Blog: LocalCut

It's hard to listen to local synth-disco trio Strength without breaking a sweat. Yeah, the band's love jams are sexy and kinky and silly, but they're also totally sincere—when Strength want you to dance, you dance. So it's fitting that the clip for "Metal," the first single from its new album, Mind-Reader , sees the band busting a few slinky moves. To be honest I'm not quite sure why singer Baily Winters is wearing a witch hat, but with Strength you just take everything as it is and realize that there's a little humor built in to these guys' [...]

Hangovers, stolen band equipment, migas, God and a severe lack of towels at the hotel. Not to mention Portland's big breakout day (the reason I avoided the National and Band of Horses covering Cee-Lo). It's Sunday in Austin, Texas. Blind Pilot at the Zync Card Stage Finally, Portland's day. M. Ward showed well the other day as 1/4 of the supergroup (1/2 in my book) Monsters of Folk, but it wasn't enough. The wait was prolonged courtesy of dance-pop maestros Hockey and their confusing last-minute departure from the [...]

This week [and last] we're doing something a little different. I sent out a Tweet saying "The next five PDX artists to email an mp3 with the subject line 'COTD' get written up at LocalCut." An hour later, I had five new songs in my inbox. Here are those songs… Download audio file (badvibrations.mp3) Alex Arrowsmith , longtime friend of the blog and current Shaky Hand, didn't really need to send us this track under the guise of our experimental Twitter MP3-fishing. But then again, we sorta missed [...]

This week [and last] we're doing something a little different. I sent out a Tweet saying "The next five PDX artists to email an mp3 with the subject line 'COTD' get written up at LocalCut." An hour later, I had five new songs in my inbox. Here are those songs… Download audio file (Glow.mp3) It is 5:15 pm in the middle of the week as I write this. I feel hi-strung and work looks like Everest in front of me. Like anyone, I fantasize about escaping all that. And if [...]

No rain, more football jerseys than "Keep Austin Weird" bumper stickers and barbecue for breakfast. It must be Saturday in the capitol of Texas. Somehow, I managed to see M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" performed three different times, saw Danger Mouse play every instrument on stage and realized that Matt and Kim love gangster rap. A lot. Here's my day two recap: The Very Best Budweiser Stage Some bands are just happy to be around. The Very Best is one of them. Especially Malawian frontman [...]

John Isaacson is back after a quick one-week hiatus, and this time he's reporting from Holocene, where author Sara Marcus celebrated the release of her book, Girls to the Front with a bevy of Portland bands. WW, in a fit of stupid, neglected to preview this show—for that we apologize. We're glad John was there. -Ed. As always, click the image to make it bigger and prettier.

The Ascetic Junkies The Cage Has No Bottom (Timber Carnival Records) [NEWGRASS] The idea of mixing acoustic instruments with electronic flourishes is not a new one. For years, artists like Four Tet, the Books and the Notwist took a knife to sounds normally associated with folk-music tradition—sparsely picked guitar; chiming banjos; found sound—and cut them into shifting arrangements that were both futuristic and old-fashioned at the same time. But to my knowledge, local quintet the Ascetic Junkies are one of the first bands to reinterpret bluegrass, a genre [...]

Good lord, we finally have a new Superchunk album! IMAGE: Jason Arthurs [INDIE-ROCK HEROES] Comeback albums aren't supposed to be good. It's practically written into the history of rock that any time a beloved act decides to put aside its differences or quibbles to tour and record new music, recapturing the old magic is much harder than just hitting play and laying down a perfect song. But in the case of indie-rock titan Superchunk—a band that went into an almost decade-long hiatus instead of actually breaking up—all it took [...]

Lovers is having a coming-out party, and you're invited. IMAGE: Emily Baker Carolyn Berk isn't afraid to wear her own band's T-shirt to an interview. "We just screenprinted these," she says from the back patio at Holman's, stretching the white shirt at the bottom to straighten out the lavender typography. "NOBODY KNOWS I'M LOVERS," it reads. Part allusion to queer sloganeering and part mission statement, Berk—whose friends call her Cubby—is clearly amused by the phrase. "I just figure anyone who would want to wear this is OK by me," [...]

We sent Mark Stock to Austin for the ACL festival again this year (well, he sent himself, but we got him a press pass), only to find out that he's a Phish fan. He took lots of photos with a non-digital camera. Those are coming tomorrow. So without further ado, part one of his Austin adventures... Damn it's good to be back in Texas. I can already smell the faint hints of dead animal on the grill and it takes all of a single trip through Austin's Waterloo records for me to drop [...]

