JERSEY BEAT'S VIDEO EYES

2010-11-29T21:58:00.006-05:00

For Rock N Roll Gas Station, please visit rnrgasstation.blogspot.com

Jersey Beat's Favorite NJ Albums, EP's, and Singles of 2010

TOP 10 NEW JERSEY ALBUMS:

Screaming Females – Castle Talk

Gay Blades – Savages

Val Emmich – Looking For A Feeling You Never Knew You Needed

River City Extension – The Unmistakable Man

Readymade Breakup – Readymade Breakup

Black Water - Disasters

Steel Train – Steel Train

Full Of Fancy – Liquid Nature

Black Wine – Black Wine

Noun – Holy Hell

SINGLES & EP’S

Roadside Graves – "You Won’t Be Happy With Me" EP

The Front Bottoms – “Slow Dance To Soft Rock” EP

Jack Skuller – “Love Is A Drum” EP

Brick + Mortar – “7 Years In The Mystic Room” EP

Black Wine – “Tornado”/”Windy” AOTU single

Full of Fancy – “Hermit Love”/”Marriage” AOTU single

Invisible Lines – “Wise Up” EP

Waking Lights – “The Rabbit Hole” EP

Bern & The Brights – “Swing Shift Maisies” EP

Anthony Walker – “The Sea Goes On Forever” EP

2010-11-18T21:22:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of November 17, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Screeching Weasel - Punk Rock Explained
The Queers - GG Was A Wimp
GG Allin - You Hate Me & I Hate You
Egghead - My First Action Movie
The Measure (SA) - Do The Hustle II
Black Wine - Tornado
Nude Beach - No Change
Max Levine Ensemble - Tragedy Of The Anti-Commons
Transgressions - 17
Glory Bound - More Ian MacKaye, Less Ron Jeremy
Washington Squark Park - Loan Slavery
Boys Club - Hand In Hand
Wyldlife - Girls In Fedoras
Billy Raygun - Flashlight
The Brokedowns - Apocalypse Seaside Heights
Bad Religion - The Day The Earth Stalled
Full of Fancy - Hermit Love
The Give Ups - Drink Too Much
Ergquist - Your Star Is Killing Me
Geoff Useless - Don't Stop
The AV Club - Ear To The Speaker
Braceface - Rat Pack
Wire - 2 Minutes
The Thermals - Never Listen To Me

2010-11-09T18:33:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of November 11, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Black Wine - "Windy"
Bastards of Melody - "Around You"
Cropduster - "Never Can Tell"
Neil Nathan - "Do Ya"
The Measure (SA) - Powerlines
Care Bears On Fire - ATM
Full of Fancy - Marriage
Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby - Do You Remember That?
The Thermals - Never Listen To Me
pointfive - Omni Impotent
Walking With Cavemen - Heart Attack
Peter Case - Ain't Got No Dough
Randy Newman - Political Science
John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves
Deer Tick - Unwed Fathers
Dale Earnhart Jr. Jr. - Nothing But Our Love
Dom - Burn Bridges
Nude Beach - Story Of A Man

2010-11-02T20:20:00.004-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of November 3, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Loudon Wainwright III - Suddenly It's Christmas
Superchunk - Horror Business
The Howlies - Zombie Girl
Ben Franklin - Urgency
Black Wine - Pick At Pieces
Byrds of Paradise - Barefoot Generation
Screaming Females - A New Kid/Zoo Of Death (Daytrotter Session)
Waking Lights - The Sound
Kate Jacobs - Buy Gold
Dave Schramm - Long Story Short
Peter Holsapple - Don't Call Me Pete
Braids - Lemonade
Corin Tucker - Riley
Bridges & Powerlines - I Remember A Blue Sky

2010-10-18T22:36:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of October 10, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Turbo Fruits - Where The Stars Don't Shine
Black Whale - Rattle Your Bones
Oberhofer - Away FRM U
Japandroids - Heavenward Grand Prix
Cast of Glee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Impossible Hair - You Can Own
Mini Boone - The Other Summer
The Vaselines - I Hate The 80's
Brian Huber - Snuggies
The Black - Love Don't Need A Reason
The Debutants - Everything's Perfect
Sensual Harassment - Fever
The War On Drugs - This History Of Plastic
Sentient Machine - James Brown New Year's Bash

2010-10-05T21:48:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of October 7, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Pansy Division - "That's So Gay"
Tom Robinson Band - "Ain't Gonna Take It"
Screeching Weasel - "I Wanna Be A Homosexual"
The Glee Cast - "Only The Good Die Young"
Gaslight Anthem - "Songs For Teenagers"
The Henry Clay People - "Switch Kids"
None More Black - "Iron Mouth Act"
The Worm Quartet - "Ballad of Dr. Stopp"
The Twilight Singers - "Blackbird & The Fox"
Philistines Jr. - "If I Did Nothing But Train For Two Years, I Bet I Could Be In The Olympics"
Gang Of Four - "Never Pay For The Farm"
The Give Ups - "Shitfaced & Out Of Luck"
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - "The New Teller"
The Front Bottoms - "Swimming Pool"
Clare & The Reasons (with Van Dyke Parks) - "He Needs Me"
Jim Testa - "I'd Like To Be A Christian"
Flashbulb Fires - "Pyramid Scheme"

2010-09-27T21:27:00.001-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week Of October 1, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

The Gay Blades - Wasted On The Youth
The Pomegranates - Prouncer
Richard Barone - Radio Silence
Jimmy Eat World - Invented
Screaming Females - Sheep
The AV Club - Not Your Heart
Geoff Useless - Tell Me What
Val Emmich - Grown Up Man
The Cast of Glee - Baby One More Time
Hanson - Thinkin' Bout Somethin'
Tris McCall - WFMU
Speed The Plough - The River Will
Voxhaul Broadcast - Leaving On The 5th

2010-09-16T20:35:00.001-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of Sept. 16, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Screaming Females - The New Kid
Harvey Danger - The Show Must Not Go On
The Drums - When I Come Home
The 88 - Center Of The Sun
Superchunk - Hot Tubes
Urge Overkill - Effigy
The War On Drugs - Comin' Through
Tim Kasher - Cold Love
Val Emmich - Next To Me
The Autumn Film - Ships On The Ocean Floor
Hot Panda - Mindlessnesslessness
D.J. Miller - A Little Naughty Is Nice
Eternal Summers - Pogo
Mariage Blanc - Whatever You Say I Am
Marmoset - Doo Wop
Red Hot Rebellion - Built To Rock

2010-09-08T21:41:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of September 9, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Carolyn Messina - The Fall
Mark D. Conklin - September 12
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Kenyata Sullivan - Good Night Twin Towers
Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer

Airplane Noise - One Cup Of Coffee
Alan Cohen Experience - Einstein
Clothes Make The Man - Dreamless Night
Delicate Steve - Butterfly

Rock Child - Pearl
Wyldlife - Girls With Fedoras
The Rummies - Too Old To Die
The Shins - Goodbye Girl
Scarlet Johansen - Bullet

2010-08-29T21:14:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Labor Day Weekend 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

We're back with a new episode. It's the end of summer so tune in, turn on, and enjoy.

Bad Books - You Wouldn't Have To Ask
The Baseball Project - Do The Triple Crown
Foxymorons - Say It Aloud
Colin Munroe - I Would Die 4 You
The Fold - Empire State of Mind
Dirty Projectors - I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
Ben Kweller - It All Happened
Ducktails - Art Vandelay
Waking Lights - Where It All Began
The Front Bottoms - Swimming Pool
Free Energy - Bang Pop (Fool's Gold Mix)
Dead Confederate - Run From The Grave
Elsinore - Yes Yes Yes
Gold Panda - Snow & Taxis
Scarlet Johannson - Bullet

2010-08-01T16:57:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of August 5, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Allan Sherman - Let's All Call Up AT&T And Protest To The President March
Tom Lehrer - Pollution
Phil Ochs - I'm Not Marching Anymore
Pete Seeger - Garbage
Dr. Frank - Cingular Wireless, Worse Than Hitler

Avi Buffalo - What's In It For?
Dead Uncles - Flatlining
The Laureate - Outdoor Miner
The Aye Ayes - On The Run
Black Mountain - the Hair Song
Gospel Claws - Summer Nights Lakeside
The Knocks - Make It Better (remix)
Neon Hitch - Drop It Like It's Hot

The Methadones - On The Clock
The Riverdales - Master Ninja
Kurt Baker - Turning Japanese
The Max Levine Ensemble - Tragedy Of The Anti-Commons

Saves The Day - Let It All Go
Tris McCall - The NJ Dept. of Public Works

2010-07-27T21:53:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of July 28, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Egghead - My Daughter Can Mess Up Your Daughter
Ben Vaughn - Koko Joe
Free Energy - Free Energy
The Prisoners - Teenage Skeleton
The Skeletones - It's The Little Things
Dead Mechanical - Last Show
Yacht - Nausea
X - The World's A Mess (It's In My Kiss)
Stuyvesant - Liar's Poker
Dylan leBlanc - If Time Was For Wasting
Ivan & Alyosha - Beautiful Lie
Teenage Kicks - Teenage Kicks
The Thermals - I Don't Believe You
Heavy Young Heathens - Make Room For The Youth
The Stolen - Make Up Doll
The Biters - Hang Around
Meridene - Gone Baby Gone

2010-07-21T19:52:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of July 22, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

The Great Explainer - Michael Jordan 666
The Challenged - ...And Justice For Paul
Banquets - What A Bunch of Aaron Burrs
Fluffy Lumbers - Harry Dollard's
The Americans - Not Still In Love
The Waffle Stompers - Big
The Measure SA - Powerlines
Tub Ring - Stop This ((NOW))
The Call Out - This Is Who We Are
Flore - Cars
Radical Sons - I'm So Sick Of The 21st Century
Neil Young - Don't Cry No Tears
R.E.M. - Driver 8
Brothers Young - Good Deeds
The Anchor - Opposite of Awesome
Barrakuda McMurder - Volcano

2010-07-14T20:52:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of July 15

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Screaming Females - I Don't Mind It
Campaign - Best Luck
The Holy Mess - A Soulful Punk Tune About A Working Class Dreamer
Noun - Brother
Egghead - Stuck Inside A Stuckey's
Boilerman - Stop Drop & Roll Won't Save You
Prima Donna - Crimson Lust
J Roddy Walston & The Business - Don't Break The Needle
Feelies - The High Road
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Egyptian Reggae
Real Estate - Fake Blues
Ducktails - Mirror Image
Fluffy Lumbers - Harry Dollard's
Prawn - Arctic Foxes
The Fugs - I Couldn't Get High
GDP - Raining In My Head
Tim Fite - We Didn't Warn You

2010-07-08T19:40:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of July 8, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Best wishes to my brother on his retirement from the North Hudson Fire Department!

Johnny Paycheck - Take This Job & Shove It
Tom Petty - I'm Walkin'
Rolling Stones - I'm Free (live)
Exit She Calls - You're No Pig Champion
I Call Fives - Easy To Say States Away
Paul Rosevear - What A Wonderful World (live)
Julian Lynch - In New Jersey
Kevin Devine - She Stayed As Steam
!!! - AM/FM
Trilogy - Ride Around Town
Campaign - Best Luck
R.E.M. - Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
Survey Says - Game Over
Deluka - Nevada Recall Main
Sidewalk Dave - 750ml Spirit
Modern Skirts - Rebecca St. Claire

2010-07-01T21:48:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of July 1, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Happy 4th of July. A totally non patriotic show for this week!

Val Emmich - E.S.T.
Steel Train - Bullet
Violens - Acid Reign
ARE Weapons - Mr. Creature
Hold Steady - Rock Problems
Bern & The Brights - Sangria Peaches
Clover Street Saints - Broken Memories
The Emotron - Drink A Beer For Me
Endless Mike & The Beagle Club - This Machine Kills Pacifists
Jukebox The Ghost - Empire
The Kills - Pale Blue Eyes
The Feelies - The High Road
Future Islands - In The Fall
Grieving Eucalyptus - When I Was Ten
The City & Horses - A Thousand Lashes

2010-06-23T22:49:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of June 24, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

This is our Insubordination Festival episode, playing non-stop pop punk from bands who'll be playing the Insub Fest this weekend in Baltimore.

Full of Fancy - People Die
Houseboat - I Wanna Work On The 13th Floor
Nightbirds - Living In The Middle
The Challenged - Lost In The Music
The Sandworms - Born & Raised & Trapped With You
The Automatics - Hanging Out At E.J.'s
Charlie Brown Gets A Valentine - Rock Anthem For The Kids
Dirtbike Annie - Whatever Makes You Happy
The Hamiltons - Hello Ice Cream
Dead Mechanical - Addict Rhythm
the Dopamines - Glendora
The Max Levine Ensemble - Summer Like The Season
The Pillow Fights - Knock Knock
Smokejumper - Good Enough
The Quarantines - Outer Space
The Copyrights - Switchblades
The Creeps - Follow You Home
Fear of Lipstick - Summertime
Head Home - Airplane Rider
Less Than Jake - Landmines & Landslides
MC Chris - Emo Party
Old Wives - I Don't Wanna Be Lazy
The Proteens - Nothing But Trouble
The Queers - Ursula Finally Has Tits

2010-06-15T22:26:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of June 17, 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Happy Father's Day! We present a set of tunes featuring parents and children - fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, starting out with a dedication to my dad.

Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey - "I'll Be Seeing You"
Nancy Sinatra - "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"
Jakob Dylan - "Something This Way Comes"
Bob Dylan - "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"
Eddie Skuller - "Face In The Mirror"
Jack Skuller - "We Are"
Kaitlyn Raido - "Hating You"
Foggy Otis - "On The Road Again"
Rufus Wainwright - "I'll Build A Stairway To Heaven"
Loudon Wainwright III - "Down Drinking At The Bar"
Anthony Walker - "Rosie"
Chris Cubeta & The Liar's Club - "Hang Down Your Head"
Neutral Uke Hotel - "King of Carrot Flowers"
Amanda Palmer - "Idioteque"
Film School - "Heart Full of Pentagons"
Jim Testa - "Positively First Street (Hoboken Song)"

2010-06-06T15:51:00.005-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - June 6

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

It's the Great Pop Punk Debate - how does the new crop of bands branding themselves "New Jersey Pop Punk" stack up against "old school" Ergs-style NJ pop-punk? We play a sampling of both new and old-school pop-punk to let you decide.

Bright And Early - Something Personal
Washington Square Park - No Medication
Those Mockingbirds - Honest? Honest
I Call Fives - 2 Days Or A Lifetime of Failure
Man Overboard - 5 Girls Pizza

The Hextalls - We're The Castle Crashers
The Dopamines - Basement
The New 45 - Dream Girl
The Tattle Tales - Dave Mustaine
The Ergs! - It'll Be OK

Rick Barry - All Of Your Mistakes Have Names
April Smith & The Great Picture Show - Wow & Flutter
The Amboys - Drunk Mistake
Bouncing Souls - Ghosts On The Boardwalk

Aaron Peta - I'm Not A Hipster
American Restless - Cadillac Head
Ben Kweller - Launch Ramp
People Eating People - I Hate All My Friends

2010-05-30T21:06:00.003-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of June 3

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Playlist

Pavement - Summer Babe
MGMT - Brian Eno
River City Extension - Adrianne
The Amboys - The Right Track
The Femurs - Peter Wolf

God Damn Doo Wop Band - Menage A Prom
Free Energy - Bang Pop
Good Old War - My Own Sinking Ship
Sara Watkins - The Late John Garfield Blues
Roadside Graves - Reno (The Sundowner is Closed)

Jody Porter - Cars On The Motorway
Joan Jett - Roadrunner
Loch Lomond - Ghost of An Earthworm
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Nightswimming
Jack Skuller - Love Is A Drum

2010-05-25T00:41:00.003-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of May 27 2010

Listen on BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

We start this show with a salute to Jersey City with some of our favorite Jersey City artists from today and yesterday, and end with a salute to John Prine.

Darren Deicide - "The Streets Are Yours"
Black Water - "Drugstore Model"
Plug Spark Sanjay - "Hit It Now"
Nathan Carpenter - "I'm Gonna Smoke My Problems To The Filter"
Tris McCall - "The Ballad of You and Me and Brett Schundler"
Cycomotogoat - "Stardust"
Dirt Bike Annie - "Whatever Makes You Happy"
The Old Man & His Po' Buckra - "Who's Your Friend"
Spent - "Excuse Me While I Drink Myself To Death"
Alan Cohen Experience - "Einstein"
Mouse Fire - "True I May Have Lost It"
Richard Youngs - "Love Is The Great Outdoors"
White Ravens - "Tick Tock"
John Prine - "Let's Talk Dirty In Hawaiian"
Deer Tick - "Unwed Fathers"
Johnny Cash - "Sam Stone"

2010-05-19T22:48:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of May 20

BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Bright Eyes - At The Bottom of Everything
John Prine - Bottomless Lake
Coffee Project - Easy Does It
River City Extension - Ballad of Oregon
Tim Fite - We Didn't Warn You
Rhubarb Jones - The Convict
The Street's On Fire - No One's Fucking To The Radio
Chambers - Ripper
Drink Up Buttercup - Young Ladies
Apples In Stereo - Dance Floor
Esquela - Commies Stink
Full Of Fancy - Trophy
Steinways - Today Is The Day We're Getting Married (live)
The Frontier Brothers - You Should Start A Band
Steel Train - You & I Undercover
Hold Steady - We Can Get Together

2010-04-29T18:50:00.003-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of April 29

Listen:
BlowupRadio.com Thursday 10 pm, Sunday 7 pm, Monday 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Monday 1 and 8 pm, Tuesday 7 pm

Roky Erickson w/Okkervil River - "John Lawman"
Lights - "Puerto Escondido"
It's A King Thing - "Vegetarian"
Blackwater - "Drugstore Model"
The Meltdowns - "Slut"
One & Only Typicals - "Get Bent"
Ben Franklin - "Tell Us How You Really Feel"
Invisible Lines - "Clean Up The Mess"
Black Francis - "Lake Of Sin"
The Dwyers - "Merry Go Round"
Adams Dagger - "David Icke Was Right"
Killed By The Bull - "Falling Is Fun"
Ramona - "Kids In Tokyo"
Adrenalin OD - "Lets Go, Tokyo!"
Methadones - "Take Me To Japan"
Caddy - "Turn Up Your Radio"
Cletus - "Turn Off Your Radio"

2010-04-19T22:20:00.004-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station
Week of April 22

Listen:
BlowupRadio.com Thursday 10 pm, Sunday 7 pm, Monday 6 pm
www.ThePenguinRocks.com - Monday 1 and 8 pm, Tuesday 7 pm

Blur - "Fool's Day"
C-Mon & Kypski - "Turn Of the Tides"
Goldishack Guerillas - "Lazy Fat Stupid Americans"
MGMT - "Delirium"
Yoko Ono - "Give Me Something (Junior Boys Remix)"
Friends Romans Countrymen - "The Day Footstone Died"
American Standard - "Bishop Song"
Footstone - "Airbag"
Noun - "Holy Hell"
Real Estate - "Suburban Beverage"
Rooney - "I Don't Want To Love You"
Stegosaur - "A Headache"
Ben Kweller - "It All Happened"
The Americans - "The Antidote"

2010-04-01T22:05:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of April 1

BlowupRadio.com - Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

This week, our salute to Alex Chilton, and my favorite bands from SXSW2010...

