Caught in the Carousel

Letter from the Editor - March 2008

By Alex Green

I remember in college sitting next to the coach of the tennis team and watching our number one player dismantle his opponent. He was so much better it looked almost cruel. And brutal. And strangely poetic. "I found Santiago in Barcelona last year," my coach said, "and I knew he was going to be a tremendous asset for us. Winning is great, but having your picks come through for you is just as sweet." I said nothing because my 6-1-6-2 loss minutes earlier certainly made a good case for the opposite of this being true, as I had been recruited by the coach in the same way. Incidentally, what made my loss even worse was the fact that my opponent had cheerfully told me that the previous night he and his girlfriend had tried mushrooms for the first time and in the middle of an ecstatic early morning run he had tripped and turned his ankle so severely it ballooned up in a taut and grotesque fleshy bulb.

I still can't figure out how I lost to that guy.
And so badly.

But that's not really the point. The point is, as Editor of CITC, when my picks come through, I get that same sweet feeling that my coach described. Last month's Scouting Report, which featured the Wales-based outfit Armstrong, was the debut of this new feature and I've never gotten more mail about an artist than I did about Armstrong. "Unbelievable pop songs," one reader wrote. "After reading your article," another wrote, "I visited their MySpace page and couldn't stop playing their songs."

What I plan on doing is following up on our Scouting Report picks, just to let you know the developments that transpire in their camps. And if a Grammy shows up, or a million albums are sold, of course I'll be proud that CITC took notice first, but that's not really what we're after. We just want to help these artists get their music heard by as many people as we can.

Not that we'd mind being invited to the Grammy Awards.

That being said, Julian from Armstrong has just informed me that the other night he played a fantastic gig with The Clay and his new material was very well received. And check out the Armstrong MySpace page, as Julian is currently at work on two new albums and frequently posts new songs.

Let's talk about March. Let's talk about you and me. We've got so much issue, you're going to need two computers to get through it all.

**We've got two Scouting Reports for you this month. The wonderful English singer/songwriter David Saw and the multi-talented Prkr from Seattle sat down with our CITC Scouting Report questionnaire. We're delighted to introduce you to them both.

**Our Boston scribe Christine Fort got the opportunity to get a Consummate Top Ten list from Broken Social Scene guitarist Jason Collett. On the eve of the release of his new solo album Here's To Being Here, the Canadian musician gave us his top ten band names that he's collected over the years, but never used. Not only that, but Christine has written a wonderful and comprehensive review of Mr. Collett's new effort.

**We've got ten new album reviews! Our staff takes good long listens to new ones by The Buddyrevelles, Collin Herring, The Mumlers, Cake, The Shondes and more.

**Thanks to the folks at Sub Pop and Fanatic, CITC has a wealth of new free downloadable songs for you this month. Check out our library for numbers by HIJK, the Buddyrevelles, Grand Archives, Zookeeper, The OaKs, Wooden Shjips and more.

And finally, Roy Scheider, we'll miss you. The shark was something else, but the water-hating, internally conflicted Chief Brodie is one of the coolest characters in film history. He got on a boat in the middle of the night and waited for something to move in the dark.

You try it.

Love and Rockets,
Alex Green
Editor, Caught In The Carousel
Alex670@earthlink.net