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Jonesin'
for the Junkies
Secret House Winery has a great show planned for the opening night of its 2006 Summer in the Vineyard Concert Series. Enjoy a warm, grassy lawn and maybe a grassy wine or two while you soak up the sun and sounds of Cowboy Junkies. What remains to be said about this popular band that's been playing together since 1985? Three Timmins siblings form the foundation of the band. Michael and Pete recruited their sister Margo, who initially would not sing in front of anyone but Michael and claims to have never even sung in the shower prior to joining the band. In addition to their talented musicianship, it was Margo's beautiful singing, at times almost hypnotically seductive, that quickly attracted fans and critical acclaim. The Junkies are most famous for their 1988 major label debut album The Trinity Session, which was recorded live on one microphone at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, Canada in 1987. That great album contained a lullaby rendition of Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane," along with "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams. It was almost impossible to resist the band's folksy, sultry combination of country and blues, and Margo's voice made you want to give in completely. The band has quietly continued to release an album every year or so, with the most recent being 2005's Early 21st Century Blues. They also released a two-DVD set, Long Journey Home, featuring a two-hour performance from October 2004 at The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Lots of interviews and behind-the-scenes clips too, natch. Even if you can't claim to be a Junkies fan, getting out into the open air in a peaceful setting is tops, and the winery has non-alco options too.
Pick
Your Poison In Flames has experienced the ups and a downs of a band that constantly reinvents itself. Once pioneers of the Gothenburg, Sweden melodic death metal scene with At The Gates, the band has gone on an epic 13-year journey across the musical spectrum to become what they are today: an international sensation that crosses genre boundaries.
"We've matured so much since when we got started in the '90s," says drummer Daniel Svensson. "We've changed how we look at riffs, patterns, the structure of our songs, everything." 1994 and 1995 saw the releases of Lunar Strain and The Jester Race, two albums marking the start of a Swedish music revolution that exploded in the later '90s with bands such as Soilwork. With harsh, grating vocals and furious lead guitar work, In Flames could not be confined to just one country. Fast-forward to the present. The band has long since abandoned their root sound in Gothenburg, but with their latest release, Come Clarity, they show they're still capable of creating thrashing melodies across the metal spectrum. Songs like "Take This Life" hearken back to the days of old with speedy drum beats and unrestrained growling vocals, but others, like "Crawl Through Knives," reflect a more modern sound, slicker and easier to swallow. "With Come Clarity, we reinvented ourselves completely," says Svensson. "We wanted to do more songs that could be played much easier live. On this album we were able to accomplish that far more than our previous ones." The band recently completed a well-received tour with Trivium and ZAO and continue their non-stop assault all around the world all year. They are a true group of innovators, but they're also an excellent example of the modern metal sound.
Everybody
Must Get Folked
Please, please, please, please, please don't let it rain this year! If you've attended the Willamette Valley Folk Festival the past few years despite chilly, drenching rains, a little sun this weekend may be all you hope for. But festival organizers have bigger concerns, and they've made changes they're hoping will benefit everyone, even if the weekend is filled with sunshine of the liquid sort. One of the problems with the festival is that it has outgrown its space. And when it does rain, that space on the East Lawn of the UO's EMU fills up with dancing bodies and turns into a giant mud slick. Lisa Andrews, Heritage Music and Willamette Valley Folk Festival Coordinator at the UO Cultural Forum, hopes to alleviate both of those growing pains by moving the festival to Cuthbert Amphitheater. "We were approached by the city of Eugene last year and the owners and managers of Cuthbert as an opportunity to try a pilot year at the Cuthbert Amphitheater for the reasons of it's a bigger space, it has more amenities for performers and artists and vendors and also audiences," she said. "This will give the festival room to grow over staying at the university where we can't get any bigger. The festival has a lot of potential to grow and at Cuthbert we might be able to do that." They plan to try it at the new location this year, just to see how things go. What that means for festival attendees will be easy parking, a 15-minute walk from campus, a beer garden, a bigger stage and more bathrooms. What won't change is fantastic