Breaker's Point Podcast

I wish I could say anything notable or newsworthy has happened during this miniature hiatus from writing these, but nothing really has. I am still neck-deep in my job search, so if any of my readers have any connections, anything would help at this point! This process is not fun. The music industry is competitive and getting a job is often a result of who you know and being in the right place at the right time—otherwise known as luck. It is difficult to even speak to a human before you are rejected, which is the most frustrating aspect for me. I have recorded one-sided interviews and I am sure applications have been filtered out by whichever AI software large companies use to scan for employment buzzwords. Nonetheless, I am confident my knowledge and passion will shine through and position me well for filling whichever job I apply for once I get face-to-face with someone. However, I am fortunate because I have the tools to stay sane and level-headed in this process. I have learned to handle rejection well and I have confidence that my services and personality would contribute to a company’s success and positive work environment.

It is also comforting to know that I truly am trying my best and doing my part. I sit at my computer applying for jobs, tweaking cover letters, emailing contacts or anyone I semi-know to try and weasel my way in and cut through the noise. Now, it is about getting lucky or having something turn my way that is out of my control. Ultimately, it is a process with lessons that I am glad I am learning as I am in this transitional period in my life. Waiting has always been a difficult thing for me to do. Georgia will say that is the “east coast” in me, and perhaps it is, but this process has taught me the virtue of patience and being grounded in situations where the most you can do is hope for the best. As I get older, I am beginning to realize that the fear that drives anxiety and discomfort comes from having no idea what you are doing. I try to keep my ear to the ground and unpack life’s intrinsic b******t for an opportunity to learn and grow. And ask questions. Questions come with answers and answers come with knowledge… at least sometimes.

Enough about jobs. I do not even want to talk about it anymore. It is similar to when I was applying to schools and that was the hot topic on every adult I interacted with’s mind. I am going to talk about my music. For the first time, I sent my album around before it is released looking for feedback and thoughts and seeing if my opinion about it is justified. I am confident about this album as I am everything I make because I have to be. I tell a lot of people that the number one thing that one must have in order to have any form of success in songwriting (which could be emotional reward and pride) and making records is an unwavering belief in oneself. As a music snob and overanalyzer, lack of confidence comes off clear as day in an artist’s music to me. I will speak a lot more about songwriting later in this piece. For now, understand that I wanted my confidence to be checked. I can say that it has been, and the people who have listened have told me that songwriting and lyricism are the appeal of my songs. That makes me happy. I also loved the criticism which has sort of been pretty unanimous as well. I have been told to give riskier and gutsier vocal performances. Phoebe Bridgers has brought an apathetic vocal style to the forefront, as she can deliver such a deep and emotional set of lyrics in a numb way creating a haunting irony. It totally works for her and other singer-songwriters before her like Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens, and James Mercer of The Shins. I think trying to distance myself from the behemoth that is (my biggest musical influence) Bruce Springsteen’s impassioned vocal delivery, and listening to so much singer-songwriter music as I wrote and recorded the album, I may have fallen a bit flat. However, I know that live I usually give more punkish or rough vocals that people seem to identify with and evidently, look for in my recorded work. That is a note moving forward. I am excited to put this thing out and it is going to be really soon. I promise. It will be soon. I need deadlines if I am going to market and advertise this thing the way it deserves to be. That deadline is a release date that I have to work hard to meet. That is the only way I think I set myself up for success at this point. That is how I work, and there really is not anything wrong with that, unless I do not realize it, but I have, so I think we are good.

Grateful Eight

* I am probably the 100th person in the last month who will tell you to watch The Bear but watch The Bear. A few of my favorite TV shows like Barry and Better Call Saul have ended recently and this Hulu show has more than filled the void. It is a brilliant character study and a realistic peek into a kitchen environment with all of its glorious chaos. I am grateful for The Bear. It is awesome.

* I am thankful for Geese’s new album, 3D Cowboy. It is such a great rock record and the best one I have heard in a while. As I mentioned, I listen to a lot of singer-songwriter music which can often rock hard, but this feels like a band the way The Velvet Underground, Television, and The Rolling Stones feel like a band. People who say that rock bands are dying are quite frankly, morons. I heard someone say that Arctic Monkeys are the last great guitar band, and I want to know what the hell they are smoking. Forget that Arctic Monkeys’ discography is… let’s face it, not so good (I adore their first album but virtually nothing else). The Arctic Monkeys have not made a true rock record in like 10 years. It is almost irrelevant though because obviously there are incredible guitar bands, you just need to look harder; and younger.

* Vegan ice cream. Vegan ice cream is a staple now at most ice cream shops, which is a dream come true given my dairy allergy. A random shop in Syracuse had vegan strawberry ice cream. I got that baby in a cone and enjoyed the hell out of it. It is nice to see.

* I guess that this is a little less of a gratitude list and a little more of a list of things I like, but I will add the Quarterback series on Netflix. It is incredible and follows Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota on the football field, working out and studying the playbook and film, plus their off-the-field lives. It is really cool, so I recommend it.

* I am grateful for our Peloton bike. It is so easy for me to hop on and do a Sam Yo class. It is cardio that I actually enjoy for once. Exercising’s effect on mental health is almost as rewarding as its effect on physical health. I am trying to get in good shape after shaking many of the choices I made in college that were not so kind to my body and mind.

* HENRY’S GOTCHA DAY! We took him home three years ago today. He is our sweet boy.

* I am grateful that I started this newsletter because it really has been a good talking point/something to mention in job applications. Writing skills are always necessary for the type of jobs I am applying to and it is good to mention that I am actively writing even if it is just personal narrative.

* Bruce’s large discography. I am reviewing all of his albums as I have ranked them from worst to best. There are a lot of them which keep me busy and cure some boredom. I am writing all of the reviews on Breaker’s Point and they send to your email like all of my regular newsletters. Please read it because I worked so hard on these. Please share with any Bruce fans you know.

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: The Universe (Wilco)

I believe I have written about this song here, but I finally worked up the courage to cover it. I was actually nervous when I was recording this. Once I learned the song, it took me several tries to make a recording that I felt was good enough to share with you all. It is actually a song that I thought about covering before, but ultimately, decided not t…

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There is so much going on in my life right now. I apologize for how long you have to wait for a newsletter from me these days. I have been busy, but it has also been intimidating to write lately just because there is so much stuff I deem worthy of sharing. I have to devote a great chunk of time to writing about it. Since the last time we spoke, I have graduated college. Graduating college is a milestone that I was never prepared for. When I graduated high school, I was relieved to never have to enter Montville Township High School ever again in my life. I knew that I was on to bigger and better things at Syracuse. I knew my next step. Now, I do not. This is where the trajectory of my life becomes totally unpredictable, which is a major first. Growing up, life can take twists and turns, but there is a certain stability to living in the same house and going to the same school every single day. I am now living in my childhood house again, but this time there is no timeline for how long I stay. I do not even know if I will be living on this coast in a matter of months. Do not get me wrong, it is definitely exciting, but it is also terrifying. I have been applying to jobs and have not gotten much more than a nibble from any of these companies. I sort of expected that, but the tediousness and stressfulness of the job hunt weigh on me and again, throw me into the purgatory between graduating college and real life, so to speak. I am excited to have you all on this journey with me, and hopefully, we get to that place that we really want to go.

