Thursday, July 10,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
PULSE
Jan Tobias Montry
Unsatsified customer
Conformist
pop music
lacks purity
of grunge
Remember back in the '90s when things
were simple?
We had a booming economy, a sexually
satisfied commander in chief and, above
all, the only thing that really mattered at
the time: grunge music.
1 was a giddy high-school sophomore
during the height of the post-grunge
movement. Memories of sneaking into
the school band room at lunch to blast
distorted Nirvana rifts on a Fender done
with my friends while rednecks ran in
fear still brings a smile to my face. Yes, it
certainly was a time to remember in our
great musical history.
And then something wicked this way
came. Multi-million dollar record execu
tives sat around their bubbling cauldron
like the evil witches of Shakespeare's
Macbeth and brewed up a new evil never
before seen by man. The resulting force
— which I affectionately call "conformist
crap" — hit the music scene and de
stroyed my beloved grunge era faster than
a zombie eating brains in an old George
Romero flick.
First you had Britney "I'm a virgin"
Spears. Spears, a Southern bubblegum
queen of Mickey Mouse Club fame,
sounded like 10,000 screeching cats on a
fence post, filtered though all sorts of un
godly effects and tossed against prefabri
cated pop vibes worth about as much as
the wax in my inner ear. Her highly cre
ative lyrical style, fresh with insightful
metaphor and meaningful allegory of the
human condition, could be clearly
demonstrated with lyrical gems such as,
"Oops, I did it again / I made you believe
we're more than just friends / Oh baby,
baby" and witty song titles such as "E-mail
My Heart."
But as we all know from Milli Vanilli, all
god-awful things come in pairs. With Brit
ney came Justin Timberlake — the only
member of McBoyBand *NSYNC that
anybody can actually name — who cur
rently wants to be accepted as a real artist
so badly that he frequently humps the legs
of big-name stars at glitzy celebrity parties.
Unfortunately for him, his style of "mu
sic" can be likened to the smell emanating
from an old Taco Bell bag that got lost un
der my bed last December. Case in point,
"Cry Me a River" — the song rumored to
be about estranged girlfriend Spears —
made my ears spontaneously gush blood.
The only thing that brought me joy shortly
before I passed out was a vision: Timber
lake actually crying a river after he is uni
laterally rejected by his entire fan base of
10 million screeching 14-year-old girls.
Finally you had Christina "Not a virgin
and proud of it" Aguilera, a frightening ex
ample of what happens when you mix
some semblance of talent with greed. Al
though she is leagues ahead of Britney in
terms of that former musical prerequisite
called "talent," Aguilera changes her im
age more than Michael Jackson changes
Turn to Montry, page 10
One-of-a-kind festivals all around Oregon
this summer offer people a multitude of
opportunities for distraction or celebration
By Ryan Nyburg
Freelance Reporter
From Vikings to garlic, a variety of festi
vals are happening all over Oregon for those
who want to fill the summer months with
celebrating.
July 11 marks the start of the popular Ore
gon Country Fair, which will run through July
13 and will feature live music, food, dancing
and education on a variety of subjects. The
fair, now in its 34th year, began as a benefit
for an alternative school in 1969, and has
since grown astronomically. On a patch of
wooded land just outside of Veneta, the fair
becomes the fourth most populated area in
Oregon during its three days of operation.
Tickets are available at TicketsVVest outlets,
but will not be sold at the festival site at any
time. Tickets are $ 12 for Friday, $ 15 for Satur
day and $12 for Sunday. Tickets purchased
the day of the event will cost an extra $2 each.
Children younger than ten are admitted for
free. No pets, alcohol or video cameras are al
lowed at the festival.
For country music fans, the highlight of the
summer could be the 11th Annual Oregon
iamboree in Sweet 1 lome. The event will take
place Aug. 1 -3, and will feature by Alan Jack
son, The Derailers, Mark Chesnutt, Gary Al
lan, Lonesome Road andT. Bubba Bechtol.
A major part of the festival is the wide avail
ability of RV and tent camping sites. For a fee
of $25-$60, campers can set up in any of the
nine RV parks or two tent camp sites.
