Author Archives: Angie Sugrim

“You know I’ve got a bad reputation/ And it isn’t just talk, talk,talk”. Sound familiar? Yes, that may be a testament to your personal life, but these are also the opening lines to Freedy Johnston’s hit single “Bad Reputation”, a radio favorite of mine from back when terrestrial radio still had more than 2 stations for me to choose from in ’94.

Even though I was a gritty kid in a dirty flannel and overpriced band T-Shirt from the mall (hey, I started out a suburban poseur like all the rest of you—admit it—none of us were born cool and you have the NKOTB bed sheets to prove it), who was listening to GRUNGE (how dated and inaccurate a term!), Mr. Johnston’s acoustic guitar and heart-string tugging melody caught my aural attention with that simple and strong confession of a song.

Johnston grew up in a small town in Kansas, and I suspect he had a similar situation there to this musician’s in my small town. There’s something universal about the tranquil but crushing existence of suburban life during adolescent development. Since the early 50’s groups like The Monkees have been documenting this strange combination ( Another Pleasant Valley Sunday, anyone?) of picture -perfect and quietly desperate life. When there’s not a whole lot to do besides be on the football team or get a ride to the mall, those of us who didn’t quite fit that demographic, who define authentic experience in a different way, decided to hole up listening to music.

When Freedy got his hands on Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True, it was a message from a world beyond that small town in Kansas. Listening to music turned into covering songs he loved; covering songs turned into writing his own. And pretty soon Johnston pawned away his favorite guitar to do something a lot of us don’t have the guts to do: bet it all on a feeling, that armed with the sound he had created there was a possibility to live on his own terms. That bet landed Johnston in New York City, and he hasn’t looked back ever since.

Through the past decade and a half, Johnston has artfully managed a career built on that signature sound. His talent is immediately recognizable in an effortless way, and his classic-yet-contemporary stylings recall not only contemporaries like Buffalo Tom, but broadly love arists like Tom Petty, too.

We’re lucky enough to have Freedy come to one of AP’s most intimate and frequented rock institutions, The Saint. Scott Stamper runs the iconic establishment and this promoter has an eye for catching talent before the masses do. Acts like Jeff Buckley and Cake have all come through this magical room on their rise to fame, and it’s rare that concert goers get to see such great acts in such an intimate setting.

I’ll be there on Saturday, April 16th to see Freedy live. And when he sings

Don’t you think I’ve heard the talk?
Nobody’s going to tell me who to love
Been breaking down
Do you want me now?
Do you want me now?

I’ll be singing right along with him.

XOXO

Ang

There’s a reason that the expression “starving artist” stays with us. Being creative is expensive! I know my closet ain’t full of Gap Jeans, y’all ( in fact every pair of jeans I own right now has a hole in them), but I have, as Virginia Woolf called it, “ A Room Of My Own”, a studio space filled with lots of pricey musical equipment where I can make the noise that brings the boys.

In fact most everyone I know who’s in a band is in a similar situation. We cut corners everywhere else because it seems that this pursuit is in a way like having a kid; you put your own needs behind that of the bands, especially monetarily. Kim Deal knows what I mean. When I met her at the Bowery Ballroom a few years back before a Breeders Show (she was just walking around on the floor like everyone else, cup in hand) and told her that I wanted to be like her when I grow up, she said, “That’s great! Just remember: no boyfriends, no kids.”

The Honorable Kim Deal and Her Indispensable Advice

What’s more is that even after spending tons of cash on equipment, promotion, devotion and commotion, you have to sell blood (or other bodily fluids) to raise cash to actually put out a record. Or make T shirts. Or buy a six pack of beer that doesn’t have the word “Ice” in it.

That’s why we were all ecstatic when Bands On A Budget, “Your One Stop Merch Shop” decided to open an office right here on Mattison Avenue in downtown Asbury Park. Bret Morgan and Dan Croak decided to use their years of expertise on all sides of the industry to create a place where musicians could have all their needs met without getting hosed by some greedy insider. And believe me, the landscape of DIY is littered with predators ready to take more than their fair share, so these guys are a real endowment to the AP community.

BOAB’s Expert Coordinator Nina Shows Off Custom Guitar Picks, Just One Of The Fab Merch Options Available at BOAB

From personal experience I can assure you that this is the go to place for custom packages on band needs like album pressing, drop card issue, T-shirts, stickers, and pretty much any physical accoutrements you need to get every man, woman, and child wearing your name and listening to your record. What’s more is that the fellas also host notable area artists and musicians with exhibitions and live shows right in their homey hard-wood floor storefront.

Sensational Area Photographer Mike McLaughlin Exhibits At BOAB

Tomorrow they’re featuring live performances from rock groups Peal, La Violencia, and The Sun The Moon The Stars. ( A fun fact about Peal is that the group’s frontman Rob Blake has worked with Jack Endino, a producer best known for working on a little album called “Bleach”, from a little band known as Nirvana).

