April Fools 2008

I Give Up

Andrew Olson

Northland Enquirer

Due to popalar demand from many local bands I have decided to throw in the towel, writing about, music in the Duluth area.

While, in my heart of hearts, I have always had great intentions, I feel that after recent emails, and other campaigns; that the message has finally gotten through.

MySpace pages, emails, poopy diapers, bumper stickers, verbal assaulting in concert posters, and being called so many names has finally made me feel that writing about music is not worth it anymore.

After all, I’m Andrew Olson, Journalist for the Reader Weekly…

Maybe what finailly pushed me over the edge was the constant beleif that paying for music at a bar when the band SUCKS is B.S.? Maybe writing for nearly no money while bands attak every word I say really stuck for one time. Or my occasional error of grammer being noticed?

Then maybe it turned out that this was my April Fools article and I don’t mean a word I wroted here?

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Homegrown Music Festival Canceled

James Douglas

Northland Enquirer

Lack of original bands in the Duluth area has caused the very popular music extravaganza known has “Homegrown” to cancel this year.

“For the last few years I have been playing in 5 bands just to fill out the list of bands in that big glossy program,” Pat Wilvich of the band Words and Tires said. “Not paying the bands also made it seem less important than paying gigs in competingSuperior , Proctor, and Cloquet.”

Last year the music festival listed over 100 bands playing, but most have fallen upon hard times in the area. Some have had to sell their equipment just to pay for their tour buses’ gas.

“We used to have huge amps and were a full electric band,” Dave Monet of Electric Pussycats said. “Now we are one acoustic guitar and the rest of the band hums and whistles very loud. We have yet to get a “paying” gig, but Sir Ben’s lets us sing for beer!”

Like many bands that found a niche at Homegrown, the Duluth area just proved too stingy to afford live music. Lack of transportation to travel the 30 miles between bars also proved too difficult for some concert goers.

“By the time I walked from Beaner’s Central to The Brewhouse I realized that Homegrown was over,” Tommy Jones, a student from UMD said. “So I just went home.”