Last year brought “Kill the Wolf,” the record B. Dolan is touring with now and it’s an excellent starting point for new fans. Twenty musicians, vocalists, producers and engineers were involved in making it and it took Dolan more than five years to complete. With verses from Aesop Rock, Cecil Otter, Buck 65 and more, […]
Music
Posted inMusic
Keez to The Kingdom
Brad Jones introduces “Water Creatures”
Brad Jones, also known as Keez, is in the process of exploding. With his tunes in the trailers for “Ant-Man” and “Neighbors,” and his new record, “Water Creatures,” selling well and getting a glowing review from The Huffington Post (and many other outlets), Keez is poised on the brink. When asked whether it was weird […]
Posted inMusic
Kendrick Lamar’s “Untitled Unmastered”
Kendrick Lamar’s “Untitled Unmastered” is the polar opposite of Kanye’s new album, “The Life of Pablo.” Where “The Life of Pablo” is an unfocused and experimental joyride through Kanye West’s superego, “Untitled Unmastered” is a powerful statement of intent on the part of Lamar, another Grammy-winning rapper. Lamar grew up in Compton, the birthplace of […]
Posted inMusic
Pimpin’ the Funk
Pay for play
Pimps of Joytime is an east-coast native band with a funky and rare soulful sound that has the ability to haunt its listeners with the howls and a one-of-a-kind beat interpretation that can only come from a deep understanding of what funk was, is, and can be. Performing roughly 90 shows a year, Pimps of […]
Posted inMusic
Smell the Blood and Roses
The Smithereens get dangerously close
The Smithereens have been around for a long time. In the last 36 years of its existence, the band has released every single type of record imaginable, from Christmas albums, to greatest hits albums, to records filled exclusively with Beatles covers. The band has shown a drive that downright makes the rest of us look […]
Posted inMusic
Boss Baptism
Thirty-eight years on E Street
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play the Moda Center in Portland on March 22, but I won’t be there. It’s a troubling notion, kind of like breaking it off with a significant other after a 38-year relationship. It’s not you, Bruce, it’s me. It’s not a permanent breakup–the timing just wasn’t right […]
Posted inMusic
Cover Me
Madeleine Peyroux has that jazz
Madeleine Peyroux has been around long enough for a Greatest Hits record, which she is touring on right now. “Keep Me in Your Heart for a While: The Best of Madeleine Peyroux” is the first anthology release of her 20-year career and probably the first of many as she’s still very much going strong. Peyroux […]
Posted inMusic
Album Review: “Birth of Bravey”
Bravey Don
There is a local folk epidemic in Bend, as lead member of Bravey Don, David Gillespie, points out. “We want to rid this town of their incessant banjo addiction. It’s time to embrace rock and roll.” Is Bend ready for something like this? Could it be that although our beloved harmonica-enhanced folk is what is […]
Posted inMusic
Album Review
Kanye Confesses His Sins
Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo”(TLOP), released Feb. 14, is an audacious, layered piece of work that finally sees West deciding not to make a huge statement, but instead looking inward and giving us a chance to relate and empathize instead of judge. Whether his hijinks in the media are performance art or the shouts […]
Posted inMusic
The Sea Itself
Lit-folk quartet Darlingside amazes
Hearing Darlingside find its sound over the course of two full-length albums and an EP is astounding. The biggest change being that, between the first full-length album and the second, the group went from being a quintet to a quartet, losing a drummer, but finding something approaching excellence. Darlingside is made up of Dave Senft […]