Heavy Lightness

He Whose Ox is Gored

He Whose Ox is Gored

When your band is named He Whose Ox is Gored, people are going to have preconceived notions about what you sound like. “We started having that post-hardcore influence, a little bit of doom,” guitarist Brian McLelland tells EW. The up-and-coming Seattle quartet is touring in support of its latest release The Camel, The Lion, The Child, out now on Bleeding Light Records. But McLelland says it would be wrong, despite HWOIG’s epically dark name, to pigeonhole them as a metal band.  Continue reading 

Dooney & Bourke drenches itself in green and yellow

Student debt? Nah. Rising cost of tuition? Nope. Who can think about that when you’ve got yellow O’s in your eyes? Now, you can put your student loan dollars toward Dooney & Bourke’s (ironically named) $218 NCAA Oregon Hobo bag or the $128 NCAA Oregon Continental Clutch. In fact, when those student loan bills come due, you can store them chicly in the $248 NCAA Oregon Zip Zip Satchel. Continue reading 

Just a Regular Guy

There was a time, not all that long ago, when writers could become cultural icons in this society — endangered emissaries who, like canaries in a coal mine, sniff out the poison seeping from the rank spigots of our popular culture. The late, great David Foster Wallace was such an author. Wallace’s prose, a kind of rococo thicket that belied deep veins of compassion and understanding, acted as a funhouse mirror reflecting back our malaise in a discursive, catch-all style that was frustrating, assaultive, revelatory and liberating, often all at once. Continue reading 

Metallic Heart

Stitched Up Heart

Stitched Up Heart

Los Angeles hard-rock act Stitched Up Heart has a unique approach to self-promotion: They make music and share it live. With a handful of festivals and a few hundred shows under their belts since their 2010 inception, the band members shirk online promotion and big-hype tours in lieu of a simple work ethic and nose-to-grindstone approach.  Continue reading 

The Sky’s the Limit

This Patch of Sky puts Eugene on the post-rock map

This Patch of Sky

The members of Eugene post-rock band This Patch of Sky are just a bunch of romantics. “For a bunch of tattooed, bearded guys, we make pretty music,” guitarist Joshua Carlton jokes with EW. The band returns to the stage Aug. 22 at WOW Hall, alongside Hyding Jekyll, Children and Seattle’s Rishloo. But the reach of This Patch of Sky goes far beyond our fair valley; after picking up New York-based management, the band has scored several high profile licensing opportunities for its brand of post-rock. Continue reading 

And Metal for All

Eugene Metal Celebration creates a niche for local and regional metal music

Fallen Theory

Five years ago Pantheon frontman Skyeler Williams saw an opportunity where others might have merely seen cause for complaint. He perceived what he calls “a consistent exclusion of heavy music at community events.” Luckily for Eugene’s metal scene, the hardcore vocalist is not the type to take things lying down. As the music booker and sound engineer at downtown bar The Black Forest, Williams decided to take advantage of the tools available to him and set out to change things.  Continue reading 

Brainy Mischief

Kimya Dawson

Kimya Dawson

In 2008, songwriter Kimya Dawson’s caustic naiveté perfectly captured the precocious character Juno from the popular film of the same name.  Dawson got her start alongside Adam Green in New York “anti-folk” duo Moldy Peaches. Together they made acoustic music that winked at folk and psychedelic idioms alongside sometimes surreal and sometimes hyper-real lyrics.  Continue reading 

A Stitch in Time

Pioneer women overcome obstacles in Cottage Theatre’s musical Quilters

The cast of Cottage Theatre’s quilters

From the moment you take your seat at Cottage Theatre, waiting for the lights to dim, Quilters transports you into a quaint, home-lovin’ kind of feeling. Opening with old-time music with a heck of a lotta twang, the women of the musical burst in running and laughing — yee-haws and all — giving you a slight pause to ask: “What have I gotten myself into?”  Continue reading 

Art Under the Sun

A tale of two cities creating art under a blazing hot sun

Last weekend was a tale of two cities creating art under a blazing hot sun. On Saturday, Aug. 15, the Eugene-Springfield Art Project and the city of Springfield hosted the second annual Art & ChalkFest. More than 50 artists signed up, including first-place winner Brandi York, a Washington artist who chalked up re-creations of Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha and went home with $600 (and likely a sunburn). In Eugene, Watershed Arts closed out the weekend Sunday, Aug. Continue reading 

Doctor Who Meets Sherlock Holmes: Local YA Author to Speak in Corvallis

It's 1892 and Abigail Rook is looking for a job in New Fiddleham, New England. No sooner has she gotten off the ship she took from Europe than she meets the peculiar detective R.F. Jackaby. He uses Sherlockian deduction mixed with some Harry Potteresque crytozoological beings to determine Abigail has recently been in Eastern Europe. Not that long after their chance encounter, the intrepid Abigail enters into his employ and meets the supernatural residents of his home. Continue reading