With each post, You Missed It is becoming the undisputed heartbeat of the NYC “music underground”. This is vastly due to the heart, soul, and tangible energy Joe Kerwin puts into each line. You Missed It is one part “on-the-ground music reporting” + one part energizer bunny super fan and all parts incredible. If there’s one thing that You Missed It will make you feel, its that you should go see more shows and thats a fact!
Put on headphones and step into the “underground” with Joe and Tyler’s quintessential NYC listening playlist.
Iceberg Anthro: Who are you and what do you do?
Joe: I’m Joe Kerwin and I love music more than anything except my mom. This summer, I started a blog.
IA: In one sentence how would you describe You Missed it?
J: Real boots on the ground reporting.
IA: What else do you do besides YMI?
J: Not much at the moment. Full time creative. Artist in residence. Freelance chiller.
I’ve had two jobs since college. The first was writing clickbait about cancer. The second was working at a PR firm. Neither went well. When I left the PR job, I told myself I wanted to start this blog and start a band before returning to full time employment.
It seems like a lot of employers aren’t super concerned with work life balance. It can be hard to tell if a new job will be a fit, and even when it’s visibly bad off the bat, you’ll probably invest at least three months trying to make it work. A lot of my friends are doing rock star shit, and I don’t want to waste three more months before I get my projects going.
I got a music department fellowship to go to Berlin when I graduated. The pandemic hit so I pocketed the money. Now, I’m living off of that & savings. Basically doing life exactly how I would want to if money wasn’t a problem. I will need an income again though. Soon.
IA: What spurred you starting You Missed It?
J: I reviewed Blaketheman1000’s show at Ming’s for the Drunken Canal. I’ve known Blake for years and I’ve written about him before, so he asked me to do it. A lot of friends were wicked encouraging : ) I mainly did this because Jake Lazovick, Sharleen Chidiac, and Blake told me to.
IA: One of my early ideas for the name of this writing project was “Always Late'' due to the fact that I’m eternally feeling like I’m missing out on something. Then I stumbled across your project and instantly was like “I need to meet Joe.” Could you dive into why you chose the name “You Missed Out”?
J: Jake told me to. He’s an older cousin figure to me so I mostly do what he says except when he’s trying to get me to do ginger shots and shit like that. Charlie described the blog as “weaponized fomo.” Of course I’m missing out on a ton in NYC too–I think it’s funny to imply that anybody who wasn’t in the exact same place as me on any given night is missing out. I’m just going to as many shows as I can, journaling about them, and then sending it out.
IA: “Weaponized FOMO” Love that! I feel like there are certain people in this world who are obsessively curious and rely on experience to inform their views and beliefs. Are you one of these people?
J: Curiosity is definitely a trait that I admire in others and pride myself on. I don’t think it’s possible to base your viewpoints entirely (or even primarily) on personal experience–we all have to accept a lot of information second hand.
But most of the music I consume at this point in my life is live. I think that’s an interesting way to curate the influences / reference points I get exposed to. It keeps things rooted locally, and it builds community. I have always wanted to be a part of a community of people making music, and I’m so grateful to be in one now.
IA: When we first met, I recall you talking about your frustration in writing/pitching ideas to traditional music media outlets, which is crazy because the song that spurred this convo was ‘Girls’ by The Dare which is such a bop!! Honestly one of my favorite songs right now. Anyways, I wanted to dig into that frustration. What do you find so maddening with these more established music publications?
J: Honestly, I haven’t tried all that hard. I’ve applied for a Pitchfork internship, pitched Pitchfork once, and pitched Office Mag once.
I also don’t really read. I have a learning disability so reading is time consuming and tedious for me–not something I do for entertainment. So I don’t completely know what Pitchfork or anybody else is saying.
But the couple Pitchfork reviews I’ve read are ass. Too many big words and a real lack of understanding of what goes into making music. I don’t think that people who have never tried making music should be shitting on artists or rating their music on a points-scale. Just feels like they got an internship and started thinking they were an authority on music.
People who have spent a lot of time playing music develop an advanced understanding of what’s going on under the hood. At the bottom of one of my posts I shared a quote from Pitchfork that I really can’t believe was published. Super annoying to watch someone flex their vocabulary while shitting on one of the best drummers out there.
IA: One of my favorite things about You Missed It is your tone/style. You can almost feel the fast paced energy of you literally running through the week. It’s a whirlwind firsthand account of a swirling and sometimes chaotic scene. Filled with emotion yet somehow objective. Was this intentional?
J: I want the blog to be ultra subjective. It’s more fun. This scene is just starting to get a bunch of attention, but I’ve been going to all these shows pretty relentlessly since I got here last September. Writing these reviews allows me to situate the shows I see within my own personal reference points (what I’m a fan of, what I’ve been exposed to, and also my blind spots).
Big picture, I am not interested in criticizing independent musicians. I played in a band, and I know how much initiative and courage it takes just to get that kind of operation up and running. Also, I think it’s pretty whack for people to be critical in order to elevate themselves above artists. I don’t think it’s all that impressive or hard to have good taste. Writing about someone else’s art behind a laptop screen is certainly a hell of a lot less vulnerable than getting up in front of people and sharing something you made. I think anybody writing about art should be very aware of that.
