Will Bryant

Founder and Executive Editor (the logistics guy)

I tell everyone that I live vicariously through musicians as I have no musical ability outside of the didgeridoo and some grammar school recorder/handbell expertise. But I love it. I consume massive amounts of it on a daily basis. In college, I graced the same airwaves as Howard Stern at WTBU and worked at a few venues and record labels. After school I managed a few of my favorite bands and released the original Knocks From the Underground compilation complete with a huge concert to celebrate local music in Boston. I am launching this site to help promote and share music, mostly the amazing stuff that gets overlooked by the masses. I am open to all types of music so please, please, PLEASE send me new stuff.

Feel free to contact me on Myspace or Facebook.

Becky Firesheets

Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief (the creative lady)

Before Knocks took over my life, I wrote as a freelance music journalist and fiction author, with publications in The Boston Phoenix, The Northeast Performer, The Deli, someothermagazine.com, and The Undercurrent. I'm currently working on my first book, a futuristic dystopian novel centering around music, but all other writing endeavors are focused on Knocks. I also work as a freelance tutor and babysitter. I LOVE music, growing up playing piano and tenor sax, but realized writing is my true passion and am psyched to combine both in such a fun way. Please contact us if you want to contribute anything, and always send us new CDs. I love rock, electro, hip-hop, bluegrass, jazz, blues, soul, funk, on and on. If you make music, we wanna hear it.

Oh, I'm also insane about my two cats and my puppy. That's him in the pic!

Sam Houghton

Promo/Concert Co-Director (the Myspace and outreach dude)

I enjoy fine walks on the beach and tall glasses of whiskey. I enjoy listening to music excessively loud, especially the 50s, 60s and early 70s grunge, psychedelia, blues, funk and reggae genres. The Rolling Stones are the greatest musicians of all time. I might believe in God only if his name were Keith Richards. I once thought I could be a writer and I always loved walking around New York City on hot summer days with my Blues Brothers Ray-Bans. There seems to be a certain energy to the place. So, I combined all my interests, moved to Brooklyn and started writing for this fine organization. I’ve struggled to find work. I eat a lot of hot dogs and potatoes and drink a lot of Pabst. However, I find that I enjoy being poor because it gives me an excuse for solitude and to begin writing romance novels about past loves. I play bass and hang out with rock-stars.

Liz Levine

New York Assistant Editor (also a creative lady)

I'm originally from Tucson, a delightful Southwestern town with great local music, and for some years have been enjoying the slightly larger NYC scene. Though a talented triangle player, I leave most of the creative work to the pros and spend my time attending shows and consuming writings on music history and current acts. I co-edit the website lizandlaura.com, where I write about music, pen poetry, and cover a number of humorous topics, and have written for theowlmag.com, imposemagazine.com, and Movmnt magazine. I've also got a day job in publishing, and spend my free time watching bad movies and admiring other people's dogs.

Faetra Petillo

Promo/Concerts Co-Director (the Twitter, Facebook and outreach gal)

I am a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor. I earned my BA in Journalism and Theatre from Fordham University in 2006 and since then have worked as a contributing writer for The Cinema Source, BroadwayWorld, Tonic News, and Artistic Things (among others). I’ve also authored four plays: “Rise/Reconcile,” “Last Stop,” “Goodnight, Mr. Bluebird” and “We’ve All Cried on the A Train,” as well as a whole slew of poetry which I am currently compiling into a book along with some of my photography. When I’m not writing, I’m tutoring and teaching art to special needs children. Though completely talentless in the area myself, music has been my number one passion for a very long time and the closest thing to a religious experience I can describe. I’m mostly a fan of the indie/folk rock variety but hold deep appreciation for all its forms.

John Walsh

Art Director (the drawing and logo guy)

All characters were created by our good friend, John Walsh. He has done all artwork used on the site and the work for the Boston compilation. For more information on his artwork, contact him at: jrjrdesign@gmail.com

Michael Bradshaw

Michael Bradshaw's writing has been described as transcendent prose with a raw sexuality that seizes the ineffable and rapes it. He holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and works as a poetry editor for Filtered Language magazine and a freelance writer/producer for television. In 1989, Bradshaw earned the quarter-finalist title at the Nintendo Power World Championship. Do not step to him on Tetris. Srsly.

Ross Edwards

Ross is from the desert, and came to the east to study jazz piano at NYU. He loves lots of music, jazz, classical, and otherwise, and luckily has lots of interesting friends to play with. Ever since seeing metal band Meshuggah seven short years ago he’s had a hankering for all things strange, experimental, and exciting in the music world, and he hopes to be a part of it whenever possible through performing, writing, or listening. He also has a soft spot for anything beautiful or sad, musical or otherwise, and if you hear weeping at the next Clint Eastwood movie, that’s probably him. He loves addressing himself in third person and hopes that you will someday address him in third person too.

Lisette Johnson

Lisette grew up in the woods of southern Ohio, and made her way to New York for college in hopes of changing the world through words. She graduated from NYU with a BA in journalism and literature, and now freelances to pay her Brooklyn rent. She's a senior contributor to New York Times research books, writes for various community newspapers in the city, and takes on odd jobs here and there. Music is essential for life. Writing is essential for life. Knocks rules.

