Pazar 26 Eki 2008, 2:45

There is some very cool rock, powerpop, punk stuff coming out Portland, Oregon lately. Call it power rock or powerpunk, it's good. Think of powerpop from the 90's from guys like material issue, great pop energy from punk bands like The the ramones and that heavy 70's guitar sound – like Ted Nugent's stormtroopin'.

Sure, Portland's got the shins and they're cool, but I wanna rock! Bands like the thermals, western aerial and hemmit are melding pure rock with metal, pop and punk for a unique sound that is putting Portland music on the map in a whole new way. Kristin Hersh formerly of throwing muses has a new band 50 foot wave mining this sound too, but in a progg-ier way. Same with system and station. They kind of remind me of Yes.

I'm digging Hemmit's summertime – a pure pop gem. hold out is a fast rock and roll scorcher that's somewhere between the hives, j geils band and Deep Purple's highway star. You can check out more on their upcoming release rocketride.

It's nice to know Portland can still turn it up!