This is just too much.
We’re filing for compensation currently. Have it be known that we originally called it “Rent-A-Puppy” but expanded to “Pooch” because we believe old dogs can do new tricks and deserve the chance to help with dating.
Jimmy Carbonetti and Matt Iwanusa met Dave Skeinkopf and Joe Smith in high school. Dave and Joe were Jimmy and Matt’s teachers. The guys bonded over their love of music, a band was formed and so the story goes.
The non-conventional teacher-pupil collaboration has proved successful. Though high school was four years ago, the teachers and their whiz kids possess an endearing teen spirit that would make them one helluva—if not over-qualified—prom band. The aesthetic is easy to intuit, just think 60s British pop rock with tumbledown lyrics, bluesy riffs and soaring harmonies that festoon from mouth to ear. The sound is understated (à la The Kink’s Village Green Preservation Society) yet bulldozes when appropriate for a strummy, dramatic effect. Sure, if you have a guitar and some drums you’re destined to sound like someone else. And though they shy away from ingenuity with their textbook indie rock structure, the music builds upon a pre-“power ballad” era candor that is both minimal and revitalizing. A tribute to their formation, The Subject’s neoclassic pastiche recalls nostalgia for those simpler days of algebra exams and make out sessions under the bleachers.
I first met these dudes when they played at the Doug Fir in Portland last summer while touring with White Rabbits. The Subjects put on such an explosive opening act that I felt compelled to buy their first full-length album, With The Ease and Grace and Precision and Cleverness of Human Beings. I think it’s worth mentioning that I rarely buy full-length albums.
I reunited with the dudes at Sam Bond’s Garage on October 16 and I was pleasantly surprised by their latest tracks on the EP New Soft Shoe, which is reminscent of dance-hall London and a bit more accessible than their past stuff. I sat down with Jimmy and Dave. Like the last time we met, hearing anecdotes about touring the country in a van and what it’s like to party ‘til you puke reminded me The Subjects don’t just make rock n’ roll, they live it—and they won’t let you forget it.
Welcome back to Oregon. How’s the tour going?
J: Amazing.
Have you guys been on tour this entire time since I saw you last July?
J: We had a break. I went to Spain and back to Brooklyn. It’s snowing in New York.
No Way! Do you like snow?
J: Snow is great!
You mentioned early today you were going shopping. Did you get anything?
J: Dave got a stripped shirt. (Points to shirt)
That’s a nice shirt
D: Thanks
Do you remember where you got it?
D: Oak something. Near Willam…e…tay?
Williamette.
D: Ya
I forget that’s a hard word to pronounce. So lemme get this straight. You guys met in high school? But Dave, you were Jimmy’s teacher?
D: Jimmy was in my audiovisual class. We made a video called “Platinum Dreams”. It was about becoming karaoke stars. We had a good time making it and then the band kind of just formed.
I’m interested about group dynamics. What’s the music-making process like?
D: Matt and I write the songs. We rehearse in an old sewing machine warehouse in Manhattan. Matt’s mom played in a funk band. The guy who owns the building produced her album. He also produced The Yardbirds. We’re going to have a huge Halloween party there.
That’s funny. I just listened to “8 Miles High” before I came here. So do you have Halloween costumes?
J: No, not yet.
D: We’re picking up stuff in every city.
Love or hate life on the road?
D: Life on the road is better than working but we don’t get to see as much of the cities as we’d like to. We’re going to bring our bikes next time around. We have this system called “Captain and Co-Captain”. If you’re the Captain you can have one drink because you’re driving. If you’re co-captain, you have to appear relatively sober, but really you can drink a lot. The other two people, well, anything goes.
So what kinda crowds do you draw in places like Nebraska?
D: Nebraska was terrifying.
What did you guys do in Portland?
D: We went to Pita Pit and My Father’s Place
Did you play Big Buck Hunter?
D: Yep.
I’ve always wondered, is it possible to enjoy guitar hero if you’re already an accomplished musician?
J: It’s impossible to play guitar hero if you’re a musician.
So what’s next?
D: We’re heading down to the Treasure Island Music Festival tomorrow. We’re not playing but The Walkmen invited us to hang out.