food, a cornucopia of crafts and eclectic, locally based entertainment. You'll have to cram it all into two days, however, as the fest will only run Saturday and Sunday, with no workshops. The new song contest, which has traditionally taken place on Saturday, will instead take place Friday evening. This weekend's highlights include mostly local artists such as The Sugar Beets, David Jacobs-Strain and The Essentials, nine young musicians each with an involvement in UO's School of Music who cover such artists as Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire and Chicago. Have you heard of Seattle's The Fleet Foxes yet? Here's your chance. The Suspicious Boogie Band, Hot Buttered Rum String Band and Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre all sound good to me. Willamette Valley Folk Festival. noon • Sat. 5/20 and Sun. 5/21. Cuthbert Amphitheater • FREE. 346-4373 • www.oregon.edu/~cultural/heritage.html Main stage acts will be broadcast live on KLCC 89.7 FM
Zen
and the Art of Musical Maintenance
If you never existed as a band, can you break up? Yes. And no. The Kitchen Syncopators are trapped in this Zen koan right now, with an uncertain future beyond the shows they have booked in May. Frank Lemon and Woodrow Pines shared a floor in a tool shed in western Oregon in 1998. They both loved old Southern music, so they traipsed off to New Orleans, for a few years sharing a shotgun house in the 9th Ward. They'd return for the West Coast's glorious summertimes, performing old-timey string music, blues, ragtime, jazz and jug. Via email from Portland, Lemon recently shared some insight into their current situation. "We didn't 'break up' but we won't be doing the Syncopators so much in the future as we each have our own original projects we're working on," he said. "I wouldn't say we're breaking up because we never really existed as a certainty, but we're not booking anything past the end of May." Lemon, who has new music under the name Gill Landry, also said, "Mentally we're each in our own world." While that doesn't sound too hopeful, the band's nature has always been mercurial, without an agenda, without even a set membership. This month, the band is Lemon on steel guitar, Bob Scarecrow on drums and washboard, Ryan (a Nawlins friend) on upright bass and Charlie Bean on piano. The Kitchen Syncopators released seven albums, and Lemon said, "We feel like that's enough." They recently recorded a live album in Sedona, Ariz., which they hope to have available at the show. Further disappointment for Sync fans — they won't be appearing at this year's Oregon Country Fair, so this upcoming Sam Bond's show will likely be, in Lemon's words, "Our last show in the Willamette Valley for a good long while."
Diary of an MC
It could be said that Kansas City's Tech N9ne is hip hop's wandering artist. He lives for the road and opens up his soul the most when he is able to travel. Since 2002, Tech has been touring practically non-stop promoting the wild and crazy Absolute Power. Now, four years later, he's ready to unleash a new monster, aptly titled Everready: The Religion. "We could never get a rest from all this touring," says Tech, "but I finally took two months off in February and March to finish the album. That was hard since we've always been on the road. This road is my habitat. This is where I'm supposed to be. It was hard to be off of it for two months, and that's saying a lot!" In those two months Tech crafted yet another bomb of rapid-fire mic delivery and unique beats that aren't simply a boom-crash rhythm. "The Beast," one of more than 20 new songs planned for the record, features a stomping-and-clapping beat while Tech ominously builds up verse after verse with his bombastic voice. "Every album progresses, and with Everready we moved out to L.A. to get some superstar beats," says Tech. "As my life progresses, so will the music! Everready is a big cluster of Anghellic, Absolute Power, my pain, pleasure, tears and kickin' it all in one. It's my best work ever." Tech N9ne plays two shows with Critical Bill and Pot Luck at 8 pm Tuesday, May 23 and Wednesday, May 24 at the WOW Hall. $20 adv./$25 dos. — Dan Hoyt
Music from Hither and Yon Four Shillings Short has been a revolving Celtic music-making entity more than 20 years. Its current incarnation, duo Christy Martin and Aodh Og (pronounced "ayog") O'Tauma, brings instruments from all over the world to eclectic and often political stage performances. Starting from a strong traditional and folkloric foundation, the San Francisco-based husband and wife team weaves a musical tapestry that entertains, educates and involves listeners all over the country. Audiences at a Four Shillings Short performance will hear familiar Irish themes and melodies layered with sitar and a variety of drums from many parts of the world. Mandolin, banjo, gemshorn, doumbek, dulcimer and spoons are just a few of the instruments that scatter the stage during the band's exploration of traditional music executed with the care of experienced artists and injected with a modern sense of social justice. Known for their energy and humor, Four Shillings Short puts on a show the whole family can enjoy. Four Shillings Short plays at 5 pm Saturday, May 20 at Tsunami books. Don. — Adrienne van der Valk
