RIFF CITY When Foureveryoung—the musical project of Loch Lomond's Ritchie Young and his three younger brothers—first booked a show at Mississippi Studios, owner Jim Brunberg said, "I'm not gonna che ...   More

RIFF CITY Every year, Austin, Tex., is host to literally thousands of bands during the giant annual press conference and music fest that is South by Southwest (SXSW). This year (like most), a good assload of th ...   More

RIFF CITY On "Spitting Venom," perhaps the awesomest track on Modest Mouse's latest, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Isaac Brock sings, "We've got a knack for fucked-up history." You can say that again, ...   More

RIFF CITY When Riot Cop's Dominic Drumgo saw the booklet for Choke On It—a vinyl compilation of Portland punk that features his band—he treated the record just as he used to treat those by the famou ...   More

RIFF CITY In the year since Marius Libman— the finely dressed, massively bearded gentleman behind electronic dance project Copy—released his stellar debut LP, Mobius Beard, and took WW's Best New Ba ...   More

RIFF CITY In the land of what he calls "hyper-expressive" songwriters, Michael Rockstar is an odd bird: a musical comedian. What's more: He's actually pretty funny. It's not necessarily his Adam Sandler-esque f ...   More

RIFF CITY According to its online bio, local record label Love Harder "started out as a slogan after the demise of the American Electoral System." But, over beers at the label's two-year anniversary show this p ...   More

RIFF CITY Jim Fairchild—best known for playing guitar in now-defunct Modesto, Calif.,-based blip-pop band Grandaddy—lived in Portland for only seven months. But during that short time in 2005, Fairc ...   More

RIFF CITY Slabtown is more than a bar. The name not only denotes a region—Industrial Northwest Portland—it embodies a history: In the 1880s, rich folks used "Slabtown" to refer derogatorily to worki ...   More

RIFF CITY "Guacamole!" exclaim two women at a local Starbucks. They're not trying to place a special order; local blues legend Sonny Hess and award-winning bass player Lisa Mann (who was greeted by Hess with a ...   More