We've got issues.
On a hot, sticky summer day, three dancers move with all their might through intricate and instinctual movement exploring relationships and memory. The piece they’re working on is for an informal performance the following night, but the work they’re doing, the act of creating, is for something much bigger. They’re building community, one move at a time. Continue reading
No wonder local swing dancer Nick Davis has fallen hard for Lindy hop. It’s sexy, funny and fresh. It’s the most goddamn exhilarating movement I’ve seen. Watching a video of dancer Frankie Manning swing his partner with such centripetal force — linked solely by fingertips, momentum building like a merry-go-round — it’s easy to imagine that, were they to let go, each dancer would ricochet into outer space. Continue reading
So much to worry about — The Big One, global warming, wine growth and change. And if we really want that thrill of fear, we only have to whisper: President Trump. Shivers and trembling, fear and loathing. Continue reading
Noah Baumbach has been making delightful movies about white twentysomething angst for, well, 20 years. He aged up a little bit with this spring’s While We’re Young, which lovingly skewered both its fortysomething leads and the twentysomething “artists” they befriended. The director got a little sweeter with 2012’s Frances Ha, the first movie in which Greta Gerwig served as his star, co-writer and muse. Mistress America, which Gerwig also co-wrote, is somewhere in the middle. Continue reading
Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds are a seven-piece “hard-soul” band based out of New York. Sister Sparrow vocalist Arleigh Kincheloe calls her band’s sound “high energy — very much meant to make you get up and dance and have a good time.” The group comes to Eugene supporting its 2015 release The Weather Below, out now on Party Fowl Records. The record has a strutting, take-no-prisoners confidence. Continue reading
Bands come and go, whether it be the dramatic fallout of One Direction or the breakup and subsequent makeup of No Doubt. But there’s one band we can count on to stay with us through it all, (with tough love) guiding generations through horrifying high school years with “High School Never Ends,” a rollercoaster relationship with “The Bitch Song” or a crappy day with “Shut Up and Smile.” Bowling For Soup has put a smile on our faces for 20-plus years, and the band isn’t easing up. Continue reading
Not many band names are as accurate as Session Americana. The six-piece musical collective, made up of some of Boston’s best folk, rock and roots musicians, promises a gathering of down-home music. What the name doesn’t tell you is that Session Americana plays face to face in an Irish-style jam, which you can see up close and personal when the band comes to Tsunami Books promoting their recently released sixth album, Pack Up the Circus, produced by Anais Mitchell. Continue reading
I reach Ryan Kattner, better known as Man Man’s lead howler Honus Honus, at his home in L.A. Kattner is working out some new songs for the experimental rock band’s upcoming tour, a process he’s none too thrilled about. Continue reading
Mad Decent Block Party, the traveling circus of dirty bass selling out shows nationwide and making Rolling Stone’s list (again) of “Summer’s 50 Must-See Music Festivals,” returns to Cuthbert Sept. 12 to ensure you end your summer with a bass drop. (And if last year is any indication, expect neon rave-wear, DayGlo furries, high-waisted shorts and the resulting sea of butt cheeks. Oh yeah, and maybe six attendees over the age of 22.) Continue reading
Once upon a time, they made movies out of musicals. From the 1940s through the ’70s, once a show had proved its worth on Broadway, Hollywood came calling. In the past generation or so, however, as the big-budget blockbuster mentality infested theater, the process reversed. Continue reading