Music

DJ Calico, Thursdays @ 2 p.m.

“Heads Will Roll” by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Why: “It’s fun and it gets people moving!”

Mercury Girl, “Rock Bottom,” Tuesdays @ 12 p.m.

“Too many creeps” by Bush Tetras

Why: “It has a great retro punky sound that fits great with Halloween, as well as creepy and funky lyrics and themes! Such a good tune.”

Reverend Marc Time, “Sunday Morning Hangover,” Sundays @ 10 a.m.

“It’s Halloween” by The Shaggs

Why: “It’s Halloween!”

Pee Wee, “Group W Bench,” Thursdays @ 8 p.m.

“Orson Welles Dracula” by Mercury Home Theater

Why: “A radio play from the Golden Age of Radio”

“The Fiddler's Fee” by Robert Bloch

Why: “The son of the Devil walks into an Inn”

…

Image courtesy of The New York Times

     There is something delightfully absurd about Cameron Winter playing Carnegie Hall. The frontman of Geese; Brooklyn's wonderfully strange answer to the question of where rock music goes next, trading the chaos of indie-rock stardom for one of the most storied stages in American music. And yet, watching him sit alone at the piano makes perfect sense. 

    Live at Carnegie Hall feels like a small but significant statement about the direction music is headed in. Not necessarily toward a new genre, sound, or even really a movement, but toward something much harder to manufacture: a distinct artistic identity; one we haven't had in quite some time.

    We spent decades, centuries, inventing new musical languages. The 90s and 2000s especially, gave us an extraordinary proliferation of genres and subgenres, each one with their own vocabulary and aesthetic.…

Image Courtesy of Pitchfork

          If you’ve never had to change the pronouns to your favorite love song, this isn’t for you. Though being bisexual, pansexual, or of a similar persuasion is more common than people think, there is a major lack of representation of these sexualities in music. We have our heterosexual love songs from centuries ago, and our newer sapphic and gay romantic melodies, but it’s rare to have a song that represents a love indiscriminate of gender. Last week Olivia Rodrigo proved that our expectations aren’t too big, and we now hold a new bisexual anthem in the mainstream.

          Olivia Rodrigo’s remix of her song “Expectations” featuring Chappell Roan came out last Thursday, October 15th. (I was fresh out of my wisdom tooth surgery, but still pushed through the anesthesia fog to immediately watch their music video when it debuted at 7pm.) The new remix lacks Rodrigo’s signature spoken word…

From Judge Rage to Soiree Gun: KWVA Alumni Return to the Station After 33 Years

Two of KWVA's earliest student participants return to share stories, spin some tunes, and meet the next generation of KWVA student leaders.

More than 33 years after KWVA first hit the airwaves, two of the station's original student participants returned to campus for a weekend of music, memories, and conversations with current KWVA student staff. John Thomas and Bill Trinen were both involved with KWVA during its earliest years in the 1990s. Both majored in Japanese at the University of Oregon. Today, John lives in Portland and works in advertising, while Bill lives in Seattle and works for Nintendo.

Back to the Beginning

Bill was involved with KWVA before the station officially began broadcasting on May 27, 1993. He was studying abroad in Tokyo on launch day, but returned to participate once the station was on the air, hosting a morning show three…

KWVA’s third year DJ and lover of punk, Violet Ashley, known on air as Ms. 45, has been DJing at KWVA Eugene since the fall of her freshman year. 2026 marks the third year of her show “In ‘n’ Out of Grace,” named after the Mudhoney song of the same name. 

Ashley grew up in Portland, Oregon, a city with a rich punk scene where she would attend ‘DIY’ punk shows that were entirely organized by artists, and centered community over commercialism. “[They’re] so much more special, I feel like, than regular concerts. So much more intimate,” Ashley said. 

She began seeking out punk shows in middle and high school, particularly ones at Speed’s Auto. Not to be confused with the auto body shop a block or so north of the outdoor punk venue underneath the Hawthorne bridge, Speed’s Auto is home to a thriving punk culture with artist organized shows on Friday and Saturday nights – or whenever they feel like performing. 

Ashley…

1. THE LEMON TWIGS
Album: Look For Your Mind!
Label: Captured Tracks

2. RACECOURSE
Album: July, December
Label: Reya Langen

3. FRANKIE COSMOS
Album: Different Talking
Label: Sub Pop

4. ROBBER ROBBER
Album: Two Wheels Move The Soul
Label: Fire Talk

5. CROOKED FINGERS
Album: Swet Deth
Label: Merge

6. ROCKIE RODE
Album: Rockie
Label: AM

7. CAUSEWAY
Album: Anywhere
Label: Sprechen

8. SETH JAMES
Album: Motormouth
Label: Qualified

9. PRINCE DADDY AND…

Declan James McMan, or DJ M, is one of our relatively newer DJ’s at the station. Raised in Oakland, California, DJ M credits his city, his family, and his three best friends for his music taste. He says his parents gave him the “foundational stuff”  like David Bowie and Echo & the Bunnymen, while Friend 1 gave him mid-west emo, Friend 2 gave him cloud rap, and Friend 3 gave him electronic dance punk . 

“It…

1. LAS CRUXES
Album: Las Cruxes
Label: Million Stars

2. STEPHEN BECKER
Album: Gravity Blanket
Label: One Is Three

3. MADONNA
Album: "I Feel So Free" [Single]
Label: Warner

4. KURT VILE
Album: "Chance To Bleed" [Single]
Label: Verve

5. VIOLET GROHL
Album: "Cool Buzz" [Single]
Label: Republic

6. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
Album: The World Is To Dig
Label: Idlewild

7. ZAGGA
Album: "Again We Rise" [Single]
Label: Xihen

8. SEVENDUST
Album: One
Label: Napalm

…

Image from Official Coachella Website

This year's Coachella, like all years, was massive! Last year we saw big names like Charli XCX, Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Clairo, Lady Gaga, The Marias, and Green Day. With a lineup like that, fans could only hope that 2026 could bring the same energy, and that it did!

Coachella 2026 hosted stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Nine Inch Noize, Pinkpantheress, Laufey, Justin Bieber, Addison Rae, Sexxy Red, The Strokes, Alex G, and Karol G. Bigger and louder were the theme for these artists, with Sabrina Carpenter bringing Madonna to the stage during Weekend 2, Billie Eilish and SZA joining Justin Bieber, and even Olivia Rodrigo singing Addison Rae. It wasn’t just artists, though, celebrity cameos from Will Ferrell, Terry Crews, and Samuel L. Jackson made the experience that much more exciting. 

Coachella was jam…

Rooster is one of KWVA’s DJs who specializes in the art of noise, bouncing between all forms of EDM, techno, trap, house music, and dubstep. He curates his Boiler Room-style sets all on the fly. 

“It’s really fun trying something brand new, and just seeing if it works,” he said. “I think my best moments DJing come from those really spontaneous moments.”

Outside of KWVA, Rooster is also the DJ for his fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi. He uses his Wednesday time slot at KWVA to experiment with different sounds, adjusting what he’s playing to fit the crowd's energy, and getting those dispersed spikes of dopamine when an experimental remix is a hit. While there are a number of songs that are reliably good for events like this one, Rooster says relying on those too often can take away from the creativity that he looks forward to during his gigs.

One of the more remarkable sets that Rooster has done was an eight-hour stretch for a…