I have been in and around the Syracuse music scene since 1995. I went to college at SUNY Cortland and recall regular weekend treks to Hungry Charlie's to see the cheap matinee shows on the weekend. I saw hardcore bands that shaped what I played on the radio at WSUC. I'd drive up I-81 for rock shows - including seeing the Deftones at the Lost Horizon, when it was trashed during their set. I'd see the ska and punk bands play at Planet 505 and ultimately started "managing" a three piece punk group from Syracuse University called District 4. We recorded a couple EPs, played a handful of shows and had a lot of fun.
Fast forward a few years and I'm handling being a Central NY rep for The Syndicate working on campaigns in the region for bands doing promo at events from Moedown to Hellfest. I worked plenty of club dates and that ultimately connected me to Merit, the first band I ever released music for under Aux Records. I've been putting out records since and have had some amazing experiences with bands playing Warped Tour and MTV. The big experiences have been life changing but there have been so many of the small experiences that hold an incredible amount of meaning. I'll share some of those in the future.
For the last two decades I've been around the music in Syracuse. I've largely kept to sharing my thoughts on bands that I work with. That's now changing with Cuse Music. This blog is a chance for me to grab a few friends and write about our experiences with music. Some will be on Aux but many more stories will be about bands I'm not working with. I'll do my best to be transparent but even though I manage bands and release their music, I'm still their fan. I'm not a journalist and don't have many publications (though I am proud of this one in Billboard on Ra Ra Riot). I expect this blog will start with sharing thoughts on bands from the region because we have so many great acts here. After all #The315isAlive. I expect to focus locally but if I keep it going, maybe I'll be wrong and we'll share more. This is a start.
Since Hungry Charlie's is no more, I'll leave this here to close. I'm pretty sure I was at this one.
I miss that place.
-Ulf