I've been in a lot of bands. I know a lot of people in bands. As a result, I've both sent and received perhaps more than my fair share of e-mails exhorting friends and acquaintances to come see local bands playing around town. I'm sure you have, too. Normally, these read something like "Hi, we're playing this Friday. Please come see us," and are subsequently ignored.

With my last real equal-partnership sort of band, URT, I was determined to break this cycle. The goal was to make the e-mails more interesting, something that would keep the details of the show at the front of the readers' minds, and in turn, bring them out to see shows in greater numbers. The results were mixed. On the one hand, people loved the e-mails. On the other, they didn't seem to compel anyone to come see the band. I'd talk to friends, and they'd ask about the band, on the premise that they hadn't gotten an e-mail lately. I'd ask if they'd ever seen us, and far too often got a sheepish "no."

So, anyway, URT retired in March of 2002, and I vowed not to get so wrapped up in the promotion of my musical endeavors. In part because I was burned out, but also because I'm entering a bit more of a mercenary phase, where I'm not so emotionally attached anymore. At the same time, I'm working on things like singing and playing guitar, and hyping a three-song set at an open mike didn't seem like a worthwhile use of my time.

Through all of this, I have made a habit of picking up The Chicago Reader each and every week and going through the music section cover to cover, just to see who I might want to see. Sometimes there would be someone I'd sort of heard of, but didn't know anything about, and that would look interesting. Sometimes it would be a friend's band that I'd like to go out and support. So with the established support for the old URT e-mails, I decided that I'd basically read the Reader "out loud" on a weekly basis, marking the shows that piqued my interest for whatever reason, and send that out to friends. This also gave me the opportunity to "soft sell" my myriad projects.

Now, there's an important caveat that should be obvious from that last paragraph. Things can catch my eye for really dumb reasons. Also, I don't get paid for this. As a result, you're not going to get the most in-depth, informed view of the Chicago music scene. You will get my mostly unadulterated view of said scene, and I like to think that provides at least a little unique insight on what goes on in this town.

If you're somebody I know, just drop me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do. Sending me that e-mail before the Sunday before the show is preferable, but given my unique flavor of online ADD, I can make no guarantees. I'll try.

If you're somebody I don't know, do whatever it is you normally do to get somebody's attention, whether that's an offer to send me a CD, a link to MP3 files or a myspace page, or whatever. Again, you're dealing with a guy with limited resources, and to be fair, a limited audience, so don't get too bent out of shape if I don't get around to it for a while.

I'm just one guy with an opinion, a website and, as I said, a pretty small audience. While I understand it can be mildly traumatic to Google your name and read some random yahoo talking shit, I'm just trying to call things the way I see them. And be funny. Half the time, my not "getting" a performance is more a reflection on me, anyway. Besides, if you disagree with me, that's what the comments link is for.