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Eugene experienced a devastating loss in the music community this month: Bill Finneran, beloved founder of the Eugene Record Convention (the largest in the PNW), passed away from cancer Oct. 1 at the age of 62. EW last caught up with Finneran in February before the convention’s 25th anniversary when he expressed his eternal love of vinyl. Friend Marc Time, who calls Finneran “a shining light,” says the future of the convention is unsure at this time. Continue reading
Consider for a moment the acoustics of a cave: vast and echoing but also claustrophobic and airless — a small drip of water reverberating to the ceiling and from the walls. Now, consider the acoustics of the band Cave and you have the latter. The Chicago-based, frequently instrumental group is celebrating the release of Threace, out Oct. 15 on uber-hip record label Drag City. Continue reading
In between the breakout 2012 album Look Out Mama and an upcoming release, the New Orleans-based Hurray for the Riff Raff took a nice, long pit stop in covers country. My Dearest Darkest Neighbor (2013), a beautiful and mellow collection, hosts songs by a motley crew of musicians: Lead Belly, Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday and George Harrison to name a few. Continue reading
Veteran songwriter Sean Scolnick, aka Langhorne Slim, says people are looking to get messy. “People want to dance,” he says. “People want to be freaks.” The Nashville-based musician feels this goes a long way to explain the recent chart-topping revival of “roots” music like The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons. “People want to strip things back,” Slim concludes. Continue reading
Composer Steven Mackey was honored by the commission to write a new work for his longtime collaborators, the celebrated Brentano Quartet, but daunted by the subject matter: a quartet that commemorated one of the most tragic days in American history, the assassination of President John Kennedy half a century ago. How could he write music that was true to what happened that terrible day, without reproducing its ugliness and thereby distressing listeners? What could instrumental music add to our understanding of, or feeling about, that dark day in Dallas? Continue reading
Behavior Castle presents Peach Kelli Pop's Kids Only show live at Paper Moon Photo Studio Continue reading
On Oct. 5 The Majestic Theatre in Corvallis will host one of America’s best contemporary singer-songwriters: Dar Williams. Touring for her 2012 Greek mythology-inspired album, aptly named In The Time Of Gods, Williams mines the stories of our Mount Olympus ancestors for triumphs and tragedies that parallel our own modern-day plight. Continue reading
“I like to paint a picture of a modern woman who’s sexual and who can do the same things as a man,” Sallie Ford tells me over the phone. Sift through her lyrics, her throaty rock vocals or the imagery in her band’s music videos, and it becomes clear that Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside is not just paying lip service. Continue reading
When Chris Henderson, the singer and songwriter for the indie-roots Bronze Radio Return, talks about the band’s most recent album — Up, On & Over — he is practically breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s always nerve wracking, putting out a new body of work, wondering if people are going to say, ‘I like their other albums better,’” Henderson admits. “But we’ve been really fortunate. Our fans have had a lot of positive things to say about it, so it’s been really exciting.” Continue reading
Of all the white-hot techno DJs and producers, few are more molten right now than Anton Zaslavski, better known as Zedd. Zedd’s single “Clarity” (featuring London-based female vocalist Foxes) is arguably the “it” single of 2013: a big, weepy ballad mixed with epic, fist-pumping, club-thumping beats. Continue reading