1. What’s your town’s nickname?

hARTford, so you remember there is ART in Hartford. Connecticut is known as the insurance state because there are a lot of insurance companies in Hartford. Such as the imaginatively named ‘The Hartford’.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?

I don’t have one, isn’t that interesting?

3. Why do you live there?

Well, I moved, but I lived there because I grew up there and I left for college and then just to check out the world.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

Mark Twain House

There are so many. Bushnell Park is amazing in the spring, you can wander the big rolling hills of grass outside of the state capital, then hangout at the Bushnell Park Carousel. It has a Wurlitzer 153 band organ at the center of the carosel and you can buy popcorn and cotton candy. On Sundays, when I was in high school, Food Not Bombs would happen there. You are also then walking distance from the Wadsworth Atheneum which is a beautiful old stone museum like a church or a castle filled with idiosyncratic rooms of all sorts art. It feels like an old fashioned art museum, with a quirky, personal, killer curator. Styles are next to styles and things seem so close to eachother, although it is very well kept up and modern. The Mark Twain House is a place where both Pete and I worked a few years back and you can see Sam Clemens’ own pool table! The Connecticut Historical Society has all kinds of original source documents on the history of the city, and helpful librarians. While you are thinking about the old Hartford, head to Cedar Hill Cemetary, which is a perfect victorian gothic version of a cemetary, with drooping willows and dogwood where you can hunt around for the graves of Colts and Morgans and even Wallace Stevens. Under the bridge near the old Bradlees parking lot, might be a Cost Saver now, is a red pick up truck where this guy sells the best steamed hotdog I have ever had in my life. I don’t know his name, I call him the hotdog man, and my mom and I used to go there once a week when I was in elementry school. The buns are soft and warm from the hotdog steam , but not damp, the sauerkraut is killer, and he is a charming man. Although some people suggested the hot dog sales was a front for a bookie opperation, no man would take such care with his dogs were it just a front. He’ll put ketchup, mustard and relish on your dog, wrap it in wax paper and grab you a can of sunkist in about 22 seconds. Best.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?

The Hebron Harvest Fair happens every September in Hebron, CT and was a highschool event for me, and former member of the Magik Markers, Leah. It has rides, bingo, bar-b-qued pork sandwiches, feather trimmed roach clips and animals winning prizes. You can buy yourself a real Lime Rickey or support RHAM Music Boosters by drinking a milkshake made by a real RHAM High School musician, or you can ride a ferris wheel, pick up some leather, or buy a sticker that says “sex instructor” or “screw helmet laws,” or “go hard or go home.”

6. What is the best time of year to be there?

In fall it is good because you can head out to Farmington for Roger’s Apple Orchard. This is a place my dad would bring me every year for apple cider and pie and white chocolate and to look at rabbits. Right by the New Britain reservoir, tucked into the woods. In Autumn no where on earth smells better and has more bees humming around its 25 cent cider dispenser. I am only now getting over my extreme hatred for fall, instilled by my extreme hatred for school, so I can appreciate how beautiful it is there. Spring is the best because people start mowing their lawns and it smells so clean, as well as the general niceness of wintertime changing into Spring. Summer though! No school, may flies, ticks and good times. I love the humid heat of CT in the summer, but it is not for everyone. Going tubing on the Farmington river and getting Italian Ice, either lemon or almond, from Mozzicato’s Bakery on Franklin Avenue are the best things to do in the summer. Winter is for illegal sledding on golf courses.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

Szechuan Tokyo owner Paul Lewis

Brad Field, Dr. Mel, or Hilton Kaderly. These dudes did weather for different stations. I liked them because they would announce snowdays when school would be canceled.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their  specialty or happy hour?

Hmm, this is a hard one for me, as I came to drinking later in life than some people. My drinkin’ friends would go to the Pig’s Eye, but I have been there and it is pretty horrible, although you can see what happened to all those dudes you went to highschool with. Now my personal favorite place is Szechuan Tokyo down the street from my Dad’s house in the Elmwood section of West Hartford. They pour strong, you can walk back to my dad’s house and local folks hang out and argue about stuff with the Bartendress. It is a bar where there is a table with newspapers and an adding calculator and the eyeglasses of the owner next to a pile of receipts, and possbily a Nagel lady on the wall. 80′s chinese resturant white walls glass fixtures vibe, super tiny, set apart from the main fancier resturant. Good for overhearing conversations and having good times. Bad if single and looking for young hot people in the dark, although if on a date, order the Scorpion Bowl, referred to as the deady and infamous “signature cocktail for two.” Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays have “live jazz.” For a late drink and Italian pastry, Mozzicato’s on Franklin Avenue. For a glass of wine and the best clam chowder, Tapas on New Britain Avenue.