Frankenstein 3000 - "In The Streets"
Gin Blossoms - "Back Of A Car"
Alex Chilton - "Bangkok"
Bangles - "September Gurls"
Ted Leo - "Ballad of El Goodo"
Teenage Fanclub - "Jesus Christ"
Big Star - "Mod Lang"

Glass Trees - "When A Man Loves A Woman"
Cymbals Eat Guitars - "Indiana"
Titus Andronicus - "Theme From Cheers"
Shannon & The Clams - "Blast Me To Bermuda"
Turbo Fruits - "Sadie"
13th Floor Elevators - "Fire Engine"
Roadside Graves - "Jail"
April Smith & The Great Picture Show - "Terrible Things"

2010-03-09T21:57:00.003-05:00

BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Last Days"
Star & Micey - "Carly"
Night Driving In Small Towns - "Come & Tell Me"
Univox - "Pi"
Tension Envelopes - "High"
Care Bears On Fire - "Everybody Else"
Titus Andronicus - "Titus Andronicus Forever"
Bishop Allen - "The Monitor"
The Depreciation Guild - "A Key turns"
Footstone - "Mad-G"
Killola - "Personal Graveyard"
Moldy Peaches - "New York City Is A Graveyard"
Antennas Up - "This Way"
Crime In Stereo - "Type One"
The Wrens - "Faster Gun"
1986 - "Black Spring"
The Mommyheads - "Spiders"

2010-03-08T21:30:00.008-05:00

Jack Skuller and Rex Detiger

The Kids Are All Right (In Fact, Downright Scary)

The Cake Shop is running an all-ages series on Sundays called Let Them Eat Cake, and this week the showcase featured four bands that prove that there's no age limit on rock n roll. "All Ages" used to mean under 21, and that usually meant teenagers, but nowadays you've got to roll that back to 'tween. And as young as the musicians were, the predominantly female audience were all younger (except, of course, for the sizable number of parents scattered throughout the room.)

Care Bears On Fire, the girl group from Park Slope who headlined the show, are ages 13 and 15; Izzy, the group's drummer, emceed the afternoon event with the poise and stage presence of Bette Midler. Really. She's that good. And the band rocks like a cleaned-up version of the Runaways, all of the rock but none of the raunch. Hello daddy, hello mom!

Supercute, the opening act of three girls who hula-hoop and wear frilly ribbons, are ages 13 and 15, and their Casio-powered sugar-coated pop hits the twee button pretty hard. But 14-year old Jack Skuller, who performs with 15-year old drummer Rex Detiger (or Rex Da Tiger, as Jack calls him,) swings like a junior high throwback to the days of malt shops and sock hops; his rock 'n' roll heart beats with the blue-eyed soul of rock 'n' roll's Fifties forefathers. I believe this was Jack and Rex's first full gig, but they whisked through the set with the command of stage veterans, rocking out to their debut single "Love Is A Drum," a new song called "Second Hand Smoke," and - joined by Sophie of Care Bears On Fire - a sizzling cover of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You."

The big-news band of the day featured Nat and Alex Wolff, aka TV's The Naked Brothers Band. At 15 and 12, the Wolff Brothers fit right onto this bill - although they did have adults playing with them on bass, guitar, and keyboards. (And unlike the other basically unknown performers, these kids have already had their own television show.) But forget the hype; I was impressed, by their musicianship, their vocals, and especially, their songwriting. The Wolffs performed an entire set of new material, and it all rocked. Accompanied by a teen violinist, Nat sang a Dylanesque number called "Violin Boy" with some awesomely clever wordplay, while Alex sang a surprisingly touching love song he'd written called "Thump Thump Thump." These kids are the real deal, and it will be interesting to see what happens to them without the TV show to promote themselves.

2010-03-03T21:28:00.003-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Ladies Night

Now, an extra replay on Monday nights at 6 pm!

BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Join me for an hour of my favorite songs from the bands you read about in Jersey Beat - both today and back in the day.

April Smith & The Great Picture Show - "Drop Dead Gorgeous"
Becca - "It's Alive"
Joan Jett - "Light of Day"
Black Wine - "Haunted"
The Measure (SA) - "Workage"
Blondie - "Dreaming"
Eve's Plum - "Cherry Alive"
Full Minute of Mercury - "That Song (Is Stuck In My Head)"
The Little Death - "Why My Baby"
Kaitlyn Raido - "Hating You"
Julia Nunes - "Through The Floorboards"
Rebecca Turner - "Not Too Late"
Patches N Gretchen - "Time of The Lilacs"
Wild Carnation - "saab Story"
Helen Love - "Let's Go"
Bette Midler - "One For My Baby"

2010-02-28T14:30:00.002-05:00

New! An extra replay on Monday nights at 6 pm!
BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, Mondays at 6 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm
Join me for an hour of my favorite songs from the bands you read about in Jersey Beat - both today and back in the day.

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of February 28

Tris McCall - "Mountainside"
River City Extenstion - "Friends & Family"
Wreckless Eric - "My Hometown"
Bruce Springsteen - "My Hometown"
Cymbals Eat Guitars - "Ballad of Nothing"
Burning Hotels - "Austin's Birthday"
Communipaw - "Take Over"
My Son The Bum - "It's My Hobby"
Nada Surf - "Electrocution"
Portugal The Man - "The Dead Dog"
Shout Out Louds - "Fall Hard (Passion Pit's Summertime Radio Remix")
The Americans - "Diamond"
Golden Bloom - "30 Lives"
The Motion Sick - "Doomsday Devices"
Sweet Apple - "Do You Remember"
The Steinways - "Fruitmarket Fantasy"

2010-02-17T21:32:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Week of February 18

BlowupRadio.com - Thursday nights at 10 pm, Sundays at 7 pm
ThePenguinRocks.com - Mondays at 1 pm and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Prosolar Mechanics - "Primer"
Pretty Boy Thorson - "The Best Part of Getting Drunk"
Mini-Boone - "Rosalina Must Dance Alone"
Moldy Peaches - "New York City Is A Graveyard"
Vulture Whales - "Amerikerr"
House Boat - "Are You Into Metal?"
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "The Mighty Sparrow"
Drew & The Mechanical Pen - "Spotlight"
Fairmont - "I Melt With You"
the Hextalls - "Mark Wilson"
Roadside Graves - "Little Girl"
Blood Feathers - "The Same Mad Part"
The Izzys - "Tear 'Em Down"
Julia Nunes - 'I Think You Know"
Akron/Family - "Woody Guthrie's America"
Ringo Starr - "Have You Seen My Baby"
The Morning Benders - "All Day Daylight"
Vampire Weekend - "Ruby Soho"
Frankenstein 3000 - "Never Talking To You Again"

2010-02-11T20:57:00.006-05:00

Rock N

Roll Gas

Station

Valentine's

Week

Special

Thursday 10 pm, Sunday 7 pm - www.blowupradio.com
Monday 1 and 8 pm, Tuesday 7 pm - www.thepenguinrocks.com

Val Emmich - Don't Let Go
April Smith & The Great Picture Show - The One That Got Away
Paul Rosevear - Drag This Anchor
Roadside Graves - Liv Tyler
Bear Hands - Can't Stick 'Em
Footstone - Mountain Man
Schocholautte - Spin The Bottle
Screaming Females - No Being Disgusting
Lacksatives - An Elephant Never Forgets
Los Campesinos! - Laura Palmer's Prom (Los Campesinos Mix)
Tris McCall - The Ballad of Frank Venieri
Spoon - Got Nuffin
Vampire Weekend - Holiday
Patches n Gretchen - Tired of Chicken
Shellshag - Rock N Roll Saved My Life
Dave Patten - Wait Jenny
True Love - Second Of One

2010-02-03T21:10:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - February 4

Thursday, 10 pm, Sunday 7 pm - www.blowupradio.com
Monday, 1 and 8 pm, Tuesday 7 pm - www.thepenguinrocks.com

Buddy Holly - "Mailman Bring Me No More Blues"
The Big Bopper - "Walking Through My Dreams"
Wreckless Eric - "Crying Waiting Hoping"
The Paley Bros. with The Ramones - "C'mon Let's Go"
The Real Kids - "Rave On"
Los Campesinos - "There Are Listed Buildings"
Mini-Boone - "Cool Kids Cut Out The Heart Itself"
Black Wine - "Belong"
Crazy & The Brains - "Saturday Night Live!"
Jeffrey Lewis & Laura Marling - "Brain Damage"
The Lillingtons - "I Need Some Brain Damage"
My Son The Bum - "The RIAA Took My Computer Away"
The Living - "Play By The Rules"
PJ Bond - "You Too"
Sex Wing Starfighter - "Same Old Hope"
The Sheckies - "Better Than Star Wars"
The Negatones - "Carbon Freeze"
Alice Donut - "No More Room"
Anthrophobia - "Jesus Boom"

2010-02-01T00:36:00.013-05:00

Hoboken For Haiti Unites Local Musicians For Good Cause

by Jim Testa
On Sunday, January 31, the City of Hoboken, WFMU, and the Guitar Bar helped promote two benefit concerts to aid the people of Haiti. They both took place at Maxwell's, the first in the afternoon for the younger set featuring childrens-music acts like The Fuzzy Lemons, Big Jeff, and the Garden Street Children's Choir.

In the evening, the grownups too over... well, sort of. One of the most impressive performers early in the evening was 'tween rock Jack Skuller, whose rocker dad has been appearing in Jersey Beat reviews since the 80's. Jack looks a bit like a younger Nick Jonas and sings like a mix of Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson. He's got a smooth drummer who can swing, and that counts for a lot; most 15 year old drummers play like robots. Watch for Jack Skuller's debut single this April on Bar None Records.

Regulars from the Hoboken music community - and it really is more of a community than a scene these days - brought their best, from Dave Calamoneri's bluesy folk to Abbe River's chanteuse classic rock, to jaunty western swing from Smokey's Roundup, bedecked in cowboy regalia with a very low-key (but legendary nonetheless) Anton Fier on the drums.

A Brooklyn trio dressed in brown, with the flavorful name of Schocholautte (they also brought yummy chocolate chip cookies for a buck),started out as a pleasant but pretty typical Brooklyn indie pop combo until they cranked it to 11 on the final song and started flailing around stage like the vintage Who on a bad meth trip, bringing a psychedeliccally supercharged proceedings that this old-school concertgoer enjoyed quite a bit. If you wind indie gentility, you've always got Animal Collective. If you're looking for showmanship, tag along with me sometime.

The surprise of seeing Anton Fier at Maxwell at the same time as two Feelies was weird enough; then throw in a surprise appearance by gruff, unkempt, and grumpy-as-ever Bill Ryan, formerly of Hoboken's premier indie record store of the Eighties, Pier Platters, a being as legendary (and as rarely seen) in Hoboken these days as a Sasquatch. The Mayor of Hoboken showed up for a while, as did former reform mayoral candidate Tom Vincent. They didn't seem to speak any more than Fier and Mercer, but it says something that they were at least both at the same event.

Let's share some pictures, and then I'm going to hit you right between the eyes with a video.

Jack Skuller

Jack Skuller

Dave Calamoneri

Abbe Rivers

Smokey's Roundup (with Anton Fier)

Schocholautte

Schocholautte

Glenn Mercer and band

Jennifer Lampert

Jennifer Lampert

2010-01-30T18:08:00.002-05:00

Dromedary Records announces Haiti benefit compilation

Check out this great compilation from our friends at Dromedary Records. The comp can be downloaded from www.dromedary-records.com for only $9.99 beginning on Feb. 3.

Haiti Benefit Compilation - Track Listing!
Sat Jan 30, 05:55 PM

We’re proud to announce the track listing for Make the Load Lighter: Indie Rock for Haiti.

The compilation will be released on WEDNESDAY, February 3 on the Dromedary website, and shortly thereafter at all finer online music retailers. All proceeds will be donated to Vwa Ayiti (Voice of Haiti).

The track listing is as follows:

1. Footstone: “For the Boss”
2. Boss Jim Gettys: “With a Smile”
3. Cuppa Joe: “Taniqua”
4. Moviola: Calling on the Line
5. Three Blind Wolves: “Sex is for Losers”
6. Paula Carino: “The Great Depression”
7. Wallendas: “Adrianne”
8. The Neutron Drivers: “All Around the Sun”
9. The Dark Brothers: “Knee Deep in Sin”
10. There Will Be Fireworks: “Foreign Thoughts”
11. Gena Rowlands Band: “Fuckups of the World Unite”
12. The Mommyheads: “Spiders”
13. Farewell Singapore: “Blue”
14. Jenifer Convertible: “St. Pete”
15. lions.chase.tigers: “To Their Blood”
16. Stuyvesant: “Salieri”

2010-01-28T20:58:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Jan. 28

Thursday, 10 pm, Sunday 7 pm - www.blowupradio.com
Monday, 1 and 8 pm, Tuesday 7 pm - www.thepenguinrocks.com

Screeching Weasel - I Wrote Holden Caufield
The Impediments - Leann
Boy Genius - Ramons Saves The Day
Canadian Invasion - Juvenalia
Jay Reatard - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
The King of Rocksprings - The Perfect Guy
Man Overboard - While You Were Sleeping
Schooner - Feel Better
Veil Veil Vanish - Anthem For A Doomed Youth
Bouncing Souls - Never Say Die/When You're Young
Boss Jim Gettys - Johnny's Double Kick Drum
Emanuel & the Fear - Dear Friend
The Houston Brothers - Confederate Dunce
Besnard Lakes - Albatross
The Tallest Man on Earth - King of Spain
Wakey Wakey - Clinton Street Girl
Rihanna - Redemption Song

2010-01-18T15:22:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - New this week

Monday 8 pm, Tuesday 7 pm - www.ThePenguinRocks.com
Thursday 10 pm, Sunday 7 pm - www.BlowUpRadio.com

Drew & The Medicinal Pen - "Paper Pockets"
Anthony Fiumano - "The Movie Universe"
Boy Genius - "Ramona Saves The Day"
Val Emmich - "Don't Let Go"
Black Wine - "Cockroach"
Ben Franklin - "Tell Us How You Really Feel"
Festipals - "Playing Last"
Max Levine Ensemble - "How About A Shrieking Polecat?"
Vortis - "Walking Down Lincoln"
Shellshag - "Resiliant Bastard"
LandSpeedRecord - "Kathy's Affection"
Automatic Children - "Solitude"
the Sheckies - "I Need Xanax"
Screaming Females - "I Do"
Used Kids - "Dancing Off the Edge Of The World"
Sick Sick Birds - "Hearts & Their Minds"
Sandworms - "Neither"
Dopamines - "you Must Be Joking"
Dan Bryk - "Discount Store"
Impulse International - "Pretty Girls"

2010-01-12T21:26:00.003-05:00

Meet Bear Hands

I discovered the Brooklyn band Bear Hands about a year ago, at a show at Webster Hall's Studio, and liked them a lot. The songs were catchy but very dancey, the bassist did this cool thing where he doubled on percussion, the singer doubled on guitar and a Korg synth, the guitar parts were quite original... I even asked their publicist at the time if they wanted to do an interview, and the band replied that they'd rather wait until they had something to talk about.

Then the band wound up having a very quiet year (although they did perform at the Village Voice's Siren Fest in July) and I didn't hear much about them again.

This past Monday, though, I was invited to see Bear Hands perform a few songs at a studio in Brooklyn called The Rumpus Room (I can't even tell you what part of Brooklyn we were in, but it was farther south than I've ever gone on the R train, under an elevated highway and across the street from a live poulty market.) Cantora Records will be releasing Bear Hands' new album in February and apparently this studio was shared by the label and some video artists, who set up a papier-mache forest for them to do a video shoot.

My friend Jason (sometimes known as the electroclash artist Poingly) was there and we talked a bit about his music blog, which you should definitely all check out - The End Of Irony.net. Especially since I "borrowed" this photo from him.

I felt like a pair of brown shoes in a room full of tuxedos, as the meet 'n' greet was populated entirely by 20something hipsters, several of whom looked like they stepped directly out of an Urban Outfitter catalog and all of whom seemed to be texting, tweeting, or otherwise twiddling with smart phones the entire evening. But I did get to chat a bit with Dylan and TJ, the lead singer and drummer, and really enjoyed meeting them. They were both very down to earth guys who seemed genuinely glad that people had come to this out-of-the-way studio on a weeknight to see them, and I will be eagerly waiting to check out their new album.

2009-12-09T22:09:00.002-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station Playlist- Week of December 9, 2009

Listen on www.blowupradio.com Thursday, 10 pm, and Sunday, 7 pm
www.thepenguinrocks.com on Mondays at 1 and 8 pm, Tuesdays at 7 pm

Mod Fun - "Give" - Futurepresent

Lawrence Arms - "Demon" - Butt Sweat & Tears EP

Body Language - "Huffy 10 Speed" - Speaks

Footstone - "Unraveled"

The King of Rocksprings - "The Perfect Guy" - The Milkman Vs The Postman Syndrome

Bouncing Souls - "Never Say Die/When You're Young"

Boss Jim Gettys - "Johnny's Double Kick-Drum" - Tigrebeat

The Wrens - "Silverware" - 90-09

Tris McCall - "WFMU" - When The Night Falls

Wallpaper - "I Got Soul, I'm So Wasted" - Doodoo Face

Surfer Blood - "Floating Vibes" - Astro Coast

Ted Leo - "Even Heroes Have To Die"

Longwave - "Disappointed" - Paw Skeleton EP

Barrakuda McMurder - "Oh My, You Guys, My Job Is So Annoying And My Life Is So Hard, You Guys" - More Songs About Girlfriends & Volcanoes EP

White Stripes - "Fell In Love With A Girl" - White Blood Cells

The Serlingtons - "Parlor City Blues" - Dukes Of Haggard

Tris McCall - "First World, Third Rate" - When The Night Falls

2009-11-24T23:09:00.003-05:00

HUB CITY REDUX:
New Brunswick Veterans Rock the Court Like It Was 1999

As part of the build-up to the forthcoming documentary Cruel But Fair about the New Brunswick indie scene of the mid- to late-Nineties, three seminal Brunfuss bands reunited last night. The old joint was packed with faces that habituated the Court ten and 15 years ago, in what seemed like a high school reunion - except, as Bionic Rhoda's Brett Neilly noted, these were people you actually liked and wanted to see again.

All three bands sounded great - Aviso'Hara wreaking its unique sonic mayhem, in the great tradition of the band constantly threatening to fly off the rails into total dissonance but always pulling it back at the last moment; Boss Jim Gettys (who, amazingly, didn't play my favorite song, "Johnny's Double Kick Drum," WTF????) proving yet again that they were the Hub City's ultimate bar band; and Bionic Rhoda, with their impeccable fusion of pop, funk, jam, and indie rock. Typical of Court shows of that era, everything ran late and I had to miss the second half of Bionic Rhoda's set to catch the 1:30 am train back north, but at least I got to hear my favorite BR tune, "Chili Dog."

Ding dong, ding dong.

Celebrating New Brunswick In The 90's
A Special Episode of Rock N Roll Gas Station

To help mark the launch of Cruel But Fair, Stuart Wexler's upcoming documentary about the New Brunswick scene of the Nineties, we've put together this special episode of Rock n Roll Gas Station. Download the episode as a podcast here.

