Pre-Thanksgiving Jitters [Links and Things I Say You Should See]

This could potentially be the first (but will likely be the last) of a weekly/monthly/annual/once-ly link round up! I felt like there was a handful of cool things going on in the past week and sharing them all on twitter just wasn’t cutting it.

A Very Tristate New Years

Gigs in Long Island, NJ, Philly, Manhattan, and Brooklyn! Except… Connecticut! Why is so hard for me to play in the place where I’m from?!

My last post went on and on about The Hard Times so I’ll start with Hey Stranger.

The Hard Times Release Debut EP on Whatevski

Releases? Release? “The Hard Times” is a single unit, but it’s more than one person, but… whatever.

With not a lot of fanfare, my reggae project The Hard Times released our first 3 song EP “Two Bucks For Bob” on Whatevski, a boutique online store that specializes in b-sides, live songs, rarities, and side projects from the world of NYC ska/reggae band The Slackers. So how did we get in? I’ll start at the beginning but I’ll jump around.

The Week[end] in Rock: 11/12 – 11/20

Was:
Fri 11/12 gig with Hey Stranger at National Underground. The venue treated us very poorly and barely had their shit together. Super Mirage was so good! We crammed in 6 songs before they through us out. It was basically a basement show with an overpriced bar, but great people stayed to watch.
Sat 11/13 gig with The Hard Times in strong island. Suprisingly cool crowd, lots of dancing, bittersweet send off for Juan (bassist leaving for LA). Got noticed as a CTSka Alum. Accidental EP release party for “Two Bucks For Bob.” Details to come. I’m so impressed how fast The Frighteners have created a crowd and a following for themselves.
Sun 11/14 recording with Hey Stranger out in Queens. I sat in the producer chair for day 2 of horn recording. Really proud of what we got done today, lots of energy from the players today. Here’s a video I snapped on the ol’ blackberry of our horns bustin’ their asses.

The Summer Gig and Show Post Part II

Since I first wrote my first post about summer gigs, I’ve played a few shows, been to a few shows, and booked a few more.

I still can’t get over how much fun I had with The Hard Times when we played a set of blues covers and classic ska/punk tunes with Vic Ruggiero of the Slackers (videos and more excitement here). I caught Common in Ft. Greene at a festival. It was great to finally see him, but he played a very short set, half of which was a cool (yet, too long) medley of classic hip-hop tunes. The opening acts were also pretty lame and I missed Soulive entirely, who I was there to see in the first place. I caught The Aggrolites with The Have Nots at Highline Ballroom, one of the few all ages venues in Manhattan where you can see bands that aren’t big enough to fill Irving Plaza and the like. The Have Nots killed it and A.G.G.R.O. played a great set, though I felt like the whole night was a little bit better a year ago, when I saw the same two bands and one more at the Mercury Lounge. It’s a smaller, more intimate venue, though not all ages. A few nights later, I caught half a set at the pizza place near me (Two Boots Brooklyn, nothing like Two Boots in Manhattan, go right now) from a new project called Grand Concourse, featuring Kevin Batchelor of The Skatalites, Rhianna, Batchelor Party, the list goes on, Johnny Meyers of The Stingers ATX, Gideon from Westbound Train, and Eddie Ocampo of The Stubborn All-Stars and The Jammyland All-stars, as well as some other amazing musicians I know I’ve seen before. They KILLED it.

NYC Hearts JWM (And Vice Versa)

Check out this lo-fi clip of The Hard Times, me on riddim guitar, playing the rock ‘n’ roll classic “Kansas City” with Vic Ruggiero, lead singer/songwriter and keyboard player for The Slackers. He also played keys for Rancid and countless others.

Only in NYC and Brooklyn would something this crazy happen. I can’t tell you how cool of an experience this was given how many times I’ve seen him play with The Slackers (and solo for that matter) and at so many different venues. But here in NYC, these things just seem to happen to me. Ageny Jay (guitarist for The Slackers) was spinning all night which just added to it.

I’ve had the chance to play with members of The NY Ska-Jazz Ensemble, King Django, Victor Rice (playing songs like “Simmer Down” and “Drum Song”), The Scofflaws, to name a few, just because I’ve hung around late enough at the Knitting Factory. WTF?

It’s gonna take a lot to ever get me out of this town. More clips below the jump.

I’m Big in Baltimore, Likely Bigger In Japan

Richie Frieman writes for PensEyeView, a website that features an interview and profile of a different band every two days. These bands can be signed, unsigned, somebodies, nobodies, anybody. Richie was kind enough to feature many of the bands I worked with while I was at Rock Ridge Music. Like anywhere else, you talk to someone enough, and there’s a certain amount of banter that comes along. Soon after PEV covered OTiS, a band I’ve been working with independently, we got into a conversation about me what I was up to. Upon finding out that I used to work for Hillel and had recently accepted a job with Hazon, he offered me the chance to interview with him for his blog Tuned In for the Baltimore Jewish Times.

The full blog entry can be read here. He calls me a “magical multitasker.” Not sure I’d go that far but certainly appreciate the sentiments.

The whole affair caught me a little off guard. For all the interviews I’ve set up, I don’t know that I’ve ever been interviewed to this extent. I have to say it was a pretty cool experience though I don’t think I come off as nearly as exciting as any of the musicians for whom I’ve arranged interviews.

I do have to say I think it’s way cool any time my jewy life and music life interact or overlap. Look at Richie, who writes for these two different publications. I’ll also say that as much fun as it is to be in the background and be thanked by the people you work with, but it’s also nice to be in the limelight now and again and the public appreciation in this article feels great.