This Week’s Dive Podcast Is a Mixtape of Portland’s Best New Bands

Plus an interview with Kingsley, who makes heartbreak sound kind of like sexy time.

Kingsley (Summer Luu)

So, how is everyone handling the daily trauma of the American experience?

If your news feed looks anything like mine, you’re probably feeling galvanized. And if you aren’t putting in that work already, you’re ready to go HAM organizing around reproductive rights, gun control, the right to bodily autonomy, the rights of children, the abolition of the police state, the dismantling of white supremacy, rising houselesness, declining mental health, and the visible effects of a global climate crisis. And…oh God, what else…oh yeah, an ongoing pandemic.

To quote Twitter user @Merman_Melville, it kinda sucks to be born at the end of the “fuck around” century just to live the rest of my life in the “find out” century.

But, hear me out, as much as we must rally around these critical causes, we can’t forget to also rally around art. Art is, and will always be, what brings us together, lifts us up and reminds us of our shared humanity, and I’m very much of the opinion that it will be art that saves us from ourselves.

So, if it’s OK with you, I’m thinking we should take a breather from the feed and just, like, listen to records for a few minutes.

This week on Dive, we thought we’d switch it up from our usual format and give some air to the 10 local musical acts featured in WW’s annual Best New Bands issue—kind of like a podcast mixtape. I’ll play snippets of tracks from all of your favorite new local bands and musical acts and then we’ll settle into a quick conversation with chanteuse-slash-cover model Kinglsey about what inspired their favorite tracks from the sophomore album, Crying On Holidays.

So what do you say: Want to come over and listen to some records or what?

Listen on Spotify.

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