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If a group makes it to the 25-year mark they must be doing something right, but with Donna the Buffalo you can argue that they are doing a lot of things right. Between having two harmonious and charismatic lead writers and singers — Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear — a way of writing songs that is simultaneously personal and universal and a knack for combining various elements of the roots music world together, this group is consistently engaging. Continue reading
Hear ye! Hear ye! Get thee to Lane County Fair. EW’s 16 Next Big Thing semi-finalists will be competing at the Community Stage. Continue reading
Hit up the Whit for Last Friday Artwalk. Catch the impressionist studies of Lester Maurer at Sam Bond’s, the glass “goddess” sculptures (and glass demos) of Jessica Boggs at Cornerstone Glass and the starry, starry night skies of local painter Amber Allen at Ninkasi. Curtains Up! The Very Little Theatre closes its 84th season with the July 26 opening of The Cripple of Inishmaan, which explores what happens to small-island life off the coast of Ireland when Hollywood comes knocking. Continue reading
Graphic the Valley (Tyrus Books, 271 pages. $16.95), a first novel by South Eugene High School teacher Peter Brown Hoffmeister, is an ambitious and complicated read. The book draws together rock climbing, an attempt to correct the wrongs done to Native American history in Yosemite National Park, a Samson and Delilah tale, eco-sabotage and the tragedy of what man does to nature. Continue reading
“ … The motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil. It’s hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know.” — Marlon Brando, Oscar speech, 1973 Continue reading
When Pacific Rim’s end credits rolled, a friend turned to me and said, “Now I kind of want to watch that Hugh Jackman ‘rock ’em, sock ’em’ robots movie.” Such is the effectiveness of Guillermo del Toro’s deliciously oversized robots vs. monsters movie: It’ll make you want more fighting robots, even of the sub-par kind. Continue reading
There was a time when the thump thump thump of electronic dance music was confined to abandoned warehouses and private basements or tucked away deep in the Willamette Valley’s forests and mountains. Jordan Cogburn likens finding a rave in the ’90s to a scavenger hunt. Step one: Find the party’s flyer (through a friend or at a record store). Step two: Call the number. Continue reading
Don’t miss: The Exiled In Eugene Future Musicians Concert Series (7/20, Luckey’s), the frenetic, high-stepping punk grass of Water Tower (7/20, Sam Bond’s), the incredibly uplifting grooves of local band Kokobola (7/21, Cozmic) and a free concert by Americana crooner Rebekah Pulley (7/23, Axe & Fiddle). Break out those legwarmers because The Davis Restaurant & Bar takes over ’80s night 10 pm Thursday, July 18, after the closure of John Henry’s. Continue reading
On July 6, the Oregon Bach Festival chorus sang a sweet surprise 80th birthday gift for retiring founding music director Helmuth Rilling — an “Alleluia” commissioned from the great contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan, who’s working on a big new commission for the 2016 festival. It’s a treat to see the OBF returning to sparking the creation of new music, as it did for a while every other year, resulting in major works by Arvo Pärt, Osvaldo Golijov and other composers. Continue reading
Most ’90s alternative bands have long since disappeared — be it from lack of interest, internal discord, deaths or other unforeseen circumstances — but Collective Soul is one of the few who have continued on in spite of such troubles. Lineup changes have occurred, they’re no longer a chart-topping member of Atlantic Records and it seems like eons ago that they achieved the distinction of producing more No. 1 rock radio hits than any other band in the post-grunge era, but they are definitely alive and kicking. Continue reading