Welcome back to Pop Loser! Despite everything feeling unbearably horrific in the world this week (FUCK ICE), there have been a few tiny glimmers of joy: the Vera Project has announced a new venue, Victoria Beckham’s single “I’m Not Such an Innocent Girl” is trending, and Connie Converse’s How Sad, How Lovely is finally getting reissued. And, in another edition of First Times, Maria Maita-Keppeler of Portland-based indie rock project MAITA shares her early musical influences from Elliott Smith to Vitamin C.

This Week in Music

Let’s start with some rare good news: The Vera Project is opening a new all-ages venue in Georgetown next year. Dave Segal spoke with Vera’s executive director, Ricky Graboski, about their plans for expansion in 2027. While they consider Vera to be their “home base,” and Black Lodge their “underground venue,” they are hoping that the new Georgetown venue will be a space for mutual aid. “We want it to be run by and for community, so every show's going to have a mutual aid group, a nonprofit, someone there who is supporting something in local community,” Graboski told Segal, specifying that 40 to 60 tickets at every show will be pay-what-you-can. Vera's goal is to raise $2.5 million by early 2027, when the yet-to-be-named Georgetown space is set to open. Seattle-born rock band Band of Horses is already on board to contribute by donating $1 from every ticket they sell on their upcoming tour to help fund Vera’s new venue.

The lineup for Portland’s Pickathon festival has dropped, and it’ll be worth the three-hour drive south this summer. Highlights include Brazilian music icon Marcos Valle, alt-country king Steve Earl, and Idaho’s finest Built to Spill, along with lesser-known gems like experimental guitarist Mary Halvorson, Aussie outfit Folk Bitch Trio, and indie rock duo Widowspeak.

Meanwhile, the Watershed Festival will run dry in 2026. The Gorge’s annual contemporary country music festival announced its hiatus this year, providing no further details or reasons why. Oh well, Willie Nelson’s Outlaw festival is the only country music fest I was interested in anyway.

This week in pathetic Drake news (seriously, this could become a regular segment), the rapper has appealed the lawsuit ruling on “Not Like Us.” In October, a federal judge dismissed the rapper’s defamation lawsuit against UMG, which sought damages from the label for promoting Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-winning diss track. UMG claims that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,” to which the judge agreed. But the self-proclaimed “Certified Lover Boy” still won’t give it up.

Reggae icon Sly Dunbar (of Sly and Robbie) has died at the age of 73. The Grammy-winning drummer, who has played on iconic tracks by Lee Perry, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Grace Jones, was found unresponsive in his home on Monday morning. No cause of death has been made public thus far.

The best news of the week: Monster-in-law Victoria Beckham has scored the biggest-selling single of the week, with a nearly 2,000 percent surge on her 2001 single “I’m Not Such An Innocent Girl.” If you’ve been living under a rock, Posh Spice’s son, Brooklyn, recently popped off on Instagram, revealing that his parents have been sabotaging his relationship with wife Nicola Peltz, citing his mother’s “inappropriate” dancing at their wedding. Release the tapes!

Prepare to be gagged: If you’re not familiar with King Crimson guitarist/Brian Eno collaborator Robert Fripp and New Wave diva Toyah Wilcox’s YouTube channel, let me introduce you. The married couple posts weekly covers while decked out in unbelievable costumes (for example, they recently used their giant pet rabbits as puppets while singing “Auld Lang Syne”). This week, the duo shared their cover of X-Ray Spex's “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” in full bondage gear, ball gag and all.

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First Times with MAITA

MAITA, the indie rock project by Portland-based singer-songwriter Maria Maita-Keppeler, has moved many people with her angelic vocals and cathartic lyricism. One such person was Kill Rock Stars' founder Slim Moon, who came out of a twelve-year-long retirement and revived the label to sign her. Four years after her debut album, Best Wishes, MAITA signed to Portland’s Fluff & Gravy Records, releasing her 2024 label debut, want—a must for fans of emotional indie rock à la Big Thief, Mitski, and Lucy Dacus. I caught up with the singer-songwriter ahead of her show at Baba Yaga on Sunday (with Seattle indie folk band St. Yuma) to discuss her early musical influences from No Doubt and Elliott Smith to Vitamin C.

