Music

With music institutions — especially those in less commercial genres — struggling musicians and fans have had to get social and entrepreneurial, increasingly relying on grassroots funding (through Indiegogo, Kickstarter and similar crowdsourcing sites) and informal venues. The Shedd is our biggest local example of music lovers creating their own outlets for the music they cherish, and fans run many venues like The Jazz Station.

Love or hate Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby, one of the most hypnotic scenes of the film is the first. There’s no Leonardo DiCaprio or Carey Mulligan, simply the camera zooming in on the metallic, Art Nouveau Gatsby crest as The xx’s “Together” pings with melancholy coolness. 

They are the champions. The UO Chamber Choir placed first in the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition at the prestigious Cork International Choral Festival in Ireland. Led by UO professor of music Sharon J. Paul, the choir beat out 29 other choirs from 17 countries with music ranging from “Italian madrigals to bluegrass-influenced gospel.” You can see these international stars in your own backyard 8 pm Wednesday, May 22, at Beall Concert Hall on campus; $5 students, $7 general.

Once upon a time bands could wait a few albums before having a hit — U2, REM and Nirvana among others.  This allowed artists to grow, change and most importantly experiment. These days, with the great contraction of the music business, bands-without-hits are signed and dropped faster than ever; many are never signed at all. 

Blood Sugar Sex Lama? After His Holiness speaks at Matthew Knight arena May 10, he heads to Portland where the Red Hot Chili Peppers will serenade him, preceded by a Q&A with His Holiness hosted by Anthony Kiedis. Warning: This is not a joke.

For many, Sara Watkins will forever be associated with the bluegrass group Nickel Creek. This is understandable considering how popular the band was, and that Watkins spent almost 20 years playing fiddle with the trio she helped found when she was only 8 years old, but Watkins has been blazing a solo trail for the last six years straight into the midnight sun.

It’s always a little bit of magic when two people can make music together that is larger than the sum of their individual parts. Such is the case with San Diego folk-pop duo The Lovebirds. 

If there is an ocean in outer space, then Man or Astro-man? has clearly outsmarted NASA by about 20-plus years and counting. Though traditional surf rock faded with the British invasion, Man or Astro-man? proved that there was still a place for the genre despite the advent of the psychedelic rock movement. 

“We were never good at being a surf band; we grew up around punk rock,” says drummer Brian Teasley, who goes by the stage name Birdstuff. “When we were trying to get it right, we were getting it wrong.”

Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford do whatever the hell they want. With Javelin, the pair of musicians explores a variety of sounds, channeling influences from across the spectrum of musical genres. “We were never interested in making a tight, recognizable sound,” Buskirk says. 

Rebecca Loeb is a fresh-faced and breezy songwriter with the voice of a pop star. Her sound ranges from indie Americana to confessional ballads to cabaret-style waltzes — encompassing the quirky whimsy of Regina Spektor, the rootsiness of Patti Griffin and the dry wit of Randy Newman, who is an all-time favorite of the young musician. “I love the way he puts himself into his characters,” Loeb says, “and writes so authentically from so many different voices.”

Seattle’s The Cave Singers came out of the darkness around the same time Fleet Foxes did. But while the Foxes are all angelic harmony and shimmering guitars, The Cave Singers offer a grittier, bluesy take on indie-folk; if the Fleet Foxes serenade you from the town square, The Cave Singers stomp and clap on the back porch with vocalist Pete Quirk mixing a gruff, unschooled, gospel holler to the mix.

Jazz may be America’s greatest gift to music, but since its late ’50s heyday, the art form has too often become marginalized by the same process familiar to classical music fans: devolving into either endless recycling of the same old standards (to appeal to a rigidly conservative audience that basically wants to hear its record collections played live) or an extreme avant-garde content to play shrieky, “out” sounds for a tiny in-group audience. Neither is a recipe for building new audiences or sustainable artistic growth.