Tuesday, April 25, 2006

We found out the same way you did -- from Ryan Walsh's (Hallelujah the Hills, the Stairs) late-breaking MySpace bulletin. (Dude,  we know you have a show tonight, but talk about burying the lead.) (In Ryan's defense: after 30 seconds of googling we discovered that the Honeypump Board has known this for two days. More bad news.) Here's the relevant grafs:

Unfortunately I have to end this bulletin with some sad not-funny news. Our dear friend Matt from the band Ho-Ag was attacked by seven people while on tour in Oakland, California 2 days ago. They fractured his jaw and he is currently awaiting surgery in a hospital. I know so many people who care so much about him, many who only know him through his music, and it's uplifting to witness this during this frustrating debacle. You can post get better cards on their profile. I'm sure he'd appreciate that.

I don't understand the thirst people have for violence. If I sat down with one of these attackers would they be able to explain it to me? I don't think they could and here's why: the only way I can start to comprehend senseless violence is by positing that the person committing the violence is an unaware barely sentient being.

Please watch out for you friends, be careful, and don't let the prospect of this type of thing cause you to live your life in fear. In my opinion that's the most effective non-violent way to stand up to these kind of heathens.

I hope Matt makes a full recovery soon. His friendship and artistic output are beacons that myself, and the entire band, look to for inspiration. That's the sort of tangible energy that no fists can bruise and that's what I think people mean when they talk about "the human spirit." Make no mistake: that's what we should spend our whole live trying to cultivate and protect.

In small-world news, Honeypump board has updates, including the ridiculous news that local musician's sister works in same hospital where Parish, the beloved dean of Boston super-nice-guys-who-make-way-fucked-up-music, is awaiting surgery on the broken jaw. We sincerely hope this does not lead to a localized Yay Area backlash, as we just started jumping on the hyphy bandwagon and don't intend to get off it quite yet.

Not to make light of a serious situation, but wouldn't it be almost sort of awesome if Matt somehow ended up here?