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In the late '60s and into the '70s, there was a sea change in the world of country music. Rather than drawing from the glut of radio-ready folk and country that dominated the airwaves, a new class of country singers came up through the ranks, bringing with them a more
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Diynosaur adorn themselves with lofty, contradictory descriptors like "pre-rhythm," "post-music" and "neo-analog," and the impression one gets is not one of self-aggrandizement, but more a sign that Diynosaur would rather throw their hands up in defeat than explain just what they are. Made up of three people apparently named Funkasaurus
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In a dismissive manner typical of the man, my dad used to say that anyone could sing a Neil Young song better than Neil Young. Personally, I've always been drawn to atypical voices such as Young's, as well as usual touchstones like David Byrne and Isaac Brock, but to each
Music
For anyone out there with children, I know it can be tempting to bring them to Disneyland when their soft, young brains are still forming. This, after all, is the moment in their lives when they would be most excited to meet Mickey and ride the teacups, but taking them
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More so than many of the other bands striving to capture the feeling of music in the '90s, pop weirdos Dead Larry feel like they emerged straight from the time capsule. It's remarkable how uncanny their resemblance is to the pop eccentrics like They Might Be Giants, Ben Folds Five,
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Seattle quintet Great Grandpa exudes an effortless cool. The grungy pop recalls bands like the Breeders and Garbage, with their sly melodies and crunchy guitars. Lead singer Alex Menne brings a detached swagger that is offset by unobtrusive harmonies from her bandmates. A band like Great Grandpa, with lyrics about
Music
My first time listening to the Dirty Projectors was a bewildering and dizzyingly delightful experience. David Longstreth was clearly a madman, constantly stretching his vocals beyond the boundaries of good taste and engaging in musicianship that seemed less like a good time and more like self-flagellation. The Dirty Projectors were
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Setting aside any of the other qualities that I'll be billboarding about Nasalrod, the one thing that you need to know is that they're a lot of goddamn fun. The punk rock Portland foursome create impossibly energetic music that doesn't so much pummel as it grabs you by the shoulders
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San Francisco duet the Classical make concise descriptions quite a task. The easiest way to sum them up is to call them baroque art-rock, though that doesn't quite cut it. "Shovel & Bevel" combines clinically mesmerizing drums with odd phrases repeated over and over with darkly expressive strings to create
Arts
Sometimes, when you're thinking up a story idea, you can engage in a game of chicken with yourself. An unusually potent example of this was when I brought up the idea of seeing the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey for a story. My friend suggested that I up
Music
Music has long been used to get through traumatic times like deaths, break-ups and wars. There's something comforting about being guided through the hard moments by artists who seem to know exactly what you're going through, but who have the tools to help others. Music is a salve, a sturdy
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I've long been in love with the fizzy, cartoonishly bright power pop of the Hoot Hoots. With their driving indie rock, dressed with colorful costumes and embellished with lyrics about robots and dinosaurs, the Hoot Hoots have embodied the height of blissful optimism for me in the Pacific Northwest. Seeing
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Seattle quartet Specters are romanticizers of the '90s, as they say. Specifically, they bring the sort of slacker vibe to their music that bands like Pavement mastered. Unlike the weirdo energy that recent slacker rockers like Mac Demarco carry, there is a gentle power pop grandeur to the Specters that
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Hungry Skinny perfect a kind of dirtbag glam befitting their Northern California roots. What initially sounds like the same sort of garage pop that comes from Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin eventually reveals itself to be impeccably assembled rock that draws from the sloppy blues-rock of '60s mods like the
Music
The phenomenon of the "morning zoo" radio show is a persistent and inexplicable one in American culture. People like Bubba the Love Sponge and other assorted fake monikers dominate drive time radio with an unending assault of sound effects and self-consciously edgy material, seemingly just because it's hard to keep
Music
Before I had even heard Prince, I heard the lo-fi, gonzo appropriation of Prince's sound in Ween. Here were a duo of weirdos that loved progressive rock and early '80s funk, but who filtered that love through tape machines and more than a little bit of huffed Scotchgard. Even after
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I was surprised and delighted to hear the latest from Skrill Meadow, the one-man band of Mark Morrison. Private Memories is an album of straight-up slow jams, albeit jams coming directly from one shitty tape machine to your ear. Despite his limitations, Morrison embodies the consummate frontman, reeking of sex
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Underwhelmed comes to us from Dick Rossetti (formerly of 107.7 The End and currently the frontman of the Jilly Rizzo) and Isaac Olsen. Olsen should be known to fans of local music and film as the director behind Quiet Shoes, Ich Hunger, and the Girl Trouble documentary, Strictly Sacred. The
