“Pillowtalk,” the big debut single from One Direction defector Zayn Malik, couldn’t have come at a worse time.

For one, it was overshadowed by the surprise release of not only Rihanna’s Anti but Drake’s latest single, “Summer Sixteen.” Secondly, it came not long after Justin Bieber’s Purpose, a bland and economical attempt at teen-star rehab that succeeded astronomically. “Pillowtalk” producers MYKL and Levi Lennox have probably been listening to Purpose on loop for weeks.

“Pillowtalk” is every bit the child of that album, both sonically – the feral whoops at the beginning show up a lot on Purpose, as do the vaguely trap drums – and in terms of attitude. This is the sort of iron-grey Axe-pop that’s doubtless meant to scrub away any vestiges of Zayn’s career as a teen star. It’s tough. It’s got muscle. It’s half trap, half alt-rock and all man. It talks about sex in terms of war and imprisonment. If you liked American Sniper, you’ll like “Pillowtalk”!

There really is no pillow talk in this song. In fact, the first word he says after “pillow talk” is “enemy” – not exactly the first word you want to hear out of the mouth of your boyfriend as he lies next to you, pecs bulging. “Pillowtalk” is ostensibly a song about raunchy, loud, sweaty sex. But it falls into the trap of nearly all male-sung sex songs: it doesn’t make sex sound fun at all.

“I’m seeing the pain, seeing the pleasure.”

“Fucking in, fighting on.”

“It’s our paradise and it’s our war zone.”

No thanks.

But the song’s most egregious crime is that it fails to establish Zayn as a presence. With its nondescript grunge-pop production, it could be a Nick Jonas song, a Justin Bieber song, even a Kelly Clarkson song – the only real difference being the voice. Zayn’s voice is gruff and masculine. But there’s nothing here resembling real virility, and it’s hard to tell if this toughness is Zayn’s intention or just him fitting his voice to the beat. 

It makes sense for “Pillowtalk” to be so mercenary. Someone’s probably staked a lot on Zayn breaking out, so hiring Timbaland to build a beat out of burp noises might not be the safest decision financially. But it really is a shame that MYKL and Lennox took so few risks.

There are people on Twitter who want Zayn to be the next Beyoncé. Even the next Justin Timberlake would be great, because that guy came crashing out of the gate with “Cry Me A River,” which decimated the charts in spite of mostly sounding like an alien autopsy.

Instead, the long-awaited debut by pop’s most conspicuous lone wolf dropped with roughly the same impact as a G-Eazy single. Let’s hope Harry Styles fares better.

Listen to “Pillowtalk” by Zayn below.

Rihanna’s new record Anti is already the year’s most polarizing pop album. The name says it all – it’s an experimental and anti-commercial work, featuring a glut of unfinished half-songs, a seven-minute Tame Impala cover and exactly none of the singles she’s released since her last album, 2012’s Apologetic. Commercially, it’s a move that makes zero sense. Rihanna dominated the zeitgeist between 2007 and 2012, then disappeared for nearly as long. Why would she come back with this?

The answer may lie in a rising trend towards more avant-garde pop records. It’s unclear why exactly pop stars are indulging so much. Perhaps it’s because pop is more accepted as an art form than ever thanks to the massive critical success of albums like Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Beyoncé’s self-titled. Perhaps it’s because the surprise-release format means artists are less concerned about disappointing fans. Either way, it’s clear our beloved denizens of the Top 40 are less afraid than ever to get their hands dirty.

Here’s a brief run-through of the records that have contributed to this bizarre landscape.

Beyoncé – Beyoncé (2013)
Beyoncé’s sonically audacious fourth album sold bucketloads, upended the pop industry’s entire marketing strategy, and shot an already-dominant pop star to stratospheric levels of cultural ubiquity. It’s hard to imagine the critical adoration of 1989 without this record to prove to naysayers that capital-P pop could also be capital-A art.

Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (2015)
Drake/Future – What A Time To Be Alive (2015)

Drake’s invention of the “retail mixtape” was a stroke of marketing genius, allowing him to make money off low-stakes, relatively pop-unfriendly pet projects while keeping fans hyped for his “real” albums. Erykah Badu and Young Thug have already released some of their most alienating work as retail mixtapes, and this trend could likely expand in the future.

