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garbagevanfleet · 3 years

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Brightest Blue (series)

PART SEVEN

Pairing: Josh x reader Warnings: men being shitty and creepy!! possible trigger for sexual assult Summary: Things are changing. New state. New school. New roommate. You just pray things are going to click into place. Notes: things are taking an odd turn, right? (sorry this is posted so late)

taglist: @valleyd0ll @satingrass-maidensfair @guitarfingers @thebohemianpenguin @peaceisouranthem @oblvions @hansonobsessed @myownparadise96 @lara-gvf @anditsmywholeheart @kill-fear-the-power-of-lies @bigblack-catattack

MASTERPOST

You woke up to the shrill chiming of an alarm cutting through your head like a circle saw. The unexpected noise made you sit up instantly, putting your gaze directly on a desk, the top of it overflowing with sheet music.

Josh started to stir next to you, his hand reaching out from under the blanket to grab his phone from where it sat in between you.

The sore spot on your ribs made you wince, and your eyes drifted down to find your own phone, pressed into the mattress from you sleeping on it.

When the screen flicked on, you let out a sharp gasp.

“Josh, we have like fifteen minutes to leave!” you yelped, hopping instantly out of bed and finding your knees a little wobbly.

He sat up then, rubbing across his face.

You gazed back at him, frowning at the odd setup; he was laying on top of the comforter but under a different blanket.

“Shit, I had yesterday’s alarm still set for my late class,” he murmured, inching himself toward the end of the bed.

“Oh my god,” you whined, racing to the bathroom. You brushed your teeth way too quickly, knowing in your heart that you did a poor job.

When you returned to Josh’s room for your phone, he was pulling a clean shirt over his head.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, sounding somewhere between asleep and awake.

“It’s okay, I should have set my own alarm,” you admitted, snatching your cell from the bed and scooting past him again. “It’s really okay. Are you going to be ready to leave in like ten?”

He nodded as he ran his fingers through his curls. “Yeah, you?”

“I’m praying.”

On the walk to school, you remembered.

“Fuck, my presentation is today. And I got high and didn’t practice.”

He chuckled under his breath, clasping his hand around your shoulder. “You’re going to be fine- just breathe and stay calm. If you mess up, take a pause and keep going.”

You nodded furiously. “Okay. Okay. Can you text that to me? What if I forget?”

He laughed in earnest then. “Yes, I’ll text you.”

You exhaled a lengthy breath, nodding as you tried to calm your nerves.

In front of the entrance to the B hall, he spun you around to face him, holding the biceps of each of your arms. He mimicked taking a deep breath, prompting you to do the same without another thought.

“Relax,” he instructed coolly. “And I’ll see you at lunch.”

+++

You had your hands clasped tightly in your lap, nervous enough that your palms were sweating. Getting up and speaking to a room of people was high on your list of things that felt like torture, especially since you hadn’t had time to shower or do anything with your mess of hair besides pinning it up into a bun as best you could.

You thanked a divine power that the outfit you had thrown on in a haste ended up looking surprisingly presentable.

As it neared your turn, you got your papers in order and straightened up your posture. When your name was called, you promptly stood, descending the steps and ending up down at the podium.

You had just opened your mouth to start when your phone chimed in your pocket. Your eyes popped open wide, hoping you’d hallucinated the sound instead of forgetting to silence your ringer.

The professor was giving you an unamused look as you gave a weak laugh.

“One sec, sorry,” you muttered, fishing out your phone. You flicked the little button down on the side, but as the screen lit up, you got to read what the message said.

Josh just now Just pretend everyone’s me or pretend they’re naked. Probably not both though.

You couldn’t help but huff a laugh as you tucked it back away. The nerves that had you so on edge started to dampen, just a bit.

+++

That afternoon, you walked home alone. Josh had texted you that he’d be staying until 5 or 6 to make sure the production was going along smoothly, but when he returned to the apartment, it was with a bottle of wine.

You were doing some of the dishes from the previous day and had to wipe your soapy hands on a dishtowel before he crossed the room and pulled you into a side hug.

The two of you had talked about how well the presentation went when you met at lunch, but you hadn’t imagined he’d make such a big deal about it.