What was the first album you bought?

It's so difficult to remember this because, admittedly, my middle school years were soundtracked almost exclusively by burned CDs. I do know that at one point I owned a No Doubt greatest hits CD, which I remember as one of the first albums I really fell for, even though technically it's not a real album and just a collection of their singles. Still, unbeknownst to me, No Doubt taught me a lot about song structure (they always had a bridge), as well as the concept that there could be women and electric guitars in a band. (What a novel concept for a pre-teen!)

What was the first song you sang in front of people?

I sang a lot as a young kid, but forced myself into hibernation for about a decade after hearing that I didn't have a good singing voice. Then, when I was 16, I decided to perform "Between the Bars" by Elliott Smith at a high school open mic night. I was shaking like a leaf! I did a private run-through in front of my best friend before the show, and even then, it took me about 10 minutes to start singing. I still love that song.

What was the first instrument you played, and what was the first song you learned?

I taught myself to play piano as a kid, mostly all by ear, so I never really got a firm grasp on music theory. (This is true even today, unfortunately.) I loved that song "Graduation" by Vitamin C when I was in elementary school, and learning that it was basically Pachelbel's Canon was a revelation for me. You bet I learned to play Pachelbel's Canon, and you bet I paired it with Vitamin C's "Graduation" and played it for my fifth-grade class when we, well, graduated.

What was the first song that made you cry?

I wasn't a big crier as a kid. This feels really random and almost embarrassing, but for whatever reason, I remember the Columbia space shuttle disaster of 2003 hit me really hard, and my mom was listening to some Jim Brickman piano song, and the combination of those sunk me into a deep, sulking state. I wallowed all afternoon. Now I mostly just cry at shows, when the energy is potent and all-encompassing. I cried when Feist revealed her full band mid-set at a show last winter. I bawled all the way through a Haley Heynderickx set last summer.

Who was the first musician you idolized?

Probably Conor Oberst. I went hard for Bright Eyes when I found them in middle school. I was obsessed, I listened to their albums on repeat. There's nothing like discovering Fevers and Mirrors as a young teen.

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Events Worth Your Hard-Earned Money This Week

Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel: Celestun Tour Jan 29, the Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

WAR Jan 29-Feb 1, Jazz Alley, 7:30 pm, all ages

Den Tapes Winter Jam IV: Great Ooze, Tourist Activities, 222, & Young-Chhaylee Jan 30, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Drink The Sea Jan 30, Town Hall Seattle, 8 pm, all ages

Glaive: Y'all Tour Jan 30, the Showbox, 8 pm, all ages

Glitterfox Jan 30, Barboza, 6:30 pm, 21+

MAITA with St. Yuma Feb 1, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+

Speak-Easier: Bridging the Abortion Divide, Presented by The Pro-Voice Project Feb 1, Hidden Hall, 4:30 pm, 21+

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The Songs That Keep Me Up at Night

“House” by Connie Converse

I have many special holy-grail records that I’ve collected through the years: an early pressing of Velvet Underground and Nico with a perfectly intact banana, an original copy of Big Star’s #1 Record, etc. Yet, Discogs tells me that my most valuable record is the 2015 compilation of Connie Converse's 1950s recordings, which continues to baffle me. If I’ve learned anything from being a record-buying freak, it’s to never pay a premium for contemporary out-of-print records. They will be reissued, I promise! Exhibit A: Third Man Records has announced that they are reissuing Converse’s How Sad, How Lovely, which will likely make the value of my copy decrease from $300 to $20. Aside from making her music more widely accessible, the best part about the reissue is that it features this previously unreleased track. The song showcases everything I love about Converse’s songwriting: whimsy, complaining about rent prices, and puzzling song structure, which was far ahead of its time.

“Way Out” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Have you listened to the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s 2006 album Show Your Bones in a while? If not, throw it on now. The world is enveloped in darkness right now, and we can all use a boost of comforting nostalgia that isn’t the 2016 Instagram trend (I’d much prefer to return to 2006, thank you very much). This song in particular brings me back to the fourth grade, making pillow forts in my bedroom.