There’s plenty of music I like. There’s plenty of music I don’t like.
I can’t imagine myself working up the passion about the music I don’t like or the bands that perform it to go online and excoriate them in public comments, but there was a lot of that going on last week after the New Times published a cover story about the local band Perfect Pussy.
Some people were put off by the use of the band’s provocative name on the cover.
Some people had less than no use for the band’s music.
Some people believe the band hasn’t earned the attention it is receiving.
And lots of people in the local music scene absolutely hate the band’s attitude toward that local scene.
All of which is fine. When we decided to report on the band, and to put it on the cover, it wasn’t because of the name, or because we’re fans of the music, or because its members had paid their dues or because the band is well-liked.
It’s because the band is newsworthy.
Like it or not, Perfect Pussy has, in its niche, attracted broad attention outside of Syracuse. All that was documented in the story: the recording contract, the international touring, the nod the band has received from Rolling Stone magazine. The link the New Times provided to video of the band was from the NPR website, for heaven’s sake.
Week in and week out, the New Times reports on local music. And whether we point to Jess Novak’s coverage week in and week out in print, or to the blog posts online by Micha L. Crook and occasionally Chris Malone, we’re proud of the depth and breadth of that coverage.
Like it or not, Perfect Pussy is part of that, too. And that’s why, if we had it to do all over again, we’d still put the band on our cover.
Larry Dietrich is the editor-in-chief of the Syracuse New Times.
