We're all just Teenage Dirtbags in the end
New music! St. Paddy's Day Shows! And a…Bitcoin space heater? Ugh whatever
Greetings from the B-Side Brewery! I’ve been meaning to write again for a while now, but well, *gestures broadly at the world* so here’s what you get.
A few weeks back, the Roland High Life released a new song of sorts—a cover version of that Wheatus classic “Teenage Dirtbag.” We had spent a day in the studio back in December with an actual professional engineer to finish off some tracks, and while we were in there, we decided to take a crack at this song, which we’ve been covering at most of our live shows lately. The timing was perfect, because we had an opportunity to submit a cover of a love song from a movie soundtrack to a fun compilation/fundraiser series called “Now That’s What I Call Heartbreak.”
Look, obviously I’m biased, but I think our version of this song effin’ rules. It’s only available on Bandcamp right now, though we might add it to streaming in the future.
‘Tis the Season for Irish Things
It’s that time of year again—when I complain about people writing “St. Patty’s Day,” and also get in front of crowd and sing them catchy fun drinking songs about colonialism. You may be thinking, “Wait, doesn’t Thom do that all the time anyway?” in which case, you can shut your pie hole and keep your opinions to yourself.
This your, the Forfocséic live band (aka me, plus the Roland High Life rhythm section) is doing a weeklong St. Patrick’s Day mini-tour of Boston-area breweries. It’s a lot of music! But we’re very excited about it. Here’s where you can catch us:
March 8 @ Dorchester Brewing in Boston from 7-10pm
March 14 @ Remnant Satellite in Cambridge from 8-11pm
March 15 @ Aeronaut Brewery in Somerville from 4-7pm
March 16 @ Castle Island Beer in Boston from 1-5pm
Yes, that last show is in South Boston during the actual South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade. That’s both a cool accomplishment, and also kind of terrifying. At least I don’t have to worry about drawing a crowd! Though I am slightly concerned that someone might throw up on my guitar. Eek.
As always, you can also find my Irish music on Bandcamp, Spotify, etc., and you should obviously add it to all of your playlists so I can make a couple nickels.
(We’ll also be doing another Roland High Life show at the Midway Cafe in JP in April. We just needed a little time in between the St. Paddy’s Day calamity. You understand.)
All The Other Cool Stuff That’s Going On
idk we got our taxes done ahead of time?! that was cool i guess.
I also got to test a $900 Bitcoin mining space heater for Wirecutter. The basic idea is that, when it’s set on eco mode, it runs a cryptocurrency mining rig, which wastes a ton of energy—but then it re-uses that heat energy to warm your home, all while (potentially) helping you to earn a little shred of crypto that you can call your own. Spoiler alert: it’s actually a decent heater! Not great, but good.
Also spoiler alert: there’s no way in hell to justify the $900 price tag when you’re only earning around 0.0000014 BTC a day, or the equivalent of roughly $0.14. I mean yes it’s technically possible that your $0.14 a day will also inflate 500,000% over the next decade—but even if that were the case, it would still make sense for you to just spend your money buying more Bitcoin right now.
But hey, at least I had a fun time writing that one! I got to talk to some interesting people, and I really did try to give it an honest assessment.
I’m sure there’s more to share, but I wanted to get something out there. Hope you’re all managing to stay somewhat safe and sane out there. Take of care each other.