Brianna Brey

Wild Eye Revolvers
Pierced and tattooed, cracking beers and lighting up smokes while sitting on the floor of their gutted van, Wild Eye Revolvers explains their sound as “thrashacana,” a term I’m sure they made up. It means something like punk rock with a mandolin with a banjo. You’ve probably unintentionally heard them play before. Lukas Johnson (guitar/vocals), Hondo Hernandez (mandolin) and Nate Irwin (banjo) started the group by busking on the streets of downtown Bend.
“That’s band practice for us,” said Hernandez. “It was the easiest way to play in front of people, no strings attached.”

If you haven’t studied up on your French diction recently, you’re likely to mispronounce this Seattle-based band’s name. Don’t be embarrassed, with a name like Hey Marseilles and song titles like “Goodbye Verseilles” the guys are used to errors. And rhymes.
“It’s our own fault, kind of,” said lead singer, guitarist and lyricist Matt Bishop, of his band’s French fascination.
To save you from being corrected by someone with a pretentious accent, their name is pronounced “Mar-Say” like the city in France: and their worldly influences put them light years beyond your standard pop band. With a cello, viola, accordion, piano, a couple of guitars, a bass, a trumpet, and a bass clarinet Hey Marseilles is a veritable folk-pop orchestra that can create both nostalgic instrumentals as well as catchy, full-flavored pop songs.

When Yonder Mountain String Band members line up on stage, what you're seeing and what you're hearing are often at odds. These four inconspicuous looking white dudes look casual, but their crazy excellent musicianship is evident when they shred, their fret boards a blur of fingers and strings.
If you've been musically conscious since 1998, when the band formed, and have any interest in bluegrass or all-around kickass live acts then you've probably seen this bass, guitar, mandolin and banjo playing quartet play. After all, these boys now head a progressive bluegrass empire which includes their own record label, Frog Pad Records, and the extremely successful site youndermountainlive.com, an archive of hundreds of their live performances dating back to their inception that is available for download and sale.

The Shook Twins write three kinds of songs- songs that give you goose bumps, songs that make you laugh, and songs that do both. Straight out of Sandpoint, Idaho, Laurie and Katelyn Shook play modern folk music that ranges from dark and progressive to light and humorous.
“We describe our genre as quirky folk,” says Laurie. “Kind of a twist on the idea of folk that most people have.”
The identical twins' indistinguishable voices make for a special kind of twin harmony, which makes regular people singing harmony seem inadequate.

Call them pop, folk, indie or Americana, just don't call the Ascetic Junkies bluegrass.
This Portland four-piece band is at odds with the assumptions that many people make when they see a band featuring a banjo. Moreover, with the recent departure of one of their longtime members, the new lineup is sans banjo, which the band hopes will help to clear things up.
Kali Giaritta and Matt Harmon, the group's songwriting duo, explained their beef with the bluegrass label when I spoke with them about their upcoming album, their recent tour, and their new lineup that's heading to Bend this week.

G. Love and Special Sauce has seen a lot change in the nearly 20-year-long career of the band.
Its first album was released in 1994, a novelty at the time that combined hip-hop and blues like no band had before. Now every college kid with a MacBook can mash up Muddy Waters and Snoop Dogg, but there is something to be said for this group of rag-tag Philadelphia natives who developed their progressive style before they could legally buy a beer. Almost two decades later the band members have perfected their signature sound and are now exploring their blues roots.