The Art Of Process With Aimee Mann And Ted Leo

Fitting that these notes come to you today from what has become a liminal space between “home” and “tour” for me.  That space is, of course, “New Jersey,” and it’s fitting because it was from here (this very house, in fact) in 1987, that I wrote a letter to our guest, Ian MacKaye.  Ian’s new band, Fugazi, was asking people to rethink their relationships to each other in the space of “the pit” and consider not slam dancing/moshing.  This was a radical proposition back then, but I understood it, and I respected it.  I think coming from a break dancing background made the idea of a more inclusive dancing aspect to punk shows appealing to me.  What I didn’t respect, and what prompted me to write the letter, was seeing a bunch of people who had traveled with the band up from DC to The Anthrax in Norwalk, Ct., physically grabbing people and stopping them from slamming/moshing.  It seemed like just another form of policing and fascism to me.  It was an angry letter. Ian wrote me back - he agreed with me and assured