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No
Studio Trickery When the Archers of Loaf called it quits, no one would have predicted that Eric Bachmann would take quite the direction he did with his follow-up, Crooked Fingers. In 2000, the first Crooked Fingers album arrived beautiful and whole, heartbroken and tired.
Bachmann's songs were like old-fashioned ballads, full of characters rusty but true, the kind of late-night visitors who keep you up at the kitchen table all night as the wine-bottle rings multiply. Meandering melodies and guitars with a strange momentum turned buoyant when the strings came in. And none of it was the least bit like the Archers' twitchy, sometimes indecipherable college rock. Dignity and Shame, the fourth Crooked Fingers full-length release, marks a turning point, a shift from the melancholy of previous albums. Bachmann's voice remains endearingly gruff, earning him numerous inexplicable comparisons to Neil Diamond. "I get compared to Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen too," Bachmann says, on his cell phone in Chicago. "So which is it?" He's quick to add, "But I'm a huge fan, so it's an honor." But with the album's first lines, "Come on now and wrap your weary arms around the ones you love/ Hold tightly and don't ever let them go," Bachmann sets a new and cheerier tone. Simple, clear arrangements carry surprisingly wistful lyrics; Lara Meyerratken's sweet voice threaded throughout adds to the hopeful feel. A Latin influence lights up certain songs, in part the result of adolescent years in which Bachmann visited his mother in Puerto Rico and Guatemala. Even the production on Dignity sounds shinier than other albums, but Bachmann's amazed by those who find it "too slick." "We recorded it in a shorter amount of time than I've ever recorded anything, and it's live. We all played at once, no studio trickery. We went with this guy [Martin Feveyear] who has a really nice studio, but we were only in for like six days," he explains. "I agree, it does sound more professional, but that's 'cause he knows what he's doing." It's not just the production, though — Bachmann also knows what he's doing. His songs have a different confidence this time around, a feeling that's echoed as he says, "It's a weird thing to talk about a record because when you've made it, you've said everything you want to say."
From
Russia with Music The Eugene Symphony, on Thursday, April 21, traverses musical Romanticism's beginnings, in Beethoven's symphonic third piano concerto, to its end: Igor Stravinsky's landmark 1921 Symphonies of Wind Instruments, whose abandonment of Romantic gestures (not to mention string instruments), use of silence, and striking textures make this short, apparently simple work a truly radical signal of Romanticism's demise. The program concludes with another Russian classic by Dmitri Shostakovich, probably the last century's greatest symphonist. Although the nationalistic themes befit his Symphony No. 12's subtitle, "The Year 1917," the fact that his tormentor, Stalin, had died when he wrote it enabled the composer to avoid jingoism for something darker and more ambiguous. You don't have to be a fan of Romantic music to cherish another Russian classic, Sergei Rachmaninoff's gorgeous All Night Vigil aka Vespers. The Eugene Concert Choir, accompanied by the Ukrainian choir Cantus, will perform this lush, dramatic vocal masterpiece at Central Lutheran Church (18th & Potter) on Saturday, April 16, along with a smattering of folk songs from the two choirs' homelands. Still more Russian music — played by an actual Rooskie — is on tap that same Saturday when Eugene favorite Yuri Rozum returns to what's becoming his second home for a recital of Romantic piano music by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Liszt. After years of denying him opportunities for religious and political reasons, the Russian government finally gave Rozum its highest arts award in recognition of his popular and critical acclaim. The Shedd also hosts a couple of popular local acts: the High Street Singers folk quintet — "the Weavers meet Dan Hicks, with Bill Monroe overtones" — in 20th century folk classics on April 20, and the acoustic string band Swang, playing swing and jazz from the 1920s through the '50s, on April 28. Yet another Russian symphonic masterpiece gets a live performance on April 16 and 17 when the University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra accompanies the Eugene Ballet in one of the most colorfully cinematic scores in all of music, Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov's Scherezade, the glorious orchestral suite based on the Arabian Nights. The orchestra will also accompany dances based on music by Dvorak and Toronto's Srul Irving Glick, one of Canada's most prolific contemporary composers, whose music draws on Hebraic influences. Live music always adds an extra spark to dance. Over at the university's Beall Concert Hall on April
