From the In Box: Rock Shows of Note XXXVII
Wow, we are media stars!

While searching online for information on the Mayflies USA, we came upon your Aug. 27 item that not only mentions Three Aces Pizza (and the bizarre barbershop next door), but also appears to refer to us! Given the sparse crowd when the Mayflies began their set at T.T. the Bear's, we feel pretty sure that we are the "couple dancing up near the stage." We love the Mayflies and their music and love dancing to live music, but often there's no room to do that. Our "Western Massachusetts" home is only in Newton, Massachusetts, and though we would have loved to have seen the Mayflies every time they came to town, it was actually only the first time we made it to one of their shows (we always seemed to find out about the appearances too late, and once you pass 40 years and have a child, it gets a little hard to suddenly run off to a club on a Wednesday night).

Your review of the Mayflies USA seemed fair enough. We would encourage you to check out any of their three albums. They avoid the usual cliches of "power pop" music (believe me we've got a shelf of it), with instrumental, melodic, or lyrical touches that make the songs stand out. It probably helps that they have three songwriters. The latest CD, "Walking in a Straight Line" is as good a place to start as any and includes the organ-based song you liked.

(Bruce adds: By the way, I decided to see who Heath Row and Lisa from Scrapple were. For what it's worth, I was pleasantly surprised by Scrapple and the Anchormen. I'm not sure what to make of this intelligent, funk-based music of Scrapple. Is there anything out there like this? The best references from my experience were Was (Not Was) and the George Clinton clan and maybe Pigbag (but I can't really remember what that was like). Don't misread me, I found it pretty good and definitely intriguing. As for the Anchormen, with the "Punk Rock is Awesome" CD title, I feared the usual buzzsaw guitars and shouted "angry" lyrics. However, I then noticed the local touch on the titles of several of the songs and when I listened to a half dozen of the songs was pleased to find some clever lyrics (good song about Houdini, for one) and diversity in musical settings. Damn good stuff.)

In any case, see you at the next Mayflies show! Or let us know when the Anchormen and Scrapple are playing and maybe you will have the pleasure of a "Western Massachusetts" couple dancing to the tunes of you and your friends. Keep up the good work. -- Bruce Kelly and Mimi Minkoff