Deadguy - Police Story
Buzzkill - Big Takeover
Kid With Man Head - Wuss
The Stuntcocks - Punk Rock Guy
Aviso'Hara - Drop The Mids
Boss Jim Gettys - Half Baked
LandSpeedRecord - The Deaf Want To Know
Prosolar Mechanics - The Body Spills
Loose - God Of Anyone
bobfields - Road Map
Evelyn Forever - Spin
Footstone - Ivana
The Wrens - I Married Sonja
Bouncing Souls - In Your Face
Bionic Rhoda - Gummi Joe
3 To 6 Inches - Might As Well
The Milwaukees - Cosmonaut
Buzzkill - Rock N Roll Gas Station

2009-11-17T01:19:00.001-05:00

2009-11-16T23:19:00.003-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station

One Hour of Indie Rock with your host Jim Testa

Tuesday, 1 pm - www.ThePenguinRocks.com
Thursday, 10 pm - www.Blowupradio.com
Monday,1 and 8 pm - www.ThePenguinRocks.com

Week of November 16, 2009

Loudon Wainwright III - Suddenly It's Christmas
Anthony Fiumano - The Movie Universe
Bionic Rhoda - Douglass Fresh
The Ergs! - Dullards & Dreadful Prose
The Measure SA - Get It Together

Aviso'Hara - Boys On Their Way Down
Black Wine - Couch Critics
Boat - We've Been Friends since 1989
Steel Train -You & I Undercover
The Dimes - Abigail, Don't Be Long

House Boat - 30 Going On 13
Higher Giant - The Bad Investment
Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School of Medicine - Terror of Tinytown
Boss Jim Gettys - Johnny's Double Kick Drum
The Bouncing Souls - Big Eyes
Adrenalin OD - All Right Tokyo!!
Girls - Lust For Life
Ike Reilly - The War On Terror & The Drugs
The Chinese Stars - Thanksgiving Day Massacre

2009-11-08T16:04:00.009-05:00

Modern Hut

Where Has All The Pop Punk Gone?

Double Dagger, Black Wine, Night Birds, Dope Body, Modern Hut - Maxwells, 11/7/09

Various ex-members of the Ergs, Hunchback, and For Science showed off their new bands at Maxwell's this weekend, on a bill that included two inventive post-punk trios from Baltimore, Double Dagger and Dope Body. And not surprisingly, many of the familiar faces from the local Pop Punk scene were in attendance, including former or current members of the Marshmallows, Steinways, Psyched To Die, Short Attention, Sandworms, and others, as well as the redoubtable Lawrence Livermore, who deemed the event important enough to temporarily lift his embargo about traveling to Jersey for shows.

This showcase represented not just a changing of the guard for the local pop-punk scene but also a good harbinger of 2010, since most of these bands will be nearing their debut full-lengths in the near future. And the first thing you noticed is that no one's playing much in the way of pop punk anymore.

Modern Hut

Joe Steinhardt (ex-For Science) and Chelsea Lacatena (Short Attention) have teamed up for the acoustic combo Modern Hut, playing low-key, laconic, often ironic folkie tunes which often recall the self-deprecating wit and dour worldview of anti-folker Jeffrey Lewis. Chelsea's lovely voice provides a perfect counterpoint to Joe's gruff, barely in tune singing, and the single acoustic guitar really lets the lyrics come to the forefront. I'm really looking to hearing the first recording from these two.

Dope Body

Baltimore's Dope Body looked like a throwback to 1992-era CBGB's, what with the band's ironic porn-star mustaches, the lead singer's sinewy torso, and a bludgeoning post-punk reminiscent of the days when Helmet, Unsane, and their ilk ruled the scene. They're certainly not the first guitarless band I've ever seen - just voice, drums, and bass - but I will say that their bassist did things I've never seen or heard before. Playing through a rack of effects pedals and working at the top of the neck, he created sounds that transcended the usual division between bass and guitar, hitting octaves and creating sounds that propelled the band's furious throbbing songs. Back in the days of AmRep this band might have been huge, but I'm not sure the market for muscle, sweat, and thud is what it once was.

Night Birds

The Night Birds - featuring Brian Gorsegner (ex For Science) on vocals, Joe Keller (ex-Ergs) on bass, and Mike Hunchback on guitar - provide a showcase for Brian to exorcise his inner Ian MacKaye, as the band rages through old school hardcore (minus the metal edge that wound up subsuming NY/HC in the Eighties.) Think, maybe, early Underdog or Gorilla Biscuits - just a good excuse to mosh around the floor a little and flair your arms while the band stampedes through high-speed solos and undulating bass runs.

Black Wine

Black Wine is the highly anticipated trio that unites Ergs guitarist Jeff Schroeck with his just-married wife Miranda (ex Hunchback)on drums and Jay Hunchback on bass. (Weird how every ex-Erg has started a band with at least one ex-Hunchback, with Mikey Erg's Psyched To Die completing the triptych.) Falling somewhere between a reinvention of classic rock (they covered Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath," fer chrissakes) and pure garage, the band's already got a slew of standout numbers, including the romantic "Chauteau Of Ghosts" (which references Brill Building 60's pop), the 60's garage groove of "Haunted," and a cool instrumental theme song.

Double Dagger

Headliner Double Dagger turned out to be another Baltimore combo without a guitarist, just bass, drums, and vocals. Again, "post-punk" probably comes as close to a genre tag as anyone's going to get, with the singer's flamboyant embrace of the audience (literally - he kept walking intot he crowd and hugging people) the band's keystone. Parts of it reminded me of early Talking Heads and there's definitely some sort of damaged art-rock going on there, but the delivery is explosively loud and spastic. Interesting? Very. Am I going to run at the next chance to see them? Probably not.

2009-10-03T23:08:00.007-04:00

Cymbals Eat Guitars:
Is This It? (Yes, It Is)

It's hard to believe that one review on Pitchfork catapulted Cymbals Eat Guitars from midweek gigs at tiny clubs to national tours in major venues and opening slots for the likes of Wilco and Flaming Lips in England. And of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes, that Pitchfork review kickstarted some interest, but this band has been working its ass off, going through wrenching personnel changes and sharpening its sound over the last few tumultuous months. Things have been happening so quickly - the band's been raved about in the NY Times, Village Voice, NY Press, AV Club, and more music blogs than I can count - that you wonder how they've been keeping it all together.

On the basis of tonight's performance (CEG has been opening nationwide for The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart for the last few weeks) at Webster Hall, none of the fire has gone out of frontman Joseph D'Agostino or his bandmates. The quartet attacked its material like it was the first night of tour, not the penultimate stop, pouring passion and crispness into every song. To be honest, the band's appearance about a month ago at the new Brooklyn Bowl (part of Insound's anniversary celebration) seemed more of an event, and the crowd seemed a bit more intense (with more singing along.) That's probably because the pricey ticket tonight meant that most of the concertgoers were there for the headliner, but the sizable number of early arrivals stood rapt and attentive throughout CEG's set. If they weren't fans when they got there, they were by the time they left.

It was my good luck to become acquainted with Joseph when he was a frustrated high schooler, recording demos in his basement under the name Joseph Ferocious. A few of those songs remain in CEG's set - revamped or rearranged, but still with the same intensity and melodicism - and it's been a real treat to watch this band catch on and experience so much success so quickly. I'll go so far to say that Cymbals Eat Guitars is a better live band right now than the Strokes were in 2001 (that's not saying much, since the Strokes were never much of a live band, even when they were setting the world on fire,) and Why There Are Mountains (which has its official release later this month) is a better record than Is This It. The world turned its eyes to NYC in 2001 and the Strokes were there to cash in; with CMJ 2009 on tab and a kamikaze assault on SXSW already in the works for 2010, my guess is that the world will be looking our way again very soon.

2009-10-03T22:47:00.004-04:00

Lily and Pat Carbone performing at Jersey Idol

Jersey Idol: Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow

Jersey Idol - Crossroads, Garwood NJ - Saturday, October 3

I had the pleasure today of serving as one of the judges at a Battle of the Bands competition as part of a benefit for St. Huberts Animal Shelter.

The contestants were vying for several prizes - a chance to sing the national anthem at a Somerset Patriots minor league baseball game (won by Elaine Magentiren,) a recording session at Soundwaves Studio (won by Sebastian Rivera,) and a consultation with a local management company (won by the hard rock band Kickdown.)

The contestants ranged from grammar school kids to teens to adults of all ages, and we judges didn't have an easy time picking the winners. Elaine, who sang "Ave Maria," had a beautiful voice with impressive range, but she vied against quite a few singers who impressed us with their voices. There were two full bands, but we liked Kickdown's style and chops a little more. Sebastian River is a young NJ singer/songwriter who reminded me of David Archuleta; he has the kind of pipes and charisma that could take him to the finals on the real American Idol.

Hopefully you will be reading about all of the winners as well as a few of the other contestants on JerseyBeat.com. In the meantime, please visit the sponsors St. Hubert's Animal Shelter and make a donation (or adopt a pet.)

2009-10-01T21:08:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 19

Jemina Pearl - I Hate People
Alex Kerns - Girls That I Want To Meet
Feelies - Let's Go
The Subjects - Winter Vacation
The Boys Club - Alone In My Principles
The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
Dan Costello - Two Buck Chuck
Boy Genius - Olde New England
Bouncing Souls - Like The Sun
Ben Franklin - Tell Us How You Really Feel
Landmines - Gunz of Brixton
Nude Beach - Skeleton Handshake
Used Kids - I Miss My Records
Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay
Showaddywaddy- 2 4 6 8 Motorway
White Denim - Wet Sand
Art Brut - Weird Science

Listen on www.blowupradio.com Thursday at 10 pm, and www.thepenguinrocks.com on Mondays, 2 and 9 pm.

2009-09-24T19:08:00.003-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Sept. 24

Catch the show Thursday night at 10 pm on www.blowupradio.com
or Mondays at 2 pm and 9 pm at www.thepenguinrocks.com

Ben Franklin - "Ghosts"
The Dimes - "Damrells Fire"
Golden Bloom - "I'll Get You"
The Creetons - "In My Basement"
Fitz & The Tantrums - "Breakin' The Chains of Love"
Harvey Danger - "Diminishing Returns"
Kurt Vile - "Freak Train"
Tris McCall - "The Ballad of Frank Venieri"
The Subjects - "Winter Vacation"
The Pixies - "Here Comes Your Man"
Morningbell - "Marching Off To War"
Mission of Burman - "1 2 3 Party!"
Roadside Graves - "Take A Train"
Poconos - "Sweetheart"
Any Day Parade - "Where We Fall"
Dear Landlord - "Begging For Tips"
The Sheckies - "Orlando"

2009-09-20T22:10:00.003-04:00

Hardcore rules, ok?

YOUTH BRIGADE, The Casualties, Off With Their Heads, Detournement - Asbury Lanes, Sept. 18, 2009

I love when an old-school hardcore band like Youth Brigade comes through on tour. A few things happen: First, the hardcore punk underground crawls out from the underground and you see things that you never see at shows anymore: Libery 'hawks, studded leather jackets, circle pits, shirtless moshing, and of course the exuberant gang singalongs. The other thing is that the event becomes a true "all-ages" show, with an audience that ranges from kids in their teens to crusty veteran punks older than me.

The whole show was fun, from the Bad Religion-esque whoa-oh choruses of Chunksaah Records' Detournement, to the frantic pop/punk of OWTH, to the early 80's throwback insanity of the Casualties, who turned Asbury Lanes into a CBGB Sunday hardcore matinee circa 1981.

And Youth Brigade still rock, with a nearly 30-year discography of feisty, fist in the air punk-rock songs that range from furious political agitprop to plain dumb fun. The band was touring behind BYO Records amazing box set which includes the documentary film "Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records," a photo-filled historical booklet detailing their 25-year history, and a compilation CD of BYO's greatest hits. Well, not hits, of course; no label has remained this feistily indie, DIY, and underground, and its survival is definitely a feat that everyone who considers themselves "punk" should salute.

2009-09-16T23:25:00.004-04:00

Cinema Cinema

Two By Two (By Two)

Cinema Cinema, Fugitive Souls, Status Green, Future Future - Blender Theater, NYC - 9-17-09

This was an interesting night, three Jersey bands (and one from Brooklyn) showcasing at the Gramercy Theater in front of a very sparse audience, sponsored by the Village Voice and WXRP-FM ("The New York Rock Experience," and a quick look at the station's website shows Hockey, Muse, Patti Smith, and good ole Matt Pinfield, so it might actually be a decent station). Why the Voice and a NYC rock station would bring three Jersey bands over to play a mostly empty theater, I don't know. (Note: Balcony was closed, I guess so the crowd would look bigger on the floor, although I really don't see why I couldn't sit down; what, I'm going to spend more at the bar if I'm standing up through four bands?)

Future Future

So here's the interesting part: The first and last bands both had doubled names (Future Future, Cinema Cinema) and two members (vox/guitar and drums.) Despite those similarities, the bands couldn't have been more different. Future Future look like they popped out of a Nickelodeon sitcom (in fact, they look a good deal like The Naked Brothers Band, if only the Naked Brothers were in the band and the bass and keyboard parts came from pre-recorded loops.) I give them credit for not giving in to trends and playing that awful day-glo autotuned emo pop, on the other hand, the fact that they don't sound terribly trendalicious might explain why there were so few teenage girls in attendance screaming for the boys to take their shirts off, or whatever girls at All Time Low concerts do these days. Instead of screaming synths and girly vocals, 17-year old Jordan peels off chunky riffs from and belts out poppy odes to adolescent angst, his guitar buzzing with an array of fuzz pedals, while 'tween sibling Jamie clobbers the drums. It's definitely more Jonas than Jimmy Eat World but, hey, at least they're not wearing spandex or headbands or throwing in faux raps about "hot" 15 year old girls (cf Pepper, Brokencyde). Here's the problem: I don't see the $2 PBR swilling Brooklyn hipster slacker crowd going for this, and the band's never going to reach its core audience (i.e. the kids they go to school with) playing +21 bars and weeknight shows at expensive clubs in Manhattan. If this construct doesn't click, Jordan will be off to college in a year where I'm sure he'll grow out his beard and start playing Todd P. venues in mold-covered sub-basements in Canarsie. Sunrise, sunset...

Cinema Cinema

Let's jump to the other end of the night - Cinema Cinema, also a two-man operation but sounding a lot fiercer, not so much like the White Stripes but more in the vein of the sadly overlooked grunge-era duo Local H, who ripped the throats out of many a nublie indie-rockin' coed back in the Nineties, when bands were still allowed to be vicious, aggressive, and raunchy without risking an arrest for date rape by the Politically Correct fashionistas of the Ludlow East Side.

I will skim over Status Green (serviceable if uninspiring pop/rock from Asbury Park) and Brooklyn's Fugitive Souls (channeling dated New Romantic shmaltz with a humorlessness that borders on self-parody,) all delivered with - as it oh so typically is - no real sense of stage presence, fashion sense, or communication skills. They should really do one of those designer reality shows where a cabal of fashionistas take four hopeless shlubs from some Jersey bar band and teach them how to dress for a show, cut their hair, sing into a mike, and hold an audience's attention. Assuming such a thing could even be done.

I am all for bands getting on stage, playing gigs, getting in front of people, especially when they're just starting out. Every hour young Mr. Lawlor from Future Future spends on a stage in front of real people will teach him more about being a working musician than ten hours rehearsing in the basement with his brother; such is the nature of show business. And if the gods are willing and he pays his dues, one day he'll be able to look an audience in the eye, tell a funny story, segue into an amusing anecdote about the derivation of the next lyric, and then completely charm the pants off everyone in the room from the little girls to their grandmothers. That's when you know you're on the right track; not when you can play six songs in a row and announce to the world that you have a "set" and ready to play shows.

George Ade said, "there are at least two kinds of education." I eagerly await the band who has learned how to entertain me.

2009-09-14T22:08:00.004-04:00

The Milwaukees

Groovin' On Grove

Friday 9/11, the weekly Groove on Grove music series at the Grove Street PATH in Jersey City moved from Wednesday to Friday and featured Brooklyn's Overlord, Jody Porter & The Mens Magazines, and the Milwaukees.

Overlord performed a set of perky pop-rock propelled by the rock solid drumming of Matt "Hands" Hauser and the effervescent synth and electric organ of Mr. Tris McCall. Jody Porter (of Fountains of Wayne fame) came off as a bit of an obnoxious rock snob with his snarky remarks about "commuters" and being in "Jersey City" (pronounced with the same condescending amusement as an old Bugs Bunny cartoon using "Hoboken" as a punchline.) Porter's set started with retro 60's psychedelia in the style of Jersey City's (much better) Black Hollies and then settled into a set of solid if unremarkable pop-rock (most of which could have been - and probably were - FoW leftovers.)

Overlord

The Milwaukees came to rock and rock they did, mixing familiar tracks from their American Anthems album with as-yet-unreleased rockers like "Rich And Famous" (see www.jerseybeat.com for a video of that one) and "Victoria." Frontman Dylan St. Clark announced that American Anthems Vol. Two is "sitting on a hard drive in Hoboken," waiting to be finished up and released. I'm guessing we'll see it sometime around Christmas.

2009-08-22T21:30:00.002-04:00

Ya Gotta Believe

The Mets had a ceremony before tonight's game and honored the surviving members of their 1969 championship team: Tom Seaver and Jerry Grote and Ron Swoboda, even Nolan Ryan showed up. The announcers have been reminiscing and interviewing the old players throughout the game, they've been showing clips of Seaver pitching and Swoboda's catch, and you know what? I'm sure there are fans who are saying, "Enough already! We get it!" But you know what? If you weren't there, you're still not going to understand how really amazing that summer of '69 was.

I was raised in an Italian-American family of Yankee fans, and as a 10 year old, I worshipped Mickey Mantle and listened to family stories of DiMaggio and Berra and Rizzuto in their heyday. But by the time I was a teenager, the Yankees had slid into a long era of mediocrity and my interest in sports of any kind had completely evaporated. I played chess, read books, watched Star Trek, and dreaded the hours I had to spend in gym class every week. The last thing I cared about was baseball. I didn't even own a glove when I was in high school.

You have to remember, 1969 was - in almost any regard, financially or politically or socially - a horrible time to be alive. Nixon was president, two Kennedys and Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and the war in Vietnam was sucking the spirit out of the entire country and pitting generation against generation. NYC was falling apart, dirty and broke and rife with racial tension.

But the summer of '69 changed all that. First, in July, a man walked on the moon. That was big. Good ol' Walter Cronkite on TV pointing to a monitor and there was a fuzzy image of Neil Armstrong bouncing up and down on the surface of the moon. America was ready to believe that almost anything could happen.

And then the Mets started winning. Every so often, someone asks, "do you believe in miracles?" Well, I do, because I saw the Mets win the '69 World Series. It didn't matter if you followed sports, or read the newspapers, or rooted for another team. By September of 1969, everybody in New York City - and Long Island and New Jersey and probably most of Southern Connecticut - was a Mets fan. It literally became a matter of faith; you had to believe. They were our team, our lovable losers, our Amazin' Mets. And it became almost a daily ritual to watch the box scores and count down the magic number. This can't be happening, you'd think, only it is. And somewhere, somehow, you knew it was actually going to happen, even if everything you knew about the world said it couldn't.

The '86 Mets and the way they beat the Red Sox certainly ranks as another miracle; the 1996 Yankees revived the spirits of a flagging city and gave New York Pride a major shot in the arm. The 2000 Subway Series brought New York alive in a way I haven't seen since.

But 1969, man... You had to be there. And you had to believe.

2009-08-12T22:13:00.003-04:00

Ben Franklin

GROOVIN' ON GROVE: Ben Franklin and The Poconos, Live at the PATH Station

Every Wednesday, all summer long, there are live bands at the Grove Street PATH station in Jersey City, part of a series called Groove On Grove.

It continually astounds me that these shows aren’t better attended, given that, yes, they’re free, right outside a major transportation hub, and impeccably booked. Today’s show was no different; a sparse crowd for Ben Franklin, a few more people for the Poconos, but nowhere near the kind of attention these bands deserve.

