Eugene Weekly

There’s no one element that stands out in “Opaque.” Smoke Season’s most popular single from 2014’s Hot Coals Cold Souls starts unassumingly, with guitarist Jason Rosen’s reverb-drenched Gibson SG carefully plucking out a G chord. Singer and keyboardist Gabrielle Wortman then moves into the mix, showing off her range with a few octave leaps before launching into the sort of arms-wide-open chorus that U2 built stadium tours around.  Continue reading →

The Conjugal Visitors’ M.D. “Maz” Elsworth is from Kentucky — the Bluegrass State. He says he considers his Eugene band to be the “Cascadian” equivalent to the Appalachian sound he grew up around. “The epitome of Cascadian, whiskey-land jazz,” Elsworth tells EW, describing his band’s old-timey music, “Cascadian party music.”  Continue reading →

The Eugene Symphony Orchestra continues with the most forward-looking season of any Oregon orchestra in memory this Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Hult Center, with a diverse all-American program that includes the world premiere of Puerto Rican-American composer Roberto Sierra’s Loiza, based on his native country’s famous bomba dance rhythm.  Continue reading →

What makes for a quintessentially L.A. band? History tells us the answer is always in flux, from the pristine sun-and-surf pop of the Beach Boys to the hairspray and whiskey-fueled sleaziness of Guns n’ Roses and the G-funk-laced bangers of Dr. Dre and Snoop.  As for the present, you could make a case for Lana Del Rey’s Hollywood torch singing or Kendrick Lamar’s Compton revivalism, but I’d like to submit for consideration the quartet Parade of Lights.  Continue reading →

The world is full of Christian bands you didn’t know were Christian: U2, Kings of Leon, Belle & Sebastian and now … drumroll … Cold War Kids! Not that you couldn’t have guessed it — there’s something about that stomp-clap indie-soul-folk thing (think Mumford & Sons) that could easily give the band away, despite its lack of lyrical Jesus references. Continue reading →

Boston duo Tall Heights is comprised of childhood friends Tim Harrington and Paul Wright. The pair got their start as street performers.  “We were living on what we made out on the street,” Harrington tells EW. He says that playing music on street corners gave Wright and himself a unique opportunity to hone Tall Heights’ sound.  “It was four to six hours a day of performing,” Harrington continues, adding that intensive practice helped the musicians gel creatively.  Continue reading →

Gill Landry of Nashville-based alt-country string group Old Crow Medicine Show says his solo work sounds nothing like his well-known band. “It’s more personal,” Landry tells EW. “It’s more songwriting in the vein of a Townes Van Zandt vibe — not so country, two different things really.” Landry is touring in support of his self-titled 2015 release, out now on ATO Records. Continue reading →

Most touring chamber-music ensembles stick closely to the tried (or is that tired?) and true 19th- and early 20th-century Central European repertoire. Not the Dalí Quartet. Starting out in Venezuela’s famous El Sistema music training program, which also produced L.A. Philharmonic music director Gustavo “The Dude” Dudamel, the members of Dalí Quartet went on to study at major American conservatories.  Continue reading →