What's been important to you about Western Mass Music?

Western Massachusetts has had, and still has, a local music scene that is pretty astounding, in comparison to other areas in the US with similar populations. Without a big city, there have been a slew of major label artists (Dinosaur Jr, Polaris, Sebadoh, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, (hate to say it but) Staind, (were the Unband on a major), Taj Mahal was from Western Mass right?, I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch). A hell of a lot has happened here, and touched a lot of lives. I'd love to hear some stories of what other people feel is important about Western Mass music. People who live here, have lived here, played here on tour, or even just visited. I'll kick it off with my memories of a venue in Western Mass that changed my life for the better, Flywheel Arts Space in Easthampton, MA (though I'm sure I could write something similar about my feelings for The Old Store/The Shed in Palmer, MA. I'll see if that comes out as I read others' responses.)

The first time I went to Flywheel Arts Space was the first show I ever played. It was maybe October or November of 1999, I was 14 years old, and Flywheel had opened earlier that year. My punk band played 3 songs, and we were payed in candy. It was awesome. I had never even met the promoters before the gig. Someone suggested us to them, and we were on. This was my foot in the door. This was a place that would let me do whatever I wanted, for whomever was interested. No censorship. By the time I was playing there with American Business Machines, who played Flywheel between 25-30 times between 2004 and Flywheel's closing in 2007, I was taking this to a new level. Flywheel was our home court and we caused as much havoc as we liked. All of those nights are truly a blur of brawling bloody through the drum set wearing maybe a pair of boxers, endless A tonal jams with the audience invited to join, too many people pushed into a room with no ventilation (making it impossible to hold drum sticks from the sweat), and most of all, just having the freedom to do anything. Our last show there, was one of Flywheel's last shows. We had bought some buckets of fried chicken to eat while we were playing, and it quickly turned into fried chicken war. It was a fantastic night and couldn't have happened anywhere else. The greatest part about Flywheel is that I'm sure I'm not the only one with this type of story. It let so many performers get their start. At the same time so many amazing bands played there, from all over the world. It gave me the chance to see amazing famous artists, in what felt like my living room. Though Flywheel had to shut it's doors last year, it will reopen in the old town hall building in Easthampton. The space is great, and we've finally received enough money to begin demolition. I've felt the lack of Flywheel in Western Mass, and I know many others have as well. It won't happen over night, but Flywheel will reopen, and the next generation will be able to let it change their lives as well.

Required Reading in Texas Schools

There was an article in the Austin Statesman on March 25 entitled "What do you think of the required reading in your child’s school? Is the material age appropriate?". The Statesman again took the route of actually asking for comments at the end of the article. They got a lot of crazy ones. There are people saying that there shouldn't be school and a lot of god stuff. There's one commenter named Bob who throws out quotes like "The children of today are practically all retarded compared to when I was just starting elementary school." and " those damn kids do not get out of the road, let Darwinism weed them out! In fact, I think if you can hit them and make their mothers cry, you get an extra ten points. Twenty if the mother is giving birth to another one of her twenty children when it happens.". Not someone I'd ever like to meet. There is actually a comment here by a 13 year old student. My favorite quote would have to be whoever pulled out the Simpsons in the middle of this. The commenter, Ralph Wiggum, the comment "Me fail English? That’s unpossible!".

Walmart sues brain-damaged woman with dead son

This isn't in my publication, but I saw this and figured other people might want to read this as well. Another example of how shiesty Wal-Mart is. "Walmart sues brain-damaged woman with dead son".

John McCain's daughter is into The Dead Milkmen

There was an article in the Austin Statesman on March 20 entitled "John McCain’s daughter loves indie rock". If the title of the article isn't good enough, the entirety of the article is "Attention Transmission promoter Graham Williams: She is a huge Dead Milkmen fan.". I find this awesome, because the Dead Milkmen were a great band. The lone commenter points out that Sid McCain has worked for a few major record labels.

