Man, I was pretty excited when I got the following MySpace message from the frontlady for last week’s winner of the Band Name of the Week title, the Foxy Sluts:
Thank you! Thank You! Thank you! Thank you!!!
I would love an oppurtunity to e’splain my killer bandname that I have taken TON’S OF SHIT over….the more [...]

Kurt Hagardorn has a straightforward vocal delivery that reminds me a bit of Harry Nilsson or the Beach Boys’ Mike Love, and he writes songs in somewhat of a similar vein to those artists at their most traditional. That’s not to say that Hagardorn is generic. He just takes a simple and emotive approach to [...]

6/20
On the way to Reno, Nevada, to play a show at the XOXO Bar. We’ve been in Oakland-Sacramento traffic for over three hours now. Everyones getting kinda pissy and annoying to eachother because its hot and we’re not really moving that fast. Still, its exciting to go to Reno. We’ll see my friend Alison [...]

Have you ever woken up at sunrise, in a van, in the Liquor Barn parking lot in Redding? We did this morning. One thing Blue Skies for Black Hearts will never be accused of is being on the ball when it comes to getting on the road. Already about six hours behind our schedule and [...]

Sandwiched in by mountains, getting up close and personal with Denali. Seated at Mountain High Pizza, digesting some Zah and Caesar salad. Mighty good pizza it be.
We are sitting here in the beer garden surrounded by “Foghorn Stringband” stickers, so we knowz the locals are friendly! Soaking up the first real rays we’ve had [...]

Portland blogger, promotions-dude and Gang of Four member Dave Allen is digging through the vaults for some of his band’s old and not-so-old bootlegs over at his redesigned site, Pampelmoose.com. Twelve of the mp3s will be posted over twelve days, and while it looks like he’s one day behind at the moment (I have no [...]

Young Portlanders do not know how to dance to country music. Nevertheless, an awkward, but jubilant crowd left their seats last Sunday to move to the bluesy music of The Devil Makes Three. Some attempted to jig in place, others paired up to dosey-doe, while still others thrashed about to form an unwelcome pit of [...]

My train gets in at the Olympia-Lacey Amtrak station eight minutes after the bus to downtown Olympia leaves the train station. The next bus isn’t for a full hour. I haven’t even been here a full minute, and already I miss TriMet. (Although a day pass here is only $1.50. At least the price [...]

My open letter to Portland singer/songwriter (and minor Youtube celebrity) Alex Arrowsmith:
Dear Alex,
The video for “Going Insane for the McCain Campaign” is the singular most obnoxious thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Furthermore, I was unable to distinguish whether your love for the Arizona Senator is true or that irony thing that’s so big [...]