NYC MUSIC COVERAGE - POSERS FUCK OFF
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Hood Rats: April 4th, 2025 @ Bridge & Tunnel (Brooklyn, NY)
April 7 2025
by Mary
Lock your doors motherfuckers, sleep with one eye open: It’s a Canadian invasion.
Live at Bridge and Tunnel on April 4th, Canadian band Hood Rats tore through their set with crisp aggression: the guitars, the drums, the bass are clean, moving with intension and muscular focus. The sound is demented and steely, as if played on a set of power lines, and Tony Salador’s violent vocals compliment the power with a spray of spit.
And holy shit. The drummer is insane.
Guillaume Tremblay (a.k.a. “Pouf”) is a machine—his arms attack with an iron strength—yet you can see the discipline, the obsession, the emotion of his music, how it reaches the audience and communicates a sound both brutal and masterful.
Mary: “My eyes were glued to it the entire set. Just the dexterity and, honestly, just the emotion in it.”
Guillaume: “The soul.”
Mary: “Yeah, it’s fantastic.”
Troy and JF (guitar and bass, respectively) compliment the scene; Pouf rules in the back, but these two make sure nothing’s quiet in the crowd. Troy Lockard shreds like a possessed scarecrow, straw hair flying as he accents notes with his face, his teeth.
(Tony Salador VOCALS, JF Simoneau BASS, Troy Lockard GEE-TAR, Guillaume Tremblay DRUMS)
JF Simoneau is just as animated, slamming us with giddy basslines and an infectious joy. With the armband and sleeveless shirt, I’m wondering when he’s gonna start his wrestling career. Let me get a poster please, I’m already a fan.
Hood Rats’ enthusiasm fueled a very fine set. They thrashed out their last song as if desperate to burn off the energy, choosing to go out guitars blazing.
“I sit home and watch the stupidest shit,” Troy Lockard said. “I sit at home and watch eight seasons in a row of Wicked Tuna.”
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ARTIST INTERVIEW: JEROME SLOSS
Jan 27 2025
by Mary
(Jerome on sax) (listen to his work here)
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It’s a tenor sax Jerome is playing.
Brassy, intimate and timeless. He’s robotic, fingers decisive and uninhibited, but there’s more. There’s a tenderness, a precision which only comes from devotion. You can hear it in the music.
“It’s a mashup of Neo-soul, gospel, R&B, and jazz," Jerome said.
It’s a display of emotion, a declaration of love. The music feels safe, loving, intimate.
“It’s everything,” he said. “It’s my love, my trauma, my happiness, my excitement, my lust at times, too.”
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The piano dances in the background, the bass beats underneath like a pulse. A horn plays with Jerome’s sax, a dynamic he described as “conversation.”
“When you see me up there playing, whether it’s on my saxophone or my talkbox, I’m at my most free.”
But Jerome, like all of us, needs money.
“We probably would have been on tour by now,” Jerome said, “but I had to take the long way.“
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Jerome moved to New York around three and a half years ago, leaving his home state of Indiana. At work he delivers packages in ten hour shifts, 11 am to 9 pm, so he can make music.
“Until I have more money or until a label want to sign me, I have to have that nine-to-five,” Jerome said. “And it’s not because it provides me comfort, it just gives me access to these spaces, to be able to create, and to provide an environment for my band to create together.”
Though it constantly damages us, capitalism is just an idea, Jerome says. Music is real, and universally accessible.
“It doesn’t cost money for me to blow into my horn, to play piano, that’s free,” Jerome said.
Capitalism still rages like an unattended dumpster fire. Landlords still knock at our doors. Rent is eternally due.
“There are so many creative, incredible people out there that we haven’t even met yet, that are being blocked by this whole paywall, by funds.”
But music is real. Remember that. It’s outside of the Matrix, Jerome said.
“The Jerome you see on stage with his horn or talkbox, that’s Neo,” he said. “That’s me being free.”
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Thank you so much to Jerome for the wonderful interview. Follow him on instagram (@jeromesloss) and listen to his work.