Let’s start with Brooklyn’s Ben Franklin, featuring ex-Meltdowns guitarist Billy Gray, ex-One & Only Typicals/Imperialists bassist Eddie Garza, and drummer Sarah Tomek, who frequently backs Asbury Park singer/songwriter stalwarts like Rick Barry and Jerzy Jung. The trio rocks like a quintet, mixing throbbing, melodic basslines, slashing guitar leads interspersed with head-bouncing riffage, and driving backbeats, melding a hectic fusion of pop, punk, and funk – imagine Cheap Trick jamming with early Black Flag at Dismemberment Plan’s 4th of July BBQ. It’s a big sound for a 3-piece, especially when Garza and Gray start trading call-and-response vocals that fuse into spot-on harmonies on rockin’ anthems like “Tell Me How You Really Feel” or the politically pointed “Timmeh,” whose lyrics connect the dots between the financial shenanigans of the Federal Reserve and the plight of the contemporary working stiff. This band has a lot of big ideas and big sounds, and since they just finished mixing their debut full-length, we can all look forward to hearing more from them soon.

The Poconos

The Poconos were missing guitarist Marty O’Kane but the remaining four members – led by the charismatic Brian Leopold (ex-Low Flying Jets) on vocals, guitar, and harp – sounded just fine. Multi-instrumentalist Chris Smith filled in with guitar, banjo, and most importantly pedal steel, which he tuned variously to either emulate the twang of Nashville country or to add synth-like effects. Given that the Poconos are basically a traditional roots-rock combo, with catchy major-chord melodies and simple lyrics about girls ‘n’ stuff, Smith’s contributions accentuated the Poconos’ kinship to Wilco – a big city band using classic country tropes to convey small town earnestness, occasionally expanded with the use of electronics. Yes, Leopold did throw on a pair of neon sunglasses at one point, but basically the Poconos deliver unfiltered Americana, without the smug irony imposed by so many Brooklyn alt-country acts; simple, smooth, and satisfying, like chicken fried steak with white gravy.

There are a couple of Groove On Grove Wednesdays left (a big mystery band next week, or so we hear) and a can’t miss, end of the summer blowout on September 11 with the Milwaukees and Any Day Parade. Keep your eyes on JCI’s calendar and I’ll see you on the PATH train.

2009-08-11T21:16:00.002-04:00

The Lost Art of Flyering

Someone (and I haven't quite figured out who yet, although I know it's someone I used to hang with back in the day) has started an ABC No Rio commemorative blog which is well worth checking out.

My contribution was to digitize some old flyers, which I've kept in a beat up old file folder for the last 20 years. Back when the hardcore matinees started in 1990, there was a show every Saturday at ABC No Rio and a cool new flyer for every show. The shows are still happening and I am sure bands are still making flyers, but I haven't seen much lately that holds up to the creativity we saw back in the early 1990's.
Like, uh, these...

2009-08-02T02:06:00.007-04:00

Jeff Schroeck

Thank you for not coming

JEFF SCHROECK, THE MARSHMALLOWS, BEN FRANKLIN, JIM TESTA - Automata Chino, Jersey City - August 1, 2009.

This is a conversation I've avoided for a long time, but what happens when you put on a show and nobody comes?

There's an unwritten commandment among musicians that you can't ask why someone didn't come to your show; the reason being that, sooner or later (and probably sooner,) they're going to ask you the same thing when you don't show up at one of their shows.

But really, it seems like there should be some way to move this discussion beyond the self-pitying and the specific to the philosophical and the general; not so much, "why didn't you come to my show?" as "why didn't anyone come to the show at all?"

A venue, empty

Granted, All Points West probably siphoned away some of the walk-in downtown Jersey City hipster crowd that usually comes to Automata Chino on a Saturday. But let's be honest here: Who among the people who might come to a show that I book was going to be spending their day (at $90 a ticket) standing under the hot sun all day to see Tool? I wound up on the light rail with a few hundred sunburned, inebriated frat boys coming back from APW and, really, that isn't the crowd I hang with.

Ben Franklin

I'm not saying that I didn't have a good time; I did. Granted, you need an almost Vulcan-like implacability to get past the understandable human emotions of disappointment and resentment to move yourself into the moment and actually have fun at a show like this. But I'm with people I like and music I enjoy; what's not to like? So yeah, I did have fun. That doesn't change the fact that the venue lost money on the night, none of the bands got paid, and it didn't obviate the inevitable conversation I had with the booker on my way out (who couldn't understand how such good bands didn't draw.)

The Marshmallows

Did I promote the show? she asked. Well, yes, I did; I MySpace'd, I Facebook'd, I message-boarded, I even sent a few begging emails to friends. And none of it worked. As Jeff Schroeck said to me, you can book a great show, but you can't keep people from booking other shows on the same night. And, it goes without saying, you can't make people come. No one goes to shows out of a sense of obligation, or as a tit-for-tat for favors previously rendered; it that was the case, considering all the goodwill the Ergs engendered over the years, Jeff would sell out every venue he ever plays. (And quite frankly, I'd be calling in quite a few karmic markers myself.)

But it doesn't work like that. You put together a bill and you tell people about it, and then you wait and see if anybody comes. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they'll pay for the PATH train or the subway or whatever else it takes, and come to the show; and sometimes they'll stay home and play poker or Wii games.

And if you really love doing this, you move on to the next show, regardless.

2009-06-21T23:39:00.001-04:00

Live from the Wave Gathering 2009

Shane Cooley from Virginia traveled up to Asbury Park for the second year in a row to perform several gigs at this year's Wave Gathering Festival. Here he is at America's Cup Coffee performing "My Asbury Park."

2009-06-21T19:47:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 16

A Conversation with Julian Peterson

This week's Rock n Roll Gas Station features singer/songwriter Julian Peterson, our studio guest who talks a bit about his life and music, and performs live for our microphones.

Download here: http://www.box.net/shared/ttfjp7sej3

2009-06-11T21:02:00.003-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 15:
Wave Gathering Preview

Celebrate the Asbury Park music scene on June 19, 20, and 21 as the town's music scene, restaurants, and retailers band together to host dozens of performers from all genres of independent music - folk to pop to punk to metal. For more information, visit www.wavegathering.com. In this episode, we present some of our favorite performers appearing at Wave Gathering 2009.

Milwaukees - "Moonshaker" - American Anthems Vol.1

The Friggs - "Bad Word For A Good Thing" - Bad Word For A Good Thing

Barry & The Penetrators - "Girlfriend" - Tales From Dirty Jersey

Status Green - "Holland Tunnel" - New EP

Anthony Fiumano - "Information Age" - When Strangers Say Hello

April Smith & The Great Picture Show - "Colors" - Live From The Penthouse

Second Dan - "We Can" - We Can

Shane Cooley - "My Asbury Park" - Shane Cooley

Deena - "Gemini Guy" - Somewhere In Blue

Future Future - "Television Glow" - Future Future

Chemtrail - "Blood Bath" - Terminals

Kid With Man Head - "She Won't Sleep With Me" - Cassius Coleman

Planet Janet - "Seventeen" - Nice Socks

Chris Batten & The Woods - "From The Banks of the Old Raritan"

Eryn Shewell - "Anymore" - One Song At A Time

Tommy Strazza - "Goin' Solo" - Welcome To The Rest Of Your Life

Arlan Feiles - "Come Sunday Morning" - Come Sunday Morning

Val Emmich - "No Control" - Demo

2009-06-06T15:47:00.005-04:00

Jersey City A' Go Go

Jersey City was all about the rock 'n' roll last night, with a four-band extraganza outside the Grove Street PATH station for the summer kickoff to Groove On Grove (Wednesday nights at 6 pm for the rest of the summer), and shows at Grand Bank (a huge Japanese/Chinese restaurant on Montgomery that books bands the first Friday of the month) and Automata Chino.

Here are some pics of the Milwaukees at Groove on Grove, and Any Day Parade and the Hollies. The Grand Bank show also featured the rockabilly/swing/punk band The Fringe Dwellers and the Motown/garagey Novellas.

2009-06-04T21:50:00.005-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 14

Download The Show: rnrgs-14.mp3<

Sonic Youth - Sacred Trickster - The Eternal

Ben Franklin - Ghosts - These Are The Most Delicate Songs

Push-Pull - Wright, Right? - Between Noise & The Indians

Cut Off Your Hands - You & I - Daytrotter session

Bouncing Souls - Mental Bits - Single of the Month

Kim Lenz & The Jaguars - Touch Me - It's All True

Nightmare Of You - I Think I'm Getting Older - Informaniac

Olivia Mancini & The Housewives - Crime Don't Pay - This Kind of Life

Von Hayes - Golden Ted - Quartered For The Umbrella Soldier

Vortis - Tommy Haircut - Demo

Solfege Radio - Jersey - Single

Sweet Surrenders - Die Young - Balcony Cigarettes

The Leftovers - Telephone Operator - Eager To Please

Boss Jim Gettys - Half-Baked - Kitra Vol. 2

Dead Milkmen - Surfing Cow - Death Rides A Pale Cow: The Ultimate Collection

Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine - Josephine

Peter Stampfel & The Bottlecaps - Surfer Angel - Peter Stampfel & The Bottlecaps

The Great Nostalgic - Young Lovers - The Great Nostalgic

Great Plains -- Hall of Shame - Length Of Growth: Best Of Great Plains 1981-89

2009-05-25T19:52:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 13

Elvis Costello - "Down Among The Wines & Spirits" - Secret, Profane, And Sugarcane

Ghost Town Trio - "Cold Machine" - Have You Heard

Defiance, OH - "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" - We Just Call It Roulette, Vol. 2

Illinois - "I Am Fine" - www.daytrotter.com

Big Energy - "Winding Way" - "Big Energy" EP

The Side Project - "Kicked Out of the Union" - This Machine Kills Scenecore

Superchunk - "Learned To Surf" - "Leaves In The Gutter" EP

The Legends - "Always The Same" - Over & Over

Rainer Maria - "Catastrophe" - Catastrophe Will Keep Us Together

Mose Giganticus - "Commander!" - "Commander!" EP

Movers & Shakers - "Take Your Time" - Larrabee

Wilco - "Outta Site, Outta Mind" - Being There

Rik Mercaldi - "Home Away From Home" - Rik Mercaldi

The Moths - "Enthusiastic Loser" - Lepid Opera

Roadside Graves - "The Snake & How It Got Its Legs" - My Son's Home

Future Future - "Television Glow" - Future Future

Bouncing Souls - "In Your Face" - The Thorazine Stretch Factor Compilation

Bionic Rhoda - "Chili Dog" - Bionic Rhoda

2009-05-24T19:49:00.003-04:00

ROCK N ROLL GAS STATION - Episode 12

Happy Memorial Day

>>>Download the show here<<<<

John Prine - "Sam Stone" - John Prine

Rick Barry - "Courage For A Rainy Day" - Declaration of Codependence

Julian Peterson - "Get On This Train" - Get On This Train

Yung Wu - "Waiting For The Thunder" - A Few Uneven Rhymes - A Tribute to Winter Hours

Golden Bloom - "E.H.M." - Fan The Flames

Lieder - "Doesn't Anybody Care"

Fellaheen - "Air Guitar (With Broken Strings)" - Yours For The Revolution

Super Satellite - "Such A Bore" - Super Satellite

Anthony Fiumano - "Born To Crawl" - When Strangers Say Hello

Bishop Allen - "The Ancient Commonsense of Things" - Grrr

Bear Hands - "Belongings" - Daytrotter Session www.daytrotter.com

The Brooklyn What? - "In-Crowd" - For Boro President

Cage The Elephant - "Tiny Little Robots" - Cage The Elephant

The Fuzzy Lemons - "It's Okay To Be Different" - The Fuzzy Lemons

2009-05-23T16:53:00.002-04:00

My Night With A Dead Milkman

So where was everybody? Never book a gig on Memorial Day Weekend. And this was my first Memorial Day Weekend home since 1996, when I started going to W.E. Fest.

The folks in Wilmington NC are no doubt doing just fine without me. I took the year off and spent Friday night at The Record Collector in Bordentown, NJ, performing on a bill with one of my punk rock heroes, Joe Jack Talcum of the Dead Milkmen.

Randy Ellis, aka Randy Now, who booked so many amazing shows at City Gardens during the Eighties and Nineties, has been bringing bands to perform in a small gallery at this mom-and-pop record store for a while now. He's had some big names - Ian McLagan and Graham Parker and Peter Tork - perform there, even though the space can only hold about 50 people. Well, that wasn't a problem last night, since only about ten people actually showed up.

I was fighting the flu and probably should have been home in bed, but I got through the set without a coughing fit. My guitar's pickup died but Joe was nice enough to let me use his Ibanez electric-acoustic, which is a gorgeous guitar. I did have a couple of brain freezes and had to sputter through some missed lyrics, but all in all, I thought it was a pretty good set. I finished up covering a song by my buddy Sal Cannestra's band 13 called "City Gardens" as a shoutout to Randy.

Joe was great, throwing out some old Dead Milkmen favorites (including, of course, "Punk Rock Girl") and mixing them in with a Dylan cover and songs from his Butterfly Joe persona and his split CD with Mischief Brew. His songs teeter somewhere between romantic shmaltz and deadpan ironic jokery, on tracks like "Yesterday I Was Talking To MY Sister" and "What Her Autopsy Revealed." Joe plays acoustic guitar almost like an electric (I'm all strumming, he actually plays leads) and does some nimble harmonica work.

I want to thank Randy for asking me on the bill, and Mr. Talcum for letting me use his guitar. The Dead Milkmen will be performing at Insubordination Festival in June, and I will be there in front of the stage singing my fool middle-aged head off. I hope to see you there.

2009-05-16T20:24:00.002-04:00

ROCK N ROLL GAS STATION - EPISODE 11

To download this week's show: RNRGS-11.mp3

Green Day - "The Static Age" - 21st Century Breakdown

Art Brut - "The Replacements" - Art Brut Vs Satan

Jarvis Cocker - "Homewreckers!" - Further Complications

Bob Dylan - "If You Ever Get To Houston" - Together Through Life

Cymbals Eat Guitars - "The Living North" - Why There Are Mountains

Phil & The Osophers - "We Have All Summer" - Parallelo

Canadian Invasion - "Mansard Roof" (live)

Little Brazil - "Nicholas" - Son

Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band - "Big Black Nothing" - Outer South

Ben Kweller - "Problems" - Freak Out! It's Ben Kweller

The Gullibles - "Superman" - demo

Low Budgets - "Poseur Punker" - Go For Broke

The Methadones - "Take Me To Japan" - This Won't Hurt...

Graham Parker & The Rumour - "Discovering Japan" - Graham Parker Anthology

Cub - "Here Comes The Summer" - Here Comes The Summer: The Undertones Tribute Comp

Teen Idols - "Cameage" - Homage: Lots Of Bands Doing Descendents Songs

2009-05-01T18:47:00.003-04:00

Hoboken Music Awards

I was trying to figure out a way to report on the first annual Hoboken Music Awards without coming off as self-serving, since, yes, we won one for Outstanding Contribution To Local Indie Music Scene. So I'm just going to have Stephen Bailey tell you all about it. See his story and photos here.

2009-04-30T20:52:00.004-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 10

Direct Download: RNRGS10.mp3

Screaming Females - "I Believe In Evil" Power Move

Roadside Graves - "Take A Train" My Son's Home

Kevin Devine - "Time To Burn" My Brother's Blood

Any Day Parade - "Waterbucket" "Where We Fall" EP

The Copyrights - "Carmelita" Art Of The Underground Single - 40

The Felice Brothers - "Penn Station" Yonder Is The Clock

The Ergs! - "Stinkin' of Whiskey Blues" Upstairs/Downstairs

Even In Blackouts - "Randy Scouse Git" Thresholds From The Basement

Junior Battles - "Hotel Bibles" Junior Battles

Deadline - "Hanging On The Telephone" Single

Pansy Division - "Average Men" That's So Gay

Pink Lincolns - "I've Got My Tie On" Back From The Pink Room

The Objex - "The Reaction" Attack Of The Objex

Radio Faces - "I'm So Lucky" Party At The Bushwick Hotel

Red Phone Dispatch - "Delicacy"

Tin Armor - "Flesh!" Art of the Underground Single - 32

Textbook - "Outside" Boxing Day Massacre

The Vines - "He's A Rocker" Melodia

2009-04-19T19:08:00.003-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 9

Please listen to Rock N Roll Gas Station live on the web:
Thursdays 10 pm - www.blowupradio.com
Mondays 9 am and 2 pm - www.ThePenguinRocks.com

You can download this week's show here

Our salute to Joey Ramone

Ramones - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (demo) Hey Ho Let's Go - Anthology

Amy Rigby - Dancing With Joey Ramones - Little Fugitive

Greg Attonito - Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio? - Brats on The Beat

Grover Kent - Running Out of Ramones - "Running Out Of Ramones" EP

Sloppy Seconds - "You Can't Kill Joey Ramone" - Endless Bummer

The Queers - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" - Rocket To Russia

Jello Biafra - "Joey Ramone" - Apocalypse Always

Ronnie Spector - "Bye Bye Baby" - She Talks To Rainbow

Kung Fu Monkeys - "I Miss The Ramones" - Christmas For Breakfast

Vindictives - "Pinhead" - Leave Home

Sleater-Kinney - "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" - Call The Doctor

Justin Owens - "I Know A Girl Who Looks Like Joey Ramones" - Chicken Feed

The Ergs! - Ramones Medley - "Acoustic LP"

Dr. Frank - "I Wanna Ramone You" - Songs From King Dork

Kitty Kowalski & The Manges - "Joey's Song" - "Kittie & The Manges" EP

The Rattlers - "On The Beach" - Rattled

Mr. T Experience - "Mr. Ramones" - Miracle of Shame

Marky Ramone - "I Don't Care" - Start of the Century

Roger Miret & The Disasters - "Ramones" - My Riot

Screeching Weasel - "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World" - The Ramones

2009-04-16T00:23:00.006-04:00

Our Blessed Lady of the Ramones, gob on us...

