You know her. You love her. And if you’re anything like me, you probably act like a tween at Justin Bieber concert when you hear she has a new project coming. Or that she might be hitting a city near you alongside her partner in life/art Matt Brown in their world renowned duo Trespassers William. Yes, this is Anna-Lynne Williams. And she is awesome.

Ezra Holbrook has that sensational type of voice that just burns within you and melts away all your despair like the lit end of a Camel cigarette. His harrowing Bazan-like words of power, hopelessness, and the eternal fires of love and disenchantment compliments his illustrious pipes. He is almost everything you might expect to hear in some bar filled with the hopelessly hopeless and desperate souls of his home of the great Portlandia. But Save Yourself proves he is also so much more than just another face …

Earlier this month, Portland’s Kasey Anderson dropped another album in our hands. On Heart Of A Dog, he’s backed by his band The Honkies. You can tell right off that Anderson has taken a slightly new path, one capitalizing in blues-oriented rock. He still has those drawl-tinged, country-like vocals, but Heart Of A Dog is heavier and greater in overall scope. “The Wrong Light”, opening track from the new album, screams with wild, bluesy electric guitars wrought with distortion. And Anderson’s vocals, too, seem more …

Port St. Willow is the project of Nick Principe of Portland, OR, who says his album Even // Wasteland is “a record about standing in your own way.” After scrapping the origins of the project, Principe built it again from scratch. After an hour with Even // Wasteland (and knowing nothing of what came before), I still declare that it was well worth it.

Typhoon is an eleven piece ensemble band from Portland, OR. With their album Hunger and Thirst (produced with Portland’s incredible label Tender Loving Empire), they’ve garnered quite a bit of positive attention, none of it undeserved. Named for a Nietzsche thought, Typhoon create songs highly emotive and visceral in both structure and theme. Their music is an intelligently crafted exploration of what we feel and why we feel it. From beginning to end the album satisfies.

The latest video from Portland folk-pop duo The Woodlands is a wispy look into how the two probably spend many of their days (check out Augustina Finch’s Etsy page for proof, delightful hand sewn cards made of memories). In fact this video was originally intended for their Etsy page but after some re-consideration the band realized its potential as a companion for their song “In The Dark On Monday”. For having been created separately, the video and song work wonderfully together. There’s a necessary angst captured in the fast/slow filming …

The music of Portland based band Y La Bamba is that of beautiful, intoxicating contrasts. Both parts calming and alarming, meditative and flippant, their songs weave the delicate web of a line between the joy and sorrow of being alive. I was fortunate enough to see them play in Pullman (alongside Buffalo Death Beam and Horse Feathers) this past week and could not have asked for a cozier winter night. Though the entire evening was satiating, the familial nature of Y La Bamba’s performance is really what struck me; how …

Now this is the sound that gets me excited. Portland’s Wow & Flutter released Equilibrio! just over a month ago on Mt. Fuji Records and if you have yet to check it out, don’t hesitate. Theirs is a sound you do not want to miss. “The Puget Sound” reminds me of noisy melodramatic 90s rock, packed with dreamy vocals, ringing guitars, and heavy percussion. It’s a sound just as familiar to the northwest (their hometown is Portland, OR) as it is to that era DC. …

Strength is a group that is so unburdened by formalities that it’s almost unfathomable. There style is beyond formative, it’s a splendid blast from the past unlike much of anything you have heard in well over 20 years. It’s like the reincarnation of Daft Punk with vocal duties from the likes of Prince. Mind-Reader, the band’s sophomore release, is a gentle smash to the throat, and a kick in the pants that will undoubtedly make you want boogie and thrash the night away.

Amongst the thousands of hipsters, anti-hipsters, and anti-anti-hipsters roaming around the City of Roses banging away at whatever obscure instrument they can grasp with a tall boy of PBR in their hand, two of the finest individuals to burst out from the scene might be that very scene’s polar opposites. The multitasking duo Hosannas are fully fledged artists who find their niche in making keyboard frenzied indie rock lullabies like those found on their latest record Together. It is not only their best work to date, it might …