Eugene Weekly

The tunes from the California-based band He’s My Brother She’s My Sister are so sun-drenched and punchy it will make you want to burst out your front door in skivvies, popsicle in hand, and declare to the neighborhood that “Summer is here!” OK, it’s January in Oregon, so put a robe on already, flick on your sun lamp and drop the needle on their 2012 EP Nobody Dances in This Town. But I couldn’t possibly describe their music better than LA Weekly: “Their voices mingle like glamour in the desert,” and “party music for coyotes drunk on champagne.” Who doesn’t want to party Continue reading →

Fans of San Francisco-based folk-rock duo Two Gallants: Be sure you’ve listened to their 2012 album, The Bloom and the Blight, before heading to their Eugene show. In their first album since 2007, the band’s style has changed a lot, to a more rock-heavy style than before — think Two Gallants with a dash of Black Keys. It’s good music, but don’t show up expecting a cookie cutter version of the earlier stuff. Continue reading →

When Carolann Solebello — one of the original members of the Americana trio Red Molly — stepped down in 2010, it was decision time for the other two women. Should they recruit a new member? Continue on as a duo? Call it quits? After some deliberation they decided to bring in a new “Molly,” and as fate would have it, her name is actually Molly. Continue reading →

Fallujah seems to be a band of contradictions. Ask a handful of metal fans about them, and you’ll get no consensus on what type of band Fallujah is. Either you think their genre-blending works, or it muddies disparate sounds that don’t work well together. Continue reading →

Canadian songwriter Rachael Cardiello’s 2011 EP, One for the Wind, is a quiet little affair, featuring the classically trained violist’s expressive voice against sparse string arrangements, waltz time signatures, old world acoustic songwriting and classic cabaret atmosphere — like the song “Mandolin; Broken String,” complete with a charming Kurt Weill-inflected piano melody. Continue reading →

Go to a Casey Neill show and you never know what you might hear. One minute, he’s playing a Celtic-influenced folk song called “Paddy’s Lament;” next, an REM-esque country tune “Brooklyn Bridge;” and then, The Pogues-style punk rocker “Dancing on the Ruins of Multinational Corporations.” Some things remain constant: the influence of traditional music of the British Isles, and a fascination with where classic rock, The Clash and Bruce Springsteen intersect. Continue reading →

The stockings are no longer hung by the chimney with care, Saint Nick has come and gone once again and January has fully set upon us. After hauling the tree to the curb and mentally recapping the last few exhausting weeks, a dose of folk music might be exactly what the doctor ordered. If the doctor was a merrymaking nomad, that is.  Continue reading →

There’s a certain sunny, sensual quality to Compassion Gorilla’s “gypsy fusion” beats that will vanquish the January doldrums and have you sashaying and samba-ing (can I get a one-uh-two, three-uh-four?) around the dance floor in no time. Or in their own words: “Eight pieces of swirling gypsy delight will tickle a giggle from even the grumpy, and catapult audiences into whole-hearted dance entrancement.”  Continue reading →

When Jenny Scheinman draws her bow across her fiddle strings Friday, Jan. 4, she’ll be the least famous member of the trio she’s leading at The Shedd. The other two musicians have graced that stage often as composers/bandleaders themselves. Seattle-based guitar master Bill Frisell remains one of the world’s most venturesome yet listener-friendly musicians, while Louisiana native Brian Blade is one of jazz’s most accomplished and inventive drummers. Continue reading →