Highlight from IPO New York

The Vibe Lounge in Rockville Centre, NY

We have been looking for an appropriate venue on Long Island for months. Way back in June we did a showcase/audition for what should have been the perfect summer gig, which boasted many name artists in an outdoor setting in front of thousands. Needless to say that fizzled out (Click here to read the details).

In the meantime The Vibe Lounge (a little club in my hometown of Rockville Centre) that has been home to many of Long Island's new and upcoming bands (not to mention many from Rockville Centre who became famous like Taking Back Sunday, etc...) was interested in having us perform there. I was making the arrangement and was discussing it with my family when my kids said (and I quote), "You can't play there! My friends go there! I'd be so embarrassed!" and so on...

Needless to say I relented and in the intervening months still had not found a suitable venue on Long Island to play.

In the meantime we've been getting some airplay from a Long Island radio station and the DJ who has been playing us has set up some local shows and through our manager we were booked for one (March 12th, to be exact) and guess where it is? You guessed it! The Vibe Lounge in Rockville Centre.

This time we're taking the gig.

Somnambulistic Songwriting

Woke up at 5 AM today from a dream in which Jack Black was a troublesome member of the band. We were practicing a new song and finally I threatened to throw him out if he didn't shape up. He complained loudly but when we started playing again we were awesome! I likened the guitar solos to a gun slinger in a showdown with Wah Wah blazing!

When I woke up I realized that the song we were playing was not known to me and immediately ran to my studio and recorded the bones of it before it could slip away.

I went back to bed and attempted to go back to sleep but more and more of the song kept coming back to me so I again went downstairs and started writing down the lyrics and as I saw them materialize on paper I began fine tuning it and even wrote a bridge that hadn't been there.

In the end I wound up writing about 85% of a finished song (Called "I'm Still Here") just from a dream! The song echoes Weezer, The Pixies (because of quiet verses that then explode into raucous chorus's) and The Foo Fighters (sort of).

I've only dreamt one other song in my life, about 15 years ago. That song wound up on my CD called "Doug Khazzam TODAY!" and was called "Prying Eyes" however that song changed drastically from the dream to the finished product, this one is pretty much intact.

Weird and Wonderful, huh?

Stairway to Heaven?

Last Night at IPO

Damn, we had a good time last night. Besides the fact that we got to meet musicians from literally around the world (most notable of which were Private Jets from Sweden who played an awesome and fun filled set), we got to play in front of an enthusiastic audience who truly understood EXACTLY where we were coming from.


There was some promoters (so they said) from Belgium who said (from what we could understand) that we MUST appear at their festival next August. All I gotta say is, "Show me the money!"

Click here to see what Aaron from PowerPopAholic.com had to say...

For more pictures of some of the people we chatted with last night,
click here!

Toy Soldier

Talked to my old friend and (Radio Flyer bandmate) Gary today, who wished me and the band well on our upcoming IPO appearance. I recently unearthed an ancient live recording of Buddy Love from 1979! and on that tape was a song that he co wrote with us and so I quickly created a slide show to go along with the "sound track". Check it out!

WMJC-FM Long Island

Those guys on the Long Island "Unlabeled Show" on WMJC-FM played our song "Where Do We Go From Here?" again tonight. Check it out...

Then go to the Buddy Love page on their website and leave your comment.  (leave a comment here too if you like!)

IPO New York Coming Up!

Nine days and counting for our appearance at IPO New York (November 8th at Kenny's Castaways).
Last year was incredible, the best music related event of my life. The best part is that I'm sure that this year will be even better!

Last Night at Kenny's Castaways

We had our first gig since June and it was GOOD! Got a great reaction from the crowd and more important, got us up and running and ready for IPO New York next month. Here's a clip from last night's performance.

Buddy Love on WMJC-FM's Unlabeled show AGAIN!

I guess they like us.  Click their logo above and let
them know you like us too.

And BTW, we're appearing this Saturday night at Kenny's Castaways, 157 Bleecker Street, NYC 10012 between Sullivan & Thompson Street.

 

Most Of The Girls Like To Dance (But Only Some Of The Boys Do)

I love Don Dixon. "Who the hell is Don Dixon?" you may ask. The answer is, a very talented producer responsible for early R.E.M., Smithereens and later Chris Stamey albums but I love him for his own music, especially the album entitled "Most Of The Girls Like To Dance (But Only Some of The Boys Do)".

