Eugene Weekly

Bellingham’s Polecat plays up-tempo, largely instrumental Americana-roots-bluegrass-folk-reggae — forget it, let’s just say Polecat plays dance music and they play it well. “We are trying to move away from any sort of real specific designation for our sound,” vocalist and guitarist Jeremy Elliott tells EW.  Continue reading →

Clean-shaven with slicked-back hair and sporting a perfecto leather jacket,  rising hip-hop star G-Eazy could easily be mistaken for a cologne model. With his retro greaser look, G-Eazy (né Gerald Earl Gillum) has cultivated a unique style for his chosen genre, earning him the title of “the James Dean of hip hop.” Caught between flattered and exasperated by this categorization, G-Eazy is trying to stake his own ground.  Continue reading →

“We love playing house concerts because it’s always a listening audience,” says Jeff Poynter, vocalist and accordion player for Victoria, B.C.-based indie-folk outfit West My Friend. “We’re not really a bar band, and so we like audiences that show up to hear music. It’s great as well because you can really connect with the audience — talk to them throughout the show, hang out with them afterwards and learn a little about them.”  Continue reading →

With its Harvest Records 2014 debut Badillac, popular SoCal pop-punk act together PANGEA take a huge sonic leap forward, beyond simple-minded garage-punk into more depth and sincerity. “It might be confusing for people, assuming we’re like this garage-punk band and then hearing this record,” says together PANGEA singer-songwriter and guitarist William Keegan on the band’s website. “But we really don’t want to get trapped at all.” Continue reading →

With the Eugene Celebration on hiatus, local music freaks are lamenting the loss of one of the southern Willamette Valley’s oldest and biggest music festivals. But Eugeneans are nothing if not resourceful, and upstart Festival of Eugene, Aug. 22-23 at Skinner Butte Park, was quickly born. The free event has a schedule of local music to satisfy even the most desperate music junkie jonesin’ for a live fix. Continue reading →

Betty and the Boy and four other folk, pop and punk bands will play at a benefit show to raise money for the annual Trans and/or Women’s Action Camp. TWAC was initially born from the idea of creating a safe space for trans and/or women in the social and environmental justice movement, according to Ariel Howland, organizer of and participant in the benefit show and camp. Eventually, that idea came into its own: a weeklong camp that focuses on community building and political activism. Continue reading →

In 2009, Shelby Earl quit her job on Amazon’s music team to record her first album. The Seattle singer-songwriter was excited; after three years of promoting other musicians at the internet giant, she was going to be the one promoted — hopefully.  “Then six months in it got really scary. It got really real and the money ran out,” Earl tells EW. “I told my mom I was freaking out.”  Continue reading →

I was pulling the Sam Spade act (à la The Maltese Falcon) last week, hovering over a slider and fries at the bowling alley up Hwy. 99 and watching some good-looking kids roll the rock. The place was damn near empty; just me, the kids and the gal at the counter spraying high-grade disinfectant into the guts of the smooth communal shoes.  Continue reading →