Arts: Page 380

Small Joys

Music

Fresh off a Bandest of the Bands win at WOW Hall earlier this year, local folk-rock outfit Small Joys is starting to pick up steam. What began as a conservative duet, composed of songwriter Olivia Awbrey and lead guitarist Dan Klee, has now blossomed into a harmonious four-to-six-piece romp. The music is crisp and rootsy, with all the crunch of dead leaves in the fall, and the delicacy of dewdrops on a petal unfurled. Heading up lead vocals, Awbrey fuses Mazzy Star’s jangle to Alela Diane’s haunting soul and comes out none the worse. Continue reading →

Grease is (still) the word

Phoinix Players bring ’50s musical to the boards

Theater

Steeped in nostalgia and soaked in the nicest kind of naughty, the hit musical Grease has become a cultural artifact of the first order. The songs are a peach. The dialogue is funny, sexy and harmlessly rebellious (the original 1971 version, which was reputedly vulgar and pretty gnarly, has been watered down), and the book — the simplest of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl stories, set in 1959 — gives it a lean, sleek structure. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

Summer and art are soaking into Eugene! The Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA) will host a “Drink & Draw” at the Ninkasi Patio June 20. You bring the drawing tools and DIVA will provide the model — perhaps a Maiden the Shade or a Tricerahops?   Continue reading →

Before and After

Film

In 1994’s Before Sunrise, twentysomethings Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) met on a train. After one very talkative, very special night together, they parted ways, agreeing to meet in six months. It was nine years before they met again, in Before Sunset: Jesse wrote a book based on their first meeting, and Celine found him at a Paris reading.  Continue reading →

Whitey Morgan & the 78’s

Music

Whooowhee! Whitey Morgan & the 78’s are playing at Sam Bond’s this week, and it’s sure to be swingin’. Superficially, it’s outlaw country just the way you imagine it — twang, drawl and do-si-do — but there’s something unique about Whitey’s songwriting that’s hard to place. Continue reading →

Very Vaudevillian Vagabonds

Music

Corsets and top hats, handlebar moustaches and suspenders, petticoats and purple hair: enter the world of Portland’s neo-vaudevillian Vagabond Opera. A popular attraction on Northwest stages, Vagabond Opera mixes gypsy-jazz, Eastern European folk music, opera and Weimar cabaret into legendary, quirky and energetic live shows. You’ll hear accordions, Arabic flavors, Yiddish tunes and memorable themes from classical music, mixed together in a big steampunk spectacle. Continue reading →

Back Beat

Music

“KLCC: Let Living Large Live!” is the cri de coeur of the Change.org petition by the Eugene Musicians Collective (EMC) who are urging KLCC to keep Eric Alan’s show on the air. Word is that come July 1, the station is going to cut the popular Eugene show, which features local and touring musicians, and replace it with national news coverage. EMC is hosting a sidewalk rally outside of KLCC (136 W. 8th Ave.) 11 am to 6 pm Friday, June 14, with music by Satori Bob, Sonic Bent and more. Continue reading →

Post-Mod Flower Power

Music

Fox & Woman formed at street poetry gatherings in San Francisco’s Mission District. Their 2013 release, This Side Dawn, is gentle; lilting violin and tight female harmonies from Jess Silva and Emily Halton — who occasionally sing in Portuguese — mix with intricate and delicate guitar playing.  Continue reading →

Lotus in Bloom

Music

Local jam band Blue Lotus is about to release their third album, A Thousand Other Things — their concert at WOW Hall on June 15 will be a CD release party — and singer-rhythm guitarist Brandelyn Rose says the band will be giving listeners something a bit different this time. “The album has 12 songs, but what’s hard for us is we tend to be improvisational,” Rose says. “We usually have songs that go anywhere from 12 to 20 minutes long, so for us it was a challenge to try and capture that in a studio album.” Continue reading →