Brand new stuff

For a few months now, I've wanted to make a blog about the local scene here in Utah County. While Salt Lake has a couple independent magazines for their scene, the quaint and conservative town of Provo (and all its surrounding cities) has a regrettable lack of written discussion. Well I think it's time that we change that! As far as I know, this will be the first blog dedicated completely to the Utah Valley Music Scene.

For an introduction, my name is M. Lewis Barker. I've only been an active participant in the local scene for over a year now. I've been back in Provo since my mission since January 2009, but it took a few months to really get into the local scene. Back in high school, I was at 2-4 shows a month out in Ohio and I wrote articles for the local zine. I got quite a few angry responses to my articles because I would point out how boring a local band's album was or write a very scathing article on the growing but increasingly awful local hardcore scene. Currently, I play guitar and sing in the band Wild Apples, and I have played guitar and bass for Archie Crisanto & the Travelling Salesmen during the past year. I'm at Muse and/or Velour every weekend now doing my best to support the local scene.

I will say this as a disclaimer right now: when it comes to music, I am very opinionated. My firm opinion is that the majority of everything is crap. But I also respect crappy originality a lot more than competent predictability. All that said, if by some stroke of good fortune this blog becomes well known, please don't be offended if I say something negative about your or your friend's band. Remember that these are only one man's opinions.

I appreciate you reading that intro, and I will get to the good stuff later today when we discuss Muse Music's Battle of the Bands happening this week. Feel free to leave angry comments!