Take a pinch of Death Cab for Cutie’s honest but evocative lyrical style.  Add a dash of Ben Lee-sounding vocals.  Combine with a vintage Tom Petty feel, and mix with a hint of folk-country twang. Sprinkle with a warm sense of community.  Your tasty result? Eugene, Oregon’s The Stagger and Sway.  With this video, “Sam Bond’s Garage,” listeners get a chance to feel what it’s like to be a Eugene resident as the band talks about their favorite local bar, brought to life with lines like “empty pint jar and a bar stool spinnin’.”  Find out more about the story behind “Sam Bond’s Garage” by checking out our BackStory featuring this song.

Claire Gallgher: Alrighty, who’s who? What are your names, what instruments do you play, etc?

Mike Last: Acoustic guitar, vocals

Jerry "Groove" Abelin: upright bass, vocals

Ken Howe: Drums

Brian Patrick: electric guitar, lap steel

Hello, BestNewBands.com readers! Ready for the weekend? Yeah, we are too. To aid you in your musical pre-funking, here’s a look (and listen) back on what we featured this week.

“Livin’ The Dream (I’m On A Float)” - Super Mash Bros.

Kristina Villarini caught the mash-up artists at Irving Plaza in New York this weekend, and even got a chance to sit down with the guys before their performance.

Check out the rest of Kristina’s review here.

“To The Grave” - The Pierces

Daniel Kohn reviewed The Pierces’ four-track EP, Love You More, which was released Tuesday.

Daniel wrote, “The songs are catchy and punchy, especially the title track, which features dirty riffs under Catherine’s haunting vocals and is an alt-folk song with a dark vibe. This track sums up the vibe of the EP, which is more polished than the girls’ earlier work and is a natural step forward from Thirteen Tales. Though only four songs, the girls’ songwriting is full of self-confidence and the results are sharp and terrific song. Love You More is hopefully a precursor of what’s to come on from the New York-via-Birmingham, Alabama duo, whose full-length, You & I, is slated to be released on Polydor on March 14.”

Read the rest of Daniel’s review here.

This is a song about the intangible magic of our favorite places.

It was inspired by the real Sam Bond’s Garage in Eugene, OR - a place I quickly came to know as a cozy outlet for great live music, tasty craft beers, and good company.

When I’d left Chicago, this song was simply a chord progression, troubled with a trickle of place-holder lyrics (I eventually kept only one line: “I, for one, come here too often”). Lyrically, nothing was working, and this tune was shelved!

Shortly after arriving in Eugene, a friend invited me to see an incredible musician at Sam Bond’s Garage that I later described in a letter as “Woody Guthrie gone bald, punk rock, and how!”

I collected more and more fun experiences starting fresh in a new town - writing new songs, playing with new bands, hardly stopping to think about old, unfinished material. On that same “Punk Rock Woody Guthrie” night, I met several folks that helped shape the direction of my next few years: musicians I would come to play with, the guy who later produced both our records (including this song), and a real cool lady who has since become my wife!

When I eventually remembered this old chord progression and the first line I’d written in Chicago (“I, for one, come here too often”), images suddenly sprang to mind and the lyrics simply flowed, sort of like the song had been waiting for me to find the perfect place to write about!

So, this is a song about a special place. And I think that there are special places like this in towns everywhere - places that can resonate with people and make us feel that we really are a part in the sum of the greater whole.

The video footage was captured in its natural setting: at a live show at Sam Bond’s Garage on Oct 8th  2010, by the guys at Lip Media.