Miley Cyrus – Miley Cyrus And Her Dead Petz (2015)

This is where things started to get really wacky. Released for free at the 2015 VMAs, this sprawling Cyrus-Flaming Lips collab was so bizarre barely anyone listened to it (though more should – it’s surprisingly great). The Lips also collaborated with Ke$ha on an ear-splitting Stooges cover in 2012, suggesting Ke$ha might make some pretty batshit music once she gets out of the awful situation she’s stuck in right now.

Willow – Ardipithecus (2015)

If you’ve followed the Smith siblings at all over the last few years, it should be no surprise at all that Will and Jada Pinkett progeny/”Whip My Hair” singer Willow’s debut consists largely of avant-garde New Age experiments. Still, the fact that Jay Z’s massive Roc Nation imprint released this thing proves there’s hope for experimental pop to thrive on major labels.

Rihanna – Anti (2016)

Anti is of a similar class to Dead Petz and Ardipithecus, albeit a bit tamer: the difference (aside from the lack of New Age crap) is the stakes. It’s a commercial album by a pop star who’s been AWOL for four years, meaning people will be talking about it. If it sells dismally, this new class of pop album might be confined to free releases. If it’s a success, pop’s about to get a whole lot thornier.

The Campbell Club’s dish drainer was “fucked.”

“I cut through the pipe and gallons of stagnant sink waste started spraying out,” said Waldo Przekop, the job and maintenance coordinator at the University of Oregon’s oldest co-op.

Drenched in foul-smelling fluid, Przekop ran to fellow co-opper Jimi Wood for help.

“He comes upstairs covered in straight poop water like, ‘Jimi help me!’ ” said Wood.

Wood toweled off Przekop’s face and the two of them rushed downstairs to fix the dish system. After much trial and error, they managed to get it running again.

“But people still throw food in the sink,” Przekop said, laughing.

They could have called a plumber, but the Campbell Club is already $17,000 in debt. If the clubbers can’t scrounge this amount together by March 20, the co-op will be shut down by the Student Cooperative Association, its overseeing body.

The Campbell Club was the first project of the Student Cooperative Organization, a group that UO students founded in 1935, inspired by alumnus Wallace J. Campbell’s senior thesis on Depression-era cooperative living. It’s currently one of three SCA co-ops, alongside the Lorax Manner and the Janet Smith House; all are located within a few blocks of each other on Alder Street.

Just about any Duck can tell you something about the Campbell Club: about its hippies, about its parties, about the police raids that tend to bring them to a halt. Even if they don’t know it by name, they might have seen a towering, spooky-looking old building just off campus and wondered what goes on within its rickety walls.

Over the last few years, the Campbell Club has struggled with a high turnover rate. Though rent is cheap — between $300 and $400 depending on the room — members tend to move in, stay for a few months and move out, often without paying the owed rent, the source of the debt. The co-op’s lack of funds and “anti-capitalist” stance make it reluctant to hire debt collectors.

“Whether we like it or not, [we] live in a capitalist system and we are all affected by it,” said Wood, who currently serves as the Campbell Club’s house representative, membership coordinator and social coordinator. (Due to a lack of membership, many members have had to take on numerous positions.)

Jimi Wood, center, with fellow Campbell Club residents. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

Wood first arrived at the Campbell Club in winter 2010, cold and homeless. A resident invited her to spend a couple nights there; she ended up spending a month as a guest before applying full-time.

“I’d never seen anything like this place before,” she said. “The people who lived here were amazing. It was a full house. There were shows all the time.”

Wood continued traveling and settled in New Orleans, where she used her savings to found a co-op based on her former residence. This endeavor failed, and Wood returned to Eugene last year only to find out that the Campbell Club was in danger.

Living at the Campbell Club is often a learning experience. Many residents leave enlightened about elbow-grease skills – and sometimes miss the work enough to come back and do more of it.

“I learned how to cook, how to fix things,” said Phoebe Roberts, a UO senior who left the Campbell Club two years ago but returns to do door duties at their parties. “That house has meant so much to me for most of my college life, so it would be really sad to see it go.”

The Campbell Club is rife with artists and musicians, and even people from outside the community respect its creative culture.

Jordan Blaisdell, drummer for local rock duo the Critical Shakes, admires the Campbell Club’s spirit of artistic freedom. But he’s noticed a dearth of activity as of late. He thinks the problem is motivation.

The Campbell Club is hosting a series of shows through March 20, the deadline when it has to provide $17,000 or shut down. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

“I thought this would be an artist utopia if the right set of motivated and creative and inspired people lived there,” he said. “But in the time I’ve been there, I can’t help but get the feeling there’s a lack of motivation.”

