She has a reputation for trouble and fame, and she’s heading to the University.
Elizabeth Elmore’s new band, The Reputation, will be at the center of a musical showcase 9 p.m. Wednesday. The show, also featuring Portland band Captain vs. Crew and San Francisco natives Velvet Teen, will take place in the EMU Fir Room.
The show is presented by the UO Cultural Forum and is the first in a series of local music showcases to begin next term.
The Reputation’s rock goddess Elmore plays guitar, keyboards and piano while she lays down sweet but fiery vocals.
“I used to sound like a 12-year-old virgin,” Elmore said. “I’ve got a girlie voice, though I’d like to think that it has matured.”
The rest of the band is filled in by Joel Root on bass, Matt Esby on drums and Sean Hulet on guitar. The band’s music runs from popish power punk to stirring piano driven epics.
When Elmore croons her lyrics, she shows that she is in control. In “Misery by Design,” she sings, “I can’t feel that sorry for any guy who’d call me a slut/and you’ve learned to play the victim brilliantly.”
Like every rock star, she also sings about drugs, pain and being cheated on.
“Won’t waste my mind on things that can’t remain same/latent flaw keeps coursing through my veins/go on get it done it doesn’t matter and there’s nobody left to blame,” she sings on “Wasted.”
“The best way I can explain it is that as far as I can tell, I am too brutally honest and opinionated for most people,” said Elmore when asked about her lyrics. “Generally, I think people wish I would shut up.”
This doesn’t seem to be the case as Elmore’s former band, Sarge, made a huge impact on the indie scene of the 1990s. Sarge received a barrage of press coverage in magazines from Rolling Stone (named “Hot Band” in 1998) to Playboy (“… guys might learn something from these rocking, well-crafted tunes …”).
The Reputation wanted to play at the University because bass player Root grew up in Eugene and wanted to visit his family. Elmore called the Cultural Forum to set up a show and talked to Nathan Hazard, the regional music coordinator for the Cultural Forum. They discovered that they had met each other when Sarge played a show in Tucson, Ariz.
“I must have met him four or five years ago when he was 16,” Elmore said.
When Hazard first saw Sarge in high school, he said he was entranced by Elmore. “I just fell in love with Elizabeth Elmore. She is so charismatic.
“Sarge was just amazingly successful,” he said. “Elizabeth was the angry women in a man’s scene.”
He said that Elmore’s angry feminist lyrics inspired more women to become involved in the 90s indie scene which was dominated with sappy, emotional boy rock.
Cat Cole, a University junior, heard about Sarge when she was in high school. “When I started listening to girl rock, the selection was really minimal. (Elizabeth) stood out because she had feminist lyrics.”
Sarge disbanded in 1999. Elmore has spent the last two years in law school studying litigation.
In March 2001, after a bit of playing solo, Elmore grabbed three guys and started touring. It was meant to be a temporary band, but they got along well and though they’ve traded drummers, the main group has stayed together. They spent just under five weeks recording their self-titled debut album.
“It’s a full-time job,” Elmore said. “I book the tours and do all of the accounting. I’ll probably run out of money in about two months and have to get another job.”
Captain vs. Crew is a straight-A Portland collective that plays rock with an indie influence. Velvet Teen plays art-pop with melodic riffs and soaring harmonies.