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Heartheartheart Chicago-born, Austin-seasoned, Seattle-warped Eugenean Brian Cutean (aka QTN) has been a mainstay in each of those scenes for years. His blend of thought-provoking, entertaining and otherworldly songs, "psychoacoustadelic gypsyhooplafolkmedicinemojo," and colorful guitar chops give audiences a truly unique experience every time.
At Dancing Dragons' "Festival in the Forest" this past summer, QTN was in fine form — and in his freaky element — running through old songs and new with elvish flair, wit and wisdom. "It's funny what you hear from people after a set," QTN mused. "This one guy came up to me at the Dancing Dragons gig, later on, and gave me a big hug and called me a 'philosopher-poet.' Wow. I took it as a compliment." Brian also cowrote three nationally released CDs this year: Willy Porter's successful FM single "Unconditional" is featured on Willy Porter and his latest, High Wire Live; "Buddy and Carol's Waltz," an instrumental from Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen's CD Sense of Place; and East Coast rabble rousers Chris Chandler and Anne Feeney have released their version of Brian's "Food" song on their newest CD, The Wholly Stolen Empire. On QTN's latest album, Heartheartheart, poetry meets free jazz consciousness meets wooden music. Listening, one wonders: Is this Willie Nelson with George Harrison at the Oregon Country Fair? Is it Paul Simon in his living room jamming with Bohemians? Dylan and The Band at Big Pink? Recorded "at an undisclosed location" on Orcas Island in February and April of this year, it is the product of QTN and musical co-collaborator Bruce Harvie. Brian tells me this is the most fun he's ever had recording (this is his fifth release), "It was one of those albums where it all came together with perfect ease." Besides fine guest appearances by Amy Danziger on cello, David Nerad on clawhammer banjo, Brett Lovins on dobro and vocals, and Bryan Thurber on violin, on a handful of tunes, QTN and Harvie play every instrument, including but not limited to, voices, guitars, pump organs, harmonicas, mandolin, banjo, string bass, drums — and a few odd things I've never heard of. QTN's lyrics show what a superb poet and songsmith we all suspected he was. There is so much rich imagery, so much real life true emotion, and giddy word-play, it takes a few listens for it all to sink in. The CD kicks off with a lively, bluegrass swing-like instrumental, "Goomba"— all aboard for this acoustic journey — that features some tasty mandolin playing, then winds its way around and around until it slips into the backwoods warm-spring bath of "Heron Moon," where we first hear QTN's voice: "Stars are too many to count or to name/Trees sing a pining tune/Feel the blade as night comes in/I see a heron in front of the moon." We find ourselves in old-growth woods somewhere in the Northwest. In the studio QTN and Harvie have created the equivalent of a night around "a real woodfire," sharing songs and stories — a pleasant dream on a warm summer evening.
As I look at the list of tunes, and the words spread before me, I can read the contours of this work — the topographic map through an enchanted land. Each song tells a story, and imparts a bit of nature's wisdom, in nature's own language. "Standing People Trees", accompanied by a creaky pump-organ,
tells the story of America, from Each tune on the album presents a separate piece of the puzzle. "Fixture Picture Departure Overture" paints a beautiful portrait, aided by the bubbling Hammond organ and undulating slide guitar that will melt your heart. But it's getting late, the fire is burning low, woodland creatures move through the night, and all is under a spell. That sums up the mood of the whole album, and just sitting and listening to it for a while can carry the listener there, out under the trees, drums throbbing in the distance.
The
Queercore Blitz
Sunday the WOW Hall will host a night of queer punk when the Queercore Blitz rolls through town. Organized by Eugene native Anna Jacobson-Leong, the Blitz is the first tour (seven shows over nine days) to feature exclusively all-queer bands and was created to showcase bands from around the country and world. Though these bands are sub-genres of an already marginalized punk rock scene, they're here to prove that the heydey of queer rock didn't end when Team Dresch and The Pansy Division broke up. And, there will always be queers, so there will always be queer rock, so the rest of the music world might as well just shut up and take notice. Sunday's lineup is Triple Creme (New York City), Dominatrix (São Paulo, Brazil), Jack Queen (Portland) and The Dead Betties (New York City). The four women in Triple Creme released a full-length CD, Lucid, in 2003. They extoll the industrial, dark virtues of fellow NYC bands Cop Shoot Cop with fury and passion. Sisters Isabella and Elisa Gargiulo formed Dominatrix in 1995. They solidified their feminist agenda and became legendary as the first feminist punk band in South America. Isabella isn't in the band anymore, but their melodic hard core has developed into a force the world must now reckon with. The all-male line-up of The Dead Betties is said to be "New York art rock at the heaviest extreme." I don't know what "cyclonic hard core" means, and I couldn't wait 47 minutes 23 seconds for my iddly-piddly dial-up connection to download one MP3, but it sure sounds fierce. In their photo they're young and cute eyecandy! Our own local contribution, Jack Queen, is a little bit sweet and a lot spicy. For more info, go to: www.queercoreblitz.com.
