Blog: End Hits

Hidden Hollers by Houndstooth HOUNDSTOOTH, WOODEN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND, PIGEONS ( Holocene , 1001 SE Morrison) With some stellar new tracks up on Bandcamp and a full-length on the way, Houndstooth is firing on every cylinder, particularly with their powerhouse live show. With members Voltron'ed together from countless other local bands, Houndstooth makes jangling, reeling rock that fits perfectly into the ol' earholes. NED LANNAMANN ANDREW BIRD, LAURA MARLING [...]

Well, the Mercury sites went down this morning and my original, Pulitzer-worthy blog post about the new Mean Jeans video seems to have vanished entirely. Somehow, I know Facebook buying Instagram is responsible. So here it is again, the great new intergalactic video from the Mean Jeans , for their song "Anybody Out There" from the new record Mean Jeans on Mars . It's dope. It's dopey! It has aliens and spaceships and laserdiscs and Jägerbombs and all kindsa dumb stuff. I love it. [...]

It all started out simply enough, as a little friendly half-court basketball competition between a couple of Portland bands, played on a hoop built on a tour van. After some other bands caught wind of this b-ball bandwagon, it quickly spiraled into a thirty two band, bracket style basketball tournament that took place across PDX last summer. And guess what? Rigsketball is back. That's right, another tournament is being planned as we speak, and any Portland band is invited to register. The action will take place between July 26th and August 9th, but sign ups start [...]

Minh Tran Chairlift Minh Tran Chairlift On Sunday (Easter night), NYC's Chairlift took the Doug Fir stage, and our Minh Tran was there to capture it all inside his photographic machine, along with shots of opener Nite Jewel , too. Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek didn't wear the plastic bag dress she wore at a previous Doug Fir show, but still, lots to look [...]

Cold Specks Performance starts at :30 seconds [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Here's an exclusive video of Portland Cello Project performing at the Aladdin Theater back in September. They're performing a number which PCP's Doug Jenkins politely introduces as "That's My Sandwich"—however, astute listeners will quickly detect that it is actually the name of a Kanye/Jay-Z song that's called something else. Something that rhymes with sandwich. (Jenkins is on to something, though. Why there aren't more songs about sandwiches is beyond me. Shouldn't, like, 50 percent of all songs be about sandwiches?) This song—under another family-friendly name, "That's My B"—also appears on PCP's new [...]

GOTYE, KIMBRA ( Crystal Ballroom , 1332 W Burnside) Read our article on Gotye . JAMES, THOMAS DOLBY, ELIZAVETA ( Roseland , 8 NW 6th) Hey, remember the tape you made with "She Blinded Me with Science" on it (track 1, side B)? Hey, remember hearing "Laid" on the radio and dubbing that over the same tape? Well, this is it for real: Thomas Dolby and James, inexplicably touring together. Like an awesome [...]

Minh Tran Minh Tran Cults played the Wonder Ballroom Friday night and our Minh Tran was there with his camera to bring us these pics of the show. It was a short—and as you can see, very purple—set, but their catchy songs were in full effect as lead singer Madeline Follin and guitarist Brian Oblivion were backed [...]

Into the Woods takes us LITERALLY into the woods with the new episode of Don't Quit Your Day Job —marking a return of sorts to the series' original focus, which used to be taking bands out to remote locations in the woods and filming them. In this episode, Matt Sheehy of Lost Lander takes us into the forest for his day job: that of a forester for Northwest Forestry Services. Sheehy talks a little bit about what the job is like and how he got started in that line of work. Meanwhile, [...]

CHAIRLIFT, NITE JEWEL ( Doug Fir , 830 E Burnside) Read our article on Chairlift . RADIATION CITY, LEGENDARY OAKS ( Rontoms , 600 E Burnside) Radiation City took the local scene by storm with the release of last year's The Hands That Take You , first issued on the band's Apes Tapes cassette label and then given national re-release by Tender Loving Empire. That was a splendid debut, to [...]

THE BARR BROTHERS, SEAN FLINN AND THE ROYAL WE ( Bunk Bar , 1028 SE Water) Read our article on The Barr Brothers . SLEIGH BELLS, JAVELIN, ELITE GYMNASTICS ( Roseland , 8 NW 6th) Sleigh Bells—the metal guitarist and pop songstress duo—is bringing its wall of electro-pop dance jams to the Roseland. Armed with their new album, Reign of Terror , the Brooklyn pair aim [...]