Nora Lindner

Nora E. Lindner was born in upstate NY, but moved southwards to study film and religion at Vassar College outside of NYC. She is a music junkie and an avid concert-goer (avid being defined as having a packed and at-the-ready survival ‘line kit’ for pre-show vigils lasting over six hours). A writer by nature, Nora has fed her passion for music by venturing into music journalism as a contributing writer for Shoutmouth, Baeble Music and, of course, Knocks. Recently, she has also starting her own fan friendly blog, Love Your Fans, which allows fans to share experiences of their treatment by bands and music venues. She hopes to continue these and similar pursuits after graduation, and explore careers in music management and merchandising. In her spare time, Nora’s other interests include advocating against intimate partner violence, playing keytar, obsessing over men’s fashion and watching videos of kittens online. 

 
John Mabery

John Mabery was born and bred in northern New Jersey, a place that no matter how frequently he tries to escape, he knows he will always come back to, which is just fine by him since good diners don't exist outside of north Jersey.  He enjoys Cape Cod and aspires to write a novel some day.  He once combined these two loves by locking himself in a cottage next to a graveyard in Chatham for 72 hours in order to get a couple of pages written.  This method, in turn, inspired Justin Vernon to lock himself in a cabin during the recording of For Emma, Forever Ago.  Did John mention that he believes Justin Vernon can do no wrong?  This January, John promoted his first concert, the aptly titled "Johnaroo," which was to benefit special needs programs.  He hopes to continue promoting unsigned acts in an effort to spread music that doesn't insult one's intelligence.  John can also be found playing "Donkey Kong" during the daytime. 

Ben Salvo

Alabama born but Brooklyn bred, Benjamin Salvo has been exposed to the indie music world since tyke-hood, and still enjoys the struggle of the local musician almost as much as he enjoys Marvel Comics from the nineties and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.  His parents were small-time prog-rockers in Brimingham, AL back in the 70s and 80s, and they filled Ben’s head with everything from the Beatles to Bob Marley to Devo to Def Leopard.  He’s been a record store clerk and a campus radio DJ, and he’s even tried out writing and producing an album (which would have to be pried from his cold, dead fingers).  Ben writes music reviews and occasional intellectual pseudo-humor, all of which funnels into his blog, Salvograms.

Vandal Truong

Vandal was born in Saigon, Vietnam and came to The States as a wee lad. His mother took one glimpse of Headbanger's Ball when Ronnie James Dio was screaming into a microphone with a mechanical dragon on stage behind him and she quickly forbid Vandal to play a music instrument. But in naming your son Vandal, some rebellion is bound to happen. Since then Vandal has become a screenwriter, playwright, sports reporter, wannabe music journalist, and all around thrill-seeker (so long as there's no danger of course).

He recently received the Audience Choice Award as well as Best Original Screenplay at the 2009 Hollywood East Film Festival for his short film "White Rabbit," a small human drama about a brother and sister reuniting at their father's funeral to confront their past. Music has always been a major part of Vandal's life despite only being able to play Shelia E.'s "Glamorous Life" on the keyboards. Vandal spends way too much time eating various amounts of cheese and drinking any kind of beer. He loves animals and hopes to one day have a pet pig named, naturally, Dio.

Joseph VanBuren

Being an indie musician and a freelance writer, blogging about underground music seems to make perfect sense. I am the founder and head honcho (yup, that’s my official title) of Sykophunk Productions and involved in three different music acts. Two years ago, I published a chapbook of poetry; this year, I’m hoping to publish a collection of short stories. I never finished college, but I read textbooks that I bought on Ebay for my own personal studies. Yeah, I’m kind of a nerd but not quite cool enough to be a geek. I think of myself as a motivated slacker, regardless of whether or not that actually makes sense. Any music that is creative and passionate is cool with me, genre is not an issue. I enjoy discovering new artists - I am a fan just as much as a musician. Also, I am addicted to orange juice.

Kieran Fallon

Originally from the Greater Poconos area of Pennsylvania, Kieran has lived the past 11 years in Portland (Left Coast) and Boston, specifically Allston Rock City. Kieran's hobbies involve wearing colorful clothes, sometimes wearing glasses, and sometimes not. He likes guitars that are needlessly complicated.

Django Gold

Django Gold is a paid business journalist and an unpaid writer of many other things. He enjoys music, exercise, books, cooking, watching baseball, and telling jokes. He doesn’t enjoy any of the following: bacon, Pabst Blue Ribbon, zombies, denim jackets, facial hair, fun. He wishes people would realize that the ukulele is not a good instrument.

Aldo Morazan

I'm what you can call a “Jack of all trades, master of none.” I write short stories, poems, songs, and sing. I play guitar, ukelele, mandolin, harmonica, bass, a bit of piano, and recently bought a concertina on line (can't wait 'til it gets here). I'm a rock and roll historian in my own right, and enjoy too much booze when things go wrong.