In the city of ambition, dreams are rarely packaged with paychecks, and everyone must do something to pay the bills—even if it doesn’t involve rock.
On the heels of sudden success—a good show, a potential manager—arrives doubt, fear, and the means for everything to fall apart.
How can a rock band plan for the unknown? What good are hours of practice and training when it only takes one bad microphone to ruin a show?
Ruts can happen to anyone, even 23-year-olds, and the best response is a brand-new gym membership—and a new girlfriend?
After a year of living in New York, you’ve acquired an apartment, a job, a rewarding hobby, and a meaningful, sexless relationship—all the tokens of an early middle age?
If a band plays a concert, and no one pays attention, can it still aspire to musical greatness? Is anything louder than the sound of no hands clapping?
Who has better lyrics, the GOP or New York’s rockers? And can a romantic relationship survive “hug therapy?”
What name is good enough for a band meant to rock the world, and must it reference Elvis Costello somehow?
Is love different when it’s declared in the big apple, and if so, do you have to tell your co-workers about it?
It’s hard to stay focused when your girlfriend ignores you, your roommates are openly intimate, and your father calls with some unexpected advice.
Trying to complete his indie-prog band as a model of diversity, Benchley runs into trouble when racial profiling turns out to be a less-than-sensitive method for recruiting a bass player.
When half of the world’s Hasidim live within a subway ride of each other, the disappearance of two teenage girls is big news, especially when they’ve run away to escape.