Andy Shernoff was always the main creative force behind one of New York’s best bands ever, the Dictators. He wrote the material and sang the leads. In the royal line of succession for NYC bands in the ’70s, they came along right after the birth of the New York Dolls. Every bit as raw, noisy and in-your-face as the Dolls, there was one thing the Dictators didn’t share with David Johansen and Co.: their sense of fashion. Rather than climb on the glam bandwagon, the Dictators dressed in leather jackets, jeans and T-shirts and paved the way for the punk revolution of 1977. Shernoff is doing the solo thing these days, with a new single called “Are You Ready To Rapture?” He’ll also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Shernoff: I like iconoclastic bad-asses in any field. Pharyngula is a confrontational blog run by biology professor PZ Meyers who doesn’t mince words when it comes to superstition, religion, evolution deniers and climate-change skeptics. He confronts them and demolishes their lies and delusions with the fury of an ultimate fighter and the precision of a brain surgeon. Though he is widely popular in the science blogosphere, his articulate defense of reality deserves an even wider audience. Science is the new rock ‘n’ roll.
Video after the jump.
