Criticism
Fearing we were losing touch with new music, in 2015 my friend Nirmal and I decided we wanted to force ourselves to engage with lots of new albums, and set up a monthly meeting to talk about a set of new releases, the only rule being that we couldn’t have heard any of them before that cycle began.
We were joined by my friend Fran the following year, beginning a growth in the idea of The Picky Bastards as a fully-fledged podcast and website, which has six editors and many more contributing writers.
While the podcast kept the same format, the site allowed for both reviews and interviews, but also broader think-pieces on why music mattered to us. PBs gave me a space to connect critical writing about other people’s music with my own reflections on the creative production I am so obsessed with.
In 2008 I met Ryan Spaulding, who was already running the growing Ryan’s Smashing Life music blog. I was working in recording studios, and trying to get more contacts on the Boston music scene that would let me find bands to record.
I started writing articles reviewing local bands for Ryan, along with some other great writers and photographers, which was a great opportunity to embed myself in the scene. As the site’s popularity grew, bigger bands’ gig and albums were include, along with being able to interview some of them on tour.
RSL ended up winning a best blog award in 2010, and it felt like a moment where I was truly able to be part of a music community in my adopted home city.
That night with Golding 