By Artie Capshaw

Little victories matter in our sensitive scene. Yesterday we were riffling through the rejects at the Stupendous Triumphant Acetone Records shoppe when a woman in her 30s wandered in looking for “Latent” by American Hop. A woman! In her 30s!

Joy of joys (not for her, but for our scenario here), she didn’t know the name of the band, or the right name of the song. She’d heard it on the radio! She didn’t know anyone who had anything to do with the record. SHE JUST LIKED IT! Take that, industry suits! The A-Hops turned out a disk on their own, with no development money or focus groups or farm teams, and caught the ear of an unlikely demographic. Sign ’em. And listen to ’em!

During the same bout of browsing, we were told Babahoya killed at our new gov’s inauguration ball, and suddenly has bookings for similar hoity-toits across the capitol, plus a few leads into other jurisdictions altogether. Way to go—but make sure you come back from time to time, guys. We need our regular dose of “Banana Bunchy Top.”

Do days get brighter than this?

Well, sure, when there’s all that sunshine reflecting off the newfallen snow. Let’s see if we can spin this in a positive way—no guaranteed shows at any of the regular clubs tonight due to the intense snowfall. Bullfinch was trying to plow the sidewalk, so there’ll at least be drinking there.