Eugene Weekly

Indie-soul outfit My Brothers and I is making big noises up north, recently signing to Portland’s Expunged Records — a label with a long history of working with critical darlings like Blind Pilot.  Label founder Anthony McNamer says he knew he wanted to work with My Brother and I after seeing footage of the band performing live. “They have those harmonies that you only get from siblings,” McNamer says via press release. The five-piece band features three brothers and two childhood friends.  Continue reading →

Daniel Blue — who once made love in the bathroom at Eugene’s Ninkasi Brewery — grew up in a highly religious family where he wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music. Now, he’s the frontman of Motopony, the Seattle sextet that fuses Northwest indie folk with the current electronic craze.  Continue reading →

Columbus, Ohio-based emcee Blueprint, aka Albert Shepard, doesn’t pull any punches. Never the type to pepper an album with radio-ready “bangers,” Shepard is an artist who creates for himself. His lyrics are incredibly personal and real-to-life, sometimes isolating the casual listener because, let’s face it, most of us go to great lengths to avoid truly knowing ourselves. Not Shepard. Soul-baring is an essential part of the package.  Continue reading →

Lauded purveyors of fierce and rebellious street punk, London’s U.K. Subs have released 24 albums and toured extensively over the past 40 years, showing no signs of slowing down, let alone stopping. Balancing just enough rough and tumble energy with choruses you want to shout along to and the occasional blistering solo, the Subs have crafted their own unique (but now thoroughly imitated) blend of punk, hardcore and “Oi!” — a subgenre of ’70s punk rock from the U.K.  Continue reading →

Olympia-based, Southern California-born musician Elizabeth le Fey (aka Globelamp) loves The Beatles.  “They have a lot of different parts in the music, like ‘A Day in the Life,’” le Fey tells EW. “I love that about The Beatles. It’s like you’re on a roller coaster.”  Le Fey says The Beatles’ willingness to expand the traditional pop song formula is an influence on her sound, which she calls psychedelic folk. Continue reading →

San Diego indie rockers The Donkeys are tie-dying their T-shirts. “It just seemed like a good idea,” band member Timothy DeNardo tells EW.  DeNardo says there’s a hippie vibe to their upcoming West Coast tour, which stops in Eugene for a free show June 19 in the Hi-Fi Music Hall lounge.  “We’re playing a couple festivals and a show on the solstice,” DeNardo says, so tie-dye band T-shirts seem appropriate. Continue reading →

Long before Mad Men there was How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, the 1961 musical that satirized American corporate culture via humor rather than pathos. Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning spoof chronicles the classic rags-to-riches story of a window washer who rises to the executive suite, providing plentiful opportunity for skewering the toadying, manipulative, deceptive behavior demanded by the system of ambitious greasy pole-climbers.  Continue reading →

California’s Dr. Know are no strangers to change. The early years of these godfathers of “nardcore” were filled with fights, going through no less than eight vocalists and some inarguably excellent punk rock. Their 1983 compilations We Got Power, Party Or Go Home and It Came From Slimy Valley are championed as classics, but also showcase a band riddled by constant change.  Continue reading →

Hailing from Chico, California, Cold Blue Mountain combines the simple, riff-driven approach of moderately paced doom, the frenetic energy of hardcore and the melodic elements of ’90s alternative rock to craft a highly accessible, unique brand of metal all its own.  Continue reading →