[EDITOR'S NOTE: This Podcast is the first installment of Arya Imig's "These Are the Days," an all-local podcast where Imig (a KPSU host and active member of Portland's music community) brings us interviews, live and studio songs, and whatever the hell else he wants, every two weeks. I asked him to write an intro for his first show, which is the text that follows.]

Download audio file (These Are The Days.mp3)

For the last eighteen months on KPSU, I have hosted a radio program called Sound Judgment. Part of the program’s mission has been to provide a platform for local bands. As the show has grown that platform has become crowded. When I was asked to create this podcast for LocalCut, I jumped at the chance to be given a larger soap box from which to shout out the glories of the bands and performers I have come to admire from afar and in some cases know on a personal level.

This podcast is about local music, and the people who help make up the Portland music community.

This first podcast contains conversations with two performers, Nick Vicario and Josh Hodges, whose talent and dedication are admired. Nick Vicario performs with four important bands in Portland: Autistic Youth, Absolute Rulers, Forced March, and the Bustling Townships. Josh Hodges has long been known as one of Portland’s most able and beloved songwriters in his group Sexton Blake, and now with his new project Starfucker. Nick and Josh, for different reasons, represent not only the here and now, but also the future of the Portland music scene. This podcast also contains a live performance by Starfucker recorded May 25 at a house show in S.E. by Clayton Waldron and Gus Ludlow, to whom I am grateful. I am also grateful to LocalCut for this opportunity, and to KPSU staff and DJs for their support.

If you have ever rolled your eyes when somebody has said “Those were the days!”, this is the podcast for you. This podcast’s mission is predicated on the supposition that THESE are the days. We believe that the up and coming bands in this city’s music scene deserve to be exposed to a wide audience of potential listeners and fans.

Future podcasts will contain interviews with and performances and music by local artists. Future podcasts will also contain less technical glitches [The opening section in Arya's first ever podcast is a tad patchy, but please stick with it, it's totally worth it. -Ed.] and factual errors (Miller was in fact the drummer in Jumanji; Logan was the singer). With one ear to the past, and eyes always to the future, the These Are The Days podcast will march boldly on.

It is heady stuff to be handed the responsibility of arbiter of taste on a scene that can often feel fractured by subcultures broken down by things as trivial as genre and even geography. It is a mistake to consider this podcast the final word on the Portland music scene. These are the days, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Link: Arya’s other show, Sound Judgement (KPSU)

We’re gonna get Arya a logo real soon.