Posted inMusic

Call it Folk, Call it Rock… Just don’t call Langhorne Slim old timey

Black and White, yes. But not old timey.Langhorne Slim is in North Carolina gearing up for a friend's wedding and he's telling me about the iPod that his girlfriend gave him for Christmas. But he's not talking about the new Radiohead he just dumped onto the device - like a whole lot of new iPod owners probably did in the wake of the holidays - he's telling me about all the Lee Hazlewood tracks he loaded up.

Hazlewood, the iconic country music rebel who died of cancer just this past summer, isn't who I'd expected Langhorne Slim - one of the most promising young songwriters playing today - to be listening to. Then again, after a few more listens to Langhorne's tunes, it makes sense.

Posted inNews

Sound Check MP3s: Coyo and Shireen Amini

Not only do Central Oregon musicians just generally kick ass, but they also tend to be nice and open to the idea of letting you hear their music — even if you’re not ready to track ’em down at a show or buy their album. In that spirit, here are two tracks apiece from Coyo and Shireen Amini, the local artists whose lastest CD releases we reviewed in this week’s Sound Check. Read on for the goods.

Posted inNews

In the Land of the Angry Republicans: Talking with the new Deschutes Democratic Chairman

Jim Thomassen was elected in November to chair the Deschutes County Democratic Party. A graduate of the University of Oregon, he was a professional economist for state government before working in marketing in the high-tech field. He and his wife moved to Bend in 2004. This is an edited transcript of a conversation with him by Source Senior Writer H. Bruce Miller.

Posted inFood & Drink

Get Your Yumm

Café Yumm! has it down. Once a typical college town eatery, it has now turned into a viable franchise supporting six thriving locations with a business plan to include 50 more in the next five years. Founders Mary Ann and Mark Beauchamp have been able to blend their crunchy aesthetic of serving rice and beans in a variety of combinations with a modern, PC atmosphere appealing to everyone from the latent hippy to the blatant yuppie.
From its user-friendly, aesthetically-pleasing website, to underwriting Eugene’s public radio station, to creating food that infuses the Deep South with the Far East, Café Yumm’s concept comes close to what most say is impossible – pleasing all of the people all of the time. It’s the Starbucks of beans and rice.

Posted inFood & Drink

Get Your Yumm

Café Yumm! has it down. Once a typical college town eatery, it has now turned into a viable franchise supporting six thriving locations with a business plan to include 50 more in the next five years. Founders Mary Ann and Mark Beauchamp have been able to blend their crunchy aesthetic of serving rice and beans in a variety of combinations with a modern, PC atmosphere appealing to everyone from the latent hippy to the blatant yuppie.
From its user-friendly, aesthetically-pleasing website, to underwriting Eugene's public radio station, to creating food that infuses the Deep South with the Far East, Café Yumm's concept comes close to what most say is impossible - pleasing all of the people all of the time. It's the Starbucks of beans and rice.

Posted inMusic

Make You Shake Your Head “No” Music: Back Door Slam and Smokin’ Trainwreck

It's unfortunate we have to start things off on a negative note here, but there's something wrong with the blues in 2008.
This isn't at all to say that there was something wrong with the blues acts Sound Check saw on Monday night. No sir-ee. In our estimation, though, there is indeed something wrong with the blues at large.
Yes sir-ee.
Call it diluted…faded…cliché. Call it co-opted by an insufficiently downtrodden, minimally grizzled generation of young Americans. In any case, when Sound Check goes to listen to some modern blues music, we tend not to expect much beyond run-of-the-mill electric guitar wailing and recycled vocal style.

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