Jersey Beat takes great pride in remembering and paying tribute to the Ramones, especially Joey, whose tragic death from cancer happened on this day eight years ago. To help mark the occassion, friends, regulars, and a few guestd here at Jersey Beat HQ share their most vivid memories and confess to their most tumutuous passions inspired by Joey, John, Tommy, and Dee Dee. Our cast of orators includes the zany Rev. Norb, the learned Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times, a good friend of Joey who you might know from his many columns in Maximumm RnR, George Tabb; and Jersey Beat stalwarts Phil Rainone, Chris Mattern, and Jim Testa

Of course you can't read it here, you have to click and point or bob and weave or whatever you Internet surfers do to get yourselves over to www.jerseybeat.com

Screaming Females

2009-04-14T19:19:00.001-04:00

Screaming Females
Originally uploaded by Lalitree

Screaming Females interview now online at www.jerseybeat.com

2009-04-09T21:19:00.004-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 8

-->Click here to download this week's show

Screaming Females - "I Believe In Evil" - Power Move

Ace Enders - "Take The Money And Run" - When I Hit The Ground

A Love Like Pi - "Oh Everything" - Atlas & The Oyster

Cletus - "When I'm Gone" - Horseplay Leads To Tragedy

Cheap Trick - "Baby Loves To Rock" - All Shook Up

Mr. T Experience - "God Bless Lawrence Livermore" - Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood

The Gullibles - "Gay Parade" - Demo

Even In Blackouts - "Tears Of A Clown" - "Foreshadows On The Wall" EP

Potatomen - "The Drunken Staircase" - Iceland

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "Me & Mia" - Shake The Streets

Delay - "Kerplunk" - Jumpstart My Heart

Art Brut - "Weird Science" - Art Brut Vs Satan

Buzzcocks - "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" - Singles Going Steady

Vulture Whale - "Head Turner" - Vulture Whale

Jeffrey Lewis - "Roll Bus Roll" - 'Em Are I

Festipals - "Red Line Soldiers" - "Show Us Your Accolades" EP

Nobody's Heroes - "Fuck The T"

The Wretched Ones - "Down At The Bar" - 7-inch EP

2009-04-02T20:14:00.003-04:00

Direct Download: http://www.box.net/shared/static/0h7bigjz4b.mp3

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 7

Bouncing Souls - "Dub Says True" - Single Of The Month

Jeremy Jay - "In This Lonely Town" - Slow Dance

Billy Raygun - "Chestnut Street" - "Seasick" EP

The Ergs - "Beautiful" - Hindsight Is 20/20, My Friend

Bob Dylan - "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'" - Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

Any Day Parade - "Where We Fall" - "Where We Fall" EP

Better Than Ezra - "Absolutely Still" - Single

Val Emmich - "Got A Habit Now" - Little Daggers

Condo Fucks - "With A Girl Like You" - Fuck Book

Douchebag Machete - "Buffalo Chicken"

The Felice Brothers - "Run Chicken Run" - Yonder Is The Clock

Screaming Females - "Cortez The Killer" - Hunchback/Screaming Females Split 7-inch

TacocaT - "Death Fridge" - Shame Spiral

The Steinways - "Black Lung" - Art of the Underground 7-inch

The Offs - "The Way She Feels"

Illinois - "Kid Catastrophe" - Single of the Month

Todd Rundgren - "I'm In The Clique" - Runt

2009-03-26T23:26:00.002-04:00

ROCK N ROLL GAS STATION 6 -- Thursday, March 26

Bishop Allen - "Dimmer" - Grr

Canadian Invasion - "Juvenalia" - Three Cheers For The Invisible Hand

The Spinto Band - "Pumkins & Paisley" - Moonwink

Harlem Shakes - "Niagra Falls" - Technicolor Health

The Van Pelt - "Yamamoto" - Sultans of Sentiment

Bob Mould - "I'm Sorry Baby But You Can't Stand In My Light Anymore" - Life & Times

Chisel - "Theme For A Pharmacist" - 8 AM All Day

No Empathy - "Ben Weasel Don't Like It"

Fiasco - "Steve Herman" - Native Canadians

Pansy Division - "Twinkie Twinkie Little Star" - That's So Gay

Dopamines - "You Must Be Joking" - Dopamines/Till Plains Split EP

Eastern Anchors - "Dropping Anchors" - Demo

Roky Erickson - "I Walked With A Zombie" - You're Gonna Miss Me: The Best of Roky Erickson

Dinosaur Jr. - "Freak Scene" - Bug

Super Satellite - "A Little Reaction" - Super Satellite

Roadside Graves - "Far And Wide" - My Son's Home

2009-03-17T00:17:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 5

Listen at 10 pm on Thursday, March 19 at www.blowupradio.com
(Click the logo, then click on the big yellow Listen button. If station does not play,
or you lose the signal, close your browser and try again.)

Ace Enders - "Bring Back Love" -- When I Hit The Ground

Promise Ring - "Emergency Emergency" - Very Emergency

Golden Bloom - "Your Minute of Fame"

Adrenalin OD - "Rock n Roll Gas Station" - The Wacky Hi-Jinks of AOD

Propagandhi - "Potemkin City Limits" - Supporting Caste

The Lanterns - "Ashes" - Postcard Pictures

Psyched To Die - "Permanent Solution" - Sterile Walls

Weston - "Return To Horse Valley" - Go-Kart Vs. The Corporate Giant compilation

Sass Dragons - "Nobody Will Have Us For Dinner" - Not So Quiet At Your House Comp

Kevin Devine - "Tomorrow's Just Too Late" - Brother's Blood

Anne Courtney & The Late Bloomers - "Don't Be A Fading Bruise" - Crocodile

Peter Stampfel & The Bottlecaps - "Drink American" - self/titled LP

Against Me! - "Here Comes A Regular" - Covered: A Revolution In Sound compilation

1990's - "Vondelpark" - Kicks

Dufus - "Anouk" - In Monstrous Attitude

Wreckless Eric - "It'll Soon Be The Weekend" - Greatest Stiffs compilation

Ben Vaughn Combo - "Wrong Haircut" - The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn

2009-03-12T23:11:00.002-04:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 4

I had a couple of technical glitches this week but all in all, I think it was a pretty good show...

The Wrens - "Pretty OK" (Abbott 1135 EP)

Bouncing Souls - "Airport Security" (Single of the Month Club)

Rory Gallagher - "At The Depot" (Top Priority)

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Walking To Do (Shake The Streets)

Bad Religion - A Walk (The Gray Race)

Dead Mechanical - Sidwalks (A Great Lie EP)

Jim Testa - Blow Up Your Radio (live demo)

Teenage Bottlerocket - Radio (Warning Device)

The Volunteers - Radio (Spectrophilia)

The Ergs! - Radio K (Jersey's Best Prancers EP)

Kevin Devine - I Could Be With Anyone (Brother's Blood)

Birdy - As High As The Sun (New Brunswick Underground Compilation)

My Teenage Stride - Cast Your Own Shadow (Cast Your Own Shadow)

Palomar - You're Keeping Us Up (All Things, Forests)

Cobra Verde - World Can't Have Her (Haven't Slept All Year)

Fleshtones - American Beat (45 single)

Get Bent - Face Mush (Get Bent/Jean Claude Jam Band Split EP)

The Dares - Love Me When I Leave (demo)

2009-03-06T18:18:00.004-05:00

Nihilism For Fun & Profit

Psyched To Die/Deep Sleep at Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park NJ - 3/4/09
As Yogi Berra once noted, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Which leads to a lot of things, not the least of which is a new band like Psyched To Die (filled with guys from old bands we used to love) who play music that’s defiantly retro; in this case, proudly and unabashedly recreating the hard riffs and hellbent tempos of late 70’s/early 80’s hardcore.

For the record, Psyched To Die is Mikey Erg on guitar and vocals, Mike Hunchback on bass and vocals, Brian G. from For Science on drums, and ubiquitous scene photographer Frump on lead guitar. The band celebrated the release of its debut EP as well as the kickoff of its first national tour on Friday night at Asbury Lanes, in front of a crowd of old-school punk-rockers and Jersey teens (bedecked in so many flannel shirts and toques that the Lanes looked like a scene from DeGrassi High.)

Psyched To Die – as the name implies – has a gimmick; all the songs trumpet tongue-in-cheek nihilism, extolling the virtues of suicide, nuclear holocaust, pandemic, anomie, and hopelessness. They nailed the message home by covering X’s “We’re Desperate (Get Used To It;” they could have called the EP “Songs For The New Depression.” Instead, it’s called “Sterile Walls,” the title of a song that turns Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” on its head; the protagonist in Psyched To Die’s version wants to be locked behind rubber walls and force-fed emotion-killing drugs all day. Similarly cheery ditties on the record (a 7-inch EP with 7 songs) include “5 Year Plan,” an Angry Samoans pastiche about a college dropout working for minimum wage; “Staged Reality,” which suggests that real life has become its own reality show, since nothing is really “real” anymore (follow that?), and “OCD Life,” a frantic stop-and-go rocker that recalls early Minor Threat.

It’s fun watching the two Mikes strike rock star poses and scream into the mic; Frump rips off screaming solos and Brian provides non-stop pummeling percussion. They do an almost unrecognizable Descendents cover too, and I bet a Black Flag cover is coming. It’s as if the Ergs’ career-long obsession with the SST Records catalog has been pumped up on steroids and injected with Poison Idea’s anarchic disposition to hate everything. And in case you haven’t figured this out yet, of course it’s all in fun.

The band embarks on its first real tour this weekend, then returns to Asbury Lanes on Sunday, March 22 at a benefit for Miranda Taylor’s new dance company. Miranda played drums in Hunchback (and before that, Planet Janet) and is starting her own dance troupe (“like Alvin Ailey,” she explained, “only much much much much smaller.”) The benefit show will be an afternoon matinee and also feature Full of Fancy, the Break Evens (formerly Mazeffect,) Modern Hut, and a solo/acoustic performance by Jeff Schroeck (nee’ Jeff Erg.) Check Jersey Beat’s upcoming shows page for more information.

Let’s give some love here for Asbury Lanes. It’s not just the coolest looking venue anywhere – you can bowl for a couple of bucks on unrefurbished 60’s lanes where you still keep your own score – but with Christopher “Gobo” Pierce at the board, it actually sounds really good in there too. That’s amazing given that the bands play on a makeshift stage that straddles the middle lanes of a bowling alley, with echoey walls that stretch out across a warehouse-sized room. I’ll have more to say about the other bands when I write about Saturday’s show at ABC No Rio.

See more photos here.

2009-03-06T18:08:00.008-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 3 (March 4, 2009)

Art Brut Just Desserts Art Brut Vs. Satan

Andalusians Do The Work EP

Ben Weasel The First Day Of Spring These Ones Are Bitter

Ben Krieger Brand New Record Now We Are Kissed

Ben Kweller Fight Changing Horses

Spider Bags Waking Up Drunk A Celebration of Hunger

Kevin Devine Love Me, I’m A Liberal Another Bag Of Bones 7-inch

Cucumbers Don’t Drop The Baby

The Lanterns Everyone’s A Critic Postcard Pictures

Eve’s Plum Jesus Loves You Cherry Alive

Spiraling Time Machine Time Travel Made Easy

Jack & Jeffrey Lewis Time Machine City Eastern Songs

Das Kapital It Isn’t Funny Anymore Not So Quiet At Your House

Parasites Stuck On You Solitary

One Short Fall Wake Up Nothing Left To Say

Tinted Windows Kind Of A Girl

Psyched To Die Zen & The Art of Being A Fuck Up Demo

Minor Threat Good Guys Don’t Wear Black Salad Days EP

Werewolves Heaven Or Hell ES EP

Download Link: You can download this week's show as an MP3 (Right mouse click; Save Link As):

DOWNLOAD

2009-03-03T19:49:00.001-05:00

SUPPORT WFMU - Donate Now!

WFMU-FM is having their annual pledge drive, and we're asking all of our readers to dip into their pockets and donate whatever they can. WFMU is completely listener-supported and offers unmatched free-form radio, from Pat Duncan's hardcore/punk show on Thursday nights to the hilarious Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling. You don't even have to go to another website, you can donate right here! Or visit WFMU.org and check out the great promo swag they're giving away. Just do it, and do it now!!!

2009-03-03T19:47:00.000-05:00

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2009-02-27T09:52:00.004-05:00

Luxury Condos Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon

"Luxury Condos Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon" was the title of a 2-record compilation of Hoboken bands released by then-Maxwells owner Steve Fallon... back in 1986. This gentrification business has been going on a long time, but there is some good news. Due to the recession and the monstrous slump in housing prices, you can now buy a 1-bedroom condo at the horrifically ugly prison-like Maxwell Place (seen above) for something in the range of the mid-$500,000's. Seriously, that's a steal; 1-bedrooms were going for $750,000 when the building first went up.

The obscene prices of Hoboken real estate make me wonder how I still have so many friends in town, some of whom I've known for 20 years or more. Yes, a few of them have trust funds and a few others were wise enough to buy property back when it was still dirt cheap; but an awful lot of my Hoboken friends are unemployed or marginally-employed musicians, and they still manage to live there. Yes, some of them have trust funds, and others married into money; but most of them are way less affluent than I am. Are there still rent-controlled apartments tucked away somewhere in-between the refurbished brownstones and sleek new skyscraper buildings? Must be. Billy Milano of S.O.D. was living in a converted bomb shelter in the basement of an industrial building on Jackson Street a few years ago; that I can see. But renting a nice apartment in Hoboken that you can actually afford these days ranks right up there with winning the lottery or finding out that lump on your breast is just a benign cyst after all.

I've often told the story of when I met the Bongos back in 1980; Rob Norris and Richard Barone were rooming together in a two-bedroom, 4th floor-walkup in Hudson Street brownstone just a block from Maxwells, and paying $88 a month rent. That same apartment - long ago upgraded into a luxury condo - sold last year for over $1 million.

So here's to you Gene The Singing Plumber, Yo La Tengo, Mike from WFMU, Dave from the Schramms, John Keim, Gerri Fallo, and everybody else I know who still manages to call Hoboken home without a Porsche out in front and a big fat overfunded 401K in the bank.

And as for the bloated excess of monstrosities like Maxwell Place, well, if there's a god in heaven, this economy will continue to tank until they're renting out those units to migrant workers and converting the bigger apartments into artists' lofts and rehearsal spaces for punk bands. Don't hold your breath though; I don't expect to see big signs advertising "Affordable Housing Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon" in Hoboken anytime before the Rapture turns the whole damn place to dust.

2009-02-27T00:36:00.005-05:00

ROCK N ROLL GAS STATION – EPISODE 2
"Welcome To The New Depression - Songs About Crappy Jobs, Unemployment, and Being Broke"

Lost My Job - Alex Chilton - Feudalist Tarts

No Depression - Uncle Tupelo - Best of

One Meatball - Dave Von Ronk - And the tin pan ended and the story ended

Out of Work - Gary US Bonds - Best Of

Wasted & Ready - Ben Kweller - Sha Sha

Born To Do Dishes - The Queers - Don't Back Down

Mr. President, Have pity on the Workin' Man - St. Paul and his Coalition of the Winning

Middle Management - Bishop Allen - The Broken String

Fountains of Wayne - Bright Future In Sales - Welcome Interstate Managers

On The Clock - Methadones - Methadones-Copyrights-Split CD

Quit Your Job - Chixdiggit! - Born On the 4th Of July

Attaching Transmittals to Erection Drawings - Steinways - Gorilla Marketing

Val Emmich - Rat Race - Slow Down Kid

Ike Reilly Assassination - Fish Plan Rebellion - Poison The Hit Parade

Tris McCall - Lite Radio Is My Kryptonite If One Of These Bottles Happens To Fall

Jones Street Station - Tall Buildings - Overcome

If you'd like us to play your band or have any comments, please email us at Jim@Jerseybeat.com

2009-02-26T23:35:00.004-05:00

I Wish I Was Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller, The Watson Twins, Jones Street Station – Town Hall, NYC, 2/25/09

A swanky concert venue like Town Hall offers a few things you don’t get at some dive bar or grungy rock club – a big stage, impeccable sound (at least for the headliner,) and a comfortable seat. What you lose is the immediacy of being right up against the stage (especially when, like me, you’re sitting in the upper balcony.) And to be honest, although I do appreciate the ability to sit down in between bands, I’d much rather watch live music standing up, so I can sing along and move a little bit. Town Hall is just… stodgy.

It’s also way more expensive than the clubs that Ben Kweller played when he was establishing himself as a solo artist in New York City back around the turn of the century; tonight’s $25 ticket mushroomed into a ridiculous $40 credit-card charge if you used Ticketmaster. (In the interest of full disclosure, I was on the opening band’s guest list. I had originally decided not to go when I tried Ticketmaster and saw what the final price would be, but then Jones Street Station's publicist was nice enough to extend an invitation.) The high ticket price probably also explains why the crowd skewed a bit older and grayer than the usual cadre of nerdy teens and indie/hipster 20-somethings who used to comprise Kweller’s core audience. For that money, you’d also think that your ears would get a break; but while Kweller’s set couldn't have been mixed any sweeter, the half-deaf house soundman had everything cranked much louder than it needed to be for the two opening acts.

Kweller was on though. Obviously very happy to be back in New York City, he gave one of the best performances I’ve seen from him in a long time. He even got choked up and teary on one song when he realized how much he missed NYC. (For those not in the know, Kweller, his wife, and baby son moved to Austin last year after about living in Brooklyn for about 8 years.) Ben worked in a few songs from all of his albums, as well as about 7 or 8 from his new album, Changing Horses. Kweller stuck with his trusty acoustic guitar (and switched for one set to an upright piano,) backed by bass, drums, and a really talented guy pedal steel/lap steel player who gave everything a tasty country twang.

The arrangements were terrific, in some cases surpassing the studio versions. Even though he’s approaching 30, Kweller still looks like a teenager and has a warm, engaging sweetness that never comes off as cloying or phony. He kicked off with “Walk On Me” from his first full-length, Sha Sha, ended with a gorgeous new arrangement of “Sundress,” and encored with “Penny On The Train Track.” While the band was rocking out on the finale, Kweller’s son Dorian (who’s almost three, I’d guess, and absolutely adorable) started dancing, pumping his fists, and doing somersaults at the side of the stage, just barely visible to the audience. And of course he got a bigger hand than daddy.

Highlights of the set included a remarkably affecting reading of “On My Way,” an absolutely stunning new arrangement of “Falling” (a really early Kweller song,) a fiercely rocking “Fight” from the new album, and a bunch of songs from Sha Sha including “Lizzy,” and “Family Tree.”

The Watson Twins – twin sisters Chandra and Leigh Watson, probably best known for their collaboration with Jenny Lewis – had the middle slot. They’re attractive young women with beautiful harmony vocals, backed by a jazz trio (bass, drums, and electric piano;) it’s just a little too American Idol for my tastes. They also came out later and sang two songs with Ben. (Note to bassist dude: In a swanky venue like Town Hall, it is inexcusable to perform in a white v-neck tee and baggy JC Penney jeans. Grow up, put on something presentable, and wash your hair while you're at it.)

Jones Street Station from Brooklyn - five clean-cut young guys in sports jackets - opened the show and completely won me over: singer/songwriter Danny Erker played a bevy of acoustic instruments (banjo, mandolin, guitar,) with co-lead vocalist Jonathan Hull adding bluesy harmonica; the rest of the lineup consisted of synthesizer, bass, and drums. JSS incorporate elements of bluegrass, folk, blues, country, and even a little gospel into their sound; they’ve got some very likable songs, impressive musicianship, and a very winning stage presence. At the end of their set, they all unplugged and walked to the front of the stage to sing “Tall Buildings,” an old John Hartford song, in exquisite 5-part harmony. In the cavernous expanse of Town Hall, that took some balls, but it couldn’t have sounded any sweeter.

2009-02-22T20:32:00.006-05:00

Weekend Update

Gas Money - Photo by Alex Truby

Friday:
Took the train down to Trenton, where I met up with my old friend Howard and his wife Amy, and we drove a few miles to Bordentown NJ for a show at a record store called Record Collector. The store’s set up a small gallery with folding chairs and a very reasonable p.a., and it’s being booked by Randy Ellis, aka Randy Now, beloved by all New Jerseyans of a certain age for his groundbreaking bookings at the old City Gardens venue in Trenton. City Gardens was the kind of venue that didn’t just make fans; it changed lives. At one time, there were half a dozen kids in the immediate Trenton area doing their own fanzines, all of them hugely influenced by City Gardens shows and nearby college radio (WTSR at Trenton State and WPRB at Princeton.) Randy was in the middle of it all; from 7 Seconds to Flock of Seagulls to Fugazi to Green Day, not to mention career-making gigs for bands like the Bouncing Souls and Weston, Randy brought the rock to that big barn-like building in the No Man’s Land between New Brunswick and Philly. He never owned the building, just booked it, and probably lost money on shows more often than not. He’s a true unsung New Jersey legend, and he’s even had a song written about him (by the band 13, featuring former Jersey Beat scribe Sal Cannestra.)

