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Grant Kwiecinski, aka GRiZ, is a 24-year-old DJ and producer from Detroit. Watch his concert footage and find crowds donned in neon and screaming over thunderous bass with beach balls sailing everywhere. Many deem this pop, and it’s certainly popular: 2012’s “Smash the Funk” already has more than a million listens on Spotify. Continue reading
If 2013’s Frances Ha seemed a little nicer than writer-director Noah Baumbach’s usual fare — fewer pointed observations, more gentleness toward his characters, no matter how self-deluded — While We’re Young is a trip back to slightly rougher territory (though not quite as rough as Greenberg). Sly and self-aware, Baumbach is a deeply fair storyteller, giving his characters room to hang themselves and room to get their shit together all at once. Continue reading
Sapient might just be the biggest rapper you’ve never heard of, which is a sad fact considering the Portland-based artist grew up here in Eugene. As one half of hip-hop duo Debaser, as well as a member of Sandpeople, he’s rubbed elbows with members of Hieroglyphics, Living Legends and Grayskul. Sapient has also produced infectious beats for Inspectah Deck (of Wu Tang Clan), Slug (of Atmosphere) and Aesop Rock, adding to the pile of reasons to know his work. The emcee-producer is poised and waiting patiently for his moment in the sun. Continue reading
Salt Lake City’s Heartless Breakers play a brand of bombastic, overwrought rock ‘n’ roll popularized at the turn of the millennium — a style known as emo. Vocalist Chase Griffis’ expressive voice sits alongside post-hardcore screaming vocals. Beneath it all, aggressive guitars and a clamorous rhythm section intertwine, creating an auditory manifestation of adolescent tension and release. But Heartless Breakers also blend elements of hard and abrasive music with a pop sheen, a defining characteristic of emo. Continue reading
Like the blossoms that have been emerging this spring, Oregon classical music is entering a period of renewal. Earlier this month, we told you about the young musicians who’ve just started the new Delgani String Quartet, devoted to both classics and contemporary sounds. At 8 pm Friday, April 24, Eugene sees the debut of another exciting young ensemble at the Broadway House concert series (911 W. Broadway, 686-9270). Continue reading
Let’s be real: At least 80 percent of the time, taking on a production of Les Misérables is a bad idea. “Ambitious” doesn’t begin to describe this excruciatingly melodramatic 1,500-page historical novel-turned-stage musical. Continue reading
Sight Unseen is an Obie award-winning play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies. The play, which opens this week at The Very Little Theatre, takes as its subject a renowned artist and strips him naked of all the trappings of success, leaving almost nothing where a man once was. Continue reading
Charles Tatum with his sculptures Continue reading
In his groundbreaking 1978 book Orientalism, the late critic Edward Said went after the West’s misconceptions about the exotic and inscrutable otherness of Asian cultures, often so lavishly and fantastically portrayed in colonial writing. “From the beginning of Western speculation about the Orient,” Said wrote, “the one thing the Orient could not do was represent itself.” Continue reading
“Still a real world here,” sings Joanne Rand on the track “Real World” from her 2014 album Still a Real World. The song is a manifesto of sorts, cajoling us to disconnect from our networked lives and refocus on the material world. But in 2015, the life of a musician — independent or otherwise — is increasingly dependent on digital space. How does the Arcata musician find balance? Continue reading