Water Tower Bucket Boys “do” Portland
It was an emotional night at the Goodfoot bar in SE Portland, as The Water Tower Bucket Boys bid farewell to one of its founding members. I’m not actually sure which member, or why said member decided to leave the band, but I [...]
ALBUM REVIEW: Vex Ruffin – Crash Course EP (Stones Throw, 2011)
Vex Ruffin is the first artist ever signed to Stones Throw records off the strength an anonymous demo alone. The L.A. basement-dweller’s debut EP bleds punk rock songwriting with the one-man-band approach of hip-hop and electronica composition. Vex combines sampled drum breaks with grainy synthesizers to create the backdrop for his half-sung melancholy vocals. While [...]
Memory Tapes @ Doug Fir for the first time in PDX
Last Wednesday night, a whiskey sour in hand and my wrists inky with stamps of various woodland creatures, I grooved to Memory Tapes as they played at the Doug Fir Lounge for the first time in Portland. I say ‘they’ because it was not only Dayve hawk, the one man behind Memory Tapes and other [...]
Paul Devro’s Explosive Rave
While I enjoy news stories about ASUO drama and fluffy opinion pieces, “The Weekend Police Blotter” is my favorite part of the Oregon Daily Emerald. If you don’t usually make it past page one, the blotter is a list of the weekend’s most serious — or most comical — police reports. Yesterday’s blotter contained this [...]
Up and Coming: Butterfly Bones
This week’s edition of “Up and Coming” is another piece of evidence suggesting I have only heard of bands that remind me of the summertime. But after two blisteringly hot days of 60-degree weather that may have motivated you to prematurely cut your jeans into shorts, you’re probably getting excited too. So if you’re like [...]
Just Breaking the Surface
Yesterday evening at around 9:00 I showed up at the McDonald Theater, slightly buzzed, and super stoked to see a show that I have been patiently waiting to see for a few weeks, or months, or something. Way back, when I had the red and black lumber jack, and I first heard that Beats Antique [...]
An Irie Evening with Barrington Levy
photo & video SREANG HOK 1980s reggae legend Barrington Levy brought a sweet, tropical slice of Jamaica to Eugene’s WOW Hall last Wednesday. Backed by twangy guitar, electronic organ, syncopated rhythms, groovy bass, and dancehall reggae’s obligatory air horn, Levy sang a solid set of strikingly happy island jams. The music was rad, but the [...]
YELLOW
This week the Laverne Kraus gallery [in Lawrence Hall] is running a show entitled Yellow, which features the work of three UO arts students. While the artists chose yellow as the common thread throughout their projects, their use of non-precious materials makes this show cohesive. Each artist made special use of everyday items like tape, [...]
Film Review: Sweetie
This movie is so bizzare, you wonder whether your friend drugged you or the director of this movie. It is woman-power woman-go-crazy movie with an agenda of I don’t know what. It jumps from place to place with no hint of who this person is or what is going on. It really makes you work [...]
Yo La Tengo Says “Wassup” at the Wow Hall last Sunday
Whenever I listen to Yo La Tengo, my blood pressure goes down. When they play live, I feel stoned as hell. “They are sooo old!” I say. “Everyone here is so old!” I tell my good friend. And it was true. They are an old band starting in ’85 with an old dedicated following. My [...]
Never Waffle Over Waffles.
Breakfast has a special little nook in my soul. The familiar smell of frying fatty batter in fatty butter triggers endorphins to start coursing through my veins like I’ve just run a marathon. It’s almost a waste to put breakfast in the morning, when so often I’m not fully conscious and up to appreciating the [...]
Cut Copy: Zonoscope – Album Review
Going into 2011, Cut Copy’s Zonoscope was the album I anticipated most. In Ghost Colours, their 2008 album, was one of the best dance albums of the decade. It was full of feel-good anthems like “Hearts on Fire” and “Lights and Music,” and flowed together better than the typical dance records that mostly exist as [...]
The Thermals at the WOW
The Thermals, a staple of the Portland indie rock scene, made their way to Eugene last night for some high energy pop-punk. The show opened with Eugene band The Blimp. Although I only caught a few of their songs, they seemed wacky and fun…like a pillow fight! Next, a former Eugenian and currently Portlandian band, [...]
Chilly Willy’s top 25 songs of 2010
This winter break, warm up with some hot jams from 2010. It is only my opinion that these were the best songs to come out in 2010, but I think we can all agree that they were the sassiest. The song titles are also links to listen to the songs! How lovely to experience the [...]
The Best Websites of 2010 by Pretty Eyes
Hello Blog Followers, you are reading this so you must have internet. And you also must have free time otherwise you wouldn’t be visiting the Oregon Voice blog. You might be bored even, with nothing to do during winter break. If it is cold and rainy outside or all your friends are far away from [...]
Coachella 2010: In This Economy?
Every April, the tumbleweed-strewn town of Indio, CA welcomes a youthful mob roughly three times the size of the UO student body. The patrons suffer three days of sunburn, body odor, dehydration, and monetary exploitation in exchange for a chance to see performances by a pantheon of musical gods and goddesses. The art installations, trance-inducing [...]
My Name is Nicky, but You Can Call Me Dre
Andre Nickatina, formerly known as Dre Dog, brought some Bay Area rap to WOW Hall on Friday April 16th. The after party was held at the strip club that Nickatina himself just opened in our very own Springfield. They announced this before Nickatina came out while throwing dollar bills out into the audience; it was [...]
Beach House & Red Wine
Beach House is the moniker for the duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, who play keyboard and guitar, respectively, in addition to their touring drummer and drum machine. After the extensive touring for their second full length Devotion in 2008 and 2009, the duo began working on a new record, at a new record [...]
A Glimpse of the Eugene Music Scene
Because I am still in Eugene for spring break, I get the pleasure of discovering what our local musicians are producing and performing. Good Friday, The Horribalistics, Tullis, Drebin and a Vision in Gray who are all from around the area got to strut their stuff for a short set at WOW hall. I arrived [...]
Soulico: Israeli DJ Crew
After birthing legendary indie shredders Monotonix, Israel offers the world yet another musical gift: Soulico, a crew of four Tel-Aviv DJs with an impressive library of rare Middle Eastern folk and disco vinyl. Last October they put forth their debut album, Exotic on the Speaker, an energetic amalgam of hip-hop, [...]
Review: Blitzen Trapper-Black River Killer EP
It sometimes takes a sparse, whistling overture to wake up out of that late-summer malaise. “Black River Killer,” a standout song from 2008’s Furr, joins six other Blitzen Trapper songs, sold only on CDRs at their live shows, to make the Black River Killer EP, out August 25 on Sub Pop. Short at just above [...]
