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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2000)
rhursday.fc lisc m Thursday, November 30, 2000 AGGIES A Page 3 A THE BATTALION Castillo lush Set® blic Seni: ociate || ne thefe'i Chair in olicy Wed- ty chair, it nantgovei ) chaib, .By Bulled; lillion eiKi :d by Be Robert Ml un the Whe Sly Letter moves on to greener pastures • of the director for Scii ic Polic ason Bennyhoff & Anne Hoar Battalion ollege Station hosts a veritable parade of local bands every year, but few manage to make it outside the confines id thei®of the Bryan-College Station community, eat accent:iWw, the Sly Letter, a band that has been per- BushSchforming locally for more than two years, is ulyatre::;making a concerted effort to move beyond aid. "lair:the local market. rid proudii IMark McDavid, mandolin player and lis chan . background vocalist for the band, said one of iociateds the band’s first steps in moving outside Col- fa man lege Station was producing These Autumn gure in r Skies, its debut CD. The band funded the CD with its own money and used connections it made with industry professionals to get it produced. ■Having a CD gave the band an easy way tilsend the music to different places to get ute is; more exposure. One of those places was the searchfc MTV show “Undressed.” ds withiiiB 4 A friend of mine mentioned that MTV ns reganif.wanted music from independent artists to gicaladw feature on ‘Undressed,’ ” said Sean Smith, d Bulled lead guitarist and vocalist for the band. “So nd public we eventually sent our music put, and I ■ne home one day from getting a job of- especi- fer, and there was a message on my an- co chair swering machine.” /edbybfc|' Smith said the message was from Melin- ironxM da Gednen, an MTV representative. Smith ifforttoci ’said he returned her call, and the rest is his- ictterdd fory. The band’s music will be played on the ill Amendshow intermittently for approximately the next 40 episodes. rvedaslieV McDavid said hearing that MTV accept- 91 to f# fed the band’s music was a surprise. ■“At first it (sending the MTV the CD) was kind of a joke,” McDavid said. “It was so weird that MTV was calling us. We were on a high two weeks after we heard the news.” 771 National exposure on MTV is a departure nia ‘ from the band’s beginnings, as you (' b ari d began as an acoustic duo with ldingit,"|4wosingers who played acoustic andelectric said" the war. They added drums and bass guitar to iH ; tion in nti longer//:, ted andr ngineerx | the shoitfil r stuck'' i the actual! coniffite ng other onfire, dn’t c: e spirit o think ctivities e aspects iweeneyv frustrated' d traditio* weeneysly what hell y student f could cos s building! to etas 1 dialogue:: temiined; t, the boiii fire is real x is ope: : ' March II leliveritsif infireSts i later, i the band, and later mandolin and percussion. “When we added the mandolin and per cussion, that’s when we found our sound,” McDavid said. McDavid said the music of the • band Toad the Wet Sprocket inspired him to learn to play the mandolin. “The guitar was my pri mary instrument, and 1 real ly like Toad the Wet Sprocket, and they use the mandolin a lot,” McDavid said. “My friends and family chipped in and bought it (the mandolin) for me for my birthday.” McDavid said it was easy to learn to play the mandolin since he knew how to play the guitar. He said he taught himself and never took a formal lesson. The Sly Letter has played to gether as a six-member band for only two years. The group met at A&M, but McDavid describes Sly Let ter as a Houston-College Station band be cause several of the members are from Hous ton. Two members, drummer Chris Ginsbach and bass player Chris Edwards, played together in high school band in Houston. The group has played in Houston venues such as Fitzgerald’s, Sidecar Pub and Satel lite Lounge. Even though the band’s songs will be on MTV, Smith said moving out of the local market is proving difficult. “It seems like a simple concept,” Smith said. “But it is impossible to walk into Austin and say, ‘We’re the Sly Letter,’ and get 500 people to turn up for the show. So, we are try ing to promote ourselves.” Smith said even though the band is trying to go beyond College Station, it will always return here, no matter how popular it becomes. “We are definitely coming back,” Smith iTO BY STUART VILLANUEVA, ILLUSTRATION BY CODY WAGES/Thh Battalion said. “Even if we became the biggest band in the world, we would always come back here.” In the future, Smith said, the band’s mu sic may be featured on such television shows as “Felicity” and “Bostpn Public.” The band is also attempting to cooperate with Pat McGee on a concert or series of concerts in February. Sly Letter’s next show is Saturday at Shadow Canyon. Doors open at 9 p.m. and Saving Dawn is the opening act. ryv||' Spring ’01 Staff Application If you can write, edit, design pages, draw, use a camera Texas A&M's award-winning student newspaper is looking for you. vc Name: Phone Number: E-mail: Major: Classification: Number of hours you will take in the spring: Expected graduation (semester): Bowen tf son BeW : Jeff Kerf iane Xav Arjunan. spnne^. ... asAMHf is A0 of surf: 845-331 3 ■ fin 015*“' Hecopte 1 .:; How many hours per week would you be available for work at The Battalion? Staff Applicants* 1) Why do you want to work at The Battalion, and what do you hope to accomplish? 2) What experience do you have that relates to the position for which you are applying? (include classes, seminars, etc.) 3) What changes do you feel would improve the qual ity of The Battalion? (Give special attention to the section for which you’re applying.) *Please type your responses on a separate piece of paper, and attach a resume and samples of your work (stories you have written for publications or classes, pages you have designed, photos taken, drawings made or other cre ative samples) — just show us what you can do. Deadline: 4:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 4, for staff positions.Turn applications in at 014 (basement) Reed McDonald Building. Interviews will be scheduled immediately after the application deadline. OPENINGS INCLUDE: Please check the position(s) for which you are interested. If you are interested in more than one position, number them in order of preference with 1 being your top choice. Staff News Reporter Science & Technology Reporter Feature Writer Entertainment Writer Sports Writer Columnist Web Designer Radio Reporter Photographer Graphic Artist * Cartoonist Page Designer Copy Editor The majority of Ags are not weekly drinkers The majority of Ags drink 4 or fewer drinks at a party 90% of Aggies have never been in trouble with authorities due to drinking Where Do You Fit In? M a/o UDENT Al.COIIOI. AND Diux; iini'CAJ ION I’KOOK AMS Data from Spring, 1998 CORE survey on an anonymous, random sample of 861 students