“I had Jake pick me up and take me to the liquor store, and I got this so we could celebrate,” he informed, his voice kind of soft - either sheepish or tired, you couldn’t quite tell.

“You didn’t have to do that,” you replied, but couldn’t suppress the huge grin splitting your lips.

He nodded, offering a soft smile. “I know.” He set the bottle down on the table pointedly. “I wanted to.”

You fished the make-shift corkscrew from the utensil drawer, brandishing it like a knife to earn a melodic laugh from Josh.

He popped the door of the fridge open to peer inside. “We might be able to make something special for dinner. Or, at least more special than mac and cheese or sandwiches.”

When the idea popped into your head, you crossed the room and grabbed your purse.

“I still have about,” you paused to count the bills in your wallet. “$34 from shopping. I was saving it for something nice, so why don’t we order something in?”

He grinned at you, leaning back against the wall next to the fridge and letting his head rest against it. “What kind of take-out are you thinking? You should get to pick.”

“Oh, please,” you huffed, playfully rolling your eyes as you started unwrapping the foil around the rim of the wine bottle. “One, I could have never done so well if it weren’t for you. And two, you’re from here, so you’d know what’s worth ordering.”

His pink lips tilted up into a smirk. “I’m not from here though.”

“Close enough.” You took a moment to think before continuing on. The tip of the corkscrew was broken, leaving a blunt edge and he watched you struggle to pierce the cork with it. “Is there any kind of Indian? Or Thai maybe?”

He nodded. “There’s an Indian restaurant downtown. It’s pretty yummy if I remember right.”

“That kinda sounds perfect, right?”

He held his hand out, flicking his eyes down at the corkscrew and then back up at you until you reluctantly handed it over. He picked up the bottle and popped it open with ease, his smirk only growing.

“Yeah, perfect.”

+++

Thursday evening, Trevor showed up around five, just as you were finished making your bedroom look like a cute study nook. You weren’t entirely sure how much studying either of you planned on doing, but since he only brought one notebook and nothing else, you weren’t very hopeful about getting any work done.

“I wasn’t expecting you to have a roommate,” he said in a playful tone.

“I do. When I moved here, I knew I couldn’t afford to live alone, so I rolled the dice. He’s a great friend, as it turns out. Do you want something to drink?” you asked as he stepped through your doorway and set his stuff down on your bed.

“That’d be cool.”

“We have juice and milk and water and iced tea.”

He shrugged with a smile. “Anything but milk, please.”

You nodded. “I’ll bring you some juice.”

Josh, who was seated in the sitting chair in the living room, working on his own homework, looked up at you through his eyelashes with a mischievous-looking smile.

You shot him a scowl. “Don’t be weird,” you whispered, and then in a normal tone, finished with, “Would you like some juice too?”

He huffed a laugh, shaking his head at you. “That’s okay, I can get my own. You just worry about him.”

Trevor happily took his glass as you handed it to him, giving you a “thank you”.

“Of course,” you replied as you sat next to him on the bed and pulled your stack of textbooks onto your lap. “Where should we start?”

“You actually want to study?” he mused, sounding disbelieving.

You bit your lip. “Probably for a little while at least, right?”

He shrugged back at you, but you tried to brush off the odd attitude. Maybe you’d given him the wrong impression as to exactly what this would be, but you could fix it.

“So, we’re supposed to read chapters ten through sixteen and then do all the questions,” you informed, flipping the book open. “You want me to read it out loud?”

You thought maybe offering to do most of the work would brighten his mood, but every time you looked over at him while you were reading, he was scrolling through his phone. He had a bored expression painted across his features, and it took him nearly a full minute to realize you’d stopped reading.

When he finally looked up at you, he gave a smile that you knew he thought was the most charming thing you’d ever seen.

You could hear a knock on the front door and Josh shuffling around in the living room.

“Have you been listening to any of this? You look like you’d rather be anywhere else.” You tried to keep your tone from sounding annoyed, but you knew you couldn’t hide it as well as you wished.

“I’d rather be doing anything else if I’m being honest.” There was not a single shred of an apology in his voice, and when you spoke again, you knew it would be even less put together.