On that record he covers Nick Lowe's "Skin Deep"(which is awesome)but his own material is simply put, in a class by itself. I love so many of the songs from that record that I have committed many to memory and they are part of my personal repetoire.

"That Girl!" Rehearsal

Back in Business

After having the summer off (except for two casual get togethers) we reconvened last Sunday night for a good old fashion, shake the rust off rehearsal. All in all, not bad considering its been three months!

Worked on nailing down all the new tunes we started, talked about and began working on our IPO setlist (November 8th or 9th?) and scheduled an IPO warmup gig for October 18th at Kenny's Castaways.

Buddy Love is back in business...

Brian Wilson's That Lucky Old Sun

Been listening to Brian's new album all morning. When I first heard some snippets a month or two ago I wasn't impressed but after hearing it whole I've changed my mind, THIS ALBUM IS BRILLIANT!

Who is Joe Meek and what is that strange sound?

Over the years I've heard the name Joe Meek over and over, mostly in reference to guitar effects pedals. The reputation the name evoked was high but I never thought further about who he was until recently when I discovered that he wrote and produced the fabulous 1962 single "Telstar" by the Tornados and also produced the 1964 British Invasion group The Honeycombs' song, "Have I The Right".

After further investigation I discovered that Joe Meek was considered to be on par with Phil Spector in England, with a reputation for strange behavior and even stranger records which he produced bucking British recording industry conventions by having his own "home" studio, and making enemies in the process.

The record that "made his reputation" in England was a song written for a television actor called John Leyton who became a pop sensation with "Johnny Remember Me".

If you are interested, download the BBC Documentary called
"The Strange Story of Joe Meek" here! (be patient, it's a LARGE FILE!)

Also, check out this article by Lenny Kaye for more inside info on the stange sounds of Joe Meek.

Comments about the WMJC-FM Unlabeled Show

I guess our song's appearance on WMJC-FM has made a bit on an impact as there are quite a few comments about it on their website.

If you haven't yet heard it, push the play button below and check it out. (also feel free to add your own comment on WMJC-FM's Buddy Love webpage).

Reality Check

I am always writing new songs, most of which get abandoned before being finished. But the ones I do finish I finish for a reason; because I think they're worth finishing (duh!)

After presenting a batch of songs to the guys the other day I was suprised to receive the following feedback from Joey regarding one of them, "Great hook but not into the verses." Although the other guys liked it (especially Scottie-boy) Joey is the one who has to sing it and if he's not into it, its not gonna come off well so what's the point?

Now in days gone by my ego would have blown a fuse. There would have been no discussion about "if" we should do a song or "how" we would do it, it would have been done the way I wanted. Thankfully we're all more grown up now because instead of taking it personally I listened to the song with "new ears" and understood what Joey's reservations about the verses were; boring melody! I then re-wrote the melody in the verses and am now even more happy with this song than I was before.

Here's the point of this story; being in this band is VERY different now than it was 28 years ago and specifically, working with Joey these past two years has been an absolute pleasure and I am gratified that we can say whatever we have on our minds without any bullshit. The end result of all this is that the song is MUCH BETTER NOW thanks to Joey's impartial criticism. I feel very lucky to have his significant talents to convey my song ideas and to keep me on my toes. Thanks Joey.

IPO Eleven

And speaking of compilations, the newest International Pop Overthrow collection is out, just in time for IPO LA. This marks the first year that a Buddy Love track appears on an IPO compilation. We thought long and hard deciding which track to contribute and after much deliberation, we picked the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "My Little Red Book" (as done by Love, NOT Manfred Mann!) from our new CD "Now and Then".

For those of you who didn't read it in my previous post, we (Buddy Love that is) have been invited to attend IPO NY this coming November at Kenny's Castaways in Greenwich Village.

I will of course keep reminding (all three of you) as the date comes closer...

The IPO Eleven compilation is on sale now at Not Lame Recording Co.

Raiders Of The Lost Hook - Volume 2

My new "blog buddy" Angelo from Power Pop Criminals is a veritable encyclopedia of Power Pop.  I have been mining his website for months now and have found untold goodies there.  Periodically he creates his own compilation CD's and makes them available to his other Blog Buddies online. Recently he contacted me and asked if he could include the song "I Just Want To Hold You" from the Buddy Love "Yellow Album" and I eagerly said yes. I find it quite a compliment to be included in one of his collections.

