Many people who discovered punk rock in the late 1970s or early 1980s have a variation on this story: “I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when a car slowed down and a meathead yelled ‘DEVO!’ Then a beer bottle hit me in the head and the car sped away.” By the …
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Neoconservatives accuse Barack Obama of leading the United States down the road to communism. In reality, mainstream Democrats have become more fiscally conservative since the Cold War era. Obama is no more economically radical than Richard Nixon, whose presidency produced the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, increased spending on social programs, …
When this blog recruited me to introduce a YouTube clip of Dead Moon playing “It’s O.K.” in Hannover, Germany, two thoughts came to mind. First, the history of the band. The long version can be found on their archived website and in the documentary film Unknown Passage. The short version: Longtime Portland musical couple Fred …
Best Reunion Concerts of 2011: 1. Confidentials and Thin Man at Dante’s (Portland), April 1 2. Fastbacks at West Seattle Summer Fest, July 8 3. Rats and Stiphnoyds at Star Theater (Portland), November 17 Two Movies You May Have Missed in 2011: 1. The Oregonian (Creepy surrealism from Seattle filmmakers) 2. Take Me Home Tonight …
Music historians rarely mention the Rats except when listing bands that Portland singer/songwriter/guitarist Fred Cole played in before Dead Moon. In fact, the Rose City’s alternative music scene of the early 1980s is mostly regarded as a footnote to the hype generated in Seattle a decade later. When former Dead Moon drummer Andrew Loomis invited …
In 1983, a Wichita, Kansas band called the Embarrassment released the album Death Travels West. Fourteen years later, the Kent 3 from Seattle put out a record called Stories of the New West. Coincidence? Yes, according to Kent 3 leader Viv Halogen, who informed me that he had never heard of the Embarrassment, or even …
“More liberals need to acknowledge that Richard Nixon won—twice—and push for an updated strategy. They should stop using the following clichés when speaking or writing: The people. Progressive. Shame. Social justice. The world is watching. They should pay less attention to movies by self-serving millionaire Michael Moore and books by self-serving millionaire Noam Chomsky. They …
This is just awful. I don’t want to live here anymore. KGW’s lovely Abbey Gibb files an informative news feature on just how Portland’s awful history of human trafficking is revealed in a network of underground tunnels downtown: http://www.kgw.com/entertainment/Sha-138610174.html Thanks to Ben Easher for this 1999 article from Anodyne Magazine Online which includes such tidbits …
In the news report above, two reporters try to explain the punk scene versus the new wave music scenes of Seattle in 1981. Although the report was pretty shallow, it also tried to discredit punk the way almost all the media did at the time. The reporters mentioned punk bands liked to use shock tactics …