One man band Mattress’s beat infested, broody jam, “Forbidden Fruit,” sounds like static electricity in the form of a song. Seemingly the definition of avant garde, that tag isn’t reserved only for Rex Marshall’s music, but his live shows, too. From the center of the stage (and often off of it, performing from inside the [...]

While local quartet the Honus Huffhines—which Andy Giegerich now fronts—plays witty, Elvis Costello-ish jangle-pop that could easily be considered “mature,” the band’s 44-year-old songwriter isn’t bashful about that fact that he’s traversed some more juvenile songwriting phases. In fact, he called this very Cut of the Day (which he wrote when he was 21) [...]

For this week’s Here Comes Your Fan column, I spoke with one Andy Giegerich, the organizer of an upcoming event called Tried Tried Again and frontman for local indie pop band the Honus Huffhines. Tried Tried Again—an eve of local songwriters playing their earliest, most embarrassing and naive tunes—celebrates just what the name indicates: the [...]

Slabtown’s 2007 opening party, the Bender, was an impromptu affair—an opportunity for the new owners to show thanks, and to mark the storied venue’s new, rawk-centric direction with a weekend-long, free music festival. It was never meant to attract bands from across the country. And, had the organizers any idea it’d become an annual event, [...]

Sure, gifted artists—be they authors, songwriters or painters—are inspiring. But their stellar work can also be totally intimidating. Perhaps that’s why it’s so gratifying when an artist releases his or her early work. We discover, for instance, that Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, who released a collection of early recordings last month titled Alone, went through [...]

[THEATRICAL POP] Debut albums can often be hurried, sordid affairs. Rarely do they appear as fully realized visions. And most bands wouldn’t dare attempt a concept record from the get-go. Then again, most bands don’t have as much fun as the Maybe Happening.
Recorded at Type Foundry by local troubadour Nick Jaina and loosely based on [...]

[ECLECTIC ACOUSTIC] Marking the first year of the acoustic mecca’s existence, WW named Mississippi Studios “Portland’s Best Place to Get an Earful” in 2004. Judging from the aural evidence on its new disc, Mississippi Studios Live, Volume III, the title holds. From the first few notes of local neo-folk act Weinland’s opening number, the laconic [...]

[FAUX WESTERN] It’s Friday night and there’s a line stretching around the corner of Southwest 4th Avenue and Washington Street. Luckily, it’s the line for the pounding dance party at the Greek Cusina—the crowd at Kelly’s Olympian, while still bustling, is slightly easier to breach.
The boy-girl duo of Growler is onstage in Kelly’s recently acquired [...]

What does a hunter do when the deer season is over? What if this “deer hunter” isn’t so much an individual, but a band from Atlanta? And what if that season isn’t so much “relegated to three specific months,” but dozens of them?
After spending continuous months on the road in support of its music, [...]