There were some neat nuggets (har), in the responses I got from the bands playing the benefit for ? of the Mysterians this Saturday at Slabtown. But first, some vagaries from my long, sinuous phone interview with the man himself, ?.
On having never heard Nuggets.
I never listen to other people’s music, really. Unless someone is [...]

Last night I was a guest on DJ HazMatt’s “One Hour Pharmacy” on KPSU. HazMatt has an alter ego you may be familiar with (well, some of the ladies in town certainly are): “Statutory” Ray McMillin of the rap duo Wombstretcha the Magnificent. This Sunday night I’ll be hosting this pair of Portland’s despised live [...]

So I was about to sit down and tell you about some folks I met in Beaverton, but that can wait. See, although I can set the time on these posts to say anything I want them to, I am actually composing this one in the last few hours of darkness. At daylight, I’ll take [...]

Fair warning: This week’s FFW is NOT friendly. If you respect people in the military, read on at the risk of never wanting to read this column again.
By now you’ve probably gotten wind of what, in the ten days since the anti-war protest, has generated national attention. If you’re just tuning in, a group [...]

Last week’s Riff City covered a conflict between the band Riot Cop and local label Blind Spot. As far as I can tell, grudges are still held there. So, it’s always nice when grievances turn out to be a misunderstanding. This week’s FFW is a letter exchange between a concerned reader and local punk band [...]

[EDITOR'S WARNING: This week's FFW is totally not for kids or people with religious convictions.] “There’re seamen there…longshoremen, probably Russians,” Local Cutter Michael Byrne told me after I told him I could go for some adventure. “If you want adventure, we’ve got to go to Front Ave.”
Michael rides the rails, so he naturally knew [...]

As soon as I ran back around my van after opening the door for Emilie and turned Love’s Forever Changes back up, she said, “I love this band!”
She easily could have said, “Why did you bring me a rose?” or “Why are you dressed so fancy?” or “Why did you ask me to do an [...]

There was a brief point in time where I didn’t have a Discman. As a car free citizen, this was a difficult time for me. Not only does listening to music help the time pass much quicker on painfully long bus rides, the Discman, or rather, the headphones, serve another vital purpose: maintaining my antisocial [...]

“You got a lot of amps around here,” says the guy who’s come to install the Internet even though it’s already installed and functioning. “You guys play music?”
“Yeah, almost all of us do. Do you play anything?” I ask.
“I play guitar in a band the TOL—that’s Tubs of Love since we’re all a little on [...]

“You know these guys?” Dead Moon drummer Andrew Loomis asks me, pointing to an Echo and the Bunnymen collection in the juke box of the Chin Yen. “Girls love ‘em.” At the Laurelhurst-area dive you get three songs for a buck or seven for two, so Loomis and I pool together for the extra [...]