I originally posted this on tumblr. And as I go to post this, I noticed that I have a handful of drafts of posts I started but never finished. The hell is wrong with me?
I have what I think are really cool ideas for stuff to blog about. Sometimes. Sometimes I think they’re such a good idea that I write them down. Most often I don’t. Most often I think “who really cares about this” or “2093432 other people are already writing about this.” But sometimes I think, so what, I care about me, so I should write about me, that’s what the internet is all about. Me.
Right?
I could review shows. I could talk about upcoming gigs I have. I should be writing about both my bands recording. I could write about what it’s been like to produce a record. How about the challenges of balancing adulthood with being a kid in a band. How about the overlap of between the type of stuff I do at work and the type of stuff I do for my bands. I could write about my cool new job and how it affects my my life. I could write about all the things that are wrong in the world that I think I have solutions for.
This blog is about blogging. I could write about the different ways in which people blog and publicly brainstorm solutions, figuring out ways in which I might blog more often. I could tell you all about how it’s important that I blog as my full time job may soon include more of it. Or how I want to inspire my bandmates to blog more often, so I should set an example.
We could even spend time talking about how I never write and now that I’m sitting down to write, I’m not actually writing about anything. Why not take this time to write about something meaningful.
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.
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 coveredOTiS, 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 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.
But it’s 2010, not 1998. Seeing the late 90s ska/rock act Spring Heeled Jack USA on the cover of the New Haven Advocate in high school was not such a big deal; they were from the area and were big. Seeing the video for “Jolene” on MTV2 was a very big deal; were they really that big?
SHJUSA broke up roughly 10 years ago but will be having two reunion shows this weekend at Toad’s Place in New Haven. Against my better judgement, I have tickets to both nights. The Advocate ran a really great article about the band and the shows this weekend. I got warm-fuzzies reading the article when it hits on a few things in particular. The writer and guitarist/singer Mike Pellegrino talk about the Tune Inn at length:
“That place was so sketchy, so cool,” says Pellegrino. “How many shows did we play there? 100? That’s not pushing it right? It was totally sketchy. I miss it. There was a burnt-up building across the street and parents would be like, ‘Where am I dropping my kid off?’”
The Tune Inn, formerly on Center Street in New Haven, was an all-ages club. It didn’t serve alcohol until near the end of its existence. It was a place for teens to go that wasn’t contrived (or chaperoned), to play, mingle and listen to music.
My mom definitely was concerned where she was dropping me off. The very first show I ever drove myself to was there. Pilfers stole my hearing permanently at the Tune Inn. My first high school pop/punk band played some of our first shows there. When high school senioritis kicked in, I was there at least once a week, it almost didn’t matter who was playing. I remember being extremely frustrated when they were muscled out of New Haven and made it out for the venues last show when Thumper (also mentioned in the article) reunited. I remember just how weird the place felt with half the sound equipment and furniture gone that last night.
The article goes on to talk about how SHJUSA fit into the third wave ska explosion, the subsequent fall, and several reunions. It’s a really nice intro for those aren’t familiar with the band or the context but a nice recap for anyone who was along for any of the ride.
I had all but forgotten that in 2006 I wrote an article on SHJUSA for the short lived Upbeat Ska Zine (picture below) run by some friends of mine during what I felt was a really great ska renaissance taking place in CT at that time.
As I mention in the article, I only saw them once in high school, somewhere between my sophomore and junior years. This was really the start. Tracks from “Songs From Suburbia” became staples of almost every party I went to. Were you ever at Tap Out House at midnight when I cranked “Mass Appeal Madness?” While I was filling in on bass for CT ska band Stealing From Peter, who was known for covering various SHJUSA songs live, we had one show where Mike Pellegrino (singer/guitarist mentioned above) jumped on stage to sing “Jolene” with us. It was pretty surreal. Here’s that video:
Most recently, for a birthday present, one of my good friends got me a signed poster from a benefit auction (a beautiful story in and of itself) that now sits above my bed. I’m pretty proud of it. I still consider them a major influence on my current pop/punk/ska project, Hey Stranger.
We’ve been gone for so long that it doesn’t really matter where we’re going to, there’s no looking back.
I know I should be strong, but my heart isn’t in it and I don’t know my limit, so all I can do is move on.
*** Update 5/11/09 ***
These shows were both amazing! The music was great, the openers were fun, the band had not lost an ounce of the energy they once had and I ran into everyone. I ran into old friends, members of every band I’d ever been in, an old roommate, heroes of mine in the audience, and the list goes on.
In addition to the New Haven Advocate, the New Haven Register ran a great article that was more the human interest angle, reflecting on the loss of a band member and how that affected the band’s decisions. Hat tip to Duff Guide To Ska for linking it and running a really great preview for the shows as well.
(No, I did not draw it. Let’s get that out of the way.) Poster and Flier making, I feel, has become somewhat of a lost art, primarily due to graphic design hacks like myself who just bang out something in photoshop or illustrator. Hey Stranger is fortunate enough to have some very talented friends, one of whom hand drew this great poster. I love the design so much that I’m insisting we use it for this show but reuse the main illustration, minus the show specific information, for a bigger show down the line. I’ve always wanted to do heavy stock screen printed posters for a special occasion.
Thursday, May 13, 2010, 7-9pm
NYU End of Semester Party
with Hey Stranger and The Northern
Club Groove, 125 MacDougal St, NYC
Open to non-students Facebook Event
Here’s how to make a shopping bag from an old [band] tshirt. Hat tip Lifehacker.
Great idea for one or two tshirts, but what if you have a suitcase of old band tshirts that really can’t be worn anymore? I’m sure as hell not throwing them out.
…is the amount of gigs I estimate I’ve played in my life. I’ve played 56 gigs since I moved to NYC in August 2008, which begins to make up for the 2 gigs I played between June 2006 and then. The bulk is roughly as follows (I didn’t really start keeping track until the Tap Out years).
Hey Stranger – 14
The Hard Times – 20
Across The Aisle – 17
Push To Release – about 25
Tap Out – About 104
Lost In The Shuffle – About 7
Stealing From Peter – About 8
And there are a bunch of one-offs in here (such as backing Hannah Fairchild, filling in for The Roland High Life, a TMBG cover band, The Silent H) and the Hardcore Karaoke Pile-On Extravaganza shows that would be weird to count.
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have played all these shows, especially having never gone on a proper tour (save for an 11 date run with Tap Out in 2005). I’m psyched because I feel like there’s so many more to come.
Posted by Jacob Wake Up! 
