Stolen Rhodes

            Imagine what would happen if Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews came together and had a baby. That child’s name would be Stolen Rhodes. This New Jersey/Delaware Valley based band puts on a unique performance every time they’re on stage.

            Stolen Rhodes started out playing small shows along the Jersey Shore. Since the release of their EP “The Dark Side of 88,” they have yet to look back and have no intentions on doing so.

DB: You guys released “The Dark Side of 88” in May of 2009. What was that experience like?

SR: Well the dark side of 88 is a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song “Spirit in the Night.” Bruce is a big Jersey shore guy and everybody kind of knows that he’s probably one of the most famous people to ever come out of New Jersey. We hang out in Lakewood (NJ) a lot on the “dark side of route 88.” So we’re kind of just paying tribute to that song and also where we grew up. We listen to a lot of Springsteen and it’s cool that we hung out in his old stomping grounds.

DB: Well speaking of Bruce, one of the places he used to play was The Stone Pony in Asbury. What was it like to headline there?

SR: That was probably one of the most awesome rock and roll experiences. It was overwhelming. You step out on that stage and there’s people there that are into it. It really feels good to play a venue like that. A lot of people talk about getting nervous before big shows, but we feed off the energy.

DB: Speaking of feeding, you guys must love Surf Taco because you play a lot of shows at those locations.

SR: Well when we first got together we played a few gigs. Then we heard there was live music at Surf Taco. We gave the owner one of our demos and he enjoyed it and asked us to come play. The first time we played there, it was actually our CD release party, so it was a real nice experience. They ask us back there all the time so it’s good stuff. The audience is right there and they get into it so it’s real nice.

DB: Plus all the free Surf Taco has to be nice.

SR: Oh absolutely, we drink and eat like kings when we go out there.

DB: You guys have done a lot of travel and played a lot of shows. Do you have a particular favorite?

SR: We like The Shrine Bar in New York. That’s a really cool spot. It’s the most eclectic group of people there and it’s a real good atmosphere where everyone just comes out and has a good time. It’ll be a Wednesday at 11 p.m. and people will be anxious to see us.

DB: You play a nice combination of covers and originals. What’s your favorite song to play?

SR: Well we love to play our originals. But we all have different songs we’re into because of certain parts we get to play.

DB: Well who does most of the writing of your originals?

SR: Lately we’ve been trying to get the whole band involved and it’s been really working out. It’s definitely starting to open up new doors to our sound. We want our music to be from Stolen Rhodes since we all contribute.

DB: Where does the influence from your songs come from?

SR: It’s now gotten to the point where we talk about work and where we want our lives to go. We’ll sit at work and just think “I’d rather be playing music right now. This is something I can do for the rest of my life.” That, to us, brings up a lot of songs. A lot of our songs kind of have that working vibe to it. We’re just telling a story and to us, its real song writing because it comes from our experiences.

DB: Do you guys see this as the rest of your life? Do you see Stolen Rhodes together in 20 years?

SR: Absolutely, you just hit it right on the head. That’s exactly what we want. Any one of us could get a job as a bass board musician or a hired gun but we all want to be in a band and to make a living with music we actually care about. It’ll be great to say we can sell out huge stadiums but as long as we can make a comfortable living, that would be a big success. 

End of an Era

Well boys and girls, here it is. This is my interview with Toms River's own End of an Era broadcast from McIntyre's Pub. You can check out the print in the OCC Viking News and soon at The Riverside Signal.

            

            In a day where the music scene mostly belongs to the “Single Ladies” who “do the Helen Keller and talk with their hips,” a band has to have an original sound to get noticed. Toms River band End of an Era bases their music on what they don’t want to sound like.

            Before a brief departure in 2009, EOAE had a sound that was original to the Jersey music scene. Since their reformation in earl 2010, they found their sound had been duplicated. Now with a new guitarist, EOAE hopes to introduce their fans to a new sound they’ll like more than the original.

DB: You guys have been together for five years but took a brief absence in 2009. What’s the story behind that?