Be Where How? The saying runs, no matter where you go, there you are, but the question is: When you finally get to the place where you've gone, how do you know it's the place you are? Lusty Leaf, a folk collective of musicians and artists, examines the concept of places and spaces in Wide Open World, Where Are You? a story-song cycle and performance piece created by UO student Owen Smith. The piece concludes a trilogy of work. Light Show was performed about a year ago, and Autumnal Hymns premiered last November. "This is a little more linear than the other two, especially Light Show," Smith said. "This is an outlet for us to channel our narrative interests." Acting as tour guides, the self-described neo-Luddites of Lusty Leaf play an eclectic mix of instruments while Smith's lyrics lead audiences to re-envision places they might think they already know. Lusty Leaf performs at 9 pm Saturday, May 20 at DIVA. $2-$5 sliding scale. — John Ginn
Like a Screaming Monkey-Sparrow They jam. They rock. They wail. According to their mySpace page, they sound like a screaming monkey-sparrow. They're kind of grunge-meets-new wave but mostly they're themselves. Ingredients the Band will introduce their new album, Bears Driving Trains, at their upcoming CD release party at Cozmic Pizza. Ingredients' sound varies a lot, but their songs are consistently driven by an energetic undercurrent that reminds you of no particular band except all the ones you really like. The lyrics are poetically simple often biting and dark. But a quick glance at the Ingredients website reveals elements of a comedy troupe within the band. In spite of their sometimes surly sound, they crack up in their press photos, and the trailer for their movie (appropriately titled Ingredients the Band the Movie) is one sarcastic gag after another featuring cameos by Mr. Appliance and Frog. Ingredients shows are rumored to pack a fun, high-energy punch with lots of crowd interaction. Come early for a pre-concert viewing of a VH1-style film about the band. Ingredients the Band plays at 8:30 pm Wednesday, May 24 at Cozmic Pizza. Free. — Adrienne van der Valk
John and Johnny
The Dimes, fronted by Johnny Clay, may have a cheap name, but don't sell their music short without a listen. This Portland band boasts radio-ready pop that blends right in with what's popular today: Death Cab, Coldplay, The Shins, and for that good ol' touch of nostalgia, The Beatles. They've been touring a lot lately and seem ready to break on through to the other side. Labels are courting them already, so it seems only a matter of time before they head for bigger pastures. See them while you can along with another one of Eugene's perennial favorite performers, John Shipe. Shipe's most recent release was a CD with The Blue Rebekahs in December 2005. We spoke recently by email, and he revealed that while The Blue Rebekahs parted ways after that CD came out, he's in no hurry to replace the band. "I wanted to retain the distinctive identity of the Blue Rebekahs in the past, and to allow the next line-up to establish its own identity in the future," he said. "I am committed to playing solo until I have at least two hours of new material to bring to the project." He did say that he's "highlighting" Blue Rebekahs songs in his solo sets while continually working on new material and adding them into his shows. "I really want to give The Blue Rebekahs work a chance to linger in my psyche and in my sphere of work before moving on," he said. John Shipe and The Dimes play at 9 pm Wednesday, May 24 at Sam Bond's. 21+ show. $4. — Vanessa Salvia
Bringing Back the Concept Indie rock draws a lot of its appeal and influence from the popularity and stylings of classic rock, and it's obvious that Cowboy Curse saw a lot in the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But these guys pride themselves on being able to accomplish both in a relatively short amount of time. "We started about a year ago," says frontman Ben Bergstrand, "and when we first got going we wanted to try and do stuff that we wouldn't normally do live, such as choral arrangements, vocal overdubs, keyboards and things like that." The band's debut album, Nod Up and Down (To the Simulcast Singing) is an arrangement of rock, orchestra, surf rock and more odd-couple genres, but they pull it off well, especially on songs with their Beach Boys-like overdub vocal harmonies. On tour, however, the band can't bring along all the instruments they used on the album. So how will they rearrange the tunes for live shows? "It's going to be pretty close," says bassist Tyler Campo. "There's just so many layers that it's a little easier on the album." "All the songs are performed live before the album," says Bergstrand, "so I just lock all of that in my head." Cowboy Curse plays at 10 pm Thursday, May 25 at Luckey's. 21+ show. $3-$5 sliding scale. — Dan Hoyt
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