Friday, June 20, 2008

On the radio Sunday June 29th

Balloon Festival promotor Rick Eberle also has a radio show featuring new and unsigned band and will feature the song "Where Do We Go From Here?" from our new album SUNDAY NIGHT (June 29th) at 10 PM. You can listen via the internet at http://www.wmjcfm.com/ or if you're in the New York area at 94.3 FM.

GROOVY!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Explorer's Club - Freedom Wind

Normally I would not post a review of someone else's work here but in this case I'm making an exception because the new album by The Explorer's Club blew me away!

These guys more than any band in recent memory channel the Beach Boy sounds, but not just the mid 60's Beach Boys, but their early 70's output as well. At the same time they have put a modern spin on their music and have come up with an original and melodic and interesting set of songs that I can't stop listening to!

If anyone is interested, you can download the entire album right here!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Balloon Fest Auditon at The Crazy Donkey

Forgive me if I'm wrong. Maybe I'm old school. Maybe I'm just old~! Excuse my french but What Kinda Fuckin' Audition Is It Where The Musicians Have To Pay To Enter The Club?!?!?

Isn't it enough that we provided entertainment for free? They have the nerve to charge us to boot? Besides being demeaning, its just plain wrong and goes against every show business tradition, don't it?

So there we were with actual fans inside waiting to hear us and Joey and Rich (rightfully) won't pay to enter the club! Scott, not wanting to cause a scene simply paid for the four of us but the tone was set.

Maria was equally shocked at these turn of events. She brought along one of her music business associates to hear us and I'm sure from her point of view this small bit of controversy was not welcome.

To make matters worse, the other musicians waiting to audition were all either Death Metal or lame acoustic fags. Luckily we used our outrage at the situation to show the other balloon fest candidates how to actually sing a song! Damn kids (and some of them were like 14!) wouldn't know a real song even if Sinatra came in and gave a lecture!

Enough. It's done. The promoter loved us (or so he said) so (according to Maria) we got the damn Balloon Festival.

But at what cost?

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Knitting Factory

When I first heard that we were booked to appear at the Knitting Factory I was very excited. This venue has a great reputation, is in a great location in Lower Manhattan (right around the corner from where the Mudd Club used to be), and has a hip quotient off the charts.

When we arrived there we found the place filled with people. Walking around, we discovered many levels of bars, performance rooms and places to hang out. The main room (where we were originally shceduled to perform) was awesome; great stage, tons of people doing their Manhattan thing.

We later discovered that we were "moved" to a lower level bar because they had booked an opening act with more draw than us. The lower level bar (Tap Room) was EMPTY!! The room was booked with four acts; 7:30 8:30 9:30 & 10:30 with us slated for the 9:30 slot. The two bands (and I use the term loosely) that preceded us were, in a word, PATHETIC! Boring acoustic duos who couldn't write themselves out of a paper bag!

Somehow before we started the room filled up a (little) bit and ironically we did our finest set EVER to an almost empty space! Go figure...

The band on for the 10:30 slot actually sounded OK but waiting till the end of the night to get paid wound up being torture. Especially after checking out the tons of people milling around the main room and wishing we were there instead of the "basement".

After talking with the paymaster I was told that we were the only band to bring in paying customers and subsequently to get paid ourselves; Twenty Whole Dollars!

That's show biz.