Music is central to the Campbell Club’s reputation, and it might just be their salvation. Since mid-December, the co-op has been staging benefit concerts almost every week. So far, they’ve been able to raise about $3,000: $2,000 from a crowdsourcing campaign, the rest from concerts or direct donations.

These shows are wide-ranging to draw as diverse a crowd as possible. Last week, they hosted an EDM show. This weekend’s show will be Mardi Gras-themed, and they’ll follow it up with a ‘70s-themed party on Feb. 5 and an acoustic show on Feb. 13.

The Campbell Club has always hosted concerts, most of them with a suggested donation of $3 to $5. These new fundraiser shows come with required donations at the door – a slightly more capitalist move than is characteristic for the co-op.

In its promotional efforts, the co-op has increasingly reached out to potential tenants who don’t share its political values.

“Our major hurdle has been to be more accepting of people who we’re not sure would function well in our community instead of just trying to pre-judge,” said Wood. “If we need to, we can ask them to leave later.”

The Campbell Club has stepped up its promotional game, printing membership pamphlets and relentlessly promoting its shows and free open mics.

“We’ve tried to not only aim for students – because it is a student co-op – but anyone who’s into the DIY [do-it-yourself] culture,” said Kim Chavez, membership and job coordinator at the Campbell Club.

The Campbell Club is officially only open to students at UO, Lane Community College or Northwest Christian University. However, they accept non-students as work traders or if they plan on becoming students in the future. 

Despite all these efforts, Wood doesn’t think they have enough time to fill the house with paying members before they run out of money. Raising $14,000 in less than two months is no small feat. She believes that unless something miraculous happens, the house will close by the end of winter term.

But not all hope is lost. If the Campbell Club can’t raise the money, the SCA will stage one last recruitment drive to find enough potential tenants to keep the Campbell Club alive – while keeping the co-op closed to save money. If not, the building will be leased to other tenants.

If the Campbell Club does close permanently, a lot of memories will disappear with it.

“The dynamic in this house has always been so amazing and it’s so interesting to see how people who are so different from each other get along,” said Wood. “It’s so cool. I wish there were more large-scale communal living spaces in Eugene. It’s challenging, it’s fun. I learn things here.”

Editor’s note: a previous version of this article stated the Campbell Club accepts non-students as residents. This is not entirely true. They accept non-students as work traders or if they plan on becoming students in the future.

Kanye West wants to do a David Bowie cover album.

This seems unfathomable. It’s hard to imagine Kanye singing anyone else’s lyrics, let alone Bowie’s. The Goblin King’s abstruse lyricism is the furthest thing from Kanye’s candid bluntness, and it’s also so wrapped up in the singer’s own lore that hearing it from the mouth of an artist with an equally rich mythology would be discomforting at best.

But Bowie and Kanye actually have quite a bit in common. They pull off stylistic shifts at the drop of a hat, often within the span of only a few years. They’ve both worked with Beatles, Bowie with John and Kanye with Paul. They embrace experimental influences, and in fact, they’ve even shared a lot of the same ones–dance music, classical music, soul, avant-garde electronica. The influence came full circle on Bowie’s final Blackstar, which was influenced by Kendrick Lamar – an artist whose hubris and grand concepts would likely never have hit the mainstream without Kanye.

It’s still hard to imagine Kanye singing “Ziggy Stardust” – in fact, the mere idea of Kanye crooning “jamming good with Web and Gilly” makes this writer cringe – but there are ways this could work. One would be if he yielded vocals to any of his many friends and collaborators in the industry and stuck to production; this would mitigate the obvious disconnect in hearing Kanye West sing Bowie songs. Another would be if he covered any of these gems.

