But it bucked trend toward conservative soccer strategy By Claude Iosso It was the World Cup final many of us wanted, and yet the experts feared it might be a cagey, even dull affair based on the trends. Instead, Argentina’s victory over France was so exciting, it’s been immediately recognized as the best final ever, …
Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna weave through defenders by turns, flicking deft passes into the Netherlands box for … Haji Wright? Brendan Aaronson? Jesus Ferreira? Wright managed a freak score to get the U.S. within a goal of the Dutch, but the absence of a dynamic striker doomed their comeback. Of course, it would have …
I was talking to my kids (14-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy) the other day about music and I for some reason mentioned Kate Bush. My daughter’s jaw dropped and she said, “You know about Kate Bush? How did you become hip?” Well, I then mirrored her, with the jaw and almost the same sentence. Yes, …
“Is this really happening?” Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy asked after the band played its first song on the imposing main stage at the Hard Rock Hotel near Cancun, Mexico. After a hiatus forced by the pandemic, Wilco was hosting a weeklong “Sky Blue Sky” music festival for the second time. Organized long before the omicron …
Voodoo Doughnut, Portland’s famous purveyor of zany confections, was offering a green and gold sprinkle doughnut in honor of the Timbers hosting the MLS Cup Saturday. I should talk about the final, in which the Timbers fell to New York City FC in a penalty shootout … but doughnuts just seem more interesting. Sour grapes …
By Claude Iosso If there had been a roof at Marymoor Park the other night, Modest Mouse would have blown it off. With controlled fervor, the alt-rock combo delivered choice anthems from their vast repertoire, including the singles from this year’s The Golden Casket. Thousands of joyous fans, who spanned multiple generations, danced and sang …
Photo by Craig Mitchelldyer / Portland Timbers Quoting former NFL coach Jim Mora from his famous postgame rant is kind of a cheap shot, but after the Portland Timbers fell 6-2 to archrival Seattle Sounders at home Sunday night, it’s apt. Despite an uneven season so far, the Timbers are still in line, somehow, for …
Lionel Messi’s departure from Barcelona, which somehow seemed shocking and inevitable at the same time, redrew the world soccer map. The club, at the sport’s pinnacle just six years ago, is in disarray, with serious financial problems and an underwhelming roster. When the greatest soccer player of all time signed with Paris Saint-Germain two days …
On May 29, mighty Manchester City will take on fellow heavyweight Chelsea in the final of the European Champions League, but the soccer match could have featured scintillating Ajax battling Leipzig. It is the glory of the Champions League and Europe’s domestic leagues that the minnows can swim with the tunas. Give a hearty cheer …
It’s David Byrne’s birthday, so a fitting time to celebrate the deliciously paradoxical “Listening Wind,” one of Talking Heads’ lesser known gems on Remain in Light. Of all the polyrhythms and African incantations on that record, “Wind” is the most hypnotic. “The wind in my heart, the wind in my heartThe dust in my hair, …
When Fantastic Negrito shills, he does it with integrity. The Oakland blues-soul man has released “Root City,” an anthem for Oakland Roots SC, a three-year-old professional soccer team, and there are no sly, subliminal nudges for your custom in his video. He’s wearing a Puma tracksuit and sneakers in some shots, and he actually points out …
(Jim Steinman, left, with Meat Loaf, right) How magical was Jim Steinman? Well, he wrote brutally honest songs about men lusting after women, gave them orchestral bombast and delivery by the mighty-lunged Meat Loaf, and they’ve been wedding reception standards ever since. Look up “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad” on YouTube, and people are still …
It was just a detail in our itinerary my wife slipped in – when we return from a three-week Mexican vacation, we’ll take five dogs with us. Whaaaat!? Yes, volunteers with Mexican and Canadian rescue groups had taken care of the details; we would just be “flight angels” (mules), chaperones on the aerial leg of …
Fantastic Negrito, the Oakland blues howler who’s already scored two Grammys in the last five years, mixes in a healthy dose of retro soul on his third album, Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? All that groovin’ sweetens his gritty street tales. “How Long,” already released as a single for the record set to drop …
Listening to the Innocence Mission’s latest album – See You Tomorrow – is like waking from a delicious dream. You feel profound joy and sorrow, but can’t explain why. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania folk trio, which has now released 12 studio albums over a 30-year career, doesn’t vary from their distinctive, low-key sound, but the songs …
The stress of COVID-19 makes me think about smoking. Venturing into the kitchen for lunch break — my wife trying to broker a compromise between the quarreling kids — I have this thought of going out to the back porch and cooking a butt. I’d look off into the distance in a knowing, cynical way. …