Eugene Weekly

It’s always a little bit of magic when two people can make music together that is larger than the sum of their individual parts. Such is the case with San Diego folk-pop duo The Lovebirds.  Continue reading →

If there is an ocean in outer space, then Man or Astro-man? has clearly outsmarted NASA by about 20-plus years and counting. Though traditional surf rock faded with the British invasion, Man or Astro-man? proved that there was still a place for the genre despite the advent of the psychedelic rock movement.  “We were never good at being a surf band; we grew up around punk rock,” says drummer Brian Teasley, who goes by the stage name Birdstuff. “When we were trying to get it right, we were getting it wrong.” Continue reading →

Portland’s The Quick & Easy Boys are bringing the party back to Eugene in celebration of their new record Make It Easy. The Boys’ bread and butter is an infamously high energy live show — so EW asked bassist Sean Badders what putting out a new recording means to a band in the age of the internet.  Continue reading →

For many, Sara Watkins will forever be associated with the bluegrass group Nickel Creek. This is understandable considering how popular the band was, and that Watkins spent almost 20 years playing fiddle with the trio she helped found when she was only 8 years old, but Watkins has been blazing a solo trail for the last six years straight into the midnight sun. Continue reading →

When Grammy-nominated bluegrass act The Infamous Stringdusters were looking for a producer for their new record they naturally picked … a hip-hop veteran? You read right, but don’t worry longtime fans — the Stringdusters aren’t rollin’ in Escalades or rappin’ about their bling’d out grills, though I wouldn’t put it past the iconoclastic group to try. Continue reading →

On May 14, just days after The Bad Plus shook The Shedd, another youngish ensemble that’s reinventing jazz for a new era, Refuge Trio, plays the University of Oregon’s Beall Concert Hall — where the trio’s pianist, former UO piano prof Gary Versace, once dazzled Eugeneans a decade ago. Continue reading →