Sounds like a party.
D: It will be.
It seems 2009 is the year of hip-hop in Eugene… validated by an appearance of Ghostface Killah at the WOW Hall. The Voice was there…
Dan deacon gave the kids of Eugene a taste of the East of Coast’s ‘wham city’ last night with his beautifully absurd performance at the Wow Hall. Despite false rumors of a fourteen-piece ensemble accompanying Mr. Deacon, the morale of fellow observers was higher than I anticipated. In the furry of week four I found myself almost studying through the show, but decided to drop everything and let myself get a little sweaty.
As a relative newbie to the Dan Deacon legacy, and a virgin to his live performances, the show dominated my expectations. I was comforted with Deacon’s familiar staples of oversized eyeglasses, grainy backdrop videos and that glowing green skull as I nestled into the crowd. From the start he had us on our knees smacking kisses onto each other’s foreheads, making us countdown to fifty before the music came. Set up on ground level he led our newly founded dance community with his digitally synthesized orchestra. Fidgeting with his light fixtures just as much as his switchboards, Deacon’s symphony of sound and light consumed the lower floor of the venue. The high pitched hum of his voice rang through the modulators along side the electronica waves. By his instruction we all partook in a tag-team dance contest, formed a synchronized interpretive dance and made a human tunnel that wrapped around Wow Hall. His social experiment/dance party glory left us all a little lighter.
Welcome back avid internet users, to the Trailer Park.
It’s been a while since I posted a new article, in fact, almost two weeks. So to correct the mistake I made of missing a week, I’ve decided that instead of just reviewing 3 trailers, I’m going to review 6. That’s right, 6.
But enough of the small talk, let’s get right to the trailers.
How Trailer Park works is simple, I give the embedded Youtube video of the trailer showcased for you all to watch and then at the bottom of the video, I display my opinion and then give it a rating based on our unique top of the line rating system:
Clean – A rating of Clean means this movie looks like a must see and you should definately give it a watch once it comes to theaters.
Decent – A rating of Decent means this movie looks okay, but it’s still a little sketchy and I recommend you wait for the reviews to come out before you pay for your ticket.
Dirty – A rating of Dirty, much like a trailer park itself means this movie looks absolutely horrid or is not interesting at all and I recommend you stay away from it.
Be warned, this is my opinion and my opinion only, do not criticize me if I bash a movie that you think looks promising.
So buckle up your seatbelts, break out the 6-pack and get yourself settled, your now entering the Trailer Park!:
Response: I know Halloween is coming up and I could’ve saved this one for the week of Halloween but this was too good of a trailer not to show. I mean, wow. Way to start this article with a vaccine of adrenaline. This is a remake of the classic 1930’s horror classic of the same name from Universal Pictures and quite frankly, this is one of those movies that looks like it will be entirely faithful to the material. However, that’s not the only thing that’s likely to sell this picture, oh no. Universal has gone all the way and included an absolutely amazing cast of actors from Anthony Hopkins & Emily Blunt to Hugo Weaving and Benecio Del Toro as the Wolfman itself. Oh and here’s a little fun fact for you, the voice of the Wolfman’s howl will be none other than Gene Simmons of KISS. If that doesn’t want to make you line up already, then maybe your the one that should be barking at the moon.
RATING: CLEAN
Response: That’s right, Mel Gibson is back, this time as a former detective trying to get revenge on the man who shot his daughter. Despite the cliche plot, this movie looks pretty interesting. I’m not familiar with any of the cast of this movie besides Mr. Gibson, so it’s really hard to give an opinion to this movie, the action looks great and this movie definitely raises a lot of questions about the plot. However, like I said previously, it’s really difficult to give an interpretation or opinion to this, it’s not bad, but it’s not something that captivates me to see it, if you are a fan of Mel Gibson and if you’ve been waiting for his return to the acting roots then I say give it a go, if your not one of those people, then just pass it.