Click the CD cover to visit his site and to download Raiders of the Lost Hook, Volume 2

Phil Spector - Back To Mono 1958 - 1969

I keep going back to the year 1977. In that year I was introduced to a whole world of music that I had never considered before, specifically Punk. But aside from punk, I was introduced to a whole world of pop (and non-pop) music from the 1950's up to the then present.

Looming large in this canon was Phil Spector. During my pop music indoctrination, I also soon realized that Phil Spector's influence on everything that came after was pervasive in music, especially influencing my heros, The Beatles (the holy grail of music to me at the time).

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but just in case I thought I'd bring the work of Phil Spector to your attention.

Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation

 

I was discussing the true origins of punk with Gary the other day and we finally agreed that one person was more responsible for the so called "punk" sound/scene/mindset than anyone else and that someone was Richard Hell.

In the mid 70's right here in New York City, down on the Bowery Richard Hell was living a scene he single handedly invented. A culture and an attitude that people like Malcolm McClaren could only steal and repackage but never could have created on their own.

Visit RichardHell.com for more information or go to Amazon.com and buy this awesome album.

First rehearsal in weeks...

After not playing together in 5 or 6 weeks, it was great to know that we can get together and sound great with little or no rust to speak of.

Besides solidifying new songs we've recently been working on, we actually mastered two new songs instantly! One is recently written (like this week) called "Intersection" and the other is 20 years old called "Set You Free (Let You Go)". Both are absolutely rockin!

Candy Butchers - Live at La Bonbonniere

It seems someone is always turning me onto music that I would normally have never heard of. This time it was Tom E. (childhood friend of my wife's) who many years ago lent me an EP of the band The Candy Butchers - Live at La Bonbonniere which went immediately into my iTunes. I have since done some research and now know that The Butchers were led by Mike Viola (common knowledge to you but new information to me at the time). This 1996 CD was their first release and I think their most endearing.

Mike's take on pop reminds me of Nick Lowe, disguising twisted lyrics with sweet melodies. the home made approach on this disk transcends the bare bones production and has made this CD one I come back to again and again. In fact, I have committed one song (Canned Hunt) to my personal repetoire which I sing for myself as a guilty pleasure. Guess I gotta get out more...

David Bash announces IPO NY!

Buddy Love just received their official invitation to appear at IPO NY! For those of you who don't know (yea right!)
The International Pop Overthrow is a travelling Power Pop (they now call it "Melodic Rock") festival with stops in major cities all of the world!

Our appearance at IPO NY last November was THE highlight of my music career!
(entry from November 11th, 2007) After having to turn down invitations to IPO Liverpool and IPO LA, I look forward to IPO NY so we all can "revisit" that past glory!

The dates for IPO NY are November 4th thru 9th at
Kenny's Castaways, Bleeker St, Greenwich Village, NYC.

Radio Flyer

Way back in 1978 We had a friendly competition with another local band called Radio City, led by Gary Feldman and Mark Silvert. While we were doing punk, they were doing Power Pop. After not much time Gary's brand of power pop seeped into my pores and that along with other things, was a big reason why I switched gears and formed Buddy Love.

Cut to 1995. I had been out of the music business for about 12 years, still writing and recording in my basement on a four track machine but basically doing nothing with it and much to my suprise I discovered that Gary had moved back into our town of Rockville Centre, NY. We soon rekindled our friendship and it wasn't long after that that we began writing songs together. I soon enlisted ex- (and now current!) Buddy Love drummer Rich "Starr" Stirrat who brought his midi drum pads into my studio. I traded in my four track cassette for an eight track cassette (with built in mixing board!), SMTPE synced it to my pre-windows 286 DOS computer and we began recording. The result was a ten track CD-R called Radio Flyer, released in 1997.



I started a Radio Flyer website and pretty soon Bruce Brodeen was selling Radio Flyer discs! Also pretty soon the Radio Flyer corporation (makers of little red wagons) slapped an injunction on us to stop using the name! We changed the name to RC Flyers (in honor of our home town Rockville Centre) but whatever momentum we began was lost. Gary soon moved away from Rockville Centre and that was that.

Needless to say those homemade discs didn't make much of a dent on the music industry and the songs on it have been pretty much unheard. It is now my pleasure to make Radio Flyer available
here! (take that you corporate bigwigs!)

