Merge Records of Chapel Hill/Carrboro North Carolina, one of the early giants of the Indie Rock scene, is having their 20 year celebration, Merge XX, as a five day festival this July. Since the Coachella lineup was largely a disappointment this year, I've decided to instead spend my music festival time and money on a trip back to the motherland. Bands in the lineup will come from the Merge stable although none are officially confirmed so far. The only denied act however, is Archers of Loaf (Merge put out their first single). So far AoL is the only firm denial on the line up. Word on the street is the drummer Mark Price is hesitant because he has Carpal Tunnel issues that may prevent him from playing.
So, a message for Mark:
Mark, you don't know me, but we've shared some times together. Not just with you on stage and me losing my mind in the audience, but probably at the same house parties, bars or whatever. So while I have nothing but respect for you as a musician, I also know you're human with a real issue, and I can respect that too. In fact, I feel your pain, quite literally. My wrists ache from my own RSI even as I type this. So what I'm trying to say is, just phone it in man! Get yourself a helper monkey to do the hard work and just sit up there on that stage doing what you can without risking further injury. Kick the bass and hit what you can with sticks duct taped to your arms, whatever. No one is going
to care, as long as you're there! We don't go to these 20 year reunions expecting the band from 20 years ago, we go there because we still love those bands from a decade or two ago and we just want to have a big love fest about it. You guys could show up and air-play the whole thing, just show up.
