New feature! "ON THE SCENCE!"

Hi everyone.

My name is Marisha Ferguson. You may know me better as Sherman's assistant. I do a lot of the paperwork and research around here, as well as doing some freelance design work, a little acting and generally attempting to finish up my masters degree in urban planning and women's studies at the University of Mishipeshu. Anyway, Councilman Larson saw an article mentioning some of the recent activity in our neighborhood's music scene in The New York Times Sunday Arts section this weekend, and he got kind of excited -- you can read the whole thing through this link.

He asked me if I wanted to write a little feature for the blog every once in awhile about what he loves to call "the rock scene" in the neighborhood. In his words, "keep people appraised of what's rockin' where, and where's rockin' when, who's rockin' with whom, and what not." I said sure, because I like going out to shows and there are some good bands around these days.

Of course, there's probably better resources than the 3rd Ward councilman's blog for information about upcoming shows, but I digress.

Anyway, the Times article dealt mostly with the scene up around the north end of Armitage Avenue in the old Cassock District, you know, where the Lakesider used to be. The article says:

The hipsters are all in agreement that Silver Lake is the new Williamsburg, which means Chicago's Wicker Park is coming up as the new Silver Lake. That makes Austin, Texas the new Wicker Park, Echo Park is the new Austin, Hoboken is the new Echo Park, and both Chapel Hill and Armitage Heights are making definite inroads into being the new Hoboken, if Chapel Hill can break free from its perceived image as the new Mission District, which most older scenesters still think of as the old pre-"new Williamsburg" Silver Lake.

The article goes on to cite some our great local bands, such as I Promise To See You Die And I Will, the October Revolutionists, Witness to the Thunder, My Other Car is a Robot, Hell Is Other People, the Do-Overs, Teenage Law Student, Fear Death By Water, the Architects of Fear, Klaxon!, and the Upper Voltas.

All those bands are pretty good. So be sure to check them out. Klaxon! and Teenage Law Student are playing this Saturday at Spike's, so that'll be a good one.

Other than that, I should probably point out that although the Upper Voltas were indeed great, they sort of broke up last month -- Andy, the bassist, ended up leaving the band to replace Chuck in Witness to the Thunder because their original bassist Nick moved to New York, so the other guys in the Upper Voltas decided to just change their name to the Anna Kournikovas, and I hear Tom, who used to play in The Dream of Horses, might be joining on keyboards. Remember The Dream of Horses? They were pretty good. They were at the Lakesider all the time.

Anyway, on that note, here's a list of bands that have broken up in the last few months: A Factory on the Moon, the Boutonnieres, Phillips Cycles, Sepak Takraw, the Song Dynasty, National Trust, the Truants, Randy Scouse Git, Super Team Spirit & the Color Line, %!*@ (good riddance, too, I told them it was stupid to a.) name a band after a Beetle Bailey reference, and b.) not even have it be pronounceable), the Atari Jaguars, International Circle, and the Stoics. So good luck to all those people in their new projects.

And I suppose that's all the news in the world of the "rock scene."

Take care,
Marisha