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Music news & notes from down in the Willamette valley. Attention all hep cats! Bebop your way to The Jazz Station ’round 7:30 pm Thursday, Sept. 5, for Smokey Beau’s Café. The audience can pick hot tunes from a menu of vintage swing and pianist Smokey Beau Belanksy, vocalist Dona Clark, bassist Eric Richardson, drummer Javier Gonzalez and sax man Fred Wesley will bring them to life. Zoot suits and Lindy Hop dresses encouraged. Continue reading
There came a time late last decade where indie folk reigned supreme. Singer-songwriters flew out of the woodwork like gnats come to feast on the blood of a millennial Americana revival. But as that fad moved aside and the whole “let’s relive the ’80s for no fucking reason” thing came about, it grew increasingly difficult to find indie folk with the same energetic flair. Continue reading
Thao Nguyen wants to challenge the notion that people in prison are monsters. Continue reading
As summer drags doggedly on toward fall, it’s time to get those last lazy rays of sunlight under our skin. During this first week of September, the perfect soundtrack for such an affair will hit town. Ernest Greene, the one-man chillwave extraordinaire behind Washed Out, assumed his persona after failing to become a librarian. That aside, he seems better placed as a musician. There’s a drowsy formula to his music that few have dared to exploit, but most are ready to swallow. It’s soporific electronica with wide, relaxed vocals over echoing skeins of drone. Continue reading
Music nerds of Eugene unite! For all of you who raid House of Records looking for deleted Smiths singles and original (not rereleased) Frank Zappa albums, who own vinyl, cassette, CD and 8-track copies of the same album and especially for those who caught the High Fidelity reference, the time has come to commence under the roof of the Analog Resurgence Tour at Luckey’s on Thursday, Sept. 5. Running the show are two longtime members of underground DIY music culture, Russ Forster and Skizz Cyzyk. Continue reading
Hieroglyphics Blue Scholars Continue reading
Souls of Mischief Minus the Bear Aesop Rock Continue reading
FRIDAY: Afroman was gonna show up on time, but then he got … Continue reading
Love or hate the idea of Emerald Meadows as a thumping festival hotspot pulsing with thousands of gyrating bodies, there is one thing no one can deny: Eugene has never seen a music spectacle like Kaleidoscope Music Festival (Aug. 23-25) before. EW stared down the barrel of that neon prismatic lens and came out the other end. This is what we saw. Continue reading
Ra Ra Riot’s 2010 release, The Orchard, begins with a solemn and lush track of the same name that’s heavy on strings and atmosphere supplied in part by now-departed cellist Alexandra Lawn. “Dance With Me” kicks off 2013’s Beta Love very differently. And the song title pretty much says it all. The New York-based Ra Ra Riot — formerly known for classical-leaning string arrangements and bookish, collegiate indie rock — has put on its dancing shoes. Continue reading