Otis Heat Burns Up On a Frigid Portland New Years Eve

[Hype Hype Hooray] My Music Makes Me Live

Hype Hype Hooray is a biweekly “critique” of the music scene and the blogosphere that feeds it, told through the lens of Jamie Hale, a journalist who likes music about as much as he likes scotch and a firm leather chair. Please enjoy with a grain of salt. I drive 68 miles an hour down [...] [...]

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] Spotify, You Beautiful Wench

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] The Mixtape, Part 2: The Weird Kid From Portland

Jamie normally writes a very straightforward music column about very straightforward music things, but for the next few installments he will be exploring a childhood mixtape, recently found in a box in his closet. This is part two. I stand in my kitchen at two in the morning, furiously cramming two AA batteries into my [...] [...]

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] The Mixtape, Part 1: Unearthing a Relic

Jamie normally writes a very straightforward music column about very straightforward music things, but for the next few installments he will be exploring a childhood mixtape, recently found in a box in his closet. This is part one. My hands rummage through an old orange shoebox from the top shelf of my closet. I’m looking [...] [...]

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] Tropicália: How Brazil Created the Greatest Genre Ever

Jamie

Daphne Lee Martin breaks the video mold with “Belly”

It’s probably easy for a director to come up with a video for a song like Daphne Lee Martin’s “Belly.” Put the band in, I don’t know, some period clothing? Have them walk slow motion through, what, a saloon? Maybe cut in some shots of them in a field of wildflowers, Daphne picking one and [...] [...]

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] The Dull and Pointless Sound

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] How to Coax a Critic

Jamie

Federale: Spaghetti Western and Beyond

Seven musicians crowd onto the stage at Mississippi Studios in north Portland–they’re dressed in cowboy hats and bolo ties, a hipster take on the wild west. The frontman, a guy with light brown hair that swoops across his face, all the way down to his chin, steps up to the mic. He looks to the [...] [...]

Jamie