Tope is doing it all by himself. The 27-year-old rapper from Portland wrote, recorded and produced all the tracks off his latest EP, “Trouble Man.” The nine songs range from summertime jams to emotionally charged confessionals, all lined with Tope’s honest lyrics and rich beats.

After being in the game for close to a decade, Tope is breaking through the common mold and beginning to morph into his own style of soulful hip-hop. Currently on tour with Scarub from Living Legends, you can catch Tope at two local shows and witness his rise for yourself.

The main focus of the Pacific Northwest music scene tends to be on past grunge heroes and modern indie luminaries. But ever since Sir Mix-A-lot encouraged countless second helpings and squats with “Baby Got Back,” the Pacific Northwest has had a promising hip-hop community.

Acts like Common Market, Blue Scholars and, of course, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have proven that the rain, putting birds on things and local brews can come together to create a robust hip-hop culture. Anthony “Tope” Anderson grew up in this scene and it has a heavy influence on his style, especially on “Trouble Man.” The sweet piano melodies and skillfully crafted samples backed against tight beats make Tope another mentionable addition to already credible music scene.

Kicking off “Trouble Man” is “Starter,” a suitable beginner that showcases Tope’s excellent producing skills. Mashing a tender guitar sample with a tap-along beat, Tope lays out the album’s aim. “This is for the fans, yeah sorry for the wait though / business on my hands and some problems on my plate.” On “Family Affair,” Tope demonstrates some “College Dropout“­-era Kanye with a hashed out remix of Cheryl Lynn’s 1978 disco hit “Got to be Real.” Tope’s family plays a key role on the record, popping up in multiple songs and acting as a reoccurring theme. They’re mostly mentioned in encouraging and cheerful shout outs, such as track “What Up,” but Tope isn’t shy about displaying his demons.

Prior to recording, his grandfather passed away and he touches on his estranged relationship with his father on the second half of “About You x Birthday Song.” “And they keep asking about my dad / ten years since we spoke and I ain’t looking back / I finally understand what it’s like to be a man and this life ain’t really turned out exactly how you planned.”

If you saw him on the street, Tope could pass as just another pretty fly for a white guy from Rip City. But in the studio and on stage, Tope is a rising rapper who excels behind the mixing board and microphone. Surviving in the game through his grit, Tope sounds determined to make it to the top.  See him among other greats at the Kaleidoscope Music Festival on Sunday, August 25.

Middle Earth and Westeros are both paracosms, imaginative fantasy worlds. Paracosm, on the other hand, is its own musical world but instead of beasts and Khaleesi, it’s inhabited with dreamy sequences and electropop. Ernest Greene, more commonly known as Washed Out, began releasing singles through his Myspace page in 2009 and four years later, he’s crafted a mighty strong collection of songs.

Paracosm is a bright summertime album, but not the Corona commercial-style summer where you’re out with your friends, this record sounds best with a pair of headphones on during an afternoon trip down to the Willamette River accompanied with that book you’ve been meaning to read.

Washed Out experienced every post grad’s nightmare: he moved back into his parent’s home after not being able to land a job. During the day he’d send out resumes, but at night he’d produce and record songs in his bedroom.

His releases earned him praise throughout the blogosphere and eventually he was signed to Sub Pop Records. His breakthrough was the 2010 EP Life of Leisure, which featured heavy samplings of vintage funk.

His song “Feel it all Around” earned him the ultimate hipster gold star (it’s the theme song for Portlandia.) Washed Out has been looped into the recently established genre “chillwave.” Similar to artists such as Neon Indian and Toro y Moi, Washed Out blends together syrupy synthesizers with a lo-fi psychedelic pop. But on Paracosm, Washed Out distances himself from the dance trance and looping samples heard in “chillwave” and focuses on the ethereal sounds that crash like waves against a speaker’s shores.

The album starts with a short intro that plays like the opening of a pop-up book filled with soothing sounds and birds chirping in a peaceful field. The ambiance grows and then bleeds into the lead single, “It All Feels Right.” Definitely one of the most accessible tracks on the record, “It All Feels Right” could make that leap into a stereo speaker.

“All I Know” recalls the gentle groove of Ivy’s “Edge of the Ocean” and would easily play as a closing track to some future movie right as the credits begin to roll. The second half of the record sounds the best, reaching its peak with “Falling Back.” The song features a chic rhythmic section with the bass and drums tapping alongside reverb-drenched vocals and lazer shooting synths. The record’s close out is the aptly titled “All Over Now” and like any good story, it brings us back to the beginning setting of a tranquil meadow gently sprinkled with rays of electronic pop.

Bedroom artists began to appear a few years back and now’s the time for them to branch away from their personal abodes. Paracosm producer Ben H. Allen also worked on Youth Lagoon’s Wondrous Bughouse and both records feature the same broadening characteristics. With Paracosm, Washed Out has officially left the bedroom.

http://www.toroymoi.com/http://www.allmusic.com/artist/neon-indian-mn0002146408http://www.amazon.com/Feel-It-All-Around/dp/B003BNCDE4http://www.subpop.com/http://www.subpop.com/artists/washed_out@@

The crayon sketched sign that hangs on the door of the blues club that reads “boys only” has just been set ablaze. The arsonist is a 24-year-old singer/guitar player from Kansas City, Missouri who taught herself how to play the guitar when she was just finishing her teenage years.

Samantha Fish has been building a buzz throughout the blues music scene since her 2011 debut, Runaway. The record was met with heat and praise and in 2012 she won the Blues Music Award for “Best New Artist Debut.” Known for her slick guitar riffs and sweet howling vocals, Fish is all set for a night of thundering blues at Cozmic Pizza.