9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?

I think I have to go back in time. My father used to have a killer party basement in my grandparents house. He had an old wurlitzer jukebox, with all the singles he collected in the 60′s. One time I was playing Count Five, and my dad said, “I had this single in the juke box in your grandparents basement.” This leads me to believe one night of listening to that juke box would have been the best. Unfortunatley, after my dad had a kid he got rid of his drums and records and juke boxes and it is a bummer I will never hear it.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

My favorite show I ever went to in Hartford was a show at my grandparents house where Son of Earth and Double Leopards played. In retrospect I made some good friends that night.

11. What is your favorite local band?

I don’t know, because not may bands admit to being from Connecticut. I will say Charles Ives, he copped to it. Also, as an academic transplant, Anthony Braxton. And! Local luminary and bon vivant Paul Flaherty.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

My favorite resturant is Kabul House, the Afgan resturant which moved from Franklin Avenue to its current fancy shmancy location in West Hartford Center. Kabul House looks like some kind of middle eastern Olive Garden inside, but the food is amazing. Pumpkin puree, potatoes in a tomato sauce, pierogie like things with a yogurt sauce and lentils, everything on the menu is amazing. My friend Trina was born in Afghanistan and introduced me to this place.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

Growing up, what a time to not have the internet, man! I would have used the shit out of the internet in middle school, and I guarentee I would have been 79% less of a total loser. Everything was so hard to find out about then. Any scrap of cool I could find I latched onto obesessviely and made my entire personality out of, even stuff that wasn’t that cool bt was maybe a third cousin of cool. I was so hungry for anything cool I got HEAVY into D.H. Laurence. So with that being said, just out of High School my friend Nate recommended some jams he thought I would like. The only one I could find was the MC5, Kick Out the Jams at Record Breaker on the Berlin Turnpike. The dudes behind the counter were older and were like, if you’re getting that, you might to check this out and showed me the Nuggets box set. All that pasiley and all those hippie colors turned me off. I was like, no thanks old man, I don’t go in for that fruity woodstock stuff! But those wise old men would have turned me on to some killer shit if I haddn’t been such an uninformed snot nosed wiener. For current stores I will say Trash American style in Danbury, and Brass City Records in Waterbury, which I think only exists online now.

14. What is your favorite local shop?

I used to love West Hartford Used Books. As a teenage customer, it was easily the greatest conduit to an outside world I could have found. There was a rambling stinky basement filled with 2 dollar paperbacks, the basement was as if someone with the greatest taste had been hoarding every type of book since 1922. I used to work there and it was my favorite job I ever had. I would read, alphabetize and all day and the owner Michael had the greatest taste in books. Everything in the store was a gem. He had the National Lampoon’s High School Yearbook, he had a guide to drugs written by some kind of fringe Leary-eque character, explaining in detail the pro’s and con’s of every drug he had ever tried, but set up like a encyclopedia, he had a picture book of all the fish and game caught by Hemingway, a whole book of the story of Michael Wolff, the SLA guy, written by one of his prep school friends, an illusrated book called Little Known Facts About Bundling in the New World. OH! The hours I spent. I never wanted to leave that store. I worked on my birthday, by choice and it was one of my favorite birthdays. Some light vaccumming, a little plastic book covering, and that was that. No bookstore, anywhere ever, has ever matched up to West Hartford Used Books. It now exists online only, as West Hartford Bookshop. Still recommended.

15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, etc.)?

I was not clued into the coolest shit in Hartford when I lived there, nor am I now, so there is probably some great stuff I am not mentioning. I used to read the Advocate to find out about shows, and the Hartford Courant is the paper most people read in my part of the state. The RiverEast is killer for news about the Regional Andover, Hebron and Marlborough area, as well as some chitchat about Glastonbury and Willamantic.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?

