Monday, December 28, 2009

Otto's Shrunken Head


Had a GREAT gig last night at a crazy place called Otto's Shrunken Head Tiki Bar and Lounge.
The main feature of the joint is Mr. Wood, the master of ceremonies, who passes a bucket around the audience to pay the band (which I found to be the most fair and honest payment method I've ever heard of!).
Here are some pics of the evening...







Friday, December 4, 2009

Updated Preview of "Crying Town"

We were in the studio again this past Wednesday working on what I now think of as our signature song. Although we are not quite finished mixing it I'm posting it here and now because I am SO EXCITED by it that I want to share it with anyone who cares to listen!

Buddy Love - Crying Town 2009-12-02 Mix by buddylove

SO PLEASE LISTEN AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Exclusive Sneek Peak of Crying Town


Joey taking a picture of me taking a picture of him and Rich

Lots of studio activity this past and coming week. We finally nailed down Tommy (our producer) to finish the song he and I wrote together, Crying Town. First things first, Tommy is a genius! His production methods are specific and intense and the result is something that I never could have done or even imagined on my own. I guess that's why he gets the big bucks cause he sure knows what the hell he's doing.

So for anyone who is interested in hearing it, just log into our fan site and you can hear an unfinished, but awesome mix of it.

Also while you're there, check out the other members of our "social network" and put your own two cents in.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

IPO Next Week!


IPO New York begins this week at Kenny's Castaways. For those who don't already know,The International Pop Overthrow is a music festival that travels around the world, bringing what it's founder David Bash calls "Melodic Rock" but what the rest of us call POWER POP! to the masses.

Me with David Bash at IPO NY 2008

He's been at it for fourteen years and every year he adds a new stop to his full time obsession. 
IPO NY is going on it's ninth year in a row and Buddy Love has been on the schedule for the past three.



Hilights of our 2008 appearance at IPO NY 2008


We're totally pumped and ready to rock so come down and check it out. 

We'll be appearing Saturday November 7th at 10 PM (damn good slot, right?)


Thursday, October 29, 2009

Disaster strikes my Les Paul AGAIN!

We entered the studio yesterday to continue working on our cd. The schedule called for finishing all the guitar overdubs, background vocals and for Joey to begin laying down his lead vocals. Upon opening my guitar case I discovered that the head piece had broken in exactly the same place as it did two and a half years ago
(see this post).

Instead of bumming out over it and letting it ruin my plans I shrugged it off (until today that is) and took out my 12 string Rickenbacker. Switching gears like that actually brought out an interesting guitar interplay with the existing tracks and low and behold, POWER POP HEAVEN!
I brought my ailing axe (nice alliteration, huh?) back to Sam Ash and was told by the guitar tech that I was lucky that it broke on the same "seam" and that he could fix it, but this time more permanently than before. The drawback? It will take two to three months! So now my question is; should I bring my 12 string to IPO NY or use my Telecaster?

What are your thoughts?

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Unbilled Appearance


Last night we played an impromptu set at one of New York City's oldest continuously open drinking establishments, Desmond's Tavern on South Park Ave.

It was an evening of rockabilly, ballads, and of course Power POP! (we supplied the power pop).

The purpose of the gig was to act as "dress rehearsal" for our upcoming International Pop Overthrow appearance at Kenny's Castaways on November 7th.

This will be the third year in a row that we have been part of IPO and as I have mentioned on a number of occasions, IPO is the highlight of our year. David Bash, thanks for being you.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Jellyfish - Bellybutton


Yea I know. I'm preaching to the choir here. Can I help it if this is one of my top all time favorite albums? (no kidding!)

For those of you who don't know (yea, right) Jellyfish was the quintessential MODERN Power Pop band. This album from 1992 defined a sound and left a benchmark for other lover's of Beatles cum Brian Wilson (with a touch of Queen and XTC thrown in) guitar driven melodic rock and roll that has not been reached often enough for my taste.

Members Roger Manning Jr. (keyboard wizard), Jason Faulkner (guitar genius also known for his work with The Caulfields) and most importantly lead vocalist (and drummer!) Andy Sturmer who produced The Merrymaker's Bubblegun (but that's another blog entry!).

I had the unique pleasure of seeing them and was amazed to discover that they sounded even better live! Andy had his drums set up at the front edge of the stage, sang every song and played all of those fantastic drum fills WHILE STANDING! Astounding!

So click on the pic to download the zipped folder, Bellybutton. A Power Pop CLASSIC!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Last minute gig this Friday

Punk is not dead and apparently we are considered punk? For that reason we were asked to be on the bill of a punk rock show at a hip little downtown club called Fontana's. Here's the flyer...

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Still working on our new CD

Been working on our new disk since March. It's a long and arduous process but so far the results are more than promising. In fact I am VERY excited by our new recordings and more importantly by how the band has embraced my new songs and made them their own (mine too!).
Besides our new band member David on keyboards (with us since his guest appearance on our previous CD)
we had the pleasure of working with the fabulous sax player Danny Ray, who literally blew us away with his contribution to our song "Almost In Tears".