The Dipsomaniacs - Photo by Alex Truby

So here’s Randy – a roly-poly elf with an indefatigable smile and a shock of white hair - still booking bands against all odds and having a whale of a time. Tonight he paired Trenton’s long-lived power-popsters the Dipsomaniacs, celebrating the release of a new full-length, with a Philly rockabilly combo called Gas Money who just blew the roof off the joint. With pedal steel, stand-up bass, and a lead singer playing a vintage Gretsch hollow-body guitar, Gas Money caromed through a toe-tapping set of honky-tonk, rockabilly, and country swing that had everyone in the place smiling from ear to ear. As much as I (in my advanced years) appreciate getting to sit down for a show, it’s almost a shame that there wasn’t more room, because Gas Money is a band that people should really be dancing to. The Dipsomaniacs – which feature Mick Chorba on guitar/vocals and my old buddy Paul Crane (Bastards of Melody, Bunnie England’s Karaoke Band) on guitar and backup vox – ripped through a set of originals from their long career, including a few tunes from the new album and some awesome covers (from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny Jenny” to the Who’s “The Seeker.)”

Upcoming shows at Record Collector include a rare appearance by British rock legend Ian McLagan, Wall of Voodoo’s Stan Ridgway, and a solo performance by Greg Attonito of the Bouncing Souls. Visit their website for a full schedule and directions. Click here for a gallery of Alex Truby's photos from this event.

Saturday:

Roadside Graves

It seems like I don’t get to Williamsburg nearly as often as I used to, but Bedford Avenue hasn’t changed much; on a Saturday night, it still looks like an Epcot Center ethnic village built for Twenty-something Hipsters. And the Trash Bar hasn’t changed at all; it’s still got that disreputable low-rent skeevy vibe (that’s a good thing) carried across the East River from classic Lower East Side dives like CBGB and the Continental. You walk into a crowded, dark bar festooned with band stickers and peeling red paint; pay your cover, pass through a curtain, walk down a mysterious dark tunnel, and emerge in the back room: There’s even an “open bar” (by which they mean free PBR’s and well drinks) from 8 to 9 pm; $5 for a PBR and a shot after that. There’s a real stage (albeit a small one, with gear piled up all over the floor beside it,) a couple of rump-sprung sofas if you need to sit down, and a surprisingly good sound system (with an even more surprisingly diligent soundman.)

The Dead River Company

I'm there to see the headliners Roadside Graves, but arrive early enough to catch the Dead River Company, the first band (and, for good measure, a half hour of the open bar.) I also run into my buddy Fid of The Measure (SA), who enthusiastically confides how the Measure are all big Roadside Graves fans and do their best on every tour to turn their fans onto the Graves’ sterling alt-country popcraft. It doesn’t surprise me in the least to hear that kids who only listen to pop-punk or hardcore invariably appreciate the Graves, once they’re exposed to their music.

The Dead River Company turn out to be a very pleasant surprise – an 8-piece Elephant Six-like consortium with two lead singers who play guitars and mandolin, a percussionist who slaps a wooden box in lieu of drums, and numerous members who constantly switch instruments, playing flute, French horn, shakers, washboard, tambourine, and other instruments. Take this music out of Brooklyn and you’d call it anti-folk, a slapdash conglomeration of kitchen-sink instrumentation that mixes folk, country, punk, music hall, and pop. Their set has a deceptively freewheeling spirit – it looks like they're making it all up on the spot, except that every instrument integrates perfectly into each song and the band couldn’t be tighter. The band’s energy,high spirits, and evident camaraderie make it all seem quite theatrical. I’m definitely going to keep my eye on this band.

An unrelentingly awful indie band with a weird name and an annoying jazz diva on lead vocals comes next, followed by a so-so trio called Sons Of Sons who weren’t bad; there's just nothing about their set that makes me care if I ever see them again.

Roadside Graves Jeremy and John

And finally the Roadside Graves take the stage, configured these days as a six-piece – frontman John Gleason, co-vocalist Jeremy Benson on guitar and percussion, backed by Mike DeBlasio on electric piano, Rich Zilg on acoustic guitar, Dave Jones on bass, and Colin Ryan on drums. Although the current lineup lives scattered throughout the NYC/NJ area, the band calls Metuchen home; partly because several members grew up there, but mostly because that’s where you'll still find their drummer and rehearsal space. “Besides,” jokes Gleason, “we didn’t want to be known as just another New Brunswick band, even though we play the Court Tavern all the time. Nobody comes from Metuchen.”

And nobody sounds quite like the Roadside Graves either. New Jersey’s seldom thought of as America’s heartland, but the music the Graves play is pure Americana; heartfelt, folksy, filled with major chords and vivid imagery. When Northerners play country music, they’re usually accused of appropriating tropes and twang from the American South; but with Roadside Graves, the inspiration comes from the American west. Not only does the band’s music echo the country/western motifs of wannabe “cowboys” like Gram Parsons and Robbie Robertson, but the Graves sing about the west all the time too. For Gleason - whose tales of dysfunctional families, broken relationships, evil-hearted women, and soul-sucking honkytonk whisky often paint a bleak picture of life - the American West embodies some idyllic other place – it’s not here, it’s there, and because it’s not here, it just may be better. If the Graves’ rustic Americana suggests music you’d hear played on someone’s back porch, it’s a porch on the prairie, not the delta or the bayou.

Tonight, the band incorporates tracks from all of its albums as well as previewing a few songs from its forthcoming 18-track opus My Son’s Home, due in April on Autumn Tone Records. The band’s dropped its second drummer (for a while, they were touring as a 7-piece) but Benson adds a percussion rig (snare, maracas, cymbal, and some old junk he bangs on energetically,) which he’ll play on some songs instead of ripping out one of his signature guitar leads. Gleason – lanky, focused, trancelike when he’s singing, but still loose enough to show off the skinny jeans he’s bought just for this Brooklyn gig – completely surrenders himself in his songs, occasionally turning his back to the audience and doing a shuddering jittery jig, completely lost to the beat.

The band opens with “Family And Friends,” the leadoff track from 2007’s No One Will Know Where You’ve Been, and a look around the room confirms that this is indeed a family affair, with fans who cut across the indie/hipster/punk continuum all fervently singing along.

Songs from the upcoming album include "Father Sat Me Down," with Gleason reminiscing about his dad's words of wisdom, and the downbeat "Ruby," which overflows with familiar Roadside Graves tropes - angels, death, the radio, and sex.

“West Coast,” arguably the band’s most anthemic number and part of the two-song set closer tonight, has nothing to do with Hollywood; rather, it’s a jangly ballad about the resiliency of the human spirit, with its singalong chorus, “I’ve got a heart that won’t quit, won’t break.” The band closes with “Radio,” a hymn to the sounds that sustain us on those endless nights of cross-country drives, as one station fades into another and it all adds up to America.

The ‘Graves’ seamless integration of guitars with electric piano and organ (courtesy of Mike DeBlasio’s Korg,) along with Gleason’s quavery, impassioned vocals (and the group’s Jersey roots,) often lead to comparisons with the Boss, although The Band (and, as Tris McCall once noted , the Grateful Dead) hit the mark as well. What all those groups share, of course, is a dedication to timeless major-chord melodies, riveting harmonies, and vivid, memorable songwriting. Yes, the Roadside Graves love America; now it’s only a matter of time until America returns the favor.

Click here for a gallery of Jim Testa's photos from this event.

You can read Jim Testa's review of the Roadside Graves from the Newark Star Ledger here.

2009-02-19T23:11:00.004-05:00

Rock N Roll Gas Station - Episode 1

Every Thursday night, I'll be doing a radio show on streaming Internet radio at www.blowupradio.com.

Here is tonight's playlist:

Bouncing Souls - "We all sing along" (Single of the Month Club)

The Ergs - "Anthem for A New Amanda" (That’s It... Bye EP)

Screaming Females - "Bell" (Power Move CD)

Meet Me In Montauk - "New Brunswick" (self-titled EP)

Bionic Rhoda - "Tricyle" (self-titled CD)

13 - "City Gardens" (The Secret History Of… CD)

Full of Fancy - "Letter To The Editor" (Every Wall In The Parlor 7 inch)

Dipsomaniacs - "Halo Around You" (Social Crutch CD)

Aviso’Hara - "Bradley Wakeup" (Our Lady of the Highway CD)

Augmented - "Saturday Night" (Summer Sessions '08 EP)

Tris McCall - "The Secret Audience/Remember the 90’s" (The Open Secret)

The Wrens - "Indie 500" (Secaucus)

Rick Barry - "All of Your Mistakes Have Names" (This Antediluvian World EP)

Val Emmich - "American Girl" (iTunes single)

2009-02-08T18:00:00.004-05:00

Hello, Good-bye

Bands come and bands go. That's what bands do. But it still hurts when a favorite band announces it's breaking up. Think of all the songs you'll never hear again - that might very well never be played live again. Yes, there are the records the band leaves behind. But it's just not the same as going to a show and seeing one of your favorite acts, singing along elbow to elbow with your friends, sharing that music with a community of like-minded fans.

Last night Don Giovanni Records put together a showcase at Maxwells, and two of the bands were saying goodbye. It was definitely the last show by New Brunswick's For Science, and one of the last shows we'll see by The Steinways. It didn't feel like a wake, though; more like a celebration or a party. It was doubly so for me, since it was my birthday and I received not only lots of birthday wishes, but quite a few free drinks. I lost track of the beers, but I definitely had four shots of various alcoholic beverages, so I was feeling no pain by the end of the night.

Even without the booze though, it would have been a great night. Kudos to Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni (and For Science) for putting together a great bill, one that actually sold out the night before the show. So there was a mad scramble for tickets at door time, but I think everyone who wanted to see the show eventually got it. Place was packed though... for a local band showcase with no local "headliner." It was one thing selling out Maxwells with the Ergs at the top of the bill; quite another with the Steinways, Pregnant, Cheeky, the Measure (SA), For Science, Groucho Marxists, and Screaming Females - all great bands, all on Don Giovanni Records, but most of them come from New Brunswick (Pregnant is from NYC), not exactly strong local draws in Hoboken.

I was still sober enough to know that the Steinways played one of their strongest sets in a while, even with the Groucho Marxists' Chris Pierce sitting in for the ill (but still present) Chris Grivet on drums. I was in the middle of the mosh pit for For Science's farewell set, screaming along and thrusting my finger in the air, but still managed to get off a few photos. Cheeky, Pregnant, the Measure... gotta be honest, those sets are kind of a blur. Having friends buy you shots all night is great for your ego, but not so much for your journalistic accuracy.

But it was a lot of fun, made even moreso by my nephew Ryan being there to celebrate me. And after the show, the Serlingtons from Binghamton, NY crashed at my place, bodies and beer cans all over the floor, but what's more fun than a punk rock sleepover?

Great show, great weekend, great birthday.

Flickr Photo Set here.

2009-02-07T12:52:00.005-05:00

Bruce Who?

I've said this before but I'll say it again - anytime I've ever been involved in anything you could really call a "local music scene," there was one constant - people in bands turned out in numbers to see other bands. It happened in Hoboken in 1980, ABC No Rio in 1990, it's a hallmark of NYC's Pop-Punk-Message-Board scene, and it's very much a part of what's going on in Asbury Park.

So it was heartening last night to see so many familiar faces at the release party for Rick Barry's new EP, "This Antediluvian World." There was Joe Harvard, Anthony Fiumano, Gordon Brown, as well as Val Emmich and Allie Moss (who sing on the record and added backup vocals onstage last night;) and a bunch of other local musicians whose faces I know, even if I don't their names. But it wasn't just band dudes who showed up - the Saint was packed, from the front of the stage all the way to the rear of the club, and pretty much for the entire night. Bravo.

And if you weren't there, well, you missed it. It seems like every time I see Rick and his band the New Rick Barrys, I leave saying it was the best Rick Barry show ever, and that was true again last night. Impeccably tight and beautifully nuanced, the band showcased about ten of Barry's intricate folk/rock compositions with a masterful command of dynamics, from whispered ballads to full-bore rockers. Guitarist Ron Haney (also of the Churchills) was nothing less than stunning, with his array of effects pedals and subtle use of ebow; he wrestled so many different sounds out of his guitar, it was like having a second synthesizer in the band.

The piece de resistance came at the end of the set, when Michael Ghegan (who tours with Justin Timberlake and Cirque du Soleil) came onstage for the epic rocker "All Of Your Mistakes Have Names," adding a very Clarence Clemons-like tenor sax that hammered home the message that we were indeed watching the future of Asbury Park. And he followed that on soprano sax with tender, mellifluous melody lines on Barry's brilliant metaphorical take on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, "Atlantis."

The Frank Bressi Trio

The night opened with the official debut of The Frank Bressi Trio, a distinct departure from the post-pop-punk of Bressi's last band, the Chilling Details. With stand-up bass (both sonorously bowed and percussively picked) and twangy lap steel guitar, the trio gently rocked through a collection of tuneful country-flavored ballads that proved pleasantly and unexpectedly toe-tapping, especially given the absence of drums.

The Bloodsugars

The ostensible headliner, the Bloodsugars, came to Asbury from Brooklyn with a cheery, upbeat dance-pop sound reminiscent of 80's new-wave hitmakers like Wham! (and if you can believe me, I mean that in the nicest way possible.) Big smiles and layered synth fills propelled the group through an ingratiating and enjoyable set.

You can check out the photo set here.

2009-02-03T23:56:00.006-05:00

Get Up And Dance (Or Not)

The Millionaires/Cash Cash - The Blender Theater, NYC - Feb. 3, 2009

Jersey Beat has tiptoed into the minefield of Emo Crunk before, and while it's not a place where I (as a fully vested grown-up) feel particularly comfortable, it's there. And we've always lived by the credo that anything the youth of America finds interesting is interesting, whether we like it or not.

And so you will find at JerseyBeat.com an interview with the NJ dance-pop-emo-crunk combo Cash Cash, and so I found myself at the Manhattan date of their current tour with potty-mouthed disco-pop divas The Millionaires tonight.

So let me explain this Emo Crunk thing, at least as I understand it. It's synthesizer-driven bubblegum dance-pop, performed by teenaged or barely post-adolescent males in very tight jeans. While Emo Crunk groups typically resemble turn-of-the-21st-century boybands - handpicked by some Lou Pearlman-like overlord for their model-pretty good looks - every group must have at least one chubby member and one guy with a ridiculously oversized afro. The scene has a very strict dress code, which includes headbands, Stay-Prest hair, flamboyant scarves, neon day-glo tee-shirts (preferably two sizes too small,) and the aforementioned skinny jeans; in short, it's the best thing to happen to effeminate teenage boys since roller disco. Teenage girls just a tad too old to admit still liking Hannah Montana and High School Musical figure heavily in the mix too.

Possibly because it had been snowing all day (or maybe just because it wasn't a particularly strong bill,) the Blender Theater was 3/4 empty when I arrived just before Cash Cash's set. True to form, the boys bounded onstage to chirpy background music and immediately started pogoing and throwing their arms in the air, just assuming that a tightly-knit throng of passionate fans would be doing the same below them. Tonight... not so much. Granted there were a few kids really into it (including about a dozen guys in full E-C regalia) but it was - for a band based in NJ and touring behind a brand-new album on a major label - a pretty tepid showing.

Again, maybe it was the weather.

Although Cash Cash has guitar and bass, 80% of its sound comes from Alex Makhlouf's giddy bubblegum synthesizer fills, with brother Jean Paul Makhlouf's high-pitched falsetto-heavy vocals carrying the rest of the load. It's all so saccharine-sweet and perky (typical song titles: "Sugar Rush," "Dynamite," "Electric Hearts,") the dancing cherubs from High School Musical seem like The Smiths in comparison. There was a bit of drama afoot since the band's bank of synths had apparently crapped out just before the show, but amazingly a necessary piece of electronics showed up just in time for the boys to plug in and perform their vocoder-saturated single "Party In Your Bedroom," which may just be the most obnoxious song ever recorded.

My anthropological curiosity satisfied, I hung around briefly to see a bit of The Millionaires (in all honesty, expecting a BritPop band along the lines of The Kooks or The Subways.) Wrong. The Millionaires turned out to be three lithesome and provocatively slutty young divas "dancing" and "singing" (and boy, are there quotation marks around that)disco/rap filled with four-letter words and sexual innuendo, backed by Garageband loops played by an equally provocative DJ. (Inspirational verse: "Just Got Paid, Let's Get Laid.") I commend you to their MySpace Page for a listen. You can't make this stuff up.

2009-01-25T18:18:00.002-05:00

Football-less Sundays

Stuff I usually do on Sundays during football season

1. Wake up
2. Eat lunch
3. Watch football

Stuff I did today with no football on

1. Vacuumed and dusted entire apartment
2. Cooked for several hours, including big batch of chili, pot of marinara sauce, homemade chicken stock, and osso buco for dinner tonight
3. Posted new blog, updated Jerseybeat.com
4. Four (!) loads of laundry
5. Cleaned and disinfected bathroom
6. Started new podcast

2009-01-25T15:03:00.004-05:00

The Doughboys

Hey Hey, My My

I listen to so much punk and pop/punk that sometimes I forget how much I really like other kinds of rock... like, for instance, garage and 60's pop. So when I was invited to emcee a show with three garagey bands at Asbury Lanes, I jumped at the chance. For one thing, I love Asbury Lanes, but since it's a 2-hour trip for me (and things at the Lanes usually run past the time when the last train leaves back to NYC,) I don't get to as many shows there as I'd like. But this was a bit of a special occasion, so I made arrangements to crash nearby for the night (thanks Mick!) and jumped into the night feet first.

And man, did I have fun. First of all, Asbury Lanes has to be the coolest venue on the planet - a vintage 60's bowling alley with working lanes, tons of kitschy art all over the place, a friendly and welcoming staff, dirt-cheap prices at the bar... And it's not going to be there forever; the block it's on has already be rezoned for condo development, and it's only a matter of time until the place either gets bought out and paved over by developers or simply seized by eminent domain (and then paved over.) Either way, word to the wise: Enjoy this place while you can.

Third Of Never

The band that put the whole night together and asked me to host is called Third of Never, and features Kurt from the Gripweeds on vocals, Chris and Vinnie Grogan on guitar and bass (two guys I've known since the mid-80's, when as teenagers they played in a garage combo called The Phantom 5,) and Jon on guitar, a Southern transplant with a aw shucks, y'all drawl and lots of twangy licks. With lots of psychedelic 6T's harmonies, big bright guitars, and powerful melodies, Third of Never impressed from start to finish, including a driving rendition of the Who's "Seeker" and an incandescent cover of REM's "Driver 8."

The Gripweeds

The Gripweeds have been bringing the sounds of Haight-Ashbury to the NJ/NYC rock scene for quite a while now, and never disappoint (last time I saw them was ironically also in Asbury Park, when I played on a bill with them at the Saint.) The band has been around long enough to release their own Greatest Hits album, which is full of wall-to-wall pop tunes that bring back echoes of everything from The Mamas And Papas to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd.