It is my hope that all three of you will download and enjoy these songs from the mid 1990's.

PS Gary has recently reformed Radio City and also has a new band called RC Flyer. I guess Radio Flyer was just as important to him as it was to me.

Balloon fest goes bust?

If anyone actually reads my blogs (unlikely) they may remember that in June we participated in an outrageous audition fiasco where we (the band) were actually charged! to enter the club where the audition took place. (See June 9th post)

After that audition (which we passed) we were assured that a spot during the NY Music and Balloon fest would be ours. After the indignity of the audition it was a consolation to know that it was worth it.

It now seems that the promoter in charge of the audition now says he cannot confirm our participation. Making music rocks but the music business SUCKS!

It's not gonna stop me from writing my little songs or performing with my band but I have to say I'm pissed off!

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

After taking a month off, the band is reconvening this Sunday to begin preparations for August's itinerary, which will start with the Metro NY Balloon & Music Festival in Brookhaven Long Island. We're still waiting to see which day (August 8th, 9th, or 10th)we're going to be scheduled for.

Also in August is a potential opening slot for Eddie and The Hot Rods at The Knitting Factory in New York. Hopefully our management can secure that one but for now it's still tentative.

We got an inquiry for a corporate (Microsoft?) picnic in September in Santa Clara, CA! Let's see if that pans out.

Basically we got nothing definite. That's Rock and Roll!!

Destroy!

MY wife (god bless her) comes home from Barnes and Noble every month with the only music Magazine I ever read, MOJO. This month they feature the newly reformed (again!) Sex Pistols who were an obvious influence on my guitar playing and on my 1977-78 punk rock writing style.

If anyone reads MOJO, they know that they always come with fantastic Themed CD Complilations and this month's was a collection of seminal punk rock singles from 1977 called Destroy!



Between, me, Joey Psychotic and my childhood friend Danny, we had EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE RECORDS! so to have them all in one place, after all these years is mind boggling! This limited edition CD is probably already off the shelves and out of print therefore I am happy to make this collection available to you all (all three of you!) Click HERE!!

Privilege

During the course of my Pop Music Education which began in earnest in 1977 I saw the film "Privilege", a mid 60's look at a fictional British Pop star (Paul Jones!) and his influence on their society.

The one and only time I ever saw "Privilege" (until recently that is) was on TV in 1978 on WWOR TV (channel 9) in New York, and it affects on me were profound, changing my ideas about the music business and it's potential power (both positive and negative) forever.

It wasn't the music (although fine) in the film that influenced me but the approach that the film's anti hero Steven Shorter's management team had on the political/economic and social structure of Britain portrayed in the "not too distant future" of 1970 (the time period the film takes place in).

The film which was panned by the British press and banned for being "hysterical" has rarely been seen since its first run in 1967. In fact, Universal Pictures (who owns it) had all copies destroyed!

It is my pleasure and PRIVILEGE! to share this obscure but still potent film with you all. You can download it here! Privilege in QuickTime format (Be patient, it's a large file). I urge you all to check it out.

PS It is due for its first DVD release this month!, in it's original widescreen format made from the original negative! Available on Amazon.com

The Major Labels

Mike Viola has been a household name (in my house anyway) from his work in The Candy Butchers and more importantly, as "The Voice" of That Thing You Do!. Now Mike has teamed up with Ducky Carlisle and a guy known simply as Bleu and formed a PowerPOP SUPERGROUP called The Major Labels.

I saw this widget on another PowerPOP site, plunked down money without hearing a note and am glad I did.

Please support this group.

Don't forget! Buddy Love (remember them?) are on the radio this Sunday night(tomorrow) at 10 PM EST. You can listen via the internet at
wmjcfm.com or if you're in the New York area at 94.3 FM.

Radio show pushed back

Suprise! It wasn't last week, it'll be THIS WEEK! Tune in THIS Sunday night July 6th at 10 PM., to hear our song on the radio.... (woop-de-do)

You can listen via the internet at
wmjcfm.com or if you're in the New York area at 94.3 FM.

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!

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!

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?

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.

Busy weekend ahead...

Preparing the house for my daughter's high school(?!) graduation party...

Rehearsal this sunday...

Taking said daughter for her college(?!) orientation on monday...

Knitting Factory appearance this tuesday...

whew!

False Alarm!

