The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry (Pet Marmoset Records)

[ANTIQUE POP] Dimes, can you spare a brother? Spare me your tedious mid-tempo strumming, wan melodies, sedate vocals, and especially, your humorless lyrical gloss on a CliffsNotes summary of a high-school American history textbook. Yes, your sophomore release, The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry, sure [...]

Alan Singley & Pants Machine Feelin’ Citrus
(Bladen County Records)

[WOWEE ZOWEE] Alan Singley is a uniter, not a divider. More than maybe any musician in Portland, Singley’s giddy, enthusiastic compositions and upbeat vibe seep into his songs—so much so, in fact, that even the sadder numbers still feel bright and happy. Feelin’ Citrus, Singley’s third full-length [...]

Commotion Self-Titled
(Self Released)

[GROOVY JAZZ] Pianist Ben Darwish is best known as one of Portland’s brightest straight-ahead jazz players, but his band Commotion’s debut album is hardly jazz as we know it. But, as Miles would say, “so what?” As with Davis’ once-panned, now-praised On the Corner, Commotion’s steady beats, danceable grooves, wide-ranging musical wanderings and [...]

Church Song Force Crystal
(Tender Loving Empire)

[EXPERIMENTAL POP] When the Pixies’ now-legendary second album, Surfer Rosa, appeared in 1988, it helped to usher in a new era in the fledgling, underdeveloped genre of indie rock. The band’s approach to songwriting was simple—hit ’em with a quiet verse; a loud, rapturous chorus; and another quiet verse—but deadly [...]

Yacht See Mystery Lights
(DFA)

[MYSTERY BEATS] YACHT has always played with contrasts. Jona Bechtolt was accessible long before his music was, smiling and chatting with fans before, after and sometimes during shows. In the early days he gave funny names to fucked-up beats and complemented what seemed like willfully impenetrable recorded material with theatrical and often [...]