Painting Pop In Psychedelic Colors

In an alternate universe, the album Painting With, which dropped in February, might have been Animal Collective’s pop breakthrough. But because the world is backwards and topsy-turvy, the album that broke through was 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, a synth-slathered fantasia that sounds like harsh noise next to Painting With. Before it was released, nobody expected the Baltimore psych-pop band would ever play the actual Merriweather Post Pavilion, a Maryland mega-venue that typically hosts bands like Green Day and The Who. Continue reading 

From Guinea with Love

The Yansanes put African dance in its cultural context through the West African Cultural Arts Institute

The Yansanes

Before moving to Eugene, Alseny Yansane danced for Ballets Africains, the most prestigious dance troupe in the West African nation of Guinea.  But there’d be no mistaking his moves for anything from Swan Lake.  Low squats, flips, rapid sideways motions, windmill arm movements — these are some of the most common hallmarks of the dozens of dances that can be found across Guinea and which Yansane and his wife Andrea Yansane teach at the West African Cultural Arts Institute (WACAI) here in Eugene.  Continue reading