Scott is OK but at least he's had a wakeup call and SWEARS he's gonna quit smoking and lose some weight. Good for him!

Last night was interesting; Rich, Joey and I sang all in a row and we sounded fine.

Next stop, The Knitting Factory, June 3rd...

Scottie Hospitalized!

We were asked to fill in tonight at the last minute at a club in Lower Manhattan called Fat Baby, which we agreed to do as a favor to the booking agent (hopefully in exchange for more prestigious gigs). Emails were sent Thursday evening and that should have been that but this morning Rich called me to say that Scott called him from the hospital and had been there since last night with chest pains!

Scott then proceeds to mention that he had an angioplasty (sp?) eight years ago and has a history of heart disease! On top of that, the (excuse me Scott) dumb asshole has been smoking like a chimney!! Last week at rehearsal I asked him what the fuck he was doing with the cigarettes and his answer was, "Don't worry, I got it under control." Well guess what, SHMUCK? YOU DON'T!

Now I'm not mad about the show at all. Really I could care less about Fat Baby and after speaking to Scott this morning I was happy to hear that his test results came back negative to further heart ailments (whew for him). So in the old show biz tradition, the show MUST go on! To that end Joey, Rich and I will perform tonight at low volume, psuedo-acoustic just in case two or three of our fans actually show up!

For those who wish to send "get well" notes to Scottie, please reply here and I'll make sure he gets your messages.

The trials and tribulations of rock and roll

We are slated to appear at the Long Island Balloon Festival in August and have been rehearsing a new expanded set with many new songs. Last night when we all gathered at the rehearsal studio we got a great surprise; Through an unusual timing snafu our usual room and all equivilent ones were occupied leaving only their "Showcase" room available, which they gave to us at our regular cheapo room price!

The showcase room is setup exactly like a big stage with lights and equipment that actually work (a miracle in itself) and a comfortable area for guests to watch and listen from. We could hear ourselves perfectly (which is not usually the case) and it made our rehearsal 10 times more productive and enjoyable.

The only thing that marred the evening was the continued screwing up of the CD recorder, which has been an ongoing and serious issue for us. Even in this "perfect" room, it seems that the sound guy just can't figure out how to get a simple mix onto the disk!

The trials and tribulations of rock and roll...

Buddy Love; The Saturday Morning Cartoon!

Spent the past four days in a fantasy world, writing a rough draft for what I hope will become the pilot for a Buddy Love Cartoon Show. Needless to say the boys battle evil punk rockers and end up saving the day with "Power" pop (there's a pun there but I can't divulge the details... yet.

Not Lame Strikes Again

This month Bruce Brodeen at Not Lame Recording Company has featured the CD compilation "More! Buddy Love" on his home page. For those of you who are not familiar, "More!" is the 1983 unreleased follow up to 1982's "Yellow" album (the one that Power Pop aficionado's have been favorably reviewing for 25 years!)

Not Lame has been very supportive of Buddy Love over the years so if you have any inclination whatsoever to buy this CD, please visit
Bruce's website and plunk down you money there!!

Europa and The Pirate Twins

As an avid fan of Thomas Dolby, I am a member of The Flat Earth Society Message Board. Yesterday while cruising the board I noticed a post where a fan (also a musician) did an instrumental cover of "Europa and the Pirate Twins" and then asked if anyone would like to contribute a vocal.

I quickly downloaded the track, loaded it into Samplitude, did a quick vocal (with doubling here and there) and posted it to the message board before I lost my nerve!

Song PIck Of The Day

To anyone who has been keeping track of my web page "Doug's Song Pick Of The Day", I apologize. I have been kinda busy with my day job and posting those songs just was NOT a huge priority. However today I took the time to consult my iTunes database and post three weeks worth of "picks" all at one crack.

Please go to "Doug's Song Pick Of The Day" for the gory details...

Crazy talk in the wind

In the ongoing pursuit of rock and roll immortality, we have come up with a new and crazy idea; an animated show loosely based on the band, except with super powers who save the world with rock!

That's all I can divulge at the moment except to say that this is NOT a pipe dream (and those with pipes may get my meaning) but a real possibility which we are fleshing out for development.

Maybe it won't be considered crazy after we have the "Buddy Love" bed sheets and action figures in the stores!

On a different note, Kool Kat Musik is almost sold out of our initial shipment of CD's and has reordered. Digital sales are coming in, mostly from iTunes UK and lastly Not Lame is also doing a brisk Buddy Love business...

