Eugene Weekly

If you made it to Austin-based no-fi folk act Shakey Graves’ last Eugene show, congratulations — the line stretched around the block, and Sam Bond’s quickly reached capacity.  Since then Shakey Graves has continued to build his name as one of the hottest indie-folk/insurgent blues live acts, with matinee-idol good looks and an innovative one-man show (percussion supplied by suitcase). Continue reading →

Well, Mobb Deep is back together after a brief disbandment and they (Hempstead, N.Y.-born Havoc and Prodigy) just dropped another banger. That’s 20 years of hardcore hip hop for those counting, and the Billboard charts always look better with their names on it. Although The Infamous Mobb Deep, released April 1, peaked at number five on the U.S. rap chart and 10 on the U.S. R&B chart, it still can’t rival the New York duo’s ’99 release, Murda Muzik, which is certified platinum, having sold more than one million copies. Continue reading →

If Rob Zombie happens to remake The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he could do worse than to hire Circle Takes the Square to provide the soundtrack. Hailing from Savannah, Ga., this assaultive group lays down a cathartic catapult of noise that is migraine heavy and druidic weird. Circle Takes the Square’s new album, Decompositions: Volume Number One, is a non-stop barrage of hammering beats, pitched vocal screaming and grinding, squealing guitars, occasionally relieved by medieval moments of slowed-down chanting and neo-classical harmonic interludes. Continue reading →

Thursday, April 17, at the Hult Center, the Eugene Symphony plays three 19th-century Euro-classics: Sibelius’s tone poem Finlandia, Schumann’s Piano Concerto (featuring the esteemed soloist Antonio Pompa-Baldi) and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3. It’s a typical program for American orchestras that regard classical music as a historical museum of centuries-old artifacts from Europe. Continue reading →

Daaaamn! South Central is in the house once again. Schoolboy Q goes hard; his flow is razor sharp, his punchlines hit like fists, his producers drop beats that rattle and scream like hollow points, and when all’s said and done, he’s carrying on a legacy nearly 30 years deep. Continue reading →

New Bums apply a lo-fi Simon and Gar-fuck-it take to the tired old trope of two dudes with guitars. “We’re pretty stripped down with an emphasis on words,” Ben Chasney, of New Bums, tells EW via email.   Continue reading →

Some bands like to record new albums as quickly as possible to create cohesiveness. But in the case of the traditional Scottish folk group Battlefield Band and its 2013 release, Room Enough For All, the band took a different tactic.  Continue reading →