 Editor says
I'm still surprised by how naive I can be.
When my band first started playing out and delivering press releases, we knew the work wouldn't have as much as a payoff as it deserved. Surprisingly, we were fortunate enough to get 3 write-ups early on. Two of them were genuine assessments of the music, and the third was an opportunity for that author to appear clever in writing. Ever since then, zilch. The band has continued to work hard, but if you only heard of us through the local press, you wouldn't know it. We've had an easier time getting interviews and reviews out-of-state than getting even our shows mentioned locally. All of my friends in bands have shared this frustration.
Then it hit me: our weeklies aren't selling local music.
It should have been obvious, I know. It was silly of me to even think that they would care about what's happening in this city. Hell, one of them even says right on the cover that it's trying to lull you into a fashionable coma. So I don't really have anything to complain about, do I? I mean, expecting the local media to promote our community of artists would be as reasonable as expecting my physician to fix my carburetor.
So we decided to start this zine. There are other, highly respectable and beautifully designed magazines in Portland, but Music Liberation Project will be a monthly publication that focuses strictly on local musicians. We don't care about what you wear. We don't care about what you drink or smoke. We are here to fill what we see as a void in the local press.
Chances are that most of the initial coverage will be rock bands, because that's what we know ...but eventually we'll review hip-hop, classical, jazz. If it's local and it speaks to us, we'll talk about it. We're going to have calendars of events, musicians' ads, news on local producers and engineers ...and anything else that has to do with the thriving, talented, virtually unknown music scene in Portland. Send us your thoughts and suggestions. What would you like to see in these pages? Who have you been supporting for the last 5 years that the city still doesn't know about? This is your publication.
This is your city.
I am your master.
Just kidding.
-Guy |