If you need a little guidance in your life, concerning band merch that is (they’re not miracle workers so don’t bring up your divorce or persistent skin condition, dudes), then visit Bret and Dan and they’ll take care of you. They’re honest guys with a great thing going and in today’s music industry, good people like them are important to have in your community. And hit up that show tomorrow, Friday, April 8th at 7:30 PM —it’s a killer way to kick off the weekend, guaranteed.

XOXO
Ang

The Stone Pony in Asbury Park is where I saw my first concert ever. That was back in 1995, when Kim Deal, rock goddess of immensely important bands The Pixies and The Breeders traded me a guitar pick from the stage for a ring I gave her. Ever since then, The Pony has been an institution in my life; I’ve seen Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Be Your Own Pet, Better Than Ezra, and countless other acts there through the years, and every experience has been forever memorable in the best way.

It’s cool that you can see established monster acts and lesser know independent bands in the same venue, often on the same bill. The latest Rock-N-Roll-Hot-Young-Things to come to The Pony are Sleigh Bells, yet another sexy twosome that used the parameters of city living to successfully create booty-shakin’ Electro Dance Rock. They’ve been taking over the underground airwaves and landing their energetic live show at every venue they can hit, from rock clubs like AP’s own Stone Pony to the internationally renowned Coachella Festival in California. (One day, Coachella, it’s gonna be me, you and all the illicit fun this girl can handle!)

The duo met in 2008 when Derek Miller (formerly of hardcore heroes Poison The Well) was waiting tables when Alexis Krauss sat down to dinner. He had been asking literally every woman he met in NYC if they were a vocalist, and Alexis was the first person to take him seriously. “All the other girls thought I was hitting on them.” Your loss, ladies!

Since making music in Brooklyn is largely a function of where and how you can actually access instruments and make noise, the Electronic drumbeats and arrangements that define many bands from that area was a natural direction for the two to pursue, as predecessors like Le Tigre had demonstrated in the previous decade. Sleigh Bells continues the tradition of live guitar and vocals meets recorded backing track, and these two are successful in what could have been a precarious union.

If you like CSS, The Ting-Tings and Matt & Kim, you will definitely dig on this harder interpretation of swaggering, gritty, purposely overdriven guitar lines from Miller and sexy, commanding vocal stylings from Krauss. Be sure to hit this show up at the iconic Stone Pony on Friday May 13th, a great venue with perfect sound and a PhD level of rock cred, and as I’ve said before, PLEASE—Buy me a beer! This rock-n-roll lifestyle doesn’t pay the bills, but it sure is a rollicking good time.

XOXO
Ang

So it’s that week. If you were listening to rock music in 1994, you know what I’m alluding to. I wanted to point out that despite so many lame haters favorite narrow-minded negative remembrances about Kurt (uh, you go hang out with Slash, dude, I’ll take Cobain, thanks) that guy made it OK for me, an immigrant female, to find a home in fronting a punk rock band. So thanks, Kurt! I can say with confidence that The Obvious would not exist had I not been listening to my tape of Nevermind until it wore out in my bedroom so many years ago.

That was circa 1992 or so that I was holed up in my room with that music. A few years later I met Dan Astorri who lived in a boringly secure suburban development only a few minutes from mine. Dan had just gotten a guitar, and I saved up and bought one soon after. Though we were both honor-roll material, we figured out that cutting school to play music was actually way funner than going to class. After many tumultuous years and line-ups, we finally landed on our dream rhythm section, Kevin Conroy on drums and Mike Smith on bass. You might recognize those names from current and former membership in other fine area acts such as Last Perfect Thing.

L To R: Sugrim, Conroy, Astorri, & Smith of The Obvious

But me and Dan kidnapped them and gave them acid and got them to pledge allegiance to The Obvious and it’s been onward and upward ever since. Kev’s fave drummer is Dave Grohl; Mike has a bass that’s the make of the one that Krist Novoselic favored. The two have buckets of talent coming out of their ears. Enough said.

Anyways, it turns out that people actually like the band. I mean, they REALLY like it. Which is great! I’m not one of those musicians who is lucky enough to play casually. If we don’t play out live, if I can’t spill beer all over myself and the audience, if I can’t earn a few bruises, if I can’t look down while onstage and see a little blood coming out of my knee, if I can’t strap on my motherfuggin guitar and PLAY directly into your ear, then just give me a lobotomy, because there is NO OTHER REASON to get up in the morning.