RATING: DECENT
Response:Much like Jackie Chan in this movie, I have to face with my toughest assignment yet, trying to figure out what looks good about this movie. This movie looks absolutely terrible in every sense and meaning of the word, I cannot begin to describe how sorry I feel that Jackie Chan, who is known as one of the greatest martial arts actors of all time is being reduced to having to do movies with George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus. However, another thing I like to point out is that this movie is a complete rip off of another movie called “The Pacifier” with Vin Diesel, right down to the “Secret Agent” plotline. I’ve never been really fair to movies directed to kids, but even this movie looks like it will make kids squirm in their seats.
RATING: DIRTY
Response: Dear John, please stop acting. Yours truly, Derek Donovan. While that may seem harsh to many of you, I have a reason behind this poorly constructed response. Channing Tatum is not a good actor, never has and never will be. All his characters are nothing more than bland and generic with no substance whatsoever. Mr. Tatum is nothing more than just a cardboard pin-up brought to life to encourage young teen girls to pay $8.50. With that out of the way, I have to say that not only is Mr. Tatum more wooden than a load of firewood, but there is absolutely no chemistry or aura around these two main characters at all. I also hate to see that a talented and gifted actor like Richard Jenkins has to waste his time with this hormonal teenage mess.
Rating: DIRTY
Response: To clear my conscious fellow internet readers, I have something to get off my chest. Yes, I’ve read the first Twilight book and no I didn’t like it. It was just about one of the most bland, stupid and utterly boring novels I’ve ever read in my life. No more than just hype over the whole “Vampire” scene. However, because I know some of you have been wanting me to do this review, I will answer the call. To make myself clear once more, I’ve also seen the first movie and I have to say… it wasn’t bad. Not good, but not terrible either, although there were a few book to film translation errors, it was still pretty entertaining. By the looks of this movie, I think you have a better chance of putting a rufee in my drink and banging my head with a hammer just to get me to see this. Edward Cullen is possibly one of the most confused and conflicted characters in all of modern literature. No matter how many times he says “This is the last time you will see me” you know that this character changes his mind about Bella so much that he will probably see her again in the next 5 seconds! Talk about being predictable in every sense of the word. You may have swindled me into seeing the first movie Hollywood, but don’t think that you’ll drag me to see this one because your better off making a remake of Predator… Looks like I spoke too soon.
RATING: DIRTY
Response: Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Shutter Island. From the looks of this film you may think this is another one of those generic Scorsece/Dicaprio collaborations that are more frequent than Edward Cullen’s indecisiveness (Okay, last time I swear). However, this trailer is absolutely mindblowing. Inspired by a book of the same name, this movie looks to be another masterpiece for Mr. Scorsece, with chills and thrills to make your spine pop right out of your back. I’ll be taking a trip to Shutter Island opening night.
RATING: CLEAN
Due to the amount of trailers I reviewed tonight, I decided there will be no RV to showcase this time around, but Halloween is just around the corner and you know that you’ll just want to take another visit to the Trailer Park… If you dare.
Last week’s street faire brought us joyous smells of hemp, Indian food, and (of course) our favorite Eugene-only Off The Waffle.
So, after grabbing myself a chill winter-cap (it’s really colorful) and buying some gifts for friends and family, I had to make a quick stop to grab Off’s infamous “The Bully” … my dream waffle filled with strawberries and chocolate chips. As I was standing there, this faint little hit of honkey-tonk type country created this waffle-house atmosphere. I had to know what that music was and where I could buy it.
I asked the kindly young woman, who handed me my delicious waffle, what they were currently listening to. A man in the back checked his iPod and said “It’s called Gypsy Jazz.”
Okay, before I get any further, I’ll kind of let you in on where i first heard this so-called “gypsy jazz.” The year was 1999 and love was in the air. I only presume. I was only 7 years old. Anyways, a cute little movie called Toy Story 2 had just come out and, being a diehard fan from the beginning, I had to see it. About midway through the movie, a sweet little song called “Woody’s Roundup” (written by a band called Riders In The Sky) is played on the TV. Now, it’s not exactly country because it lacks the twangy-ness, and it’s not folk, because… well, it just isn’t. So this was my first encounter of what I would later find out was called “gypsy jazz.”
