FLUSH WITH PRAISE
I am a current subscriber. The magazine makes good toilet literature — that's a compliment, by the way. I've found some useful stuff within its pages and the price is right, but my beef is this: Blink-182, Fuel, Godsmack, and so on. What about folks who perform as part of an orchestra? Or solo acoustic performers — string quartets, percussion groups, and other general noisemakers? Don't these people contribute to the musical working class? Where are the feature articles about them? Personally, I prefer to play in a band situation, but I think there is much to be learned from the entire spectrum of musical talent out there.
I've got nothing against those other bands, though I personally don't care for them as entertainment. I just need more. I want to know more about my options and what other folks are doing to prosper as musicians. I look forward to a response from you that's free of sarcasm and loaded with good news about the future of your magazine's editorials.
Tony Capri
Atlanta
Tony — Although I like to think of Onstage as something more than “good toilet literature,” your other point, about breadth of coverage, is an important one. If you take a good look through our Web site (www.onstagemag.com) and read our back issues (the text of all our past articles is available), you'll see that our coverage is pretty wide-ranging. While we haven't covered any string quartets or percussion groups as of yet, we have tried to feature many types of music in our pages. In addition to modern and classic rock, we've had articles about blues artists (B.B. King, Rod Piazza, Susan Tedeschi); singer/songwriters (Aimee Mann, Eleni Mandell); jazz players (Charlie Hunter); country singers (Clint Black, Kasey Chambers, Rodney Crowell); zydeco acts (Lil' Brian and the Zydeco Travelers); New Orleans R&B/funk (the Neville Brothers, Galactic); and jam bands (the String Cheese Incident). Covering a wide variety of performing artists is definitely something that we will continue to do.
— Mike Levine
DON'T BLINK
Thanks for the cool article on Blink-182 [“The Clown Princes of Punk,” September 2001]. They may be a little gross at times, but they sure make great music. I did find it ironic that Travis Barker [the drummer] seems to be the most musically sophisticated of the bunch. So much for all those guitarists and bass players who always make drummer jokes.
Jason Collier (a drummer, of course)
via the Internet
SYNTH ANGST
I enjoy your magazine, but I have to point out a mistake in the article “Free Your Mind for Free” by Chris Kelsey [September 2001]. In the section “Keyboard Fantasies,” the author makes the statement, “I realized how much I missed by not learning to play the piano the first time I doodled on a Korg Juno.” If Mr. Kelsey played a Korg Juno, he should have bought it no matter what the price, because it is certainly a rarity! In fact, Korg never made a Juno — those were Roland keyboards.
Kris Rhen
via the Internet
Kris — Doh! Sorry 'bout that one. I might not know left from right, right from wrong, or sh** from Shinola, but I do know the difference between Korg and Roland. I can only ascribe my mistake to the acute gear-related amnesia I've suffered ever since I sold my MIDI keyboards and switched over to soft synths.
— Chris Kelsey
BOZO BUDDIES
I read your buzz-bite on Billy Corgan [“The Buzz,” September 2001] and was reminded of when I was 11. I was on the Bozo show too. Billy was on his last show, and I was at the Pumpkins' last two shows — a place in history I would not trade for the world! Rock on.
Brian
via the Internet
