music
WEEKEND OF
LOCAL CD RELEASES
E
ugene is full of incredible musicians who write, record and perform original songs. From show to show, track
to track and across genres, our local music scene teems with talent. We are fortunate to have such a wealth
of passionate working musicians, and this weekend boasts CD release shows for three solid Eugene bands. Go
support them — and be loud about it!
Edgy
Good Luck
Pig Fish
Considering punk was a social movement that died a long
time ago, Eugene’s the Underlings sure do the sound justice.
The group blends elements of modernized pop-punk with the
hard-hitting punch of a band that spends its weekends blasting
Misfits, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
On Friday, April 27, the Underlings will celebrate the
release of their sophomore LP, entitled Edgy, an album that
sounds like it’s been greased with gunk from skateboard
bearings and tuned as tightly as a grand piano. When you put
the eloquence of Ed Cole’s vocals with the noisy buzz and
don’t-give-a-fuck sound of driving punk overtones, the result is
an intelligent and unique mélange of rock orchestration and
hang-ten fury.
Next to Cole’s vocals and guitar prowess, the rhythm sec-
tion stands as a solid foundation for the Underlings’ sound
— keeping the dirt and drive on the mudflaps of Edgy. Dave
Peterson’s bass tones channel the Offspring and Bryant
Grace keeps his punk beats metronomic, and his embellish-
ments are impressive. Some of those fills, man; they rock the
speakers in half.
Edgy is a solid punk album written for a generation that
started thinking they knew what punk was about with the
dawning of Green Day. It’s 10 tracks of scathing songwriting and
thundering instrumentation that will appeal to anybody who’s in
the mood to stomp their feet and throw a punch. Just to be
clear: that’s anybody, young or old. Either way, the Underlings
successfully hearken to something punk that we all like, and
maybe Edgy is destined to be the next album that we all like.
Join the Underlings with The Soothesayers and The
Lovesores for a CD release party that’s sure to be a rager. The
Underlings’ live show is wild enough to rile anybody (again,
that’s anybody) up, get heads bobbing, toes itching to touch
grip-tape and fists clenched in nostalgia for the long-dead
punk movement, may it rest in peace.
The Underlings CD Release Party with Soothesayers
and Lovesores is 10 pm Friday, April 27, at Luckey’s; $5.
— Andy Valentine
Betty and the Boy, arguably Eugene’s most high-profile
local band, has made a name for itself by playing live shows
that are nothing short of entrancing. And now the group has
captured its eerie tunes and haunting vocals on disc, with the
album Good Luck.
At first glance, the album’s title seemed a bit unfitting for
a band whose music can sometimes feel like the soundtrack to
a slow-motion, near-death experience in the wild. But when
asked about the title, the answers that Josh Harvey (mandolin,
banjo, vocals) and Bettreena Jaeger (vocals) gave only
furthered the reality of how authentic this group is.
“I was hiking in the middle of nowhere in Montana and
came upon this abandoned cabin,” says Harvey. “On the porch
was a beat up old handmade sign that said, Good Luck.”
“We started in Montana, and we wanted to speak to that,”
says Jaeger.
Good Luck is composed of songs that Betty and the Boy
have been working on for years, as well as three new cuts,
“Gardens & Things,” “Good Luck” and “Babel,” a piece of music
that is perhaps the group’s most definitive work to date. Though
that isn’t a statement the band would likely agree with, because
these guys are eagerly pursuing more, incubating another
album and about to embed themselves in a full-on artist
residency by way of Artist Wilderness Connection in Montana’s
Flathead National Forest. They keep busy.
This album-release show will host a stacked bill, including
Montana’s prolific outlaw four-piece The Horse Thieves, and
Eugene’s Matthew MacDonald of Toad in the Hole.
“We’re excited about the CD release show, and the more
that is to come,” says Jaeger.
The Betty and the Boy CD release party is 9:30 pm
Saturday, April 28, at Sam Bond’s; $5. For more on Betty and
the Boy’s residency and Artist Wilderness Connection, go to
wkly.ws/19g — Dante Zuñiga-West
A lot of times when bands try to mix controversial political
statements with music, the result isn’t pretty. Things end up a
little too heavy on the diatribe, or a little too amateur on the
musical end. Not everyone can pull off a Rage Against the
Machine thing, or a Boots Riley vibe. It takes talent and wit to
create quality music concerning the sociopolitical. Dead
Americans have both, and the band’s album Pig Fish is proof.
“This is our way of talking back to the systems we take
issue with,” says vocalist, lead guitar player and self-described
art-freak feminist enigma Kyra Kelly.
With songs that take on everything from socially ascribed
gender roles to agnosticism, Dead Americans revel in being
both inflammatory and progressive. Pig Fish is a punk-
influenced rock album that thrashes and floats, depending on
the song. The album’s title is a spin off of the “big fish in a
small pond” saying, and it’s a mix of very old and very recent
tunes the band has worked on. More than 30 songs were
recorded for the album, which now consists of 11 strong tracks.
“It’s music about exercising our freedoms, our First
Amendment and not turning into a zombie,” Kelly says. “We
are critical viewers of social systems and the mainstream
media that dumbs people down and numbs them.”
Live, this band is known to “trash stages,” but that may
not be the case at the Eugene Storefront Art Project (ESAP)
this weekend. The group will be performing a rare acoustic set
that is intended to make you dance, and celebrate the release
of Pig Fish.
“This album has almost come out a few times,” says Kelly.
“We’re so happy to have it out now.”
Dead Americans play 8 pm Saturday, April 28, at ESAP;
$10. — Dante Zuñiga-West
Faculty Author
READING & BOOK SIGNING
JOHN DAVIS
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EUGENE WEEKLY
APRIL 26, 2012 25