So I did a little research last night and realized that “gypsy jazz” was a form of jazz more commonly played in France than anywhere else. So if you watch French movies with café’s in them, you will most likely hear a little bit of this music. It consists of a sort of swing-dancing sound but without the brass band (like most big bands in the 30s and 40s). The main elements are the guitar and the violin, and it’s called “gypsy jazz” because of this… assuming that all gypsies played guitar and violin….
The most famous person I could find in this genre was a man named Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), who played a mean guitar. Most people who know about “gypsy jazz” refer newbies to this man and his work, and after a night of listening to it I can see why they consider him a genius. His riffs are incredible, and his music is just so upbeat that even the hip-hop music fans in the Earl lounge wanted to dance… well maybe not… but I hope they wanted to.
Here’s a little clip from YouTube that I found of one of Django’s songs… this is probably my favorite one, but there are so many to choose!
If you want more of this music, iTunes has a huge “iTunes Essentials: Gypsy Jazz” set you can download.
My goal now is to bring it back. Who doesn’t want to swing dance down the street while walking to their next class? Let’s make this Eugene’s new thing!
The headline of today’s Oregon Daily Emerald boldly states: ”Passion’ drummer parties solo,’ in reference to the Passion Pit house party Friday night that was orchestrated by the Oregon Voice and The Nudelman in lieu of the band entirely postponing (Don’t say ‘cancelling’!) their performance that was scheduled to take place in the EMU Ballroom.
Of course, the Emerald headline is in need of correction.
In fact, 4/5 of the band were in attendance at the house party, along with DJ E603 and members of their crew. But whether or not it was Nate solo or with his comrades is irrelevant (Save for, you know, being accurate with headlines.) What matters is that the fine students at the University of Oregon didn’t get completely short-changed. The infectious tunes, loops and beats Nate delivered certainly highlighted an otherwise dark and dreary Eugene night.
Check this video:
Nate Donmoyer from Passion Pit from Ivar Vong on Vimeo.
Unlike the embedded video courtesy of Ivar at the Emerald suggests, the impromptu party was most certainly off-le-hook and came to a head in the early morning hours when swarms of police officers arrived to disperse the near 250+ people that packed the 12th and Washington basement.
The house received a $750 noise violation. No MIPs or furnishing citations were given.
If you’d like to help us help the inhabitants of the house with the now monetary woes, please feel free to send donations to: Oregon Voice, 1228 Erb Memorial Union, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97401.
Hello again avid internet surfers, this is Derek Donovan with another visit to the Trailer Park.
I apologize for the late post, I’ve been suffering from a very bad flu which lead me to leaving campus and heading back to my hometown of Beaverton, Oregon to recover. However, I expect to be back at University of Oregon sometime tomorrow.
Anyways enough about my misfortunes let’s talk about the trailers cause that’s what your reading this for right?
It is my belief much like the last edition of Trailer Park that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover but you can certainly judge a movie by it’s trailer and I have selected a few to showcase this week.
How Trailer Park works is simple, I give the embedded Youtube video of the trailer showcased for you all to watch and then at the bottom of the video, I display my opinion and then give it a rating based on our unique top of the line rating system:
Clean – A rating of Clean means this movie looks like a must see and you should definately give it a watch once it comes to theaters.
Decent – A rating of Decent means this movie looks okay, but it’s still a little sketchy and I recommend you wait for the reviews to come out before you pay for your ticket.
Dirty – A rating of Dirty, much like a trailer park itself means this movie looks absolutely horrid or is not interesting at all and I recommend you stay away from it.
Be warned, this is my opinion and my opinion only, do not criticize me if I bash a movie that you think looks promising.
