City Paper Advice for Local Musicians

The Philadelphia City Paper has tons of tips and information for local musicians trying to get their music out.

You know the most remarkable thing about Beowulf? It?s not the time he ripped off the arm of Grendel, the shadow stalker, stealthy and swift. Nor was it his underwater battle with Grendel?s mom, the wolf of the deep. It wasn?t even his kamikaze confrontation with the fire-dragon.

It?s that we heard of him at all.

Nobody knows who first thought up the heroic epic poem Beowulf. It might have been as early as the 600s or as recent as the 900s. For hundreds of years the Beowulf story was preserved only through the oral tradition. It was a great literary whisper-down-the-lane, with each reteller adding new details, metaphors and, occasionally, a non-pagan deity.

Seeing as how there is no Guide to Making it in the Philly Music Scene, aspiring musicians have two options: A) Find somebody who knows what to do and get the cheat sheet via the grand independent music oral tradition, or B) Learn everything themselves, thereby encountering the same shames and humiliations their predecessors suffered on their journeys.

We?re all for A.

I’ve only heard of a handful of the bands they interviewed and talked about, but there is a lot of good stuff in there. Kevin thinks I look like the guy girl in the picture. I hope it’s not a chick.