“Why did you want to come over for a study session if you didn’t want to study?” It was less of a question and more of a scathing review of his character, or at least what you’d seen of it so far.

He frowned at you, looking a shade on the accusatory side for your liking. “I feel like you should have known what that actually meant.”

You could hear a conversation going on in the kitchen, and you silently wished you were out there instead. The longer you heard them talk, the more convinced you became that it was Jake, and you wondered if Josh invited him over on purpose, or if he just showed up.

“You said you thought I was good in class and that part of why you asked me out was so I could help you with classwork.”

He rolled his blue eyes. “Yeah, if I hadn’t, I can’t imagine you would have invited me over.”

You had your mouth open to snap a response, but somehow, his words hurt you. Not much, but just enough for your chest to feel tight, and not just from anger.

“Did you think you could manipulate me into having sex with you?” you asked quietly, your brows threaded close together in a frown.

He gave a long, bored-sounding sigh. “Don’t act like I’m a bad guy, here. Everyone does it. Give some fake compliments and then make your move, you know?”

For emphasis, he placed his hand on your thigh, a little too high up. It made your teeth clench, jaw tightened by rage.

“Don’t touch me. You should go,” you stated.

He huffed a sarcastic laugh as he inched his hand a bit further up your leg. He moved toward you until his face was nearing your neck. “Come on, what’s the big deal?”

Before you could stop yourself, you reached a hand out and slapped him across his face, your palm making contact with the hollow of his cheek. You hadn’t been expecting the crack of noise when you made contact; it ripped through the room, and out into the living area if you had to guess.

It took him a beat to realize what happened, but as soon as he did, he stood from your bed. You picked up his notebook and handed it to him, and he ripped it from your grasp, a dirty look on his features.

“You’re a cockteasing bitch,” he snapped, nursing the red spot on his cheek.

He was already halfway through the living room when you moved to stand in the doorway of your room.

“Fuck off,” you called through clenched teeth as he opened the front door and let himself out. When he was gone you realized that Josh and Jake were both looking at you with similar degrees of concern from where they were sat on the couch.

“What happened?” Josh asked, frowning up at you.

Embarrassed, you flicked your eyes over to Jake who had one eyebrow quirked up at you.

“Oh, you know. Just boys lying to me so they can fuck,” you snapped as you retreated to your room and closed the door. You instantly felt bad for being short with them, especially since Josh is just about the last person you could ever imagine being mean to, but you’d apologize later.

Right then, you were going to curl up in bed.

After a couple of hours, Jake left and you wondered how long it would take before Josh came in to bug you, but he didn’t. You listened for his footsteps coming toward your door, but you could hear him in the living room, turning the page of a book every now and again.

Eventually, you couldn’t help yourself - you threw the blankets off and stood. The stiffness in your muscles was a poor consolation prize for the day.

He looked up at you, shutting his book instantly, his homework caught between the pages.

“Hey,” he greeted quietly. He patted the spot next to him on the couch. “I’m sorry your...thing went so poorly.”

You were too annoyed to care anymore, so you laid your head on his shoulder, letting out a long sigh. It surprised you when you felt a tear drip down your cheek and you could feel your face start to warm in response.

He heard you sniffle and his form stiffened immediately. His arm wrapped around your shoulder, pulling you tight to him.

“Did he hurt you?” It sounded like Josh’s throat was tight, making his words hoarse.

“No, he just,” You weren’t sure how to finish that. He hadn’t really hurt you, per se. “He just tried to touch me. And then he didn’t stop when I told him to.”

“What?” His tone was charmingly offended on your behalf.

“It’s okay,” you assured, wiping your face with the sleeve of your sweater. “I’m more angry than anything. I just kind of can’t believe I fell for that, you know? The whole ‘let’s study’ thing.”

“Stop that - it’s not your fault.” You could feel the hesitation as he laid his hand against your ear, but you leaned into it, grateful for the comfort.

It was quiet for a long moment while you calmed yourself down. His presence was more of a reassurance than anything else you could have imagined at the moment.

“You’re my best friend,” you breathed, turning to nuzzle your nose against the fabric of his sleeve. “And I’m lucky to have you.”

Through a smile, you heard him say, “Me too.”