Ticket prices range from $45 to $85 for gen
eral admission and from $85 to $170 for VIP
seating. Tickets are available through the Ore
gon Jamboree Ticket Office.
For those looking for a more European flavor,
Junction City presents the Scandinavian Festival
Aug. 7-10. The festival, which began in 1961, cel
ebrates the cultures of Denmark, Finland, Nor
way, Sweden and Iceland. Ihe four-day festival
is rife with food and entertainment, including
songs, dance and a roving band of Vikings. Ad
mission and almost all events are free.
One of the largest events in the Eugene area
will be taking place Aug. 12-17. The Lane
County Fair, which will feature 14 new rides
and a new series of concerts this year, is ex
pected to be as big as ever. Two free concerts,
featuring Northwest bands, will take place on
Emerald
Oregon’s summer fairs include Junction City's Scandinavian and North Plains' Elephant Garlic festivals.
PART 2 OF 2
Today: A breakdown of summer festivals
Last Thursday: A look at Oregon Country Fair
the festival's dosing day. There will also be a
talent show, a battle of the bands, weightlift
ing demonstrations and other family-friendly
activities throughout the festival.
Tickets are $6 for six- to 15-year-olds and
$8 for those 16 and older. Children five and
younger get in free.
Aug. 15 through Aug. 17 will also have the
sixth annual Elephant Garlic Festival in
North Plains. There will be blues and blue
grass performances, a car show, an arts and
crafts mall and a beer and wine garden avail
able for festivalgoers to enjoy. Admission
and parking are free.
The Oregon State Fair will run in Salem Aug.
21-Sept. 1, featuring a wide range of entertain
ment and activities, including concerts by 3
Doors Down, 38 Special, the B-52's and Jars of
Clay. Ihe fair also features a statewide talent
show, art, more than four dozen concession
stands, and livestock and photography shows.
Tickets are available at TicketWest outlets.
Prices are $2-$8, with special discount
days available.
And to close of the summer festival season,
there is the Eugene Celebration from Sept. 19
through Sept. 21. Ihe theme this year is "1 leart
of the City," a change from the "Northwest of
Normal" theme that has been used for the past
three years. Despite the change of theme, little
else is different this year, and the festival prom
ises to have the usual array of local and nation
al music performances, food, parades and
slugs. Admission buttons will be available for
$8 in advance and $ 10 at the gate. Day passes
will be available at the gate for $5.
Ryan Nyburg is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
Solid Guster record refreshing, enjoyable
Courtesy
“Keep It Together" is Guster’s fourth album, and its first since 1999.
By Travis Willse
Copy Chief
The Boston-based pop-rock trio,
Guster, has managed once again to write
some of the most listenable music in re
cent memory. On "Keep It Together" —
their first effort since 1999's "Lost and
Gone Forever" — the band steps up their
keenly tuned sense
CD
review
of harmony and re
freshingly unusual
instrumentation to
put out an all- _
around solid fourth
album you can kick back to with grand
ma as easily as with friends.
The light, optimistic opener "Diane"
meshes a simple "Daydream Believer"
like melody and a simpler baseline with
strings, clarinets and increasingly layered
vocals for a pop morsel that would leave
the Monkees proud. The fast-paced,
rocking "Amsterdam" hints at what the
Strokes would write as a nice-boy
pop band.
At its best, Guster delivers tracks like
"Careful," an amiable, romping Travis-like
lettering of a plea to recover lost love, high
lighting the band's propensity for alternat
ing driven-but-not-distracting drumming
and carefully hooky choruses.
The album does no worse than occa
sionally waxing lyrically uninspired.
"Backyard" and "Long Way Down" will
disappoint music fans who listen first for
words, but both melodies are passable, if
not enjoyable. Likewise, the title track
comes off like a Phantom Planet B-side
with banjos — digestible, even unusual,
but not memorable.
Still, little if anything on the 13-track al
bum should be skipped. In fart, several of
the tracks begin quietly and unremarkably,
but build to a sonically sumptuous
crescendo of catchy riffs, deservedly
Turn to Guster, page 10