The mixtape was created for this: picking just the right song to gently stir a girl or boy's heart toward romance. It's an old, time-honored tradition, and whether it's on a cassette or an iTunes playlist, the mixtape will long remain a classy way to get that special someone to hold your hand. It's a [...]

Jesy Fortino's bandonym, Tiny Vipers, is somewhat incongruous with her music, which gets into your blood not through swift, piercing fangs but soft, silent osmosis, and arrests your nerves not with the violent invasion of venom but the gentle insidiousness of carbon monoxide.
Fortino, of Seattle, writes small music for big spaces: Her 2007 debut [...]

This past weekend, we learned that former Washington City Paper music critic Rickey Wright had died. I put together a tribute of sorts made from Wright's blog posts and WCP pieces, tributes from friends and colleagues and family.
On Saturday afternoon, I had the fortune of talking with Nicole Arthur. Arthur served as Washington City Paper's [...]