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Oh, the exuberance of youth — a time when we scoff at being told “less is more,” exclaiming instead that “only more can be more!” Why limit music to standard guitar/bass/drums? Why not cellos, violins, banjos, saxophones and horns? Why only four people on stage when you can have 10, a dozen, even 20 musicians? These are the questions that Austin-based Mother Falcon asks, and it’s this spirit the group’s sound embodies. Continue reading
The most recent album from Amos Lee, 2013’s Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song, focuses heavily on hard times. Much of the content was inspired by Lee’s many trips across the country and the people he met along the way. “There’s going to be hardships, and I think that goes for anybody who’s been born onto planet Earth,” Lee tells me. “There are people who struggle so mightily, and yet keep a lightness about them, and those are the people who inspire me the most.” But it’s not just the people putting on a brave face for the world that stand out to Lee. Continue reading
Lord knows, existentialism is old hat by now: It’s practically taken for granted among the cognoscenti that God is dead, life is meaningless, language is a prison, we are alone, etc., etc. Used to be the muscular existentialist pose involved an angry brow knitted under a fedora, with cigarette ash dropping upon a tattered copy of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra; now, every 13-year-old playing Grand Theft Auto with a belly full of Dr. Pepper knows that life is a bunk game, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Continue reading
Just announced: The Bali Arts Festival has invited LCC’s Balinese dance troupe Tirtha Tari to perform in the capital of Denpasar June 21, 2014. The troupe, consisting of six LCC students led by dance instructor Bonnie Simoa, will study the Legong dance form with master teacher Sang Ayu Ketut Muklen. See Tirtha Tari perform for the Asian Celebration 1:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 15, and 10:55 am Sunday, Feb. 16, at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Erin Elder of Balinese dance group Tirtha Tar Photo by Michael Brinkerhoff Continue reading
Former Eugene resident making great music in Nashville. Continue reading
This being the month when we celebrate the pursuit of Eros, Amor, love in all its forms — oddly appropriated to the name of a saint (Valentine/Valentinus martyred by beheading on Feb. 14, 273 CE) — we want to send some love to two figures whose passionate pursuits add pleasures to our lives. First, let’s welcome the opening of an elegant oasis on Eugene’s urban wine trail: Friday, Feb. 7, will mark the grand opening of Pyrenees Lounge at 946 S. Willamette in the former, now-refurbished Woolworth Building. Continue reading
The Great Beauty is a glorious jumble, which is fitting for a movie that’s about life, the universe and everything (to borrow a very useful phrase from Douglas Adams) — and a little bit about nothing at the same time. Plot-wise, there’s not much to it: After turning 65, novelist-turned-journalist Jep (Toni Servillo) has a bit of an existential crisis about his shiny, glamorous life. Sort of. Continue reading
Half of LA-based indie rock group Warpaint is Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman — lifelong friends from Eugene. Warpaint has always surrounded itself with talent: John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) produced Warpaint’s debut EP; Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, REM) and Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) worked on the group’s second, self-titled, full-length album released Jan. 17 on Rough Trade Records. Continue reading