Oregon Voice Magazine » Pop Culture

The Roots Runaround

Scot — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:08:31 +0000

Apparently, while the venerable ?uestlove practices deadpan rim shots for Jimmy Fallon’s new late night show, he and the rest of the Roots surround themselves with a dense web of management bureaucrats to prevent the scheduling of interviews with cute student-run publications. I don’t know how many uninformed people with telephones they need. I’ve never been transferred so many times in my life. I couldn’t even finish sentences. ROOTS, CONCERT, EUGENE, STUDENT-RUN, STUDENT, RUN! I just may have talked Jimmy Fallon.

Eventually, someone gave me an email and of course it didn’t work. Got another one and it did. They’ll see this when they’re vetting us, but oh well. I bet it’s not this hard to talk to Max Weinberg.

Anyway, The Roots 4/11/2009 McDonald Theatre

A concert that happened over a week ago…

Zegalia — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:28:29 +0000

…was The Helio Sequence at WOW Hall in support of their new album Keep Your Eyes Ahead (Sub Pop, 2008), with Eugene locals Yeltsin giving a solid performance as the first opener. By far the best thing about Yeltsin is their lead singer’s beard, which has to be a good foot long and swayed majestically during their entire set. The next supporting act was the disappointingly unbearded Audrye Sessions. Their lead singer did sport a fledgling mustache, which is a pretty decent metaphor for how their music stood up against Yeltsin’s. Thankfully the main event came onstage soon after and rocked off everyone’s socks pretty thoroughly. The onstage lineup of Brandon Summers, Benjamin Weikel, and a laptop is one of the tightest combinations I’ve ever heard live. Weikel is maybe the happiest person to ever get his hands on a drum set, and Summers sounded like a three piece band on guitar for the entirety of the set, which lasted almost an hour. They played songs from every album, especially Love and Distance and the new one. That the band sounds great live isn’t surprising, considering that they’ve been together for over ten years. What is surprising is that this was only their third Eugene concert in twelve years, so I’d definitely recommend catching them when they come around again in 2012.

The Best of Thymes

cbradley — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:23:16 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I got back from class, and it was about twenty-five or six to four. I had invited some people over for spaghetti, so I had to get going on putting together a pasta sauce.

I spun the spice rack around to grab what I needed — parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme — then raided the fridge for the sauce base and necessary veggies. A little preparation, and the sauce was on. I just had to let it be.

At that point my friend Simon from Queens walked in. He prides himself on his knowledge of nature and the outdoors, and so he inspected my spice repertoire. “Oh, thyme,” Simon said, dangling a conversation. “You know, there are about 350 species of thyme. Which is this?”

“Does anybody really know what thyme it is?” I asked. “Does anybody really care about thyme?”

“It’s just that I’ve been searching so long to find an answer,” he responded.

“Well, you’re the only living boy in New York who would even care,” I said. “But if you’re that curious, here, just take a baggie of it. As it is, I’ve got too much thyme on my hands anyway.”

That seemed to appease Simon, and then he finally shut up. But as the sauce simmered, it began to smell very appetizing, and he kept glancing over at me as the mixture bubbled. I knew he wanted to try it, so I took care of the issue once and for all so I could have my peace of mind.
“Just cool the engines, Simon. I think it’s going to be a long, long time.”

“Hey, take it easy,” he said, and he dipped a spoon into the pot to sample a bit of the tomato sauce.

I sighed, and reached into the fridge for the spiked egg nog. Whatever gets you through the night.