Eugene Weekly

It’s fitting for a band obsessed with Anne Frank to be reclusive. After a 12-year vanishing act, Neutral Milk Hotel is touring again. The group has entered a gilded age, and rightly so.  Continue reading →

As far as band names go, Bass Drum Of Death is in my top five. In recent years, acts such as Ty Segall, Wavves and King Tuff have spearheaded a gorgeous, fuzzy garage revival, leaving footprints in the ashes for other bands to follow.  Bass Drum of Death’s eponymous 2013 album was chockfull of tasty lo-fi licks. Every song had the same basic tone: howling six-strings. swampy bass lines and a snare drum that just wouldn’t quit.  Continue reading →

Folk songstress Olivia Awbrey has a love affair with writing. Like any relationship, there are good times and bad times, times when moving seems easier than staying, and growing together is a key to success. Awbrey’s been forced to make some changes since her days as frontwoman for Small Joys, a folk-rock group that enjoyed the winning slot at WOW Hall’s 2013 Bandest of the Bands competition. Her latest EP, New Wheels, is an intimate look at the changes she’s undergone. Continue reading →

Whitey Morgan is no stranger. He’s played Eugene countless times. But no matter how well we think we know the man, he keeps coming up with new surprises. In late 2014 he released two records side by side, each of which offers its own clear window into Whitey’s soul. Continue reading →

Doesn’t that name sound familiar? This Patch of Sky got its name from a Lord Leebrick Theatre sign in 2010. Since then, the six-member band has carved a neat place for itself in the haunting, wordless world of symphonic post-rock. Despite having songs in World Cup promos, documentary trailers and upcoming blockbusters, the band members have stayed in Lane County, touring the coast every once in a while but mostly writing and laying down tracks. Their eponymous album (released in August) was featured on numerous Best-of-2014 lists, and they’re already working on a new LP.  Continue reading →

Gypsy acts are known for their rowdiness; their raw, cigarette-smoky, patched-clothing, dented-brass impurities. Above all, gypsy acts are known for their stage presence. Seattle-born folker Jason Webley is no different. Continue reading →

Portland’s Water Tower has come a long way since stomping the Americana revival boards late last decade. With an all new lineup — excepting frontman Kenny Feinstein, who’s been along from the start and recently signed with Fluff & Gravy Records — the band leaves the old-time ever so slightly to bring a fresher rock ‘n’ roll sound.  Continue reading →

Portland’s own Hillstomp has found a way to blend Northwestern sense of place with the sludge and balm of a Louisiana swamp. The duo’s new album, titled Portland, Ore., out now on Fluff & Gravy Records, is a 10-track work that ebbs and flows, jives and stomps and howls, riots and then takes a nap. It begins with a rather heavy twosome — “Santa Fe Line” and “Life I Want” — that showcases the band’s ever-growing ability to find beauty in mosquito-bitten disarray. Continue reading →

Well, Mobb Deep is back together after a brief disbandment and they (Hempstead, N.Y.-born Havoc and Prodigy) just dropped another banger. That’s 20 years of hardcore hip hop for those counting, and the Billboard charts always look better with their names on it. Although The Infamous Mobb Deep, released April 1, peaked at number five on the U.S. rap chart and 10 on the U.S. R&B chart, it still can’t rival the New York duo’s ’99 release, Murda Muzik, which is certified platinum, having sold more than one million copies. Continue reading →