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Thaddeus Moore remembers sitting in a movie theater in 2008, watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and hearing Frank Black’s “You Can’t Break a Heart and Have It” start playing. It was one of many songs that Black recorded at Sprout City, so hearing it in a movie featuring big names like Russell Brand and Jason Segel was a surreal moment for Moore.  “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, Oh my God! This song in a huge movie was recorded in my little studio,’” Moore tells me.  While he was living in Eugene, Black, a founding member of the legendary alt-rock band Pixies (who also performs...

About a decade ago, Judo Pony was a popular live band in Eugene, playing light punk and alternative-influenced, ’90s-style guitar rock.  In 2010, Judo Pony entered Last Band Standing, a battle of the bands-style competition sponsored by Eugene new rock radio station KNRQ. They made it to the finals. Their sound, also integrating elements of No Depression alternative country and soul music, was rendered with the tenacity of a hard-gigging road band.  “We had some success, and lots of folks were coming out,” Judo Pony singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Jason Johnson tells me over...