Eugene Weekly

“People won’t commit to your music if you don’t commit to it first,” says Sam Wartenbee, Eugene rapper and Crushkill Recordings artist. If you’ve paid attention to local music for any length of time, chances are you recognize Wartenbee (aka Sammy Warm Hands), whether from hardcore punk band This Day’s End or local hip-hop act The ILLusionists.  Ten years ago, Wartenbee started his own recording studio and record label, Take 92 Music.  Continue reading →

With a gender twist on the Adam and Eve story, Montreal’s experimental techno musician Marie Davidson offers us the apple of temptation.  This time, the apple is minimalist electronic beats and soundscapes that evoke danger, sexuality and darkness. And, frequently, her sound has an undeniably killer groove — like on the track “Excès de Vitesse” from Davidson’s upcoming release Un Autre Voyage (out April 15 on Holodeck Records). Continue reading →

In the early ’90s, drag star RuPaul was dazzling the club scenes in Atlanta and New York City and Jennie Livingston released her award-winning documentary Paris Is Burning, which captured the culture of New York drag balls.  In Eugene, the first Damsels, Divas & Dames drag show was performed at the Hult in 1992. In 2000, Imperial Sovereign Court of the Emerald Empire — one of Eugene’s oldest LGBTQ organizations — revived the show and it has continued to be an annual event benefitting HIV Alliance.  Continue reading →

At first listen, Portland’s Ages and Ages seem to provide the perfect indie-pop soundtrack to a lazy afternoon spent in careless sun-soaked abandon. But, an underlying darkness looms. Much like the joyous gloom-tinged rock of Denmark’s Alcoholic Faith Mission, frontman Tim Perry and company craft songs that are harmonious, lush and joyous while heavily colored with angst, strife and the difficulty of remaining a decent human being. This is particularly so on their 2014 sophomore release, Divisionary.  Continue reading →