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Harvard Bands: Getting to the Hard Core

EGGHEADS AT PLAY

the Undergraduate Council's social committee and head of the subcommittee which will choose the hand, said that all bands that consist of at least 50 percent Harvard students are eligible. Brady and the other five social committee members will hear each band and will try to choose a band that plays danceable music "with a little originality and style." The committee will make its decision on March 16.

The bands that have entered are The Cratchet Family, Commissioner Gordon Joey Thunder and Electrical Strom, Wired for Sound, and Jane's Parents, although The Stickmen and Mirror Image also indicated that they plan to partake in the competition.

Rock'n'Roll in College

Some band members say that while they enjoy performing, the real thrill of belonging to a band is the opportunity of play music with other people. Drummer Richard Peasley '88 said. "There's only so much you can get of practicing the drums on your own--it's not a solo instrument."

Peasley playing with a variety of people, but he said that he'd eventually like to be part of a permanent band "I'd like to find musicians with--then we could start developing a group and a group style. That's more important to me than my own solo playing."

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Peasley added. "For me, performing is secondary to getting together to play."

Axelrod espoused an0 alternate view. "Musicians who don't perform are missing out on something--performing is the greatest natural high. Being up on stage, and seeing people dancing, crying, laughing is an incredible feeling," he said.

Salvador G. Rotella '88, bass player for Wired for Sound, said, "I really enjoy playing, but I have the most fun performing. It seems like a reward for practicing--it makes me sit down and go through the tedious parts, like in proving my music theory."

Axelrod added. "Once you do it you don't want to stop. You don't want to get off the stage--you want to perform everywhere.

But other musicians say that being a musician is different than being a performer.

>"It's not the performing, it's the music itself that's important. When I play, there's no stage show; I don't really care what I look like," said bass player Ted H. Schwartz '87, who is in the process of regrouping his band, Robespierre.

He said that frustration comes when an audience goes to see a band and not really to listen to the music. "It's a certain weakness in the audience that they need the visual aspect to make it entertaining," he added.

Axelrod said that he thought that people did appreciate the technical aspects to some extent. "If you're technically perfect and tight, it flows better, and I think people can appreciate that."

"Danceability"

Commissioner Gordon vocalist Eva. J. Yablonsky '86 said that, when it comes to music played by Harvard bands, the most crucial element is the beat. "A lot of the bands at Harvard are trying to be very original, but if often comes down to whether it's danceable," she said, adding, "Many of the bands play music that is unfamiliar. It's great musically, but people just can't get down and boogie to it."

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