Two Shots of Rye, and A Playing Space of Our Own

When asked to write a column for the last music section of the school year, I had a few ideas, most of which were pretty standard and will probably be covered by my fellow reporters. But then I got to thinking about what kind of information I could actually impart to the average Spectator reader that you all would not know and might care about. The answer, perhaps not so surprisingly, was campus music.

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a huge advocate of Columbia rock 'n' roll. Columbia University, despite its academic reputation, is actually home to an amazing number of talented musicians and artists of all sorts, most of whom never get the chance to play before audiences made up of anyone other than their friends. It is the unfortunate nature of our campus that there is not a single place that is acoustically acceptable (read: not Lerner auditorium), easy to book for shows (read: not anywhere in Lerner), friendly to students (read: no longer the West End), and also has the ability to serve alcohol (read: not JJ's Place or South Lawn). Despite these limitations, a good number of shows do happen, often with the help of campus groups like Columbia Music Presents and WBAR, and some people get to see them.

So, in my own space, I would like to recognize many of the great bands that I have seen here on campus, and that, for the most part, have never been mentioned here before. In the past few years I have had the pleasure of experiencing The Procedure, Guts, Parallax, Timber!, The Space Program, Rut Row, The Cherry Pie Reaction, Susie's Neighbor, The Misgivings, Gorefist, The Shame, The Units, Total War, Knifestorm, Vinyl Theory, Two Shots of Rye, The Basic Eight, Oddjobs, Owen's Comet, Akil Dasan, Galoshes, Clarity and Eternal, Cadre Bravura, MC Squared, Oxytocin, LA, FuckFace 2K, and many, many others. These groups are not a few kids in someone's dorm room trying to be rock stars. These are dedicated musicians who play in clubs all over the city and deserve your support as members of your community. It's about time the Columbia community started paying attention. Thank you, and good night.