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.

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.

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?)

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?

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.

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!

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...