Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, May 5, 2005
“It's funny how most people love the dead.
Once you're dead you’re made for life. ”
Jimi Hendrix | Musician
'Rock n Roll Soldiers'
invade the WOW Hall
Friday with a
homecoming show
BY JOSH LINTEREUR
PULSE REPORTER
his weekend one of Eugene's
most buzzed-about music
exports returns home.
With their major label debut on the horizon and MTV cameras in
tow, homegrown Rock n Roll Soldiers will play a show atthe WOW Hall
on Friday before leaving for an East Coasttour.
But flirting with mainstream success hasn’t
made the band feel like rock stars tri
umphantly returning to their hometown.
"We're just going to feel stupid," lead
singer Marty Larson-Xu said, referring to the
fact that an MTV camera crew will follow the
band for an upcoming documentary
show. As awkward as the cameras will
make the band feel, their presence signi
fies just how far the group has come.
The band picked out its name, Rock n Roll Sol
diers, before any of them knew how to play an instru
ment. And if the title sounds like a grade school garage band, it's
because the original band members adopted the name while attend
ing Roosevelt Middle School.
"We were a terrible band," Larson-Xu said. But the moniker
stuck, and the band slowly began honing its sound.
Though the mainstream resurgence of punk and garage rock
SOLDIERS, page 10
■ In my opinion
RYAN NYBURG
BUDGET RACK
Exposing potholes on
our cultural road map
Sometimes it's good to be constructive and
praise what is good and true in our culture, to
provide a road map for others so that they
might have a chance enjoy the wonders of tru
ly wonderful art. But often it's more fun to blow
off some steam and take my own artistic frus
trations out on things that truly and woefully
suck. Which is what I intend to do here.
Let us start with George Lucas. The "Star
Wars" prequels have been a hideous boil on
the cultural landscape for years and his atro
cious hack job on the original films stands as
one of the most monumentally stupid and sin
gle-mindedly greedy cash-ins of cinema histo
ry. To top it off, his zealousness concerning
digital technology is leadingto a rush toward
NYBURG, page 9
PULSEMUSIC PULSEMUSIC
Brandi Cariile, "Acoustic": A breakthrough is looming for
23-year-old singer/songwriter Brandi Cariile. In March, the Ravensdale,
Wash., native was featured in Rolling Stone as one of "10 Artists t
Watch," and in June she is set to release her first full-length album
through Columbia Records.
Her five-song EP, "Acoustic," offers a brief glimpse at what could be a
bright future forthe young artist. The soulful rasp and deep melodic
range of Carlile's vocals haunt the EP's stripped down melancholic
ballads. Cariile is accompanied by twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth(lead
guitar and bass), and each song comes to life with a delicately harmonic sound and deeply confessional lyrics.
Cariile has already built a significant following on the West Coast and has toured with Dave Matthews, James Tay
lor, India Arie and Jonny Lang. A singing voice as distinct as Carlile's doesn't stay in the margins for long. Music fans
hoping to capture an emerging but still out-of-the-mainstream artist will want to check out the album, which is avail
able online (www.brandicarlile.com).
Josh Lintereur
INSIDE PULSE
Cafe Soriah offers a wide
selection of wines, but is too
crowded for the after hours set.
The Oregon Electric Station
serves some of the best dishes
in Eugene from its historic site.
Check out the new Pulse
comic strip this week, John
Palmer's "Cool Nuvo."
NoMeansNo
WOW Hall
8:30 p.m.,
$10 in advance,
$12 at door
Rock
Friday
20 Minute Loop
Luckey's Bar
10 p.m., $3
Indie rock
Saturday
Eleven Eyes
Luna
9:30 p.m., $7
Jazz
Sunday
Sweet Island Thyme
Sam Bond's Garage
8:30 p.m., $3
Jam
TOP 5 MOVIES
1: "The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy"
2: "The Interpreter"
3: "XXX: State of the
Union"
4: "The Amityville
Horror"
5: "Sahara"
NEWYORKTIMES
BEST-SELLERS
1: Nicholas Sparks,
"True Believer"
2: Sue Monk Kidd,
"The Mermaid Chair"
3: Dan Brown,
"The Da Vinci Code"
4: Matthew Stover,
"Revenge of the Sith"
5: Mary Higgins Clark,
"No Place Like Home"
BILLBOARDTOP 5
1: Rob Thomas,
"...Something to Be"
2: Mariah Carey,
"The Emancipation of
Mimi"
3: Mike Jones,
"Who is Mike Jones"
4: II Divo,
"II Divo"
5:50 Cent,
"The Massacre"