#brightest blue fic #josh gvf fic #josh kiszka #josh kiszka fic #gvf fic #gvf fanfiction #.0

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stevie-baby · 5 years

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Oh pleaseeee share your dreams, i got curious :(

Okay, so before I start I’m gonna drop a little disclaimer: I kinda believe in the idea of soulmates (platonic and romantic). I’m still pretty skeptical but I sort of buy into it a little, ya know? That’s very contradictory of me, but I need to let y’all know that before I get into this so I don’t sound completely insane and delusional. Now, on to the interesting part (I’m putting it under cut-off)…

I’ve had dreams since I was really little (like 6 or 7) about another life. In the dreams I was myself, but I didn’t really look like me. Ya know? I was a grown woman and I was dressed like a hippie (very different from the second grader who lived in hoodies and plaid shorts that I was in real life). There was also a man in a lot of these dreams. He was an eccentric singer with curly brown hair who also wore outdated clothing. I never really saw his face or heard his name, but I did know his name started with a J. The dreams were usually about watching him perform in clubs or other venues. Sometimes we would just be in our little apartment, reveling in some good ol’ domestic bliss. Anytime I looked at J I felt this intense love and pride and that feeling only got stronger as I got older. He was my everything; my sun, moon, and stars (he sure was a star and I know that the only time he ever got bashful was when I would remind him how spectacular he was). The love was mutual. J was always doing these grand romantic gestures and calling me sickeningly-sweet pet names. He was also very prophetic, he’d talk about how the universe brought us together and how I came to him when he needed inspiration most. That specific dream, when we were sitting on our balcony and he told me I was his muse, that dream fucked me up. I woke up crying, wondering where J was. It was all too real.

So to summarize the content of the dreams: I was the girlfriend of this singer, we were very much in love, and I assumed it was the 60s or 70s based on how we and the people around us were dressed. It was weird. The dreams didn’t come to me as often in high school, I don’t think I had another dream about my “other life” or J from the age of 13 until I was about 16. In that time I’d started to develop my style, I tended to dress more boho and I got really into older music. I also started to physically look more like I did in my dreams, but I didn’t realize that until I dreamt about the other life again. It was near the end of junior year (the beginning of 2017) when I had another dream. This time I felt different, I didn’t feel like the person I was in the dream was different from the person I was in real life. I almost thought it wasn’t another dream about the other life… until I saw J. Like I said, I had kinda forgotten about the other life, but as soon as I saw J (who I was still face-blind to) all of the emotions came flooding back. We chatted for a long time and before I woke up he leaned in and said “I’ll see you soon mama” …Do you see where this is going yet?

Well, about a month after that dream I heard Greta Van Fleet for the first time. I thought they were pretty cool and their music was really good. Like I said in the tags of that one post, Flower Power completely kicked me in the chest when I heard it for the first time. It is such a beautiful song. The tears would not stop and honestly, I thought I was just crying because my hormones were all out of whack and I was Going Through Some Things™ at the time. That still very well could have been the case. I could definitely feel something magical(?) about the band, but I didn’t immediately connect the dreams with them.

When I first got into GVF, I was sooo into Sammy boy. He is my type, or at least what I’m typically attracted to just alternate timeline versions of myself if I’m being honest. Also, Josh was cute but I didn’t immediately think of J. At the time, Josh had the undercut and rat tail and his wardrobe wasn’t as outlandish. I tried to put off actually getting into the band for so long. Like, I listened to their music and I also vaguely knew names and faces (I knew Sam’s at least) but I hadn’t watched any videos of them off stage. I was like “I don’t know if I have the emotional capacity to be obsessed with another band”. So when I finally cracked and watched an interview of theirs? Whew, my subconscious was going OFF. It was the beginning of 2018, I had known of the band for about a year (I had also tried to get tickets to see them in LA, but alas my parents said no. The first of many attempts to see this band. Still haven’t seen them btw). Josh had grown out his hair a bit by then and when I heard him talk, my brain just kind of shut down and said “that’s my sun, moon, and stars right there”.

