The Power of Pop

Huey Lewis and the News

I was pulling the Sam Spade act (à la The Maltese Falcon) last week, hovering over a slider and fries at the bowling alley up Hwy. 99 and watching some good-looking kids roll the rock. The place was damn near empty; just me, the kids and the gal at the counter spraying high-grade disinfectant into the guts of the smooth communal shoes.  Continue reading 

Bleeding of the Subconscious

Helio Sequence

“This sounds really young, it sounds like early Helio Sequence,” says Brandon Summers, the band’s singer and guitarist, of the new record. “To me, it feels like a 90-degree sunny day in Portland.” The Portland-based alt-rock duo is back on stage for a West Coast summer tour, during which the band is unveiling tracks from the new album, due out in early 2015. EW caught up with Helio Sequence two days after they finished recording.  Continue reading 

Bringing Art Back

A student mural at Oaklea Middle School created with the help of Lane Arts Council’s artist residency program

Walking through the dark empty corridors of Oaklea Middle School on a muggy August day, Principal Brian Young opens a door and flicks on the light. The classroom that comes into focus is filled with tables, colorful cabinets and student artwork tacked to the walls — all covered in the patina of art projects lingering from yesteryear. “It’s kind of sad coming in here knowing,” Young pauses. “I think it’s probably been seven to 10 years since Oaklea had an actual art elective as a class.” Continue reading 

Arts Hound

We are excited to announce the winners of our inaugural ArtsHound on Broadway EW distribution box art contest: (Clockwise) Cortney Grim (1), Samuel Clatterbuck (2), Bayne Gardner (3), Elizabeth Blue Currier (4) and Anna Helena Jackson (5). Here’s a sneak peek of the winning designs, but to see the boxes in all their glory come out for the guided First Friday ArtWalk tour Sept. 5 when the artists will introduce their work on boxes scattered around downtown.  Continue reading 

Behind Shelby Earl’s surprising “Swift Arrows” music video

Seattle singer-songwriter and rising star Shelby Earl will be hitting up Sam Bond’s Sunday night, Aug.17 (see “Burn Boats, Not Bridges” in the Aug. 14 issue of Eugene Weekly). While catching up with Earl over the phone last week, I had to ask her about the music video (posted below) for her hit song “Swift Arrows,” a video that is at once a hilarious, heartbreaking and disturbing David Lynchian vignette of a couple’s anniversary gone awry. Continue reading