Category: Oregonian / Oregonlive
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The first time she toured through Portland, Lizzy Plapinger saw a “Japanese work-of-art jacket” at a local vintage shop — but passed it up. The lead vocalist for MS MR, a duo known for its lovely secondhand threads, went back on tour, but Plapinger couldn’t forget about the coat. “I talked about it for essentially…
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This story includes photos I took published by the Oregonian / Oregonlive.com. Clad in a white jumpsuit and red hightops, a gold armband and turquoise nerd glasses, Esperanza Spalding returned to her native Portland Tuesday with a challenging new show. This time, she came with fists raised. Playfully. Dressed as “Emily,” the star of the…
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Two remote-controlled mechanical spiders, carefully hidden in the shadows of a tour bus. Frequent Nerf gun wars. One well-loved fedora. Many pairs of sunglasses. A planned trip to Lardo. And a quintet playing bluesy, sensitive-but-fearless rock and roll, anchored by the UK’s ascendant rock star of the moment. They’re ingredients in James Bay‘s American tour,…
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Knowledge may be power, but it’s hardly a sure path to creativity. In music, the more one tries to analyze something, the more it may slip through one’s fingers like a tough chord progression or elusive bebop riff. Instead of trying to understand music, Esperanza Spalding asks, why not just be curious? Spalding says the heart…
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He is the hip-hop golden boy of the moment, surfing the frothy waves of social and mainstream media. He shares selfies of first daughter Malia Obama wearing his Pro Era collective’s T-shirt. He leads anti-police-brutality marches in New York. He gets thrown in an Australian jail for punching a security guard at a music festival. Joey Bada$$’s lightning-rod persona…
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Technical problems can frustrate any live musical act, but for electronic artists it’s much worse than a broken string or blown amplifier. Sonically speaking, the zeros and ones are beautiful — and cruel. Computer crash = show over. Justin Boreta of Los Angeles trio the Glitch Mob, which headlines a sold-out lineup at the Roseland Saturday, May…
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