There's a lot going on with Blue Skies For Black Hearts, one of my favorite old school guitar rock groups in town. First, the band just finished a brand new record, set for release sometime in the next year. Along with the record, Blue Skies laid down a bunch of fun cover songs, including a rawkus version of the Standells' classic hit "Dirty Water" featuring Dave Berkham of the Midnight Callers on the harmonic solo and gang backup vocals from members of Blue Horns, Welcome Home Walker, Go Fever, Midnight Callers, and Fast Computers. Gnarly. Download [...]

From the From the Land of the Ice and Snow release party at Doug Fir on Saturday night, it's "Whole Lotta Love", featuring the Decemberists' Chris Funk, Nate Query (both in Zep-appropriate garb) and Jenny Conlee (out-of-frame), plus Rachel Blumberg on drums and Rob Jones (whom we spoke with on Friday ) on guitar. There are also some unidentified folks who we need help...identifying. Phew! There's also this one of Pellet Gun and friends playing "No Quarter" Links: [...]

Image: Jones (left) with Pellet Gun's Eric Jensen in NYC, 2008. Taken by Scott Garred. To mark the release of Jealous Butcher Records' new Led Zeppelin compilation, From the Land of the Ice and Snow , we conducted an interview with label founder Rob Jones. Jones has been an instrumental player in the Portland music scene, releasing material from artists like M. Ward, Kind of Like Spitting, Hutch and Kathy and the Decemberists on his label as well as remaining an active show-goer, producer and musician. We spoke via clunky ol' email. [...]

When it rains Copy, it pours. And there's so much Copy goodness today that we're just going to push it on you and let you take it all in. We're just happy to have Marius Libman back and in full effect. Copy's video for "Breakfast," directed by E*Rock (via Altered Zones ): Starfucker's remix of Copy's "Smell It" (via Impose magazine ) Download audio file (copy-smell-it-starfucker-rmx. mp3) End transmission!

• Copy - Smell It (Starfucker Remix)

Last week, I wrote an article for the paper about Portlanders using crowdfunding website Kickstarter to help finance a variety of weird and wonderful creative projects. Due to word limits—every journo's mortal enemy—I was only able to feature one music project: Blue Crane's tour by train idea , which I chose because it was recent, original and because they did such a good job of crafting unique rewards for their fans and supporters. But there are plenty of other local bands and musicians out there still looking for a leg-up. If you've got [...]

[Want to see Eels this Friday? Want an Eels t-shirt, hoodie AND a poster? We're giving away a prize package with all that stuff in it to the person who writes the best short poem about Eels in the comments section below. Don't forget to use your real email address (that's how we'll contact you to tell you you've won) and name. Contest ends tomorrow afternoon. Good luck! Now on with the interview...] Perpetually brokenhearted Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett (or E., as he prefers) is used to exploring the darker side of life [...]

Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker redefines the concept of mom rock. IMAGE: Courtesy of Killrockstars Corin Tucker has one of the most recognizable wails in rock. As the primary singer for Sleater-Kinney—the Portland-via-Olympia trio that critic Greil Marcus named "America's best rock band" in a 2001 piece for Time magazine—Tucker has a bluesy, unhinged howl that was the one constant in the band's evolution from scrappy, feminist punks to producing the monstrous riffs and classic-rock moves of swan song The Woods. But since Sleater-Kinney went on indefinite [...]

Perpetually brokenhearted Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett (or E., as he prefers) is used to exploring the darker side of life with a perfectly aged blend of experimental pop and painfully personal lyrics. The Eels' latest release, Tomorrow Morning , follows in that tradition, but acts as the chewy hope filling inside of the shit-flavored Tootsie Pop. New disc Tomorrow Morning is the final installment in a trilogy covering desire, loss and redemption. Mr. E phones WW to discuss his newest album, his upcoming show in Portland, and the mortal dangers of having a beard. [...]

Black 'n Blue These L.A.-via-Portland rockers found a hit in their 1984 single "Hold on to 18." Guitarist Tommy Thayer, who will perform at the induction show, also plays with a little band called KISS. Tim Hardin The Eugene-born folkie wrote songs like "Reason to Believe" (made famous by Rod Stewart) and "If I Were a Carpenter" (covered by hundreds of artists, including Bobby Darin). He died in 1980. Linda Hornbuckle For the past three decades or so, this local soul/blues diva has been heralded as one of [...]

From the Land of Ice and Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin (Jealous Butcher) [ZEPPESQUE] Playing with lightning is dangerous. So when you fuck with the Gods of Thunder, you risk getting struck. Led Zeppelin tributes are always difficult, but the folks at Jealous Butcher Records have nonetheless birthed From the Land of Ice and Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin, a collection of 33 tracks by everybody from the Portland Cello Project to Kelly Blair Bauman and Loch Lomond. With such a diverse lineup personalizing the [...]