Of all the Letters to the Editor that Creative Loafing has received in its more than 20-year history, Keith Ulreys 2007 missive was among the most memorable.
To the assholes at Creative Loafing he began, and launched into a scathing tirade against former CL music editor Wade Tatangelo. He questioned Wades qualifications, criticized his local music coverage, and pointed out a string of* two Wade-authored print errors, most recently the one that had prompted Ulreys righteous indignation: Wade had confused Ulreys own Zillionaire [pictured, Keith second from left] with a Rhode Island band of the same name. He concluded with an over-the-top You can take a shit and eat it.
I discussed the infamous letter when I spoke with the longtime local musician, promoter and driving force behind New Granada Records a few weeks back. Ulrey laughs about it now, but admits he was riddled with frustration at the time. Hed been performing around town with Zillionaire for a while, was putting on four or five shows a month via New Granada, and felt like his efforts (and the detailed releases he sent out about the bands in advance of his shows) were going unnoticed. It just started out as a little e-mail, but it turned into this monster that was all over the Internet.
Ulrey was admittedly harsh but he got his point across, and his professional relationship with Wade improved after Wades apologetic admission of his mistakes and marked improvement on his coverage. To me it was like a lightswitch, from there on out.
This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2009.
