Spring blasts off with Quixotic Fusion’s Gravity of Center tour

The cast of Eugene Ballet Company’s Tommy.

Spring blasts off with Quixotic Fusion’s Gravity of Center tour, whose performance culminates the city of Eugene’s two-day (sub)Urban Projections digital art and media festival. Hailing from Kansas City, the brainchild of percussionist and artist Anthony Magliano and theatrical designer Mica Thomas (who studied at Southern Oregon University in Ashland), Quixotic combines movement, music, digital art and aerial athleticism to create cutting-edge new work. Continue reading 

The Midas Touch

The Portland-based band Goldfoot features some faces familiar to Eugene audiences: Joe McClain, Elijah Medina and Trevor Forbess, formerly of Eugene’s funk-rock group Volifonix, who took home Eugene Weekly’s Next Big Thing crown in 2012. Goldfoot, which also includes Ruth Heald and Anthony Messano, is celebrating the release of its inaugural three-song EP, On The Floor. Fans of Volifonix may also find Goldfoot’s sound familiar.  Continue reading 

Truth or Treasure

Kumiko is as wide-eyed and offbeat a beautiful loner as there ever was.  Strip away the playful tenderness and uplifting score of the French film Amélie, and it has much in common with Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, the latest work by American actor and director David Zellner, known for his indie flicks Goliath and Kid-Thing. Continue reading 

Famous Last Words

Local rapper Sam Wartenbee reflects on his label’s 10th anniversary with a new book and album

Sammy Warm Hands

“People won’t commit to your music if you don’t commit to it first,” says Sam Wartenbee, Eugene rapper and Crushkill Recordings artist. If you’ve paid attention to local music for any length of time, chances are you recognize Wartenbee (aka Sammy Warm Hands), whether from hardcore punk band This Day’s End or local hip-hop act The ILLusionists.  Ten years ago, Wartenbee started his own recording studio and record label, Take 92 Music.  Continue reading 

Sound Garden

Marie Davidson

Marie Davidson

With a gender twist on the Adam and Eve story, Montreal’s experimental techno musician Marie Davidson offers us the apple of temptation.  This time, the apple is minimalist electronic beats and soundscapes that evoke danger, sexuality and darkness. And, frequently, her sound has an undeniably killer groove — like on the track “Excès de Vitesse” from Davidson’s upcoming release Un Autre Voyage (out April 15 on Holodeck Records). Continue reading 

Viva la Diva

Damsels, Divas & Dames — one of Eugene’s biggest annual LGBTQ events — celebrates its sweet 16

Bill Sullivan as daphne storm

In the early ’90s, drag star RuPaul was dazzling the club scenes in Atlanta and New York City and Jennie Livingston released her award-winning documentary Paris Is Burning, which captured the culture of New York drag balls.  In Eugene, the first Damsels, Divas & Dames drag show was performed at the Hult in 1992. In 2000, Imperial Sovereign Court of the Emerald Empire — one of Eugene’s oldest LGBTQ organizations — revived the show and it has continued to be an annual event benefitting HIV Alliance.  Continue reading 

The Dark and Light Ages

Ages and Ages

Ages and Ages

At first listen, Portland’s Ages and Ages seem to provide the perfect indie-pop soundtrack to a lazy afternoon spent in careless sun-soaked abandon. But, an underlying darkness looms. Much like the joyous gloom-tinged rock of Denmark’s Alcoholic Faith Mission, frontman Tim Perry and company craft songs that are harmonious, lush and joyous while heavily colored with angst, strife and the difficulty of remaining a decent human being. This is particularly so on their 2014 sophomore release, Divisionary.  Continue reading