from Allerton Avenue in 3D, released March 1, 2022
About "Allerton Avenue"

Serene: "I went back east this December for my niece's wedding and the combination of visiting my childhood chums and listening to a lot of Dion (also from the Bronx) and a lot of Bo Diddley not from the Bronx but who invented the braggadocio that is the bedrock of rap, which is from the Bronx, not to mention "Say Man") led to this song and this album project.

I started to think about what life might be like if I maybe retired in the Bronx and got a little apartment on Allerton Avenue, not far from where gangs like the Fordham Daggers and the Fordham Baldies roamed (Dion says he was a member of both in his youth). I Googled it and the first news story I saw was about someone getting stabbed in the neck so maybe not a lot has changed.
The idea of checking out with pared down possessions in a crime-infested neighborhood in the Bronx seemed like a pretty bleak prospect at first but I was determined to make it sound cool. Somehow in this fantasy Bronxonian tale, I also whittled my whole record collection to 27 albums, that's 3 more than the K-Tel Record Selector (another childhood fascinator) will hold!

Because I was also well into Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger album, I decided I needed to experiment with tremolo. I borrowed this little Peavey amp from David Jordan (Bad Brains) who has lived in my house since August. That amp is all over this record. It's cheap and has a lot of built-in effects that can be cheesy, but it forced me to play live through an amp which affected the sound of the whole album project. Thanks David!

The 3D bit is from my childhood bestie Tommy McCormick who I visited in apartment 3D back in December. To live in an apartment that is 3D is a lot cooler than 2D where all the beverages go flat and rock can never roll.”