The latest weird coincidence between the dream realm and GVF was when they released Always There. I was diligently trying not to listen to the snippets of the song or look at the lyrics that were floating around because I wanted to experience it when it was released. Alright, so I was enjoying another dream with J and toward the end of it he just said “soon” and I was sooooo confused. The next day I went on Tumblr and saw that everyone was saying that the band was releasing a new song that night. When I finally listened to the song I couldn’ t help but wonder if that was the “soon” that J was referring to. This is a kind of lazy connection, but I mean the song is about a woman in a dream.

Could my brain be projecting these weird dreams I’ve had onto this poor unsuspecting singer? Maybe. Probably. Do I think that Josh Kiszka is 100%, undoubtedly my soulmate? No, but it’s always fun to entertain the idea. I’m just saying there’s a lot of coincidences.

#anon thank you for giving me an opprtunity to talk about my weird (possibly prophetic) dreams #i have other actually prophetic dreams that i could talk about. i told nina i'd make a post about them but i never got around to it #let me know if you want to hear about my egg dreams (which are the reason why i tend to believe that my dreams are prophecies)

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thejustinmarshall · 6 years

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Greta Van Fleet Transitioning Into a Major Player on an International Tour

Interview by Danny Coleman

“It was definitely always a dream, it’s a lot of people’s dreams. I wish I had more of a memory of it because it’s always interesting to see, I mean, it’s happening now for sure. When you slow down and take time to write down things and save some of the memories, maybe take pictures or videos; it’s good because it is the dream but it’s becoming so much more personal, it’s surreal that’s what it is.”

Those are the words of Greta Van Fleet drummer Danny Wagner as he elaborated on the band’s explosion onto the national music scene, their new double EP, “From The Fires” and more prior to a recent show at Sayreville, NJ’s Starland Ballroom.

Formed in Frankenmuth, MI circa 2012, these young men have taken the music world by storm and have caught the attention of some of rock’s elder statesmen such as Elton John and Joe Satriani as well as the eye of many a festival and tour promoter across the globe. Their hard rockin’ sound has drawn comparisons to elite such as Led Zeppelin, something the band wears like a badge of honor.

“It’s a compliment for starters,” said a somewhat surprised Wagner. “I don’t know how much it really affects us as a band and as artists but I think we definitely take it humbly and as a compliment. I look at it like it could be so much worse (laughs). They were probably at their time considered the best rock band of all time and it kind of paved the way for a lot of following artists; they’re timeless and very well respected. We respect them very much very highly and they’re a very respectable band.”

When asked about the aforementioned Satriani (who listens to “GVF” on the tour bus) and being praised by rock royalty like Sir Elton John; Wagner had this to say. “It’s very humbling, these are the guys we grew up listening to; I’ve been listening to Elton John since I was a kid. Absolutely, classic rock, blues, funk, I listened to a lot of folk music growing up; so yeah it’s very cool. It is really flattering because we’ve received similar attention in the past but it was mainly local attention. Just the fact that we’re getting all of this contemporary attention and it’s coming from all over the world, I think that’s pretty cool. It’s reaching areas that I never expected to reach as a musician.”

With the recent release of their double EP, Wagner says that the group is going through a, “Transitional phase” and that by re-releasing the four songs from their first EP and releasing four new ones, the overall product acts as a segue from their beginning to their soon to be released first full length disc.

“Well, we released, “Black Smoke Rising” and we released it out of the blue; we had just recently signed with the record label, we didn’t really have much to expect from it because it was just four songs, just a little EP. It was starting to do very well and then we realized that it wasn’t a complete thought; there was more to us than that. So we were trying to develop a transition, a bridge and in doing so we discovered that if we added four more songs, a couple of covers in there, that we could start to pave the way into this new album which we are actually working on right now. We thought that, “From The Fires” would much more accurately finish where, “Black Smoke Rising” left off but it’s still an open thought because it’s not quite an album yet and we feel that an album is a complete thought.”

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The four members that comprise the group are Wagner, vocalist Josh Kiszka, guitarist Jake Kiszka and bassist Sam Kiszka and when it comes to the songwriting, Wagner says the load is shared which gives the band a nice versatility.

