VCR + Killed by Health + Hey Lover + Cheese Puff May 5, 2016 The Boreal, Eugene, Oregon

VCR is a Eugene band, and the audience was young and warmed up for VCR's fuzzy bass, catchy guitar riffs, garage rock-pop with creative leads sprinkled throughout the performance. The drummer has great control with heavy sticks, while the bassist knows exactly what 'lay down the groove' means.  They got the younger crowd members to fo-mosh as most of the crowd bobbed their heads and twitched their feet, this band is the first in a while that has proven to me you don't need a pedal board to write a good rock song.  Okay, so you still need distortion, but they kept it down to the basics.  Sometimes leaning to southwest rock influences and sometimes straight to pop, VCR is going to establish themselves as a rock steady band.  Their songwriting style, especially lyrical style, brought back memories of the Pixies live (and not just because the bassist is a girl), but because they interacted well with harmonies and vocal trade-offs.  

Oh, and they do my favorite thing where they all switch instruments . . . although this part of the performance could use some fine-tuning, it was still fun to watch, and I don't think they intended for anyone to take it seriously anyways . . . that's part of their charm.

Hailing from Portland, OR, Killed by Health can only explained as this as eclectic, majestic rock with raw shiny shoes. Who said a band had to be technical to get the room moving anyways. Like Dinosaur Jr., they were willing to turn up the room a bit, untamed and with the presence of lyrically undisguised strong character. There were moments on the cusp of the other side. With the lead voice traveling from guitarist, to bassist, to the other guitarist you are sure to be entertained. Their stage presence is that of a band who's been playing together for years although I think it's only been a few shows for the group.  They are rowdy enough to hop off stage, making them set-up to be a great festival band.

Hey Lover, also from Portland, OR is a garage-punk-pop, melodic with bold intentions would appeal to The White Stripes fans, but with less serious vocals and 60's reminiscent poppy hooks. I have to admit I was immediately jealous of the bands' gold pants. Their lyrics were catchy, and, although maybe too 60's pop for some of the crowd, the song topics were on-point for the current generation. I hope they come back to Eugene again soon!

Cheese Puff  from Eugene, had a young sound although none of the players are all that young. Strong riffs but not leaning too far from standard rock. I'm sure soon you'll be able to catch them at Black Forest or Old Nick's if they stick to it. I hope they continue to embrace the punk and remember that dynamics are not in a direct relationship with tempo while leaving any butt-rock jams at the practice space. I'll go out to see them again to see how this plays out.

Purity Ring, HANA Show Review

Purity Ring, HANA 

McDonald Theatre

Eugene Oregon 
October 4th, 2015

HANA came onto the stage to a crowd unfamiliar. Mostly, the crowd consisted of the people under 21 while those over 21 were watching from the McDonald lounge or were still at another watering hole downtown. Her set design was simple consisting of nothing more than some sound activated L.E.D. lights behind parasols and what looked like beaded curtains strung about in the background. The electronic beats came as a refreshing breath to the room and by her first vocal line the crowd was in.  

     HANA walked from one point on stage to the other carrying a persona, like an anime character I wish I had known of before. While demeanor was confident, her vocal didn't always cut through the mix as much as I would have liked, watching a trained vocalist that held the attention of the room reminded me that this EDM movement gives a new place for female artists to shine. Her talent for creating beats that trickle in like a rainforest afternoon shower and her primal vocals, at points hypnotic, will give DJs that simply stand behind their booth a new challenge. And oh, did I mention she totally killed it with a cover of "Here Comes The Rain Again" by Eurythmics!

     The crowd began to shift as more people showed up in the set break. Girls in Japanese-styled school girl outfits, guys wearing animal masks, light up fingers, and girls wearing what I euphemistically describe as "Cochella wear" filed in when it hit me. The Canadian duo of Purity Ring have struck a chord with the American audience by mashing up the surreal and the cool.   

     Megan James, an artist in her own right, had created a futuristic sci-fi vibe with the hair and outfit of a Japanese pop star.  As soon as the music began I felt a music box on steroids with vocals from reverb air had opened in the room.The spherical sounds panned from the stage to my ears and back. It was like being in a snow globe with the arctic lights triggered by Corin Roddick while Megan's vocal lines dripped down to us like icicles. Their dynamics were a favorite for me, moving like a tide luring you in.  

      A strong crowd-pleasing point of the show was when Megan walked up spiral stairs behind Corin to have her silhouette in front of a full moon. Her voice was a wolf's call to dance. And dance we did. The light show alone was worth the ticket price, Purity Ring's art is priceless.

  If anything, the show was a bit short, but don't they always say leave the crowd wanting more? 

