Alternately Alternative: Idaho’s Finn Riggins bends genres with or without the Internet

Posted inMusic

Alternately Alternative: Idaho’s Finn Riggins bends genres with or without the Internet

Intern

Finn Riggins battle it out, Idaho style.The wave of bands hitting the airwaves in the early 1990s - Green Day, The Offspring, Nirvana and Oregon's own Everclear - has always been described as punk rock, or post-punk rock, mostly because of the music's attitude and the musicians' appearances rather than the music, which bears little resemblance to punk rock's working class roots and overtly political message.
To me, none of those bands ever came close to sounding like the original punk rock bands of the late 1970s, like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones or the Dead Kennedys, and it's pretty lame to lump together a band like Green Day in the same breath as The Clash.
Enter Idaho's Finn Riggins. Eric Gilbert (keyboards, vocals), describes the Finn Riggins sound as alternative, but to me it sounds closer to the music created by punk rock's pioneers than the typical "alternative" sound. It's loud, it's dirty, it's obnoxious, it's in-your-face, gut-busting, hair-pulling rock and roll with lyrics that make you think beyond whether or not you are an "American Idiot." But Finn Riggins' music is also melodic, full of hooks and riffs that will stick in your head for days after listening to their 2007 debut, "A Solider, A Saint, An Ocean Explorer."

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the Week of 6/25-7/1

Mike Bookey

 
Bend Pride '09
through saturday 27
The fifth annual celebration of cultural tolerance is well underway with an Open Mic for Rights on Wednesday 6/24 (7pm) at the Silver Moon Brewing Co. On Thursday 6/25, the whole family is invited to an evening of outdoor, old-fashioned "Gaymes" at Juniper Park (5-8pm). The all-ages Queer Prom is Friday night (8pm), and you're welcome to don your sweetest prom attire (which is required) and get down to DJs Babylove and Lucius to support the Human Dignity Coalition's Queer and Allied Youth Program. The big event is Saturday for the Pride Festival on Troy Field (1pm) where you can meet up at Troy Field and decorate your bike before riding through downtown. If you need more details, visit humandignitycoalition.org.
Rainn Wilson: Art and Faith
thursday 25
Check out our interview with Mr. Wilson (better known as Dwight from The Office) in the Culture section and then head to the Old Stone this Thursday night and see Wilson's discussion regarding faith and creativity. 7:30pm. Spiritual Awareness Community at Old Stone Church, 157 NW Franklin Ave.

Posted inNews

Finally a Majority on the Metolius: Dems rally for the river and OLCC offers an olive branch

Eric Flowers

Using a razor-thin majority, Oregon House Democrats pushed through the cornerstone of their effort to protect the Metolius River basin from destination resort development. With a bare minimum 31 votes, Dems, under the leadership of Brian Clem (D-Salem), rallied after a narrow defeat last week to pass the HB 3298, which designates the Metolius basin as an "Area of Critical Concern." The move puts the area around the revered river effectively off-limits to destination resorts, including a pair that had been endorsed by Jefferson County, the local planning authority in the basin.

"This is such a momentous vote. It was such a complex issue…we're thrilled to see this pass," said Erik Kancler, executive director at Central Oregon Landwatch, which lobbied aggressively in favor of the bill.
The vote was a dramatic reversal from last week when House Democrats were unable to find the critical 31st vote to pass the bill. Rather than let the bill die, Clem orchestrated a second vote on Monday while the party leadership lobbied some of its members who had initially voted against the bill, including House Speaker Dave Hunt. They found the vote in Rep. Larry Galizio (D-Tigard) who said he was convinced to change his vote after getting a phone call from the bill's architect, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who ironically squelched a similar protection bill sponsored by Ben Westlund in 2007, but then had his own change of heart.