If you watched the first minute or so of Gossip 's new video for "Perfect World" with the sound off, you might think the music that accompanies it would be some sort of spook-goth, possibly metal-tinged, definitely dark and moody and funereal. You wouldn't expect it to be a disco banger, but it's Gossip. Of course it is. Medieval candlelit churches never looked so fabulous. "Perfect World" comes from Gossip's upcoming full-length A Joyful Noise , which was recorded in part at KBC Studios here in town. The band doesn't have any hometown [...]

CEREMONY, MILK MUSIC, SOCIETY NURSE, ARCTIC FLOWERS ( Branx , 320 SE 2nd) Read our article on Ceremony . CULTS, SPECTRALS, MRS. MAGICIAN ( Wonder Ballroom , 128 NE Russell) There's no use pretending that Cults are game-changers, but if you have a soft spot for the glam goth of yore, it's hard to resist their girl-group-infused rendition of the genre. Their debut ratchets up the creep factor with Jim Jones audio clips, and spoken interludes that [...]

photo: James Bryans Gotye Another week, another Mercury music section to glance over as you learn about what makes the makers of Theraflu mad . Turns out, it's the same thing that makes PETA mad. Gotye is huge. The Belgian-Australian producer/musician had the biggest song on 94.7 since Coldplay's "Yellow." Now if only anyone knew how to pronounce his name. LISTEN: Gotye - "I Feel Better" The Barr Brothers are brought to you [...]

Rachel Bowman Bowerbirds North Carolina's Bowerbirds rolled through town earlier this week, performing a set at the Doug Fir on Wednesday. Photographer Rachel Bowman was on hand to capture these shots of the performance, plus openers Dry the River as well. Take a look see! Lots of pics after the jump. Bowerbirds will be back in the area this summer for Pickathon , which happens August 3-5 and is amazing. [ [...]

photo by Brian Danielson Horse Feathers' Justin Ringle Horse Feathers ' fourth album, Cynic's New Year , comes out on Kill Rock Stars on Tuesday, April 17. It's my favorite work so far from the Portland chamber folk ensemble, balancing the delicacy of the group's ravishing instrumentation with frontman Justin Ringle's weighty songwriting. (Take a listen to "Where I'll Be" right here .) Horse Feathers plays a hometown release show at the Aladdin Theater on Saturday, April 21 , and we're giving away [...]

VIVA VOCE, 1939 ENSEMBLE, BATTLEME ( Mississippi Studios , 3939 N Mississippi) Kevin and Anita Robinson have something up their sleeve: Tonight's Viva Voce show will actually be the premiere performance of the Robinsons' new Psychedelic Famile Band, a mysterious incarnation from folks that can't ever keep musically still. NED LANNAMANN BRAINSTORM, TWIN STEPS, ONUINU ( Backspace , 115 NW 5th) Twin Steps' debut EP, Serial Parade , is a quirky little thing. The Oakland [...]

Seeing as the Mercury 's former Pug* Editor is no longer a salaried employee of the paper, it falls to me to present you this. And so, here it is. Anything further I have to say will only cheapen the experience, so please enjoy: Bone Pugz . Thanks to commenter Graham for the tip. * and Music Too, I Guess [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

There are many strange items of note in this personalized video from Thomas Dolby. 1. Thomas Dolby is opening for James on Monday, April 9, at the Roseland. Hmm. This seems like an unlikely, but perhaps harmonious, pairing, like watching Troop Beverly Hills then Dead Alive . 2. I could happily listen to Thomas Dolby say "chrome-encrusted trailer" approximately one kajillion times. 3. I would very much like to go inside of Thomas Dolby's steam-punk travel trailer , where he wants Portlanders to record time capsule video messages for the FUTURE. 4. Pretty sure [...]

And And And 's new video captures the world from a cat's-eye view. Or so it would seem—drummer Bim Ditson writes in the description on YouTube: I taped my iPhone to my roommate's cat and edited the results into this music video. Wow. I'm not quite sure how he pulled this off. I don't know if you have ever met a cat before, but cats hate everything , and that includes having stuff taped to them. Anyway, this cat seems pretty okay with lugging around a smartphone, and the result is that it wanders around both inside and outside [...]