Purity Ring has a few more shows in the US and Canada before heading over to Europe:

October 15 San Francisco, California 

October 22 Toronto, Canada

October 24 Halifax, Canada

October 27 Sheffield, UK

October 28 Cambridge, UK

October 29 London, UK

October 30 Utrecht, Netherlands

November 1 Antwerp, Belgium

November 2 Luxembourg, Luxembourg

November 3 Paris, France

November 4 Koln, Germany

November 5 Prage, Czech Republic

November 6 Warsaw, Poland

November 8, Stockholm, Sweden

November 9 Oslo, Norway

Review: Coffee Plant Roaster Eugene

facebook.com/coffeeplantroaster

Finding the right coffee shop is hard. It’s even harder to spill the espresso beans on a place that is great-because sharing means potentially dealing with more people. Eugene isn’t huge, but it isn’t that small either. Because of the large student population, coffee shops have long aimed for the University area to support undergraduates on their way to crippling debt by feeding them coffee and free wi-fi. But this means a patron has to endure the stories, the flashcards, the weird entitlement of one person taking up a table for four because their backpack, laptop, jacket(s), books, and phone barely leave room for their fancy, too-sweet coffee. Some of us are older, and drink coffee black, and just want to pout and pretend to work in peace. Unlike the university crowd, we know the sad truth that whatever we’re writing isn’t going to be the next great American novel, the meeting we’re going to have might not even pan out to a good project to distract us from our day jobs, and sometimes being alone in public is such sweet delight that our hearts would break if we were forced to chat instead of staring into space. Maybe these folk could be called “hipsters”, but let’s err on the side of generosity and instead call them “people”.

facebook.com/coffeeplantroaster

For the time being, there is a haven for such people. Far enough down West 11th to dissuade those without transportation (well, until that EmX expands) and not too close to any major high school, Coffee Plant Roaster has taken enough lessons from Albina Press and Water Avenue Coffee to make sure the above “people” feel right at home. With chalkboard accents and wood panels, Coffee Plant Roaster is bright and inviting to those that know how to spend copious hours in coffee shops. There’s a rock collection to the left and a wall that houses art to the right (currently they are featuring Janale Peterson’s reclaimed pine wood burnings). The staff is nice enough, having enough tattoos and piercings for me to trust them but not so much joie de vivre that I think I’m at a Dutch Bros. Their house coffee is CPR, a strong, nutty brew with a little bitter finish. The more you look around, the more little details you’ll find that show these people are pretty serious about their succulents, cold brew and skinny jeans. But then again, so am I. With enough outlets that you can stay past your battery life, feel free to look for cheap flights to far away places, eat some food that is made on-site and wonder what why you don’t have a book agent.

Do me a favor and don't tell anyone.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros + Thievery Corporation September 18th, 2013, Cuthbert Amphitheater Eugene, Oregon

It was a time-warping evening as summer floated away in Eugene. Thievery Corporation feels like they have been around forever but keep coming up with new sounds. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are relatively new, but sound so timeless it could be hard to pinpoint in which decade they toured. Together, the unlikely duo made for billing with a richness that Eugene rarely sees.

Whether you know it or not, there's an 82% chance you've made out to the warm, spacey beats of Thievery Corporation. Most dedicated listeners will scoff at the mention of “Lebanese Blonde” becoming popular from Garden State and for that reason, I was glad to hear it played as the second song. One of the difficulties of putting on a live show with Thievery's repertoire is the the diversity of the musicians that have contributed. It was a special treat, then, to find that they had a number of vocalists and MCs tagging along to make the live versions just as good as the album versions. Two female singers joined in (most unofficially dubbed 'pink tights' and 'peacock pants') sounding more like fallen angels than humans. “La Femme Parallel” was gorgeous and sounded both foreign and safe. “Vampires” and “Radio Retaliation” reminded even the stoners on the grass that there was intelligence behind the sleekness. 

Once the sun had set, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros took the stage. If getting everyone together from Thievery Corporation on tour is akin to the logistic nightmare of taking the Brady Bunch on a road trip, getting the Zeros all in one spot is the ultimate hat trick. Jamming and hugging since 2007(ish), vocalist Alex Ebert created the alter-ego/persona of Edward Sharpe while in rehab. The revolving cast of a dozen musicians that make up the Zeros include “Crash” Richard, Christian Letts, Seth Ford-Young, Josh Collazo, Orpheo McCord and Nora Kirkpatrick (who, savvy culturalists will identify as Esther, Dwight's girlfriend on NBC's The Office). The voice that holds the show together, though, was Jade Castrinos. Bundled in an oversized, fuzzy jacket and a smile that wrinkles her nose, Castrinos's rich voice played duet with Ebert as easily as it joined the choir in backing up the others when it was their time to shine. Since Edward Sharpe is as fictional as Ebert's undershirt, it dawned on me as “frontman” Ebert humbly went to offer a verse of “I Don't Want to Pray” to the audience, a trumpet, a bass and other various Zeros, that maybe he only borrows the namesake attributed to him. Taking requests from the audience and trading smiles and high-fives across the stage, it seemed like anyone could take a turn wearing the name. The bright lights and psychadelic background of the show, the coeds and aging baby boomer hippies dancing together, the current in the air of fall, for a sweet moment, we were all Magnetic Zeros.

