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w h a t . i t . i s

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the midwest raves mailing list is an email discussion list for cool people who live in and/or are interested in the so-called "rave scene" here in the midwestern united states. we talk about a lot of things, including but not limited to: raves, techno & other music, fashion, drugs, culture, the internet, and of course: "the old days."

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s u b s c r i p t i o n . i n f o r m a t i o n

before we tell you exactly how you can get yourself onto the midwest raves mailing list, we need to tell you a few things.

you don't have to be from the midwest to contribute to our discussion, but do keep in mind that the standard rules of netiquette apply. in other words, please respect the list and introduce yourself to the mw community before starting a flame war. limit your postings to that which is relevant to the list (altho this covers a lot of ground), and please avoid advertising anything (unless it is directly related or beneficial to the mw list; ie, record stores, distribution companies, clothing, etc.).

also, keep in mind that ANY message containing the word "subscribe" will not get forwarded to the list and will only be read by the automated server. don't say we didn't warn you!

so, here you go: send an email message to majordomo@hyperreal.com. in the first line of the message body (NOT THE SUBJECT), type "subscribe mw-raves" (without quotes). you should receive an automated welcome message soon after you send this message, but don't stress if it takes a little while, hyperreal's a busy place and sometimes it gets a little crowded.

if you want to subscribe to the mw list in digest form, send an email message to majordomo@hyperreal.com. in the first line of the message body (NOT THE SUBJECT), type "subscribe mw-raves-digest" (without quotes).

also, you can join our special calendar-only mailing list, which sends out our mwraves events calendar by itself, about once a week. join this list by emailing majordomo@hyperreal.com and typing "subscribe mw-raves-calendar" (no quotes) followed by your email address.

if you have any troubles, please consult our resident homey, chad sponholz.

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w h a t 's . o n . t h i s . s i t e

to find out what events are coming up in the area, check out our trusty text-only mwraves calendar.

to get general information about regional scenes, you'll find some tidbits in our area guide, called regions (which is VERY SPARSE and out-of-date!).

to get to know mw-ravers of new and old, we've got a list of people who have webpages in our area (and some special souls who aren't).

our listmember contributions section may someday be filled with whatever our members want to put there, but currently it only contains a small sampling of some significant posts from our list history.

our flyer art section contains many uploaded flyers from the beginnings of the mw rave scene. if you're looking for more recent flyers, they're not here, but you will find some nice old chestnuts.

our media section contains a smattering of rave-related articles from local media.

our related links section contains a few useful links to area promoters, visual companies, record stores, and more.

the mw archives contain almost every post ever sent to the list, from its humble beginnings on a university server in wisconsin in late 1992, until today.

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a b s t r a c t

so what makes the mw raves list, and the mw area special, if anything at all?

well, for one thing we inhabit a vast geographic area: as far as pittsburgh and cleveland to the northeast (who also have their own list), tennessee to the south, nebraska to the west, and as far north as north dakota and minnesota. some of these areas aren't traditionally considered part of the midwest, but it's necessary to include such widely-spanning areas becasue of the midwestern raver's special ability to travel great distances to go to events. although it is less common now than it was several years ago, intrepid midwesterners still travel long distances to go to those special "must-attend" parties.

but what else makes us different? well, we're also happy to say that the midwest rave scene is one of the most diverse scenes around. every type of music is played in this area, from house to jungle to trip-hop to acid to goatrance to hardcore, and the area is home to several generations of musicians and DJs. and of course, the midwest is also the home of detroit and chicago, where techno and house music were essentially born in the early 1980s (check hyperreal's histories of techno and house if ya don't believe it), so naturally a lot of music still comes from those cities. several other towns can also now boast about their own homegrown recording artists and world-class DJs: minneapolis, milwaukee, cleveland, pittsburgh, st. louis, columbus, cincinnati, and cleveland ohio, e. lansing, grand rapids, and kalamazoo michigan, and so on.

as we enter the late '90s, it seems that larger events are becoming the normal course for raves to go, with many promoters attempting to take events to a higher level, with world-class lineups and higher ticket prices, perhaps at the danger of losing their "underground" feel as they have in other places around the world. but the mw scene, like all rave scenes, encompasses a wide variety of definitions of what a "rave" can be, and events of all sizes are well-represented. you may have to dig a bit to find a scene, but you'll find one almost everywhere you go throughout the midwest; sometimes in obvious places, but often in places you might not think of. so keep your eyes peeled for phat pants and your ears open to throbbing bass, because you may find it where you least expect it.

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s o . w h o . w r o t e . a l l . o f . t h i s?

well things have been rotting on this site for quite a while now so perhaps i shouldn't be in a hurry to reveal who i am, but just for the record, i'm ed luna, from columbus ohio. i inherited this site from sho kuwamoto in late 1994 and have tried to make some modest effort to keep this site simple, easy to understand, and useful. due to a seeming lack of outside or listmember interest (and obviously because of my own procrastination, and preoccupation doing the ele_mental thang), a lot of things have stayed static here for quite a while. i feel that it will soon be time for me to let go of the maintenance duties here, but not before i make a last attempt to do some creative things with what we already have. i hope this site has meant something to those of you who do use it, and i apologize for the lack of effort on my part. then again, this is a volunteer thing anyway, and it still looks as good as any of the other regional rave sites out there...so nyaa!

ok, that's your official briefing on what it is...rave on. --e d

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