Oregon Voice Magazine

Our latest and most rewarding/colorful/longest effort of the year is now available to be viewed on the Internet from anywhere around the world, yes, even from Norway, New York City or Chicago! The print version is available around campus and will be distributed to the greater Eugene area via bike brigade shortly.

If you’ve left for summer vacation and want us to mail you a print copy, let us know via the contact form and we’ll gladly accommodate you.

Special thanks to all the past contributers who found time in their busy schedules to send us a remembrance and for allowing us to reprint their words. Hopefully you enjoy the issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

While this was our last issue of the school year, don’t think we’re going to be simply taking it easy until school starts up again in the fall. Here’s a list of the projects we have in store for the summer months:

Revamp website
Acquire new distribution boxes
Paint new distribution boxes
Replace broken Plexiglas in boxes around campus
Scan and archive Volume 14 and others not on website
Create master distribution list, distribute to more places
Clean/Reorganize office
Plan Rent-a-Pooch IV
Organize U of O Student Media Summit
Bind and archive volumes not already in library
Blog, blog, blog
Build roller-coaster
Drink beer

If you want to give us a hand and hang out with cool people, get at us.

News fresh from Sub Pop. The new EP will be in stores August 25th. We’ll do our best to get some advanced listenings of it this summer.

According to Stereogum, it’ll pull together many divergent sounds, making a hard rock departure from their usual home-spun melodies. I’m offering a special prize to the person who can figure out the name of the ’80s Libyan pop star. Worth a look.

Blitzen Trapper is playing Pickathon this year with Dr.Dog, Thao with The Get Down Stay Down and square dancing?

I told Stephen I’d follow up on last night’s Jens Lekman show at WOW Hall, but falling in love makes me semi-illiterate. Forgive me if I fan-rant.

After two years of touring worldwide on the same album, I don’t know how Jens manages to take such good care of his audience. We did take his Oregon virginity, and I’d like to think it was special for him too. At first I was disappointed that he had such a small touring band. If I was a semi-famous Swedish pop star, I thought, I would buy myself a goddamn gospel choir and a brass band and take them with me everywhere, even Eugene, Oregon.

But the sparse arrangements turned out to be a blessing. He performed most of Night Falls and a few favorites from Maple Leaves and When I said I wanted to be your dog. The audience knew most of the songs by heart, and we worked together to make the songs whole. On “Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig” (which means “Maybe I’m in love with you, but I’m crossing out the maybe”), the band cut out and the audience took over the back-up vocals. The whole show was a camp sing-along with the coolest camp counselor in the world.

In the aftermath Jens and his band stuck around and everyone pretended to be his best friend, especially me. Since last night I have thought of a million intelligent questions for him, but when I met him all I did was gush. I basically told him that his music was the only remedy for a broken heart, but not in such graceful terms. Then I got really nervous and blurted out: “CAN I JUST GIVE YOU A HUG?” And he was all, in that quiet, Jenzy way, “Of course; I was going to give you one anyway.” So I put my arms around him, like that girl in that song (”Your arms around me), and it was totally satisfying. Later I felt a little embarrassed, like I had vomited on his shoes or something.

By the way, I should settle this argument right now:
It’s “Yentz,” not “Jenz.” The violin player told me so.

Forgive the late notice.  We’re sorry.

But.

Swede Jens Lekman performs tonight at the WOW Hall starting at 8 p.m.  Lekman, formerly known as Rocky Dennis, is a singer-songwriter who blends melodic guitar with digital samples (think Andrew Bird) to produce a sound that can be experienced here.  Heavily influenced by Modern Lovers front-man Jonathan Richmond and the Scottish rockers Belle & Sebastian, Lekman is now on Secretly Canadian and is on tour in support of his epic 2007 album Night Falls Over Kortadela.  His performances often take different shapes ranging from just him and his guitar to a cappella to a full choir and string quartet.  While I have no insider information to what he’ll pull from his bag tonight (Save for comedian and actress Tig Notaro as an opening act), I’m sure it will be well worth the $15 inside the WOW Hall tonight.  If you’re not engulfed in course work, check it.

Lucky 1952 is right.

