon's Fred Cole dies.

2. Jimmy Mak's owner Jim Makarounis dies the day after his club closes.

3. Musician-about-town Scott McCaughey suffers a stroke while on tour.

4. Tim/Kerr Records founder Thor Lindsay dies.

5. Long-running record label Soleilmoon is labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  (MPS)

1. The Domestics' botched Trump-themed viral marketing stunt.

2. Lady Gaga Instagrams herself hanging out in Portland.

3. Drake pops in at Memorial Coliseum to perform his song "Portland" in Portland with Travis Scott.

4. TriMet accuses Kanye West and Kim Kardashian of stealing its old logo for their kids clothing line.

5. The straight-edge anarchist drummer from Fall Out Boy opens a vegan coffee shop along the South Waterfront. (MPS)

1. Bone Music, The Last Artful, Dodgr & Neill Von Tally

2. Good for You, Aminé

3. Pool Party, Myke Bogan

4. Garden Boys, Donte Thomas & Bocha

5. Terrance, Cool Nutz (PATRICK LYONS)

1. Hell, Hell

2. Portals Into Futility, Usnea

3. Tyndir, Barrowlands

4. Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light, The Body & Full of Hell

5. Obsidian Arc, Pillorian (PL)

1. Porter Plays Porter, Randy Porter featuring Nancy King

2. Oregonophony: Live at Fremont Theater, Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble

3. EP Vol. II, Korgy & Bass

4. From All of Us Here Pt. I, Thankusomuch

5. Seven American Monuments, Red Oak Duo (PARKER HALL)

1. The Other Side of Town, Boone Howard

2. Bone Music, The Last Artful, Dodgr & Neill Von Tally

3. Blister Steel, Roselit Bone

4. Paint Soup 3: We Need Bread This Time, Paint Soup

5. Vulture, Turtlenecked (MPS)

1. Cliterati, "Burn"

2. Skull Diver, "8 Pack 8 Legs"

3. Myke Bogan, "Take The Nite Off"

4. Star Club, "Nightmare"

5. Maze Koroma, "Even Though I Can't Keep up with You" (CERVANTE POPE)

1. Rasheed Jamal, "Love is the Highest Religion"

2. Intercision, "If This Isn't War"

3. Worws, "Truth to Power"

4. Piss Test, "Arizona Cops"

5. We Are Parasols, "Dim" (CP)

1. "Backyard Baseball," Fountaine featuring the Last Artful, Dodgr

2. "Keep The Juice," Donte Thomas

3. "Vandals," Raquel Divar

4. "Gravity," Lisa Vasquez

5. "5 Blang, Bocha (BLAKE HICKMAN)

1. Performing "Wedding Crashers" with Offset on Late Night with Seth Meyers while dressed like a '50s prom band.

2. Appearing on Desus and Mero, where he argues Portland, Maine, is way whiter than Portland, Oregon.

3. His NPR Tiny Desk Concert, where he very seriously sings the line "dick like ADT."

4. His live video for "Turf," where he shouts out Du's Grill from the produce section of an East L.A. supermarket.

5. His installment of Pitchfork's Over/Under video series, where he talks about his father's first encounter with the Naked Bike Ride and compares it to Jumanji. (MPS)

1. "You hotter than a sauna, girl/I'd let my mama meet your mama, girl."

2. "I love all my family and commas/Might go to the club with my mama."

3. "Still don't do the strip club, but love the finer things."

4. "Balling out with no budget/Do this verse without cursing." (2 Chainz)

5. "Trying to be your hubby/Help you run that bath water, be your rubber ducky." (MPS)

See Related: Damian Lillard Takes a Step Toward Hip-Hop Legitimacy On "Confirmed."

1. Radiohead's first Portland performance in 20 years.

2. Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus, Colin Meloy uniting for an ACLU/Unite Oregon benefit show.

3. Gucci Mane playing Portland for the first and second time ever.

4. The Avalanches swinging through on their first-ever tour.

5. Beth Ditto making her hometown solo debut. (PL)

1. Playing Pickathon for the first time. The crowd there isn't usually accustomed to hip-hop but the love shown to me was immense.

2. Seeing Kendrick Lamar in Tacoma. He is my favorite current artist so it was huge for me to peep his live show to both enjoy it and take notes.

3. Seeing Jay-Z at Moda Center. It's rare to be able to see a GOAT in person from great seats. Absolute study session and a phenomenal experience.

4. Meeting Scarface and DJ Quik and opening for them. Scarface played a major part in me falling in love with hip-hop as a child. To top it off, he rocked my "Capes" hat his entire set on stage.

5. The Sheesh release show. My first big headlining show at Roseland Theater. We hit some bumps in the road and I learned some lessons but nonetheless I put on a great show despite having the flu. (MIC CAPES)

1. Hunter Noack at the Shire, Astoria Column, Fort Rock State Park, Alvord Desert, Columbia Gorge Hotel, Suttle Lake Lodge, Crater Lake, Naamí Nisháycht Living Culture Village at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City and Listening Circle at Chief Timothy Park.

2. Darrell Grant in the Elliott State Forest.

3. Burn After Listening composers collective at PLACE, a design firm in the Pearl.

4. Third Angle at front porches in Irvington.

5. Dan Brugh at Pettygrove Park. (BRETT CAMPBELL)

1. Die Antwoord's ejaculating cartoon baby video.

2. Die Antwoord's ejaculating cartoon baby video.

3. Die Antwoord's ejaculating cartoon baby video.

4. Die Antwoord's ejaculating cartoon baby video.

5. Die Antwoord's ejaculating cartoon baby video. (MPS)

1. Based Goth Radio on KFFP

2. Ditch Digger on KBOO

3. Songs from Under the Floorboard on XRAY

4. An Evening of Afrotainment on KBOO

5. Bizarre Times on KFFP (CP)

1. Playing Treefort in Boise and just fucking blasting off on positive vibes with all the band friends.

2. Running sound on acid at the mega-secret, not-for-profit Homiefest.

3. Hosting Hustle and Drone on my property in Alaska while they worked on an awesome new album and I cooked moose meatloaf.

4. Watching Alaskan good ol' boys Portugal the Man get extremely famous—called it.

5. Running sound and driving for the Builders and the Butchers' European tour. Guys, I was going like 93 mph in the sprinter on the Autobahn but lied and made up a different kph conversion. (BOONE HOWARD)

1. Reptaliens

2. Donte Thomas

3. Cat Hoch

4. The Domestics

5. Salvatore Manalo (MARK A. STOCK)