Eugene Weekly

New York City-based experimental duo Blues Control is made up of Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho. Cho is a classically trained pianist. Waterhouse, a self-taught musician, started playing guitar and keyboards, and he began experimenting with home recording in high school. As a teen, he was a fan of Miles Davis’ electric era and free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman. After attending college in New York City, Waterhouse says, “I had access to a lot of different kinds of music.” He played in indie rock bands, dabbled in the city’s noise-art scene and got into hip hop. Continue reading →

From downtown New York avant jazzer in the ’80s through more straight-ahead jazz after moving to Seattle to his abstract string quartet (originally part of a multimedia project) to his more recent country-, folk-, and rock-tinged work, protean guitar master Bill Frisell manages to explore new territory while maintaining an instantly recognizable artistic voice throughout his many musical meanderings. Fortunately, The Shedd has made it easy to trace Frisell’s always intriguing musical journeys by bringing him here often, and Friday Nov. Continue reading →

If you didn’t know Quinn Deveaux was from San Francisco (which he is), you might guess the retro-flavored songwriter hailed from The Big Easy. Track one off Late Night Drive — the first of two records the popular Bay Area musician is releasing this November — is “Bff,” a New Orleans-style piano tune recalling the legendary musician Allen Toussaint’s slow-rollin’ and gin-soaked simplicity.  Continue reading →

It’s been three years since local singer-songwriter Anna Gilbert was dubbed Eugene Weekly’s Next Big Thing, and she has been busy. Since then, she has released an acoustic-themed holiday release (2011’s Christmas), spent time writing country songs for other artists and now she is back with a new album, The Able Heart, which was released Nov. 5. According to Gilbert, it was time for a shift in her songwriting priorities. Continue reading →

Stalwart Eugene live act Medium Troy has been undergoing some changes. “We used to be a big band, sometimes as many as 11 people on stage,” says JoJo Ferreira. JoJo and his brother, Jesse Ferreira, form the core of the group. “We had tours where half the band would bail and we’d be stuck without a drummer playing four-hour sets at a taco bar in Medford.” Jo Jo Ferreira continues, “We’d just drink a whole keg on stage and pretend like we didn’t suck. It was a really fun shit show.”  Continue reading →

As Evan Way, the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland-based rock band the Parson Red Heads, can attest, every experience can be a learning experience. “With our previous record [2011’s Yearling] we spent maybe two years working on it, and when it takes that long to finish making an album, the one thing you want to do is not spend even close to that amount of time making an album ever again,” Way says with a laugh. Continue reading →

In the post-Halloween afterglow, there is a very good reason to catch frenetic “soul and roll” band The Pimps of Joytime: Bandmember Mayteana Morales played “Gaby” on PBS’ Ghostwriter. Now one of the Joytime’s lead vocalists, Morales helps create the band’s tight, punchy, soulful sound. Continue reading →