The Windy City.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?

Bonerton, because it is full of boners.

3. Why do you live there?

It’s where the rest of my band lives.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

The Car Kebob in Berwyn. It’s a bunch of cars skewered on a steel rod.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?

Chicago Naked Bike Ride.

6. What is the best time of year to be there?

Dead of winter.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

R. Kelly.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?

Mutiny. Over priced beer and smells like floor cleaner. But it’s always a good time, and the shows are always free.

9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?

Flat Iron. Only jukebox I know that has both Sepultura and Motorhead versions of “Orgasmatron” in it.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

Exploited at the Double Door, 2007. Best sound system in Chicago.

11. What is your favorite local band?

Been listening to My Cold Dead Hand’s EP a lot.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

Pita Inn. “Businessman Special” — chicken, lamb and beef all for 5 bucks.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

I got the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack on tape at Haddasah House.

14. What is your favorite local shop?

Hagens Fish Market.

15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine,

website or blog)?

Chicago Young Republican’s weekly newsletter.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?

Seattle’s nickname is the Emerald City.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?

I lived in a neighborhood in Seattle called Captiol Hill for a long while, and it was pretty overrun by hipsters. So, I used to call it “hipster central.”

3. Why do you live there?

Seattle is an amazing place. I’ve lived there my whole life, and every time I start to get sick of it and go away for a while (months, years), I always am lusting to come back. The place itself is absolutely gorgeous. It’s nestled on the Puget Sound, and Pike Place Market and Alki beach are some of my favorite spots to go to. There is also an amazingly picturesque park called Carkeek Park that is kind of a little secret, but it’s really incredible. And I love the smell of Evergreen trees as you drive out of the city. The climate is right up my alley too. I’m such a fan of the rainy, dismal, blustery days (which we have a lot of). I am truly happy to call Seattle my home.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

I really think that Pike Place Market is incredible. I lived within walking distance of that for a long while, and it’s such a fun place to go get some people watching in, and to also get some of the most killer seafood and produce you can imagine. It’s a total tourist spot, but being someone that is born and raised here, I still get excited every time I go there.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?

We’ve got a festival called Bumbershoot that happens at the end of the summer. It’s three days (I think) of music and arts, and it gets absolutely mental. It is held in the Seattle Center, and you can hardly walk around it is so busy. They get some really incredible bands to play there, and it’s always a lot of fun, if not really overwhelming.

6. What is the best time of year to be there?

Fall, hands down. It is totally and completely cozy here in the fall. It sounds so cliché of Seattle, but it’s so perfect to go get an amazing cup of coffee on a cold, crisp fall day. It’s kind of perfect.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

King 5 meteorologist Jeff Renner. For sure.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?

The Redwood in Capitol Hill. It is amazing. The bar is owned by a fellow named Mat Brooke (who used to play in Carissa’s Weird, and now plays in Grand Archives). It’s got an amazing continuous special of Olympia Beer, and Old Crow Whiskey. Totally cheap, and totally rad. Plus, they give you free peanuts that you can throw all over the place. It is a total Seattle hipster hangout.

9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?

That’s tough! I think that award still goes to the Redwood. They’ve got Paul McCartney’s Ram, and some Zombies records, and a whole slew of local records as well. It’s a rad jukebox.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

I really think the Showbox in downtown Seattle is where it’s at for live shows. Recently, I saw Spoon there and it totally blew me away. The sound was really quite incredible.

11. What is your favorite local band?

There is a band in Seattle called BOAT. They have my heart completely.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

Right now there is a taco truck right near where I work in North Seattle called El Camion. It is totally amazing. I eat there at least 3 times a week, and I always get their veggie burrito. It is cheap, and absolutely delicious.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

Sonic Boom Records in Ballard and Capitol Hill neighborhoods is the best. I’ve found some pretty amazing used vinyl there. My favorite two are the Bee Gee’s 1st and Emitt Rhodes self titled record. I was pretty happy about that.

14. What is your favorite local shop?

I think Sonic Boom Records wins this category as well!

15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?

I’m partial to the Stranger over the Seattle Weekly. It is a joy to read every week.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?
The City. That may sound presumptuous, but once I moved here it made perfect sense.