Matt Pond + Jake Bellows + Tyler Fortier September 3, 2013 Cozmic Pizza, Eugene, Oregon

Let's talk for a minute about dancing. Little kids do it and it is adorable. Middle schoolers look delightfully awkward. But as we falter into adulthood, our dance style often becomes a bellweather of our self-worth. Those that dance, that let out all the stops with their twirls and prancing, may incur judgment but they number of fucks they give is exactly zero. Zero. The people that hold back and are openly embarrassed—they get the wrath of mockery as well, but it can jeopardize their level fun. Why do we care? Dancing is an individual activity, there are no rules and yet society makes us feel we are doing it “right” or “wrong”.

The opening acts for Matt Pond illustrated the more awkward end of this equation. Tyler Fortier and Jake Bellows both did solo acoustic sets and would be hard to tell apart. Both seemed slightly nervous, sang about the lost loves and nature, and chattered awkwardly with the audience. It was nothing new in the world of music, nor was it done to the best of their abilities. They seemed too aware of every word and note and one misstep could lead them to paralyzing self-consciousness.

Matt Pond is no stranger to the road, in fact, it could be argued that his touring is just as well-known as his albums. There's been recent buzz about him dropping the “PA” from the band name, but here's the rub—people who listened to his music understood it was his evolving vision the whole time. When he took the stage at Cosmic Pizza with other musicians alongside him, it felt just like the last time I saw him play. He has a knack for finding great musicians to play with and this posse was no exception. Backing up his recently released “solo” album, The Lives Inside the Lines of Your Hand, “Bring Back the Orchestra” was played with vibrancy and exuberance. Still a little dorky and lovable, Pond seemed aware but unfazed by the chatter from the audience. Where he opening acts would stumble, he soared and proved that to get better at anything (singing, playing, the proverbial dancing) you have to keep going, and do it without fear.

!!! + Ra Ra Riot September 4, 2013 WOW Hall, Eugene, Oregon

Before the show started, Kaitlin, our delightful photographer, and myself were discussing how some music is less accessible. She cited Snoop Dogg a la the 1990s with his murder scandal. “I'd rather get murdered by Snoop Dogg than punched by Chris Brown now-that guy is just a joke.” Other than being born in the 80s, Kaitlin showed the manufacturing of “celebrities” in current media are left emitting the same bland aftertaste. Those that refuse to be formed by hype machines pay a steep price for keeping their soul—radios are reluctant to play them and success means surviving on the fickle waves of the indie and college radio seas.

Ra Ra Riot has proved to be a name to know, producing a blend of pop and rock that assaults but not insults. They Syracuse-formed band could be a cousin of Los Campasinos!, what with their girl on violins and cellos and angsty but catchy tunes. Wes Miles sported an amazingly pink shirt to sing in, while the bejeweled violin made it seem that Rebecca Zeller was sometimes snuggling a misshapen disco ball. There really isn't a good reason Ra Ra Riot hasn't had more success, they're catchy songs and aloof stage presence are not foreign to an audience—where they differ is the thought and execution of the music (in that they do both). Playing to a small crowd, the band played a full set and I had to remind myself a few times that this wasn't even the main event.

Seafarers worth their salt know !!! as the dance-party of a band with a funny name. Though hipsters don't enjoy looking vulnerable, it is worth it to explain the punctuation (if one doesn't know it is pronounce 'chk chk chk') for they are put out solid albums and amazing shows. During the first song, the vocalist Nic Offer hopped off the stage and went dancing with audience members. This delighted and terrified the girls near me; but when a good looking fellow wearing skivvies starts to dance with you, it is your American duty to dance right back. With his curly locks, stinky tee shirt, undies and loafers, Offer didn't treat Eugene like a lame tour stop,

more like we were a crowd of VIPs who got to hang with the band.

After the initial jam, a general sense of giddiness set into the crowd. A guy I would have considered a 'bro' or the 'I never dance' type fully busted some moves in front of his friends who were clearly stunned. But the guy didn't care because no valid human would stand still during “Californiyeah”! The night solidified for me just how good their album Thr!!!ler is, and thanks to Offer's instructions, I'll be working in my jazz hands whenever I hear my favorite song from the album, “Even When the Water's Cold.” It was also good to see Mario Andreoni get love from Offer and the audience, he's definitely the coolest cucumber on stage but is responsible for the most hip shakes. !!! may not be breaking into the top 40 any time soon (though I would support that), but in the wide open sea of music, they are on the best party boat afloat.