I’m proud of my old band and I have so much affection for everything we did, but we weren’t overwhelmingly cool, and it definitely wouldn’t translate very well now. Until I’m in a band like Model/Actriz, I’m gonna keep quiet on projects I don’t like. No reason to tear someone down because they’re putting themselves out there and figuring it out.
IA: Personally I’ve been spending a lot of time in Manhattan, which feels to be an epicenter of cultural happenings and focus akin to something like the Bermuda Triangle. What’s happening in Brooklyn? Are there two different scenes or any bridges of overlap?
J: I think there’s a lot of overlap, and for music, really no divide. I think the only divide is that the downtown kids don’t want to come to BK very often. But there’s not much difference in who might play at Mercury Lounge vs Baby’s All Right.
AI: One thing I’ve noticed in all of this is that it really feels like everyone is friends and are supporting each other. It makes it all feel really special. As someone right in the thick of it, how do you feel about it all? Is there something special happening right now?
J: Even if the moment flickers / the bubble pops, I do think this is special. There’s a lot of energy, and friends are making real moves.
I was honestly having more fun before the attention. I understood my role better when it felt like my friends were underdogs and I had something to contribute just by repping them super hard.
AI: One of my favorite quotes from You Missed It is from the “Do You Own Baby’s Alright?” post. It was from the YMI “Intern” Charlie and goes “I’m trying to figure out if this is the Jonathan Fire*eater era or if it’s The Strokes.” Such a perfect question! What era do you think we are in?
J: I think everybody has wondered that at some point. Before this summer, I would have said neither. The hype is very new. I pretty much just forced Harrison to be friends with me by showing up to all his empty gigs. He used to play a lot of them.
Everybody wants to know the answer to this one, and I do too, but I think it’s just a distraction. Not really worth our time. We should be focused on doing our best with what we’ve got and celebrating the moment in music that we’re lucky enough to take part in. It also feels limiting / self-defeating to think of the future of NYC in the context of its past. I hope we can do our own legendary thing here. And no matter what happens, I’ll always be grateful that I got to be around so many talented people making music and supporting each other’s work
IA: Every week I’m scrambling to keep up with events that are happening in the city and then I’ll read one of your post go “Holy Shit! How did I miss all this?!” How do you keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening? How do you manage to go to so many shows? What is your secret???
J: I whip out the G-cal whenever I see a flyer or when a friend tells me about something. I’ve been going to every event I could get to for about a year now so I see most things by chance.
I’m definitely skipping around a lot and I’ll do multiple locations in a night. Now that I have this newsletter, I have an excuse to take that to the extreme.
IA: Im trying to ask this question as unbiased as possible but its hard to do. Do you feel like mainstream music journalism is even relevant? Personally I feel like they aren’t incentivized to help in “discovering” new and exciting artist, but thats just me.
J: Yea I mean how many people are really turning to Pitchfork for new music? I’m not sure, but I’m certainly not one of them. And how often do they cover unsigned artists? Playlisting seems a lot more important. And press seems like it’s mostly helpful for artists pitching their potential to other parts of the music industry. But I don’t really know shit about shit.
IA: What’s your take on the whole classification of “indie sleaze” and its supposed “revival”?
J: If my friends need a buzzy sound bite / elevator pitch to help them pop off, indie sleaze is fine by me. I think the art will be better off if the artists don’t worry about categorizing themselves, though. I’d rather leave that to fans / writers in the future. I also just don’t think indie sleaze is that cool, and I don’t really want to be a part of a revival. Here’s a couple of the things I’ve said about it in my blog:
“‘New sleaze’ isn’t my favorite phrase. I’m worried about proactively placing a scene on the 20-year nostalgia loop. Following trend forecasters and explicitly chasing the past both sound like dangerous ideas, and I don’t think there’s actually that much overlap between this moment and that one.
But punks didn’t name themselves either, so if my friends go down as sleazers, it’s all part of the game. I’m just thrilled to know so many talented people making music.” ~ “If we’re gonna be indie-sleaze referential, can we at least vary up the branding a bit? I like the word ‘dirtbag.’ I’m intrigued by performers who are willing to play the villain—it’s an energy that certainly would not have worked in my circles a few years ago.”
IA: In an age of algorithms how do you find new and fresh artists/content?
J: Go to shows and talk to your friends.
IA: Obviously there are so many talented people playing shows right now, but if you had to name one act to go see live, who would you say to see?
J: Model/Actriz or Ernest Rareberrg
IA: Lastly, What does the future of YMI look like?
J: I don’t know what this project will be for me. I’m just journaling and sending it out to a bunch of people. I have no idea who most of my subscribers are, and I take comfort in knowing that I could drop it tomorrow.
At this moment, I’m living almost exactly as I would if my dreams had come true. I’m taking time to work on projects I care about. I have a bedroom. My roommates are nice. I like going to Tina’s, and I feel deeply rooted in a community of people making music. At the very least, this blog will be a powerful thing for me to look back on when I fully succumb to adulthood.