Local Cut

Today is Willamette Week Music Editor Amy McCullough's last day. Goodbyes have been said, good wishes wished, even a few tears shed (Amy also posted her going-away episode of In the Mux earlier today). It seems like everybody is getting in on the "Bon Voyage" festivities (Amy and her boyfriend are sailing a boat to Mexico: All bills paid in full, most worldly possessions sold or given away). And...

This is the third installment in what is now most definitely a regular thing here at LocalCut (three counts as "most definitely regular," right?). In the absence of much, err, music on this site, I thought it would be pretty rad if we asked local musicians and tastemakers to make us a mix every now and again?and thanks to the power of the internet (and my former high school classmate...

Waaaahooooo! Two new Thermals demos ("You Dissolve" and "I Let it Go") are streaming over at the band's MySpace page. And they're f---ing good, as we've come to expect from everything Thermals (straight from the pages of your journal, in fact). The songs are slated to appear on the Portland now-duo, soon-to-be-trio-again-prob ably's upcoming release, Now We Can See Hutch Harris says on the...

In the world of music festivals, five years is a long-ass time. There was only one Woodstock, really, and the touring incarnation of Lollapalooza lasted six years before throwing in the towel (both tried less-epic comebacks). Locally, the 3900' Festival lasted one year before the second was cancelled this June. But the annual PDX Pop Now! festival, which celebrates its fifth birthday this Friday...

FRIDAY, JULY 25: The Rainy States: Like our very own Rainer Maria, the Rainy States mix meandering '90s indie-rock guitar perfectly with sultry female vocals. Soul and rock, unite! (AGM) 6:40 pm, inside. Sleep: Ask folks in the hip-hop community about their favorite Northwest MCs, and the name Sleep comes up a lot. Not surprising considering his dramatic beats, autobiographical rhymes and truly...

Four years ago, I sat, a fresh-faced prospective intern, across from WW's notoriously cantankerous assistant Arts & Culture editor, Steffen Silvis, and told him I wanted to write about music. He said, "You and everyone else in this town." So, you can imagine my surprise at eventually landing the music editor job in the fall of '06 (after serving time as a WW freelancer, assistant Finder editor,...

Early Sunday evening near Fresno, California, Portland's The Prids (a band we haven't properly covered in a while) had some shitty, shitty luck. A tire blowout on the freeway resulted in the band's van rolling multiple times, smashing up all of its contents—including the group's four members and two others. Details of the crash are quoted heavily below, but the important thing is that no one...