2. Why do you live there?
It’s flaming liberal central, flaming queer central, and amazingly beautiful–both the natural landscape, and the architecture.

3. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
Glen Canyon Park.

4. What is your favorite local event/festival?
Folsom Street Fair. Out come the freaks!

5. What is the best time of year to be there?
Any time except December/early January (that’s the only time it’s cold).

6. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?
Peaches Christ.

7. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
The Eagle. Cheap and STRONG drinks.

8. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
The Great American Music Hall. Best show: the reunion tour of Radio Birdman. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

9. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?
A deep dish pie at Little Star Pizza. Also, too many great taquerias to pick just one.

10. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
Amoeba Music. I find all kinds of great stuff there cause it’s where I work.

11. What is your favorite local shop?
Bi-Rite. It’s a specialty grocery where everything is organic and local, which in California is possible here year round. Sometimes pricey, but unparalled high quality. Runner up: Rainbow Grocery, a lefty grocery that closes for Gay Pride Day.

12. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?
The SF Bay Guardian, a weekly. It’s the liberal left-wing conscience of San Francisco.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?
Williamsburg.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?
People call it all sorts of things. We call it Brooklyn.

3. Why do you live there?
Mainly because the bars are open until 4am, but also because we had become tired or bored with wherever we had lived previously and NYC seemed like a welcome change.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
McCarran Park is a sweet spot in the summer time. The babe to dude ratio is something to be seen. Everyone pretty much grabs a frozen margarita from an adjacent bar, and chills out and drinks all summer. There also used to be McCarran Pool, which was a public pool in the 30′s turned killer show spot. A lot of good/big bands would come though, and a lot of the shows were free. Sadly, it’s no more. Soon to be merely a pool again.

5. What is the best time of year to be there?
Spring/early summer. For all the reasons previously mentioned. People are so over winter by that point that all they wanna do is get wild. There are usually a good 5 BBQs a day one can hit if you are resourceful.

6. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
On a couch during football season is number one. Or any sports bar, they usually have some good wing/pitcher deal.

7. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?
I have no idea about jukeboxes. People use iPods these days. Or have live DJs. There are plenty of spots with good iPods/DJs.

8. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
I could say Union Pool or Glasslands or Don Pedros or something. Those are easily the best places to play around town, and I’ve seen good shows at all of them, but I’m gonna go with a heavy hitter. Madison Square Garden. That place is just cool. I saw Petty there last year, and that shit was just epic.

9. What is your favorite local band?
There is a bunch, but standouts are Alana Amram and The Rough Gems, and The Stalkers.

10. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

Food around here is too expensive. I prefer my meals homecooked.

11. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
The best one around here is probably Academy. I have too many finds to remember the best one, but I will say that as of yesterday our record was in the $5 bargain bin, so go grab it.

12. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?
I used to read the Daily News regularly, but after awhile it gets annoying because their sports section only talks about New York teams, and not being a native New Yorker, I could give a shit. So I read The Onion now. They always have a stack at Clem’s, and that’s the kind of news I can get behind.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?
Back in the day people used to call it “Muddy York” because the roads were always muddy and filthy and hard to get around in, which back in the days of horse and buggy must have been a ball ache. The city was later known as “Hog Town” because of the large amounts of pork processing that went down. Not many people use that nickname, most people just call Toronto “T-O.”

2. Why do you live there?
I live at Bloor and Lansdowne, which is a great little neck of the woods. I’m close enough to all the good spots in town without all the noise or assholes that come a long with it. By bike everything is within a 30 minute radius so it works out perfectly.

3. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
C.N Tower would be my favorite attraction. I never really go there, but it’s a huge tower (largest free standing building in the world mother fucker what’s up!?!) that you can see from anywhere in the city. I just get stoked whenever I see it coming into the city when I’ve been gone for a while. It’s the first thing you can see coming from any direction and then you know you’re almost home.

4. What is your favorite local event/festival?
There a night that happens every year called “Nuit Blanche” where the whole downtown is taken over by art installations. It runs all night long and the city is full of people checking out crazy art all over the place until all hours of the morning. It just ends up being a great party.

5. What is the best time of year to be there?
I love the city in the fall. The summer is way too hot and muggy and pollution gets bad (smog warnings? barfff) but in the fall you can rock a good hoodie and ride your bike every where. Best times.

6. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
Our favorite place to go hands down is a bar called Sneaky Dee’s. It’s a Tex Mex bar that has cheap drinks and great food with a kitchen that’s open late which always comes in handy. They have a great venue in the upstairs that holds about 250 people for a great sweaty party. We’ve played there a bunch. Fucked Up has their Halloween shows there every year. Just a great bar.

7. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
Toronto has had a good history of houses doing punk shows in them. That is one of my favorite places to see a band play. Nothing is more punk than moving the couch out of the way and trying to crush as many of your friends in a room as you can. I got to see Tragedy play an apartment when they were touring their first record. That was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever been to in my life.

8. What is your favorite local band?
Way too tough of a call to say one, but my top 5 would be:
1.Fucked Up
2.Constantines
3.Cursed
4.Career Suicide
5.Quest For Fire

9. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?
The best place in town for dinner is OddFellows on Queen. The food is insanely good. Honestly, anything you eat there is the biggest mind blow where you put your fork down and say “that is seriously the best (anything) I’ve ever eaten.” The menu has a lot of bison meat and deer and crazy shit like that, but then cooked as a meatloaf. There’s lots of vegetarian options and fish. Or sometimes the chef just wants to make burritos and that’s what you’ll get but it’ll be gourmet crazyness. Great place to take your favorite baby girl or your parents. Oh and the brownie is the best with homemade ice cream! Boooya!

10. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
The best record store around is Rotate This. I’ve been going there since I was a kid and it has always had the best selection of shit that you would want. The best is when I was a kid going on there the staff would always give me a hard time for the stuff I would buy. Like really pretentious record store kinda shit. But I just kept going back for years and years and people came and went who worked there until I was at the point where I was friends with everyone and I was a man! I had made it through the record store gauntlet and I would never let people tell me what was what. Earned my dues.

11. What is your favorite local shop?
There’s a great skate shop in town called Adrift. It’s one of those spots that just gets it and is doing it for the right reasons. Their old location used to have a tiny skate park in the back where they would have shows and parties. Just a great spot.

12. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?
My favorite publication is Exclaim! It’s based in Toronto but it’s a Canada wide music newspaper that is put out every month. I hope that still counts? Anyways, it’s the fucking best. It covers a wide spectrum of what’s going on from indie, punk, metal, electronic, hip-hop and everything else in between. Best part is that it’s been around for as long as I can remember and has always been a good read.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?
Trevor: I am not sure if there is an official nickname, but you might have heard of “The Big Apple,” “Gotham” or “The City That Never Sleeps.”

2. What’s your nickname for your town?
Trevor: I don’t use a nickname for New York City. If anything, I usually just say the full name with an exclamation point at the end, then look tough.

3. Why do you live there?
Sean: We wanted to be sure there were at least 3,000 other bands in the vicinity to make us look good.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
Jon: North Woods in Central Park; it’s so Lord of the Rings. You can just imagine all those cute little Hobbits everywhere you look up there, leaping out of the bushes and whatnot. God, they’re adorable.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?
Sean: The Nathan’s July 4th hot dog eating contest now that the USA is back on top.

6. What is the best time of year to be there?
Sean: If you’re in to comedy, then you’ll probably enjoy being here during the New York Knicks basketball season.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?
Sean: Mr. Met.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
Jon: Anywhere with beers less than $5.

9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?
Ken: There’s a place next to McGorlick Park that we’ve always referred to as the “Heavy Metal bar.”  I think it’s actually called The Palace Tavern.  They have the best jukebox by far.  All metal, all pre-1990.  There’s some really goofy stuff on there.  Also, I’ve been kicked out of there several times and they always still let me back in.  Cool guys.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
Trevor: Madison Square Garden/Led Zeppelin.

11. What is your favorite local band?
Jon: At the moment – TV on the Radio – seriously I do like them. God, they’re adorable.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?
John: Applebee’s in Times Square makes a mean onion ring.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
Trevor: I like Ear Wax on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. Academy Records on North Sixth Street is good, too. These days I am usually looking for weird New Age records with rainbows and pyramids prominently featured on the cover. Rock is dead, and the corpse has been picked clean.