1. “Let’s Dance.” Kanye shouldn’t take the mic here; I could see Rihanna or Beyonce slaying this one. But it’s exactly the sort of joyous, druggy spectacle Kanye loves. “Let’s Dance” producer Nile Rodgers is also in the midst of a major career renaissance, so bringing him back wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
2. “Beauty And The Beast.” The opener to Heroes is one of Bowie’s grimiest songs – and one of his least vocally demanding. Kanye could absolutely sing this one and back it up with some blaring Yeezus-style production.
3. “Heroes.” Nobody has been able to beat the original and nobody ever will. But lyrically, it’s one of Bowie’s most – well, Kanye-like songs, mixing hubris and romance with apocalyptic imagery. I could see a spare R&B arrangement, not unlike the ones on 808s & Heartbreak, working for this one.
4. Anything from Young Americans. Kanye had “chipmunk soul;” Bowie had “plastic soul.” Though Bowie’s Young Americans is a self-conscious experiment from an outsider, it’s as iconoclastic and mischievous a deconstruction as Kanye’s early, sample-heavy productions. Also, “Fame” is on it.
5. “Under Pressure.” Kanye loves big pop statements and collaborations, and is there a bigger pop statement/collaboration than “Under Pressure”? I can imagine a sick, twisted self-duet, with Kanye garbling Freddie Mercury’s parts through Auto-Tune or that fuzzed-out filter he used on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Also, “Under Pressure” holds a vital place in hip-hop history – albeit a dubious one.

The post Kanye’s Bowie cover album: 5 songs that could work appeared first on Emerald Media.

Experimental musicians Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto will surely receive a substantial amount of new exposure stateside following their score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film The Revenant. But it would be a shame if they became better known for their late-career soundtrack work than the wealth of material they recorded prior. Noto and Sakamoto have recorded four albums together, all of which make for quite good ambient listening, and their solo careers have seen them pioneering numerous strains of electronica. Here’s a quick guide to what these two have done in the past.

THE MUSICIANS:

Courtesy of Resident Advisor

Alva Noto (born Carsten Nicolai, 1965) is a German musician best known for founding Raster-Noton, an influential label in the glitch subgenre of electronic music, and he’s also released a number of ambient albums on his own. He recently composed Sparkie: Cage And Beyond, an opera focusing on a parrot that acquired a vocabulary of more than 600 words in the 1960s.

Courtesy of Resident Advisor

Ryuichi Sakamoto (born 1952) is a Japanese composer and keyboardist who began his career as a member of the pioneering electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra. The group helped lay the foundations for EDM in the late 70s and early 80s. His solo work varies from dance music to classical compositions, and he’s scored (and acted in) a number of indie films as well.

THE ALBUMS:

Vrioon (2002). Noto and Sakamoto’s first collaboration is their most minimal, consisting of little more than uncertainly stabbed piano chords and distorted, clipped electronic sounds. Though it’s pretty, it sounds more academic than their later work; it doesn’t sound like they’re having much fun, and it comes across more as an experiment than anything else.

Insen (2005). This is the warmest, most pleasant and most accessible Noto-Sakamoto joint, featuring seven songs over a scant 43 minutes. Ambient albums this brief often run the risk of not being immersive enough, but Insen leaves an afterglow that lingers long after the album’s over. Listening to Insen is a rejuvenating experience, not unlike taking a warm, soothing bath.

utp_ (2008). Scary and unsettling, utp_ is the closest precedent to Noto and Sakamoto’s current soundtrack work. The basic formula of electronic bleeps and somber piano is in place, but the duo is accompanied by a small army of string players who contribute distressing, dissonant textures. A good album for walking around at night when you want to feel a bit spooked, but it’s certainly not for ambient chill-out listening.

summvs (2011). Appropriate to its title, the final non-soundtrack Noto-Sakamoto album to date feels like a summary of everything they’ve done to date, including a series of “microon” tracks that continue in the vein of Vrioon. A good sampler of the project, but it’s too scattered to form a consistent listening experience; a good sample of the project, but not its best work front to back.

After a year of speculation, Kanye West finally announced the release date for his upcoming album Swish: Feb. 11, 2016. But we’re no less confused.

Has there ever been a more baffling album roll-out? All the songs Kanye’s released since 2013’s Yeezus sound completely different, and he’s confirmed only one of them for the album “Wolves,” which he hasn’t even released in studio form. In the meantime, we’re stuck guessing whether Swish will be a sonic sequel to Yeezus (as evidenced by “Wolves,” “Fade”), a confessional exorcism (“Only One,” “Real Friends”), a relatively conventional collection of bangers (“Facts,” “All Day”) or a grotesque combination of all these things.

He’s dropping new music every Friday until the album release, but it’s unclear if whatever he releases will answer any of our burning questions. Until then, here’s a profile of the songs, their odds of being on the album and the clues they might provide about this mysterious record.

Song: “Wolves/Fade”

Description: Harsh, industrial sound experiments similar to those on Yeezus. He’s only played the latter while DJing at events.

