Eugene Weekly

More than four decades into her career, Marcia Ball is a living blues legend as well as a popular fixture on blues-hungry Eugene stages. But last year, Ball missed her chance to promote her latest release, The Tattooed Lady and The Alligator Man, in our valley. “We were scheduled last fall,” Ball tells EW, “and then I had a fall. I had to miss the gig — a rare occurrence,” adding in a thick Southern accent: “I didn’t get to play my songs for you so I’m coming back to do it!” Continue reading →

Familiar things are sometimes best interpreted by strangers. International musician Monk Parker knows this better than anyone. Splitting his time between the states and the U.K., Parker’s music is influenced by his English mother — an avant-garde, minimalist sculptor — and his more traditional American father.  Continue reading →

Gentrification: a word spoken in hushed and frightened tones, as though it’s the black plague, a zombie virus or artisanal ice cubes.  Five years ago, Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist Danielle de Picciotto decided to do something about Berlin’s gentrification, skyrocketing rents and creeping homogeneity.  Continue reading →

When your band is named He Whose Ox is Gored, people are going to have preconceived notions about what you sound like. “We started having that post-hardcore influence, a little bit of doom,” guitarist Brian McLelland tells EW. The up-and-coming Seattle quartet is touring in support of its latest release The Camel, The Lion, The Child, out now on Bleeding Light Records. But McLelland says it would be wrong, despite HWOIG’s epically dark name, to pigeonhole them as a metal band.  Continue reading →

The members of Eugene post-rock band This Patch of Sky are just a bunch of romantics. “For a bunch of tattooed, bearded guys, we make pretty music,” guitarist Joshua Carlton jokes with EW. The band returns to the stage Aug. 22 at WOW Hall, alongside Hyding Jekyll, Children and Seattle’s Rishloo. But the reach of This Patch of Sky goes far beyond our fair valley; after picking up New York-based management, the band has scored several high profile licensing opportunities for its brand of post-rock. Continue reading →

In 2008, songwriter Kimya Dawson’s caustic naiveté perfectly captured the precocious character Juno from the popular film of the same name.  Dawson got her start alongside Adam Green in New York “anti-folk” duo Moldy Peaches. Together they made acoustic music that winked at folk and psychedelic idioms alongside sometimes surreal and sometimes hyper-real lyrics.  Continue reading →

After establishing a local following at University of Oregon house shows and small venues, Eugene indie-pop trio Pluto the Planet decided to take the summer off to regroup and plan their next steps.  “We wanted to scale back on shows,” guitarist Cameron Lister tells EW. “We’ve played so many shows in the past few months, we didn’t want to saturate the community.”  On Aug. 14, Pluto the Planet returns playing the In the Valley Below (see “New Rock Series” this issue) after-show in Hi-Fi Music Hall’s Encore Lounge.  Continue reading →

Have your playlists gone stale? Do tasty new tunes sound tantalizing? If so, check out “You Saw Them First,” a three-day, all-ages concert series presented by Eugene radio station KNRQ and Hi-Fi Music Hall. The event features three of modern rock’s hottest acts: Joywave, In The Valley Below and X Ambassadors.  Continue reading →

The Bangles called Monday “Manic” and Morrissey called Sunday “silent and grey.” Which day of the week do San Diego’s power-punk duo Gloomsday find the gloomiest? “Every day so far is Gloomsday,” Lori Sokolowski, Gloomsday drummer and back-up vocalist, tells EW. She concedes that her gloomiest day is “Sunday night when the fun’s over and you have to go back to real life.” The San Diego duo returns to Eugene, playing its brand of hard-hitting, punk-inspired indie rock.  Continue reading →