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Partyin'
Like It's 2004 Get out your dancing shoes and prepare to party like a rock star this New Year's Eve because no matter what you're into, Eugene's got it goin' on.
The WOW Hall and the Faerieworlds Festival host a New Year's Eve Faerie Masquerade Ball with reunited Trillian Green and music from Woodland. The event also features art from Brian Froud and Jen Delyth's lightshows. Ten years ago Trillian Green's musical odyssey began at the Oregon Country Fair. They performed to appreciative crowds until parting ways after their 1997 New Year's Eve show at the WOW Hall. Last summer they rediscovered their joy of performing together and now they're ready to play for you! Woodland's music explores the realm of the Faerie through harp, violin, guitar, bass, drums, flutes and the faerie art of Brian Froud. Feel free to dress for the occasion in robes, wings and crowns. Cozmic Pizza hosts a Last Night Celebration from 7:30 pm to 1 am. Performances kick off with tango dance music from The Tango Trio and end with Samba Ja, a Brazilian-percussive ensemble. In between, delight in appearances by Eugene's reigning Slug Queen Scarlett O'Slimera and friends, West African drumming and dancing performances by Village Pulse, bellydance performances by members of Ala Nar, and Brazilian dance music by Macaco Velho. Don't miss Grupo Capoeira's performance as they demonstrate the "national sport" of Brazil — a non-contact martial art involving music and artistic expression between players. Samba Ja brings the night to a thrilling close when the 30-piece percussion ensemble breaks out the rhythms of Carnival. Don't try to resist the call. Samba in the new year. With so many reggae lovers in town, it's no surprise Eugene has our own resident reggae legend: Norma Frasier. Friday night, chase away the evening's chill listening to her smooth, sunny, tropical rhythms at Lucky Noodle. Frasier released her first record, We'll Be Lovers, at age 19 in 1961. It topped charts in Jamaica for more than a year. But it's her second album, The First Cut Is The Deepest, which debuted in 1967, that made her famous in the U.S. Frasier recorded at Studio One in Jamaica with Bob Marley and the Wailers, Ken Booth, The Skatalites, Delroy Wilson and others. Though she gained a measure of fame in the early 1970s, she was disenchanted with the business end of the music industry and didn't perform for 20 years. Luckily that's changed and her clear voice is as beautiful as it was in 1961. You're sure to see unshaved pits and dreadlocks at Sam Bond's when The Sugar Beets perform. With two female vocalists, acoustic guitar, keyboards, fiddle, mandolin, upright bass and drums, the band delivers an unstoppable dance groove for Eugene's ubiquitous hippies. Eugene Weekly readers know and love the Beets, and voted them best band in both 1999 and 2000. The group knows it's a band for dirt-lovers and expresses it with gentle humor, as on "Did You Ask The Tall Blue-Eyed Hippie To Stay?," a track off their 2001 CD Sweet Ride Home. If you like the jam and groove of Widespread Panic or Leftover Salmon, Sam Bond's is the place to park your tie-dyed butt on New Year's night.
Maximizing Much-needed remodeling reinvigorated a beloved campus watering hole recently, and the New (and improved) Max's Tavern plans to reopen and kick off the New Year with music from the Divers. Chase Fairbairn bought Max's Tavern in 1993 and over time noticed that the floor was slowly sinking. He attributed it to settling of an old building until the floor started caving in. "Eventually things started looking dangerous and that's when we finally shut down," says Fairbairn. After looking under the floor he found that while the restroom drainage was fine, corrosive beer and soda had eaten away the old iron pipes coming out of the bar's drainage system. Six scary feet of "quickmud" had formed under the bar's floor. They closed in August 2004 for repairs, and used the same technology engineers employed to shore up the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. They sank pillars 16 feet into the ground to stabilize the load-bearing wall and all plumbing is now state-of-the-art. "All the infrastructure of the bar is new. All the equipment is new, all the cabinetry is new, all the seating is new," Fairbairn says. "We've redone everything, and especially anything that has to function. It's like a bionic building now!" Fairbairn says the new décor has a "haberdashery" feel, like an old '40s retailer. New Year's are typically raucous affairs at the Tavern, and with the grand re-opening of one of Eugene's most-loved bars, this event will be one to tell your grandchildren about.