Damn, I am going to miss college. I could not be more elated that I will never have to sit in a classroom again in my life. I do not have any more research papers, projects, and exams. It is delightful. However, it is everything else. I am so lucky to have had an awesome college experience despite COVID throwing a giant wrench into it. I made lifelong friends, and I generally got to be around people that I just simply had a good time with. The goal was fun always, and camaraderie which I value and believe is extremely underrated. The truth is, I made some really close friends that I will stay in touch with, but at the end of the day, even if I do not, we shared this ride together. I thank everyone for a great time and good luck in the future. I also began a new relationship for my senior year, and not getting to be in Syracuse with Georgia anymore leaves me with a hole in my heart. Graduation is the definition of bittersweet. The bitter is f*****g bitter. It is sad. But, the sweet is just as sweet as the bitter is bitter.

After graduation, I went to Los Angeles where my girlfriend, Georgia grew up. I had already been to LA with my family in 2019, but of course, we had to hit the touristy spots. That was a great trip and I am super excited that I got to see all the sites, but it did not necessarily give me an idea of what it is like to live in the city. I stayed with Georgia’s family as she took me to delicious restaurants (if you have not tried LA’s finest Korean BBQ, then you are missing out), hikes, shopping and arcading in Pasadena, flea markets in Melrose, Downtown LA, and she was generous enough to take me to the sweltering town of Tarzana, so I could go to Norman’s Rare Guitars. If you do not know Norman’s Rare Guitars, think of any movie with musical instruments in it and it is likely that gear was loaned from Norm’s. It is super famous. I also met modern blues guitar aficionado, Joe Bonamassa which was cool. We had a great time in LA and I enjoyed getting a sense of the place where Georgia grew up. Then, Georgia and I went to go see Indigo De Souza at Union Transfer in Philly. She was incredible. For those who do not know her, she is a 25-year-old Brazilian American singer-songwriter from Asheville. Her personal Cobain-like lyricism and grunge combined with her soaring whimpery vocals and her confidence and charisma onstage made for a great evening. Check out her stuff.

Now, I am here at home in New Jersey applying for jobs, and working on all my personal projects. You may be glad to know that my album is finished. It is called For Peace and it will be out eventually. I know I need to have some sort of marketing campaign and promotional strategy to get as many ears on this thing as possible. I am so bad at it. I truly hate using social media when it comes to spreading my music. It never feels natural to me, and it probably never will, but I will try. It is hard for me to express myself that way. I express myself through writing, whether it be this, poetry or lyricism. I will figure it out though, and if anyone has ideas for me, please let me know. This album is by far the most personal and mature one that I have ever made. I worked very hard on it, and it took me basically two years to come to a cohesive tracklist that I believe showcases my talent and more importantly, my message. Meanwhile, I am beginning to work on my fourth album. You can get a little sneak peek of the direction I am leaning towards at the bottom of the newsletter where I always attach a song. I need to play some shows. I also need to find a band. On the other hand, you are going to start seeing some extra Breaker’s Point content. I am reviewing all of Bruce Springsteen’s albums and attempting to rank them. I am working on the first one right now.

Grateful Eight:

* I mentioned this before, but I am so grateful for the really close friendships I made at school these past four years. Special shoutout to all the boys.

* I am also grateful for the diversity of people that I became friendly with whether it comes to race, gender, sexual orientation, upbringing, interests, hometown. It is personally enriching to know people from different backgrounds. It makes you a smarter and more capable person. It also makes life more fun.

* I now have a day that I cook dinner for my family each week. I have spoken about how much I love cooking, but at school, I only do it for myself. I am excited I get the opportunity to regularly share my cooking. Do not worry my family, I will try not to go heavy-handed on the salt nor burn the house down.

* Pepcid. I have had bad stomach pains lately, but this is a miracle drug, and I do not know what I would do without it.

* The other thing that I did not mention about graduation is the gifts! I look into my bank account and see three digits these days. It’s a start. Thank you to everyone for being so generous. All love.

* Photos. Over time, I have realized the importance of taking pictures. They capture a moment and they help you remember all the good times. I wish I took more pictures in my life up to this point. Of course, while it is important, I do not necessarily like being in pictures, but you do not have to be in all of them. Just take them.

* This Theo Von guy. Holy s**t is he funny. He is all over my TikTok and the clips kill me with laughter. He has kind of become part of my everyday life in that way for better or potentially worse down the line.

* On a serious note, as I am in a transitional period in my life, I have to just get overly sentimental for a moment and express my gratitude to my support system and all the encouragement I get as I carve my path.

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: I’m So Sorry

It is interesting how my songwriting focus shifts from project to project. Many artists like to make songs that they release as singles or combine into an EP or LP. I think about songwriting a little differently and I focus on making albums because I believe that is my personal art form. To thread the needle from song to song while working on a project, I predominantly use one instrument to write the songs with. While there are loud songs on For Peace, the record was written almost exclusively on acoustic guitar. I tapped into my folk and country sensibilities and delivered a project that was based on that style. Now, I am interested in making a lot of noisy DIY indie rock like some of my heroes in the 90s and inspi…

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Guess who’s back? I hope everyone is doing well as we enter the home stretch of winter. It is bitterly cold today in Syracuse and it has been for the past couple of weeks. We got a lot of snow here, but in true Syracuse fashion, you would hardly even know it with how fast plows came out and the streets and sidewalks were salted. Overall, this Syracuse winter rivals my freshman-year winter in frigidness and snowfall. I tell people that ever since freshman year, I no longer suffer in the cold, but I will tell you what, I am suffering! Anyway, enough about the weather. This is water-cooler talk, where it should be about me telling you s**t that is going on in my life. Without further ado, here is that.

I have been productive music-wise with a handful of recent performances, and a couple of songs that I have churned out since the last Breaker’s Point. I did a TV performance at Dick Clark Studios here in Newhouse. It was a TV set with a stage, lights, and a bunch of excessively high-definition cameras that exposed every hair, blackhead and blemish on my face. They did offer me make-up, but I declined. It was part of a series called Loud and Clear, where Syracuse artists and bands perform stripped-down sets for Orange Television Network and YouTube. I played solo-acoustic versions of “Clawing at the Glass”, “Dissociate”, and “The Winner”. I have been performing for a while, and I am typically confident on stage no matter how many people are in the audience. I am never nervous or anxious about performing in front of a group of people because it feels like a collective, shared experience, with instant gratification derived from people bopping their heads, smiling, and applauding at the conclusion of each song. Now, if you put one camera in front of me, that is when I start to freak out. Lenses are much worse audience members than people. They do not even clap. With all that being said, I did not freak out at all while recording this set. I think it is because I played songs that I could play in my sleep, so I was not worried about flubbing chords or lyrics. It felt good. Then the episode came out (I will link to it at the bottom of the column) and I think it is a great document of who I am as a songwriter and performer. I made few mistakes and tried to pour as much of my soul into it as I possibly could despite the beams of light and harrowing cameras shooting at me from all angles. I liked it so much, that SURPRISE, I am releasing the audio of the performance on streaming services for all to listen. I am excited to drop something as it has been a while since I have shared new music in that way.