Besides manning the drums, Rich also was manning his video camera!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Dave The BoogieMan Power Pop Plus


Dave the Boogieman is dedicated to spreading the Power POP word via his internet radio show on Radio New York International, which airs every Sunday night.

This past Sunday he featured two songs from our recent CD, "Now and Then". Click the play button to hear!



The show starts at 7:30 Sunday evenings. Click here! to connect to their server. Past shows can be downloaded, burned to CD's or uploaded to your IPod by clicking here!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

International Pop Overthrow New York


For the third year running we are appearing at The International Pop Overthrow in New York, a Power POP festival that travels the world and makes stops in many major cities. David Bash who runs the festival has dedicated his life to promoting what he calls "melodic rock". More power (pop) to him!

The festival runs from November 3rd through the 8th. We are appearing Saturday November 7th at 10 PM (prime slot!).

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Don Dixon - Romeo At Julliard

Reposted because, Dammit, I dig Don Dixon...

Previously I posted the album,
"Most Of The Girls Like to Dance..." because dammit, I dig Don Dixon.

So in honor of my new USB turntable I dug out his album (currently out of print) "Romeo At Julliard" which has one fine, fine song after another. Check it out!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

New Photos!

Here are some of the new pics taken by Tony Harding ( of THEM.TV). Whic is your favorite? Let us know!


Photo One



Photo Two



Photo Three

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Photo Session



Tony with MAC book (his pride and joy!)  Please note band rehearsing in the mirror

Before rehearsal this past Monday evening we met up with Tony Harding (our videographer) for a photo shoot, specifically to create new publicity shots that better represent us, now that we have a fifth member (for those not paying attention, he's David Stoler - keyboard player extraordinaire!).

David with Joey at rehearsal

Tony set us up on Eight Avenue in front of an Indian sundry shop, asked the shop owner if he could plug in his lights and then we spent the next hour in happy mayhem taking one group shot after another.

 



Friday, July 24, 2009

IPO NY in November!


I'm happy to report that we have (once again) been invited to appear at the International Pop Overthrow Festival at Kenny's Castaways in NYC. The festival dates are November 3rd through 8th. When I know which day we are scheduled for I'll post it here.

Bob Dylan meeets The Beatles

Monday, July 6, 2009

In the Studio







We did more recording for our upcoming CD last week and here are some pictures of us at work taken by our new keyboard player David. Unfortunately because he took the pics he's not in any of them. Bummer.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Noise Trade


I have uploaded our music to a WebSite called Noise Trade which has an interesting angle on sharing music. Over the past two years I have found some great music there, most notable being a group called The Major Labels (see below)
.


Their website is filled with lots of cool bands and if you are resourceful you can get free downloads just by spreading the word.

Check it out

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

On the Joey Reynold Show June 24th 2009




Joey Reynolds has been a staple of the New York radio scene for over 50(!?) years. Through Joey's friendship with "Unsteady Freddie", a surf music officianado and talent coordinator for the radio show we were invited to appear.

Our segment was scheduled for 1 AM (yes AM as in, The Middle Of The Night!) so Joey and I arrived at 111 Broadway at 12:30. We were wisked up to the third floor and treated very nicely, thank you.

Tony Harding (the documentary producer) was there to film the event for our "movie" thingie and Joey's friend and band mate Luigi Babe from his other labor of love All Mobbed Up also came down and Luigi and I had an impromptu jam in the waiting room which we "recreated" on the air. Joey and I sang one of our songs and we got some praise from this radio icon and before we knew it, it was all over. The show's producer gave us a CD or our appearance and the rest is history!






Click the "PLAY" button above to hear our segment...

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Proof in the pudding?

Spent some time in the studio last week adding overdubs to songs we started back in March...

The song "Almost In Tears" is coming along nicely. This one has an "alternative" (whatever that means) beat. After recording the guitar overdubs (doubles, lead, etc...) Joey worked hard and put down a great vocal performance. Now I'll live with his vocal so when I'm ready to do the harmonies I'll be lock-synced with him. Our new keyboard player David did some fine work, adding Hammond organ and Electric Piano to the mix.

Another song we worked on is called "Intersection" which incorporates acoustic and electric guitars and that one is also coming out sounding great as well.

I can't wait to finish recording and start mixing this new disk, it's a complete departure from our previously released material, with an emphasis on more mature subjects and (Ouch!) "Age Appropriate" deliveries.

Joey asked me during the session, "How come these songs are taking longer than when we recorded 'Now and Then'?" The answer I gave him (paraphrasing) was this; After our experience with Tommy recording "Crying Town" I realized that in order to get something great you have to be careful not to just throw down anything and hope it sticks.

Now I know there's a fine line between going for perfection (ala Axel Rose) and tossing something off in five minutes but I believe we have straddled that line effectively.

But as they say, the proof will be in the pudding.

Monday, May 18, 2009

New Song and new member!

Had a great rehearsal last night which concentrated on nailing down the many new songs we've been working on. In addition to those, we also began working on a BRAND NEW ONE which came out sounding AWESOME thanks in part to our new(?) keyboard player David Stoler!

