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Amy Helm is still quite taken with one of the views her late father — famed drummer and singer Levon Helm — had about the deeply profound effect that music can have on people’s lives. “My father used to call it the language of heaven, and I very much agree with that,” Helm says. “Music has saved my life many times and continues to, in small ways and in big ways.” Continue reading
This Sunday, Feb. 9, would have been the 26th annual Eugene Record Convention. With the passing of the convention’s beloved founder Bill Finneran in October, the reins have passed to Thomas Jones of Portland. Jones, owner of Crossroads Music (a Portland record shop), has been frequenting the event since 1997 and this year, he hosts a continuation of the convention, the Eugene Record Show, 10 am to 5 pm Feb. 9, at the Eugene Hilton; $3 (or $15 for early entry 7 to 10 am). Continue reading
Photos contributed by Jeremy Mabe Continue reading
Matt Knight Arena has booked Grammy-winning rock group Tool for March 7 and pop king Bruno Mars for Aug. 11. We’re glad to see these big names in music coming to Eugene, but besides these two concerts, a handful of UO basketball games and monster truck rumbles, Matt Knight’s event calendar is glaringly empty for 2014. What happened to concerts being a crucial source of revenue? And why is one of the country’s most expensive basketball arenas ($200 million-plus) sitting empty most of the year when it could be booking bigger music acts? Continue reading
Seattle surf rock revivalists La Luz are lucky to be alive. Just this past November, on the way home after a gig in Boise, the band was involved in a serious car wreck. Their van was totaled and their gear ruined. Luckily, the band members incurred relatively minor injuries. Undeterred, La Luz recouped and is now back out on the road. Continue reading
For a town who voted Sol Seed EW’s Next Big Thing 2013, and whose big summer concerts included Slightly Stoopid, Rebelution and Matisyahu, the Passafire-Ballyhoo! double bill Feb. 6 at Cozmic is bound to be a big show. Continue reading
When people talk about the glory years of alternative music, most of the bands that get mentioned are from the alternative rock, Brit-rock or grunge strain — Pearl Jam, Oasis, Soundgarden, Nirvana. But the alternative pop bands who came in a shade before these guys made quite the impact on the Generation X music scene too; Toad the Wet Sprocket was among the most notable. Continue reading
After joining and then replacing the great Thomas Mapfumo in the Zimbabwean band Wagon Wheels in the late 1970s, Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi became one of Southern Africa’s most popular singers, rasping his uplifting lyrics in his native Shona language, as well as in Ndebele and English, over a bubbling beat of compulsively danceable mbaqanga and other African rhythms and American R&B-influenced grooves. Continue reading
Patchy Sanders, a band that made its first appearance in Eugene at Sam Bond’s Garage a year ago, is returning to the same venue on Feb. 2 to showcase its first record, & The Wild Peach Forest. Continue reading
What’s the most informative debut album title, you ask? Why, 2002’s Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz, of course. The title says it all, and what better way to announce yourself in the hip hop scene than that? Take three racially charged foodstuffs, slap ’em on a sleeve and call yourself Nappy Roots. Yes folks, it’s that country rap you’ve loved since Birdman, Nelly or Ludacris first pimp-slapped your brain. Jangly piano, minimalist beats, red-beans-and-rice-style hooks: It’s all you’ve ever wanted from the dirty South and more. Continue reading