Everyone can also expect a reworked version of “You Were There When the Ship Sank” as well. It is a song that most people call their favorite when I perform it but the recorded version on my album, Dissociate, leaves a bit to be desired. I just need to cut some background vocals, mix, and it should be out in a jiffy. This version rocks significantly harder and is similar to the version I play live with the band. As far as my new album goes, it is also really close to being complete. I have to cut some more lead vocals, background vocals, and mix and master it so it sounds nice. Sonically, this is the best project yet as I have learned a few quick tips and tricks to utilize to improve my amateurish engineering skills. I do not want to give too much away, so I will not tell you the name of the album. I will only tell you that it is twelve songs and runs about 45 minutes. I was having a lot of trouble with the tracklist and which songs should make the cut, and continually writing new stuff that I thought would flush out the tracklist. I really do feel like I am done now. It is just a matter of finishing touches as far as recording and production and I hope to get it out as soon as I can. I am excited to share it. Many of these songs have been around for a couple of years, while some are quite new like the closing song “Solitary Sunrise.” I actually recorded a version of the in the Newhouse studio on campus, but just as I felt when I recorded “Living a Myth” in the Newhouse studio, I am disappointed. I like getting studio experience, but there is something about being on my own time where the pressure is off. I also like to make my stuff sound good, but a little roughness around the edges is always appealing to me.

Other stuff. I played a show at The Mudpit two weeks ago. It is a basement here at Syracuse. I played as a trio with Trevor, who has been playing bass with me since the fall, and Oji on drums. It was my first time playing with Oji, and she had big shoes to fill replacing Nick who is abroad, but she killed it and we had an awesome show. I missed playing with the band and breaking out my rockstar moves and my lead guitar playing. I got great support from my girlfriend and her friends, my friends, and the people there to just watch and hear live music. The crowd was one of the best that I have played for. It was a lot of fun. Meanwhile, Ben and I have been hard at work with our senior capstone project for school, and that has not been fun at all. In fact, it has been quite stressful, but it should help me learn and get a job because hopefully, I will be a step ahead of other candidates as far as knowledge of the business. I do just want it to be over though.

Grateful Eight:

* Cooking. I have mentioned how much I love cooking here before, but I am realizing that it is integral self-care and meditation practice for me, and then a reward because I busted my ass to make something delicious.

* I don’t know why, but I have been obsessed with Mounds. Mounds and Almond Joys get so much hate, but why? I love coconut and chocolate. It is almost as good of a combination as mint and chocolate or caramel and chocolate or pretzels and chocolate or raisinettes or chocolate covered strawberries or chocolate covered bananas or…

* Centro-matic. I was introduced to this band recently, and I have been listening to a lot of their catalog. They remind me of The Replacement with a countryish, midtempo feel to them. I suppose you can classify them as alt-country, but with some fuzzy ass guitars. It is such a great sound. There has sort of been a rock revival in the mainstream pop music sphere recently, but in my opinion, it has yielded some terrible-sounding s**t. This is just a band in a room playing raw. The only reason I mention this is because yesterday, I was listening to this ATROCIOUS new album from Måneskin. It is some of the worst s**t I have ever heard in my life and it sounds like the band and producers have not heard a single rock song in their lives. You know what it is actually? It is like Muse but inconceivably worse, which is a tough feat. Anyway, to cleanse my palette, I put on some Centro-matic and I was rocking out as I made myself a French Dip.

* The Veterans Building at Syracuse. I wish you can see where I am right now. It is a beautiful, massive study room that I have entirely to myself. There are windows on all sides, tables, chairs, and comfier chairs like the one I am sitting in now. It is just great. I used to sit at the café around the hall, but people started to catch on that it is a great space. Now, I sit in the Grand Hall with nobody else around me.

* I get to go to Punta Cana next Monday for spring break. I need the sun, the warmth, the relaxation, the pool, and the all-inclusive food and drink. It should be fun.

* When I get back from Punta Cana, that Tuesday, I see Bruce in Buffalo. It is so close, I cannot even believe it.

* Barstool and Dave Portnoy just came out with tequila High Noons. In the past it has just been vodka and soda, now it’s tequila and soda also. These are so easy to drink, and taste so much better than the vodka ones. I hate vodka.

* The Knicks and Rangers are both fun to watch, especially the Knicks right now on their 9 game tear. This is great as Syracuse Basketball is about to come to an end, and opening day is still a little over three weeks away.

Th…

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My devoted readers! Hello! Sorry that there has not been a newsletter in a long time. I actually have been busy, but I need to start blocking out time to write these because I still love doing it. It is hard to believe that it is already mid-February. Let me tell you what I have been up to. I have been playing solo acoustic lately, which has been fun and less stressful—especially at school. There is something to be said about only relying on yourself going into a gig. I know my songs better than anyone ever could because I wrote them. I definitely mess up sometimes, but taking full accountability and responsibility for the mess-up is more comforting, than worrying about how mistakes by guys in the band impact the performance and exhibition of the art that I created in solitude. I acknowledge that mess-ups are usually fine, and while art is precious, Rock and Roll is not. It is also hard to coordinate times to rehearse when we are all so busy with school and other extracurricular activities and projects. Many of my heroes have spoken about the fact that a great song can be stripped down to its skeleton—a guy and a guitar—and still deliver the full extent of its heart and soul. That is how I write most of my songs, so it is cool to share that vulnerability with an audience. Additionally, I can perform any song in my growing catalog, and not be concerned about the band learning it. Crafting a set with a band is like a puzzle. What fits together? How do songs bleed into one another? What is the message that I want to send? Meanwhile, crafting a solo acoustic set seems like it has lower stakes. It is more loose and subject to change. Even though there is only a handful of my material that my audience knows, I like going back and playing songs that I have not played or thought about in a while. I know that I appear to be ragging about playing in a rock band, but do not get it twisted. I love it. Fronting a rock band has always been my dream, but I am just riffing about the perks of playing solo because it is my first time continually performing that way.

I played Redgate here in Syracuse last Friday on that -5℉ night. Redgate is a house venue here, and artists play in the basement. It is an excellently run venue with good organization and great people at the helm. They succeed in crafting a memorable Friday night among an ocean of Friday nights that span the ever-dwindling time that we all have here. I think it was a good set, but the audience was rowdy. I expected that, and it did not bother me for the most part because I saw a bunch of people listening and enjoying it, and that is enough to keep me going and having fun. I played the atrium of Schine Student Center at Syracuse a few days later. I had a good time. It was low-stakes. I had fun relaxing and playing music for anyone who wanted to listen. It was kind of like playing in a restaurant where you are mostly background noise, but some people watch and listen attentively. I just love playing. It was better than anything else that I would have been doing on a Tuesday afternoon.

Update on what I have been working on as far as recording! My album is almost done, but I still have to record a few more songs and make sure the mixes of the ones I have recorded are up to snuff. I will tell you that the album will likely be 11 or 12 songs. I keep fussing with the tracklist. Making this album has been both fun and agonizing because I really want it to be nothing short of amazing. I want it to have a more mature sound, writing style, and refined lyricism that holds all of the deeply personal feelings and experiences that I have poured into this album. I have not ever made anything this personal. I just hope people like it, but I am committed to putting my best foot forward. I have fallen into a trap before where I work so hard on writing and recording that I ignore little mistakes and uncrossed t’s because of how tedious they are to fix. Not this time. I do not want to tell you too much more about the album, but I will say that I wrote the entirety of my last album on an electric guitar without once picking up an acoustic guitar to write with. I did this on purpose because I just wanted to make a great straight-ahead rock album. For this album, I wrote the majority of the songs on acoustic guitar because I wanted a more folky and mellow sound spotlighting my writing and lyrics. Interpret that information as you will. I will also make a top-secret announcement that only my readers will know. “You Were There When the Ship Sank” tends to be the song of mine that people enjoy the most. I do not love the recording up on streaming services right now, so I am re-recording the song and dropping it as a single soon. Stay tuned for that. It rocks substantially harder.