Fish’s journey into the music scene started with humble beginnings. While growing up in Kansas City, she would often sneak into local clubs to hear passing musicians and take notes on their style. She would sit in with any musician willing to lend her a spot and she soon became a fixture at the Knucklehead’s Saloon. Her self-released live album Fresh Bait was released in 2010 and after earning some praise and gaining recommendations, it made its way to Ruf Records who offered Fish a contract.

Her first recording was a collaborative effort with two other blues guitarists, Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde, and was aptly titled Girls with Guitars. The three female blue guitarists passed around guitar licks and broke down any gender barriers associated with the blues genre. After the release of Runaway, Fish toured non-stop and continued to write and perfect her next batch of songs. Her most recent string of shows are in support of her upcoming sophomore album, Black Wind Holwlin’, which is set for release in October.

This new record has Fish maintaining her riff-heavy guitar work and the singer’s vocals continue to find that spot between amplified and clear. She almost sounds like an alternate universe Amy Winehouse who gave up drugs for a 4/4 blues standard. Her lyrical content is firm and tough with female tenacity. On the track “Lay it Down,” she growls, “He’s got the ace up his sleeve / I got a pistol on my side / and if he pulls first I’m gonna give it to him right.”

Samantha Fish has had to deal with all the skepticism and doubt caused by her youth and gender. Though none of these factors have caused any setbacks; they’ve only acted as timber.

Cozmic Pizza is located at 199 W. Eighth Ave. Admission is $17 for the all-ages event.

Weekend lead singer and songwriter Shaun Durkan’s Gibson SG guitar can serve as a fairly perfect symbol for their sophomore record, Jinx. Its dark, glossy and can create enough noise and sound to pummel the drum in your ear. The once San Franciscan and now New Yorker garage rock band Weekend blew out speakers back in 2010 with their debut Sports, a record that made its mark on the music scene with its loud, blaring demeanor. Three years later and a few changes to their lineup, the band is back to challenge the sophomore curse, or jinx.

When they began, it sounded as though Weekend’s three main sources of musical inspirations were a Twizzler-twined mix of the shoegaze pop of My Bloody Valentine, the dystopian fuzz guitar of the Jesus & Mary Chain and a shower sing-along to Ian Curtis of Joy Division. But on Jinx, they’re beginning to shed their obvious resemblances to past heroes and take shape into their own style.

Album opener “Mirrors” starts with a celestial light synthesized build before breaking into bass-heavy throb of dark matter. Durkan sings, “I feel sick, sick, sick, sick/ In my heart/ He only comes in the night/ Someone just like me,” as he spins a modern day tale of a hipster Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There’s a noticeable change in the lead guitar work, mainly heard in tracks “July,” “Oubliette” and “Celebration, Fl,” that recalls an ’80s pop aesthetic with its light, reverb-heavy echo.

“Sirens” features a backing sample of a fading angelic choir similar to Panda Bear’s “I’m Not.” The track is lined with one of Weekend’s trademarks: a tumbling bass melody that serves as a road of direction for the sounds created by the other band members. The album’s single, “It’s Alright,” plays as dreary machine on a march to each crack of the snare drum.

The excess layer of distorted guitars that was so prevalent on Sports has been replaced with a coat of gloss and glaze that radiates throughout Jinx. Though the musical instrumentation sounds more cheerful and sunlit, the lyrical content and mood of Jinx continues to sway into melancholy. Yet, it’s the type of summertime blues that acts as a key component balancing out any set of emotions or music library.

The sophomore record can often be a Goliath that can unforgivably squash any group that hasn’t devised a formula that breaks new and keeps the established good. (Just ask MGMT and the Stone Roses.) Weekend, though, have earned their keep with Jinx. They’ve expanded enough away from their roots of garage noise rock and have taken a few steps towards a more accessible, grandeur gothic sound.

Nothing evokes the feeling of cowboy blues quite like a steel guitar caressing over a couple of acoustic guitar chords. Throw in a down tempo beat over a few verses about loved lost and lost love and you’ll have the Marlboro Man throwing back a shot of whiskey, telling you about the one that got away.

There’s a particular beauty in alternative country music’s ability to have the listener find content in the present and regard the past like the ending to a good book. Though the genre never broke through to the mainstream, alternative country bands have been producing music for decades and at the forefront of innovation and success is Son Volt, which will play at the WOW Hall tonight at 9 p.m. Lead by singer and songwriter Jay Farrar, Son Volt has released seven albums to date, with their most recent, Honky Tonk, released in March of this year. They’ll hit Eugene still sounding fresh and clean after all of their years playing on the dusty trail.

In 1969, Gram Parson’s influential country rock group The Flying Burrito Brothers released their opus, The Gilded Palace of Sin, and with it created a new genre of music that mixed the steel guitar and crooning tales of country with the beat of a rock band. Years later, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy formed Uncle Tupelo and furthered the sound of country rock into alternative country by adding elements of punk and applying Hank Williams-style harmonies to their vocals. The group was met with modest critical acclaim but little commercial success and the band dissolved after a fallout between Farrar and Tweedy in 1994. Tweedy went on to form Wilco and Farrar teamed up with Uncle Tupelo member Mike Heidron to create Son Volt and released their debut album, Trace, in 1995. From then on, the group has maintained a solid following and continues to play throughout the country. Their latest record Honky Tonk has the band playing more somber tales of aging and traveling on life’s long road. “Shifting phase left us to realize/ There’s nothing more that we can do/ ‘Cause it can’t go wrong, we can’t go right,” sings Farrar on “Hearts and Minds.”

Sharing tonight’s bill is Colonel Ford, a hillbilly country band featuring members of Son Volt. Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 at the door. Doors open at 8 p.m.