You know what? New Year’s Eve in Portland is bound to be kind of disappointing. For the most part, our city is already maxed-out in terms of how many cool shows can be going on any given weekend night. So if you’re expecting the most incredible night of your life tonight, it really isn’t any [...]

“Oh yeah, he chopped a guy in half with an axe right over there,” says Frankie “Wrath,” the 19-year-old rhythm guitarist for Clit Ripper as I arrive at his Southeast Portland home. He and his girlfriend live two houses down from the former residence of Frank Hudson, a man accused of brutally murdering two people [...]

“Is that your Christmas veil?” I asked a woman dressed in all black in the restroom line at Tube. There was nothing festive about her black veil; I asked because it was Christmas.
“Yeah, well it was a gift. I collect vintage hats,” she said. And that was the only sign that it was Christmas [...]

What better way to lead into Wombstretcha the Magnificent’s response to last week’s Band Name of the Week post than with Sauce Policy, a band that implies on its MySpace that its music has the power to impregnate (their catch-phrase reads, “I saw Sauce Policy, now I’m pregnant…”). Ever since I first saw the band [...]

I had a few beers with newly local singer-songwriter Jon Itkin last night at the Farmer’s Barn off North Lombard Street, and I found him to be a delightful young man. Okay, he’s only a few years younger than me, but if you take the world-worn depth of Itkin’s voice into consideration, the fact that [...]

WW’s Local Cut team picks the five best local albums of 2006.
Adrian Orange, Bitches Is Lord (Marriage):
For the record, this is a post-deadline reconsideration. My apologies to the Blow (whose Paper Television was heavily considered). Bitches Is Lord is simply the most devastatingly beautiful and devastatingly honest thing I’ve heard in the past year. And, [...]

WW’s Local Cut team picks the five biggest local music surprises of 2006.
Copy Wins WW’s “Best New Band” Poll: Maybe you’d call it a fluke that a dude with a laptop, a fancy suit and a keytar won this annual title by a near 2-1 ratio. I call it PDX opening its eyes to the [...]

As you may have noticed, this week’s Willy Week is stock fulla year-end lists, including the Local Cutters’ picks for the best albums, songs, venues, labels and surprises of the year in local music. Check out all of those lists on the Willamette Week site or below under the heading “Paper Cuts,” and listen [...]

WW’s Local Cut team picks the five best local labels of 2006.
Community Library: This small, vinyl-centric operation—named for a performance night of the same name—is Paul Dickow (Strategy, Nudge) and David Chandler’s (Solenoid, DJ Brokenwindow) baby of closely curated electronic and experimental gems. Artists on the CL roster may have nothing to do with each [...]