Okay. Now, I will tell you what else I have been up to and why I have been so busy. I am a co-General Manager for WERW Radio; the student-run radio station here at Syracuse. I have been involved with WERW since Freshman year, and I think many of you have listened to my show once before. I have always seen the potential in WERW and it has been disappointing that WERW has not fully realized it up to this point. I do not claim to be the WERW savior—it was doing just fine without me—but it is fun to come up with ideas and execute them to leave the station better than when I found it. Over the past few weeks, my co-GM and I have been assembling our E-Board and scheduling shows. There is a lot of adversity that we had to rise above; including a limited budget with just enough funds for us to stay afloat. I like the challenge of coming up with ways to make the station better without spending significant money. The shows started Monday and my show is on Saturday at 1 PM. I have also been working on my senior capstone project. Ben Dietz and I are creating a music publishing company and throwing ourselves right into the deep end. It is a lot of work and we are learning on the fly what goes into building a successful business. It is a b***h, but it will pay off. I think. I hope.

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: The Piano in Pink Moon

This song is about the little piano passage in Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon.” It is so simple, but it is a musical moment that gives me chills every single time. I know that many music fans feel the same way as I have seen on music threads and blogs. I thought it would be witty to write a song about a song. It is a little folk song that is meant to be taken in jest, but I hope you also find it to be pretty.

The Piano in Pink Moon

I can be down

Sick, sorry or blue

I can feel so tired and restless 

And not know what to do

So I just put on a record

And the speakers start to coo

Yeah the piano in pink moon brings me through

Yeah it starts with a g 

And it ends with an e flat

At the doorstep of serenity

It’s a musical welcome mat

I just don’t know what it is

About that little passing tune

Yeah the piano in pink moon I love you

It’s only four bars and it happens twice

But it’s twenty seconds of paradise

I wish that I could pass it as my own

Well if I believe in you and you believe in me

Then let the music make this a memory

In each others arms safe and sad

Nick I know you’re out there

My hope tells me so 

You could give so much comfort

It’s a shame you had to go

And I knew when I heard that little interlude

The piano in pink moon is a portal to you

The piano in pink moon, an emblem of truth

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I wanted to get this out yesterday or the day before, but I got hit with some nasty food poisoning and did not have the physical or mental strength to deliver a column of desired quality. With that being said, here we are. It is 2023. Even though I am a sentimental person, I have never really been sentimental about the year coming to a close as many are. However, 2022 was an eventful year for me filled with ends, new beginnings, growth, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I want to briefly recap it while sharing my hopes, dreams, goals, and aspirations for 2023 because this is a public journal, right?

I turned 21 this year; that is a big birthday. I can now legally drink and purchase alcohol, but as far as the liquor store next to Tuscany Villa knows, that has been the case for four years. Here is a tip for under 21ers: grow a beard, and pretty much no one will question s**t about you. I spent my 21st birthday at home in New Jersey after most of my friends left to go back to school. There is a picture in my Snapchat memories from my birthday and it is me watching a Bruce concert on the couch with Henry on my lap. Was it the most exciting celebration? No. But, it is hard to get any better than that. Then, I went to London where I started to write these. I am not going to recap my experience abroad too much because I already did in earlier newsletters that anyone can go back to and read. It surpassed all of my expectations. I truly did not anticipate the semester to be not only the most fun I have ever had but a formative experience where I learned a great deal about myself and the world around me. I feel boastful when I talk about going to the Louvre, the wine tour in Florence, touring the Coliseum in Rome, St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin, and immersing myself in as much of the amazing city of London has to offer. It was so great, that I feel bad for people who did not or will not have a chance to experience it. Of course, I cannot overlook the new friendships and the deepening of existing friendships that happened over there. What a plus.

On a personal note, I both got out of a long relationship and got into a new relationship within the year, which is kind of crazy for me to reflect on. I guess I am just a relationship guy. Maybe, it is because I am a pretty open book; most people do not write down their feelings and post them on the internet or perhaps through song. I am grateful for it all shaping out for me to be left in a place where I am currently happy and content. I am starting to really feel like an adult in my mind and emotions. I look forward to growing and developing, and getting to a place where I feel like I am ready to take the bull by the horns when it comes to getting out into the real world. I am not quite there yet, but the seeds are planted, and I am on the right track mentally and emotionally. There is not that much time as I am about to embark on my last semester of college, but I know that I will get there soon, and any pressure I put on myself to get there overnight is probably counter-intuitive. In any case, the cliché holds true of experiences being about the friends and relationships made along the way. I am lucky to have people in my life that truly care about me and support me whether near or far, and that is a key ingredient in the recipe for my open and evolving notion of success.

Music, sweet music. 2022 saw me performing my first set in New York City. I love New York City, and many of my greatest musical experiences have happened within its confines. I have always dreamed of playing there, so it was cool to do that once, let alone three times—twice with the Montville iteration of the Mnemonic Advice band and once by myself solo acoustic. It honestly felt like any other set I have ever played, despite it being a milestone, but I have noticed that when I tell people that I have performed in New York City, it is almost instant legitimacy for me in their eyes. After all, show business is all about impressing people, so it is nice that I have that little nugget of credibility to whip out. I also played four shows in Syracuse this past semester, which was so fun. I played at The Westcott Theater, did an all-blues set at The Harrington with the M.A. Blues Brigade, performed some never-before-played stuff with the band at Redgate, and performed a solo acoustic set at Funk N’ Waffles, after not performing solo for a year. Not to mention, I also have accumulated dozens of songs for my next project and I am still neck-deep in the tedious process of demoing and recording them. I have never written so many songs in a year before, and I am happy that 2022 was able to amass that quantity and quality of art and prove to myself that I can be a great songwriter if I continue to work hard and hone in on my craft.

2023 should be another big year for me. What are my goals? Well, for one, get a job. I am getting less and less anxious about finding a perfect fit because I am realizing the idealist mindset does not come up fruitful in a job search. I want to get my foot in the door first and foremost, and figure out how I want my career to go from there. I want to make my family proud. I also look forward to continuing to deepen relationships and form new ones. I forgot how much I enjoy making new friends. Music-wise, I definitely want to release another album this year and play more shows. I want to continue to sharpen my songwriting and my abilities as a musician and performer. That flame will never die, and I am looking forward to working harder at it and progressing. I always say that although I dislike academia, I love to learn. Here is to learning some s**t in 2023.

Grateful Eight

* The New York Football Giants have made the playoffs for the first time since 2016. No one expected this team to even be .500 let alone have a winning record and make the playoffs. The team has been much less depressing to watch knowing that they are headed in the right direction.

* I saw some amazing music this past year—whether it be an interpretation of Radiohead’s Kid A at the Jazz Cafe in London, The Cinelli Brothers blowing the roof of the Ain’t Nothing But the Blues Bar in SoHo in London, Wilco premiering their incredible new album at Solid Sound (I saw Wilco three times in 2022 and I already miss them), or Billy Strings play in that dumpy arena in Rochester. I am forever grateful for live music.

