Oregon Music News

January 22, 2015 In December of 2010, she unveiled a completely new side to her music. At the time I wrote: Laura Ivancie has a confession to make. She's not apologizing for all those sets she did with her acoustic guitar or for being mostly known as a singer/songwriter. She still does them. But her confession is that deep-down she's an Electronic music diva. A little background provided by OMN's...

January 15, 2015 Skip VonKuske helped found Portland Cello Project, he's an original member of Vagabond Opera, he's in Groovy Wallpaper, he is cellotronik, He likes the way it looks capitalized and with a "k" on the end. This month he is celebrating his tenth anniversary of playing in weekly residency every Monday 7-9pm (free) at McMenamin's Edgefield. How is Skip regarded in the Portland music co...

January 8, 2015 The Winding Stream, Beth Harrington's documentary on the Carter Family tells a great story about American music. But the story of the making of the film ranks right up there. It's formal title is The Winding Stream: The Carters, the Cashes & the course of Country music. OMN's Ana Ammann wrote about her: Beth Harrington is a story teller. The stories she tells are about those people...

January 1, 2015 Robert Ham is the top music journalist in the state of Oregon and one of the best in the US of A. Now, I could be saying that to curry favor and get him to write more for us, but I'm not, although that would be a goal. Hell, I'd hand over the keys to the store, if I could afford it and he'd make a better OMN editor than me. One thing I've always liked about our relationship is that...

12/25/2014 He has always been a serious journalist, but let's face it, he may be best known for his coverage of visiting celebs, local celebs and who's who and what's what among the Portland glitterati. He covers the parties and events that most of us don't get invited to. Beck has written for The Downtowner, The Oregonian, Willamette Week and now for golocalpdx.com, where he's also an editor. Whi...

December 17, 2014 I met Art Levine when he was on summer break from Johns Hopkins University. We were roommates in 1970 in the two floor apartment leased by the Baltimore Underground paper of record, HARRY. I was a gritty city hippie with hair down to my ass and crabs and he was....he had an air conditioner. Nevertheless we became friends and remain so today. He became one of the top investigative...

December 11, 2014 It’s another episode of Coffeeshop Conversations. We’re in World Cup Coffee and Tea at Northwest 18th and Glisan, where we do all of these. This episode with Noah Mickens the impresario of Wanderlust Circus whom I have known since 1997. One thing I’ve never really asked him about is the period of time when he would publicly hang from hooks as part of his performance. Stay tuned f...

December 4, 2014 Spend an hour with one of the busiest, most versatile saxophonists in Oregon. You know her from the Quaraphonnes, Soul Vaccination and many other bands, but you've never heard her like this. So much of our lives seem to center around our favorite coffeeshop, that when I wanted to start a series of hour-long interviews with some of the most interesting people in Oregon, I thought,...