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In their 15-year career, the five members of Blitzen Trapper have traversed wide musical landscapes, from the layered, progressive rock of small dive bars to the rustic alt country of Appalachia. Even within individual albums, Trapper is known for a range of sound that varies dramatically from song to song. Continue reading
Much of Oregon’s music is made by immigrants from back East, but a few native Oregonian musicians have reversed the process, going on to glory far from their native Northwest. Case in point: flutist Elizabeth Rowe, the Eugene native and South Eugene grad who now holds down the principal flute position with the Boston Symphony. She returns to her hometown to lead workshops and master classes at the UO, and joins the Oregon Mozart Players for a concert at 7:30 pm Saturday, Nov. 7, at Beall Concert Hall. Continue reading
After a day or so of fighting our way through dropped calls and shitty cell reception, I get hold of Moon Hooch saxophonist Mike Wilbur somewhere in the middle of Idaho. He and his bandmates — saxophonist Wenzl McGowen and drummer James Muschler — are in the homestretch of their West Coast tour, which eventually will take them through Eugene. Wilbur is also audibly sick, which doesn’t seem to be getting him down in the slightest. Continue reading
Music unscrews the cranium, peers inside, pokes and prods, finding all the nooks and crannies contained within: excitement, fear, disappointment, nostalgia and, as singer-songwriter Erin McKeown (pictured) says, empathy. “The very act of singing opens up a part of our brain that can’t be reached any other way,” McKeown tells EW, “and it’s the part that contains our deepest empathy and our memory.” Continue reading
Father John Misty makes more sense in Los Angeles. The splattering of ego in the crowd, the expensive male perfume and the perfectly trimmed beards … Continue reading
Silaluk, the debut full-length album from Richmond, Virginia post-punk revivalists Shadow Age, is out now on 6131 Records. The album is garnering critical acclaim among a movement of new bands revisiting the classic post-punk sound. “Musically I was really inspired by most of the older UK post-punk bands from the early ’80s,” vocalist and guitarist Aaron Tyree says. “Like The Chameleons, The Cure, Death Cult, Danse Society.” Continue reading
Critically acclaimed soul and R&B act The Internet features Syd the Kyd (Sydney Bennet) and Matt Martia, alumni of controversial and groundbreaking hip-hop collective Odd Future. The Internet’s 2015 release Ego Death is out now on Odd Future’s record label. The record frequently gets lumped in with an avant-garde or alternative soul scene alongside artists like Janelle Monáe. In fact, Monáe makes a guest appearance on Ego Death’s “Gabby.” Continue reading
After 10 years of indie Americana marked by the slow-burning sound of violin, cello, guitar and melancholic vocals, Justin Ringle, frontman for Horse Feathers, thought he was finished with sad songs, and therefore done with his career. He didn’t pick up his guitar for months. But instead of finality, Ringle chose revision, replacing strings with drums on the band’s recent album, So It Is with Us, and, in that pivot, encouraging fans to want what they want for themselves: more joy and more fun. Continue reading
If you had to pick a perfect opera for Halloween, Benjamin Britten’s 1954 The Turn of the Screw might be it. There’s definitely a haunted house, but in librettist Myfanwy Piper’s adaptation, as in Henry James’s 1898 novella, mastery lies in mystery. What really happened at scary Bly House? Ghosts? A more mundane human-perpetrated evil? Mere insanity? Continue reading
Formed in the UO dorms in 1990, the Sugar Beets ought to hold the all-time record for Band Fortitude: “A quarter-century of sustaining anything in this crazy world is a rarity,” says Marty Chilla, acoustic rhythm guitarist and Beets founding member. “It feels like destiny sometimes, and just plain persistence and work at other times. The Sugar Beets have just kept going step by step, song by song, show by show, and have grown up in front of each other and our audience.” Eight years ago, the band introduced the “baby” of the group — jazz vocalist Halie Loren. Continue reading