The big surprise of the night were the Doughboys - no, not the Canadian hardcore band from the Nineties, but a New Jersey quartet that started out back in - get this - 1964. You might wonder what a bunch of guys in the Sixties are doing play rock clubs in 2009, but hey hey, my my, rock and roll never dies, and these guys can still rock with conviction and panache. Granted, the crowd they draw tends to be a little long in the tooth, but draw they do; I wish I could bring this many people to a club consistently when I book a local-band show. Imagine the Rolling Stones circa '64 or '65 blasting out a bluesy classic like "Little Red Rooster" and freeze that in amber; now bring that energy, precision, and authenticity to the present and you get an idea of the wallop that the Doughboys still pack. They in fact ended the set with a Stones cover, then absolutely brought the house down with an electrifying stomp through "Bo Diddley," with frontman Myke Scavone and ageless drummer Richard X. Heyman on floor toms pounding out that syncopated beat and trading off on vocals. It was jaw-droppingly awesome.

2009-01-20T22:51:00.007-05:00

Jersey Beaters, Punk Rock Defeaters

Do you believe in miracles? This was Jersey Beat's 7th year at BYO's Punk Rock Bowling Tournament in Las Vegas and somehow, we won Third Place. It was a total team effort, a lot of pluck, a few lucky strikes, and a bunch of clutch spares, not to mention a 'Perfect Storm' ranking that let us play teams we could actually beat (even without our considerable handicaps) for three playoff rounds.

On the first day, when all 168 teams go at it, we somehow finished in 20th place, which put us in the Top 32; then on the second day of play, we advanced to the Top 16, then to the Top 8, and then, implausibly and miraculously, to the Top 4. And while we lost before advancing to the finals, since we had higher total score than the next best team, we won Third Place. Andy Peters (ex Maxwells soundman) had a couple of great games, Johnny Puke picked up some clutch spares, our new member Tia Clark bowled like a true champion given her inexperience, and while I didn't have the highest scores, I definitely had the flashiest Ralph Kramden va-va-voom moves every time I hit a spare or strike.

Of course there's other stuff besides bowling. We are, after all, in Vegas. On the first night, I got reamed in the Punk Rock Poker tournament - didn't really play badly, just didn't get any good cards. I did outlast Matty Dogwig from the Bouncing Souls posse at least... And the poor kid who went all in on the second hand and lost, three of a kind with pocket kings to a girl who pulled three aces.

I played blackjack with the Insubordination Records team and our table hit a hot streak; I walked away winning $50 and then was smart enough to keep it in my pocket. Sam's Town - probably the most white-trash casino in Vegas, with its wonderfully cheesy audio-animatronic forest waterfall laser spectacular - again played host to a couple of thousand career punks without anybody getting stabbed or (as far as I know) arrested. Massive quantities of alcohol were consumed (I hit a streak of six Bloody Marys) and very little sleep was had. We also saw some bands - Off With Their Heads (whose Zac informed me on Friday night of the news from home that the Steinways broke up), American Steel, the Dwarves (who totally rocked all their old hardcore-punk hits,) Tiltwheel (who gave us not one but two Replacement covers)...

It was, as it always is, crazy drunken fun surrounded by people who live and breath punk rock 24/7, which makes it extra special. And even if I'm not covered with tattoos or dress like a roadie, I feel like I belong when I'm there. Gabba gabba, we accept you, one of us, one of us, y'know?

Click here for Flickr Photoset

2009-01-15T01:47:00.002-05:00

Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls, Spider Bags - Maxwells, January 14

What if you could genetically engineer a hybrid between the mopey, self-pitying Jersey emo brigade of the early 00's and the new breed of Springsteen-fueled party-anthem Garden State bands like Gaslight Anthem? You'd probably wind up with something that sounded a lot like Titus Andronicus.

Local bands with one record out don't normally sell out Maxwells - on a weeknight, no less - but Titus Andronicus are definitely on a roll. Mega-indie XL Records will re-release the band's debut album "The Airing of Grievances" (originally released on DIY indie Troubleman) next week, and the band's about to embark on a national (and then European) tour with indie dance-pop darlings Los Campesinos! Combine that with a pretty strong local buzz and you've got the hottest act out of the Garden State since, well, the aforementioned Gaslight Anthem.

On the album, frontman Patrick Stickles too ofteen sounds too much like Conor Oberst when he does the tortured, quavery-vocal thing; but live, everything gets cranked up a notch or three and the band sounds as much like Bouncing Souls as Bright Eyes. Yes, the lyric sheet reads like a suicide note from a morbid 16-year old; the trick is that Titus Andronicus sets its existentialist message ("no future" is a persistent theme) to Uber-catchy singalong melodies and fist-pumping, moshpit-inducing beats.

The band itself looks like they were sent over from Central Casting: Hoodies, flannel, beards, yada yada yada, but they do know how to work a crowd. Stage presence isn't something you can fake or learn, and these guys have it. Which is probably what won them the slot opening for Los Campesinos! The two bands don't really sound alike, but they both pump up the same kind of energy.

Frontman Patrick Stickles kicked off the set by rasping some of the lyrics to "Thunder Road" into the mic while the band vamped behind him, and they ended the night with a sloppy but spirited cover of "Where Eagles Dare." At least these Jersey boys fly their state colors with pride. In between, they played one new song not on the album that sounded a lot like Danny & The Juniors' "At The Hop," only in typical T.A. fashion, the hook on the chorus is a paranoid screed - "Enemies are everywhere." Nothing quite sums up the band's modus operandi like their theme song though, which has the rollicking raunchy gait of an old sea chanty set to punk rock tempo and endlessly repeats the line "Your life is over."

You also have to love the band's show-offy flirtation with pop culture and literature; they copped the band's name from Shakespeare's worst play, the title of their album is a reference to the Festivus episode of Seinfeld, and the lyrics quote everything from Camus to Hunter S. Thompson to the Bible to the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel (and yes, I had to look that up.)

So yeah, let's raise a glass to Titus Andronicus, who sing songs about hating life and wanting to end it all set to catchy punk tunes the Ergs would have envied. They're on tour right now with Los Campesinos, then they do Europe, and eventually they'll have to come home and write a new album. It'll be interesting to see if they can somehow surmount their Bruce and Bright Eyes influences next time around and come up with something truly original.

Opening were the all-girl Brooklyn trio Vivian Girls, who have also been on something of roll lately, snaring all sorts of hot gigs (opening for Sonic Youth at the final McCarren Pool show, to name just one) and headlines, as well as the hearts of Brooklyn bloggers and indie promoter Todd P. The gals do a reverb-drenched retake on the new-wave girl-group sound of bands like the Bangles, but they seemed to be suffering at this show from bad stage sound since the bass and drums frequently fell out of sync. I'll have to catch them on a better night, and with all the shows they've been playing lately, I'm sure I will.

The opening band, Spider Bags, proved to be a really pleasant surprise. A trio originally from NJ and now relocated to Chapel Hill, NC, the band do a punky high-speed whiskey-soaked version of Dylanesque blues, sort of like "Highway 61 Revisited" played at 78 RPM. Singer Dan McGee got up and sang/played harp on the Bag's "Waking Up Drunk" with Titus Andronicus and it was obvious how much each enjoyed the other's music. I snagged both the band's LP and most recent 7-inch so look for some reviews soon.

2009-01-11T23:00:00.004-05:00

Good Samaritan and punk rock entrepeneur Jon Vafiadis (aka Jonnie WhoaOh) helped collect coats for the NY Coat Drive, and then corralled a bunch of his friends to help sort and bag them at the HQ of NY Cares on Saturday morning. Here's a photo of the WhoaOh Records crew at the facility. We helped sort through the donations and put them in bags for distribution to the different shelters, hospitals, churches, and other organizations who get the coats into the hands of the needy. My sincere thanks to Jonnie for putting this all together. With the economy going to hell and government cutting back everywhere, volunteerism is going to become even more important in 2009. Let's all do what we can.

2009-01-10T00:20:00.006-05:00

Bear Hands

The Blog Is Back

Bear Hands, Holy Hail, Atarah Valentine, Statehood - The Studio at Webster Hall, Jan. 9, 2009

"Get there early, we're trying to get some press for Holy Hail," said the publicist, and since I try to be accommodating when people get me into shows for free, I showed up at showtime. My punctuality was rewarded when I discovered that the opening act, Statehood (from Washington, DC,) features the rhythm section of Eric Axelson and Joe Easley, two old friends whom you might remember from a little band they had called Dismemberment Plan.

Actually, my first discovery of the night was The Studio itself, a fairly new basement space under Webster Hall. In contrast to the marbled, art deco, formal dance club upstairs, The Studio has a comfortable, funky feel - black walls, a very low-key vibe (cameras and bloggers welcome, no visible security, friendly bartenders,) not unlike the two basement spaces at the (now closed and pending a relocation to Williamsburg) Knitting Factory. The viewlines are great, the sound terrific (for three out of the four bands tonight anyway; more on that later;) my only gripe is that there's absolutely no place to sit. Especially since there's a little lounge area back by the restrooms where a couple of couches and chairs would fit perfectly.

Statehood

Back to the show: Statehood's fronted by singer/songwriter Clark Sabine, with Leigh Thompson on guitar and, as stated, that dynamite rhythm section of Axelson and Easley. The songs range from mammoth funk jams to sonorous shoegaze meditations, but it's that frenetic, uniquely D.C.-ish backbeat that makes this band sparkle and amaze. There are definitely elements of D.C. post-punk art-rock too (think, uh, Shudder To Think.) A little googling when I got home revealed that the band's been around since 2007 and released a CD about a year ago, but clearly they've been flying under the hipster radar; I suspect if these guys were all 15 years younger, they'd be headlining the Shmarket Shmotel every other weekend and Pitchfork would have given them their own URL by now. Hopefully the kids will wake up and find this band somehow, because there's a whole lot here to like.

Atarah Valentine

Atarah Valentine is the stage name of a young man who pushes androgyny to the cusp of transvestitism, with a shoulder-length pageboy and an elaborate all-black ensemble that included short-shorts, black nylon stockings, cumberbund, and oversized bow tie. The "band" consisted of beats, samples, and pre-recorded synth tracks coming from a Mac laptop, and a live cello. Valentine has a beautiful voice which perfectly matches the new-wavey goth dance-vibe of the music, and the live cello adds a warm touch. I wish Valentine didn't dance like Elaine Benes though; every time he started clomping around on stage, it killed the mood for me.

Holy Hail

Something didn't gel with the next band, Holy Hail. They never got the sound right; you couldn't hear the vocals, the bass was too loud, the synth seemed distorted. And since the other three bands on the bill sounded great, I have to assume it was the band (or its equipment,) not the sound techs or the room.

A couple of pet peeves here: If you want me not to like your band, come on stage in a hoodie that's two sizes too small with the hood up. And it also irked me that the band never introduced itself; if you're not the headliner, say your name at least once out of respect for your audience. Not doing so signals either unwarranted arrogance or callow amateurishness; either way, I don't like it.

Those quibbles aside, like I said, this band just didn't work for me. The lineup: A guy on Alessis synth and vocals, bass, drums, and a female singer. The sound: Clattering garage-punk that reminded me a bit of the Anniversary. Everybody played their instrument proficiently; the singer moved nicely and made eye contact with the audience. But they never found a groove or connected with the crowd. It was almost like watching four actors playing a band in a movie.

Bear Hands

Which brings us to Bear Hands, a band that almost single-handedly redeems everything I've come to hate about Brooklyn hipsterism. To say they blew me away would be a gross understatement; this is going to be my favorite new local band for a while. The group almost looks like it was put together by Central Casting: Two Uber-cute indie boys on drums and guitars; an extreme nerd (crazy hair, black rimmed glasses, dorky clothes,) on guitar, Korg, and lead vocals; and a tattooed bassist who occasionally bangs a floor tom and looks like he should be fronting a Gainesville hardcore band.

The singer basically just yelps the lyrics atonally, but it's all backed by propulsive dance rhythms and exquisitely harmonic guitars and bass. Try to imagine a less twee, all-male Los Campesinos crossed with the orchestral shoegaze melodies of My Bloody Valentine. Bloody awesome, if you ask me. Prediction: This band will be the Vampire Weekend of 2009. You heard it here first.

2008-12-10T22:16:00.003-05:00

Jersey Beat supports the efforts of the New Jersey Food Bank and you should too, especially now at the holidays when our thoughts turn to the less fortunate. Click on the image below for a larger view and fill out the coupon at the bottom with your contribution.

2008-09-15T19:31:00.001-04:00

Pop Under The Stars

THE KOOKS, Stellastarr*, Illinois - Central Park Summerstage, September 10 2008

Here were mid-September away. The summer's gone, officially, and we're ticking off the things we didn't get to do... One last visit to Coney Island Astroland? Nope. Weekend at the Jersey shore? Never got there. Last ballgame at Yankee Stadium before they tear it down? Oops, no. And I can't believe this past week was the only time I actually made it to Central Park.

But at least I did get there once, in this case to see the Kooks on a balmy late summer evening. I kept hearing good things about this band, how they were the new Kinks, how huge they are in the UK. They're popular enough in NYC to more than fill Rumsey Playfield, that's for sure. The lead singer's a handsome enough fella, with tousled hair he kept brushing from his eyes and an oversized blue workshirt that he had strategically half buttoned. Nice voice too. The other guys look a bit punky, except for the pudgy, overdressed drummer that they had to borrow for their night (the regular Kooks drummer called in sick.)

The Kooks seem to inhabit a very pleasant middle-ground between alternative and whatever it is they call Adult Contemporary Radio these days. There's a certain cheeky edge to the music, but there's also an awful lot of romantic balladry and enough noodling guitar solos; for every song where they invoke the Jam's concise punk-pop chops, there are two that hew towards John Mayer funkalciousness. There are bits of Blur and Oasis swirling around there, but nothing that would scare away your mom. There were a plethora of indie kids pressed up against the stage for this show, but an awful lot of older twenty and thirtysomethings swaying in the back, the kind of middlebrow crowd you might see at a Goo Goo Dolls show these days. Frontman Luke Pritchard is an exceptionally pretty young man with a lovely voice, and you can tell he knows it; but that lack of humility almost seemed winning because you could also tell he was enjoying how much this American audience was eating it all up, and the band seemed genuinely appreciative when the lyrics came wafting back from the voices of the crowd on the band's better known songs. A few less ballads and a little more rock n' roll and they'd have won me over too.

In the past, Stellastarr* had always struck me as one of the least interesting bands to emerge from the Strokes-fueled NYC scene of 2001, but I have to admit that this set really bowled me over. From what I've read, the band is showcasing new material from their next, as-yet-unrecorded album but this material seemed a lot more focused, intense, dramatic, and emotional than the flatulent recycled new-wave that I remembered. Powerful guitars matched with forceful harmony vocals and yes, the skinny shirtless drummer really is a monster on the kit.

Illinois lost a member since last I saw them; now a quartet, the Bucks County band still cranks out a deliciously askew take on American roots music, with a distinctive banjo and lots of tight harmony vocals. I had a chance to speak to bassist Kyle and he said that they've already recruited a new fifth member and will soon start releasing a singles of the month series, leading up to their next full length.

2008-07-24T19:51:00.004-04:00

That's me in the corner... Guest Angela McCloskey belts one out at Jim Walsh's Hoot

The Anti- Anti-Hoot (I got a review!)

So first, check this out...
Jim Walsh's blog in the Minneapolis Post

Boy, this was fun. Jim Walsh, the fabled Minneapolis rock critic (he wrote All Over But The Shouting, the oral history of The Replacements) performs as a singer/songwriter and hosts a monthly acoustic showcase he calls The Mad Ripple Hootenanny back in Minneapolis; he brought the concept to NYC for a week-long residency at Banjo Jim's, a cool little club I had never heard of before, tucked away on Ave. C in the East Village. And somehow, he asked me to play the Saturday night show. I'd met Jim at SXSW a few times, so he knew me as the guy who does Jersey Beat, but I have no idea how he knew I did a folkie thing too. So it was a huge honor to be invited to play at this thing.

After begging everybody I knew to come - and totally striking out - I was pretty nervous, but the night turned out to be a huge success. Banjo Jim's was PACKED, but nobody knew me, so it really felt like being on tour and playing to a totally new audience. And when you do comedic songs and stage patter like I do, that's a good thing - none of these people had heard my jokes or songs before, so everything went over really well. Jim, songwriter Brenda Kahn (with whom I shared a panel at a NEMO conference in Boston back in 2000!), and a young NYC singer/songwriter named Stook started the night out, sitting in a row and going round-robin, each of us taking turns doing a song. About halfway through the night, Kraig Johnson (of Run Westy Run and the Jayhawks fame) arrived with a bassist and drummer in tow, and suddenly we were a band, everybody jamming and improvising each other's songs. In honor of Jim's Minneapolis roots, I had prepared a cover of Husker Du's "Songs About UFO's," but I had no idea I'd be doing it with a full band (and Kraig doing harmony vocals with me!) "Bad New York Band" turned into a bluesy full-band stomp, and when it turned out that I got to pick the last song of the night, we kind of sorta played a very sloppy (and Replacements-ish) version of "Hey Good Lookin'," which I gotta tell ya was probably the most rock 'n' rollin' five minutes of my life.

So thank you, Mr. Walsh, and Stook and Brenda and Kraig & Co. Let's do it again next year!

2008-06-23T18:19:00.019-04:00

Back Into The Blogosphere

Hello, again. I’ve been, uh, busy. But I’m going to try and start keeping this blog updated regularly again. If you’ve only been looking at this page, I really recommend you also bookmark www.jerseybeat.com. Things are swinging over there – we have a new column by longtime contributor Johnny Puke, a new Rock N Roll Addiction column about City Gardens, the massive punk/HC/industrial concert hall outside Trenton that used to rule the Jersey scene back in the late Eighties to mid-Nineties, and we’re always updating the zine site with fresh reviews and interviews. So now, back to blogging…

Well, first things first; I finally moved!

We sold the old family house on Gregory Avenue – which took about a year, a total nightmare - but it’s finally over, and I now live in a spiffy co-op apartment about a mile north of where I used to be. I don’t want to post the address on here but you can find it on www.jerseybeat.com.

Here are some photos of the new place:

I love it so far. There’s a 24-hour Pathmark a block away, with a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Chinese takout place. A block in the other direction, there’s a pizzeria, a dry cleaner, and a deli… And a few blocks past that, an upscale neighborhood bar with yuppie chow (like $10 hamburgers and $12 wraps) and $5 Blue Moons.

I still need a kitchen table (a SMALL one, my kitchen’s tiny now) and I’ve been waiting for a new dresser for my bedroom to get delivered. Once those pieces are in place, I’ll be completely moved in. It’s funny, I thought I’d feel a wrenching sense of loss when we sold the house. My great-grandparents bought that house in the 1920’s; my grandparents lived there, my father was raised there, and he and my mom raised my brother and I there. But to be honest, an enormous sense of relief came with getting rid of the place, with all the many things that were either broken or needed replacing or updating. Now I don’t have to fuss with the leaky furnace every night or see a fuel oil bill ever again; it feels like a new beginning. It feels really good.

Now back to the music

Last Friday night, my friend Joe Evans (aka Joe III) put together a punk show at Lost & Found in Brooklyn to help celebrate the release of the first Chemical X DVD fanzine (you can find a review on jerseybeat.com) Joe’s a nervous little guy in the best of times, but this show proved especially stressful – there were all sorts of last-minute tinkering with the lineup, and then Lost & Found lost power the night before (which meant that the show might have to be done with a portable generator and very little in the way of house lights.) Luckily the power came back and eventually all the drama resolved itself and it turned into a fun night. Unfortunately I had some drama of my own, waiting six hours for my bedroom dresser to be delivered (it never did show), so I was late for the show and missed the debut of False Friends (sorry, Kelly Lynn!), but I did get to see Full of Fancy, the Steinways, and the ridiculously amazing Japanese noise band Peelander-Z. Joe III even got to relax and dance around by the time the Steinways were one, which was good to see.

