EW Letter of the Week

This week's letter is not especially riveting or quintessential, but it comes from GTFF Steward Sean Bemis and that's good enough. Plus, it gives me a chance to use my Butthead voice and say "Shut up, Bemis."

HAPHAZARD REVIEW

In regards to the "review" of The Gourds in the Feb. 14 issue of EW: Wow, I'm impressed that the author of this review can get away with spending much of the article discussing how little effort she put into researching the subject of the article. She discusses the lack of an up-to-date MySpace page, which I find intriguing, since I happen to be a MySpace "friend" of the band. Maybe you should have tried clicking on one or two of the other dozen or so MySpace profiles with the display name of "The Gourds." To save you some time, here's their profile address: www.myspace.com/thegourdstx Strangely enough, this one has listed the show they played in Eugene on Feb. 16! And songs from their new album!

I'm making this point because I am routinely disappointed in the lack of interest EW appears to display towards roots and Americana music. Another example that comes to mind is from a year or so ago in a disrespectful review of an amazing Portland old-timey band — Foghorn String Band. I can understand if the reviewer doesn't like the music, but in this case, they began the article by saying something along the lines of "I don't usually listen to country music." Such a comment is totally irrelevant and displays general ignorance of the various genres of roots music. And one really doesn't need to know much or research much to learn the difference between modern country music and old-timey string band music. The author then made it worse by justifying his ability to write the review with something like "but I have friends that listen to country."

Another reason I highlight these two examples is that the shows that these two reviews directed their readers to were two of the best shows I've seen in my four years living in Eugene.

Sean Bemis, Eugene