Of Note
“There’s always room for Jell-O,” right? That’s what Eric Boucher hoped in 1979 when he adopted that ad slogan to help spread the word in his bid for mayor of San Francisco. This happened during …
In the title track from his new album, Us, Brother Ali raps, “Started rhyming just to be somebody/ To make people notice me at the party/ And not be just a new kid that’s albino/ …
Ask Steve Poltz how he would like to be remembered, and he doesn’t hesitate: He says he’d like to be thought of as a guy who brought people together. He explains that his audiences are …
They are the third Portland-based band I’ve talked to in as many weeks. First STRFKR, then Boy Eats Drum Machine, and now the Thermals. Is every group from Portland on tour? “It’s an infestation,” says …
The name “Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin” needs a comma. It should read like “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” In fact, every time I see the band name, I imagine a Peanuts-style drawing …
Jon Ragel from Portland, Oregon, performs as his alter ego, Boy Eats Drum Machine, a one-man act that leans heavily on turntables and digital sampling. “Also saxophone,” he says. “A tenor saxophone. A real one.” …
This year’s Heaven Is Whenever is the fifth studio album by Brooklyn’s Hold Steady, and if you’ve been paying any attention, you know what to expect. There are big, butt-rockin’ guitar riffs. There are boozy, …
The Moaners are a guitar-and-drum rock duo from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a couple of part-time bartenders named Melissa Swingle and Laura King who make music steeped in both punk and the Mississippi Delta. The …
After the Second World War, a couple moved from Mississippi to Chicago, where they put together a family gospel-singing act and began singing in churches. As the ‘50s turned into the ‘60s, they became active …
They sound better live. When I saw “Portugal. The Man” at SOMA the first time a couple of years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. I was thinking folksy indie-pop, the way they sound …
Robert Schneider is a gifted writer of upbeat, melodic guitar pop. With his long-running band the Apples in Stereo (or, as they prefer it, the Apples in stereo, with a lowercase s), his songs are …
Rocket from the Tombs was a mid-’70s Cleveland band that never got a lot of recognition. But Rocket spawned bands that did gain notoriety — such as Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys — and …
A few months ago I went to see the XX, a young band that won just about every award available in the British music industry this year. Everything about that band is minimal and sparse, …
In Frightened Rabbit’s song “Swim Until You Can’t See Land,” a man dares himself to enter the icy waters of the North Sea. He compares it to a baptism or a “drowning of the past.” …
Meklit Hadero’s ascension as a popular and critically acclaimed singer-songwriter began five years ago, when she first sang in public. Born in Ethiopia and raised in numerous cities across the U.S., Hadero came to San …
Colin Hay doesn’t have what you’d call a household name, he doesn’t look or act like a rock star, and his solo shows don’t sell out big stadiums, but you probably recognize his slightly raspy …