RIFF CITY At 3 years old this week, Atlas is the longest-running dance party in the history of Holocene, a club that's historically limited itself to the musical oeuvre of the Western hemisphere. But a couple o ...   More

RIFF CITY This column—my last for this newspaper—is being written on a laptop owned by Willamette Week. It was lent to me by my employer for my tenure as the music editor of the largest alternative ...   More

RIFF CITY "John's eyes don't close, and so he's been losing a lot of sleep," explains Adam Shearer. "And that is really bad." Shearer, frontman for local folk-rock band John Weinland, is detailing some of the m ...   More

RIFF CITY Colin Meloy has come a long way from his days as a young songwriter penning fanciful songs in the Oak Street Building in Industrial Southeast Portland. At that time, around the turn of the millennium, ...   More

RIFF CITY The first four lines that Colin Meloy released as a Decemberist, on 2002's Castaways and Cutouts, are perhaps his most powerful. "My name is Leslie Ann Levine," he sang over a simple guitar strum. "My ...   More

RIFF CITY "The Northwest doesn't have too many bands that we really like," explains David Hoffmann, the softspoken guitarist, songwriter and all-around point man for Portland's punk-rock sweethearts, the SLiP i ...   More

RIFF CITY "The Setup," the first track on Heroes and Villains' debut, Turn Your Swords, introduces the listener to a character by way of the midrange harmonies of vocalists Adam Raitano and Maranda Dabel. "He's ...   More

RIFF CITY Ratatat, arguably, has been one of the biggest blow-up cult bands of the past couple years, with its infectious layered guitars and beatsmithing snagging a spot in every hipster's iPod from Williamsbu ...   More

RIFF CITY As MusicfestNW's executive director (for the first time), my task this year was to continue emphasizing great local and regional acts, but also to make a unique name for the festival. And let me tell ...   More

RIFF CITY In 35 years, Scottish free-folk icon Vashti Bunyan released only two albums: 1970's Just Another Diamond Day and last year's Lookaftering. For three decades, she was barely heard from, living in relat ...   More