EOAE: It’s no one thing you can put your finger on. Things just came to ahead that were building over time. It was probably the healthiest thing for us because now we’re really happy.

DB: Regarding your name, End of an Era, how did you guys come up with that?

EOAE: We get this question all the time and we usually give them 20 different answers. It’s something we’ve always wanted to call a band and it was just like, ‘Hey, End of an Era, cool.”

DB: Do you guys all rock out to the same music or do you have different styles?

EOAE: Well we all have very different styles in music, but we appreciate it all.

DB: What about the influence for your songs? where does that come from?

EOAE:  There’s always a lot of alcohol involved. But as a musician, what you do stems from a lot of what you listen to. We don’t necessarily go into a room and say we need a Nine Inch Nails or a Dead Kennedy’s song. A lot of it has to do with what we don’t want to sound like. That was the whole idea of End of an Era. We don’t want to fit into any one category.

DB: Which is really hard to do nowadays because every sound now has a label on it.

EOAE: That’s half of what we did when we regrouped. A lot of people caught up to the sound we we’re doing when we first started. We kind of had to go back and think about how we could make it different again.

DB: Well other than your sound, how have you changed since you first started?

EOAE: We’re five years older, five years better (and) five years more experienced. We’re not going to give you the classic answer “we grew as song writers.” From beginning to now, it’s like everything else. Things just mature on their natural base.

DB: Well I’m sure what helped you guys mature was playing in Brazil a few years back. What was that experience like?

EOAE: It was cool because people down there assumed just because we were an American band, that we were somehow a big band. They didn’t know what we were doing there but they were into us because we were Americans. And the only time they could sing perfect English was when they were singing The Ramones.

DB: You guys have been thru a lot such as new members and the break up in ’09. What has been the biggest challenge for you guys?

EOAE: Reinventing ourselves seems to be the most trouble. When we started out, we had new ideas and fresh ideas. Myspace, Facebook and all those other media forms had just started out so weren’t in a cluster of other bands. Nowadays, everyone is using those media forms. Now it’s like reinventing the wheel. And not only that, it’s trying to keep people interested. It’s a matter of keeping our fans happy.

DB: Well you guys have played Brazil, the Warped Tour, Bamboozle and a lot of other big shows. What’s next for End of an Era?

EOAE: Right now we have a five song EP we’re giving away for free, so we’re focusing and touring on that right now. We plan on having a new, full length album by the end of Summer. We haven’t done a full length since the beginning. We’re on the Tool and Nine Inch Nails regiment of one every few years or so.

            Everything End of an Era has ever recorded is available for download at endofanera.bandcamp.com. More information and tour dates can be found on their Myspace and Facebook pages. 

The Magnums

The OCC Viking News Music Issue has finally been released. For those of you who haven't gotten enough, here is my interview with The Magnums.

                Words and language are up to interpretation. If one were to travel around the United States and ask people what came to their mind when they heard the word “magnum,” there are several answers you can expect to find. In some areas you’ll hear a gun, or the wine bottle or in some cases people may remember the work of Tom Selleck in “Magnum P.I.”

                  However, if you ask fans of the Jersey Shore music scene, the response will more than like be “The Magnums.” Starting off as a side project involving front man Nico Santo Domingo and guitarist Garret Bayard, The Magnums have evolved into a something that puts people on their feet when they perform.

DB: How would you guys describe your sound?

TM: Sex jazz, it’s like a sex bomb in your ear.

DB: Care to elaborate?

TM: We’ve called our original music a bunch of stuff over the years. We just tend to have fun. We can be real loud at times. Sound guys are not fans of us. But we just try to have fun, drink and play music.

DB: How do you guys feel about performing cover songs?

TM: Well we’re definitely not a cover band. We wouldn’t say covers suck, but we’re an original band. When you’re at a bar, people just want to hear [stuff] they know and get drunk. But at a few shows we’ve asked if people wanted to hear a cover or original, and 99 percent of the time, they ask for originals.

DB: Do you think people are more into your originals than your covers?

