EW-Extra: Page 101

Help Chico Schwall Get His Stuff Back

BlogMusic

This email came from Brian Cutean this morning. I’m reposting it just as it is; hopefully someone out there can help. Dear friends, Eugene musician and music teacher William “Chico” Schwall had a devastating break-in at his work space and a lot of equipment was stolen when he was out working. We’re asking local media to please help publicize this list. Share the list. Pass it on to anyone who should see it. Some of these instruments are unique and would be easy to spot. Many thanks. Any information should be sent to Chico’s at 541.684.8216. Continue reading →

SXSW Film: ‘Lemmy’

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I’m not the world’s biggest Motörhead fan, but even I can’t even see the name “Lemmy” without seeing that creased brow and hearing “The ace of spades! The ace of spades!” in my head. Motörhead is universal; Motörhead is monumental. Motörhead’s Lemmy is as deserving of a documentary as any musician who’s been doing his thing for more than 30 loud years. Continue reading →

TOO MUCH TO DO! Yet more shows to squeeze in this week

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JESUS H., Eugene, I hope you’re over that nasty seasonal cold-thing that was going around, because you need to be ready to go out pretty much every night for the next week. Maybe twice. The pendulum is swinging back. It’s time to de-hibernate, kids. We could only fit six previews in this week’s music section, but there are at least three more places you’ll find us in the next few days. Continue reading →

SXSW Film: ‘Skeletons’

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Have you read any Magnus Mills? No, there won’t be a test. But if you’ve read the Scottish author’s wonderful The Restraint of Beasts or peculiar All Quiet on the Orient Express, and if you can think of the peculiar sort of existence the men in his novels have — their work repetitive and disconcerting work, their goals as arbitrary as anything, their situations just a little off — you may find it easier to sink into the out-of-time, mildly surreal, darkly funny world of Skeletons. Continue reading →

SXSW Film: ‘Mr. Nice’

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It’s about time Rhys Ifans — probably still best known as Hugh Grant’s peculiar roommate in Notting Hill — got himself a big, juicy whopper of a leading role. Unfortunately, this isn’t it. Mr. Nice, based on the true story of Welsh drug dealer and jack of many trades Howard Marks, starts out relatively strong, even carrying the absurdity of Ifans playing a high schooler. Continue reading →

SXSW Music: Animal Farm

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Portland’s Animal Farm played an afternoon show — one of several performances they had over the week — at the Texas Rockfest, a free event set up in a parking lot just off the main drag. It was a well run —  two stages meant there was very little downtime between bands — if slightly odd space, home also to a handful of seemingly miscellaneous booths (one of which boasted a giant banner reading I [HEART] VAGINA). Continue reading →

SXSW Film: ‘Tucker and Dale vs. Evil’

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Alan Tudyk and Taylor Labine in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil Winner, SXSW Midnighters Audience Award Eli Craig’s feature debut, which showed in perfectly appropriate midnight screenings at SXSW, is a fairly low-budget hillbilly slasher comedy packed with almost gentle send-ups of horror clichés. I loved it a little bit. Maybe more than a little bit. Perhaps you want to know a little more than that. Continue reading →

SXSW Film: ‘Some Days Are Better Than Others’

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Matt McCormick’s first feature-length film is a pensive character piece with a perfectly Portland heart — something that’s easy to say and harder to explain. Some Days Are Better Than Others is a three-pronged, subtle narrative about disconnection, loneliness and slow, quiet change; the SXSW film booklet says it “asks why the good times slip by so fast while the hard times always seem so sticky.” Continue reading →

SXSW Music: Timing is Everything

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I was on my way somewhere else when I stopped short in front of a bar on Red River. There was something awfully familiar about the sound issuing from the doors, though it seemed unnatural to hear such a song in daylight. It was music for midnights, at the very earliest. But I had to know. So I stepped inside, and lo and behold, it was indeed Eugene’s own macabre psychobilly punks The Sawyer Family. Continue reading →