22-24, the UO Opera Ensemble offers a double bill: Rossini's
The Marriage Contract and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, sung
in English and moved from Florence, Italy to Florence, Ore., in the
1890s, and featuring the comic consequences that ensue when a timber
baron leaves his estate to the church instead of his family. And on
April 28 the UO faculty music masters in the Oregon String Quartet
play an exceptionally fine program of 20th century music, including
Claude Debussy's magnificent string quartet, American composer William
Grant Still's lilting "Four Indigenous Portraits," featuring guest flutist
Nancy Andrew, and a special treat: Bela Bartok's sparkling "Contrasts,"
commissioned by Benny Goodman, and featuring faculty More music from Eastern lands comes to Cozmic Pizza on April 16 when Trio Slavej — the Nightingale Trio — plays vocal and instrumental Balkan folk music from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Greece and Macedonia on traditional instruments including goat-skin bagpipe, long-neck lute, and flutes, as well as the contemporary jazzy-rock "wedding music" for clarinet accordion and keyboard. The program emphasizes Roma (gypsy) dance music and features the amazing Bulgarian multi-instrumentalist Kalin Kirilov and UO Balkan music experts Carol Silverman and Mark Levy. Finally, on Sunday, April 17 the group that's done more for contemporary music than any other, the Kronos Quartet, performs music by avant jazz master John Zorn (who's heading back to Eugene next year), the spellbinding, mysterious Icelandic avant rock band Sigur Ros, and Scott Johnson's powerful tribute to the great political iconoclast I.F. Stone, "How it Happens."
"There's all these mesh caps nowadays, but I've been
wearing Noisy,
angry, rock cacophony
It's hard to say if he despises frat boys, or if it's just the neo-outlaw/ neo-country ego, but there's definitely some sense of resentment over their hostile takeover of trucker cap fashion. "It's kind of like frat kids getting tattoos or piercings in their eyebrows," he continues. When Biram was stinting with rock bands in his teens, all of that was still uncool. "They thought we were freaks 10 years ago." Raised on a steady diet of old country music, Biram's music reflects those old sounds. But beneath his soulful blues twang lurks a grimy, explosive, pulverizing heavy metal attitude. Biram growls like Lemmy, but can just as easily cowboy croon like Gene Autry. His lyrics borrow from both the rock and country traditions — songs about whiskey, wanton women and truck drivin' meld perfectly with his foot stomps, honky tonk guitar and harmonica. And his gritty voice sounds like it's mic'd through a megaphone then spewed out of a rotten amplifier. Biram will open for Japanese noise/punk outfit DMBQ. He hadn't heard of the band, but sounded excited after he learned that they like to yell and scream a lot too. DMBQ mashes grungy riffs together with chaotic drumming and improvised guitar solos that seem to come out of nowhere. Shinji Masuko, DMBQ's founder, reinterprets '70s garage rock based on the various influences he had access to as a teen growing up in Japan. "When I was a young high school boy, I was really poor," he explains. "I really love music so I had to go to the used record store only. It was the '80s, so the '60s and '70s stuff was real cheap." DMBQ's latest release, The Essential Sounds From the Far East, released on Estrus records exemplifies the band's love for brooding, thrashing noise. Fans of the Melvins will adore our cousins from the East. Last time DMBQ performed at John Henry's, Masuko stabbed a hole in the wall with his guitar, so rest assured this show will be a wild one.
