Remembering A Legend

When I think about George Harrison, it takes a few moments to remember why he was so awesome. Then I recall the first time I listened to “Within You Without You,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Love You Too.” That dude rocked, there’s no other way to put it. Not only was he an incredible songwriter — as seemed to be the trend if you were a Beatle — he was by far one of the most innovative musicians of the century. You have to ask yourself, would the Stones’ “Paint It Black” be nearly as cool if Brian Jones hadn’t heard Harrison’s sitar part on “Norwegian Wood?” Probably not.



After George’s tragic and untimely death in 2001 — at only 58 — the music world suffered a giant blow not unlike the one in the mid-nineties when Kurt Cobain (at the risk of sounding tactless) bit the bullet, and Jerry Garcia followed only a year later. It’s a depressing thing when a musician with such influence dies, like a part of your life is being swept away from you, but it does remind you that music, and therefore his memory, lives on forever. In honoring a fallen artist, nothing is more fitting than a living tribute, and that’s just what George is getting.

Cozmic Pizza will ring out Saturday with the legendary music of our pal George with the George Harrison Tribute Concert. The event was organized by Rob Tobias of Maya Love — a group that Tobias pulled together in 2005 for George’s inaugural local tribute — and the bill also includes Bindaas and the All Things George Choir. The festivities will cover pretty much every era of George Harrison’s music — from his years with the Beatles, through his solo career, and everything else he worked on during the years leading up to his death. Adorning these groups is an assortment of local talent, including but not limited to: Rob Tobias, Jerry Zybach, Jeremy Wegner, Larry Lynch, Tim Miller, Sean Brennan and Ankush Vimawalla.

Bindaas is perhaps the most exciting part of the night, as it will be this duo (Wegner, Vimawalla) covering George’s apprenticeship under sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, as well as the rest of Harrison’s stint studying the traditions of Indian music. Let’s not forget that his time spent soul searching in India eventually gave rise to some of the most innovative and unconventional music of the sixties and decades post.

The All Things George Choir is a choral group that focuses almost exclusively on George Harrison songs, and should prove an interesting highlight as well. It’s tough to imagine further innovations being added to George’s music, but as long as it’s got his style in mind it has to be good.

The most important thing to consider at a tribute show is whether the artist being honored would enjoy it. I’d say George would be down.

The George Harrison Tribute Concert starts at 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 26, at Cozmic Pizza; $10

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Wild & Scenic Films

On Tuesday, Feb. 22, conservation group Cascadia Wildlands will host Patagonia’s fourth annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival at the UO campus. The festival hopes to yield donations to support the preservation of species at risk in the Cascade region, and in doing so it will continue to fulfill the group’s mission to “educate, agitate, and inspire a movement to protect and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems.”

Co-sponsored by the UO Outdoor Program, Ninkasi, Tactics and Backcountry Gear, Cascadia Wildlands hopes to draw a large crowd of folks hungry to view the nine films that adorn the evening’s bill. Wild and Scenic intends to be a smorgasbord of projects, from displaying films that provide commentary on the state of global outdoors, to showing human-nature interactions with didactic stories and stunning footage. Among said stories is Skier’s Journey: Kashmir, which documents a pair of skiers and their experience in search of a spot to ski in the Himalayas.



Another attraction is The Greatest Migration, a 20-minute piece made by local filmmaker and outdoor adventurer Trip Jennings, which documents the daunting migratory habits of Snake River salmon as they struggle to survive an onslaught of dams and hazards along the path to their spawning grounds, some 7,000 feet above sea level. The film aids Oregonians — residents who need to be especially conscious of salmon — in thinking closely about human impact on local river systems.

“We want to pack the house, connect with the community and provide them with an affordable night of cutting edge-film that isn’t Hollywood,” said Cascadia Wildlands Campaign Director Josh Laughlin. “It’s not a large fundraiser for us, rather a community—builder where we can show off some powerful film and introduce community members to the conservation work of Cascadia Wildlands.”

“It’s a compelling mix of thrilling backcountry adventure and powerful campaigns working to safeguard the Earth,” said Laughlin.