From the creatures of Mucho’s Gusto and Le Fina Taqueria comes another delicious concept of a restaurant, this time in the form of a 50’s Burger joint.

Just down the street from campus on 13th and Pearl sits a brightly lit restaurant.

If you pay close enough attention on the outside you will realize that the mural painted on the outer building that surrounds the restaurant matches the checkered tile flooring inside.

The menu is simple yet vast with the combinations of items you can achieve with the perfect order.

They offer garlic fries to substitute, rings too. Chili on the side…chili on your burger, chili on your fries, oh yeah chili on your hot dog….chili tops just about everything you can think of, and I don’t think its a bad thing.

Lots of toppings for your burger that is served on home baked egg rolls that are grilled prior to serving. Bacon, caramelized onions, mushrooms, a mushonion combo, bacon. And alll kinds of cheese, American, cheddar, Swiss, blue cheese, even pepper-jack.

The fries are hand cut and double fried in 100% canola oil. Oh yeah the beef is all organic and vegetarian fed and stuff for you animal people. You can even substitute your patty for a veggie if that’s your thing.

So besides having burgers, they have hot dogs as well, and chili in a bowl or cup. Its served with melted cheese, onions, green onion and a dolop of sour cream.

Don’t forget the shakes and ice cream with mix-in’s either.

It blew me away that the same people that can make us mexican slop can aslo craft such a lovely and delicious burger.
Go Dickies!!

The Avett Brothers, dukes of the 21st century bluegrass revival, play McDonald Theatre this Wednesday. Come watch them burn down our most historic barn. Also, if it turns out that the Avett Brothers were the only band-dudes you wanted to see at Sasquatch, see them for $19 (advance) instead of $80. What a steal! Accordionist Jason Webley opens at 8, and there is a good chance he will play that cute song about his coffee percolator.

On 4/20 at the WOW Hall, a Sublime-cover-band called 40 Oz. to Freedom performed in celebration of the counterculture holiday. A faint cloud of reefer smoke hovered above the audience as the band played from the Sublime songbook. The crowd cheered whenever marijuana references came up in the lyrics. 40 Oz. to Freedom, comprised of four Sublime-obsessed San Diegans, perfectly recreated the original band’s sound (down to the police dispatcher sound-bites), and their performance exceeded my expectations by far.

I couldn’t help but laugh at their character. Every five songs or so, the band members would down shots in unison. In between songs they would engage the audience, especially the females. The bass player once shouted, “Women above 18, raise your hands.” I reveled in their sleaziness. The lead singer later questioned, “Where the after party at?” but there was no response.

I thought that my tastes had elevated above bands like Sublime. There’s nothing subtle or artistic about it, I told myself. Sublime’s self-titled 1996 release was an essential part of my middle school experience. So as 40 Oz. to Freedom played songs that I had once loved and memorized, I was transported back to my rebellious adolescent epoch, and I rediscovered why Sublime (and ska music in general) is brilliant.

There’s nothing pretentious about Sublime. They wrote songs about what they knew: sex, drugs, and riots. And it’s incredibly accessible: reggae-influenced punk-pop driven by a strong emotive singer. It’s catchy yet grungy, heavy yet melodic, angry yet irie. I get it.

Happy belated 4/20

Thanks to everyone that submitted. We can hardly keep the print copies around. Congratulations everyone. Issue 3 is on the way.

Wednesday, May 20th

Reservations begin at 10:30 a.m.

Pick-up starts at 11:00 a.m.

Heck yes!

Hopefully, we have all heard the buzz already about the dank-ass waffles down in the Whiteaker neighborhood. On 7th and Van Buren sits a delightfully charming new waffle house. They serve two waffles, the original or the special. They are amazing, and have little pockets of pure caramelized sugar gold. Secret recipe not included. Their weekly specials have included blueberries and feta and nib-tella, hazelnut spread made from Nib local chocolates. They also barter for payment and have a book exchange.

There’s another story just beyond the amazing waffles. The two sons are trying to start a movement for the spread of bartering. They want to create a social networking website, a hybrid of facebook and craigslist, for bartering where one person post what they are looking for and what they can offer. People can search databases and see what’s going on in their community.

So go to Off the Waffle and check the shit out!