Timing is everything

In our new incarnation, we have only played at a few small clubs in NYC, only one of which where we would care to re-appear (The Baggot Inn). We recently made a conscious decision NOT to play just any gig but to wait for better venues where there would be audiences to actually hear us. To that end, Maria (our manager) has been working hard to get us on those kind of bills.

Recently she lined up a good one at a place on Long Island opening for Rick Derringer next week but unfortunately there wasn't enough time for us to properly promote our appearance then. In the meantime she got the same promoter to hire us to open for Eddie Money in June but Rich (damn him!) is not going to be in town that week!

I tellya, timing is everything!

My friend Bobby

My wife Ellen grew up and went to school with a guy (let's call him Bobby) who displayed extraordinary musical talent starting at a very young age. Even in grammar school anyone who knew him was sure he'd wind up as a professional musician.

She and Bobby have a special friendship. They have seen the best and the worst of each other and as a side effect of their relationship, Bobby has become my friend too. When Ellen and I first got engaged Bobby's wife became Ellen's matron of honor and Bobby, Rich (my good friend and Buddy Love's drummer) and Hughie (also a Buddy Love alumni, but he's a whole nother story!) sang at our wedding. Their first child and ours were born one day apart in the same hospital. Leave it to say that we have all been friends for quite a long time.

Today he is the right hand man of a very famous singer/songwriter (who shall remain nameless) and over the years people would ask him for all kinds of favors; tickets for shows, free appearances at their club, help in writing songs, studio time, production or connections, yadda yadda yadda... In all that time my wife and I have made a point of NOT using our long standing friendship with him to further our own agendas, be it for tickets or favors in the music biz.

He has always been very supportive of my songwriting and I easily could have asked him many time for assistance in placing one or two but as I said, I never wanted to use our friendship in that manner.

A few years ago during one of their visits to Long Island he played a song fragment for me which he decided not to finish and left it in my hands. Over the next few weeks I nurtured it and finished it and as time passed I forgot about it. Recently, as the band has been listening to all of my demos that song came up and it was decided that we would work on it. In fact, it is now probably THE BEST DAMN SONG WE DO! So this past weekend during our kid's birthday celebrations I mentioned the song to him and wanted to discuss the legalities involved so it would not become an issue between us. He usually guards his "interests" pretty closely but to my surprise he said he was fine with a 50/50 split and even offered to produce it for us when we were ready to record! Later in the day, while showing us some of the guitars that many manufacturers have given to him over the years and after hearing my son play, he gifted him with a custom made, one of a kind guitar! Later we all jammed, he and I and our sons (his on drums) and we all had a grand old time.

What is the point of this story? Making music is one thing (don't get me wrong, a GREAT thing) but friendship is way more important and in the end it is your friends who matter, not who they are or who they know or what they can do for you.

I'm very happy to call Bobby my friend.

Peter and The Penguins

Normally I don't pay much attention to My Space but I do have an obligatory Doug Khazzam page there which does not get visited often but what the hell, everyone's got one so why should I be any different?

Today I received a friend request from a group in Norway called Peter and The Penguins. After listening to their totally retro Mersey Beat Sound I just had to bring them to the attention of my gentle reader's (all three of you).

One song in particular struck me as humorous, "There Goes Pete Best", with the unlikely refrain, "The unluckiest bastard in the world!", SO TRUE! There's a hint of Brian Wilson on some of their other tunes but Liverpudlian influence looms large with these guys. Their sound is fun!

I granted their request.

Not Lame

This week our CD "Now and Then" is featured on the Not Lame home page...

For those of you who frequent Bruce's site, I recommend that you purchase our CD there IMMEDIATELY!

Where's your recording engineer when you need him?

Been trying by phone and email to contact Josh the engineer so we can master the song, "My Little Red Book" both for the IPO CD compilation and for Maria to use for our first push. Why Won't He Answer My Calls?!?! Time (as usual) is of the essence. Funny how that works, after waiting around for months at a time to do something, all the action needs to happens at a moments notice!

While he's at it, we want Josh to tweak "Master of Illusion" so Maria will have follow up product in case her UK radio contact says, "Give me more." I think those two songs are an excellent cross section of our material and showcase or sound perfectly. But that's just my opinion, and why should anyone listen to me, since I know nothing!