The films will be shown from 7 to 10 pm in 180 PLC at the UO campus. Tickets are $7 for the general public. More information on the festival at www.cascwild.org

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Raw Stringband Goodness

Solid instrumentation is a facet of folk, country and bluegrass that should never be ignored, and The Brothers Comatose certainly don’t miss this aspect of the genre. The coolest part of their music, though, is the songwriting. It’s often fun and upbeat, but sometimes you feel slightly taken aback by the eeriness of it all.



The first four members of Bros. Comatose met in high school — with the exception of brothers Ben and Alex Morrison — and quickly took to jamming together, though a band was never truly formed until the five of them all found themselves in San Francisco eager to get a real project started.

The outcome is raw stringband goodness, full of inventive instrumentation and nice harmony. Their album Songs from the Stoop nicely exemplifies this unique style while still maintaining a comfort zone for newcomers to the country-bluegrass genre. It’s never experimental, but it’s always tight. What more could you ask for?

The Brothers Comatose play at 9:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 26, at Sam Bond’s; $5

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Peace Out, Brooksy

Long-time Lane County resident and fingerstyle guitarist extraordinaire Brooks Robertson says farewell to our beloved city on Feb. 12 when he makes a break for the stars up in Portland. LaVelle Wine Bar, a recurrent host of Robertson, plans to make the event as fitting as possible while we see off one of the area’s most talented and unique artists. Brooks has been named the Buster B. Jones of his generation, and this seems apt considering how smoothly and impressively he makes his guitar hum. Jones was also a mentor of Robertson from an early age, and so the legacy of virtuosic fingerpicking will live on for years to come.



There’s something about the power and raw energy of one dude sitting in a chair with just a six string and a bunch of intense chops that makes the heart sing. Brooks has made this feeling a reality for years in Eugene, and there’s no doubt he’ll do the same up in P-town. His reputation is already large, and it’s boosted magnificently by his memorable second-place overall finish at last years “Yamaha Six String Guitar Theory Competition,” an international event that draws guitarists from almost fifty countries worldwide.

The evening-long “Bon Voyage” event at LaVelle features a meet-and-greet with Robertson starting at 5 pm, a set by local country-pop band Apropos from 6 to 6:45, and a two-hour Brooks set worthy of this momentous sendoff beginning at 7. Food will be available for purchase all night, and everything else is free. Could you really ask for more?

So let’s doff our hats to Brooks for supplying us with one of the coolest guitar techniques around. Thanks for all the good times, dude.

The Brooks Robertson “Bon Voyage” concert starts at 5 pm, Saturday, Feb. 12, at LaVelle Wine Bar; FREE

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Airstream 4 Lyfe

Considering the fact that the entirety of Hymn for Her’s new album Lucy & Wayne and the Amairican Stream was recorded inside a 16-foot Airstream, it’s shockingly well engineered. Sure, the acoustics within such a small, metal place were probably useful, but it’s a testament to the talent shared between Maggie Jane and Pierce Ternay that the album turned out the way it did. The music is different from the Americana floating around these days, mostly due to the distortion that fuzzes the acoustic instruments on almost every song. Hymn for Her clearly had country traditions in mind, though they added a rock twist that makes everything more fun. This isn’t just a collection of weakening croons; it’s a solid record of unique music.



How about that Airstream thing, though, right? So cool. It makes perfect sense that Hymn for Her are touring right now because, well, they’re always touring. They literally live in an Airstream — no, that’s not just a gimmick — and travel from place to place across the nation recording their music and finding inspiration. It’s clear, too, that they drew from multiple sources while recording their newest: sounds of the Delta, sounds of the Northeast, sounds of Arizona and the Southwest, burlesque, country, classic rock, they’re all in there somewhere. It’s fun-loving hillbilly rock, and if this is what a mulch of different parts of the U.S. sounds like, maybe the whole country should collaborate some time.

Hymn for Her plays at 10 pm, Friday, Feb. 11, at Diablo’s Downtown Lounge

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Weird Banjos and Furrowed Brows

If you’re a fan of modern-banjo country rock, you’ll be pleased to hear that Danny Barnes is rolling through town this week. Fans of unexpected covers will probably be pleased, too, though for haters of the above, it might behoove you to just stay home and get drunk — Barnes’ banjo style is strange (to say the least) and his songwriting is even stranger. While it’s clear that he has a comfortable grasp of both country and bluegrass traditions, he tries to peel away the layers of each genre and create an entirely new sound which, to put it bluntly, is really fucking weird. Though a step up from the likes of Big & Rich and Jason Aldean, Barnes’ big saving grace is his experience. From a young age he began garnering knowledge and skill with country, bluegrass, jazz, rock and even punk, and so a mélange of styles is able to shine through the country harmonies and banjo chunk.



