Being a fat and insecure sophomore at Pittsford-Mendon was hard in 1983-84, but being turned onto the local music scene, the great bands of the day just making waves in the underground music world and seeing live music at a club was life changing!

I struggle to remember much of my time at Scorgies but I do recall me and my friends (who were also band mates of mine) sneaking into there at least twice. Once I know we saw a Personal Effects set and one other time …dare I say it was either for a Rain Parade or a Let’s Active set. I just remember being so worried that we would be kicked out. We were there to see live music by these bands we were just learning about and not those big RAWK show at the War Memorial.

I do recall having some seniors help us make fake IDs and, in spite of the fact that I had the world’s biggest babyface, used it for ONLY one thing..to get into Scorgies! My world was changing as I was playing drums in a band that played the Clash, the Jam, the Police and Generation X. We thrived on the late 70’s punk music and found a passion in all the music being made overseas and college towns across the US. Yet, in our sleepy little town were all these great local bands that I could see and touch and hear at this local club. Then the whole world of “college music” became my obsession as I would go see any bands that played the U of R and RIT. In fact, my biggest musical regret is that I failed to go see R.E.M. open for The English Beat back when both of those bands were my favorite because it was a “school night” and no one would go with me.

My band was lucky enough to have Russ Lunn running Mendon’s A/V department and thus we were lucky to get to know him and thus be introduced to Stan the Man and Jim Huie. I viewed both of these guys as “local celebrities” for the mere fact that both of them worked at the Record Archive and played in local bands. This was the time of the infamous “Wild Future” show and Russ was kind enough to have my band make an appearance on one episode and that meant the world to me.

This was also the time in my life when I would tape the Import/Export show and drool over all the music that Unlce Rog and Kevin Patrick would offer up to me. Like the music addict I was becoming, I would spend any free time I had looking for the bands I heard on that WCMF show at Fantasy and the Record Archive. These were some of the bands playing at Scorgies and I HAD to witness it first hand. I have only one remaining cassette tape of that show but I still listen to it to hear what I think is a testament to how clued in Rochester was to GREAT MUSIC!

My world was changing in a way that I have never “recovered”. We got to hang out at an Invisible Party band practice and even got to have my band sit-in during the band’s beer/piss break. Stage fright hit but I remember it as a rite of passage. From then on, I think every weekend was dedicated to either having our own band practice, catching a college sponsored show or hanging out in someone’s basement as we played all of the new records for each other or replayed the Import/Export show on cassette. Of course, our “Wild Future” included beer so we were happily drinking just like all the cool kids we encountered at Scorgies and on the college campuses downtown.

I moved away from Pittsford/Rochester upon my graduation in 1986 when I decided that being in a cool local band was what I wanted out of my college experience so I followed R.E.M. down to Athens, GA. I used my fine Pittsford education to see every band I could at the 40 Watt club and the Uptown Lounge- full knowing what these bars were like thanks to my brief time at Scorgies. I also kept the dream alive by playing drums in 3 bands while in school.

At the age of 40, I think it is only fitting that I now work in the music biz and call Music City my home. I actually find Nashville to be a smash-up of everything I had in Rochester and Athens…. just without Wegmans! I am also a happy family-man with three kids of my own and pray all the time that one of them (if not all) can know the joy of absorbing live music and a great local music scene so they can change their lives for good too.

Jay Coyle is the co-founder (along with former R.E.M. manager Jefferson Holt) of Propeller Sound Recordings. Propeller released the stunning New Math compilation “Die Trying” in spring ’23.