The two things that I miss the most from the ‘90s—and which both served as a wonderful introduction to a new band—are basement shows and 45s.

Rob seems to be running on a platform entirely based on enforcing nuisance laws.  I don’t see how he could get around shutting down house shows without being a giant hypocrite.

house parties don’t fall under the rubric of  “chronic nuisance” unless you have them every night. but moreover, there must be a victim before they can be considered bad.
 
some parts of urbana and campus are zoned and geared toward heavy foot traffic, commerce, and drinking young people. some are not. 
 
that basement on lincoln, where beauty shop played for example—that was probably a good setting. i certainly enjoyed it.
 
then there’s a house on south busey—once the home of longtime urbana city attorney jack waaler—which is zoned single family residential.  i saw some college partyers setting off M-80’s one summer night at 3am. 
 
uncool.
 
i suppose cassie’s other comments on WUNA in two other SP pieces might imply an antagonistic stance toward neighborhood associations.  but i suspect cassie will eventually settle down in one place, plant a few flowers and tomatoes, and maybe even find herself annoyed when a midnight rambler tramples through them en route to the side of her home, where he pees into the basement windowbox, and then vomits.
 
http://www.smilepolitely.com/music/new_ruins_mt._st._helens_tonight/
 
charlie’s parents, by the way, live a couple of blocks north of the old waaler house.  they’re lovely people.  they raised one of the true journeyman musicians of the C-U scene.  like most of the people of WUNA, they are very supportive of arts and community. 
 
throwing beer bottles in the street may be performance art of some sort, and maybe it’s punk rock. it cuts the feet of small children and bursts bicycle tires.

Seriously, a house party on Lincoln is ok, but a block away on Busey it’s not?  Will there be a map available for reference?  What mythical location in CU houses only students and not older residents that will be victimized by the sound?

To be honest, I find the drinking and partying that goes on with these things not at all appealing, but I really appreciate the importantance of house shows for the music community. There is just no way that you can say that you support house shows if you are going to support the current standard that result in shows getting shut down when one person complains.

FYI, My attitude towards WUNA stems from the fact that the first time I heard of them was when the group was enraged at the IMC because there was a house show hosted at the home of a local musician to benefit the IMC to the point that they started a letter writing campaign to try and shut the whole organization down.  It’s so great to see the community come together to try and squash another part of the community.

P.S.  My turnip seedlings are waiting to go into the ground next weekend.  And all my flowers seem to get pulled up by my landlords rather than trampled by students. But thanks for the time spent stereotyping me.

where do you stand on gang rape, cassie?
 
only one person complains.
 
the map is available online. it’s known as the lincoln-busey corridor. for those not from here, the difference between charlie’s house and the lincoln house is more about north-south than it is about east-west.
 
the lincoln house is about 12 blocks from charlie’s parents. it’s much closer, for example, to the braid house.

I don’t really understand how I became the whipping girl for house shows.  I don’t even LIKE house shows, I just think that they have a right to exist and stifling them stifles the music community.  If you really are proposing a zoned area where house shows are allowed to exist then I think that is a great idea. Lincoln/Busey, great.  What are the North and South boundaries?
I have respect for my landlords that deserve respect.  My current landlords are awesome.  They own about half a dozen houses.  They look at them as investments, help keep them up, appreciate it when I plant flowers because they actually realize it makes the place look better and respect us as tenants.
I don’t respect a former landlord of mine that abused and negected our home.  The landlord was Wakeland and the house once existed at 809 W. Main St, Urbana. Hoher, I do not agree with your implication that all landlords are respectable.

