THE WAIT IS OVER: Our EP Is Out Now!
Check out "No One Stayed the Same" ahead of Tape Slam’s five-night, five-venue tour in early October.
Four days in the studio. A year of mixing and mastering and planning and scheduling and plotting and scheming—and emailing, so much fucking emailing! It all culminates in this: the release of our new EP, No One Stayed the Same. The title borrows a lyric from “Faded City” that describes just about everyone who’s played a part in this band’s unlikely journey.
Now, we hope you’ll listen (on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.), spread the word if you like what you hear, and come out to one of the five shows we’re playing over the course of five nights in early October. (Details below!)
A little background: I had a revelation amid the forced stasis of the pandemic. When I’m not obliged to do anything else, I do music. Listen to it, play it, think about it, talk about it, write about it. As this realization sunk in, I got more serious about writing songs. I started sending them to a few trusted friends, and my old high school buddy Dave Crimaldi heard something he liked. He encouraged me to keep going, and said he would put me on stage if I came to see him in Denton. (You can read a lot more about Dave, and the genesis of this project, in the latest issue of the Dallas Observer.)
Dave’s words of encouragement set off a chain reaction that produced this album and the upcoming tour. He’ll be flying up the week after next, along with bassist Killian Smith, guitarist Riley Rogers, and singer Jessa Lussier. They’re all wildly talented and inspired musicians, as well as spectacular human beings, and I couldn’t be more excited to be mini-touring with them.
I reserve the right to say more about the music on the EP at a later date, but for now I’d rather just let you come to it clean, with no preconceived notions. If you do get to listen, I’d love to know what you think.
In the meantime, here is a rundown of the Mega Mini Tour (TM):
Tuesday, Oct. 1: a *FREE* happy hour show at 5:30 p.m. at Young Ethel's in Park Slope. Please note: it’s weirdly early and will be over by 6:30. But if you’re my age, this could be an ideal scenario!
Wednesday, Oct. 2 at Bowery Electric featuring Friday Night Traditional, Andrew Kirell, Lady Wail, and Elyahreev Immortal. Doors open at 7 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. We’ll probably go on around 9:30.
Thursday, Oct. 3: a *FREE* show at Pet Shop in Jersey City, NJ, with Manager and Wizard Brain. Dave and I are counting on some of our old St. Peter’s Prep classmates to turn out for this one.
Friday, Oct. 4 at Rusty Nail in Admore, PA (basically Philadelphia), with Smarty Pants, Matthew Homolka, and Marc Schuster. $10 cover. Fun fact: I was born in Philadelphia! Will that help us draw a crowd? Hard to say.
Saturday, Oct. 5 at Transparent Clinch in Asbury Park, New Jersey. $10 suggested donation. Guys: we’re playing in Springsteen country! At a gallery owned by legendary rock photographer Danny Clinch!
A few words about who did what on the EP: the last track, “Yours and Mine,” is a home recording I made about a week after our Denton session. On just about everything else, I sang and played guitar, Dave played drums, and Killian played bass. Killian also played a bunch of cool instruments that he painstakingly unpacked from his car over the better part of an hour, ranging from a Moog to a set of homemade tambourines. Riley played lead guitar on “Hopped Up” and “You Can’t Do That.” Jessa sang backing vocals on “Faded City” and “Sometimes.” And Alex Hastings, in addition to recording and mixing the whole damn thing, played lead guitar on “Sometimes” and “Call It a Night.” The EP was mastered by Garrett Haines at Treelady Studios. And my ridiculously talented brother, John Hogan, designed the cover, which I like to think of as the best Robert Pollard collage you’ve never seen.
As you may know, it is extremely hard for independent musicians to get heard nowadays, and I want to give massive shout-outs to Marc Schuster, who debuted “Hopped Up” on the reliably brilliant Tweetcore Radio Hour, and DJ Paul Bruno, who gave us a spin on his amazing WFMU show. These guys dedicate huge amounts of time and energy to boosting deserving musicians, and I’m frankly in awe of them.
That’s all I’ve got! Go have a listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, or your service of choice. And with any luck, we’ll see you in early October!