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Category Archives: Arts and Culture
Introducing: Bad Advice Musicians Hear (The Series)
I’ve been playing in rock bands since I was a teenager, and while the realities of being a gigging musician have taken loads of wild turns over that time, one truism has held throughout: When you’re a young musician, you … Continue reading
Video: Brian LaRue Performing on Live at Main Drag
Right around the Fourth of July, 2020, I appeared on an episode of Live at Main Drag, the webseries filmed at Main Drag Music in Williamsburg, playing three songs by Shelter Dogs solo, on a guitar that is not mine. … Continue reading
Posted in Arts and Culture
Tagged blondie, brian larue, brooklyn, diy, elvis costello, ernie banks, gays and lesbians living in a transgender society, glits, jamie frey, live at main drag, live music, main drag music, music webseries, nyc music, olivia russin, sean spada, Shelter Dogs, stuart solomon, the regrets
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Product Review: Żywiec Session IPA
I lived for about six and a half years on the outskirts of Greenpoint, Brooklyn (New York City’s Little Poland), and for the last two and a half years I’ve lived in Ridgewood, Queens (NYC’s other Little Poland). In that … Continue reading
In Appreciation of the Fourth of July, the Greatest of the Cookout Holidays
There are a lot of positive, cool things about the Covid vaccine becoming widely available here in NYC, and one of them is the timing. If you’re a reasonably social person, losing a social summer is a gigantic bum-out. Two … Continue reading
On the Three-Part Creative Cycle: A Suggestion
During the first few months of the Covid pandemic in 2020, there was a lot of chatter about how we all can “use this time.” The presumption was that “sheltering in place,” staying at or close to home, our social … Continue reading
I Was a Teenaged Ska Kid: A Mostly Unapologetic Confession
In 2017, my former colleague Brian Slattery (author, Spaceman Blues, Lost Everything, and more) invited me to contribute a “long personal essay” to the journal the New Haven Review, where he’s a long-time editor. Because it is essentially unthinkable for … Continue reading
Posted in Arts and Culture
Tagged diy, New Haven Review, punk, ska, ska-punk, Tune Inn, Webster Theater, youth culture
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ICYMI: The Band I’m In Is Called Shelter Dogs
I’m the primary singer, guitarist and songwriter in the garage rock/powerpop band Shelter Dogs, and that isn’t new. But in the time since this blog went on hiatus, Shelter Dogs came out of its own hiatus, and we’ve been up … Continue reading
That Summer When Jeff Lynne Really Understood My Pain
Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: A long-form music feature published somewhere other than this blog. My buds Jon Mann and Derek Hawkins — two men of many talents, whom New Yorkers of a certain persuasion might recognize … Continue reading
Three Alt-Weeklies, My Own Salad Days and One Long Goodbye to Them All
This morning, the final editions of the three alt-weekly newspapers that serve Connecticut — the New Haven Advocate, Hartford Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly — all hit newsstands. The Hartford Advocate, which I discovered on the floor of my high … Continue reading