Raining
Down
When he was 7, Johnny Dyer found a harmonica
in the fields of the Stovall Plantation in Rolling Fork, Miss., where
he lived. He'd hide under his bed and play it, thinking his mom Thursday, April 21 the Rainy Day Blues Society of Oregon brings Dyer, along with fellow harmonica player Mark Hummel, to Eugene. Jerry and the StageHogs will open, with special guest, saxophone player Paul Biondi. The show is just one of the many events the blues society has organized since they got together about a year ago with the mission of bringing blues back to life in Eugene. Back in the '70s, this town had a hot little blues scene. John Belushi was here shooting Animal House and met blues musician Curtis Salgado, who, as legend would have it, inspired the characters of The Blues Brothers. Robert Cray was here getting his start and gigging regularly along with Bill Rhodes (now of the Party Kings) and Paul DeLay, all of whom moved out of Eugene and went on to bigger things. "It was this cool little phenomenon," said Jerry Zybach, guitarist for Jerry and the StageHogs. "Blues never goes away. There's always an audience for it." And that's what the blues society is all about — reviving the blues scene in Eugene and putting on shows for the people who love the music. The society's first major event was the blues stage at Cozmic Pizza during the 2004 Eugene Celebration. Hosting one of the few free stages at the Eugene Celebration, the Rainy Day Blues Society packed more than a dozen area blues bands into those two days and drew larger crowds than many of the bigger names on the official stages. Since then the society's 30-plus members have continued to promote the blues in town. "Blues is the foundation of all American music," Zybach said. "And in Eugene, people still want to hear the blues.
Music
Shorts Local VJs Reanimate Dead Media Prepare for extreme visual hysteria and cultural reprogramming on Friday, April 15 as Eugene's The JIRCS, a group of digital arts graduate students from UO, host "Night of the Living Dead Media," an evening of "vidsonic fiction" and "phono-phantasmagoria." In the spirit of video collage artists such as NamJune Paik and Craig Baldwin, The JIRCS recontextualize video clips, creating new cohesive visual and audio messages.
With dual screens, four video mixers and several laptops, the group splices together images from popular television, movies and obsolete video game technology to form illogical encounters, as one might experience in a dream, says JIRCS video jockey Carl Diehl. "Mr. T and Nosferatu suddenly are glancing at each other, start dancing together, then it all dissolved into the Beastmaster awkwardly twitching," Diehl says. Diehl says the term "qwerty-core" better describes The JIRCS' final product. Using the computer (qwerty) keyboard, The JIRCS have developed techniques for creating precise, frenetic video movement that runs in sync with the selected audio material. The JIRCS, along with visiting artist The EarthwUrms, from Ann Arbor, Mich., will carry out a live autopsy on various audio-visual artifacts from popular media culture. The resulting piece is meant to explore the possibilities that can be created when history clashes with media. Springfield's Warning Broken Machine and Eugene's Pipedream will lend an aural scalpel to the night's audio-video dissection. For more info, log on to www.electronicelsewhere.com/DEADMEDIA.html.The JIRCS, The EarthwUrms, Warning Broken Machine and Pipedream perform 7 pm, Friday, 4/15 at Wilkinson House, Millrace Studios, UO. — Steven Sawada
Eugene Trio The Visible Men Releases 2nd CD Three years after their debut, the four-drummer spectacular In Socks Mode, The Visible Men have finished Love:30, another set of chatty, meticulous songs.