The Obvious At The Asbury Lanes, July 2010

But don’t you worry! We’re not all violence. As my boyfriend Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs said, “Come a little closer, baby, I only wanna try and be your friend.” But enough about me; how about you take a listen —to my band? 😉

The Obvious | Don’t Match

We are The Obvious. We are damned, dirty, gravel-slinging, sing-along Rock, rooted in the unique mash up of dark humor, social commentary, and the artful ripping off of the right 70’s punk and 90’s alternative influences, with of course, our very own twisted twist. And not only is the sound pretty much going to make you follow us like sailors to the siren song, but our live show will have you on your knees, in awe and gratitude.

Russell Tolas of Status Green Rocks Out With Yours Truly

You get to see it for yourself when we open for Chemtrail at their stellar record release at The Asbury Lanes this Friday! Mikey Burke of Chemtrail says we are a “live show that is not to be missed!” And I’d like to give a special shout out here to Chemtrail because they have been great brothers to us since we got going in the AP scene, and we’ve struck up a positively familial relationship with them. Having their love and support has been a huge gift to us. I can’t tell you what it feels like to be held in esteem by the exact demographic that convention dictates a girl like me should be excluded from. Punk rock: the great equalizer.

And if you don’t mind I’m just gonna drop another name, that of Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls. Steinkopf recorded our EP Bringing Wreck at the Souls’ own Little Eden Studios in Spring of 2010. I’m happy to report we’ll be in the studio again with The Pete shortly, and we can’t ever get enough of his praises: “Angie has a Devil inside. The Obvious are exactly what rock and roll needs at this moment, and this band is absolutely on FIRE”.

So come let us set YOU on fire when we open for our best brothers Chemtrail along with Old Nick this Friday, April 8th at The Asbury Lanes in support of their new release, Youth Obsessed Death Culture. We’ll give you acid and make you pledge allegiance, too. 😉

XOXO
Ang

The guys at Shore Alternative are at it again, bringing you the best in local and national alternative acts here at the (real) Jersey Shore. This week they’re presenting another great night at Watermark featuring Fifteen Fleeting, Love Automatic, and Blackbells. What I particularly enjoy about S*ALT bills is that the bands always complement each other (something that even seasoned promoters still don’t get). The bills are always a nice representation of overlapping genres and sounds that make you want to stay for the whole evening, instead of uncomfortably sneaking out to the next bar after the one band you came out for has played.

Black Bells At Mercury Lounge, NYC

I’ve checked out the bands at Shore Alternative’s Listening Booth, and I am happy to say that I’m looking forward to the night. Blackbells has been touring in the US and Canada, with stops at SXSW and the CMJ festival to their credit. They have a great British Alternative Rock thing going on, with tasteful references to Oasis and Richard Ashcroft.I’m hearing a little Supergrass and Stone Roses in there too, I think.

Love Automatic has a nice Electro-Rock sound that reminds me of greats like Everything But The Girl. This is a genre that is difficult to pull off, since it’s easy to have endlessly wandering, numbing beats or literal 80’s references in this style, but these guys do it nicely, and their upcoming EP, Organ Donor demonstrates their skill set in all it’s Dance Floor Glory.

Fifteen Fleeting has the distinction of having recently opened for NJ heroes like My Chemical Romance and Gaslight Anthem. A visit to their Facebook page will land you at the song “ Brace”, which is an extremely well executed foray into Dark Electro Rock in the vein of one of my personal favorites, Massive Attack. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a band get this sound right, so it’s easy to see why a lot of industry people are betting on them as an up and coming force in the very near future.

Fifteen Fleeting

So join me as I turn off the TV, get my face out of the fridge, skip the mall and pass on all the other soul-sucking passé excuses for entertainment this Wednesday and make your way to Watermark instead. I’m telling you, watching real live bands play out of real live instruments is the best real live entertainment around.

XOXO

Ang

Let’s face it: Female Rock musicians do not get a lot of credence in mainstream popular culture. Narrow that already sparsely populated field down to the realm of the female drummer and the list of easily referenced icons approaches single digits, and for many rock fans, zero. Despite this disparity, one of my favorite drummers of all time is the wildly underrated powerhouse Patty Schemel.

I was lucky enough to be present for a screening of the film celebrating her story at Lincoln Center in NYC this past Wednesday where Schemel herself was present. When she took questions from the audience along with other panel members like filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes, as well as essential Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, she was goofy, funny, lucid, honest and intelligent in her responses. Her easy manner would not belie the peaks and valleys Schemel has witnessed in her sometimes tragic, sometimes beautiful, always rock and roll story.

Patty Schemel, center, in Rolling Stone with HOLE, 1995

The documentary tells of Schemel’s story as a core member of the unforgettable, critcally acclaimed, and highly divisive rock act Hole. Premium clips from hours of backstage, stage, and home video footage shot by Patty herself make up the majority of the film, as well as footage from fellow Hole band member Eric Erlandson and their friend Kurt Cobain.

The result is a much-needed and well constructed picture of what the private side of rock and roll life was like in that tumultuous time. The film is an unwavering testament of life, love, passion, betrayal, tragedy and triumph that will either make you pick up your instrument and never let go in pursuit of ephemeral perfection, or throw it in an incinerator in an intelligent moment of self-preservation.

