Eugene weekly., February 24, 2011, Page 21, Image 21

music
Back From the Otherside
It’s said that money grows on the tree of persistence. Mackelmore
is not a millionaire or even an underground hip hop legend — yet — but
as an artist in a medium that has all but dwindled away to popular
conglomerate genres of glitch hop and dub step, he is a talented
survivor who didn’t quit. And it paid off.
Mackelmore’s return to the mic and the stage is a personal
triumph as well as a regional victory for Seattle-based
underground hip hop. Before falling off the map, he
was a familiar face around the Seattle and Olympia
underground scenes from about 2001 to 2006.
Given that this time period roughly straddled the
rising spike and sharp decline of conscious hip
hop in the U.S., it’s doubtful that Mackelmore’s
disappearance from the scene was considered
unusual. Many an underground MC tapped out
during that exact period of time.
But as the saying goes, the cat came back.
After battling substance abuse for several
years, an issue addressed in his brutally
honest new song “Otherside,” Mackelmore and
producer Ryan Lewis have been cranking out
hip hop with dogged perseverance. Picked up
by the Agency Group, an international booking
company that also represents A Tribe Called
Quest and Flogging Molly, Mackelmore and
Lewis will be rocking stages on a national tour
that passes through town Tuesday. Hip hop
heads, make your way out of the woodwork
for this one. Also, look for Portland-based hip
hop group Gray Matters to be on the bill.
Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis play with
Blue Print and Gray Matters at 8 pm Tuesday,
March 1, at Wow Hall; $13 adv., $15 door.
— Dante Zuñiga-West
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 fi rst 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 fi ve 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 exemplifi es 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
— Andy Valentine
A Thousand Points of Punk
Bruce Hartnell still cuts an imposing fi gure: tall and beefy with a booming
deep voice and hands the size of dinner plates, perpetually dressed in a black
T-shirt and black jeans. He’s now celebrating his 50th birthday by playing sets with
two of his bands, the Detonators and Los Mex Pistols del Norte, along with friends
Eugene Pyrate Punx and Camp Fire Punks (two guys from Toad in the Hole doing
acoustic bluegrass versions of old punk songs).
As a co-founding owner of the original John Henry’s bar and guitarist for political
punk band the Detonators, a band he formed in 1979 in Redondo Beach, Hartnell
offered an antidote to a music industry plagued by skinny ties and ludicrously tight
pants. After the 1983 release of the Detonator’s fi rst LP, Emergency Broadcast
Systems, they opened for the Dead Kennedys, Discharge, Minor Threat, the Misfi ts,
MDC, the Dicks and 45 Grave, among others.
Hartnell relocated the Detonators to Eugene in 1987, and continued for a while
before forming Los Mex Pistols del Norte, an instrumental spaghetti western/
mariachi band that toured Asia twice. “I had a lot of fun, I got to see the world,” he
says. “The Detonators were so far underground that you needed a shovel to fi nd it,
and the Pistols was my attempt to reach a broader audience and not necessarily be
a sell-out. By keeping it instrumental we weren’t really trying to push a message, it
was purely about the love of the music.”
If punk is a young person’s game, some people might wince at the thought
of Hartnell (who just received his AARP card in the mail) channeling his inner 18
year old. The man himself, though, never lost that anti-authoritarian attitude. “The
thing with punk rock is you kind of always believe in it,” he says.
Though Hartnell still plays fairly regularly, he can more often be found watching.
He admits it’s “a huge burden” to plan shows. Still, there’s talk of a European tour
for The Detonators in the fall. “There’s no retirement plan in rock and roll,” he says.
“You’ve got to keep going.” The Detonators, Los Mex Pistols del Norte, Eugene
Pyrate Punx and Camp Fire Punks play at 9 pm Friday, Feb. 25, at Oak Street
Speakeasy; donation. — Vanessa Salvia
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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 fi rst 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
infl uence 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 fi tting 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.
— Andy Valentine
EUGENE WEEKLY
FEBRUARY 24, 2011 21