Neil Ferguson

Thirty years ago, it felt like anything was possible in the music world. Actual rock bands were getting signed to major labels left and right, and many released albums that turned them into megastars. With the music industry essentially gutted and the measure of success being more based on social media followers than physical record sales, it’s hard to imagine any act outside of mainstream pop reaching universal popularity. But this is what happened when the band from Columbia, South Carolina band with the odd name of Hootie & the Blowfish was signed to Atlantic and released their debut LP Cracked Rear View. Somewhat antithesis to grunge, the album’s feel-good style of college rock struck a nerve and catapulted the band to the top of the charts to make for one of the most iconic albums of the era. Three decades later, Hootie & the Blowfish are celebrating this milestone with their Summer Camp Tour, and on Friday, July 19th, that tour made its way to Ridgefield, Washington.

During last year’s Pickathon, there was an air of uncertainty lingering over the beloved indie festival that takes place each August just outside Portland, Oregon. The once bucolic Pendarvis Farm that has hosted the Pickathon for almost the entirety of its two-decade run now sits mere feet from half-a-million dollar in-fill homes, and the suburban development only continues to encroach. Beyond that, the festival’s permit renewal was coming up, and a lot had changed since the last time, which meant that its fate was truly in jeopardy. Much of the Pickathon identity – with its stages tucked amongst the trees and pastoral views of Mt. Hood – was tied to Pendarvis Farm. Luckily for us, the festival team and their fans managed to lobby the county and miraculously secured a renewal of their permit for another decade just in time to book the 2024 edition.

Early on in their set in front of a sold-out crowd at downtown Portland, Oregon’s Pioneer Courthouse Square on Wednesday, August 14th, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan mused how infrequently his band had shared the stage throughout their four-decade-long career. On reflection, this is somewhat odd, considering the overlapping cult fanbases both bands have cultivated. They are both bands that have achieved legendary indie rock status while always flying just below the mainstream, and here they were, co-headlining in front of an audience eager to see them both. Odd yet perfect in some way, each of their hour-plus sets combined to make for a perfect summer evening filled with tunes from different ends of the indie rock spectrum.

Not long into the Foo Fighters’ three-hour set, the band’s force of nature frontman Dave Grohl remarked to the crowd, “Dare I say this is the biggest fuckin’ [Portland] show for us in thirty years. It was not like this at Satirycon in 1995.” Grohl was referring to the fabled small club where the band got their start, and they sure have come a long way since those early boot-strapping early days. Now, the Foo Fighters were back as the first act to headline Portland, Oregon’s soccer stadium, Providence Park, in front of 30,000 fans. Their show on Friday, August 16th was nearly the end of their Everything or Nothing at All Tour that hit stadiums around the country. And here they were to christen a space that hadn’t been used as a music venue in nearly two decades with a no-expense-spared rock and roll extravaganza. Beyond being a live music milestone for Portland, the show also felt like something of a victory lap for the Foo Fighters as they have found their footing after the tragic 2022 loss of drummer Taylor Hawkins. For the band and their legions of fans, Friday’s show was nothing short of fulfilling.

2024 started rough for Christian DeBenedetti. Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery, the Newberg, Oregon operation he founded in 2016, experienced what he describes as a “catastrophic failure of the steam jackets in our brew kettle.” It happened in early January, just one day before an ice storm swept through and effectively shut down much of Portland and Willamette Valley area. While the issue was mechanical and not directly related to the storm, it certainly didn’t help.

2024 started rough for Christian DeBenedetti. Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery, the Newberg, Oregon operation he founded in 2016, experienced what he describes as a “catastrophic failure of the steam jackets in our brew kettle.” It happened in early January, just one day before an ice storm

Crosby Hop Farm Kicks Off Fresh Hop Season With an Immersive New Beer Festival

Portland musician and booker Josh Malm is redeveloping the club into a music and arts venue.

For nearly three decades, Craig Minowa’s musical project, Cloud Cult, has been a supremely underrated act, both in terms of the albums they have released and for their live climactic performances. While they have long maintained a serious cult following, Cloud Cult somehow eluded both the indie art rock era of the early aughts and the neo-folk revival that came a handful of years later despite making acclaimed albums that could fit within either of those. Weirdly enough, this writer discovered them around 2008 from a small contingent of jam band fans drawn in by their live painting and occasionally psychedelic instrumentation. But Cloud Cult has always been a ship charting its own course, from lyrics that contrast uplifting positivity with darker realities to a more exploratory sound that often straddles the line between folk, chamber-pop, and psychedelic indie rock. The band’s latest album Alchemy Creek captures all of these elements in fine form, and on Friday, September 13th, Cloud Cult sailed through Portland, Oregon for a sold-out show at the Aladdin Theater.

The feeling of fall is trickling into Portland on an unseasonably cool August Monday night and veteran brewmaster Alan Taylor is still handling paperwork in Zoiglhaus Brewery’s Lents brewhouse. This is pretty much the busiest time of year for Taylor, who co-owns the operation with Chad Rennaker. He and his team are gearing up to brew their first