14. What is your favorite local shop?
Trevor: Pearl River on Broadway in SoHo is the best. It’s one-stop shopping for all of your Chinese-made needs: instruments, herbal remedies, cheap toys, dinnerware, incense, windchimes, back-scratchers, the latest in kitchen cutlery technology, etc.

15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?
John: The Wall Street Journal.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?

Chicagoland is a bizarrely popular nickname. I can’t say I’m into it.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?

When bummed about being in Chicago, I refer to it as Chicagoland.

3. Why do you live there?

I’m in Pilsen which started as a Czech community, hence the name, and now is the epicenter of the Mexican community. It’s a great part of town hasn’t really changed all that much in years, still a lot of old Chicago still intact.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

The art museum here is world class despite its somewhat stodgy curators, but the permanent collection is hard to beat.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?

The marathon here is quite excellent, and it goes right by my place.

6. What is the best time of year to be there?

Spring and fall, which each last what seems like a day or two before it’s either hideously cold or unbearably hot.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

Obama.

8. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

I’d have to say the Hideout, which is on a somewhat desolate street, easy to park.  It’s quite small and the actual bar is not in the live room which makes for good listening. I’d say it’s cozy in the best sense. One of the best shows I’ve seen there was by a band that barely exists, Flashlights. Exquisite.

9. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

There a place down the street, Pollo Express, that specializes in, well, chicken. It’s impossibly great.

10. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

I always like Dusty Groove, however it’s not a shop where you would make a “find” but they carry loads of stuff that no one else would have, an especially impressive Brazilian selection.

11. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?

The Chicago Reader has always been important for it’s music coverage and say they still have the best critics in tow

1. What’s your nickname for your town?
We live in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area & it’s been moniker-ed many names – The Electric City, Hard Coal Country, Shithole, etc…

2. Why do you live there?
Rent is cheap in the rustbelt: plenty of room to dream, low overhead for broke touring musicians…

3. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
Centralia – a literal ghost town. Back in the 60′s, the small coal mining city started burning their trash in a large collective pit… It eventually caught fire to a vein of coal that is said to be able to burn for hundreds of years. Slowly, the population was extracted and now all that remains are old abandoned homes, deserted and vacant streets and a few storefronts. The roads have been shut off as they have gaping pits to hell cracking through the cement, plumes of noxious gases rising through the air. Righteous.

4. What is the best time of year to be there?
Undoubtedly summertime – there are hundreds of beautiful outdoor locales you can spend time high & dreamin’ in. Plenty of secluded and beautiful nature areas…

5. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?
We get obsessed with a talk-show host named Steve Corbett. Listening to his flip-flop views and ambiguous politics can only be equated to rolling your tongue over a canker sore every 30 seconds. During the lead up to the election, we listened and bitched about him nonstop…

6. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
It is either The Bog in Scranton or Donahue’s in Wilkes-Barre. Donahue’s is a Bukowskian dive bar that’s specialty is $4 pitchers of Genny all day & night long. It usually fills out nicely after big shows at the only all-ages venue in town, Cafe Metropolis.

7. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?
Probably Donahues, again. The only songs I ever head played on it are “Free Ride” by Edgar Winter or “Jet Airliner” by Steve Miller…

8. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
Without a doubt Cafe Metropolis. It is one of the longest running all-ages venues on the Eastern seaboard. It’s been a local hub for probably 15 years and anyone who’s anyone has played there.

9. What is your favorite local band?
This might qualify as nepotism, but The Sw!ms are a pretty incredible band. Our organist plays with them & they are fucking amazing psyche-pop that deserves much more recognition.

10. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?
The Iron Chef in Kingston, PA. We are good friends with the owner, a wild and free Chinese man named John. He will customize some great dishes for the vegan palate on the hibachi including squash, pumpkin and green tomatoes.

11. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
Plymouth Thrift shop in Plymouth, PA. I found a near mint condition MONO copy of Piper At the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd for $1.91, valued at over $500.

12. What is your favorite local shop?
Any of the scores of thrift stores in the area. From all of my travels, we are only second to Alaskan thrift shops.

13. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?

Hard to say, the zine scene was fucking immense when I was young – kinda dried up by now. I don’t ever think much of Blogs being ‘local’, they’re usually an entity in and of themselves…