music

Willamette Week organizes one of the best Oregon musical experiences of the year at their annual MusicFest NW, this year going down Sept. 3-6 (and not conflicting with the Eugene Celebration for once!). Held at Portland's variously harrowed and hailed venues big and small (Doug Fir, Crystal Ballroom, Wonder Ballroom, etc.), this is probably the only chance you'll get to see some of the darker indie kids dashing across town in broad daylight to catch a set by M. Ward. Like last year (Wolf Parade, Okkervil River, etc.), here's hoping some of these bands bleed down to Eugene before or after their MFNW set.

Here's the lineup (so far):

• Vampire Weekend
• TV on the Radio
• Mogwai
• The Murder City Devils
• Del the Funky Homosapien
• M Ward
• The Helio Sequence
• Xavier Rudd
• Old 97's
• Menomena
• Polvo
• Nada Surf
• The Cool Kids

PLUS: The Whigs • Jedi Mind Tricks • John Vanderslice • Dan Deacon • Seaweed • The Night Marchers • Blitzen Trapper • The Builders and The Butchers • Deerhunter • Steel Pole Bath Tub • Trans Am • Mirah • Fuck Buttons • Centro-Matic • Crooked Fingers • Bobby Bare Jr. • Monotonix • Fucked Up • Poison Idea • Matt and Kim • Nebula • These Arms are Snakes • Old Time Relijun • Colour Revolt • Death Vessel • Witchcraft • Stevie Jackson (of Belle and Sebastian) • The Blakes • The 1900's • Forro in the Dark • Bodies of Water • Rupa and the April Fishes • The Joggers • Supernova • Oxford Collapse • Calvin Johnson • Pierced Arrows • U.S.E. • Blue Giant • The Shaky Hands • Port O'Brien • The Mommyheads • Totimoshi • Sleepercar • Space Cookie • Akimbo • Past Lives • The Muslims • Pwrfl Power • The Devin Phillips Band • Kaia • Starfucker

Four-day wristbands bump up to $50 this year, but can you complain with this kind of action going on?

The Supersuckers wish you bought more tickets in advance.

No official press release or anything of that nature, but according to the WOW Hall's website this morning, the Reverend Horton Heat/The Supersuckers/Nashville Pussy show has been moved from Secret House Winery to WOW Hall.

No word yet on whether this means God is dead or whether concertgoers just don't want to drive all the way out to a vineyard in Veneta to see a lineup that would've been amazing in 1996.

Cool Nutz backs up the Salgado at the Cuth on Wednesday

Just LOVE it when the PR peeps send me stuff after we go to press, but better late (for a FREE concert) than never, I suppose:

Full press release:

Eugene, Ore. – Safeway and Amp Energy in cooperation with Eugene ’08, Kesey Enterprises and Double Tee Concerts, will present a FREE concert at the Cuthbert Amphitheater on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 in order to show appreciation for the all the volunteers, partners, organizers, and participants of this year’s 2008 Olympic Trials.
A ticket will be required for entrance. Free tickets will be available starting Monday, June 30 at two Wells Fargo locations, located at 99 East Broadway Avenue and at 710 Polk Street, as well as at KLCC, located at 136 West 8th Avenue. Free tickets will also be available at The Cuthbert Amphitheater Box Office.
Gates will open at 6:30 p.m. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Much was written on Los Campesinos! in this week's issue, but I'd like to take a moment to give a shout out to Everett, Wash.'s Parenthetical Girls (pictured in all their bloody glory above). Lush in orchestration, glockenspiel-friendly, too-cute band members, lyrics about youth in dark times: A perfect opening act for Los Campesinos!

Listen/download Parenthetical Girls' track "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)".

Los Campesinos! and Parenthetical Girls play 9 pm tonight, Tuesday, July 3, at the WOW Hall. Tix are $15 at the door.

This week, dive-loving music writer Jeremy Ohmes previewed Doubles, the new solo album from Patrick Hayden, whom Eugene music fans may also know, as Jeremy noted, from a handful of other projects. I wasn't quite sure where Hayden's possibly-best-known ensemble, Deke Falcon, stood on the matter of breakups and reunions and members leaving town, so in the midst of reading Jeremy's story, I emailed to ask. Hayden's response was worth of its very own post. So here you go.

Deke Falcon reunites as much as possible, but Dave [Clark] and Jordan [Glenn] are both away at their various versions of "art school," and Will "mango" Lindsey has been busy being (until recently) a Metal Blade Recording Artist. Doubles is not so much a band name or even a unified concept as it is a vague reference to Deke Falcon's great, "lost" second album ... which will one day see the light, I swear, if for no other reason than to function as a kind of corrective or revision of the semi-annoying perception of our band as a bunch of boilermaker-swilling, doo rag-donning mill workers. The reality is far less flattering: As any Mex Pistol could tell you, Deke Falcon was really just a bunch of scarf-wearing art waifs.

But the Doubles songs were written at the same time as the latter-day Falcon activity, and sort of function as more challenging, sometimes lugubrious "cousins" to their more bar rock-y Falcon foils. Among other things, recording the album was an opportunity for Jordan Glenn and Patrick Hayden to indulge certain idiosyncracies and explore the margins of the rock song structures that Deke Falcon approach with more of a reverent, historical re-enactment vibe. That said, we actually have played one or two Falcon songs without it seeming too "greatest hits"-y, I think.

While my Snider, Smith, Walker (feat. Dan Jones) lineup is not really a "new band" as such, it does bring to fruition a bunch of my key musical associations from recent years. Drummer Rob Smith — who also did the amazing pen and ink cover drawing — was my college roommate and a co-conspirator with me on the Nasvhille indie scene of the early 2000s. Guitar player and geologist Barry Walker is another frat brother from the TN days. It's nice to have this occasion to sorta "introduce" these two beloved Dixie badasses to Eugene rock audiences, and adding Dan Jones and [Dave] Snider to the mix really raises my own expectations of a full-blown, "Varsity Team"-level performance that is actually giving me a nervous tic, at the moment. I better go do some pushups.

There you have it. Patrick Hayden's varsity team CD release is this Saturday night at Sam Bond's. Go forth and listen!