Rock And Roll's saving grace is that it gets its energy from its audience and that its audience are teenagers. The dream is a continual renewal because of a continuous rush of youthful exuberance. It made rock better than anything. Better than opera. Or jazz. And because it was done by absolute beginners, it made rock democratic, proletariat, and easy. The people who love it made it for themselves.
If that tenant is idealistic, or even quite wrong, I am too old to answer, but when twelve year old Mary Magpie joined rock nyc in the Autumn of 2009, I was particularly pleased. and figured I could edit her into coherence if and when I needed to.
The editing wasn't necessary.
From the start, Mary was a good writer, and through the years she has become my favorite rock nyc scribe. A complete professional, who, with a sense of commitment, dedication, and self-control (yes, self-control -it is difficult to maintain your cool while meeting your rock star heroes) beyond, not just her years, but beyond most peoples abilities, she has proven herself invaluable to rock nyc. Mary is where and how we show yourselves completely different to other music websites. Not only do we discuss a youth music, we use youth (neither Layna nor Henry are remotely out of their teens yet) to discuss it for us.
And not just "discuss" it, "write about it" but get us the bands years before the mainstream rock media have heard of them. As Helen wrote recently, Black Veil Brides just broke NME last week. Mary INTERVIEWED THEM years ago.
Which leads me to another important aspect of Mary's rock nyc career. She writes about bands nobody has heard of but later do. Here is a partial list of the bands she's interviewed for us:
I tell you one right here and now that I didn't know and now love: the Devil Wears prada.
But look at the pix above, Mary with Bayside, do you see what I see? Her poise, her dignity, her ability to remain a fan and yet above the noise. Still in the first half of her teens, 14 years old here, she is so at ease with twenty something guys who are used to thousands of girls her age screaming for them.
At school, Mary is a great student (whatever her mother might claim to the contrary) and outside school she performs in a local teen theater group in shows like "The Little Shop Of Horrors". And she has also played bass and sung for a local school rock band.
As a listener, her palate has grown over the years to include dubstep, dance (Deadmau5 is a particular fave), and Conor Oberst. Her writing has also improved, while furious in her denial of the bands she doesn't like, when she doesn't love em, her joy of music is a wonder to read when she is enamoured. Here she is writing about born again post-hardcore band The Devil Wears Prada": '"We Believe in Jesus Christ and He Believes In You', as screamed by Mike Hranica takes on a whole new level of powerful ministry. The tones and the message are a match that can literally stop you in your tracks. Not preaching not throwing religion at you but almost an evangelical statement. Point blank and in your dirt covered face, pause was given at the thought that maybe, just maybe Jesus could crowd surf." The writing speaks for itself.
Mary Magpie is fifteen years old today. Still a teen, still a rocker, still writing for rock nyc. And still my favorite.
Oh, did I mention she is also a photographer? Here is a compiliation of Mary's concert pix in 2011.
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