* On that note, ONE MONTH until the E Street Band hits the road. I cannot wait. I also cannot wait to setlist-watch, and for friends to think I am the weirdest person a live for following a setlist to a show that I am not at in real-time. I admit it is weird.

* Hey, the Mets have made some moves since we last spoke. I am grateful for Steve Cohen’s money and commitment to field a World Series-caliber team.

* I am grateful for my health, and the health of those close to me. That is always an important aspect to acknowledge.

* From there, I am grateful that I no longer have food poisoning.

* Family dinners. Dinner in front of the TV at school is definitely a blast, but I have always liked to sit down at a table and talk.

* I am a glutton for fuzzy socks.

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: Live at Heaven Can Wait 12/23/22

This was a great show, if I may say so myself. I have gotten a knack for composing an acoustic setlist, and the addition of many acoustic-driven quieter original songs has helped. I have learned from watching the greats perform solo, and prove that a song that can withstand being totally stripped back to its fundamental form is a song that is great. There is not a whole lot for me to say here, but I think this is one of the best shows that I have ever done and I am so excited to share it with my readers. It likely will be posted to Bandcamp soon as individual tracks in an album for everyone to download for free and listen to in a more organized way, but here is a taste.

Setlist:

Everyone’s Chasing a Dream

Drought

The Piano in Pink Moon

Clawing at the Glass

C…

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Happy Halloween to all my readers! I do not know how I feel about Halloween, so I thought it would make for nice Breaker’s Point material if I talk through it and maybe evidently tackle how I feel about the holiday as a 21-year-old guy. I will start by saying that I loved Halloween when I was a kid. There was nothing like showing up to school in full costume and seeing what all your other friends were wearing. The school day would be full of fun spooky activities, and then a few of my friends and I would meet up and go trick-or-treating. When I was really little, my parents and my friends’ parents would take us around Pine Brook. I will never forget walking around with my mom as the afternoon turned into dusk; then, my dad would come home and he, my brother, and I would do round two right around where we lived as the dark night fell. Eventually, I was allowed to go trick-or-treating without parental supervision, and that is when an even larger group of my friends and I would walk around the Longview townhouses because they were closer together and we could hit more houses in a shorter span. It was all about efficiency. Once we loaded up our pillowcases, and they were too heavy to swing over our scrawny, kid shoulders, we would go back to home base, empty out all of our candy, and trade and barter for the candy we wanted that another guy had. We would even play poker with it. That is when I realized I did not love to gamble. It is this unbridled joy-filled fun that informed my love of the holiday. It is some of the most innocent fun I have ever experienced. The nostalgia of being a kid on Halloween is actually a little soul-crushing for me. The fact that I do not love Halloween like I used to, and the means of celebrating it is not by going trick-or-treating, but by engaging in boozy and debaucherous behavior makes me long for the wholesomeness of being a child. Of course, I do have fun with all of that. It might be less of a Halloween-related thing, and more of myself just feeling a general nostalgia for kidlike purity and the joy of my upbringing, and Halloween just firmly pokes at it. They don’t tell you that growing up can often be sad.

I do not really enjoy dressing up in a costume anymore, and I find it more stressful than fun. I love to see what other people wear, but coming up with a good costume makes me oddly insecure. Also, just wearing a sports jersey is super lame and I do not want to be super lame. I just do not really like Halloween anymore, as much as I wish I did. There are some things about Halloween that I do think are cool though. The horror aspect is cool. The holiday is inherently eerie. I walked to my morning class today under an overcast sky, and a cool autumn wind, and for some reason, I encountered very few people on the way. It was spooky and I loved it. It truly does not feel like an ordinary day. Also, I do not care how old I get, I will always love candy. As I am writing this, I realize that I was just food shopping at Wegmans and I forgot to buy some Halloween candy. I have some Sour Patch at home, but I want those big assorted bags. Anyway, I guess I honestly did a good job trying to get to the bottom of how I feel about Halloween. I hope you have enjoyed yours.

I want to totally switch gears and tell you about some Mnemonic Advice activity coming down the stretch. I will be releasing a song called “Blood You Draw” along with new merch! The merch is ready, but I am still putting the finishing touches on the recording of the song before I upload it to be streamed EVERYWHERE. I had somewhat of an epiphany last week where I realized that I had so many songs just sitting there idling, and many recordings waiting to see the light of day. I got in my own head a little bit about the sound quality of my music. For this album, I wanted to enter a real studio and record it with a real band, and while I would still love to do that at some point, I do not have the time or money to do that right now. I realized that I can do so much more on my laptop to make the music sound better than I have been doing. I have been learning how to mix and master properly and with purpose. My last album sounded adequate and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing as far as engineering/tech goes. I figure if I have even a small idea of what I am doing now, I can make this upcoming album sound marginally better. “Blood You Draw” is a song that I have been opening with at shows. It is a straight-ahead punk rocker that I did not feel meshed with the somewhat understated and at times, quieter music I have been recording for the next M.A. LP. It is a great single…I hope. Anyway, it will be the first time you can hear my new and ever-so-slightly improved mixing and mastering skills. I am so excited to share that, and my T-shirts/hoodies! Additionally, I have booked a show for 12/23 at Heaven Can Wait in New York City! Stay tuned for that.

Grateful Eight

* Bruce finally agreed to go on the Howard Stern show. I really enjoy Howard’s interviews and this one has been incredible so far. I know everything that is out there about Bruce from following him, reading books, and seeing shows, and I am still learning things about him in this interview straight from his own mouth. It is delightful. He could not be more lucid and down to earth, and the man has not lost a step when it comes to his singing voice.

* Thanos. It is a sandwich shop here in Syracuse and it just hits every time. I hadn’t had it in a while but could not resist getting it for lunch today.

* I take for granted the ability I have to record a song on my laptop in my bedroom and mix and master it right there. I feel myself wanting to break out from that, but damn is it convenient and cheap, and it makes the barrier of entry so small for musicians. Technology, man.

* As I mentioned, I love candy, and Halloween makes it socially acceptable to eat it publicly.

* I recently started watching Ted Lasso. What an excellent feel-good show. I am early in it though. No spoilers.

* This pork chop that I am about to make. I am so determined to make it the greatest pork chop known to mankind. Pork chops can be woefully dry if they are overcooked. Disgusting s**t. But if they are cooked right, they are delectable.

* I have two fantasy leagues. In the KD fantasy league, I have lost Breece Hall (my RB1), Jamarr Chase (my WR1), and Mike Williams (my WR2) and so my season is pretty chalked. However, in the BYH league, I am thriving. Watch out. I can win that thing. Thank god.

* This warm weather. This weekend was gorgeous. It is crazy to see the leaves all off the trees but still get blessed with a 70-degree day in Syracuse. However, while I am grateful, it indicates climate change which is grim. I always wonder, how could a climate change denier rationalize that it’s 70 degrees in late October in Syracuse if climate change does not exist?