New Buddy Love Blog Page!

Although I have been keeping a blog on the regular Buddy Love web page for well over a year, I decided to start a new blog page here so more people might come across my random rants more randomly and accidentally, and be more easy for readers to interact with me and each other (all three of them!)

So what's the first thing I'm gonna talk about? Big meeting tonight with Maria (our new manager?)! She says she's got lots of promotion opportunities for the band which she plans to outline for us and which, she hopes, we will approve.

First on the agenda? IPO CD compilation, which we have been invited to participate in. David Bash at the International Pop Overthrow is putting together Volume 11 of his annual CD collection, this time featuring bands that played at IPO NY last November. We are very pleased to be included and are contributing our track "My Little Red Book" which appears on our new CD "Now... and Then".

Next up; print media that wants to do an article about the band?!? No details yet...

Next; UK radio promotor associated with Columbia? Which track to push?!?

Last; new, as yet unrevealed web Site to do an article on the band.

Hopefully Maria will give us ALL the 411 on these events so we can make informed decisions as to how to proceed.

I'll keep you (all three of you) posted, no pun intended...

More news from Maria which prompts an emergency meeting to be held this Sunday evening to discuss many exciting promotion opportunities. Could it be that Buddy Love's time has finally come? Will we take over the world as prophetically announced when our film project first got under way? I'm sure Tony will be happy to have some good stuff to film. Stay tuned for details!

Star Struck Fanatics?

Maria left me a voicemail stating that a new website which will be launched in May wants to do a feature about the band on their first page and to that end, wants to film us for what they call a "sizzle reel" which will be a video link on the site. So the question on everyone's mind is, "where do we film this?" Filming in our rehearsal space (as Tony has found out) does not lend itself to a good performance video. Not having any gigs planned in the near future, that leaves only a showcase room (which costs a bundle!). These are the problems that try men's souls...

And speaking of gigs, why haven't we got a gig lined up?!?! It's been three months since our last appearance (at the Baggott Inn) and frankly I'm getting antsy to play...

On another note, I have not updated "Doug's Song Pick of The Day" page in over a week! Thank god for the iTunes database which allows me to review the songs played on what day, reminding myself of the high points of the week and get the page up to snuff. Now THAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF!

Actually what is really more important is that we have rehearsal tonight which I am looking forward to. I love that the band is so into the new material we've been working on and I can't wait to incorporate the new stuff into our set.


Rutles Update - The Theatre, The Theatre, what's happened to The Theatre, especially where Rutles are concerned... Rich and I went to the show expecting a Rutles reunion and what we got was a theatrical history of the band, complete with "Rutlemania" look and sound alike musicians playing the Rutles catalog note for note and sound for sound, interspersed with clips from The Rutles film synced with the live performances. Actually, it was very good! Just not what was expected. during intermission Rich and I spotted Eric Idle at the bar. We ordered two cokes (one with lime!) and gave him a wide berth, being as we are not star struck fanatics but sober and standoffish admirers...

IPO LA

So the talk among the love buds this week is how to fund a trip to LA in August so we can attend IPO LA. Did I mention that we got invited to play IPO LA? We got invited to play IPO LA!

And speaking of IPO, David Bash (director of IPO) is putting together Volume 11 of his ongoing CD series featuring bands that have appeared at various IPO's over the years. This year's volume is geared toward those bands that appeared at the recent (last October's) IPO NY and we have been invited to add a track!

More Distribution

Bruce over Not Lame at has taken the new CD as well as the other two reissued ones! In addition, Ray at Kool Kat Musik (in New Jersey!) has also taken the three disks. Building momentum...

Sudsy Update!

It's RUTLEMANIA!

Rich got tickets to see The Rutles at The Blender in NYC on March 27th! What a surprise! Yes, those cheeky, lovable Pre-Fab Four are back together again and we're gonna go see 'em! I had heard (via their website) that Dirk was deaf! If you check all the Dirk is deaf clues on their album jackets its painfully obvious in hind sight. How could we have missed the signs?

Martinsville, NJ

Through internet cleverness I have the ability to track not only how many people visit each of these web pages but also to deduce when and where they visit from. I bring this up to point out that one very persistent visitor from Martinsville, NJ has been checking in on a regular basis and in particular has been reading the Forum pages.

