Top 5 Warm weather I love the hot tropical weather we get in New Orleans. I couldn’t ever live anywhere cold. Po’boys on every cornerI grew up on these. Can’t live without my hometown cuisine. Seco   More

Top 5 Forever Changes, LoveThis album took me years to understand properly. The denseness of it is something that can’t be digested on the first listen. Arrangement, melody, lyrics, instrumentation—   More

Top 5 Nirvana (2/09/1990, Pine Street Theatre)Appended to Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary edition of Bleach in 2009, this show captures an epochal band winding down the “regional upstarts” phase of its   More

Top 5 Sun Angle Initially sounding like “a sped-up Can,” Fimbres describes the material on the band’s upcoming debut—recorded in a cabin in Zigzag, Ore., under certain, um, mycological influenc   More

Top 5 Various Artists, Gem Drops I-II Featuring tracks from crew members, affiliates and like-minded fellow travelers, either of these interchangeable compilations makes an ideal entry point for wading   More

Top 5 Unknown Mortal Orchestra, II (2/5, Jagjaguwar) The mystery is gone, but Ruban Nielson’s once-enigmatic post-Mint Chicks project is still one of Portland’s singular bands. Based on the new alb   More

Top 5 King Khan and the Shrines @ Dante’s (MusicfestNW, 9/6) This was the only time I’ve ever felt like hurrying toward Dante’s. What made this show killer was the pure inhibition that the Shrine   More

Top 5 The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) This Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass gem reminds me of my own life. Heat Miser and Snow Miser are always on my shoulders whenever I am contemplating heavy decis   More

Top 5 The Amboy Dukes, “Baby, Please Don’t Go” Legendary blues song recorded by Big Joe Williams in 1935 that would go on to be covered by countless musicians, in a variety of styles. One of my f   More

Top 5 Knothead (pictured)This guy is ready to blow up big time. He’s a heavy-metal-laced hip-hop artist with a real hardcore attitude like Tech N9ne or Insane Clown Posse. Most of his lyrics are about   More