Commercializing
Culture
The beat starts, it pounds and thumps into a groove. Two silhouettes face off in a heated MC battle with a hyped crowd and strong disses. For a second, life is good in hip hop. Then comes the logo: an image of a bright red and white target. It invades the space of the two figures, as if it had the entire hip hop culture in its sights, ready to fire away. I turn the TV off and sigh. I am ashamed. Should I be happy that hip hop has finally found a place in the mainstream and is accepted as a viable marketing tool? Am I proud that the world is finally catching on? On one hand it's huge and sends the message: "You too can make it in this industry if you try!" As encouraging as this may all seem, there's also a voice inside me screaming, "This is art! Not a commodity used to sell products to hipsters!" So where does the happy medium between underground quality and the benefits of mainstream exposure lie? I sat down with Eugene's Michael K and Chewey Elizondo of NorthWest Beat and Shamasound and talked about what it would take to find that happy medium and lift pure Northwest hip hop into the national limelight. "There's a certain level of organization that it takes to really make things happen, that's what we're lacking," K says. "Another important formula is the buzz factor. The reason why a lot of the garbage on the radio is popular is because it's up in people's faces all the time. It's on TV, in the magazines, and even in supermarkets. So the people get into this mode where they think that if it's not on the radio and all in their face, it's not OK to like it." For underground movements, local support is a key to success. "I've lived all over the place and have seen some of the most talented people right here in the Northwest," says Elizondo. "But cats seem to think that you need to leave and go to California or New York to ever make it in this game … If people who complain about how boring the scene is want to see it change, then they've got to support the cats that are going to make it genuinely exciting locally [by buying local CDs and going to shows]. We want people all over the world to notice what's going on up here and be able to recognize the uniqueness of this Northwest sound." The Northwest hip hop culture has enough diversity to make that happen, but it will take teamwork and unity within the scene to actually capitalize on that quality. K is trying to make that happen with his company NorthWest Beat, dedicated to building a network that Northwest hip hop artists can use as a promotional and informational tool. "The people involved with hip hop here seem to be taking these little back streets, which are all going different directions," he says. "NorthWest Beat is like building I-5 for them, one road that goes straight from A to B. It's a place for anyone with a computer to find out what's going on with the scene; where and when the shows are going to take place; where the recording studios are; and who to talk to about promotions in each Northwest town." For a small one-time fee, artists can post press photos, a bio, album covers with track listings, a calendar of their upcoming events, audio clips, and more on NorthWest Beat's website. "It's harder for independents, but if you have your community getting your back then it greatly opens up possibilities," Elizondo says. "The underground is the testing ground for all that mainstream hotness that's so popular right now." It's a new idea for the Northwest's untapped hip hop market: one place to find everybody's material. The networking potential is phenomenal. If one artist has 200 solid fans who log in to check out his stuff, then those fans are going to be exposed to a unique collection of other artists that they never would have known about. It's a simple answer. A way to maintain musical quality and wide exposure at the same time. And as K says "It takes an army of people to make it successful." NorthWest Beat offers internships and opportunities in the multimedia and recording industries. Contact them through www.northwestbeat.com K and Elizondo also run a local recording studio, Shamasound, specializing in hip hop music. Shamasound and the NorthWest Beat headquarters are located at 245 Blair Blvd., Studio B. Book studio time at www.shamasound.com
For
the Ladies
Feinstein's Museum of Unfine Art hosts a tour of independent media as the Perpetual Motion Roadshow rumbles into town Tuesday, Jan. 4. Along with Toronto hip hopper More or Les and cartoonist Stephen Notley (creator of "Bob the Angry Flower"), artist Christa Donner will appear. The mind behind Ladyfriend Zine, 29-year-old Donner connects readers of all walks of life through shared essays and interviews with remarkable women. Ladyfriend tackles issues such as hair loss from chemo and voluntary head-shaving in the "Hair" issue. The "Driving" issue features an interview with a female mechanic. Donner told me more in a phone interview. What in your life prepared you or inspired you to do a zine? I found out about zines when I was a teenager. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Ind., and there wasn't much independent publishing going on there. But I went to see a local band play and there was this girl passing out her one-page zine and I thought that was such a great idea. At that time I didn't understand that there was a whole community of people [making zines] but it seemed like a great way to get your ideas out there. About three years ago I had this amazing group of women friends who were all moving to different cities. I wanted to make a publication that would capture their skills and personalities; just something for us friends but that other people could enjoy as well, I hoped. I sent it out to magazines that did zine reviews and started getting contributions for the next issue. What was the most interesting or challenging interview you've conducted? I would say one of the most moving for me was the "Age" issue. A friend of mine interviewed four generations of women in her family with the same questions. They had all raised each other but had really different outlooks on life. Also in that issue I found people in each decade of life and asked them to Xerox an image that said something to them about where they were in life and write something about why they chose that image. A woman who was 51 had Xeroxed all these images of her hand and this indentation of her wedding ring because she had just left her husband and her ring had left an imprint on her finger. Getting that from someone I really didn't know at all was amazing and it's really amazing to be able to share that with other people – Vanessa Salvia
CAFE PARADISO CLUB TSUNAMI COZMIC PIZZA@THE STRAND All
Ages COUNTRY SIDE RESTAURANT DA HOUZE DIABLO'S DOWNTOWN LOUNGE GOOD TIMES
JO FEDERIGO'S JOE'S BAR & GRILLE JOGGER'S BAR & GRILL JOHN HENRY'S THE KEG
LAVELLE'S WINE BAR & BISTRO LUCKEY'S CLUB CIGAR LUNA
MAC'S AT THE VET'S MAX'S TAVERN MONROE STREET CAFE THE O BAR THE OLD PAD OREGON ELECTRIC STATION OVERTIME TAVERN PEABODY'S TH: Gordon Kaswell--6; Piano PERUGINO PRIME TIME SPORTS BAR QUACKER'S RAMADA INN SAM BOND'S GARAGE SAMURAI DUCK STACY'S COVERED BRIDGE SWEETWATER'S TAP 'N' KEG TAYLOR'S BAR AND GRILL TINY TAVERN
WOW HALL All Ages
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