My biggest concern after hearing the first two full-lengths by Ratatat was that this band was going to ride into oblivion their catchy combination of ’70s rock guitar, space case synthesizer noise, and programmed beats that hinted at hip-hop, glitchy electronica, and cornball disco. Luckily, Evan Mast and Mike Stroud, the two multi-instrumentalists that make [...]
Explode Into Colors – Sunday @ Holocene The buzz about this all-girl, all-rhythm post-punk outfit is reaching deafening levels, and they don’t even have a proper album out. What they do have is a sound that hearkens back to groundbreaking outfits like Delta 5, Kleenex and ESG, down to the dubbed out vocals, tribal-leaning rhythms [...]
Amid all the jagged electro rock hullaballoo that filled Beat Pyramid, the first full-length by These New Puritans, you could catch hints that there was a more intrepid and artistic group waiting to emerge (the languid synths on “Doppelganger”, the Human League leaning “En Papier”). Who would have guessed though that it would take the [...]
Fin de Cinema – Wednesday @ Holocene The second installment of the series that asks some of Portland’s best bands to play the live soundtrack to some of cinema’s most avant garde films (the last night saw Nurses and others performing alongside the Czech classic Valerie and her Week of Wonders) highlights the work of [...]
For the 5th volume of Bpitch Control‘s Boogybytes mix series – previous editions have featured Modeselektor, Kiki and Ellen Allien – DJ/producer Seth Troxler stays well within his self-constructed boundaries. The focus is on the same strain of warm, wobbly deep house heard on his own 12″s (most recorded for Ghostly International offshoot Spectral Sound). [...]
If you scour the liner notes of your favorite albums like us music critics do, you’ve likely run across the name Mike Coykendall before. The Portlander has worked as an engineer and a session man for the likes of M. Ward (his solo material as well as his collaboration with Zooey Deschanel, She & Him), [...]
Threshold: Chinese New Year Celebration – Saturday @ The 2410 The start of the Chinese New Year is this coming Sunday, but you can get a head start on your celebrations at the N Portland warehouse space/venue known as The 2410 tonight. The good folks at Anonymous-I will be hosting an all-night event that will [...]
In recent years, we’ve seen a number of wannabe Rick Rubins try to grab a hold of an iconic artist from the past – someone whose career had stagnated commercially and creatively – and helping bring them back into the spotlight with an updated sound and a few well-chosen covers. The latest is XL Recordings [...]
