So you\u2019re sitting at home, Spotify open, trying to make an awesome PDX playlist to\u00a0dance around to (or depending on what you\u2019re into, brood in your basement to) until Orientation.\u00a0Problem is, you have no idea which artists call Portland home. You know that Seattle boasts\u00a0grunge rock legends like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains and everyone\u2019s favorite thrift store\u00a0shopper, Macklemore. You\u2019ve long since associated Los Angeles and the Bay Area with\u00a0everyone from Tupac to Lil B to MC Hammer to Devendra Banhart to The Mars Volta to N.W.A\u00a0to Skrillex to AFI to Third Eye Blind to Trapt to Onigo Boingo to Fiona Apple to Lana Del Ray\u00a0to…you get the idea. But here you are, staring at your computer screen, drawing a blank. Never\u00a0fear! We\u2019ve done all the hard work for you.<\/p>\n
\u25cf Courtney Love \u25cf Elliott Smith \u25cf Dharma Bums \u25cf The Thermals \u25cf Esperanza Spalding \u25cf The Portland Cello Project \u25cf Yung Mil \u25cf And last, but not least… Hausu And there you have it! Plenty of Portland musical fodder to fill your summer days. Happy dancing! (or brooding)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So you\u2019re sitting at home, Spotify open, trying to make an awesome PDX playlist to\u00a0dance around to (or depending on what you\u2019re into, brood in your basement to) until Orientation.\u00a0Problem is, you have no idea which artists call Portland home. … finish reading Portland Music Scene<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,7],"tags":[244,246,245,248,251,243,10,249,247,250],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-did-you-know","category-portland-life","tag-courtney-love","tag-dharma-bums","tag-elliott-smith","tag-esperanza-spalding","tag-hausu","tag-music","tag-portland","tag-the-portland-cello-project","tag-the-thermals","tag-yung-mil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1836,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/1836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/reedreslife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThough not born in Portland, the lead vocalist of the grunge band Hole and widow of\u00a0Nirvana\u2019s Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love spent the latter part of her teenage years living in\u00a0Northwest Portland and taking classes at Portland State University. Though she left and\u00a0went south to LA to found Hole, Portlanders enjoy being able to claim her as their own.\u00a0Listen: “Awful” by Hole.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nProlific and tragic singer songwriter, Elliott Smith rose to prominence in the early nineties and remained popular until his death in 2003. In the span of his too short career, Smith was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song for his song \u201cMiss Misery\u201d (which can be found on the soundtracks for Good Will Hunting) and his albums XO and Either\/Or were both met with widespread critical acclaim. Listen: \u201cSomebody That I Used To Know\u201d by Elliott Smith.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNamed after the Kerouac novel of the same name, Dharma Bums was formed in 1987. Full of brooding, grungy goodness, Nirvana opened many a show for the Bums and it is said that Kurt and Courtney first met at one of their gigs. Listen: \u201cThe Light In You\u201d by Dharma Bums.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFormed in 2002, The Thermals are self described as a \u201cpost pop punk trio\u201d. Their Wikipedia article lists indie rock, lo-fi, power pop, rock, and punk as their genres. Wherever their music falls, The Thermals are known for their political and religious imagery, slightly radical ideology, and their chords and bass lines. Listen: \u201cNot Like Any Other Feeling\u201d by The Thermals.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWinner of Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards, jazz artist Esperanza Spalding was born and raised in Northeast Portland. Having gained international acclaim for her bass playing skills, at age 20 Spalding became one of the youngest instructors at the Berklee College of Music. If that wasn’t enough, she has also performed at the White House (multiple times!) and at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremonies in Oslo. She has released four albums to date with songs sung in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Listen: \u201cPrecious\u201d by Esperanza Spalding.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI know what you\u2019re thinking. Cellos? Really? Not cool. No. Really cool. The Portland Cello Project brings the cello to where no cello has ever gone before. Formed in 2006, PCP is a cello collective that is known for their unconventional cello covers of everything from Beck to Kanye. They describe their mission as such: “1: To bring the cello to places you wouldn’t normally hear it. (Everywhere from nightclubs to symphony halls, from sports bars to loading docks, from libraries to halftime at Portland Trailblazers games…); 2: To play music on the cello you wouldn’t normally hear played on the instrument. (Everything from Bach to Kanye to Pantera…); 3: To build bridges across all musical communities by bringing a diverse assortment of musical collaborators on stage with them. (Everyone from the Dandy Warhols to Peter Yarrow to Ben Sollee to Mirah to Garrison Keillor…)” (https:\/\/portlandcelloproject.com\/) What you\u2019re left with is one of the greatest and strangest musical crossovers that you\u2019ve ever heard. Listen: \u201cAll of the Lights\u201d (Kanye West Cover) by the Portland Cello Project.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nYung Mil is one of the best new rappers that you\u2019ve probably never heard of. Portland raised, the young rapper won Russell Simmons\u2019 Def Jam Rapster Get Schooled Contest and went on the perform on BET\u2019s 106 & Park. Cool? Definitely. Listen: : \u201cLeft 2 Blow\u201d by Yung Mil.<\/p>\n
\nHausu was formed by Reedies, at Reed (3 of the 4 can still be found walking up and down the campus sidewalks). Signed to Sub-Pop, Hausu is spending this summer on a national tour and is due to release their first album, Total, on June 25th. Listen: \u201cLeaning Mess\u201d by Hausu.<\/a><\/p>\n