During indie-rock outfit Dr. Dog’s recent performance at Pisgah Brewing Co., lead guitarist Scott McMicken asked if anyone in the crowd played lead guitar. He selected from the eagerly raised hands and invited an audience member to come up o stage and jam on a song with them. It turns out the lucky person McMicken selected was local artist and musician Matthew Stuart Decker (from the band Buffalo Wizards). He is the guy with longer blonde hair and black glasses in the photos.
Black Mountain-based Floating Action played the afterparty on the indoor stage in Pisgah’s taproom, where the guys from Dr. Dog came in, grabbed a beer at the bar and joined as attentive audience members to Seth Kaufman’s brainchild.
Thanks for reading through to the end…
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Strange, the irony.
‘Xpress Contributor’ is enough to be identified as a writer for this rag, yet one has to sign their non Mtn X/New age practitioner/train hopping name (you know, the one Momma gave you after carrying you for 9 months) in order to write a letter to the Editor.
Who, exactly are the Xpress Contributors?
Unpaid interns?
A computer program that analyzes the tastes of hipsters?
Out of town contract workers who work for below an Asheville living wage?
Adam’s words and photos, while neither good or bad do not have the ‘credentials’ listings that other X writers have. Is this to imply his writings are sub par to other articles?
I’d be happy to shed some light on the Xpress Contributor byline. To have a named byline on our wordpress platform a writer or photographer must have an account. Adam McMillan is a local freelance photographer. Often first-time, freelance contributors have not yet created accounts by the time we are ready to publish their work. You will notice he still has the byline in the text. It’s simply a work around. You may also notice that all the letters to the editor are done essentially the same way with a “Letters” byline. I hope that helps your understanding.
Ok- cool- so I’m taking it they’re mainly freelance types. Implying paychecks and being able to eat, etc.
While I know these guys are not chained to a desk in a dark basement, the current outsourcing trend in local mags and even national papers as well as the use of unpaid interns usually keeps my skeptic-o-meter in the red zone.
I have a cousin who works for Reuters and in so many words compares journalism now (with the ascendence of ‘independent citizen journalism’) as nothing more than a rag/paper/website trying to get as much free work out of writers and dangling the phrase ‘It’ll really get your name out there’ as some sort of carrot.
I know what you mean.
I had to laugh and comment on that comment- you do know you’re posting that on the Mtn X comments section, right?
Better keep that red stapler from ‘Office Space’ within arm’s reach at all times.
I was commenting on the way the national outlets are run. I value the mission of the Mountain Xpress, so I would work for free if I could afford to. I can’t, so it’s a darn good thing we pay a living wage. Just sayin’. Anyway, this is all very off topic. Aren’t these nice photos?