TM: Oh absolutely. We hook people in with the covers, but once they hear our originals they’re like “Oh Magnums, cool,” except for the 10 drunk girls that want to hear “American Girl.”

DB: You guys are friends with the guys from Temporary Grace and you’re all representing the Jersey rock scene. How do you guys help each other out?

TM: Well you know, we share equipment or plug each other’s shows. We’ll call each other up and say we need someone to play with us and we just go help each other out.

DB: As a band you guys mesh together very well. Offstage, do you guys have the same experience?

TM:  We really fit. We call each other to hang out as opposed to the past where it was more like a business relationship with our original line-up.  

DB: What can you guys tell us as far as your studio work?

TM: We  had our first six track album called “Big Things” back in 2007. Right now we have a full length album coming out called “Midnight Stealth.” It may be the best recording we’ve done and the artwork is incredible. We put a lot of work into it.

DB: Do you guys see this going far or is it just something to do for fun?

TM: We definitely do it for fun. If something were to happen then cool, but if not we all have other things going on.

DB: What’s next?

TM: Promote the hell out of the album. We’ve never really pushed our albums. We just kind of let them flub out. But this time we’re really going to push it and step out of our [Toms River] domain a little bit. 

Scarlet Carson

There’s no mystery as to how bad the economy is these days. In fact, over nine percent of the population is currently out of work. New Jersey is certainly a difficult state to live in, but according to Scarlet Carson front man Santino a.k.a. Hollywood, their biggest challenge has been the Jersey music scene.

                  After playing at shows such as the Warped Tour, Cruefest and Bamboozle, the fame has not gone to their heads at all. As front man, Santino Hollywood, lead guitarist, Stone and rhythm guitarist/backup vocalist Tommy Licore describe, it isn’t about the money or the fame, it’s about the love of the music. They believe in themselves, which they know, is the number one key to making it.

DB: Let’s start off talking about The Break Contest. Last year, you guys came in second. This year, you won the finals but they added another round with the final six bands to see who plays the main stage at Bamboozle. What are your feelings on that?

SH: It feels great man. It’d be easier if the winner of the The Break Contest Finals went to the main stage right away like last year. But hey, nothing worthwhile comes easy, right?

DB: Absolutely. Now that there’s an added round, do you feel added pressure?

SH: It’s just the name of the game. Everything we do in this industry is a new challenge. We’re going to go in there and do what we do best. We’re confident that we have what it takes to win this whole damn contest.

DB: Honestly, are you guys going to win?

SH: You bet your ass. Regardless of the outcome though, it’s just a contest. If we win great, if not, whatever. We’ve still got a bunch of things happening, amazing fans and it’ll be nothing but another notch in the bedpost.

DB: Your new album, “Burn It All” is available. How would you describe the album and what was the process like?

TL: Totally awesome album.

SH: It’s a little heavier than the first, so we took a little bit of a different approach. We decided to amp it up a little bit and the next album is expected to be a combination of the first two. [Making this album] was less complicated than the last one. The mastering process didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We’re upset we didn’t get to work with [who we wanted to] but with time constraints with the CD release party we couldn’t do it.

DB: The album sounds great, still. Who did most of the song writing for the album?

SH: The main two would be Stone and myself.  It’s a group effort.  The whole band does write and contribute. As of late though, Mr. Tommy over here is becoming a more integral part with some of the writing, especially with the guitar.

TL: So watch out for the next album because it’s totally going to show.

DB: What would you say is your favorite song off of the new album?

SH: Well the single we’re pushing right now is “West Coast Dreamer.” We feel it’s the strongest song on the album. “The Drinking Song” we feel is pretty strong too. “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll” is one of my favorites. The end of that song is real fun to sing. “Cherry’s On Top” is fun to sing too. I don’t know man, that’s a real tough question. I  don’t have one favorite. I love different sections of different songs.

DB: Well let’s talk about the name Scarlet Carson. Did you guys get it from the film “V For Vendetta?”

