We've got issues.
If you’ve ever uttered the words “turn that noise off,” go ahead and stop reading now. If you have any doubt about whether or not you like metal music (and I’m not talking about your older brother Todd’s Van Halen records), and if you don’t align yourself with the hardest of hardcore metal heads — there’s nothing for you here, just move along. OK, am I alone with the true thrashers now? Good. Continue reading
The tunes from the California-based band He’s My Brother She’s My Sister are so sun-drenched and punchy it will make you want to burst out your front door in skivvies, popsicle in hand, and declare to the neighborhood that “Summer is here!” OK, it’s January in Oregon, so put a robe on already, flick on your sun lamp and drop the needle on their 2012 EP Nobody Dances in This Town. But I couldn’t possibly describe their music better than LA Weekly: “Their voices mingle like glamour in the desert,” and “party music for coyotes drunk on champagne.” Who doesn’t want to party Continue reading
Fans of San Francisco-based folk-rock duo Two Gallants: Be sure you’ve listened to their 2012 album, The Bloom and the Blight, before heading to their Eugene show. In their first album since 2007, the band’s style has changed a lot, to a more rock-heavy style than before — think Two Gallants with a dash of Black Keys. It’s good music, but don’t show up expecting a cookie cutter version of the earlier stuff. Continue reading
Got a case of the post-holiday blues? Then get yourself out of your undecorated home and into a theater. Playing Saturday are two one-night-only events that I’m hard-pressed to choose between. Continue reading
Fantastic characters, high drama, a peppering of unexpected jokes — the VLT production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure has it all, almost. Continue reading
More than 130 years after Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov, UO professor and UNESCO chair Steven Shankman explored the meaning of the Russian novelist’s text within the walls of Salem’s Oregon State Penitentiary. Shankman describes it as “one of the extraordinary moments in class,” or the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, in which Shankman brought students from the UO to discuss literature and ethics with Salem inmates. One passage in particular left a lasting impression on the students: Continue reading
If the reach of your Robin Williams fandom extends no farther than Mrs. Doubtfire, then sorry to say it, but shame on you. While the old-school comic-turned-actor has made a lucrative career out of his (often family-friendly) portrayals on the silver screen, it should never be forgotten that his stand-up shows are iconic. Dancing from voice to absurd voice, bit to feverish bit, alcoholic yearning to reformed learning, Williams’ stand-up is near unmatched. Continue reading
Within a minute of Zero Dark Thirty, I was in tears. Director Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t pull punches, and the film’s dark-screen open is no exception: It leaves the images to your imagination as the audio gives you scared, horrified, frantic voices. I assume these are re-creations of audio from 9/11. If they’re not, I don’t want to know. Continue reading
When Carolann Solebello — one of the original members of the Americana trio Red Molly — stepped down in 2010, it was decision time for the other two women. Should they recruit a new member? Continue on as a duo? Call it quits? After some deliberation they decided to bring in a new “Molly,” and as fate would have it, her name is actually Molly. Continue reading
Fallujah seems to be a band of contradictions. Ask a handful of metal fans about them, and you’ll get no consensus on what type of band Fallujah is. Either you think their genre-blending works, or it muddies disparate sounds that don’t work well together. Continue reading