Good Citizen Spring 1995 Intro

We’re releasing an album! On May 4th and 5th, 1995, we celebrate the release of our first compact disc Good Citizen: Soundtrack to the ‘Zine Volume One, with a huge, two-night release party at Club Toast in Burlington. We’ve got a 17 track compilation of some of Burlinton’s hardest working bands, and a lot of the songs are previously unreleased tracks by Rockestled, Invisible Jet, Strangefolk, CHin Ho!, James Kochalka Superstar, Eef, and the Fags. We’ve also got a new, full band version of “None of That '' by the Pants, that was recorded just for this album. We’ve got selections from the new albums by Wide Wail, Envy, Colorblind, NeverOnlyOnce, Famous Potato, Madelines, and Tokyo Storm Warning. We’ve got the first appearance on compact disc by Slush’s “Kill YourIdols.” And we’ve got Dysfunkshun’s Split Records contribution “Funkin’ on the Run.”

This CD is the first in a series of Vermont music collections we hope to release, it was assembled by Jeff Howlett of Slush and myself to serve as an organized sampler of part of our alternative music community. We’ll be mailing this compilation to over 400 press and radio contacts all over the world. We’re also assembling a book for the bands that will detail the manufacturing process and explain our promotional efforts. After we mail the discs to radio and press, we’ll give each band a copy of the book so they can continue their own promotional efforts if they choose to. And we'll assemble a volunteer staff of band members and local music lovers to call radio stations all over the country and pester them into playing the Good Citizen collection.

And you can help. We’ve heard from people all over the state that they want to help us out and we’re perfectly willing to accept your offers. We need all the help that we can get. What can you do? Write articles about Vermont music and Vermont musicians and send them to us. You can take photographs of Vermont musicians who play in your area and send them to us. Become a voluntary subscriber to Good Citizen. Buy out T-shirts and CD. Send us good vibes. Whatever you can do…please do it. We appreciate it. We’re 32 musicians and local music supporters who are doing this because we want to do it. If you want to join us, get in touch. We’re like some weirdo cult just waiting to happen. We’re all volunteering our various skills are we’re trying desperately to break even. We almost did it with the first issue. If we start to make a profit, we’ll just make the magazine bigger and better. 

Some brief notes of good news… Nationally distributed ELLE magazine is going a short piece on Burlington with a focus on the music scene. They’re going to help us pimp the Good Citizen collection in their June issue. WIZN now has two local bands on their regular rotation. WNCS just added two bands to their play list. WRUV has resurrected Exposure on Thursday nights. Keep those requests for local music up.

And finally…in our upcoming Summer issue: we’ll be taking an in-depth look at Burlington’s long-running center for area youth, 242 Main. Suffering as a result of funding cuts and a general lack of support from the Mayor’s office in the last several years, the dedicated staff at 242 needs your help and support. And Good Citizen needs people to talk to us about the center. And we’d be really psyched to use any old photographs any one might have of shows at 242. If you  think you can help us with the article, please call Matt Taylor at 860-6820.

And, thanks for all your kind words regarding Good Citizen. We didn’t ask. And we didn’t force you to read this. But we’re glad you did. 

Be a Good Citizen