SH: Sure did. We were kind of going for the slightly ominous thing, nothing to blunt and obvious. No one really knows what “Scarlet Carson” is. People think it’s a girl’s named which worked our  favor when we were calling ourselves “stripper rock’ back in the day. But it’s personally one of my favorite movies. I just thought it was a cool detail that was exclusive to just the movie, not even the comic. I just think it’s pretty random.

DB: That it is. How did Scarlet Carson come to be?

Stone: I answered an Ad. I never did that before. I always thought they were kind of lame but I was out of bands for a few years so I decided to do it.

SH: I actually tried putting this together in Florida but I just couldn’t get it together. I came up here….and just from recommendation by other people it came together. I definitely think this is the best line-up we’ve ever had.

DB: I think it’s great that you guys are fans of your own music. You play what you like and not just what the people want to hear.

TL: If you’re not making music you enjoy, you’re just cheating it and cheating you’re fans.

SH: I think a lot of people play what they like, but I also think they just play what they’re capable of. They don’t try to push it to stuff they normally wouldn’t do. The new album was more technical (than the first) but we pushed ourselves and plan on doing it for the next one too.

DB: You guys have done a lot in the short time you’ve been together. What have you found to be your biggest challenge?

SH: Being in the Jersey scene. It is really rough here man. We’ve played in front of a lot of people and have done a lot of great things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful. It’s like every big show, where we have to move tickets, it’s as if we’ve never done it before. It’s a whole new ball of stress every time.

DB: Do you guys see this as you’re future?

TL: Scarlet Carson is the future. Music in general, but  this is doing so.

Stone: I think most of us have adjusted our lives to make it happen and do a lot of things we don’t want to do, but we’ll do it to play music. 

Temporary Grace

Well folks as promised, here is my interview with Temporary Grace

            It’s not far off to say that the world has one similar question that may never be answered. People want to know the meaning of life. As Temporary Grace guitarist Chuck Epperly describes, life is simply a moment in time.

            Local New Jersey band Temporary Grace has a seven-year history together.  This history includes traveling the East Coast, CD releases and the coming together of a family to create one band that rocks the Jersey Shore. With a passion for music and entertaining the fans, Temporary Grace is all about the love of the music.

DB: Here with Temporary Grace, also formally known as Grand Theft Audio, why did you guys combine the two bands?

Rob Eelman: We’ve been Temporary Grace for seven years and we just did Grand Theft Audio as a side project to get my brother jamming with us. We decided to keep it in the family and make one big happy band, Temporary Grace, and keep the name out there.

DB: What is it like to have guys rotating instruments?

RE: It’s something new we’re trying. We’ve had Greg Forney with us for the last seven years and our bass player Jay Cagna was playing drums. Now we got Justin Grover on the drum set so we’re just trying to mix it up and get people out to have some fun.

DB: Now, you guys, like most bands, play your covers and your originals. Which are you guys more into?

RE: We were doing originals for five years in the (Jersey) shore here and a couple people kind of coaxed us into being a cover band for the last couple years to build a fan base.

Chuck Epperly: It got to the point where we weren’t making any money and we wanted to make a little extra cash while doing what we were doing. (Covers) get people into us that normally wouldn’t give us the time of day. The best thing about it is we can play [songs they’re used to] to get them into us then throw in a couple originals and get their attention that way.

DB: When it comes to playing covers, you guys do a lot of different styles. Does that come from your own personal influences?

CE: It depends on the crowd. When we first started, a lot of the songs we picked, don’t go over well with a lot of people. We don’t listen to a lot of the music we play. We want to do what makes people happy. (McIntyre’s) is fun. We get to do whatever we want and people love it.

DB: What have you guys done lately as far as studio work goes?

RE: We just put out a new single “Close To Me.” We got a free download online with that. We’re waiting for something to break with our original music, the right person to come along and some kind of sign to say let’s keep pushing along.

DB: What’s in store next for Temporary Grace?

RE: Show wise, this summer, we’re gearing up for the four or five shows a week on the shore here from Atlantic City up to Hoboken, Maryland up to Vermont.

            Original songs by Temporary Grace are available for download at TemporaryGrace.com. They can be seen every other Monday night at McIntyre’s Pub.