Being a band in Bloomington/Normal for 5 years, we’ve finally figured out what goes over the best here and it’s house shows.  Perhaps it’s the keg that actually brings people in, but there’s always a big audience watching the bands. 
We were embarassed and surprised when we played/helped set up a Chambana house show and brought our own keg and didn’t break even.

yes cassie, zoning.  i do believe you’re seeing the light now.
 
what WUNA has been fighting is the campusification of their homes. kids like to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, listen to loud music.  they get it.
 
for that type of college kid, there are lots of parts of town. most of them, conveniently, on campus.
 
when houses like 710 w iowa, or the corner of orchard & michigan became party houses, rented to students—oh, snap.
—
i’d still like an answer about gang rape.  but if you prefer, how about lynching, instead. again, only one person complains. the rest are having a grand old time.
 
what numbers do you require in your majority before you’d ask the victim to just lay back and try to enjoy it?
 
which illegal, anti-social behaviors are the good ones? which are the bad?

chinpou -
You played here in an off-campus neighborhood during an icestorm over winterbreak my brother. The reason house shows work so well in B-N is because you have no actual music venues that host actual concerts. In C-U, we have many. AND our house shows are generally packed and awesome. When they are done during the semester in neighborhoodson campus.
Nothing against B-N and all, but the two simply can’t be compared.

I still got the vibe that drinking isn’t as big of a deal (or problem?) there as it is in B/N.  Any thoughts?

By the way, the crowd at the house show we played way-exceeded my hopes and expectations for a night like the one we played. :P

One more thing-
Speaking of things that really can’t be compared: victims of house shows and victims of rape/lynchings.  Just my thoughts ladies and gentlemen!

why can’t they be compared, chinpou? 
 
is it because you like the one and not the others?

Ha nice cheap shot, champ.  ;)
No, I definitely sympathize for both…..  They can’t be compared because there’s a drastic difference in harm.  I would hope a judge and jury would give a higher penalty to say, raping an old lady than they would to World’s First Flying Machine for keeping her awake while she’s trying to sleep.
I’m all about efficiently planning house shows, such as picking an appropriate location for them and okaying them with neighbors if necessary.  Just the same, I’m all about proper counseling for sex offenders of every kind.
I’m also all about avoiding bad analogies.  But I am all about getting a rise out of people on message boards, so let’s do this again sometime, Mr. McColley.
;)

Cheap shot? I think it’s a fair question.  Reducing its logic to a trite phrase . . . now that’s cheap.
Do it again sometime? No problem. How about right now?
 
Show me some studies evaluating the psychological damage of chronic noise. If you don’t have any available, why don’t I show YOU some.
You seem sure of your facts. Cavalier, even. While you dismiss my point readily, contemplate this: victims don’t generally get to choose the method of their victimization.
 
You speak for everyone?
 
You say that proscripted act A is okay, but proscripted act B is really no big deal?
 
If you’ve ever read craiglist, which you have, you’ll know that a lot of people are seeking abuse in some form or another. Maybe some are seeking irritants as well. Maybe some just want to be annoyed. It takes all kinds.
 
Still, in these situations, the would-be abusees have control.
 
Being stripped of your rights by an uncaring group of people can happen in many ways. But no matter how many are in the group, they can’t change your rights.
 
 

I would probably write the sentence in poetic form
My attitude towards WUNA stems from the
fact that the first time I heard of them
was when the group was enraged at the IMC
because there was a house show
hosted at the home of a local musician to
benefit the IMC to the point that they started
a letter writing campaign to try and shut the
whole organization down.
As you can tell, there is little to no rhyme scheme in the lyrics, which is cool ‘cause if you light up a spliff or maybe down a bag of mushies (preferably in a gyro), you’ll hear the beauty in the words themselves and the alliterated consonants within the words, man.
With this sort of rhymeless Portishead-ian, Lil Wayne-esque vibe I’m getting, I’d probably add a 1-second delay to the spoken-word vocals and put in a drum sample from phatdrumloops.com.  Add a slap bassline, then layer on top some Beach Boys harmonies and you’ve got a neo-folksy underground hit because man you wanna stay away from the mainstream, for real.

hahaha that’s priceless.  Cassie’s a regular Chamillionaire.