Article ranting about people talking during shows

There was an article in the Austin Statesman on March 22nd entitled "Shhhhh! Music being played" The journalist rants about how people are too loud during gigs in Austin. 9 commenters agree with him. Only one disagrees. I've only played a few shows in Austin, and they were all at Trophys, which is a pretty rowdy bar. They weren't the kind of shows where anyone would want to keep it down. I understand that it's annoying if people are talking too loudly through a soft performance (one of the commenters sites people talking through a Johnny Cash solo set that he video taped), but most groups are loud enough to rise above the conversation. Certainly all high energy bands are looking to spur vocalization from the crowd. I'd just be surprised to hear that it's actually gotten that bad. Since when can you not just turn to someone being too loud and tell them to keep it down.

Fake Austin City Limits Fest Poster

There was an article in the Austin Statesmen yesterday entitled "Exclusive!!! ACL Fest poster!!! (It’s a fake)". Someone made a fake poster with a fake lineup for the Austin City Limits Fest, which won't be announcing it's line up until April 15th. Whomever made it, emailed it to a lot of interested parties, and many people were tricked. Three people commented on this. One of the comments struck me as random. He said "the fact that paul westerberg is listed was an immediate indication that it was a fake.". I can't figure out why he thinks that? Paul Westerberg was the singer of The Replacements, a great band, and still tours playing his solo material and material he wrote for The Replacements. It wouldn't surprise me to see him at this type of event. Maybe the commenter was reffering to the fact that he's not quite as famous as most of the names on the poster, but I don't know. He has to be more famous than Explosions In The Sky or Band Of Horses, who are listed in the same section as him, let alone the half dozen bands on there that I haven't heard of.

Moody Blues

A review appeared in the Austin Statesman yesterday entitled "Review: Moody Blues at Austin Music Hall". The reviewer bashed the Austin Music Hall, for having horrible sound, even though it has just been renovated. Most of the five commenters agreed with the reviewer, accusing the owners of renovating the hall so it could fit more people, but not paying any attention to the sound.

Austin Statesman has an article that actually asks people to comment

An article appeared in the Austin Statesman today entitled "Too young for cell phones at school?". The last line of the article is "Tell us, what do you think of this policy?". The publication is looking for comments. They've only gotten four comments of yet, but it just came out today. The comments are on both sides of the issue, and there's already someone claiming that anyone who disagrees with him is an idiot.

BATPAC endorses Meeker, Morrison article

There was an article on March 18th in the Austin Statesmen entitled "BATPAC endorses Meeker, Morrison". The article is about a city council election, and me, not really knowing the candidates, didn't find it too enticing. 28 people commented though. Most of the comments are suggesting that there's some sort of foul play involved. I can't be sure of what's true, but I found one comment particularly amusing stating "Has Meeker already received more than $300.00 from the BATPAC? Fans of open government want to know". Are people mad about $300? That can't really be the case. As if $300 would give an unfare advantage in an election.

"Noriega, citing U.S. deaths in Iraq, stills Web site" article

There was an article in the Austin Statesmen yesterday entitled "Noriega, citing U.S. deaths in Iraq, stills Web site". Rick Noriega (I appologize for not mentioning this in my last post) is Texas' Democratic senate nominee. The article is about how he's using his website to bring awareness to the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq and his opposition to the war. It spurred two comments, both critisizing Noriega. The main comment was from a veteran who has returned from Iraq. He's accusing Noriega of exploiting the deaths for his own political gain. Maybe the commenter is right, but my first reaction is actually the opposite. I feel Noriega is probably using his public notice as a candidate to speak about an issue that's important to him. First, Noriega served in Afganistan. Second, I'm not certain, but I don't think opposing the Iraq war is something that will get you a lot of votes in Texas. A lot of Noriega's campaign focuses on how he's a good old boy from Texas, even though he's a Democrat. I'm not sold that he's exploiting the soldier's deaths, when he's calling out to end the war and spare those who have not yet died.

Noriega Goofs Words article

There was an article in the Austin Statesman yesterday entitled "Noriega goofs words to “Deep in the Heart…”". It spawned five comments. Four of the five were extremely aggressive towards the journalist. I do agree the article seems pretty useless at best, and at worst, in poor taste. It's some of the most hostile commenting I've seen yet.

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Respones to the book Letters to the Editor

This is in response to the book Letters to the Editor, Two Hundred Years in the Life of an American Town, edited by Gerard Stropnicky, Tom Byrn, James Goode, and Jerry Matheny. My first note is that last sentence was a mouthful.