Odds of being on the album: 7 in 8. Kanye has said “Wolves” will be the first track on Swish, which is the most he has said as to album content. “Fade” is too weird to be a stand-alone single.

Song: “Real Friends/No More Parties In LA (Snippet)”

Description: The former is a minimal confessional similar to his 2010 cut “Gorgeous.” The latter features Kendrick Lamar, but that’s all we know.

Odds: 4 in 5. It’s unlikely Kanye would release a “snippet” of something that’s not going to be on his album.

Song: “All Day.”

Description: A fairly conventional banger indebted to drill, a regional hip hop style from Kanye’s native Chicago.

Odds: 3 in 4. It’s received several Grammy nods, and he promoted it with a fiery performance at the Brit Awards. It’s maybe the most visible Swish contender alongside “Only One.”

Song: “Only One”

Description: A tender ballad featuring Kanye singing from the perspective of his mother over weightless keys from Paul McCartney.

Odds: 3 in 5. It was the first single, it has a video and it charted pretty well. Simply put, it’s the post-Yeezus song Kanye’s invested the most in. Still, he hasn’t dropped anything else that sounds like it except “FourFiveSeconds.”

Song: “FourFiveSeconds”

Description: A short, Beatles-indebted collaboration with Rihanna and McCartney.

Odds: 1 in 3. It’s already confirmed to be on Rihanna’s Anti, but it’s not unheard of for pop collaborations such as this to appear on more than one of the artists’ albums; Jack U’s collaboration with Justin Bieber, “Where Are U Now,” appeared on both artists’ albums.

Song: “Facts”

Description: A reinterpretation of Drake and Future’s “Jumpman,” replete with timely references.

Odds: 1 in 5. “I ain’t dropped the album but my shoes went platinum,” Kanye spits. This line is going to sound awfully strange once he actually drops Swish.

Oregon is replete with hot springs, and most of them are accessible to the public. For those looking for a wild time in a natural setting, there are many public hot springs operating on land owned by the U.S. Forest Service. These allow nudity and are usually free. For those who want to shell out a few extra greenbacks to avoid bathing with the naked, there are plenty of private hot springs to visit — from the inexpensive Bagby to the luxe Breitenbush.

There are countless other springs in Oregon besides the seven listed here, but these are the most accessible from the Eugene area. You’ll need a car (or a friend with one) in order to attend. My advice: get a small group together, make a road-trip playlist and go soak.

Illustration by Stacy Yurishcheva.

1. Bagby Hot Springs

Driving time from Eugene: 4h

Fee: $5

Nudity: Only in private tubs

One of Oregon’s most acclaimed and beloved hot spring destinations, Bagby features hot tubs located in repurposed whiskey barrels and hollowed logs. Housed in a historic cabin built in 1913, Bagby is more formal than the public springs in the Willamette Valley area, though less so than Breitenbush or Belknap. As of 2013, nudity is only allowed in private tubs. It’s a 1.5-mile hike to the springs, and it’s four hours from Eugene (closer from Portland), so only go to Bagby if you’re looking for adventure.

2. Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat And Conference Center

Driving time from Eugene: 2h 45m

Fee: $15-$28

Nudity: No

Call in advance for this one. A worker-owned cooperative that only serves vegetarian meals and generates its own electricity through hydropower and diesel, Breitenbush manages to (perhaps paradoxically) seem hippie and posh at the same time. Three small rock pools are available in a lush meadow setting, while four smaller tiled hot tubs are available in a more conventional patio setting. “The Bush” is closed often for spiritual retreats and events, but there’s a detailed list of open spring spots on its website, so it’s easy to plan a trip there in advance.

Cougar Hot Springs. Taylor Wilder.

3. Cougar Hot Springs

Driving time from Eugene: 1h 15m

Fee: $6 per person

Nudity: Yes

Located in the midst of the gorgeous Willamette National Forest, Terwilliger Hot Springs — better known as Cougar Hot Springs — is the most popular hot spring among University of Oregon students. Located along the McKenzie River, Cougar is accessible from Highway 126 after a quarter-mile hike that will surely put you in company with plenty of bros and hippies. You’ll see five pools separated by rock walls, laid out in steps down a ravine. It’s likely to be busy, but its combo of awe-inspiring woodland and liberal nudity will surely attract Oregonians until its hills crumble to dust.