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: “Undercover (I Wonder)”

This is a rough mix of “Undercover.” I am proud of the songs I write, my lyricism, and the style that I have developed. However, most of my songs, while incorporating wit and black humor, are pretty deadly serious—even the more energetic rockers on my last album. I think about my heroes. Bruce wrote “Adam Raised the Cain" about the soul-crushing guilt and darkness he inherited from his father, but he also wrote “Sherry Darling” literally at the same time; a fun and hilarious song about his girl’s insufferable mother. Jeff Tweedy wrote “Misunderstood” about being an outcast and being chewed up and spit out by the darkness of a society that he feels he does not belong. He also wrote “Monday” about “Choo Choo Charlie’s plenty good band.” Those two songs come 1st and 3rd on the same album. It is the yin and yang of songwriting. I do not think I will be totally satisfied with myself as a songwriter if I cannot write a really fun, lighthearted song like those. I do not always want to take myself so seriously. I think only writing as …

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I took a break. I hope I can get you all back on board because I have missed writing these, but it just got away from me this semester so far. My brain is actually feeling the effects of it; it is cluttered. The whole point of this was for me to share what I am thinking about on a week-to-week basis, but I did not realize how cathartic it is to put these thoughts on paper. The initial idea was to find some outlet to promote my music or as my professor says, “tell my story.” It has become a public journal. I guess I will update you on what has happened while I have been away. In the last Breaker’s Point, I wrote that I had a show at The Westcott Theater. Well, that show happened and it went…okay, I guess. I tried to get ahead for this semester, so I put together a band in July, so there would be no stress to form Fall 2022’s iteration of Mnemonic Advice once I got to school. It might be the first time I acted so far ahead, and not procrastinated myself into a hole. However, I still ended up in a hole. Unfortunately, before the show, I had a couple of band members drop out, and it was pulling teeth to find replacements. Finally, I found a bass player and at that point, I just had to go with a trio. The MA3…sigh. The gigs were so successful this summer because I played as a four-piece and a five-piece. These groups add a whole higher level of musicianship, and know when to learn the parts I wrote on the recordings verbatim, when to throw them by the wayside, and do their own thing or a combination of both! A good song is a good song however it is performed and I truly believe that, but much of my stuff begs to be flushed out. I was not psyched about playing as a three-piece, and on top of that, we had little rehearsal time as I finally got the band together at the final hour. It made for a sloppy show, but I did have a lot of fun as I always do.

The following week, I just completely failed at getting a band together for a show I booked in July at Funk N Waffles. That was so disheartening. I had big plans for that one, but no one was able to play with me, so none of that vision was executed. I went solo acoustic. I had not realized it but I had not played a solo acoustic show in about a year. There were about fifteen people in the audience watching me, but as I have been telling people; I think it was the best live performance that I have ever done. I meticulously comprised a setlist where I was able to pour out in 45 minutes all the themes and key ideas that I have been writing about this whole time. I joked to the crowd that the set was not going to be “fun,” and that if it was fun they wanted, they should have seen me the week before with the band. It felt freeing that this set did not have to be fun, it was an opportunity for me to be extremely candid and communicate my artistic vision both directly in spoken word and through my songs. I was able to be my authentic self and make jokes and earnestly provide commentary on what songs meant to me and my headspace while writing them. I came off the stage feeling as though I had just purged all of my emotions. That is how I know it was good. There was also one man who came up to me and told me how much he enjoyed my set and asked me where he can find my music. I pointed him to my profile on Deezer. (Who uses Deezer?) I played a cover of “Friendship” by Pops Staples, and spoke about how the song is one of the few songs in the world that can make me cry. I explained how much I loved the Staples Singers and that this track came from an album called Don’t Lose This, which Jeff Tweedy, Spencer Tweedy, and Mavis Staples created out of unfinished demos from Pops. The man explained that he was from Mississippi and strongly identifies with the Staples Singers and that my performance felt like home to him. That might be the best interaction with an audience member that I ever had. It goes to show that the audience size should never affect my performance.

Ready to hear about show number three? For this show I did the impossible; I put together a four-piece band. Friend of the program Nick Beebower played drums, Ethan Girtz played keys and Trevor Fraticelli played bass. This show took place at The Harrington, a basement venue here in Syracuse. I did not want to stress about playing my material and making sure it sounded as tight and well-represented as I needed it to be. Ben Dietz suggested to me that I do an all-Blues set and that it would be so much different than other bands at Syracuse. Plus, it is a genre I am passionate about. I went home and thought about it and decided that it is a really good idea! (The only negative is that now Ben will never let me forget that it was his brilliant idea. Kill me.) I put together a Mnemonic Advice offshoot: The M.A. Blues Brigade. We did a bunch of blues and blues-rock tunes and we set the place on fire. It was such an amazing show. Everyone in the band was equally passionate about the music that we were playing. That took so much pressure off. It was so much fun. I played drums on a song…like wut? Sometimes when the goal is just to have a blast, you end up having a blast. We will see where that band goes. I do not have any shows planned at the moment, but I am working on it.

Otherwise, it has been a fun semester. I feel prepared to step out into the industry at this point, but with big dreams, it is hard to determine what the scope of my life will be. What do I like to do? What will be rewarding for me? How do I independently myself afloat? I will hyperbolically point to these John Lennon lyrics to describe my feelings: “When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years/Then they expect you to pick a career/When you can't really function, you're so full of fear/A working class hero is something to be.” I do have an idea of what life will be like for me after college. I am willing to put my head down and work hard and build the funds and the connections to get to that place that I really want to go. I will walk in the sun, if you will. Otherwise, I am having a good time socially. The last hurrah. The last dance. Whatever you want to call it.

Grateful Eight

* I am grateful for the guidance and knowledge that the Bandier Program has given me both directly in classes (obviously) and inadvertently. When you talk and learn about the same thing for four years, you develop strong opinions. I equally love many aspects and hate many aspects. My likes and dislikes could very well change, but it is nice to have a starting point to understand myself as I make this great leap.

* I am grateful for how much my family is staying in touch. This is a brand new living situation for all of us with my parents as empty-nesters, and Sam and I both in college. We are killing it though, and I know that is not the case for many families.

* I think I have expressed my love for my little poodle good boy, Henry. I have missed Henry this semester more than I ever have—so much so, that I think I might be a dog person now.

* Heard a great song co-written by Norah Jones and Jeff Tweedy performed on Norah’s new podcast. It is called “I’m Alive.” It is so simple both structurally and on the production side, and reminded me that in a sea of overcompensated production to try and make up for the lack of good writing that happens often in the mainstream music business, we still got some purity. I do not want to go on a negative, old-man-yelling-at-cloud tangent, but the songwriting has been so horrendous and lazy in mainstream music these days. A few years ago, I could listen to the top songs in the world and found a lot of value and interest. Even if I did not quite like the music, I understood it. Man, I cannot even comprehend some of the music that is popular right now. Pop music was KILLING it with Billie Eilish and Lizzo and Dua Lipa and now we have Willow Smith bastardizing punk music in a nauseating fashion. The negativity train stops here. Anyway, this Norah Jones song is good music. Heart. Soul. Passion. Warm…

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Hello readers. I am coming to you from Bird Library at Syracuse University, where today I embark on my final first day of school. EVER! It is a crazy feeling, but at least now, I am excited about being here and enjoying every second of my senior year. Before I mention anything else, I want to remind all of my readers in the Syracuse area that I have a show at the Westcott Theater on Thursday. It is the first Mnemonic Advice performance of the semester, and it comes at Bloomfest II; a fun four-act concert to kick off the semester and show and tell about all the amazing musical opportunities Syracuse has to offer both creative and business-minded. I expect a good-sized crowd at this event and I cannot wait to rock the house.

