Oregon

It’s easy for me to relate to Little Beirut’s (Edwin Paroissien, Hamilton Sims, Alex Inman, John Hulcher) love for their city of Portland – I love and defend the city of Baltimore every chance I get. I however, cannot lay claim to a great twofold quote like they can about their town – super cool author Chuck Palahnuik used the words of local author Katherine Dunn to open his paean to Portland: “Everyone in Portland is living a minimum of three lives.” So simple, so mysterious.

When Rachel Taylor Brown gets into a song – she owns it absolutely – she knows where it’s going, where it’s been and where it was at 7pm last Tuesday night.

In listening to The Hugs talk about this insane business they’re in, you’d think they’d been making records for at least 10 years. These guys were signed by giant Columbia Records – a big friggin’ deal (especially at 17 and 18 years old) – but also a big friggin’ pressure cooker for instant commercial success. The band was quickly transported to London for recording… where the unfortunate happened.