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Will Kennedy is a freelance writer and a senior music writer with Eugene Weekly. He lives in Eugene with his wife, daughter and two cats. All of whom politely accommodate his obsessions with Doctor Who and The Smiths.
In the ’90s, Ween were sort of like Phish’s creepy older brother: Phish got your sister high to expand her consciousness, while Ween had more devious intentions. Nevertheless, Phish and Ween share certain similarities: eclectic songwriting, a Frank Zappa touch for jokes and a buzzing jammy quality, whether the buzzing comes from cheap beer or top-notch weed. Continue reading
Oregon climate 2.0 may mean short sleeves in October. Nevertheless, it’s autumn all up in this place, and ’round these parts, autumn means apples and apples mean cider. Eugene’s WildCraft Cider Works is celebrating apple season with the inaugural Urban Orchard Harvest Party — a celebration of the bounty many in Eugene find falling right in their front yard. “Urban Orchard Harvest Party is the follow-up to the community apple drive,” WildCraft owner and founder Sean Kelly says. Continue reading
At this point, do we really need to talk about Neil Young’s music? The musician, author and all-around pain-in-the-establishment’s-ass has a back catalog that qualifies his craggy mug to be carved into the Mount Rushmore of American music. Continue reading
Pee-wee’s playhouse is a regular muse for the artist The world can feel like a pretty nasty place. Local glass artist Jamie Burress is here to help. Continue reading
The now Nashville-based folk musician Mare Wakefield, along with her husband and musical collaborator Nomad, has had a pretty good year. “We were finalists in two songwriting competitions at two pretty big high-profile folk festivals,” Wakefield tells EW. But what really excited Wakefield was the opportunity to meet folk-music icon and personal hero Judy Collins at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in New York. Continue reading
We’ve all played this game: If you could share a drink with one person from history, living or dead, who would you choose? For music fans in general and jazz fans in particular, the answer is often Billie Holiday. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, running now at Actors Cabaret of Eugene, gives audiences that chance. The play debuted in Atlanta in the mid-1980s, with a recent off-Broadway run starring Audra McDonald in the titular role. Continue reading
Los Angeles band Period Bomb is an anarcho-feminist project recalling protest punk like Bikini Kill and straightforward, curled-upper-lip rock ‘n’ roll like The Runaways. Period Bomb’s “Get Out Of My Life Creep” is a simple kiss-off to a boorish, controlling lover. The song features vocalist Cami Miami’s supple, Siouxsie Sioux voice moving over tightly wound power chords. Continue reading
California-based progressive bluegrass group Front Country has a new connection to Eugene. “Our fiddle player [Leif Karlstrom] just moved up here,” guitarist Jacob Groopman tells EW. “I always like coming to Eugene. It’s a nice town.” Front Country is touring in support of 2014’s Sake of the Sound. The record features mandolin, fiddle and the hymnal quality of vocalist Melody Walker. The resulting sound recalls the chamber folk and bluegrass of Chris Thile and Punch Brothers. Continue reading
Portland author Patrick deWitt is a pig for romance. “I’m an old softy, you know,” deWitt tells EW, “a fool for love and all that; a pig for it.” Continue reading
Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds are a seven-piece “hard-soul” band based out of New York. Sister Sparrow vocalist Arleigh Kincheloe calls her band’s sound “high energy — very much meant to make you get up and dance and have a good time.” The group comes to Eugene supporting its 2015 release The Weather Below, out now on Party Fowl Records. The record has a strutting, take-no-prisoners confidence. Continue reading