Ah, but my weekend was just beginning. On Saturday (after waiting another couple of hours fruitlessly for my dresser to show up,) I headed down to Asbury Park for The Wave Gathering festival. This annual weekend event (this year was the third) brings Asbury Park’s music community together for wall-to-wall shows at clubs, restaurants, and retail spaces.

The artsy drag in Asbury Park is Cookman Ave, about a five-block stretch that’s lined with boutiques, antique stores, restaurants, and café’s. Lots of new businesses had opened since the last time I’d been there, which is the good news; the bad news is that just as many shops and eateries had failed and closed. (It’s ironic that the rebirth of Asbury Park back around 2000 really began with a string of art galleries on Cookman, which are now all gone.)

New Rick Barrys

Once you get off Cookman, though, Asbury is still the same dreary place – with the exception of The Saint, Main Street is lined with bail bondsmen, nail salons, tattoo parlors, cheap ethnic takeout restaurants, and boarded up storefronts. The boardwalk’s definitely showing signs of the much-ballyhoo’d rebirth, but it’s all behind schedule – there’s a lot of construction and new businesses about to open, but none of them managed to do it before the summer season started on Memorial Day. By Labor Day, though, the Asbury boardwalk should be a very different place than the boarded up wreck it was last year.

One of the boardwalk stores that will be opening this summer is called Style Rocket; from what I understand, it will be a high-end surf and skate shop, and it’s owned by my old friend Mike Pimco, who some of you might remember as the lead singer of Kid With Man Head (the punk band who ruled the Asbury scene back in the late Nineties.) Right now though, Style Rocket is just a big empty space with some mannequins; they had a few bands play in there for Wave Gathering, and the place had the acoustics of an airplane hangar. I’m eager to find out if Mike intends to have in-store live music once the place actually opens. (I remember seeing Kid With Man Head play a great in-store show at a record store down in Austin during SXSW once.)

Wave Gathering made use of many of the new businesses on Cookman Ave., Style Rocket, the (temporarily?) reopened Wonder Bar, Asbury Lanes, and the Saint, so visitors and the musicians who performed had a chance to see most of downtown. And everybody had the same question: Asbury’s on the cusp of a massive wave of gentrification. There’s already a strip of luxury condos at the foot of Cookman Ave (near the beach and the big gay hotel/nightclub, the Empress.) More condos are under construction just off the boardwalk, and more will be going up in the near future. But will the city and the developers have the wisdom to make Asbury’s music scene a part of the gentrification; or will greedy real estate developers stifle the local music scene just as they’re almost surely going to bulldoze Asbury Lanes and the Fast Lane in the months or years ahead? It’s fine to build places for rich people to live; but don’t you need a reason for them to live there too? So far, there are condos in downtown Asbury Park; but where are the supermarkets, the deli’s, the coffee shops, the drugstores, the libraries, the bookstores, the parks and playgrounds? And I can’t even begin to imagine how much money and time it will take to turn the local public school system around. Are those things on anyone’s agenda? Or are the developers just going to leave the rest of the city a crime-plagued ghetto and hope the rich folks behind their locked doors in their condos don’t notice?

Readymade Breakup

Wave Gathering certainly provided a blueprint of how the arts could become a part the new Asbury Park, so let’s focus on that. It was great to see every venue with significantly better turnout than last year, and it was especially gratifying to see so many local musicians (and even some of the touring musicians) hang around all weekend attending shows. That’s how a scene happens, whether we’re talking about Hoboken in 1980 or ABC No Rio in 1990, or New Brunswick in the late Nineties, or Asbury Park in the 21st Century. It all starts with the local musicians supporting each other, and it grows from there.

I spent the weekend with my friend Lazlo from BlowupRadio.com (we even managed to broadcast several sets over his Internet radio station with just my iBook and a Snowball mic,) and we caught everything from singer/songwriters in small café’s to big rocking sets at Asbury Lanes and the Saint. Here are some of the highlights:

Shane Cooley

We inadvertently caught Shane Cooley's set at the Twisted Tree Café, but both Lazlo and I were glad we did. Shane is a young singer/songwriter from Virginia who came up to Asbury for the weekend. He’s a sharp dresser with a pleasing, mellow style that reminded me a bit of the young James Taylor. Coincidentally, the first track on his new CD is called “My Asbury Park,” which isn’t about Asbury at all but rather about his own hometown, written and sung as a homage to Springsteen. It was definitely the highlight of his well-received set. www.myspace.com/shanecooley

If you’re vegan or vegetarian, the Twisted Tree is where you want to eat in Asbury Park. They have a wide selection of homemade vegan muffins and cookies, herbal teas, and a menu full of tasty vegan sandwiches. I’m not much of a tofu fan but I had their tofu “meatball” wrap and it was delicious. The meatballs were perfectly grilled and filled with nuts and spices. Lazlo (who’s a vegetarian) raved about his focaccia melt, which was a selection of grilled veggies and cheese in homemade focaccia bread.

After Shane’s set, I headed to the basement of Trillum Antiques, where the Aquarian Weekly was hosting industry panels on topics like management, studio production, marketing, and songwriting. I was on the Press & Radio Panel, along with radio personality Jeff Raspe, the Aquarian’s John Pfeiffer, rock writer Richard Skelly, and several other industry people from radio and newspapers. I think we gave the musicians in the audience some useful advice about how to present themselves, put together a presskit, and whatnot, as well as touching on ubiquitous topics like CD vs digital and the future of Asbury Park.

After my panel, Lazlo and I met up at The Saint, where we saw the new lineup of Fairmont (where singer/guitarist Neil and drummer Andy are now augmented with keyboards and a beautiful young woman on violin and backup vocals.) Lazlo and I agreed that it was the best Fairmont set we’d ever seen, and we’ve both been following the band since its inception.

Later we were back at the Twisted Tree for beautiful acoustic sets by Joshua Van Ness and Mimi Cross, which Lazlo and I broadcast over Blowupradio.com. Both artists filled the Twisted Tree and received warm and enthusiastic responses from the crowd. It was a big difference from the first Wave Gathering (I had to miss last year,) when many of the artists played to small or indifferent audiences, who were just in the venues to get a meal and didn’t care about the live music.

Next up, we walked across Cookman to the lounge at Synaxis, an upscale Greek restaurant, to see The New Rick Barry’s. Rick is one of the best singer/songwriters in NJ and it’s fun hearing him with a full band. The material seemed much more upbeat and light than some of the heavy political tunes he sings as a solo artist.

Miss TK & The Revenge

We doubled back to The Saint in time to see Miss TK & The Revenge, the Asbury-based new-wave band that invokes the cheesy synth-pop of the Eighties, but with a more punky feel. They packed the place, as did local favorites Readymade Breakup (playing songs from a soon-to-be-released new album) and the Milwaukees.
Lazlo and I ended by the night by doubling back to Synaxis to catch a set by the Crayons, who also had a sizable crowd enjoying their breezy indie pop.

I slept over on Lazlo’s couch and we were back in Asbury the next day, early enough that I got to take a long, leisurely stroll up and down the Boardwalk to see all the new construction. We kept seeing the same faces – journalists Gary Wein and John Pfeiffer, Adam and Scott from the Saint, and musicians like Anthony Fiumano, Tommy Strazza, Joe Harvard, and others everywhere we went. Our Sunday itinerary included a beautiful set by singer/songwriter Alex Brumel at the Twisted Tree (he announced that he’s about to go into the studio to record a solo album,) 16-year old wunderkind Quincy Mumford at the Saint (the lad sounds like a cross between Jack Johnson and John Mayer, with some very appealing teen-oriented songwriting,) and the catchy pop-punk of Frank Bressi & The Chilling Details at Asbury Lanes (where I ran into my old friend Gentleman Jim Norton doing sound.) Other notables in town were Toby Record from the early Nineties New Brunswick punk scene (he’s now managing Miss TK & The Revenge,) Bouncing Souls manager Kate Hiltz (who had Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio with her on Sunday!), and producer Jon Leidersdorff (who, it seemed, had just been in the studio with just about every local act we saw all weekend!)

There are a lot of questions right now about the future of Asbury Park, but I walked away this weekend believing that the Wave Gathering fest and the music scene it represents need to be a part of it.

2008-05-27T21:09:00.001-04:00

W.E. Fest 2008

Here is a link to some photos. For a full report, visit www.jerseybeat.com

http://flickr.com/photos/jimjbeat/sets/72157605294171171/

2008-05-08T23:30:00.009-04:00

JERSEY BEAT MEDIA BLOG

POINGLY
So Sue Me - the new full-length album
Available for download at www.poingly.com
New interview at JerseyBeat.com

Download "Faster (w/ MC Ted Stevens)" here: Download

JERSEY BEAT MEDIA BLOG

2008-03-22T17:35:00.003-04:00

My Back Pages

So this week was my unofficial Spring break. Although unlike a real Spring break, I still had to get up for work every morning (except Good Friday, which was a vacation day, thank you Jesus.) Nonetheless I did stay out late every night for five night's straight.

Monday -- Tin Armor at Otto's Shrunken Head. Otto's is that weird tiki bar at the east end of 14th Street. They don't advertise so you never know who's playing there; usually it's four or five no-name NYC bands, often (but not always) in the garage-rock genre. The sound system's pathetic and the crowded little backroom where the bands play doesn't have much in the way of atmosphere (although there are a lot of chairs as well as booths against the walls, which is nice if you're old like me and don't like to stand up for five hours at a time.) I got there too late to see Tin Armor's tourmates Annabel and Tin Armor played a pretty short set, but it was good seeing the guys and I was able to pick up their new EP on WhoaOh Records.

Tuesday - Tin Armor, Nato Paisano, Hopalong at Lost & Found. Lost & Found is out in the middle of Brooklyn somewhere. My grasp of the geography of the area is pretty limited, all I know is that it takes two subways to get there, the 7 to the G, and the G is the worst-run line on the MTA. The trains are old, noisy, dirty, and run at their own whim. On my last trip out to L&F, I had to step over several used hypodermic needles on my way back into the station.

On the other hand, Lost & Found has a friendly grungy vibe, the beer is relatively cheap, and they give you free hot dogs (or veggie dogs) as long as you order drinks. The sound system's less than ideal, but it's certainly not the worst place to see live music. The only really bad thing is that the place runs on Punk Rock Time. I got there at nine (the designated showtime) and the place was empty, except for a couple of bartenders who were bowling on the floor with a bocce ball and old Budweiser bottles. I called half a dozen friends and got nothing but voicemails, and was starting to panic (thinking I was at the wrong place) when Joe Evans III and Jonny WhoaOh came walking up the street from the G train. I hung out and chatted with them for a while and eventually people (and bands) started to trickle in.

Apparently a bunch of the scheduled bands had to cancel at the last minute for this show and were replaced by Hopalong (a girl folksinger who did a cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway" that pissed Larry Livermore off no end,) and Nate from the Used Kids doing a solo set (including the Modern Machines' "House On Buffalo Road" at my request, and a fun Bruce Sprinsteen cover.) Tin Armor went on at about 11:30, played "The Proclaimers" at my request (thanks guys!) and sounded great. The original trio of Matt, Matt, and Matt have added Matt Umland's brother John on second guitar and backup vocals, deepening the band's sound and adding a little more range. Most pop-punk people don't think Tin Armor are really pop-punk but like them anyway, and I guess I can see the point. Like Lemuria, they're really more of an indie band that mostly plays and tours and hangs out with pop-punk bands. But who cares? I love Matt Umland's voice and I think he's one of the best songwriters of his generation; like Delay, who also hail from Columbus, there's no hint of bullshit or ironic distance or affectation with this music. It's all written and sung from the heart.

On Wednesday night, I met up with longtime Jersey Beat contributor Paul Silver, who was in NYC from Chicago at a business convention. We grabbed a vegetarian Asian dinner at a cool little restaurant called Red Bamboo and then walked crosstown to The Annex on Orchard Street (passing the former home of CBGB's so I could point out the empty storefront there now to Paul.) We were there to see Cymbal Eat Guitars, a band I've been championing since singer/songwriter Joe D'Agostino was a lonely high-school kid stuck in the no man's land of South Jersey making mind-blowing demos under the name Joseph Ferocious. Now that he's in college in Manhattan, Joe's got an excellent band that is in the process of recording their first album (produced by no less than the Wrens' Charles Bissell.)

Before we could see CBE though we had to sit through two awful bands, one a funk-rock group that would have fit right into the NYC scene of 1991 and the other a loud bombastic rock act whose members looked like they should have all should have been in different bands (the singer was dressed in Clash togs, the drummer was a skinny new-wavey dude, the guitarist was a dead ringer for John Travolta doing Vinnie Barbarino, and the drummer looked like he was there to deliver a pizza.) Somewhere mid-thru the second bad New York band, Paul turned to me and said, "Cymbals Eat Guitars better be damn good for making me sit through this!"

Well, they were. And then some. I had heard the band not that long ago at the Lit Lounge, but the superior sound system at the Annex made a big difference. This band is far too good to be playing crappy bars on weeknights, but such is the nature of the NYC music scene that they really have no alternatives at this point. They're so original that it's hard to describe them, but there's definitely a complex layered shoegazer thing going on (ala, say, Spirtualized.) You can also hear the Wrens influence in the band's impressive command of dynamics, going literally from a whisper to a scream in a few notes and making it all seem perfectly organic and seamless. The two guitars, bass, and keyboards interweave to create a dense wall of sound that's mind-blowing in person and is going to be overwhelming once they finish in the studio. I wish there was a way to flick a switch and have them playing regularly at Maxwells and Piano's, but to be honest, Joe needs to be playing these crappy bar shows just to get used to being in front of a live audience (he needs to work on his stage patter and maintaining eye contact with the crowd.) But when he's singing, he's a natural - charismatic, commanding, and utterly real. His vocals range from murmurs to bloodchilling screams but none of it comes across as affectation. Much like the Wrens, Cymbals Eat Guitars twist time signatures, dynamics, and multiple song parts into intricate puzzles that are a delight to figure out. Paul was blown away, and he's a pretty tough critic. Color me impressed too.

Thursday I was back at Otto's Shrunken Head. Again, I opted for the more cost-friendly draft beer although I really longed for a colorful frozen margarita in a tiki head mug with an umbrella sticking out of it. Maybe next time. I was there to see the Invincible Gods, 2/3 of which used to be in the Atomic Missiles. Stuck in traffic, they got to the club late and had the soundman hectoring and lecturing them, as well as providing utterly shitty sound. I'll just stop the review right there. Surprisingly, The Imperialists (featuring members of Plastic East and The One & Only Typicals) actually sounded pretty good with their updated version of what the Missiles and Plastic East used to called "street wave" - funky, bouncy, big and beaty rock 'n' roll. Mike East gave me a copy of their demo, which will be reviewed on jerseybeat.com shortly. Keep an eye out for these guys, they're smokin'. An incredibly lame garage-band whose name need not be mention followed, during which I drank beer and reminisced with Nick and Sean from the I-Gods. The One & Only Typicals ended the night with a truncated set during which the very grumpy soundman (apparently they have noise issues and have to cut off the live music fairly early) stumped around and made faces and kept threatening to pull the plug. It was one more example of how badly bands get treated in NYC.

Thankfully, I got to sleep in Friday (and nap most of the afternoon) so I was ready for my trip out to another Brooklyn club, Bar Matchless. This place is at the edge of McCarren Park, southwest of the Bedford Ave. strip in Williamsburg. My first surprise was discovering that the bartender was my old friend Artie Shepherd, whom I've known since he was a teenager playing in hardcore bands. Since then, he's been in Errortype:11, Instruction, Gay For Johnny Depp, and currently God Fires Man, and he also insisted on giving me free drinks all night. Sometimes (not often, but sometimes) it's good to be me.

This was a really good bill, although the Imperialists were made to start at 8 pm when there was no one in the club. I got there midway through their set and at least caught half of it, although with the four members of the Meltdowns.

I've been corresponding with Billy Gray of The Meltdowns (see Tris McCall's review of their new CD on jerseybeat.com) for years but this was my first time actually seeing them, and they were terrific. The bassist plays a 6-string bass and does some amazing runs, and Billy's a maniac on lead guitar. The band plays funky stretched-out rock jams with a lot of humor (at one point, Billy and the bassist put down their instruments, jumped into the crowd, and did a perfectly synchronized re-enactment of the dance moves from MJ's "Thriller" video). I mostly missed the next band (an all-female instrumental jazz-rock combo) because I had so many friends cross-secting several different scenes in the room (not to mention the free Rogue ales from Artie,) but I was back in the back room for the Used Kids (Danny and Nato from the Modern Machines with Mikey Erg on drums, and a short feisty gal named Kate on second guitar.) It was the best Used Kids set I've seen so far, mixing in a bunch of old Momacs favorites with new songs, Danny and Nato trading off lead vocals, and Kate adding a little extra crunch.

Now it's Saturday night and I'm about to head down to New Brunswick to see The Measure (SA) open for World/Inferno Friendship Society at the Court Tavern. And in case it's crossed your mind, you're absolutely right; I am way too old to be running around like this every night. Next week I intend to be in bed every night by 19.

Oh, except for Monday, when the Screaming Females are at Maxwells. I guess we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

2008-02-28T21:27:00.003-05:00

... and the Oscar goes to..."

I was chatting with my pal Chris Avello online today and this story came up...

Back around 2000 or so, some friends owned an art gallery in Asbury Park. They used to have live music there sometimes and put on a show one Saturday night with several singer-songwriters. I was one, and Glen Hansard was another. He was on holiday from the Frames and doing a solo tour of the U.S. I had heard of the Frames but had never actually heard their music, so I was really impressed by Glen's set.

Gentrification hadn't taken root in Asbury Park yet so we all sat outside on the sidewalk after the show on lawn chairs, drinking beer into the wee hours and passing around an acoustic guitar. Cops would drive by and just wave at us. They had a lot more to worry about than a few white people drinking beer outside. That would never happen today, we'd be shut down in a minute. But the luxury condos hadn't gone up yet at that point, and the local cops were still very laid back.

So anyway.... When it was my turn with the guitar, I decided to bust out Loudon Wainwright's old novelty song, "Dead Skunk." As I announced the song, Glen interrupted me and exclaimed, "I love Loudon Wainright, brilliant selection, let me sing it with you." So Glen and I sang "Dead Skunk In The MIddle of the Road" together.

Now I can say that I dueted with an Academy Award winner. Pretty cool.

2008-02-26T22:57:00.001-05:00

New JB Podcast

http://media.libsyn.com/media/jerseybeat/jb50a.mp3

I tried recording this episode with Garageband on my ancient iBook laptop. Listen and let me know how it sounds.

2008-02-26T19:31:00.004-05:00

The Wit & Wisdom of Dave Zukauskas

Dave Zukauskas - aka Dave RunIt, aka Dave Brushback - is one of my oldest friends. We became penpals back in the mid-80's when he was publishing Run It Fanzine and I was just a few years into doing Jersey Beat. He quickly became a regular contributor, penning witty, caustic record reviews (yes, they were still records back then, except for the occasional cassette tape) and hilarious cartoons. Run It fanzine turned into Brushback, and today Dave is online (just like me) doing a blog in which he basically reviews his record collection.

Dave's sense of humor ran heavily to inside-jokes about the indie/punk/hardcore or whatever-we-called-it-back-then community; Gerard Cosloy and the editors at Forced Exposure (my constant tormentors) were frequent targets. But even if you have no idea who Scott Munro or Thurston Moore are, his stuff is pretty funny. The following are some excepts from Brushback #4, Fall 1995.