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Both a writer and a fan of vinyl records since age 5, it wasn't until nearly three decades later that Oregon Native Ethan Maffey derived a plan to marry the two passions by writing about music. From blogging on MySpace in 2007 and then Blogspot, to launching his own website, 83Music, and eventually freelancing for publications in the Pacific Northwest, like Spokane’s alt-weekly Inlander, Ethan’s aim has been to provide fans of music alternatives to the mundane and overplayed. This included a nearly two year stint as the music editor for the Source, where he scoured the Bend music scene drawing attention to local talent and notable touring acts as they passed through town. In addition to deep knowledge of the local music scene, Ethan has an uncanny ability to quote lines from the television show “Friends.” He also has an eye for women’s fashion and feels a kinship with Lucky Day, Steve Martin’s character in ¡Three Amigos!
“I can whistle in five languages. I’m smarter than a circus dog and I’m on Facebook,” claimed the crusty male voice in a message left for Austin country rock band the Wheeler Brothers. Oh, the stranger also called them morons. Crazy stalker? Not necessarily. The Wheeler Brothers actually invited fans and strangers—like this man—to call […]
Somewhere, Stephen Sondheim is kicking himself for not crafting his murderous musical Sweeney Todd as a gothic rock production featuring the Portland death punk band Back Alley Barbers. With a website spattered in blood from straight edged razors, and press shots of the members in an actual barbershop featuring alluring yet deadly grins, the costumed […]
Once inspired by the likes of Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles and B.B. King, then an inspiration himself, 58-year-old, Bay Area singer/guitarist Tommy Castro has come full circle and is now energized by the new crop of younger blues artists. And that influence sprawls all over his latest album The Devil You Know. According to Castro—who […]
When opportunity knocks, sometimes it’s a chance to help someone out. That is literally always the case when label mates of San Diego’s La Escalera Records show up at each other’s doorsteps looking for a place to crash while on tour. “The label’s motto is: without each other, we have nothing,” explained Will Castro, label […]
Though the DIY rock documentary Mistaken for Strangers does follow the 2010 tour of Cincinnati’s indie band The National—comprised of two sets of brothers and lead singer Matt Berninger—as they play to the largest crowds they’ve ever seen, the film is not about the band. It’s actually about, well, brothers—just not the brothers in the […]
Watch the trailer for a movie (sorta) about The National
If “heroin chic” had a theme song, it would be the gripping “Almost There” by Portland singer Madeline Mahrie, who records as Machine. Doused in simple, yet thundering, grand piano, drums and knife-edged vocals, the less-is-more sound of not only that tune, but all of Machine’s steadily growing catalogue is the perfect musical manifestation of […]
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