Posted inNews

On the (Fun) Bus: How a Panda Made Me Realize I Might Like Gambling

Mike Bookey

It’s 10:20 – precisely – on a Wednesday morning and I’m running at what in the post-athletic phase of my life passes for a sprint across the Target parking lot, chasing a 40-foot charter bus with the word “Classy” written in cursive on its side. For the first time in my life I am (without irony) about to miss a bus. And I should mention that this isn’t just a bus, but a “Casino Fun Bus.”
Then, the air brakes hiss on the behemoth and it comes to a halt, a pair of spectacled eyes peering back at me through a massive side mirror. The door opens and I sheepishly board, hurriedly saying something mostly apologetic but slightly embarrassed and take a seat with eight pairs of eyes taking a quizzical look at the out-of-breath and slightly sweaty man 40 years their junior sitting in the third row. Again, this is the Fun Bus, a free shuttle that twice a week busses Central Oregon residents up to Kah-Nee-Ta Resort and Casino on the Warm Springs reservation for about four solid hours of fun, or gambling, or both.

Posted inOpinion

The Come-From-Behind Metolius Victory

Intern

The Metolius Basin protection bill arose from the dead last week, and everybody in Oregon who cares about the irreplaceable treasure that is the Metolius River should give thanks for its resurrection.

The bill, HB 3298, designates the Metolius Basin and an adjacent three-mile buffer zone as an "Area of Critical Statewide Concern," protecting it from major development - including two destination resorts that had been proposed there.
A week ago HB 3298 was all but buried after it failed to gain the necessary majority of votes in the Oregon House. In a tactical move its supporters "put it on the table," delaying further action in the hope of switching over at least one of the five Democrats who had voted against it.
It worked. On Monday, June 22, the bill was brought to the floor again. This time Rep. Larry Galizio of Tigard changed his mind, and the measure passed by a vote of 31-28.

Posted inOpinion

Supreme Defeat The South is redeemed by court order, Iraq burns while Iran learns, and more!

Intern

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from St. Charles Medical Center's ER, eagerly awaiting Obama's healthcare coverage, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.

Racism is Over, Yay!
being a judge is hard!In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court narrowed but did not overturn the Voting Rights Act. Enacted under LBJ's "Great Society" (AKA "JFK is dead and you can't prove I did it!") the Voting Rights Act forced counties, cities and school districts to prove why they should be allowed to "bail out" of the law-And, surprise surprise! A small Texas water district wanted to do just that, but called the process unfair and outdated. The Supreme Court has officially disagreed, but Chief Justice John Roberts (who is on the record as a young law clerk opposing the Voting Rights Act, Democrats voting, and women breathing) narrowed Section 5 of the Act in the decision, saying that any county or district must prove it has a "clean record" for a decade before "bailing out." Interesting language from our top court, indeed; sounds more like drug court. "Things have changed in the South," said Roberts. Have they? Been to a BBQ in Alabama lately, Chief Justice, or a GOP convention? For further consideration: The sole African-American Justice, Clarence Thomas, said he would have struck down Section 5 as unconstitutional. As a result, Awbrey Butte is now free to tar and feather panhandlers, and Crook County schools will hold a book burning at dusk.

Posted inOpinion

I’ve Seen This Movie Before: Student unrest from Middle America to the Middle East

Intern

We students wait for word from the West. We know the mainstream media want our movement to fail, but our telephone service provider doesn't care one way or the other. Ring-ring. News: Students at a prestigious western university are on strike. The tide moves eastward; hours later, we learn of a massive demonstration at a campus half a country closer. The baton of uprising has been passed to us. Will we have the strength and unity to meet the challenge, knowing that our local reaction will shape the response of other students on other campuses further east?

I am not referring to the Iranian university students that I and so many other freedom-loving Americans have come to so immensely admire over the past week. Rather, I reference students at universities such as the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and at scores of other U. S. campuses more than 40 years ago, when my generation of American university students rose up against the same sort of oppressive power elite that our Iranian counterparts now confront. Images of the Iranians' bravery and determination against a potentially mass-murderously repressive power structure take me back to my own student days, a year before I went "Clean for Gene," nearly a year before January '68's Tet offensive, March '68's announcement of President Johnson's abdication, April's assassination of the Rev. Dr. King and on and on that apocalyptic year.

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