Despite an array of solid testimonials from the likes of Sam Beam, Dave Matthews and Keller Williams, among others, I found myself with furrowed brow as I listened to his most recent release, Pizza Box. The album is redeemed mostly by its use of guest musicians and some of the more rockin’ riffs — beyond that I found it hard to imagine myself ever wanting to pick up Danny Barnes again. As previously stated, fans of this genre will certainly get a kick out of this one; to each his own, that’s what makes music great. As for the aforementioned covers: check out his (almost weirder) version of Beck’s “Loser” from 2003’s Dirt on the Angel. Beyond all this, I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Danny Barnes plays with Betty & the Boy at 8:30 pm Friday, Feb. 11, at the Axe & Fiddle; $10.

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The Week in WOW

Marcy Playground, Jackie Greene hit town

The ’90s was a time of sifting for a lot of people — that is, sifting through some utterly rancid shit in order to dig up a good record. Looking back at the decade, it’s sometimes fun to polish off the gems that almost drowned in the sea of boy bands, girl groups and Limp Bizkits. Marcy Playground is one of those gems — although their single “Sex and Candy” was nearly dragged into the underworld of quintessential ‘90s pop — and so it was something of a shock to hear that the band is dropping in this week to play WOW Hall.

The average response to this news is probably: “Wait, what? They’re still around?” And this is more than justified. But what really needs to be asked is: “What the fuck happened to Marcy Playground?” The answer is more intriguing than you might think.



Marcy Playground’s eponymous LP was released in 1997, and garnered significant attention and mainstream success. The album is post-grunge meets ’90s pop, folk and rock to create a solid — and remarkably original — effect. Acoustic guitars, often layered, push to the foreground of many tracks, while John Wozniak’s vocals ring out beneath it all in a calm, dull drone. Other tracks, such as “Sherry Fraser” and “One More Suicide,” find Wozniak up front, singing his heart out. With the album now past the platinum mark, and “Sex and Candy” remembered for its 15-week streak at number one, it’s hard to imagine that every other album the band recorded skipped the charts, and the minds, of everyone. But alas, this is exactly what happened; in fact, the band hasn’t had a song chart since 1999’s “It’s Saturday,” which only reached 25 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart.

Since then, the band has released two albums, MP3 and Leaving Wonderland… In a Fit of Rage — which most people shrug at, seeing as they haven’t even thought about Marcy Playground in almost a decade. It’s easy to see why 2004’s MP3 didn’t really make it: granted, the album is solid, but it’s just so… ’90s. By 2004, most mainstream music had moved away from that cutesy ditty pop rock, but for some reason John Wozniak decided it was time to start writing just that. As for the ’09 release Leaving Wonderland, it’s more of the same. The production is better, and the songwriting remains solid, but it’s far removed from the target sound of the new millennium.

Here’s to hoping the wondrous sounds of Marcy Playground’s first LP will grace their setlist Tuesday.

But before that, on Feb. 3, Jackie Greene arrives at the WOW. Rootsy, wholesome and eclectic — Greene’s music easily earns these adjectives. The California singer-songwriter decided to get serious in 2004 when he made a makeshift studio in his garage, where he recorded and burned his music. And over time, he gathered enough money to release his debut, Rusty Nails, entirely by his lonesome. If that’s not thrifty, I don’t know what is.



Since then, Greene has shot into the limelight, touring with all kinds of crazy people — B.B. King, Phil Lesh, Taj Mahal, among others — and playing major festivals like Bonaroo and Outside Lands. His most recent release, Till The Light Comes, shows just how far he’s come as a songwriter and composer. It’s a collection of fun, soulful anthems crafted mindfully in the traditions of folk, Americana and the blues. Watching Greene live is proof enough that he truly feels what he sings. On stage, eyes closed, he pulls you into his world — a world of pure fun and relaxation.

Jackie Greene & Lauren Shera play 8 pm, Thursday, Feb. 3 at WOW Hall; $15 adv. $18 door; Marcy Playground, Acidic & Dirty Wink play 8 pm, Tuesday, Feb. 8, at WOW Hall; $12 adv. $14 door.

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