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Interview: Alice Bag of Stay at Home Bomb

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.
Once a punk rocker, always a punk rocker
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 10, 2012

Schoolboy Q | Habits & Contradictions

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.
Top Dawg Entertainment (2012)
By MICHAEL C. WALSH | February 03, 2012

Farewell, My Lord

Among other musical happenings you can expect in 2012, WMPG 's new radio transmitter is now running at 100 percent strength.
Wax Tablet
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | December 30, 2011

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone

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.
Fishbone's quarter-century journey
By SCOTT FAYNER | November 18, 2011

The schizoid stronghold of Iwrestledabearonce

The experts claim irony is dead, but the experts are stupid morons. Irony is an abstract concept. It was never alive, therefore cannot die.
Metal hedge
By BARRY THOMPSON | August 05, 2011

Portland's neighborhood prosecutor cleans up the city

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.
Sweating the small stuff
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 15, 2011

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

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.
Making the brand
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 06, 2011

Cambridge author Caleb Neelon traces graffiti's hidden history

'TAKI 183' SPAWNS PEN PALS, announced the headline in the July 21, 1971, New York Times .
It was written
By GREG COOK | April 01, 2011

Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

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.
Slick legal mystery plays like an above-average TV crime show pilot
By PETER KEOUGH | March 18, 2011

Reaching a new frontier

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.
Book of the times
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 11, 2011

Strange world

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.
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
By BOB PFEIFER | February 18, 2011

Interview: Chloë Sevigny

For the record, Chloë Sevigny is not dating Jersey Shore 's Pauly D.
On acting, freaks, nerd roles, the end of Big Love, and why she doesn't want to be any more famous than she is
By CAMILLE DODERO | January 14, 2011

Interview: Chloë Sevigny

Pre-Weezer: The Metal Years

Rivers' edge
Rivers' edge
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 10, 2010

Review: Skyline

After a night of partying, a jaded crew of revelers wake up to find that the planet has been invaded by bloodthirsty aliens.
Think Plan 9 From Outer Space with better visuals
By TOM MEEK | November 19, 2010

Abe Vigoda | Crush

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.
Post Present Medium (2010)
By REYAN ALI | October 01, 2010

No Age | Everything In Between

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?
Sub Pop (2010)
By MATT PARISH | September 24, 2010

Raise your glass of dandelion wine: It’s Ray Bradbury’s 90th birthday

A gallery of Ray Bradbury coversYes, today's the day that one of the world's most influential sci-fi authors turns 90. To mark the occasion, his...
By Shaula Clark | August 22, 2010

Samsonite man

By his 20th birthday, two years ago, Fresno rhyme prodigy Fashawn didn't just have evidence that he would dent the rap establishment.
Fashawn's traveling hip-hop circus
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 09, 2010

All in the Fam

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 risi
The Fameless crew spice up the underground
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 02, 2010

Beer, boys and parking-meter woes

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.
New anti-anthems from Foam Castles and the Rattlesnakes
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 18, 2010

Book bag for the dog days

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 gal
Load up your Goodman, Gordimer, Franzen, Moody, and more
By BARBARA HOFFERT | June 18, 2010

Boston pols bail on Bank of America

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.
Locovore Banking Dept.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 11, 2010

The new gay bars

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.
Is that a paradigm shift in your pocket?
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 04, 2010

Phosphorescent | Here’s To Taking It Easy

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.
Dead Oceans (2010)
By CARRIE BATTAN | May 14, 2010

‘Junk Food’ Improvement

Portland native and healthful-cookie entrepreneur Laura Trice has based her career on building a better sweet tooth.
Don’t give up the sweets
By SARA DONNELLY | May 14, 2010

Review: Mother And Child

Elizabeth is a city-hopping attorney with plenty of career drive and no attachments — she treats her lovers with black-widow disdain.
Working through cinematic mother issues
By TOM MEEK | May 14, 2010

Crossword: ''Schoolyard Pranks: Platinum Edition''

Only for the classiest children
Only for the classiest children
By MATT JONES | May 07, 2010

Murdoch mishegoss

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.
The new brand of gonzo journalism
By DAVE O'BRIAN | May 07, 2010

Flying Lotus | Cosmogramma

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.”
Warp (2010)
By CARRIE BATTAN | April 30, 2010

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