This time around, the Visible Men have reduced their main drummer count to one: the remarkable Jordan Glenn, who, if you ever go out in Eugene, you've already seen with Deke Falcon, Scrambled Ape, or, on occasion, Testface. Glenn isn't the only familiar face in this band: bassist/guitarist Dan Schmid has long been a fixture around town, playing with the Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Mood Area 52 and doling out pints and tots with a cheery wink at High Street Café. Singer/pianist Dustin Lanker was also a member of the Daddies, though these days he does double duty with The Visible Men and Dan Jones and the Squids. Lanker's voice, sometimes a croon, sometimes a talky, melodic monologue, slinks over Glenn's precise percussion and Schmid's head-nodding bass. Tinkling keys alternate with woozy synths, simple melodies make way for jazzy piano ballads, and Mood Area 52 bandleader Michael Roderick turns up with his accordion for the standout track "Like a Loony Bird," a kicky but sulking kiss-off song that finds Lanker growling, "I hate you/I really don't but it sounds funny/ Could that be/ Because you said it to me, honey?" Live, The Visible Men have a They Might Be Giants-esque quirk that'll sit exceptionally well with the opening acts for their CD release this Saturday: the steadfast, Replacements-era rock of Yeltsin and the ever-entertaining Tom Heinl. If this lineup isn't enough to get you out of the house, consider this: if you miss this one, you might have to wait another three years for The Visible Men's next release party. The Visible Men play Saturday, 4/16 at Sam Bonds Garage: all-ages show with Tom Heinl 6 pm, $3; 21+ show with Yeltsin, 9:30 pm, $4. — Molly Templeton
High Voltage Fun "We want to be fun, rather than important," said Dick Valentine, lead singer of Electric Six, over the phone. Band members Valentine, Tait Nucleus, The Colonel, John R. Dequindre and Johnny Na$hinal fuse rock, disco, and hip hop with zany, funny lyrics to create a unique, eclectic sound that is half disco dance party, half '80s rock concert. Using the guise of their pseudonyms to break from the mundane, the band avoids the rocker trap: "four or five white guys from the suburbs," Valentine said. According to Valentine, the band's hip hop influences are a by-product of listening to radio in Detroit, where they're from. "In Detroit, the rock stations are so bad and the urban stations are so good," Valentine said. "I think that song 'I'm the Bomb' was me attempting to be Prince." It fits that Valentine's early influences include David Byrne, Beethoven, and Devo. So far, Electric Six has enjoyed greater success in the United Kingdom than in the United States. Their second CD, Señor Smoke, was released overseas almost two months ago, but has yet to be released here. Even in the UK, Valentine said the band is often only known for their hit single, "Danger! High Voltage." The band members still have a sizable cult following, but Valentine takes the roller-coaster ride of their modest fame in stride. "It's not necessarily about being on the radio," Valentine said. "For me, it's always been about the shows." Electric Six plays with DJ Never Forget at 8:30 pm, Sunday, April 17 at the WOW Hall. $13 adv/$15 dos. — Sara Brickner
ART OF EVERYTHING All
Ages AX BILLY GRILL & SPORTS BAR BLACK FOREST
CAFÉ PARADISO CARROWS LOUNGE CLUB TSUNAMI COFFEE GROVE COOPERATIVE COUNTRY SIDE RESTAURANT COUNTRYSIDE COZMIC PIZZA@THE STRAND All Ages DA HOUZE DOWNTOWN LOUNGE DUCK INN EMBERS SUPPER CLUB EUGENE WINE CELLARS GOOD TIMES JO FEDERIGO'S JOE'S BAR & GRILLE JOGGER'S BAR & GRILL JOHN HENRY'S THE KEG LATITUDE 10 CAFE All
Ages LAVELLE'S WINE BAR & BISTRO LONE STAR BAR & GRILL LUCKEY'S CLUB CIGAR
LUNA MAC'S AT THE VET'S MCDONALD THEATRE MCSHANE'S BAR & GRILLE MONROE STREET CAFE All Ages THE O BAR & GRILL OVERTIME GRILL PEABODY'S PERUGINO QUACKER'S RAMADA INN RED LION INN
SAM BOND'S GARAGE SAM'S PLACE SAMURAI DUCK STACY'S COVERED BRIDGE SWEETWATER'S TAYLOR'S BAR AND GRILL TINY TAVERN TRACKSTIRS VET'S CLUB BALLROOM WETLANDS
WOW HALL All Ages CORVALLIS AJ'S INTABA'S All Ages IOVINO'S RISTORANTE MURPHY'S PLATINUM NIGHT CLUB TOMMY'S PEACOCK
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