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Interview: Alice Bag of Stay at Home Bomb

Once a punk rocker, always a punk rocker
Alice Bag (nee Armendariz), who shone bright in the Los Angeles punk scene of the late-1970s, will be in town Saturday to read from her book Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage and to play a few tunes at 7 pm at Rochambeau Library.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 10, 2012

Schoolboy Q | Habits & Contradictions

Top Dawg Entertainment (2012)
Without much that can be considered "structure" in terms of the verse-chorus-verse standard, Q confidently wobbles through an album's worth of jaded bangers.
By MICHAEL C. WALSH | January 31, 2012

Farewell, My Lord

Wax Tablet
Among other musical happenings you can expect in 2012, WMPG 's new radio transmitter is now running at 100 percent strength.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | December 28, 2011

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone

Fishbone's quarter-century journey
Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler's documentary details Fishbone's quarter-century journey from musically-diverse South Central middle school classmates to becoming one of the most influential Los Angeles bands of the '80s.
By SCOTT FAYNER | November 15, 2011

The schizoid stronghold of Iwrestledabearonce

Metal hedge
The experts claim irony is dead, but the experts are stupid morons. Irony is an abstract concept. It was never alive, therefore cannot die.
By BARRY THOMPSON | August 03, 2011

Portland's neighborhood prosecutor cleans up the city

Sweating the small stuff
When Portland Police Chief James Craig announced at a June 28 press conference that he was leaving the city to become Cincinnati's chief, he took a moment to list what he considered to be the highlights of his two-year tenure.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 13, 2011

Odd Future blew up out of nowhere. But they didn't do it alone.

Making the brand
By now you've heard about how post-this, uber-that, and pre-apocalyptically radical the Los Angeles collective Odd Future is. Or maybe your little sis came home with ringleader Tyler the Creator's tag tatted on her teenage ta-ta's.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 09, 2011

Cambridge author Caleb Neelon traces graffiti's hidden history

It was written
'TAKI 183' SPAWNS PEN PALS, announced the headline in the July 21, 1971, New York Times .
By GREG COOK | April 04, 2011

Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

Slick legal mystery plays like an above-average TV crime show pilot
As nondescript as its title, Brad Furman's slick legal mystery, adapted from a Michael Connelly novel, plays like an above-average TV pilot until it gets greedy and runs 20 minutes too long, with a few too many endings.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 17, 2011

Reaching a new frontier

Book of the times
Shetterly's new memoir, Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home is the story of hardships — financial, familial, emotional — not usually the stuff that inspires switching places.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 09, 2011

Strange world

In his stream-of-consciousness thriller University Of Strangers , former punk rocker, label head, and convict Bob Pfeifer turns real life into something really weird
Bob Pfeifer's debut novel, University of Strangers (published by Power City Press, the print arm of the punk label Smog Veil Records), is a fictionalized retelling of a sensational, true-life murder case, as related in the voices of real people.
By BOB PFEIFER | February 16, 2011

Interview: Chloë Sevigny

On acting, freaks, nerd roles, the end of Big Love, and why she doesn't want to be any more famous than she is
For the record, Chloë Sevigny is not dating Jersey Shore 's Pauly D.
By CAMILLE DODERO | January 12, 2011

Interview: Chloë Sevigny

Pre-Weezer: The Metal Years

Rivers' edge
Rivers' edge
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 07, 2010

Review: Skyline

Think Plan 9 From Outer Space with better visuals
After a night of partying, a jaded crew of revelers wake up to find that the planet has been invaded by bloodthirsty aliens.
By TOM MEEK | November 16, 2010

Abe Vigoda | Crush

Post Present Medium (2010)
Over the past three years, Abe Vigoda have made some serious progress, going from California kids making cryptic but pretense-free DIY clatter to the sole opening band on one of Vampire Weekend's national tours.
By REYAN ALI | September 28, 2010

No Age | Everything In Between

Sub Pop (2010)
What are a couple of LA noise rats like No Age trying to say with a stargazing track like "Katerpiller" smack in the middle of their new album?
By MATT PARISH | September 22, 2010

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Samsonite man

Fashawn's traveling hip-hop circus
By his 20th birthday, two years ago, Fresno rhyme prodigy Fashawn didn't just have evidence that he would dent the rap establishment.
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 06, 2010

All in the Fam

The Fameless crew spice up the underground
Halfway through my interview with the Allston-based alt-hop collective Fameless Fam about their upcoming showcase at Wonder Bar this Tuesday, Will from the posse's glitch-minded duo Time Crisis mentions that he went to high school in Pittsburgh with rising rap sensation Wiz Khalifa.
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 02, 2010

Beer, boys and parking-meter woes

New anti-anthems from Foam Castles and the Rattlesnakes
As if you needed proof that Ron Harrity is one busy man (see: new releases from If and It, Honey Clouds, Marie Stella), two more albums finished off in his South Portland studio hit the streets this season in advance of your summer road trips.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 16, 2010

Book bag for the dog days

Load up your Goodman, Gordimer, Franzen, Moody, and more
Planning to be lazy and let it all go this summer? Sorry, there are too many good books to read. From Allegra Goodman's The Cookbook Collector to Richard Rhodes's The Twilight of the Bombs and Jean Valentine's Break the Glass , you'll find tomes galore to keep you occupied through Labor Day.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | June 16, 2010

Boston pols bail on Bank of America

Locovore Banking Dept.
In this time of political stridency, where everything is either red or blue, Boston City Councilors have found a potential purple issue that everyone can stand behind, be they radical lefties or Fox News worshippers.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 14, 2010

The new gay bars

Is that a paradigm shift in your pocket?
If I may channel the late, great Estelle Getty for a moment: picture it, Provincetown, 2009, a dashing young man with no discernible tan and an iffy T-Mobile signal languishes bored upon the sprawling patio of the Boatslip Resort.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 02, 2010

Phosphorescent | Here’s To Taking It Easy

Dead Oceans (2010)
What was once an aching, drowsy fireside croon fest (2007’s Pride ) has taken a blatant leap into hoedown territory on singer/guitarist Matthew Houck’s latest effort.
By CARRIE BATTAN | May 11, 2010

‘Junk Food’ Improvement

Don’t give up the sweets
Portland native and healthful-cookie entrepreneur Laura Trice has based her career on building a better sweet tooth.
By SARA DONNELLY | May 12, 2010

Review: Mother And Child

Working through cinematic mother issues
Elizabeth is a city-hopping attorney with plenty of career drive and no attachments — she treats her lovers with black-widow disdain.
By TOM MEEK | May 12, 2010

Crossword: ''Schoolyard Pranks: Platinum Edition''

Only for the classiest children
Only for the classiest children
By MATT JONES | May 05, 2010

Murdoch mishegoss

The new brand of gonzo journalism
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch is shelling out better than $2 billion to buy Metromedia’s seven TV stations. Never mind that he’s then turning around and reselling Boston’s WCVB-TV, Channel 5 to the Hearst Corporation for an astounding $450 million.
By DAVE O'BRIAN | May 06, 2010

Flying Lotus | Cosmogramma

Warp (2010)
Only an experimental laptop artist whose music exists primarily for pensive white weedheads would purport his new album to be “basically the studies that map out the universe and the relations of heaven and hell.”
By CARRIE BATTAN | May 03, 2010