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Anyone who has dealt up close and personal with mental illness will tell you it can be an unmitigated hell — a black hole that devours solutions faster than they can be hatched. Families wrecked by schizophrenia and manic depression discover, all too quickly, that frustrated applications of love and discipline and pills and despair tend to come up empty in the face of a condition that, by its very definition, defies all reason. Continue reading
Another year, another hot (OK, really hot) Pickathon. This fest continues to be a top EW pick for its perpetually diverse lineup, from old-timey jams to metal. How many chances are you going to get to see Leon Bridges perform in a barn? ’Nuff said. 1. Kamasi Washington photo by Todd Cooper Continue reading
The Soromundi Lesbian Chorus of Eugene had its humble origins in the home of Eugene native Karm Hagedorn and her partner, Sheryl Bernheine. “We just wanted to sing with some folks,” Hagedorn says, recalling that, at first, the casual choir was just “six of us in our living room and, amazingly, it went from there.” Continue reading
After establishing a local following at University of Oregon house shows and small venues, Eugene indie-pop trio Pluto the Planet decided to take the summer off to regroup and plan their next steps. “We wanted to scale back on shows,” guitarist Cameron Lister tells EW. “We’ve played so many shows in the past few months, we didn’t want to saturate the community.” On Aug. 14, Pluto the Planet returns playing the In the Valley Below (see “New Rock Series” this issue) after-show in Hi-Fi Music Hall’s Encore Lounge. Continue reading
At 24, Shane Koyczan quit his job to become a spoken-word artist full time. He had discovered his voice. And not just any voice, but a voice people stop and listen to. Koyczan moves through line by line, transitioning like the ocean, with soft articulation and a powerful yet affable tone, speaking about the world and its shortcomings. Continue reading
Have your playlists gone stale? Do tasty new tunes sound tantalizing? If so, check out “You Saw Them First,” a three-day, all-ages concert series presented by Eugene radio station KNRQ and Hi-Fi Music Hall. The event features three of modern rock’s hottest acts: Joywave, In The Valley Below and X Ambassadors. Continue reading
The Bangles called Monday “Manic” and Morrissey called Sunday “silent and grey.” Which day of the week do San Diego’s power-punk duo Gloomsday find the gloomiest? “Every day so far is Gloomsday,” Lori Sokolowski, Gloomsday drummer and back-up vocalist, tells EW. She concedes that her gloomiest day is “Sunday night when the fun’s over and you have to go back to real life.” The San Diego duo returns to Eugene, playing its brand of hard-hitting, punk-inspired indie rock. Continue reading
Set in 1928 Arizona, The Shedd’s revival of Whoopee! is populated by rootin’ tootin’ cowboys, rich tourists and the occasional hypochondriac. Based on the 1923 play The Nervous Wreck, this goofball musical comedy by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson was made famous by both the Ziegfield Broadway production of 1928 and the 1930 Eddie Cantor film. In the vaudeville era, shows like Whoopee! cobbled together already popular tunes with a loose plot, peppering zany narratives with plenty of jazz standards and daffy jokes. And it’s still a winning combination. Continue reading
VLT casts Anne of the Thousand Days as a post-apocalyptic feminist tale of Tudor intrigue William Faulkner once suggested in an interview that the essential ingredients of any good drama are family, money and murder. This might help explain our ongoing obsession with the House of Tudor, those ingrown English monarchs whose rule included ample instances of greed, intrigue, betrayal and bloody battles for the rights of primogeniture. Continue reading
Lansing, Michigan rock trio The Plurals are all about the power of three. The odd number keeps things perfectly off balance, conveying the messy electricity of lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll, never enough and never too much — a vibe not unlike Portland’s own power-punk trio The Thermals. Continue reading