Category: Vortex Magazine
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An exploration of the musical arts by and about DACA recipients and other immigrants, as a bridge over America’s confused immigration policies.
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Forgetting isn’t always a bad thing. The planet’s coming apart at the seams, and hey, weed is legal now. But even in a nation as ahistoric as America—led by a president who never got the memo about poverty, slavery, or anything—memory is sanity. Lose one, you lose the other. This loss is at the heart…
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The success of Portland-based psych pop rockers Portugal. The Man is hardly just cup-runneth-over talent. The band’s released a dozen EPs and LPs dating back to 2005, all on top of an oft-hectic tour schedule. The group’s last effort—the 2013 Danger Mouse-produced, Atlantic Records debut Evil Friends—did not disappoint artistically or commercially, hitting #28 on…
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Portland Musicians Embrace the Challenge of Making Important Political Music Pop music is the meat at the BBQ joint, says rapper Mic Crenshaw—it’ll fill you up with empty calories “and weigh you down, and slow you down.” Political music, the sounds of the Struggle, Crenshaw says, “is like one of the sides—it’s something extra that…
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A variety of acts, both new and established, dominated the Treefort Music Fest in downtown Boise. by Thacher Schmid Rocking at El Korah: Photo by Christina Birkinbine In its literature, Treefort Music Fest describes its bands as “emerging,” which seems an apt term for the high-risk, high-reward shows the 450-odd bands play. But the Boise…
Songs & Stories 