Hi everyone. Long time no type. I mean, I've been typing a lot, just not here. As I mentioned before, I've been all thesis work, all the time, trying to explore how Intrnet technology and social media are impacting the way we relate to, interact around and experience music, etc., etc. That's it in a nutshell anyway.And I don't mean to get all self-promotional here (ick) but I love feedback so I...
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So far, the double 0s have been prime time for the reuniting of '70s and '80s punk bands. Partially because just enough time has passed for original fans to become nostalgic, partially because today's generation wants to feel part of movement they missed and partially because bands like Gang of Four, My Blood Valentine, The Pixies and Mission of Burma want to know what it would feel like to pla...
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English multi-instrumentalist (of mostly the '80s Amiga kind) Max Tundra will release his third full-length recording via Domino Records Nov. 18. His spiraling, synth-driven and colorful electronic collages and all his beep beep bleeps have garnered him much praise from the likes of the late John Peel---Tundra, a.k.a. Ben Jacobs, was among the last to record a Peel Session---Pitchfork, and Owen...
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Seattle punk band The Girls kick off a U.S. tour in their hometown Sept. 13 in support of their new album Yes No Yes No Yes No (to be realeased on Portland's Drag City Records Sept. 16). The Girls' wire-y, hyped-up synth-punk cuts---which sound like a glammier version of The Cars---should make for a heck of a live show. Check 'em out if you wanna: Sep 13 20087:00PAudio Oasis LIVE on KEXP 90.3S...
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They go by too fast, these music festivals, and leave you wondering where it all went and what you took away from it. In retrospect, MusicFest NW seems a music-fed whirlwind of heat and noise and crowds and adrenalin and drinks. Friends will ask me: "What did you see that you really liked? Who did you like best?" And I'll feel like a candidate stumped in a job interview, pushing through the clo...
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When I walked into Satyricon—Portland's oldest punk club—just before midnight, I bumped into my photographer friend, Karyn-Lynn and was told me to turn around. "We got to get out of here. Do I have a bruise under my eye?" She asked. She had tried to push her way through the crowd to snap some shots of Monotonix frontman Levi "Ha Haziz" (Yomtov) Elvis and instead received an elbow in the face.
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It's almost as if we went to war last night: Battles, Deerhunter, Starfucker—everyone seemed out to battle, hunt, fuck and kill, and kill it they all did. Battles played like a military invasion, tight and on target. Deerhunter shook the body into feeling like a giant bleeding ear. And Starfucker seduced us into believing it was all worth it—though they could've made it last longer. Following
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Let me be an old Oregon native curmudgeon for a moment. Back in the day, we Portlanders called it North by Northwest. It was like a much smaller, grungier version of Austin's annual industry schmooze fest, South by Southwest— it was the version that didn't give a shit about marketing and hype and shiny objects. And even though the folks that ran SXSW in the mid-90s helped Portland alt-weekly Wi.
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So I went back to school to get way from music. Well, not so much to get away from it as to expand my horizons. I wanted to force myself to write things that didn't include words like: "genre", "riff", "indie", "influence", "reverb", "vocal", "lo-fi" or "album", especially since most folk don't actually listen to music in album form anymore. For my thesis, I thought about writing a memoir and t...
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I was sitting outside Portland, Ore.'s Someday Lounge two nights ago following an incredible live performance by London's The Real Tuesday Weld when Stephen Coates—main man behind the band—told me he wasn't afraid of death. "My experience of death has been really positive," he told me. "When my father died he wasn't scared—he was completely fortunate about the time he had here." Clearly Coat
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