4. Deer Creek Hot Springs

Driving time from Eugene: 1h 15m

Fee: None

Nudity: Yes

Located near Cougar but slightly closer to Belknap, Deer Creek is a small pool that can only seat half a dozen, but it’s little-known enough that space shouldn’t be a problem. Deer Creek probably isn’t the best for parties, but it’s ideal for relaxing with a small group and surrounding yourself with nature. It’s free, but features nothing in the way of amenities – it really is just a hot spring. If you’re looking for an au naturel experience, Deer Creek is the place to go. Needless to say, nudity is allowed; in fact, you’re unlikely to find anyone wearing clothes out in this secret little spot.

5. Belknap Lodge & Hot Springs

Driving time from Eugene: 1h 10m

Fee: $7/hour, $12/full day

Nudity: No

Located amid an idyllic, wanderable sea of gardens along the McKenzie River, Belknap Lodge is a great resort spring that won’t set you back as much as Breitenbush. Belknap boasts two large mineral swimming pools, each heated to a reasonable 102 degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn’t have the natural feel of something like Deer Creek or even Cougar, but it’s less raucous and likely to boast fewer hooting, hollering college students. Tent sites, cabins and RVs are also available to rent if your taste for adventure goes beyond just spending an hour or two in a warm tub.

6. McCredie Hot Springs

Driving time from Eugene: 1h 5m

Fee: None

Nudity: Yes

McCredie is slightly closer to Eugene than Cougar, is free, and requires only minimal hiking to access. It’s a bit less popular among college students, in part because of the notorious temperature of its water. Some hot spots reach upwards of 114 degrees Fahrenheit, so this one’s not for newbies. Still, McCredie is enduringly popular as a free, slightly wilder alternative to Cougar. If Cougar is the Beatles, think of McCredie as The Rolling Stones. McCredie features one large party pool as well as a number of quieter ones.

7. Umpqua Hot Springs

Driving time from Eugene: 2h 25m

Fee: None

Nudity: Yes

Umpqua is closed indefinitely due to high levels of bacteria in the water. It’s projected to open again in summer. But it’s sure to be as much of a hotspot when it reopens as it was before its closure last year. Umpqua’s located in Southern Oregon near the North Umpqua Trail, so there’s plenty of hiking around — as well as tons of waterfalls, including the legendary Toketee Falls only 11 miles from the spring. Keep this one on your back burner and watch out for updates, though it’ll likely be absurdly crowded once they suck all the nasty stuff out of the water and declare it safe once more.

“Let’s go get sushi and not pay!”

This is one of the most memorable lines from the 1984 comedy Repo Man, spoken from one L.A. punk to another as they debate the next stop on their crime spree. It’s a sentiment any broke college student with expensive taste can sympathize with. Sushi is delicious, but why spend five bucks on a couple measly slices of snapper when you can pig out at dozens of other places for the same price?

Luckily, quality sushi doesn’t have to be expensive. Sushi belt restaurants, known as kaiten-sushi (rotation sushi) in Japan, offer plates of sushi on metal conveyor belts for remarkably low prices — and there are plenty in Eugene. 541 Sushi downtown offers all plates for $2, every day. Sushi Station in the Market District serves individual plates between $1.50 and $3.50. Sushi Island’s two locations offer those same prices, but all selections from the belt are priced at $1.50 at its extremely crowded happy hours.

The conveyor belts run right by customers’ tables and generally wrap around a kitchen, where a small team of chefs continually prepares new plates for the conveyor and throws out old ones. Sushi and other small dishes are served on plates that are colored differently depending on price. Customers may also make special orders.

One doesn’t necessarily go to a conveyor belt restaurant to find that perfect cut of tuna. Rather, customers — especially college students — are drawn to the low prices and accessibility of conveyor belt sushi.

“They’re relatively cheap compared to sit-down sushi places,” University of Oregon student A.J. Nichols said. “They also give you an immediacy to the food. You don’t have to wait at all. You can go in there and start eating immediately.”

Sushi Island has two locations: one in West Eugene and one closer to campus in The Patterson apartment complex on East 13th Avenue. The Patterson houses a large number of international students, who provide much of Sushi Island’s clientele.

“The clientele is mostly foreign exchange students,” said Cara Pyle, who works at the Patterson location. “A lot of people live here, so there are a lot of regulars — people who come here every day.”