You
Heard It Here First
No longer loudmouth teenage drunks, the Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers are now rock stars! Recently seen schmoozing with The Donnas and Playboy Bunnies (the Soldiers played the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in September) and more recently spotted at Luckey's, I now predict that 21-year-old lead singer Marty Larson-Xu will steal Drew Barrymore away from Julian Casablancas. The Soldiers are heavily influenced by (late, good) 70s rock which is oh, so trendy right now, but unlike the Strokes, The Soldiers have been into it, really into it, since they were pre-adolescents in middle school. They're all childhood friends from Eugene, and they grew up idolizing Iggy and the Stooges, The Dead Boys and especially Radio Birdman. They all have youthful energy in abundance and Larson-Xu was born for the stage. There's nothing about the Soldiers on the Atlantic Records website yet (Oh, you didn't know? The band signed a major-label deal in August of this year.), and no info on their homepage about their new CD, but there were two new songs, and they are hot! Before the corporate juggernaut takes them completely away from us, go see them at the WOW Hall on Friday where they have one more chance to shower their hometown fans with divine grace. Who was the first music columnist to write about the Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers? That's right, moi. Don't you feel proud? White Hot Odyssey (WHO) will also perform, a band fronted by Steve Perry of Cherry Poppin' Daddies fame, and which serves as a vehicle for his persona Count de Monet, an undersexed, hypersexual escapee from the bad boys club of angry white man rock. WHO are celebrating the release of their debut CD.
Saturday, cruise to Corvallis where native daughter and UO alumna Carrie Clark will be performing at the downtown Beanery. This is her first show in her hometown, where she lived until she graduated from Corvallis High. She now lives in Seattle but prefers to play in small towns, far away from the big city, where people actually kind of care. I just made that part up, but Clark does perform on guitar and piano and has a new release, Reverie, which is a follow up to her debut album Release The Butterfly. Classic rock. Whoo. Classic rock by some band you've either never heard of or barely cared about when they were popular. Double whoo. I know that Wishbone Ash pioneered the twin guitar sound that made Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden famous, both bands I respect and admire. I know they're popular in Europe. I know they have a new CD, Bona Fide. I know they have performed regularly for 30-plus years and that the tour features founding members Andy Powell and Muddy Manninen (a Finnish guitar maniac). But I just don't care. I know they were big once, but so was The Macarena. Their website failed to impress me on any current relevance. Plus, Powell never responded to my request for an interview and I'm bitter. My editor made me write about them. Save your money and go buy yourself a colon-cleansing enema instead. Wishbone Ash perform at the Jungle Monday.
BLACK FOREST
CAFE PARADISO CAMPBELL CLUB CLUB TSUNAMI COFFEE GROVE COOPERATIVE
COZMIC PIZZA@THE STRAND All
Ages COUNTRY SIDE RESTAURANT DA HOUZE DIABLO'S DOWNTOWN LOUNGE EMBERS SUPPER CLUB EUGENE WINE GOOD TIMES JO FEDERIGO'S JOE'S BAR & GRILLE JOGGER'S BAR & GRILL
JOHN HENRY'S THE JUNGLE LATITUDE 10 CAFE LAVELLE'S WINE BAR & BISTRO LUCKEY'S CLUB CIGAR LUNA MAC'S AT THE VET'S THE O BAR OVERTIME TAVERN PEABODY'S FR: Peter Giri Project--8; Acoustic PERUGINO PRIME TIME SPORTS BAR QUACKER'S RAMADA INN SAM BOND'S GARAGE SAM'S PLACE SPIRITS STACY'S COVERED BRIDGE STONEHENGE SWEETWATER'S TAP 'N' KEG TAYLOR'S BAR AND GRILL WETLANDS
WOW HALL All Ages
CORVALLIS BEANERY INTABA'S KITCHEN All Ages THE PEACOCK TAVERN PLATINUM TU: No Cash Value, Pirk Q Laters--8; Punk SQUIRREL'S TAVERN
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