Month: March 2014
Review: ANNE – Pulling Chain
While the invisible line that often divides musical subgenres sometimes requires a stretch of the imagination, Portland-based ANNE (aka David Lindell) has completely jumped the shoegazer one it inherited for a decidedly electronic gothy one, on this, their “proper” debut. … read more
Review: Apocalyptica – Wagner Reloaded – Live in Leipzig
Whether wallowing in themes cut and pasted from Beethoven, maudlin lullabies (with sampled baby prattle) or the most domesticated of Phrygian exoticism, the album consistently eschews any of the rapturous chromatism Wagner used to drown and annihilate the bourgeois ego. … read more
Review: +/– – Jumping the Tracks
Jumping The Tracks is so painfully “meh” that it makes me pissed off and sleepy. It chaps my ass that the vocals just don’t complement the shimmering guitars and neat sonic framework—we have computers that fix this, people! … read more
Localized: MiNX
March Localized features an orgy of electric sound on March 15 at 9 p.m. The sultry, blues-rock sounds of Merchant Royal will massage things into action before we get a little horny (that’s a trumpet joke) with energetic, brass-infused ska-punkers Bombshell Academy. Once we’re hot and bothered, MiNX will hit the stage for an audio-visual
Foster Body @ Diabolical/Albatross Records 03.01 with The Circulars, Discoid...
Madison Donnelly punched out the beat to get this post-punk/hardcore–amalgam engine chugging, and the (comfortably) packed record-shop den began hopping. Banks scream-sang with wet effects that bounced around the speakers and the room like mad clowns at circus. Martin strummed angular chords that stabbed with bright tones and played brittle one-off lines that gave Foster Body’s songs their bite. … read more
The English Beat @ The Depot 02.26 with Insatiable
The English Beat’s arrival onstage provoked considerable excitement. Wasting no time, they blasted out “Rough Rider,” “Twist and Crawl” and “Hands Off She’s Mine”—thoroughly enjoyable with a nice beat, the folks to the right and left of me swayed and twisted. During this I tried managing a combination of dancing, snapping some pictures and avoiding getting my nose smashed by the back of some wanker’s head. Such juggling acts are not feasible for long periods of time. … read more
Skinny Puppy @ Lo-Fi Cafe 02.26 with Army of the...
Outside the Lo-Fi Café there was a line to end all lines. Skinny Puppy and Army of the Universe were about hold a crowd in their hand before they crushed them with pulsating industrial rock … read more
Pentagram @ Club Sound 03.01 with Merlin’s Beard, Kings Destroy,...
Seeing “old” bands is always a double-edged sword. On one hand, dusting off old tunes for a festival crowd or quick reunion circuit can equal big dollar signs at the ticket office, but lackluster performances from old heroes well past their prime can quickly sour that magic. I guess that’s what made this all the better. Pentagram never really had a prime to grow out of. … read more
Russian Circles @ Urban Lounge 03.02 w/ KEN mode, Inter...
Russian Circles’ tones, tempos and rhythms rise and fall, fold and buckle, tear and crumble, melt and congeal, in the way that mineral processes sculpt the land. The spectacle is orderly, rational, frequently beautiful, and spatially and temporally grand. … read more
Concert | Music | Show Reviews
Lake Island @ Muse Music Cafe 03.01 with Coral Bones,...
It was a damp, mild Saturday night—nice enough not to have to wear a coat, dry enough not to really notice. I was heading to Muse, the other music venue on University Avenue, to check out Coral Bones—whose album, Youthemism was my favorite local release of last year. … read more
Annie, Get Your Skates: JCRD Saddle Up for the Wild...
Junction City’s travel team was up in Bremerton, Wash. to take part in the Wild West Showdown, an annual three-day derby brawl with leagues from all over the nation hosted by the Slaughter County Roller Vixens. … read more
Movie Review: 300 – Rise of an Empire
Eight years after the release of Zack Snyder’s 300 (or as my friend calls it, “Eighteen-hundred Abs”), director Noam Murro has made a prequel/sequel/equal to the franchise that explores characters’ origins, parallel storylines and events that take place after the Spartans’ bloodbath. … read more
