Andre Salles relaxes in downtown Aurora.
Andre Salles took a month-long break from writing once; he’ll likely never do that again. He called the month in 2000 the October Project.
“I didn’t write anything at all,” said Salles, who wrote the liner notes and plays piano on the Made in Aurora albums.
In November of 2000, Salles started Tuesday Morning 3 a.m., an online music review blog. Over the past 10 years, he has written an average of 3,000 words each week on the site. Clearly, a month without writing made Salles never want to go without penning his thoughts.
In his first blog post, Salles wrote, “So it became obvious to me that if I didn’t just start writing again, I never would, and I’d probably be dead within a year. So here it is — weekly life support for me, weekly musical commentary for you.”
Salles, 37, of Montgomery, editor at Montgomery Patch and former staffer for the Beacon-News, named the blog Tuesday Morning 3 a.m. because new music is released Tuesdays at midnight, and he is ready to write about it at 3 a.m. after listening to it for the first time.
The idea for the blog came from a similar print column Salles wrote for Face Magazine, a now-defunct free music monthly, when he lived in Maine. He attended college there and then stayed to work for a few years before making the rounds in some other East Coast states before landing in Illinois.
The blog’s first post was a review of Everclear’s “Songs from an American Movie” with the tagline added by Salles, “The only modern rock album you’ll ever need.” He gives most albums positive reviews, which he doesn’t apologize for even when blog followers want him to be more negative. He admittedly is “relentlessly positive.”
“I only want to write about stuff I enjoy,” he said. When he panned a Weezer album, it made its way around the Internet, but he prefers to be upbeat.
“I want you to hear everything I hear and like it as much as I do,” he said, calling the blog his diary of musical excitement.
Salles set up the website to be just his voice, like a weekly column, so no reader comments are allowed. He links the site to a separate more informal blog for ruminations where comments are encouraged.
Recently, Salles invited blog followers to join him live on Twitter while he had a first listen to an album. He normally listens to a record three or four times before writing about it, so it was a fun challenge.
In the blog’s 12th year, Salles still looks at it the same way. It gives him an outlet to discuss music — all kinds of music, although he has “an avowed weakness for sugary pop music.” He doesn’t take free records nor does he make a profit.
“What I want to do is be the guy who says, ‘I am doing this work for you.’ I am tremendously obsessive,” he said. “I love listening to music and I love writing about it.”
Visit www.tm3am.com every week for a new music review.
Editor’s note: This story originally published in the Aurora Beacon-News. Made in Aurora, Volume I is currently nominated for an Independent Music Award.
Updated Nov. 6, 2012: Andre is now working at Fermi Lab in Batavia, Ill. as a publicist.