Kurt Cobain, Frances Bean Cobain and Patty at The Cobain’s Home, 1992

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Today I’m letting you know about a great show that will be featuring two of my favorite live Asbury park-based acts, The Sixty Six and Atlantic, Atlantic. The two groups are pretty good buds and while their styles are markedly different, their vibes compliment each other live well. This makes for a bill that is successfully diverse, instead of bewilderingly divergent.

My band has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Atlantic, Atlantic at a Shore Alternative Showcase at The Bowery Electric this past October. I’ve been a fan of frontman Bradley York’s other projects, including the acclaimed Sikamor Rooney, in the past, and I am happy to report that he’s still churning out great gritty rock hooks and sing-along melodies with his newest act.

Brad York and Nick Villapiano interview w/Jeff Raspe on 90.5

The group also boasts great talent with Mike Villapiano on guitar, Nick Villapiano on bass, and Wills Weller on drums. A testament to the quality of this groups songwriting is that you will remember their songs just from seeing them played once and you will be able to sing along the next time you come out to catch them (which undoubtedly you will).

The Sixty-Six

The Sixty-Six is an equally infectious act, though their sound lands on a different place on the map from Atlantic, Atlantic. Frontman Scott Liss has been crafting his sound in the direction of emboldened singer/songwriter, with artful reference to spiritual dirges, southern rock and lyrics that are easy to step into. Be it a discussion of imperfect love as found on “Sweetheart Spin”, or the powerful dismissal of a vampiric enemy in “Miles”, Liss is able to plant you deep into the loam of his landscapes while keeping your face skyward and your fists raised in exclamation.

The singer and guitarist is backed by an excellent and perfectly on time rhythm section to boot, featuring Gianni Scalise ( formerly of Ashes Are Nutritious) and Chris Donofrio, who as worked in great acts like Last Perfect Thing and more recently in support of Nicole Atkins. Erik Rudic is the newest member and his great guitar work rounds out the group nicely. The four piece is about to embark on a midwest tour, including an arena appearance, and this fellow musician wishes the guys only the best! They’re hard-working fellas with a good product, and we believe in them here in their hometown.

So come this Wednesday night! I officially give you permission to leave AP and head to one of our sister cities, Redbank which is just up the road to check out what will be a great live performance from a slew of talented musicians. You’re WELCOME. 😉

The Obvious @ The Asbury Lanes

Ironically, being in a band actually makes it more difficult to listen to music. You are forever comparing your own act to other groups, head to toe. You become cynical about much of what’s going on in popular music. The meta-narrative of inhabiting rock aspirations, the story about music as opposed to just the straight noise itself becomes engrossing. You are forever lost in guitar tones, lyrical content, industry personalities, booking, playing, recording plus all the not-so-fun stuff.

At Holdfast Record And Clothing Store

Even Black Flag (who played an impromptu set during the 80’s at the building we now rehearse in) lived in one rehearsal space together and rehearsed 40 hours a week before they took their sound to the streets. The Minute Men and Nirvana all have tons of spiral notebooks with notes on gig times, booking agents, van maintenance schedules, and per diem allotments. (Imagine feeding a band on $30 dollars a day for a week. To quote Dave Grohl, “You save up $3 dollars and you’re so excited because tonight you can have a Hungry Man Dinner.”) It’s amazing that any of us even still get to the actual business of writing songs, honestly.

The Bouncing Souls @ The Asbury Lanes 12/10

Being a musician is a largely thankless job. As Plato once said, “Love is a grave disorder of the mind.” Love of music to the point where you kind of can’t really find room in your life for much else could be thought to fall into this category, and in Asbury Park we have made a fine art of it. We wander the streets at night, from bar to gig to rehearsal to someone’s floor, or couch. Sometimes we remember to eat and sleep. We usually remember to drink and do drugs. Read More »

And when I say Interpol, I don’t mean the International Criminal Police Organization.

I remember when this act first hit, I was a bit reluctant to admit I liked them. Ian Curtis is my secret soul brother, and I thought perhaps singer Paul Banks was overstepping his homage and trespassing on Joy Division and Mr. Curtis’s sacred legacy with too heavy-handed a reference in vocal stylings. ( Hey, being a Post Punk Purist isn’t always easy!) However, I couldn’t deny how simply good the group was.

Formed in 1997, the band has done what many other acts these days fail to do: they stayed together and released a consistent, yet evolving body of work. If you haven’t had ‘C’mere” or any of their other singles stuck in your head, then you’ve been missing out. Branding their act with a signature sound is also a feat the group has pulled off quite nicely, and in today’s watered down mainstream rock wasteland, that’s probably the most important accomplishment Interpol has to their credit.

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