FAQs and Marginalia

 

For a brief rundown on who we are and what we’re about, it’s pretty much covered in the About section.

 

For answers to pretty much everything related to getting reviewed or listed here, here’s our Review Policy.

 

Otherwise, if what you need to know isn’t answered here, you can always email us.

 

Q: Free mp3s! Free mp3s! We want our free mp3s, where are they?

A: There’s a wonderful, newfangled contraption called a link. Lots of them here. They’re all lit up in blue. When you click on them they’ll frequently take you somewhere you can get one, whether it’s a torrent site or elsewhere. Please remember that not everybody has a fast connection, and the more stuff we have on the page, the harder it is for people who have dial-up to access us.

 

 

Q: Where are the photos? Graphics? Something other than text? C’mon, we’re not in the 19th century anymore.

A: You’ve just stumbled upon the one-and-only text-only blog in all of cyberspace. Imagine that! For awhile here, it was “um, we ought to put up some photos sometime.” Then all of a sudden a year went by (a year in blog time is the equivalent of what, forty in reality?) and no photos. Suddenly it became our shtick. So we might as well stick with it.  

 

Q: Some of the links to reviews listed in the site index are dead. Can you help?

A: Because Microsoft word software – the program used to write the posts you see here – has compatibility problems with WordPress, any link that originally contained an apostrophe or a hyphen probably won’t work if you just click on the link you see in the index. Instead, copy and paste that link into your browser, which ought to work.

 

Q: You listed the wrong time/date, or provided a bad link/dead link, for a certain show.

A:  If you see any errors here, please let us know, via the comments button at the bottom of the post, so we can fix it. Be aware that we obtain most showtime/date info from the venues where these events are happening, and sometimes they get the dates wrong.

 

Q: Some of the information in a review or article is inaccurate. Can you correct this?

A: Absolutely. Please let us know, via the comment button.

 

Q: I’ve sent you six emails suggesting that you review my band and I still haven’t heard back from you. What’s up with that, or are you just plain rude?

A: If you’ve sent us six emails and we haven’t gotten back to you…hmm…remember, we get tons of inquiries like yours. Most of what we review is pretty edgy: maybe you’re not. That would explain a lot. Or maybe we’d rather not come right out and tell you how much you suck – we hardly ever publish bad reviews. Whatever the reason, if you’ve been bugging us for months and we haven’t responded…you get the picture…we hope.

 

Q: How much are tickets for the event that I’m interested in attending?

A: Go to our Venues section (to your right, under Categories), scroll down to the venue and then click on the link to the club’s website. Since we get most of our show listings from the clubs themselves, be aware that many of them do not post this information online, thus, there’s no way that we can tell you.

 

Q: Why don’t you list events that cost $40 or more?

A: $40? Seriously – we’re in the middle of what the mainstream media charitably calls a “recession.” A whole lot of New Yorkers can’t afford $10, let alone $40. For that reason we look hard to find as many good free events as possible – our NYC live music calendar has dozens. If your taste runs to bland, mainstream, insanely overpriced entertainment, you’re in the wrong place. Try the Village Voice instead.

 

Q: I am the owner of a club listed on the Venues page and object to the way you characterized it. [we actually got an email like this once]

A: Tough cookies. You might want to take our comments to heart and fix everything that’s wrong with your place. Or maybe you should just close down.

 

Q: You reviewed my band last year. Can you do it again?

A: Maybe. Your chances of getting us to do that increase the better you get, or the more diverse you’ve become, or if you’ve just fired your whole band (just kidding about that last one). But don’t be offended if we don’t: we’re trying to cover an awful lot of ground here, with limited time and resources.

 

Q: What’s with the monicker?  Lucid Culture, lol!

A: Hey, most of the good internet names were taken and this wasn’t. Actually, we chose it because in the beginning we thought it would generate traffic (it did, for about a week).

 

Q: Why don’t you ever identify yourselves?

A: For the same reason that you or your children should never set up a myspace or facebook under your own name. Some things the boss doesn’t need to know.

 

Q: You plug your friends’ bands, don’t you? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?

A: Duh, of course we plug our friends’ bands. What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t? As far as a conflict of interest is concerned, everybody plugs their friends, no matter how sanctimoniously they may preach about “journalistic ethics.” We’re just shameless about it. If you don’t take everything you read – whether here or elsewhere – with a grain of salt, you’re in trouble. 

 

Q: Why can’t I put up a blurry cellphone photo here showing me nodding off at last week’s Cold War Kids show?

A: Dude, there are a zillion photoblogs where you can graffiti to your heart’s desire. Not this one. Spare us. Please.

 

Q: What’s up with the hodgepodge of fonts, type sizes and styles?

A: A work in progress. Again, blame Microsoft, not us. If the version of Microsoft Word we’re using didn’t have so many useless and confusing bells and whistles, we wouldn’t have these problems. If you think it’s bad now you should have seen the site a year ago.

 

Q: Why do you list shows at some clubs and not at others?

A: Depends on how much they’re paying us. In all seriousness, though, if you count all the bistros with a jazz guy on piano or guitar quietly plinking away in the corner, there are probably over a thousand places in New York where you can see live music on any given night. Each of these places has its own defining characteristics: your experience could range from flat-out ecstatic to comfortable and relaxed. There are also a small handful of clubs in town who treat their customers like shit, and for that reason we don’t ever list or review shows there. Would it be fair of us to recommend that you patronize those establishments, knowing what a miserable time you’ll have? Certainly not.  

 

Q: You are so out of touch. You haven’t reviewed one popular indie rock band here, maybe ever. Why do you hate indie rock so much?

A: Actually, we don’t hate indie rock. But most of it is really boring. What Bon Jovi and Debbie Gibson were to the 80s, what the Spice Girls and Pearl Jam were to the 90s, so-called indie rock has become to the zeros. It’s the status quo. There are a gazillion other blogs who celebrate the status quo. We’re looking for something a little more exciting. That’s not to say that we don’t review rock: about 75% of our reviews and listings are for rock bands and performers. We just don’t have the time for whiners and posers.  

 

Q: What happened to the high-and-mighty political/cultural slant you started out with?

A: We’d rather not reinvent the wheel. There are several outstanding political blogs and sites out there (click on Blogroll at bottom right). Other than live music, there are a whole slew of topics we’d like to cover, which we’ll explore further as time permits.

 

Q: I sent you an event invitation on myspace and you still didn’t list my show. What gives?

A: We rarely check myspace and don’t usually use it to communicate. Our myspace page is set up to be a resource for people to use to listen to some of the music reviewed and listed here. To contact us about your show click on Review Policy, above, and scroll down to the bottom for contact info.