We've got issues.
Phish hasn’t played Eugene since 1994. Hard to believe, but look it up: It’s true. One might think inheritors of the Grateful Dead’s status of jam-band Grand Poobah would go along with Eugene like Tevas and Odwalla. But alas, nary a tour stop here for 20 years. Continue reading
After bursting onto the music scene in 2013 with a stellar self-titled debut, New York-based The Lone Bellow are now preparing for the follow-up. And while the dreaded “sophomore slump” torpedoes the careers of many bands, guitarist and lead vocalist Zach Williams isn’t worried about the new album. “I really believe in the record,” he says. “I almost see it as a play with four acts, with three or four songs per act. I went through a really heavy situation while writing these songs, and I think it’s going to be a cathartic thing.” Continue reading
Oregon’s greatest composer, the late Lou Harrison, often explained the difference between the music written on the American East and West coasts. “Out there” — meaning the East Coast — “you think of Paris and Berlin as cultural centers. Here we think of Tokyo and Djakarta,” he said. “We have a very strong connection with Asia. This is Pacifica, that’s Atlantica. They’re different orientations. I don’t think that there is a composer in the West who is not aware of that.” Continue reading
The Fab Four, Four Seasons, Four Tops, Gang of Four, Emerson Quartet, Takacs Quartet: Why do foursomes get all the musical attention? Everyone composes for string quartets and bands made up of two guitars, bass and drum. But in classical music as well as jazz and rock, trios offer more transparency and a lighter, often tighter sound. A trio of trios heading our way this fall reveals the power of three. Chamber Music Amici Oct. 27, Wildish Theater Continue reading
When a sleek, curvy, dark figure entered her life, Melissa Ruth knew her future would look different. She was writing songs for her second album, 2011’s Aint No Whiskey, when it came to her. “I accidentally bought a guitar that blew my mind and changed my songwriting forever,” Ruth tells me over whiskey at The Barn Light. The guitar is a small-bodied black and brown 1958 Guild electric with a whole lotta mojo, Ruth says. “That guitar changed my life.” Continue reading
Rearrange some Steel Cranes songs, add a little fiddle and steel guitar, and you’d have some no-nonsense, woman-done-wrong country music. “I write a lot of our songs on my acoustic and they often initially have a country feel to them,” says Steel Cranes vocalist and guitarist Tracy Shapiro. “We usually butcher things once Amanda [Shukle] is on drums and I switch to my electric,” she jokes. Continue reading
K Records recording artists The Shivas nod toward vintage psyche and garage rock, but Jared Molyneux says his band isn’t merely a nostalgia act. “We sound like a band that listens to a lot of garage music from the ’60s,” Molyneux says. “The sound and feeling of that style of music must have had a profound effect on us, as our music obviously resembles it,” he adds, referencing The Velvet Underground and The 13th Floor Elevators as well as artists like Sam Cooke, James Brown and Leadbelly. Continue reading
Among guitarists, if not across the wide world, Dave Rawlings is recognized as a stylist of the highest order, a folk traditionalist who is also a supreme innovator. For evidence of what this man can do with his 1935 arch-top Epiphone, witness “Revelator,” the first track on 2001’s Time (The Revelator) by singer and songwriter Gillian Welch, with whom Rawlings frequently collaborates. Continue reading
When it comes to indie rap, few MCs boast the candid storytelling of Brother Ali. Continue reading