Publishers Note
Commentary by Scot Giambalvo
The Hills Are Alive...
Welcome loyal and new readers to the MODE Weekly Fifth Annual Music Guide.
Burgeoning with over 100 musician and band profiles, listings of over 100 concert venues, exclusive interviews with five (count ‘em) national recording acts: Aerosmith, Fuel, John Gorka, Taylor Dayne, and Loverboy, a special One-Tank Getaway to the Coors Light Amphitheater at Montage Mountain, a Personality Profile on Whitaker Center’s Steve Krempasky, a candid talk with our radio sponsor 105.7 The X’s Under The Radar host Claudine DeLorenzo, CD reviews, movie reviews, and just a ton more of our regular features, this is probably one of the “most triumphant” issues we have ever published.
It was a tremendous amount of work on everyone’s part, starting with the MODE staff. But believe me, it could not have been done without the help of the bands that responded to our invitation, the venues and promoters that provided both advertising support and listing details, and our radio sponsor 105.7 The X, clearly one of the strongest supporters of Central Pennsylvania’s local music scene.
What’s the big deal about the MODE Weekly Music Guide?
Well, first of all, we believe it’s the first interactive musician/venue/business music guide published in Central PA. We use the term interactive because the Music Guide will grow and become more robust as we constantly update it between now and the next print-edition publishing. It’s interactive because any musician, venue, or music-related businessperson can visit the web-section: www.MODEweekly.com/Musicguide, and add or edit their profile.
The online Music Guide is available 24•7•365, and will be dynamically linked to our Agenda event calendar, providing instant access to live performances, venue addresses, accessibility, and location information, as well as detailed profiles of the musicians and bands. There are also links to previously published MODE Weekly reviews. We’re even working on a feature that will allow fans to post their own reviews and photos of regional shows.
On a side note, there are Internet sites that offer similar information already, and we commend them on that. It’s a lot of work, for not a lot of glory. Specifically Jim Lott’s PArocks.com has to be one of the most comprehensive and widely visited regional music sites in Central PA and we strongly recommend you visit it, and his sponsors, often.
So, why are we bothering to do all of this? Actually, it’s a simple explanation that sparks long drunken debates every time I start into it. You see, at MODE Weekly we have two rules about the publishing of news, opinion, and entertainment information.
First: Once it’s over, it’s history. We always prefer to publish interviews of upcoming shows, rather than reviews of shows that are long gone. We, of course, do both, but the reviews more often show up as “online only” features.
Second: There’s no sense in preaching to the choir. If you’re a musician, you most likely read PA Musician, as do die-hard live music fans. But, if you read MODE Weekly, there’s a significant chance you could give a rat’s ass about live music. These are the people we try to reach. These are the ones we want to convert. If we are to build a strong regional music scene and silence the “there’s nothing to do” whining in our ears, we need to reach out to the “potential” live music fan.
I hope everyone can appreciate that, aside from wanting to make a lot of money and retire early, we at MODE Weekly really do care about the future of music in Central PA.
Party on, dudes.
Scot Giambalvo |
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