Photo credit: Cole Elsasser

Kaiten-sushi was created in 1958 in Japan by Yoshiaki Shiraishi, who found the salvation for his understaffed sushi restaurant after seeing beer bottles roll off a conveyor belt at a brewery. After Shiraishi’s invention was displayed at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, a boom followed, and restaurateurs both in Japan and abroad began adopting the concept. Today, there are large companies that deal in sushi belt paraphernalia. Vermont company Modu has the U.S. monopoly, making belts as well as plates; in Japan, Ishino Seisakusho is the biggest brand.

In Japan, kaiten-sushi has proven lucrative in an economy where stagnating wages have driven more expensive eateries out of fashion. As 541 does in Eugene, several chains in Japan offer all plates for the same price – often 100 yen (81 cents), inspired by a trend of 100-yen shops.

Sushi ingredients can be expensive, especially at the quality required to serve them raw. So how can these restaurants make a profit selling sushi so cheaply?

“Some of our ingredients are expensive and some of our items are low [priced], so the average is about two dollars,” said Hans Chae, manager at 541 Sushi. “It balances.”

Thus, at 541, you may see a bowl of edamame (soybeans) that costs less than $2 to prepare next to a couple shining slices of salmon that cost more.

Sushi Island also does not strictly adhere to the $1.50-for-everything happy hour rule. Though this rule applies to everything on the belt, about a third of the items on its menu are only available by order and cost the same at all times.

Happy hour at Sushi Island is cheap, but it’s advantageous for another reason: the turnover between plates is much faster, leading to a fresher product.

“If you go at the end of the day when they don’t have any customers, you don’t know how long anything has been going around the conveyor belt,” Nichols said. “If you go during happy hour, there’s so many people eating them so quickly — and there’s so many chefs making the sushi — that you’re getting it directly as it’s being made.”

Some customers report that the quality of sushi generally isn’t quite at the level of sit-down restaurants. Nichols can confirm, “It’s not the top-quality sushi.” His friend Sophie Von Rohr, who has worked at sit-down establishment Mio Sushi, finds “it’s only really worth going there if it’s happy hour — otherwise [you] might as well get better sushi.”

The prospect of raw fish sitting out in the open for uncertain amounts of time might turn some diners off sushi belts. But Nick Alviani, a health inspector for the Lane County Department Of Environmental Health, says there’s nothing to worry about as long as the restaurants follow the proper health codes. According to the most recent FDA food code, passed in 2013, restaurants may only keep food in a non-temperature-controlled environment for four hours.

“After every four hours there’s a high potential risk of having bacteria grow to a certain level that might get people sick,” Alviani said.

Belt restaurants must approve a time-keeping procedure with the Department of Environmental Health. Some restaurants make timetables; others use stickers at the bottom of their plates to mark when the dish was made. 541 rotates the colors of its plates by the time period in which the dish was made — divided into three-hour intervals — rather than by price.

A good indicator of how long dishes on a conveyor belt have been out is the color of the avocado used in rolls. Avocados brown within a few hours, so if there are brown spots on the avocado, it’s likely the plates haven’t been changed in a while.

The system seems to work. 541, Sushi Station and Sushi Island currently boast health scores of over 95. If you still don’t want to risk a few brown spots on your avocado, Eugene has no shortage of sit-down restaurants. But at a place like Sushi Island, $3 could get you a sufficient meal of two filling rolls at happy hour. If there’d been a sushi belt in L.A. in 1984 – at least one that those punks from Repo Man knew about – they might have just scrounged together a few quarters, or maybe moved their dine-and-dash operation to a steakhouse.

Anna Lieberman contributed to this story.

As Justin Bieber’s comeback album, Purpose, takes on the unenviable task of presenting its star as both a commercially viable pop icon and a vulnerable human being who’s genuinely sorry for all the awful shit he did in 2014. It succeeds at the former, but fails unequivocally at the latter. Though I came out impressed by Bieber’s vocals and the consistent production, I didn’t feel one note of pity for him.

His apology songs (“Life Is Worth Living,” “Purpose”) feel sincere. But they don’t hide just how much Bieber sounds like an asshole on this record. “Love Yourself” is one of the meanest post-breakup songs this side of Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” with Bieber viciously digging his claws into a girl for… what? Liking how much she looks? Not liking his friends? It’s never clear, and given the crowd Bieber’s been partying with lately – his creepy dad Jeremy, D-list stars/drunk drivers Khalil and Lil Twist – I don’t exactly blame her for that.

