Last night I was out with some people, and one of them was Erica Plouffe Lazure, singer in The Dog House Band (pictured above), which is the Bennington MFA-based country-rock outfit whose membership also includes David Gates and Sven Birkerts. Unsurprisingly, the woman in the all-writers-band is herself–wait for it–a writer. Here’s “Evisceration Line,” a sweet (read=”sad”) short story at Keyhole magazine. And here’s a short-short at SmokeLong Quarterly, “Green Monster,” accompanied by a Q&A with Erica. Also, “Cadence,” in the thoroughly un-link-to-able (because it exists in the actual physical world) McSweeney’s #29. Finally, this is as good a time as any–better than some–to remind you that if you’re in New York, you should come see The Dog House Band play the Opium/Gigantic/Bomb Party at Bowery Electric this Wednesday, August 26th. Special guests will include John Wesley Harding, one of the Pierce Sisters, a short play directed by Ben Greenman, and other stuff that I can’t remember off the top of my head. But here’s the thing you click to get yourself a ticket. They’re ten bucks in advance, fifteen the day of, and “all pre-sales get free VIP access”–whatever the eff that means. Anyway, I bought mine, so I guess I’ll find out.