A visit to Starfucker’s MySpace page reveals the words “music should never be a competition.” It’s clearly a subtle (or not so) jab at Willamette Week’s annual Best New Band poll by this year’s second-place act (see profile). Though such grumbling initially felt like a slap in the face to us local-music-loving Best New Band […]

One can imagine that the uninitiated, stumbling upon an Inca Ore performance for the first time—witnessing a pixielike young woman hunched over a keyboard, crooning unintelligible, sing-songy poetry into a pedal-treated microphone—might have the old “My kid could do this” reaction usually reserved for paint-splattered postmodern art. However, a more apt reaction might be, […]

[ELECTRO-POP] With its elaborate makeup and custom-made sexed-up costumes, Fleshtone has always put its own twist on the rock opera. Past shows have included softcore porn-ish hot-dog outfits, jungle gyms and grown men in diapers—all of which has made the troupe one of Portland’s more controversial, not to mention polarizing. But, considering a recent […]

[AFROBEAT] Nojeem Lasisi doesn’t say much. He nods throughout a conversation, his head bobbing atop his short frame, and speaks softly in a thick Nigerian accent. But that’s not to say Lasisi isn’t a good communicator. As the leader of Jujuba, Portland’s 11-piece Afrobeat orchestra, he annihilates language and sound barriers.
“When I play my talking […]

However Amelia’s Napster designation may read, the band’s music has never been what you’d call “easy listening.” A homegrown trio borne upon disciplined songcraft and a drum-playing chanteuse, Amelia’s sentiment-free chamber-roots music has won the hearts of contemporary adults throughout the Northwest—despite an absence of DayGlo hooks and easily parsed lyrics. Still, even for Amelia, […]

[GRITTY ROOTS-POP] Scotland Barr has come unstuck in time. One minute, he’s in Catholic school. The next, he’s walking through his hometown of Santa Cruz, or holed up in Montana with a flat-chested femme fatale. He’s drunk in a no-name bar, then suddenly sucked into “a distinct image of a fat, old Charles Bukowski with […]

It’s overcast and getting dark over the front steps of Southeast Portland venue/artists’ collective the Artistery. The five members of self-described “gnar shred” oufit White Fang return from a trek down to 39th Avenue for smokes and snacks. They don’t need much prodding to start talking about their band, which is spending the afternoon here […]

[TIME-CAPSULE COUNTRY] There’s a small contingent of singer-songwriters who are quietly saving country music, and Shelley Short is one of them. It’s not just thanks to her subtly twangy voice or string-laden music. Rather than waxing naively cute, à la Jenny Lewis, or idiotic (most modern country), Short encapsulates much of what makes old-school […]

Amid the ruckus of sound checks and merch-table set-ups, New Bloods drummer/vocalist Adee Robeson and violinist/vocalist Osa Atoe took a moment to catch up with WW during the hectic few hours before a recent show at Portland’s Hippodrome. The all-female, all-queer post-punk outfit has inhabited the dankly romantic basements and backyards of Northeast Portland for […]

[ONE-MAN DANCE] Ask Ian Anderson about the lo-fi dance punk he makes as Guidance Counselor and he’ll let a serendipitous tale slip: “I didn’t listen to electronic music until I bought a sequencer on accident.” He haggled a pawn shop broker down $50, only to realize he’d confused a sequencer with the synthesizer he was […]