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A wolf in sheep’s clothing? More like a wolf in a hip T-shirt. Sabrina Jackson, the local printmaker behind graphic tee brand Poppy & Moe, is relaunching her company as Wolf Child, featuring a new line of hand-printed shirts with all sorts of symbology: snakes, crescent moons, skeleton keys and the Eye of Providence. The line will make its Eugene debut at Passion Flower Design on Broadway during the First Friday ArtWalk; look for it at WolfChild.com this summer. Continue reading
Kaleidoscope Music Festival has raised the bar for releasing music lineups with a highly produced viral video featuring a woman on a treasure hunt. National acts on the roster include Bassnectar, Los Rakas, Blue Scholars, Afroman, Souls of Mischief, Paper Diamond, Com Truise, gLAdiator and Amp Live. According to OneEleven, the producer-promoters behind the fest, the video was only phase one of the lineup announcements. More musicians will be announced May 30. Continue reading
Seattle Folklife Festival 2012, photo by Alex Notman Our 5-23 issue was jam packed so, unfortunately, we couldn't squeeze in BackBeat this week. Here are some more notes and news to pay attention to this weekend: Continue reading
Everything is dark except for the truck-sized monolith. Two female figures emerge from the shadows, their bodies athletically twisting and spinning and stomping to the electronic beat, which sounds like someone drumming on crystal stalagmites. Crisp, geometric patterns project upon the monolith, creating a digital trompe l’oeil effect, the electronic shapes dissolving into and out of the forms of the dancers, whose projected images appear to be writhing within the structure as their counterparts writhe freely outside. Continue reading
Four years ago, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot pulled off a slick little trick. A shiny, whizbang movie with an excellent ensemble cast, the 2009 Trek restarted the series timeline, giving Abrams and company endless freedom to boldly go to entirely new places, unencumbered by the history writ in the TV shows and earlier films. Continue reading
With music institutions — especially those in less commercial genres — struggling musicians and fans have had to get social and entrepreneurial, increasingly relying on grassroots funding (through Indiegogo, Kickstarter and similar crowdsourcing sites) and informal venues. The Shedd is our biggest local example of music lovers creating their own outlets for the music they cherish, and fans run many venues like The Jazz Station. Continue reading
Love or hate Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby, one of the most hypnotic scenes of the film is the first. There’s no Leonardo DiCaprio or Carey Mulligan, simply the camera zooming in on the metallic, Art Nouveau Gatsby crest as The xx’s “Together” pings with melancholy coolness. Continue reading
It takes a special character to receive surprise fellatio onstage mid-performance (we’re not making this up) and then keep performing. But I guess that’s what happens when the majority of your lyrics focus on drugs, sex and the rockstar life (listen to the track “Die Like a Rockstar”). It’s the nature of the provocative rap beast. Continue reading
Laura Cortese jumps genres like freight trains. The young fiddler has appeared alongside rockers like Band of Horses, Patterson Hood and Michael Franti, while her solo work is drenched in Americana and classical sensibilities. “I think I knew pop music first,” Cortese says, explaining that her mom’s vinyl record collection influenced her at a young age with the likes of Otis Redding, Motown, CSNY and Elvis. Continue reading