his Friday’s second annual RED Magazine Reader Appreciation Party (even though we have to charge $3 a pop—it’s to pay for the space, we swear) features an astoundingly wide variety of local bands, free stuff and fun in an all ages hot spot on Friday night. One would think that such a stellar party with as good a lineup as our own publication claims to have would have been weeks, nay, months in the planning stages. Well think again, like many other aspects of this magazine, this RED party was planned on a whim. Here’s the conversation that took place over the phone to get it all started last Thursday…or was it Friday?…with editor Jeremy Mathews and assistant editor Luciano Marzulli Vargas, who happened to write this article and can assure no libel in his quotes.

The RED(s) Interview

LMV: Hey, Jeremy. How’s it goin’?

JM: (Pause) Pretty well. (Pause) Did you see RED today?

LMV: Yeah, what happened?

JM: It looks really good, Hoffine [the printers] didn’t fuck it up this time.

LMV: Yeah, I thought you found a mistake. (Pause) Hey, if we’re going to have this party, we should plan it, like…now.

JM: (Pause) Yeah.

It was that simple. We could have done that two weeks earlier during Spring Break instead of sleeping most of the day and watching TV until our eyes turned red, but we put it off to the last minute, and look what we got.

We have a great all-ages venue, Kilby Court, great bands, Alchemy, NSPS, Tragedy of the Commons by Erin, Kontrakultura and Starmy(?). And don’t forget the free CDs, videos and books for just showing up. You’d think that some sort of higher power was on our side, but since Jeremy (Mathews) is an atheist and I’m just not sure, we’re going to bank it on luck. The featured entertainment for the night consists of all local bands and there’s a little bit of something for everyone.

For the lovers of indie pop, Starmy (if the band shows up) and NSPS will play sets of their own brand of rock and roll.

If the 90-percent-confirmed Starmy shows up, expect some indie goodness from Mike Sartain, Sean McCarthy and company (including the new drummer, whose name we’re too lazy to look up. We don’t even know if we spelled Sean correctly). If they don’t show up, they probably won’t play a set, but we don’t think they’d let us down, especially if we guilt them into it in our preview article. It’s not like we haven’t written about them 25,000 times.

But NSPS will still be there. RED editor Jeremy Mathews plays guitar and sings while “Furious” Joe Irvin drums and Aaron Leitko, who won’t be there, plays bass. Mathews’s vocals are so intense that they make one of the Chrony’s staff writer’s hair stand up, which made that staff writer’s boyfriend very jealous of Mathews’s capabilities.

“The ladies love the indie pop, what can I say?” said Mathews. But don’t try to groupie up with Mathews, he’s spoken for. “Oh,” Mathews said, “Joe might not play either. I need to call him. But I’ll probably be there, since it’s my party and all.”

Kontrakultura is a hardcore protest-punk band with Jorge Arellano on vocals, Travis Nelson on bass, Dave Barrett (aka Gabe) on guitar and Rich Caramadre on the drum kit. Their sound is heavy, fast and full of energy. Their debut show was a bit more than a month ago and their performance is very tight-knit, unless Barrett breaks three or more strings like he did at the debut. But even then, he still managed to make it sound awesome.

Tragedy of the Commons by Erin is a one-woman show put on by Erin of The Infrared Roses. Her set will be acoustic with her playing guitar and singing. It might not be folk, but it’s definitely singer/songwriter because she’s singing and there are no covers at Kilby.

Alchemy is a local quartet of rockers who have been building its chops on the scene for the last couple years. As it continues to command a larger following, the band is gearing up a for short tour in Los Angeles. The band has definite Queens of the Stone Age influence thrown in its style and has unleashed some new material since the release of its album on Red Triangle Records.

Besides that fact that the members of these bands produce excellent music in their respective genres (except NSPS, which only got the gig because the editor is the frontman), they are playing for free. We’re not paying them. As stated, the $3 goes to pay the employees at Kilby Court for their space and time.

Many have asked, “What are you celebrating?” to which I reply “our 140th issue,” to which they laugh and then I cry. “I tell them that we’re celebrating our Web page being back up after two decades,” said Mathews. “Did you use the forum yet?” You see, last year we celebrated our 100th issue of RED, a true milestone. While 140 may seem like nothing to you, it means a lot to us. In fact we (Jeremy, Dave and I) have a little celebration every Wednesday night called going home and sleeping, which is rudely interrupted by an inconvenient early class schedule for Thursdays. But since this is the last issue of RED until May 15, we’ll be getting plenty of sleep. “Especially me, since I’m no longer assistant editor,” I said, “except I have to come back for the first issue of the summer because Jeremy will be in Cannes covering the film festival. [Editor’s note: That’s in France.] Bastard.”

So, come early and stay late. It will be worth your while, we promise.

Come join the party this Friday night at Kilby Court (741 S. 330 West). As mentioned, there will be bands, free CDs, lots of fun and videos and books just for showing up. You could even meet your favorite writer or verbally abuse your least favorite—either way it will cost you $3. (It’s to pay for the space, we swear.)

Jeremy Mathews contributed to this article, but didn’t write (much of) the stuff about himself.
lou@red-mag.com
jeremy@red-mag.com