“We’re all multi-instrumentalists which is cool because that helps in the songwriting because the songs or at least the concepts can come from any four of us, four corners of songwriting potential which is great and that’s how we keep material coming because we all bring it to the table. If you’re familiar at all with The Beatles, it’s kind of Beatle-esque really and that’s the most fortunate way to do it because then all ego aside, you can bring your personality in and identify who wrote, or different styles within the song but when it all comes together it’s Greta Van Fleet. Josh ultimately writes all of the lyrics because he’s the lead singer and the one singing the lyrics and he’s a phenomenal writer and very quick too. He writes all of his lyrics in the studio which is kind of; I guess a little different. Usually you picture John Lennon in front of a tree with a feather ink pen in a garden writing down lyrics (laughs) but no, we use a marker in the studio last minute. we’ll say to josh, “Hey we need another verse” and he’s like, “OK hold on” and we get another verse. Our songs come from stories and ideas and it’s very easy to write when you have the general idea.”

Currently on the European leg of this tour, this is their second lengthy venture on the road and Danny says that the band sees the subtle differences that success brings.“Our first real full length tour was back at the end of September and we got back early to mid-November; that was our first time away from home. We just recently had a run in Europe and then we came back and now this will be our second real full run in the United States. The first tour went very well, it was still pretty early on so the types of shows were very scattered. We were still playing shows that were booked nine months prior so every once in a while we’d show up to a venue and the cap was at 175 people and then the next day would be a show that was booked more recently and it was a 3,000 cap. It was a bit different but this one we have high hopes for because we have a bit of hype going because we just recently played, “Coachella” and that’s pretty significant and that got the ball rolling a little bit; so yeah, I think leading up to this tour it’s looking good.”

One of those differences is the comfort level which Wagner says increases with each show as the foursome acclimates itself to life on the road and larger audiences.“Actually I definitely experienced some nerves,” he said with a laugh as he recalled the first show in front of thousands of fans.“It’s weird, each one of these shows is kind of like an actual milestone that you get to experience which is pretty awesome because everything is happening so quickly. Once we played a show for thousands of people it seemed easier to do it again. Meeting some of the people that we’ve met, all these different types of people help; once you’ve done it, it’s easier to do it again in the future.”

So how do four young guys from Michigan who are all less than a handful of years removed from graduating high school arrive at a name like Greta Van Fleet? “It comes from a woman, a town elder, a matriarch I guess if you will. She is actually in her mid-eighties now, she’s just a local woman. She was a name that was brought up at the time when the band had our first gig booked and we needed a name. It was just a name that had been heard earlier that week and we decided to take the second “N” out because linguistically it made more sense and that’s all there was to it. We dropped an “N” and used it as a name and I think it stuck because we feel it has certain qualities; it’s very ambiguous where it kind of leaves you not exactly sure of what you’re about to hear so you come into it with an open mind. She is actually a musician herself and she came to the first show. People saw her name on the marquis and started calling her asking if she was performing so she decided to come check us out; she stayed for an entire set and gave her blessing which is very cool.”

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Greta and the band come from what can truly be considered, “Small town America”Mid-western style; something which Wagner quickly attributes to the closeness and success of the group to date. “Yeah, the town has between four and five thousand people and there’s not really much in the terms of a music scene but I do believe there are a lot of creative scenes which has to do with the way the landscape of the town is set up and its location. The overall makeup of the town allows for creation. The schools, the town, the people, the overall community and I think a lot of it comes from that; it inspires creativity. Growing up we spent a lot of time outdoors because we lived out in the country and there are a lot of key characteristic Michigan events that affected us, so yeah, there was plenty of creative outlets.”

When asked about expectations at a GVF show, Wagner says it’s a work in progress but that they continue to improve the product with every performance.”We’ve spent a lot of time in the studio and I think that’s helped us quite a bit but now we are advancing, becoming more of a live band and putting on a different type of show.. I mean, we have a lighting crew now and we’re upping our tour game. I think for a lot of upcoming shows the audience can expect an experience to develop and a whole lot of noise (laughs).”

To learn more about Greta Van Fleet, please go to www.gretavanfleet.com.

Danny Coleman (Danny Coleman is a veteran musician and writer from central New Jersey. He hosts a weekly radio program entitled “Rock On Radio” airing Sunday evenings at 10 p.m. EST on multiple internet radio outlets where he features indie/original bands and solo artists.)

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