Articles By: Adam P Newton

The Indie Rock Bible Study, Featuring The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come (4AD, 2009) There is a distinct part of me that quails at the idea of breaking down the lyrics of one of the greatest living singer-songwriters. John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats is known for lyrics that are a sublime mix of metaphoric, literal,...

October 14th, 2009 | Featured, Music | Read More

Bless This Mess

David Bazan, Curse Your Branches David Bazan, Curse Your Branches (Barsuk, 2009) Even counting Sufjan Stevens, there is no artist currently making music whose faith (or the potential lackthereof) is given as much attention as the faith of David Bazan. Once one of the poster children for hip Christians...

September 16th, 2009 | Featured, Music | Read More

SXSW In Review

From beginning to end, I had a great time at SXSW 2009, as in, it more than met with my expectations as a event designed to showcase some of the brightest new acts and hardy, tried-and-true touring bands. All of the bands I was excited to see provided me with an excellent set (The Pains Of Being Pure...

April 6th, 2009 | Music | Read More

Dan Deacon – Bromst

Though the event occurred over forty years ago, the phrase “Dylan goes electric” is still a familiar one, fraught with heaps of meaning. Unaware that he was about to help shape the direction of both folk and rock-n-roll, Bob Dylan decided, at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, to set down his...

March 16th, 2009 | Music | Read More

Burnside End-of-the-Year List SPECTACULAR!

Top 10 lists are awesome, but they’re also cliche, so we thought we’d take a different angle this year, come up with a random array, and mash it all together. Hope you enjoy: — The Top Five Albums By Portland Artists In 2008 by Jordan Green Last year, Portland’s music scene...

January 5th, 2009 | Music | Read More

Silver Speakers – Streetlights And Stars

This reviewer, amongst a host of others in magazines and across the blogosphere, toss out the term “indie” altogether too loosely, though we treat the word like it’s a hallowed badge of honor. It’s as if, by simply attaching “indie” as a adjectival modifier to a traditional...

November 30th, 2008 | Music | Read More

Great Christian Music: Amy Grant’s “Lead Me On”

by Adam Newton Everyone has their musical guilty pleasures: even the most diehard music snobs, in their darkest moments, will confess to you their undying affection for some cheesy hair metal band, ‘60s folk singer, or some atrocious soul singer. The vast majority of these guilty pleasures are typically...

November 24th, 2008 | Great Christian Music | Read More

Great Christian Music: Petra

Anti-drug campaigns rail against marijuana because of its acclaimed as a “gateway drug,” the harbinger of greater evils to come. But what about “gateway music” – that band, that sound, the one that opens up a young, naive music fan’s ears to deeper, more complex music? In some circles,...

November 11th, 2008 | Great Christian Music | Read More

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2008

photo by Chim Chim Suffice to say that my initial predictions, based upon the experiences of friends whom have extolled the virtues of and enjoyed ACL Fest in the past, were borne out as true. As Austin is the purported “Live Music Capital of the World,” it did have a reputation to uphold,...

October 6th, 2008 | Music | Read More

Fresh Faces and Profound Performances: An Interview With Blind Pilot

How does a folk group go about making music without subjecting themselves to the unfair criticism, comparisons, and quick dismissals that plague the genre? Well, if you’re Portland, OR-based Blind Pilot, you hitch up your pants like a grown-up band, compose some beautiful tunes that defy lazy...

August 18th, 2008 | Music | Read More