I would now like to urge that visitor to formally join our forum and contribute their two cents, since they obviously have a more than casual interest. Please visitor from Martinsville, introduce yourself!

IPO Liverpool

It's been a whole month since I've known this and I can't believe that I forgot to mention such an important fact until now but without further fanfare, here's the news; After our successful appearance at the International Pop Overthrow in NYC last October, David Bash (IPO Director) has invited us to appear at IPO Liverpool which is scheduled for this coming May at the legendary Cavern Club!

For those who don't know (all three of you) The Beatles were the house band at the Cavern in their formative years before they took that ferry cross the Mersey to worldwide fame and fortune (How Rutles!)

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not announcing our impending appearance, I'm just reporting that we've been invited. The invitation alone is quite an honor and actually appearing would be fantastic but of course there are other considerations (=$) which we're still trying to work out...

Distractions

The kids had off last week so my attention was on them, (naturally). But now (thankfully) they are back in school and I can concentrate on what's really important, MY BLOG!

Speaking of which, here I am, typing away with not that much to report except the mundane; We've been working up some new material that sounds GREAT! By new I mean new to the current members of the band when in fact some of these songs date back to 1982. "Dead Ringer" from the yellow album is one and the boys have made it their own. "Almost in Tears", a song I wrote about five years ago is sounding great too. Scott has (as usual) come up with a melodic and catchy bass line for it and it all came together VERY FAST for a song that went from acoustic demo to full band in about two rehearsals. We rediscovered a few nuggets from 1980; "Tell Me" and Toy Soldier" both from our 1980 set!

There are many new songs demos (and by new, I mean new to the band) that we are sorting through and when the dust settles we should have enough material for two completely different sets (or enough to shake up our set at will). In fact! enough for another album!

Teaser for Tony's documentary

Tony Harding of THEM TV has been filming the band for well over a year now and has shown us snippits of film here and there, but finally he has a working "teaser" for the documentary which I am happy to present here...

CD Baby and iTunes

We actually had to send CDBaby more disks cause they are actually selling the damn things! All three CD's are pretty much even (with the Yellow Album just slightly in the lead) however I noticed in the past few days that Now and Then is picking up steam, YAY!

On the other hand the band has been miscategorized on iTunes as COUNTRY! Wow! Talk about crossing genre lines! And to make matters worse, some bonehead over at Apple wrote a review for Buddy Collette's new JAZZ! CD and placed it on the Buddy Love Now and Then page! MASS CONFUSION ALL OVER THE PLACE! Hopefully these issues will be ironed out soon and in any case I'm just happy to have these things in the market and actually (there's that word again) being sold.

Big Business

Our new CD "Now and Then" along with the reissued "Yellow Album" and "More!" are now on iTunes!!!! That gives them legitimacy, don't it? Funny how their distribution there as well as the physical, in your hand, distribution of these CD's by CD Baby all happen to coincide with our meeting with Maria this week, who may very well end up being our manager.

Seems we've come a long way in the short time since we started appearing last September. I think we're doing it the right way this time; not knocking our heads against the wall playing in dive bars and trying to hawk singles door to door, like we did 27 years ago. WE LEARNED FROM OUR MISTAKES!!! Hallelujah!

Actually made some sales today on CD Baby!~ Pretty good for just a couple of days.

Our new CD is officially for Sale on CD BABY!

"Now and Then", along with the newly reissued "More! Buddy Love" and the "Yellow Album" are ALL now available on the popular online store CD BABY. We already have these albums available for download through SNOCAP. iTunes (and other online downloadable stores) will be coming online in the next few weeks. Hopefully we'll start selling tons of stuff so we can all quit our day jobs!! (like that might happen...) Might as well aim high though. If you aim low you'll only land low, right?

Happy New Year!

We had our "gig" (us showbiz types say gig instead of performance) last Saturday and it was good (not great) although the audience liked it and I guess that's all that matters. After our show we were met as we left the stage by an interesting woman who expressed interest (redundant?) in perhaps managing us. (that's a lot of "ifs") If so, (there's that word again) it would take a great burden off of everyone cause let's face it, musicians are not generally known for their business acumen are they? And me in particular, I already have a lot to think about regarding this "reunion"/"Rock Band" thing. Worrying about the next gig should not be one of them.

In any case, I'm guardedly excited at the prospect of actually having someone who knows what they are doing running the behind the scenes stuff. Let's hope it works out.