Then there’s “What Do You Mean,” another entry in the fabled canon of “no means yes” songs. “Sorry” tries to shrink the record’s apologetic sentiment down to the scale of a romantic relationship (“I made those mistakes […] maybe a couple hundred times”), but when he claims “I’m missing more than just your body” on the chorus, it defeats the purpose of the sentiment. The focus is on the word “body,” and I can imagine Bieber stammering his way through the question: “what else do you miss?” “Your personality, your… um, smile,” I imagine him stammering, flop sweat pouring down his face.

Purpose is at its best when it leaves out the mea culpas and just presents Bieber as what he is: an indomitable pop star. “I’ll Show You” is the best thing here not because Bieber claims “I’m not made out of steel” on the chorus but because his icy, detached performance makes him sound like he is. Bieber’s vocal chill (in both senses of the word) is Purpose‘s strongest suit, and the album’s best songs take advantage of this, like the R&B stunner “Company” or the post-Yeezus industrial trap “No Sense.”

In fact, his voice is the only reason the songs where he explicitly atones for his past questionable behavior really work. On a musical level, “Life Is Worth Living” and “Purpose” are facile piano ballads, not far from the sparser moments of Adele’s 21. But Bieber’s voice, rather than rocketing skyward, remains at a hushed coo. His restraint gives these songs a palpable sense of introversion, as if he’s simply mulling over his thoughts rather than screaming for the world to forgive him.

Purpose makes it obvious that Bieber’s sincerely sorry. What’s less clear is how much he’s learned.

Listen to Purpose’s title track below.

October 19, 2015 saw the almost-simultaneous release of two world-wrecking viral videos: Drake’s “Hotline Bling” music video and the third trailer to the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. Both videos were endlessly retweeted, re-blogged, and re-touched as humorous GIFs; it’s safe to say they’ll define October 2015 in the annals of web culture. But which was the worthier meme? We watched the two videos side-by-side to find out.

“Hotline Bling” from Drake

The Force Awakens trailer from J.J. Abrams, et al

ACTING

Winner: Drake. To work for a phone-sex hotline like the girls in the “Hotline Bling” video, you need to be pretty great at pretending the creep on the other end of the line is giving you pleasure. To be in a Star Wars movie, you just have to ham it up, and The Force Awakens delivers with laboriously delivered lines like, “I’m no one” and “NOTHING WILL STAND IN OUR WAY!!”

HAIR

Winner: Star Wars. Drake’s beard is a nice, rugged touch, and his backup dancers are pristinely coiffed. But none of them can compare to Chewbacca, whose wool is immaculate as ever.

LIGHTSABER SKILLS

Winner: Tie. We see a lot of people preparing to battle each other with lightsabers in the Force Awakens trailer – but no actual action. Drake doesn’t have one in “Hotline Bling,” but insert one digitally and you’ll see his footwork is on fleek.

MEME-ABILITY

Winner: Drake. Sure, someone added Jar Jar Binks to the Force Awakens trailer, and there are still plenty of jokes floating around about Kylo Ren’s lightsaber crossguard. But it’s nowhere near meme-able enough to merit an A to fucking Z of “best memes,” as Drake’s did.

MUSIC

Winner: Drake. “Hotline Bling” isn’t Drake’s best song, but at least it’s better than the god-awful imitation of Trent Reznor’s Social Network score that opens the Force Awakens trailer. Come on, John Williams, you’re better than this.

POTENTIAL TO PISS OFF BIGOTS

Winner: Star Wars. Racists on social media have taken to boycotting Star Wars for being “anti-white” just because it has a black lead. And any movie that makes privileged bigots think they’re being “attacked” is clearly doing something right (see also: Mad Max: Fury Road).

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Winner: Star Wars. Anyone can find a neon room to dance in. It takes a lot of time and money to make a fleet of X-wings rocket through space. Still, props to Drake and Director X for only using probably, like, six hundred dollars of their enormous budget.

Overall winner: Tie. Both videos leave a lot to be desired. We’d like to see a few more aliens and lightsaber battles from the Star Wars trailer, and the world’s biggest rapper could afford to do a lot more in the video for his latest number-one hit than just dance around. But both have everything they need to take over the Internet. Star Wars has nostalgia appeal and awe-inspiring space battles, while Drake has catchy earworms and dance moves so un-slick they’re slick.

For now, Star Wars and Drake are tied in the race for viral supremacy. Let’s just see if The Force Awakens will be as good as Views From The 6.