David started with us during the recording of Now... and Then, playing Hammond Organ on The Great Pretender and over the past few months has been sitting in with us, on and off during rehearsals. I think by now its official, he's the FIFTH Buddy Lover.

Friday, May 15, 2009

A Wild Pony Ride

We received some disturbing news yesterday; we heard some wild allegations about the promoter who was putting on the "Rock Legacy" show which we were scheduled to open for on June 13th at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

A oldies artist contacted me via the Buddy Love website and told me an outlandish story about how this guy promotes shows, collects ticket money directly and then cancels the shows at the last minute, disappearing with the money and leaving venues, bands and their fans in a lurch. I replied to this artist asking for more specific information, which he provided; the promoter is actually in jail right now for felony fraud!

Joey contacted the detectives on the case who confirmed that these wild allegations are actually true! I then contacted one of the members of "The Rock Legacy Band" who told me that although he has done business with this promoter for over 20 years, he also has heard this story and confirmed that the June 13th event was probably a fraud.

I hope that not too many people purchased advance tickets for this show because I don't know if they'll ever get their money back.

I got only one thing to say, "That's Show Biz!"

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Recording "Crying Town"

Joey and I went to the studio today ostensibly to continue work on the tracks we put down last month and specifically to work on one particular song, "Crying Town" which was co written by me and Tommy Byrnes.

Tommy (a ridiculously talented guitarist, songwriter and producer) took charge of the session (at my request) and decided that what we had wasn't worth him adding his two cents to and suggested (strongly) thtat we scrap the existing track and start from scratch.

Which is exactly what we did! Working seamlessly along side Josh (the engineer) I watched (with my jaw dropping further and further to the floor) as he built up a fantastic rhythm track (sans bass and drums!) and then coaxed an emotional and touchingly believable performance from Joey, taking the song somewhere I never would have thought of on my own. In fact, I made a point of not interfering with his vision because he knew exactly what he wanted from beginning to end and knew how to get it, from himself and from us.

Now I always knew he was extraordinary but I have never seen him working like this and had the privilege to observe and (hopefully) learn from him. I guess that's why he earns the big bucks, cause he totally knows what the fuck he's doing!

When we reconvene with him (next month or so) we'll add bass, drums, 12-string and slide guitar and strings along with background vocals and then this will be (as far as I'm concerned) a REAL LIVE READY FOR THE RADIO ADULT CONTEMPORARY POWER BALLAD!

In the meantime, we will continue recording the other songs using our "almost live in the studio" method and I'm sure they will come out sounding fine but this experience has taught me something which I should have known all along and that is; small details are more important to the overall effect of a song than you would think and the only way to control those details is to spend alot of time listening, doing and redoing a track till you get something awesome, and that's exactly what Tommy has begun for us with this one.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Recording continues...

After listening to the rough recordings and experimenting with overdubs in my home studio, we are going back in to do some REAL recording this coming Tuesday, to work on the song "Crying Town" which was co-written by me and Tommy Byrnes who, incidentally, will be producing. (run on sentence!)

Tommy has also been listening to my experiments and has a few ideas of his own which include slide guitar, string synth and acoustic overdubs.

This will only be my second experience with a REAL producer, the first way back in 1979 when Don (Buck Dharma) Roeser of Blue Oyster Cult produced the unreleased ManKazaM Goes Surfin' album, so I'm really looking forward to having someone with experience tell me what to do for a change!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Hugh "Sudsy" Carroll FOUND!

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Hugh “Sudsy” Carroll

April 3rd, 2009 Hugh "Sudsie" Carroll, bass player and vocalist for Buddy Love during 1983 and 1984, missing since January 2006 has been found! Said Sudsy, "I woke up after what seemed like a long, very intense dream and found myself playing bass in a Steely Dan cover band. The funny thing is, I didn't even know I knew any of these songs!"

Knicknamed "Sudsy" for his extensive beer drinking, he is ironically not famous for his propensity for pounding down the pilsners but for being heir to Madge's (the Palmolive Liquid spokesperson for three decades "You’re soaking in it") television fortune.

His inherited millions which vanished with him have never been recovered. Said Carroll, "I'm just happy to have my life back and the love a good women."

In 2006, after not reporting for a proposed reunion rehearsal, and after an exhaustive search of his home, known hangouts and beer distributors, there turned up not one clue as to his whereabouts. Police at the time had no leads WHATEVER to his sudden and complete disappearance and are equally mystified to find him not three miles from his Freeport Long Island home.

Authorities (local police, the IRS and the FBI) continue to investigate...

Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Breakers; Big Fun b/w Sun Time



I recently purchased a USB turntable so I could archive some of my records which I cannot find either on CD or on the many blog sites that have the more obscure music that I love.

For it's maiden voyage I pulled out a very rare single from 1984 by a group called The Breakers, produced by New York independant/New Wave journalist/emprasario Alan Betrock (responsible for the early Smithereens EP Beauty and Sadness).

I don't know where they came from but they sound as if they were from early 60's West Coast, doing an innocent surf music that Brian Wilson would have been proud to have written.

I attempted to find out some more information about this group and in the process discovered that Alan Betrock died in 2000 at the age of 49 from cancer.