So let’s dive right in!:
Response: Wow, just.. wow. I don’t even know what to say, this trailer is so wrong in so many different levels that there is absolutely no way to perfectly describe the amount of pain that watching this trailer has given me, but I’ll give it a try anyways. This movie looks horrendous, abysmal, terrible.. Okay, I’m being too nice. Most people would give movies like this slack because it’s obviously made for kids but who in their right mind would take their child to see a movie like this! The Rock as a egotistical jackass of a hockey player turned slave to an apparent Queen of the Tooth Fairies aka Julie Andrews who punishes him for not believing in fairy tales and so goes to the extent of giving him wings and making him wear a Too-Too while being given Tooth Fairy gadgets from Billy Crystal?! Is Hollywood out of their minds? I mean, I’m just absolutely speechless. This makes The Game Plan look like Citizen Kane! You know what? I’m done talking about this, let’s just give this movie a DIRTY rating and let’s forget I even saw this. WOckcoakjhs
Rating: DIRTY
Response: Now as many of you may or may not be aware, this was the last movie Heath Ledger participated in before his tragic death. Unfortunately, he never finished filming his role, thus why Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Ferrell stepped in to play his many alter egos when he travels dimensions. Anyways, this trailer gets nothing but praise from me, this movie has excellent visuals and effects and an A-List cast of actors including Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) and the late great Heath Ledger. This is definitely a movie I will see and it’s not because this was Heath Ledger’s last film (Although it is a minor reason), it’s because this movie truly looks like a movie worth seeing.
Rating: CLEAN
UPDATE: Trailer is now released on Youtube.
Response: This trailer is not released officially till Monday, so it’s not allowed on Youtube. But I was sneaky and found a site that shows the first legitimate trailer for the movie, so consider this a Trailer Park exclusive courtesy of Mr. Derek Donovan. Anyways, I’ve loved the Toy Story movies ever since I was a kid, in fact the original Toy Story was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater and continues to be one of my favorite movies of all time. So to see a trailer for the 3rd movie in the franchise brings back a lot of memories for me, and I’m sorry if I sound bias but after looking at this trailer I’m absolutely psyched to see this movie. The concept of Andy growing into a fully mature 18 year old heading to college is almost parallel to what I’m going through and it’s something I can fully relate to. However, the visuals for this movie look much better than the previous movies given the advancing digital technology and I’m overjoyed that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are reprising their roles as Woody and Buzz Lightyear. To me, this movie is a definite watch, not just because the original movie is so near and dear to my heart but because much like all of Pixar’s films, this movie looks like it will be a top notch piece of work and I’ll be first in line to see it.
Rating: CLEAN
The RV:
After looking at a bunch of this year’s trailers I narrowed it down to just one, The RV represents a trailer that was not released this week but is also not in theaters but shows excellence and superiority among other trailers and is a fine example of how a trailer should be made.
This Trailer Park’s RV is…
Response: This is a trailer that has received mixed reviews from almost everyone, you either love it or you hate it. Frankly, I absolutely adore this trailer. I was one of those people that woke up at 7am on the day it premiered online just to watch this trailer and every time I see it, it reminds me of how much I missed James Cameron. This movie perfectly blends CGI, Live Action, Motion Capture Animation, Green Screen and Blue Screen into one holy grail of absolute beauty. This is definitely a movie I will see in IMAX 3D.
Well that’s all the trailers I have for you this week, don’t forget to log on next week for another visit to the Trailer Park.
Ciao.
As you may remember, around this time last year there was supposed to be a Cultural Forum sponsored concert in the EMU Ballroom with the nationally touring act: Rogue Wave. That show, because of a broken hand suffered by guitarist Zach Schwartz, was in most sense, a bust (Save for those local bands who did their best to still hold it down.)
It happens again – the curse continues.
Now, apparently Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit took the words of Disturbed a little too seriously and got “down with the sickness.” What sickness we’re not exactly sure, but word on the street (of course it is) suggests Swine Flu. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
For Pacific North-westerners, this cancellation comes as another major blow after the band cancelled their Nike-sponsored performance at MFNW this past September in favor of shakin’ it (At a completely different point on the spectrum that is history.) in Juan’s Basement – an entirely overrated and Pitchfork-approved (word on the street is) moldy venue with the capacity of a Ford Aspire.
Though if you’re into that sort of thing, check out this article and accompanying video for Passion Pit’s song “Sleepy Head” from the Portland Mercury.
Article here.
Here’s a link to all three songs they played in Juan’s Basement via Shock & Yawn magazine.
Video’s here.
Sufjan’s rearrangement of his experimental album Enjoy Your Rabbit (2001) is great listening. Strings do a lot taking the place of electronic instruments. Just thought you should know and plan the next phase of your life accordingly.
