RAD! is Portland’s Boy Friday—doing everything from promoting concerts for friends to spinning electro at every dance party worth going to—including Rotture’s Juicy. He does everything under the sun, and it’s hard to believe he could find the time to answers these questions, but he juggled it in, executing the task with grace and style, […]

Man, winter is rough. The cold, the wet, the gloom. If your house is somewhat warm or dry, you can enjoy a winter day. If it isn’t—as many houses aren’t—you’re miserable inside because it’s cold and damp, and the only respite from the tyranny of winter is that it’s not raining inside. Post-rock seems […]

As always, a big thanks to everyone who made it out this past Sunday night for the fourteenth edition of LocalCut’s Portland Lounge Series, featuring Kele Goodwin, Andy Combs and Leigh Marble.
It was a cold one (the night, not the show), and the Towne Lounge was suffering some heating problems, to boot. But those […]

Good god, this song is beautiful.
The ever-humble and shy-in-a-good-way Kele Goodwin offers up wise, softly sung words: “We love and we lie/ But you were right/ We will survive.” Everyone’s favorite local folkstress, Laura Gibson, adds aching, haunting backup vocals. And Bright Red Paper/Portland Cello Project’s Douglas Jenkins bows and bends his particular brand of […]

Alan Singley is bummed. Or at least that’s what the local songwriter—one of my favorites—told me in a recent email. Naturally, I was concerned. But I was also excited to hear his sad new material, as I’ve always gravitated toward Singley’s more introspective songs (he ranges in topic from cats to absent fathers, in sound […]

[HIP-HOP] “I’m sick of following my dreams, man,” a familiar voice growls. “I’m just going to ask where they’re going and hook up with ’em later.” It’s the voice of Mitch Hedberg, a stand-up comic of some renown who died of a drug overdose in ‘05. As such, he’s literally calling from the grave on […]

[HIP-HOP] Being Cool Nutz poses a few occupational hazards. Aging gracefully in a young man’s game would be hard for anybody, but Nutz, a.k.a. Terrance Scott, has spent the last decade releasing music to little local press—against the backdrop of a seemingly endless string of violence that has taken the lives of his best friend […]

Do you have a favorite poet? Or perhaps you have a favorite poem? I myself am all for Robert Frost—when it comes to this contest to win tickets to the Dec. 8 Cave Singers show at Doug Fir, we at LocalCut are all about haiku. Remember that simple poem format from elementary school? Let’s go […]

Billy Joel and I may be the same person. Sure, there are some obvious differences. Joel was born in the Bronx during Harry Truman’s stint in office; I was born in Eugene, Ore. during Ronald Reagan’s reign. Joel’s a man; I’m a woman. Joel’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who has sold […]

There was this noise-music show that would come on after the news at the college radio station in Eugene. The hosts would come in with this huge mixing board, delay pedals, even a vacuum cleaner, and basically just play around, improvising noises over CDs, often playing more than one at a time. The show […]