Old and New Classical
Despite the name, classical music can be old and new, and there’s some of both coming to town this month. Continue reading
Arts: Page 237
Painting Pop In Psychedelic Colors
In an alternate universe, the album Painting With, which dropped in February, might have been Animal Collective’s pop breakthrough. But because the world is backwards and topsy-turvy, the album that broke through was 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, a synth-slathered fantasia that sounds like harsh noise next to Painting With. Before it was released, nobody expected the Baltimore psych-pop band would ever play the actual Merriweather Post Pavilion, a Maryland mega-venue that typically hosts bands like Green Day and The Who. Continue reading
Seeing-eye Dogs
A curious love triangle brings out sibling rivalry in the romantic comedy My Blind Brother
Of all the literary devices used to grant a physical wallop to a character’s metaphysical situation, I suppose making a pathological narcissist blind isn’t the worst. I mean, it ain’t Ahab’s missing leg or the impotence of Jake Barnes, but what the hell? It works, in a slight to middling way. Continue reading
Brooklyn Soul Party
Brooklyn psych-soul outfit Evolfo
For Rafferty Swink of Brooklyn psych-soul outfit Evolfo, his band’s upcoming show at Hi-Fi Music Hall in Eugene is a homecoming of sorts. “I grew up in Ashland,” Swink explains to EW. “Oregon is my home.” Continue reading
Ticket to Ride
Ron Howard’s documentary Eight Days a Week takes an adequate look the touring years of the Beatles
Ron Howard has said that he hoped to make Eight Days a Week both for dedicated Beatles fans and for a younger generation that has little sense of who The Beatles were. I’m not sure where this leaves me, as I’m neither a millennial nor a Beatles diehard, but a person who appreciates a good music documentary. And Eight Days is fine — a solid mix of archival footage, new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, crowd-sourced footage and reminiscences from musicians or now-famous people who once saw The Beatles. Continue reading
ArtsHound
In a state like Oregon, where art classes are absent from a stunning portion of public schools, art nonprofits fill the gaps, tasked with cultivating communities and our youth in culture beyond football season. These art bodies are typically scrappy and chronically underfunded. To survive a decade is commendable. But to endure 40 years? That is nearing immortality. Lane Arts Council, Lane County’s arts nonprofit stalwart seated in Eugene, celebrates its ruby anniversary 6 to 9 pm Friday, Sept. 16, at the International Cafes at Fifth Street Public Market. Continue reading
The Spin
Fall performance gets rolling with Dance in Dialogue’s D.i.D.#10
Fall performance gets rolling with Dance in Dialogue’s D.i.D.#10 6 to 8 pm Sept. 29 at the Friends Meeting House. “Dance in Dialogue inspires the making and discussion of new work to invigorate the contemporary dance culture in Eugene, by providing a forum for artists to present innovative works-in-progress in a process-oriented setting with audience feedback,” D.i.D. co-founder Shannon Mockli says. Check it out. See yourself in sweatpants? There are a number of community auditions and classes on tap: Continue reading
Old Ways, New Sounds
Edna Vazquez
The music of Edna Vazquez can send shivers to your soul. When Vasquez performs, she closes her eyes and each of her facial muscles crinkles with concentration. She whistles and taps on her guitar’s body with an intimate familiarity, and when she opens her mouth to sing or speak, it’s a bellow straight from her heart. “I want to share something with everyone,” she says. “Whatever you do that is in a form to ease our hardcore journeys as humans, bring it out.” Continue reading
Return of the King
After five years in Brooklyn, Eugene-born musician Justin King has come home. “All my oldest friends and family are here,” King explains. “It’s really where my roots are,” he continues. “Brooklyn was getting even more overrun and expensive and crazier and crazier. I wanted to come back and focus on my own music.” Since being back in town, King’s band King Radio has released a four-song EP, Adaline, available now on SoundCloud. Continue reading
New Young Romantics
Sheffield, England’s The Crookes
If you’re anything like me, and I know many of you are, you grew up on a lot of ’80s and ’90s-era British guitar pop. Why? In my case, Brit bands seemed allowed a larger breadth of sensitivity and intelligence than their constantly macho Yankee colleagues. And, of course, there are those accents: romantic, working class, exotic and endlessly cool. Has the sound aged? Certainly. But in the end, haven’t we all? Continue reading