Good lord, last night's MarchFourth Marching Band release show for Rise Up looks like the greatest event ever. Just look at the kid, stopped dead in his tracks, he'll be talking about this show in therapy a decade from now.

Since we have no way of publishing that poor kid's nightmares—yet—we have to rely on these fantastic photos from Candice Harbour. Enjoy.

The past few years have been a whirlwind for the Gossip—UK tabloid obsession, paling around with Rick Rubin, an odd-looking Beth Ditto doll—but one thing missing for the band has been a local show in their adopted hometown. Since the Gossip's Wonder Ballroom performance was their first Portland show in support of Music For Men, we sent the very kind Candice Harbour out to photograph the show. Enjoy.

• Richard E. Aaron

Evidently this ridiculous—yet oddly poetic—image came from the liner notes of Skynyrd's First and... Last (later reissued as Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album). I had to ask an expert (Thanks Matt!) about the photo's origins since I own zero Skynyrd albums, but now that I have seen how beautiful their artwork is, I just might come around on the band.

Link: Waxin' & Milkin'

Thanks to the poor play of Santonio Holmes, my fantasy football team (The Dillon Panthers, "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose") was defeated in a head-to-head match against a team managed by Mercury freelancer, Hannah Carlen. The punishment for my inept fantasy football skills? A night with the Juggalos.

Actually, it wasn't so bad. The music was horrific, but that night made for some of the greatest/scariest people watching I have ever experienced. But while I pat myself on the back for my faux Juggaloness, Matt O'Brien is the true hero here. The local photographer went deep into the clown's mouth and risked death by Faygo—or stabbing—by setting up a photobooth outside of the Roseland during the Insane Clown Posse set. The results are both hilarious and oddly hypnotic, photo after glorious photo of Portland's thriving Juggalo scene.

No, she didn't play "Fade Into You," but that didn't stop former Mazzy Star frontwoman—and "Sometimes Always" Jesus & Mary Chain collaborator—Hope Sandoval from wooing the Doug Fir crowd last night. Our Minh Tran was there to take some snaps and get wooed.

CocoRosie has always been a visual band, but I don't remember them being as visually outlandish as in these Minh Tran photos from last night's Aladdin show. Their vivid stage show resembles the carnival aspects of modern day Of Montreal, although that woman's makeup might be considered to be a bit Juggalo-esque.

Nurses' CD release show at Holocene last night was probably sold out—if it was not, it at least felt sold out—and featured the trio performing a special set beneath a large screen of projected video and images. The band wore their best sleeveless white hoodies and were joined by 2/3 of Explode into Colors for a lengthy jam session.

Minh Tran, our photographer extraordinaire, was there to battle the low lighting and capture the members of Nurses—cloaked in a wash of projected video images—while they were on stage.

Sometimes, it would be nice if musicians would just stick to the music and leave the rest to the professionals. Clothing lines, perfumes, and memoirs really don’t figure into my qualifiers on what makes a good music career. However, in recent years, there’s been an incredible outpouring of artistic collaborations wherein artists are beginning to jump the borders between visual art, music, writing and other creative endeavors.

Such is the situation with the recently released book, The Art of Touring. Here, we see a case where only a pack of seasoned musicians could have successfully created such a project. Edited by Sara Jaffe of Erase Errata and Mia Clarke of the late great Electrelane (I know it says "indefinite hiatus," but I get the feeling these ladies are gone for good), the book is a collection of art, photos, and writing on what the life is really like behind the wheel of a touring vehicle.

This lovely package comes complete with a DVD of live footage, tour diaries, and video art from Andy Moor, Mecca Normal, Erase Errata, The Jeffrey Lewis Band, Electrelane, Neptune and more.

I haven’t gotten a chance to see a physical copy but the the photo samples and writing snippets that were available look stunning. For added cool points, the book is being published by Yeti, run by Mike McGonigal, and a portion of the profits will be going to Musicians' Emergency Fund, a terrific non-profit committed to helping musicians through hard times and emergencies (sorry, running out of pizza in the middle of practice does not qualify as an emergency).

In conjunction with the release of The Art of Touring, there will be group photo exhibition on August 6th at the Fontanelle Gallery (205 SW. Pine), plus a reading/performance on August 22nd that will feature Jaffe, Tara Jane O'Neil, and Julianna Bright of the Golden Bears.

Kind of a slight delay, but here are a few more photos from the incredibly fun (and sweltering) PDX Pop Now! weekend, with a sweaty finale featuring Menomena. Kudos to Anna Ottum for all of the great pics.

Now I return to the freezer from which I came.

Or rather, pictures of Laura Gibson and Nice Nice. Laura Gibson cooled everyone down from another hot day of music with her charming folk songs, which happened to fit well with the festival theme—can we keep singing "this is not the end" please? Nice Nice were feverishly improvising on spot (my way of avoiding the "jam band" handle they've received) and, albeit some technical difficulties, kept on... jamming. Damn.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the shirtless ponytailed dude that was tripping out and dancing during Nice Nice (and scaring everyone around him) but if anyone has a photo to help me relive the moment, I'd definitely appreciate it. See you at Day Three.

Since stoners need music too, Snoop Dogg and the "Blazed and Confused" tour puffed through town last weekend, and our photographer Minh Tran was there to capture it all (despite the contact high). In case you are curious, Snoop wore a sweatsuit outfit and a ring that is easily worth more than my soul.

Since we all need to get our shirtless dude quota out of the way early this week, here are great some snaps—taken by Benji Bilheimer—from a sweltering house party this weekend that featured electro-popster Jeffery Jerusalem and the Starfucker boys. It's claustrophobic, sweaty, and absolutely chaotic... we're just sad that no one invited us.

Tons more pictures can be found here.

When the long flowing locks of Jay Reatard came through town—along with the Thee Oh Sees, a band that knows the importance of a proper haircut—we dispatched Minh Tran to capture it all on film.

According to him, "Thee Oh Sees kinda stole the show."
Well there ya go.

No longer clinging to Jimmy Fallon's gilded coattails (is that show canceled yet?), the Roots passed through Portland this weekend and we dispatched our photographer extraordinaire, Minh Tran, to capture it all.

Enjoy!

Late Friday night, this was the text message I received from a friend:

Raphael Saadiq OMG!

Even more interesting than my 40-year-old friend using the term "OMG," was the fact that Friday's Raphael Saadiq show was a pretty special event. Anyone I knew who made it to the Wonder that night, spent the weekend raving about the bumping vintage soul of Saadiq. Even our Minh Tran, who took these excellent snaps, called the show "killer," and he doesn't use that term lightly...

We've already had a review of the local music Valentine's Day kiss-a-thon at the Wonder, but now we can view the happs via these photos from Minh Tran. Sadly, there are no incriminating kissing booth photos. Booooo!