Speaking of rocking the house, I saw Wilco last Tuesday and Beak and Skiff; an apple orchard with a nice open field with a stage at the front of it. I took Ben Dietz to the show for him to see my favorite band for the first time, and I am happy to report that he enjoyed it and was impressed with how good they are live. I am glad he caught onto what makes this band special and why fans are more than eager to see them again and again and again. Going into the show, I was a little bummed about how static the setlist has been on this tour with minimal variation from night to night, which is part of Wilco’s appeal. However, it ultimately did not matter, which I also expected. Wilco never disappoints regardless of what they play. That is what you get with a band that has such a deep and prolific catalog to the point where fans leave the show satisfied, while also wishing that they got to hear thirty more of their favorite songs. There was a lot of jamming in this setlist, more than I have ever seen them do in one set. Handshake Drugs, At Least That’s What You Said, Bird Without a Tail/Base of My Skull, the Many Worlds coda, and Spiders showcased the chops and cohesion of all three guitar players in the band. It was awesome. I loved it. The Cruel Country songs are all so good.

There is not a whole lot to report other than that. My friends and I have been on a bit of a bender since we arrived here. Too much alcohol has already been consumed. It ended last night, but with sylly week, there is a chance round two starts tonight. God help me. I am being safe everyone, do not worry. I am a safe drinker. With that being said, it has been an endless stream of fun since I got here. I cannot wait to take this energy into the semester. Oh, and I am debating going to Ithaca to see Dinosaur Jr. on Friday. Should I do it? I am not crazy about going alone but maybe someone will be willing to come with me. The tickets are cheap! They are indie-rock LEGENDS. J Mascis is one of my favorite all-time guitarists.

Grateful Eight:

* I am grateful to be back at Syracuse after a long time away. You realize how much you love something when it is gone. That is a cliché, but certainly true.

* I moved in half of my stuff about a month ago, so it made moving in not so terrible last week. I am happy I was able to fit all of my musical gear, so if creativity calls, I can confidently answer.

* Sam is all moved into college and is doing really well. The adjustment is so tough, but he is killing it. Woo hoo.

* Fresh garlic’s impact on taking home cooking to another level and increasing the taste of whatever you cook tenfold.

* It is awesome to have seen Wilco somewhere not only off the beaten path but 20 minutes away from where I live up here.

* My portable air conditioner. It is truly one of my favorite things in the world. As cold as the winters are, the summers in Syracuse are humid and scorching. It is not fun. It gets so hot, but last night I went to sleep and my room was a crisp 64.

* Going to bars at school. I am a very sophisticated distinguished 21-year-old gentleman. I like to go to bars. I also like to see people from all over be it different sororities and fraternities or friends from school. Sometimes, it is limited who you can hang out with and frat parties.

* Thank god we no longer have to wear masks in class anymore.

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” by Bruce Springsteen

It has been a while since I dropped a Bruce cover. This is the second track off Bruce’s 2007 album, Magic, which is my favorite Bruce album of the century. To my knowledge, this song has only been played once live. That seems wrong to me. I guess on the flip side, there are so many great songs on Magic that deserve to be played. I recorded this when I was locked up in the Sheraton sophomore year because I was exposed to COVID. It was around the time of the 2020 Presidential Election. This song was written presumably about the greedy millionaires and billionaires who have exploited and taken advantage of the working class, leading to a giant recession and hard times in the United States. I think this song was also written about George Bush specifically. It does not to be stated what Mr. Springsteen thinks about that guy. Anyway, this is an angry song and I thought that the lyrics applied to the Republican candidate in the 2020 election almost to an absolute tee. I think it is underrated. It has a nice sax solo from Clarence, which I have whistled here. The only thing I think is that it is a bit overproduced, as is much of the Magic record. It does not take away from the writing though. The lyrics on this album are impeccable, thoughtful, and extremely sticky. He is a genius what can I say?

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The past couple of weeks has been exciting for me. First of all, two brand new songs have emerged since we have last spoken; and they are called “Blood You Draw” and the second one is called ummm…..well…….I don’t have a name for it yet. We will get to that later because *spoiler alert* our Mnemonic Advice recording for the column is that song. Anyway, I had a show at Bowery Electric. It was a long day running through the set in Chance’s basement to warm up, trekking to the East Side of Manhattan, loading in at 5:30, killing 4 hours, and then blowing the roof off the place with a performance for….like 10 people. I am not kidding when I say I would not want it any other way. I don’t know if I can speak for the band though. Any opportunity I get to share my livelihood with people is an opportunity that I will take. Maybe I will play the first show on Mars. I hear Martians are avid Stereogum readers and are really into indie rock music. Jokes aside, the show went well. We played a 40-minute set as a four-piece band that was almost the same as our Delancey set but I switched around the order of a few songs, and we closed with the aforementioned “Blood You Draw.” That song is going to be hanging out in the setlist for a while because it is one of the most energetic rockers that I have written, but it may go nicely as an opener. (Come to a show and hear it!) It ends on a C chord, and the four chord in the key of C is F which also happens to be the five chord in the key of B flat. So now we are in B flat, the key of “Next Time” (the current opener which will move to the second song), and we will hit an E flat chord, which is the four chord of B flat which leads us right into resolving the whole turn-around on the tonic chord, which is you guessed it! B flat! And what key is the opening riff to “Next Time” in? B flat! See, knowing rudimentary music theory can help you sometimes but not enough, so I have to flex my knowledge when I use it. Sorry if I lost you. I am just super excited and nerding out over creating my live show. It is all I think about. I know that there are some big shows around the corner at the indie music mecca, Syracuse, New York, so these are things to think about. I always say that the bands that make it are the ones that are more thoughtful. They might not be better players, but if you think damn hard about how you want your band to come across through a live show, it is immediate audience connectivity because with thought comes genuine authenticity. You got to be yourself on steroids. Yourself is probably not cool enough, but it gets you 80% of the way there. It is a ‘magic trick’ as (ugh every single newsletter with this guy, enough Josh) Bruce says in his book. The other thing is that most bands don’t like to rehearse. My band and I love rehearsing. You have to love rehearsing to truly put on an amazing live show. I have to be honest, if you hate rehearsing, your band probably sucks. I am not speaking like I have figured the whole thing out because I obviously have not. I just have had the privilege of seeing a s**t ton of live music in my life so far, and while enjoying it (or not enjoying it) I am studying as if it is a lecture in a class. What is good about this that I can incorporate into my act? What sucks about this is that I need to make sure that I don’t replicate in my act? Live music is an art form. The art form can range from the larger-than-life aesthetics and theatrical presentation of a The Weeknd stadium show to The Replacements playing Maxwell’s while drunk off their ass as Paul Westerberg belligerently ‘sings’ “B******s of Young”. Both work. Both have endeared themselves to fans in the country and around the world. Both are authentic!