The first letter that jumped out at me was on pages 21-22, and was entitled The Normal School. The writer is complaining about the expansion of Bloomsburg. He warns about not being able to feed everyone. It jumped out at me, because it doesn't seem to be great use to warn the people who already live in Bloomsburg. Maybe the residents are inviting other residents to move there, but the people who are expanding Bloomsburg are people who haven't yet arrived. There is no way they could possibly read that letter. Also, it's always fun to see older writing, where they add pluralization to things that we don't anymore.

The second letter that jumped out at me was on page 22, and was entitled The Traffic Light. The writer is bothered by the inconsistency of a specific traffic light. He describes how he timed the light, with his watch, and found it inconsistent. It's funny to me to imagine someone really sitting out there with a watch timing a traffic light. It's not like today, where you might just be glancing at the clock on the dashboard of your car.

The third letter was on page 27, and was entitled The RIghts of Man. The writer pretty much just says, what's the hubbub about equality. I just can't imagine anyone saying that. I can't help but find this hilarious.

The fourth letter was on page 27, and was entitled The Right of Fish. This opens with the line "Fish are a species of animals which ought to be exempt from our tyrrany." Whether or not you agree that we're being too harsh on fish, that is a fantastic sentence. Tyrrany is such a strong word to use. It also seems so strange to me, to concentrate on fish. As if we should hunt other animals, but fish are superior and should be exempt. The letter goes on to make a decent argument on this exact point. I'm unconvinced by it, and truthfully find it humerous.

The fifth letter was on page 28, and was entitled Ten Dollar Reward. This letter offors a $10 reward, for the return of a runaway slave. It's surreal to me to imagine slavery taken so lightly, but that's the way it was. Its a strange description of the man. They decribe his personality, as well as his clothing and appearance. Seeing an actual letter like this, is just surreal to me.

Letter to the Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

Dear Karin Wahl-Jorgensen,

I read your book "Journalists and the Public" and one section confused me. You talk about pen names quite a bit, and you actually give percentages in reference to how many letter writers used assumed names. One example was on page 43, lines 31-32, when you wrote "Pederson found that at least 30% of female letter writers use assumed names". How could we know the percentage that used pen names? Were the writers adding a note that the letter should be published under a different name? I assume most writers who use a pen name, just use the pen name, period. Why would they give their actual name at all? How would the newspapers, in the those times, know whether or not the names on the letters were the writer's real names? I just can't imagine that Pederson's research on this point could even be remotely accurate.

Sincerely

Justin Cohen

SXSW

There was an article that appeared in the Austin Statesman on February 25th, talking about the new method for buying wrist bands to attend South By South West (SXSW). http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/music/entries/2008/02/25/sxsw_shocker_wristbands_didnt.html#comments. SXSW is an annual music festival held in Austin, Texas. This article spurred 32 comments, which is the highest I've seen yet, from any article in this publication. The posts were both pro and con. People are really fired up about they're feelings towards this festival. The comments continued for four days after the article was written.

Not Everyone Cares Article

There was an article in the Austin Statesman today entitled "Not Everyone Cares" http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2008/03/03/not_everyone_cares.html#comments. It's just a very short non-news story about the fact that there are some people who don't care about the election. What I found interesting is that it spurred a comment that was at least 5 times the length of the article. The comment is packed with information about Obama's beliefs. I don't know how credible everything is, and there are a handful of typos thrown in. It's just surprising to me that the commenter picked this non-news blip, to post his research that is only marginally related to the topic of the initial article.

Barak Obama Commercial

There was an article in the Austin Statesmen yesterday about a new campaign commercial of Barak Obama's. You can check it out here http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2008/02/29/obama_strikes_back_at_3_am_ad.html#comments. This article is literally 2 sentences and a link to the commercial, but it spurred 13 comments. Though on closer examination, 3 of the 13 were duplicate comments. It could have been that people posted the same thing twice on purpose or by accident. All and all though, these comments are by far the most thought out that I have seen in this paper. They're almost all compelling and well thought out points. Most of them are even in reference to the commercial.