Eugene Weekly

Sarah Donner is a New Jersey-based singer-songwriter and self-described “creative type.” Her live show includes three guitars and a ukulele. Donner tells EW she plays all four at the same time. All at the same time? Really?  “No,” Donner says. “We have dancing girls,” she jokes, before getting serious: “It’s highly upbeat and entertaining. I try to keep it lighthearted. I don’t want to be ‘that girl with a guitar.’ So I always try and make it funny and quirky.”  Continue reading →

Michigan band Frontier Ruckus is driving through the badlands of Wyoming.  “I’m in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming,” says Matt Milia, Frontier Ruckus vocalist and primary songwriter. “The cell service is a little spotty.”  This sense of expansive loneliness permeates the bittersweet power-pop of the band’s 2014 release, Sitcom Afterlife.  “It was a break-up record,” Milia says. “It was an interesting juxtaposition of dark subject matter and power-pop.”  Continue reading →

L.A. electro-pop duo Ultra Violent Rays draws comparisons to darkly sensual and moody acts like Portishead.  The band describes their sound as “the hypothetical sonic lovechild of Siouxsie Sioux, Phantogram and the movie Blade Runner.”  Ultra Violent Rays’ current single “Wish” is propelled by hypnotic, electronic drums, a ghostly whistle, shimmering and watery keyboards and vocalist Cooper Gillespie’s ethereal voice — borrowing an irresistible hook from childhood: “Wish I may/ Wish I might/ Find the words to make it right.”  Continue reading →

Indie-soul outfit My Brothers and I is making big noises up north, recently signing to Portland’s Expunged Records — a label with a long history of working with critical darlings like Blind Pilot.  Label founder Anthony McNamer says he knew he wanted to work with My Brother and I after seeing footage of the band performing live. “They have those harmonies that you only get from siblings,” McNamer says via press release. The five-piece band features three brothers and two childhood friends.  Continue reading →

Olympia-based, Southern California-born musician Elizabeth le Fey (aka Globelamp) loves The Beatles.  “They have a lot of different parts in the music, like ‘A Day in the Life,’” le Fey tells EW. “I love that about The Beatles. It’s like you’re on a roller coaster.”  Le Fey says The Beatles’ willingness to expand the traditional pop song formula is an influence on her sound, which she calls psychedelic folk. Continue reading →

San Diego indie rockers The Donkeys are tie-dying their T-shirts. “It just seemed like a good idea,” band member Timothy DeNardo tells EW.  DeNardo says there’s a hippie vibe to their upcoming West Coast tour, which stops in Eugene for a free show June 19 in the Hi-Fi Music Hall lounge.  “We’re playing a couple festivals and a show on the solstice,” DeNardo says, so tie-dye band T-shirts seem appropriate. Continue reading →

Kevin Seconds, founding member of veteran punk-rock band 7 Seconds, says punk needs young people.  “I always did say punk and hardcore is driven by the youth,” Seconds tells EW. “Whether or not I agree with what they’re doing with it ­— a lot of times I don’t — it’s in their hands.”  He adds, “A lot of us who’ve been at it a long time need to swallow our pride and say: ‘Fuck it.’”  Continue reading →

It’s a troubling contradiction that today’s music business — ostensibly an industry of songs — could make a quality songwriter like Ron Sexsmith feel antiquated and out of place.  “I feel like a guy who’s making antique tables and chairs,” the Canadian musician tells EW. “I’ve always felt out of place or unfashionable ever since my first record came out.” Continue reading →