I saw Courtney Barnett at Radio City Music Hall last week which was a lot of fun. It was my third time seeing Courtney; the first time being four years ago, which is almost impossible to believe. The first two times I saw her, it was outdoors. Live music indoors is typically better in my opinion, and the lights and stage design added a lot to the performance. Courtney is a rock star and a punk at that. The dichotomy between her timid, soft-spoken introductions and “thank yous” and her aggressive guitar playing and rock-godlike stage presence during the songs never gets old. She played one of my favorite of her songs “An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)” for the first time in a long time. I have paraphrased the riff in that song a few times and I just love the lyrics so much. Imagine hearing this for the first time:

I lay awake at four, staring at the wallCounting all the cracks backwards in my best FrenchReminds me of a book I skim-read in a surgeryAll about palmistry, I wonder what's in store for meI pretend the plaster is the skin on my palmsAnd the cracks are representative of what is going onI lose a breath, my love-line seems intertwined with death

It shocked me. It has such creative imagery that I could only dream of having with my own writing. It also has such perfect rhythm like spoken poetry. Talent. Talent. Talent. Her band is great too. I love Dave Mudie on drums. As the biggest guitar player, non-drummer drum-aficianado, I can hear so much Ringo Starr in his playing, along with a lot of Dave Grohl who takes a lot of influence from Ringo. The simple but hard-hitting melodic playing brings such a fullness to the three-piece arrangement. He comes up with parts on songs that are so catchy and just not how other drummers would approach Courtney’s songs. I know. I have nerded out a lot about music this column, but I get to talk about whatever I want! Don’t forget that is how this works :)

Grateful Eight:

* I moved some of my stuff in to my new apartment in Syracuse yesterday. Despite not having electricity on one side of the room, my room is already looking pretty homey. I am happy that I do not have that much more to take up here in August.

* I am going down the shore tomorrow. Going to the beach and hanging out with my friends is possibly the best part of summer. What is it about sand and the ocean that makes people so happy? I am excited to unwind after a fairly busy week.

* Harmonicas are so fun. More on this later.

* I mentioned the Syracuse shows that I have on the calendar. One of them is at the Westcott Theater for Bloomfest and I get to share the bill with some talented people which is awesome. I am grateful I get such a cool gig. I am also going on first so I get to play the first set of the semester.

* Friend of the program, Nick Beebower. This man plays in like 5 bands at school, and I am grateful that he is dedicated to all of them. He can just show up and drum, but he is cooler than that. Plus, he got me/us the gig at the Westcott.

* The A/C in my apartment at school. It is the greatest invention ever. It is cooler in my room here than at home. Ungrateful we only have one vent or some s**t like that at home.

* Acropolis is now Popeyes.

* Teens of Denial by Car Seat Headrest. This album changed my life. It gave me so much inspiration and comfort in high school. I did not know rock could sound like it does on Teens of Denial. It takes so many classic rock nods, but it is so fresh and the lyrics are so relatable. I thought I related to them when I was 15 and I am sure I did, but listening again at 21, now I really get it. The album is about being in your twenties and learning how to be on your own and also how to be happy. It chronicles f**k-ups along the way with the critical lessons attached.

This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: untitled

This is a country song that I wrote only last week. I think a lot of my peers feel a sense of disillusionment as we come of age and transition into true adulthood. I know I do at least. I feel forced to ponder my values and think about compromises and sacrifices that I am willing to make, and ones that I am not willing to make. It is scary. I am not exactly going to be a factory worker with the education and guidance that I h…

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Hello everyone. Thank you for patiently waiting for another edition of Breaker’s Point to drop. Sorry that it has been over a week now. With that being said, I have a lot to cover and I will start by telling you how my first New York City gig went! To refresh your memory, my band Mnemonic Advice played the Delancey on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on June 30th, and I am happy to report that we nailed it. The band sounded amazing coming out of a real PA and sound system, with our instruments mic’d and being controlled from the soundboard. For house shows at Syracuse as well as other places we have played, a state-of-the-art sound system is not exactly necessary for the inherent grunginess and raucousness of those gigs; but damn, everyone really got to hear the band the way that they are meant to hear it at the Delancey, which was much to the delight of myself and the audience. We played a 40-minute set with six of my originals and two covers including the 1984 summer smash-hit “The Boys of Summer.” I kind of pulled that one out of my ass. It is funny because I am a well-known hater of The Eagles, but this is just a solo Don Henley tune, and the music was written by Heartbreaker, Mike Campbell. I am not a big fan of pandering to an audience. I like to challenge my audiences and play a style of rock and roll that they may not be used to hearing. I have gained confidence in my original stuff to feel comfortable with it making up the majority of my sets. However, you have to throw a dog a bone sometimes and if I can make a huge hit like that authentic to myself and my band, I sure as hell will do it. Man, it was a fun song. Keep an eye out on my Instagram (@mnemonicadvice) to see some awesome photos and videos that were taken at the show. Mnemonic Advice’s Manhattan tour continues! We have another gig at Bowery Electric in the East Village. If you did not get a chance to come to the Delancey, or you came to the Delancey and want more, check us out there on 7/18. Less than a week, I know. It is going to be a great show though. We have some special stuff that we are going to play, which we did not play last gig.

I went to the Mets game this past Saturday. My family got my dad tickets for Father’s Day because his all-time favorite Met, Keith Hernandez was finally getting his number retired. Keith means a lot to Mets fans as he took the team out of the dumps and won the last World Series the Mets have won in 1986. He was named captain of the Mets and led by example with his charisma and his dedication to playing the game the right way. He also has been a beloved Mets broadcaster since 2006. It is safe to say that Mets fans adore him. The ceremony was awesome and Citi Field was full and energetic which carried into the game. It was a crazy one. The Mets both tied the game in the bottom of the tenth and won in the bottom of the tenth off of two Marlins errors. It was my first time seeing a walk-off win in person, and it was just a day filled with unbridled joy for my family. When all four members are in the highest of spirits, there is really nothing better.

Grateful Eight

* Sports. Although I am a music guy, sports are so important to my life. It is another way to express the unchecked passion flowing through me. I am competitive with not a lot of outlets to demonstrate it. Leisurely playing (I am not athletic for anything beyond that) and watching sports allows me to tap into my competitive side and they create a bond between me and my friends and me and the other ten other Carus men and three Rich men.

* Bruce announced a US tour today. For the next year or so, I am dedicating my life and my disposable income (that’s a joke, laugh) to seeing him live as many times as possible. If I take a road trip from Cuse, does anyone want to come?

* As an up-and-coming singer-songwriter, it is hard to find a dedicated band that is not composed of just musicians doing a favor for you. I have a band right now that I believe shares my passion for performing and performing my songs at that. They are in tune with my vision and trust me to express it. That is sort of priceless.

* Everyone who came out to the show at the Delancey.

* NYC Bagels. New Jersey bagels are good, but the best bagel in my town is average. The average bagel in the city is good. So good = great. Great = impeccable. Impeccable = divine. And so on and so forth.

* Better Call Saul. We are into the last half dozen episodes of this phenomenal show. Last night was the best episode of TV I think I have ever seen. Over the course of six seasons, is a bit of a slow burn, but it does more than pay off. The writing, the directing, and the acting are all so quality and authentic. It is a beautiful piece of art.

* The beach.

* The opportunity to play more shows.

This Week’s Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Rare Recording: I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues (Elton John)

I have always liked this Elton song. It kind of just popped in my head the other day, and I thought that it would be cool to do a cover. The lyrics strangely resonate a lot with what is happening in my life. I had never analyzed them or paid attention too much to them, so it was a little freaky that it just popped in like that. It is a rough version, but I do not really care. I think it is fun to show you something raw like this. Maybe you are able to hear the authenticity through the lack of polish. I trust all of you and I am comfortable enough to show you some mistakes.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshcarus.substack.com