MusicWatch Monthly: Mayday!
May 1, 2020
Strikes, unions, mega-corporations and the unpaid labors of love (with a tip of the hat to Bandcamp).
Strikes, unions, mega-corporations and the unpaid labors of love (with a tip of the hat to Bandcamp).
Examining the New Flesh. Staying home and slaying dragons. Running on a treadmill. It’s corona time.
Music in the Time of Pandemic: Turn off the web, put on an album, close your eyes, and listen.
No fooling, no fake news: an imaginative leap into a possible musical future.
First of all, how are you? Eating enough? Staying inside and entertained? Called your friends and/or family lately? Good. Let’s start by collectively admitting that we’re Not Doing Alright. It’s been a busy two weeks since last we spoke, dear reader: schools
Bad news, everyone! No, it’s not quite the end of the world. But, yes, shows are being canceled.
Matthew Neil Andrews on a trio of Portland orchestras keeping the American symphony alive.
Defining “American”: Caroline Shaw, nyckelharpa and hardanger fiddle, Carnatic voice & violin, harps & drums, American gothick.
Notes for an extra day: A weekend of concerts and a Portland Weird undectet.
Talking with “triple threat” Caroline Shaw, in town to perform her own music with Third Angle New Music.
An Oregon lineup that mines the meanings of “Americana” and “world music.”
Matthew Neil Andrews thinks about the phantom zone of “world music” and what it really means.
Matthew Neil Andrews spots composers everywhere, and a jazz festival, too.
Normally we like to contain all our monthly previews in one tidy column. But since February starts this weekend, we’d like to tell you all about the first stretch of Februarial concerts now–and we’ll tell you about the rest of the month
Tonight, tonight, tonight! Your busy music editor has to miss a bunch of cool stuff tonight, dear reader: I’ll be schlepping gongs and playing reyong with Gamelan Wahyu Dari Langit, opening for Wet Fruit at Mississippi Studios. If you followed our adventures
An interview with Ron Blessinger about new music, old music, and the effect of space on sound.
In which we bid adieu to Neil Peart and comfort ourselves with winey classical marimba, saturnalian psalms, and an operatic sistah.
Oregon has two winters as well as two summers. We’ve just wrapped up First Winter: the time when it hasn’t gotten too terribly cold and miserable, holiday cheer is in the air, and everybody’s all excited for the solstice and the new
New Year’s Eve, like Death, is the great equalizer. We all celebrate the solstice-adjacent holidays differently–Christmas, Kwanzaa, Yule, Festivus, Hogswatch, and so on–but those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar all come to the end of 2019 at more or less
Treat your ears with modern classical, vintage pop, nouveau prog, Australian psych, and Portland Gothic.
The Portland pop star talks about singing with the Oregon Symphony and making her own oddball musical way.
Ho ho ho! Oregon First Winter is fully upon us: the snow and ice and seasonal depression haven’t hit in full force yet, but it’s finally cold and rainy enough to talk about holiday music. Let’s get started with an old favorite:
This week, singer-songwriter-composer Gabriel Kahane arrived in Portland to start his position as Creative Chair for the Oregon Symphony–a job he’ll hold for three seasons, organizing a variety of concerts and working with the beloved hometown orchestra to expand its embrace of
Bah, humbug! It’s too early for Christmas music, don’t you think? Just because December is upon us, with its flakey promises of snow, doesn’t mean there isn’t a nice pile of early unholiday presents waiting. We’ve got a good dozen or two
Several questions haunted this journalist’s mind during a series of fall concerts put on by three of Portland’s most excellent classical groups: Fear No Music, Resonance Ensemble, and Third Angle New Music. The music was all good, but was often upstaged by
Several questions haunted this journalist’s mind during a series of fall concerts put on by three of Portland’s most excellent classical groups: Fear No Music, Resonance Ensemble, and Third Angle New Music. The music was all good, but was often upstaged by
Several questions haunted this journalist’s mind during a series of fall concerts put on by three of Portland’s most excellent classical groups: Fear No Music, Resonance Ensemble, and Third Angle New Music. The music was all good, but was often upstaged by
Those of you who just can’t get enough Brahms and Beethoven are lucky: you get to hear those guys all the time on myriad concerts and fresh boxed sets and so on ad apparently infinitum. But if your favorite composer happens to
As Lou Harrison said, music is basically a song and a dance. Welcome to a week of it.
There are a handful of things that make a city’s musical culture feel complete. You need several symphony orchestras and large choirs, and they all have to be pretty damn good. You also need several smaller choral and instrumental ensembles overlapping with
What’s up? Big bands, big choirs, chamber classical, and hybrid music from Indonesia and the British Isles.
Our most excellent wrap of November music classical, new, jazzy, and hybrids in between.
The world is already a haunted house. Killer clowns, mercenary robots, dystopian surveillance states, wildfires galore–what do you need a haunted house for? Instead, go lurk in the shadows with some dark music and costumed fun. There are dozens of tribute shows
The present author normally adheres to a strict “no promoting your own shows” policy, but since I spent a month telling you all about band camp in Bali, I feel it’s only fair to let you know that the results of that
Third Angle welcomes Oregonian composers home. Creative Music Guild improvises.
Composer Andy Akiho and percussionist Colin Currie chat about ceramic bowls and meaty marimba.
We stumble upon a Hall of Fame inductee, learn about joiking and konnakol, and hear from the audients.
Warm up your fall with saxophones, film and classical music, international virtuosi, and metallized Metroids.
Composer Oscar Bettison talks about making cool music and helping the Oregon Symphony kick off its season.
Matthew Neil Andrews tells all: Your guide to choosing a balanced musical diet.
“Classical”? “Popular”? The week’s music ducks and dodges around a blurry line.
A few questions and answers with Queer Opera singers and stage director Rebecca Herman.
Monster surf, homebrewed string quartets, double drumming, and the tyranny of evil men.
It’s a busy month of music in Oregon, from classical to hip-hop to experimental and more.
What’s up: Retro rock, math punk, psychedelic cumbia, shredded metals, and Jimmie Herrod.
Folksy chamber operas, locavore choral music, doom and psych and loops, pairs of pairs of pairs.
A conversation with Caroline Shaw, composer of string quartets at CMNW and Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival.
Happy Indonesian Independence Day! Seventy-four years ago today, Indonesia declared its independence from the Netherlands after three centuries of Dutch colonialism (I’ll bet you thought they were always just about tulips and weed). To celebrate, here’s a little video (if you can’t
Music editor in Bali, women in wine country, classical jamming in NoPo.
Out-of-town festivals, funk at the zoo, opera ‘bout Guthrie, we’re all Kulululu.
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