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Massive props are due to Kalyn Heffernan and Wheelchair Sports Camp, who have earned the rare, career-defining distinction of being on the cover of our sister paper, the Village Voice in New York City. The cover, of course, advances a sprawling feature-length profile penned by Camille Dodero, one of that fishwrap's most talented music scribes, who also wrote up the act in Spin this past summer. Clocking in at a whopping 3,800 words, the latest piece is a great read.
Dodero trailed Heffernan and company on their recent trip to the Big Apple for CMJ, and accompanied them into the offices of Shady Records, sitting in on a meeting with Rigo "Riggs" Morales, the A&R man who helped sign 50 Cent. Evidently, the group came to his attention last spring at SXSW, on the very same trip in which Heffernan and some of her crew got arrested and blogged about right here on Backbeat.
"It's really easy to be jaded about CMJ after living here a few years," says Dodero, who first caught the act at SXSW, "and easy to dismiss an idealistic band's journey of coming to New York, but with the sort of Mighty Ducks characters -- and Kalyn just planning to sleep at Occupy Wall Street and not bother with accommodations (!) -- it seemed like they'd be great vessels to revisit such a narrative. Then, having that Shady Records meeting happen really pulled it together."
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