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Pacific Northwest · Independent · Hand-picked

Northwest bands worth your next twenty minutes.

Upper Left Indie is a one-person curation project supporting underserved and under-heard independent artists. I listen through submissions from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, and the wider Northwest orbit, and put the best of them in front of people who will actually listen.

One person listens to every submission, and only adds tracks that fit the playlist.

Read how picks get made →

Now playing · The active playlist

Upper Left Indie

Kept short and current, so new submissions always have room.

Open in Spotify

Recently added

The newest picks. Every track links straight to the artist.

See the archive →

The most useful thing you can do

Buy something from a band you just heard.

Listening helps. Buying a download, record, tape, shirt, or weird little run of stickers helps even more. Upper Left Indie takes nothing — every link here goes straight to the artist.

Browse all 90 artists

The archive

Nothing gets deleted, it just moves.

The active playlist stays short so new submissions have room. Once a song has had its run it moves to the archive, where it stays findable.

Portland shows

See them play this week.

A small calendar pulled from a handful of Portland venue listings. Confirm details with the venue before you go.

For artists · Always free

Send us a track.

Open to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, and the wider Northwest orbit. One person listens to everything. No fee, ever.

For everyone else

Chip in, if you want to.

Hosting, the domain and the hours cost something, and tips keep submissions free. This is deliberately the smallest ask on the page — buying an artist’s record matters more.