Eugene Weekly

“Like a Stranger,” track one off L.A. band Kitten’s 2013 release of the same name, is romantic ’80s dance-pop to the max — all smoke machines, teased bangs and the distinctive electric-boogaloo beat of the era; think Madonna’s “Lucky Star” meets Pet Shop Boys remixed by early hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash. Continue reading →

Don’t be surprised if Future Islands comes snapping out of 5th Alley like a gang of dancing street toughs from 1955. The North Carolina-founded, Baltimore-based synth-pop trio has grooves to spare, and lead vocalist Samuel T. Herring has some dance moves that will make you feel inadequate. They’ve been working at that can-do sound of theirs, all the while evolving from kids to adults, and nowadays they’re surfing a wave of half-maturity that leaves their sound feeling hopeful, ponderous and full of heart. Continue reading →

Ryan Lella of Portland’s A Happy Death loves vintage garage rock like The Beau Brummels, The Sonics and The 13th Floor Elevators. The songwriter is also into stuff by Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall — contemporary artists leading the Bay Area’s recent garage and psychedelic rock revival: a movement that seems to be catching on up in Portland as well. “Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees kick ass!” says Lella, who sings and plays guitar in A Happy Death. “They totally reinforce how stoked we are to play the kind of music we do.”  Continue reading →

As MF Doom once said, rap these days is like a pain up in the neck. Seriously, the ratio of intelligent lyricists to not-exactly-lyricists-at-all leans heavily toward the latter in this time of ours. (“You a stupid ho, you, you stupid ho, etc.”) That’s why Bun B’s a cool drink of water, even if he is a crusty old G. He’s been at it since 1987, and cut his teeth as one half of UGK (Underground Kingz), who had their first major release in 1992. To understand why this is impressive, it is important that we look at rap’s evolution as a whole. Continue reading →

These days, we’ve traded fliers for Facebook and ’zines for blogs, but the amalgamated forces of bullshit that spawned early-’80s American hardcore remain essentially unchanged: consumerism, alienation, angst. For the past 35 years, pioneering punk band D.O.A. has confronted these forces with a steady stream of conscientious hardcore. Hailing from Vancouver, B.C., and fronted by the legendary Joey Shithead (aka Joe Keithly), D.O.A. Continue reading →

“We might play a piece 30, 40, 50 — sometimes 100 times,” eighth blackbird flutist Tim Munro told me a few years ago. That dedication to rehearsal allows the Grammy-winning, Chicago-based new music sextet to memorize its pieces, which “enables us to have interactions within the group that I never thought were possible in chamber music,” the Australian Munro said, to focus not just on getting the notes but on communicating the music to the audience. Continue reading →

If I wrote a book about a dark and moody country-rock musician, I might name the main character Lydia Loveless. The real Loveless assures me it’s her real name while calling from her tour bus somewhere in the Midwest. Loveless’ 2014 release Somewhere Else (out now on Bloodshot Records) is full of dark and moody country-rock, positioning the young songwriter as alt-country’s next big thing — the heir-apparent to Lucinda Williams, a young and feisty Steve Earle with a broken heart or Tammy Wynette fronting The Replacements.  Continue reading →

Pushing yourself to do new things, creatively, can be challenging, but as Esme Patterson — one of the vocalists in the Baroque indie folk-pop group Paper Bird — can attest, such growth and change are necessary. The band’s fourth album, 2013’s Rooms, is proof. Continue reading →