bengarvey.com

Today I came across a CD from the band Laughing Colors. It was their 1998 album, The Pattern Seed, and I had heard of the band because we played Grape Street the same night once or twice. The CD was signed, “To Jen. You Rock!” followed by a random band member’s signature. Jen must have loved the CD so much she dumped it into the bargain bin at Tunes in Marlton, NJ where I found it. I laughed as I put it back in the bin.

Speaking of funny stuff, this is pretty good.

It wasn’t my first time at Fergie’s, but it was my first time stopping by their Monday night open mic. It was pretty popular compared to the times I visited Adam Brodsky’s antihoot there. I took the speedline over to Philly and someone on the train said they remembered me from the Living Room open mic last summer. She mentioned she really liked the guy who played Britney Spears covers and of course everyone’s favorite, Adrien Reju. Adrien has a new CD coming out soon with a release party at the GSP, but I don’t remember the date. I’ll find out. Jason Wheatley is also playing tonight at 8:00PM at the Grape Street Pub so check him out if you can!

Anyway, the open mic was great. I don’t remember everyone’s name, but Ed McKenna borrowed my guitar and played it for real, unlike what I do with it. Pieter messed up a few words, but his parents messed up the spelling of his name so why blame him? James (I think that was his name) played some really good stuff and so did a guy named Fishstick (I hope that is the name of his band and not his nickname). At one point I tried to help this girl tune her guitar and failed miserably.

I played “99%,” “I Hope I Die on the Moon,” and “The Genius of it All.” I left as the host’s band played, but not because they sucked. I was pretty tired.

You can vote online for your favorites in the Philly Music Awards. I wonder how the nomination process works. I know part of the nominations are done by people turning in ballots at local venues, but these have to be stuffed by people who work for the bands or are in the bands themselves. Hopefully venue owners and journalists covering the local scene had some input. I also think they should have separated orginal bands from cover bands. It’s too difficult to compare the two and if the cover bands want to be considered for their original material they should be allowed to do that. I once heard a cover band at Brownie’s 23 East play their original song, “Brotherly Love.” Surprisingly, it sucked. I don’t hate cover bands as a rule. My friend’s cousin is the singer from 39 Mariner and they’re pretty good.

You can also vote for the Origivation Orgy Awards, but only for boring things like Best Studio and Best Producer. They completely eliminated the fan vote from the other categories.

John Shaughnessy recently attened the open mic at Harper’s Pub in Clementon, NJ, home of some of the area’s most dangerous roller coasters.

Well, Clementon, NJ is not exactly my neighborhood, but I actually met myfolks (yeah, M & D) at Harper’s Thursday for some wings and beer, and to play some songs at the Open Mic. There was a nice crowd of people hanging out, but hardly any performers. I enjoyed myself there and got to play a really cool, extended set. The performance felt good, but I’d have to say the crowd seemed to really groove most to some of the classic-rock cover-songs churned out by the open mike’s host on his electric guitar, backed up by pre-recorded bass and drum machine (sing ~ Swee-eet Home Alabama!) Hey what do you expect? There in the shadow of Clementon Park, tastes are maybe less, um, sophisticated than Philadelphia, or even Collingswood, for that matter. Nevertheless, I did my thing – doing my best to inject a little raw emotion into the entertainment for the roomful of chain-smokers. And it turns out there’s actually a contest going on there too. The night’s best performer is dubbed the “winner” and gets to compete in May for the prize of 6 hours free studio recording time. After I finished playing, I talked some with the host. He was pretty cool. He took my name and number, saying I might just end up the winner. (woulda been no great feat, since besides the host, the only other “performer” I saw by 11:00 was a guy who sang a “karaoke” version of “American Girl” while drinking a beer). Who knows, Elvis may have showed up after I left and taken the prize, but I actually expected a call-back. However, it’s quite possible that the napkin that I wrote my info. on ended up as pocket lint.
Played: Let’s Rob a Bank
Calling Heaven
Don’t think Twice, its All Right
Wild World
Just Like Heaven
Better Be Home Soon
Brown-eyed Girl (dad’s request)

Someone please tell me what the hell was going on this morning on 42 southbound? It was closed until 12:00PM to make way for a million motorcycles heading somewhere. Dozens of people were watching and cheering them on along the highway. I couldn’t turn around and ended up getting dumped onto a heavily crowded 295 and didn’t get off of it for and hour and a half! What a waste of taxpayer money to pay for all the police and highway workers inconveniencing anyone with a 4 wheeled vehicle.

Luckily, I made it down to Stockton College in time to catch the 2nd half of my cousin Mark’s band, Relay. They play about one show per year, so I’m glad I made it. They’ve improved a ton since the last time I saw them and I liked their new material a lot. I didn’t have my camera on me, but others were taking pictures. If anyone sends me one I’ll post it.

If you’re a registered user you should see a few links at the top of this page for MP3s of my April 8th set at the GSP open mic. Because one of my database tables became corrupted last week everyone has to log back in if you haven’t done so already. Sorry about that. The reason I’m not putting the files in my normal downloads section is that I don’t want casual listeners hearing them. If you like my stuff then it isn’t too much trouble to ask that you log in first. Hell, if you have a big problem with logging in just email me and I’ll send you the links to the files.

These new strings I put on kick @$$! I usually hate how new strings sound so bright, but Elixirs seem worn in and have a coating that quiets finger squeaks. Why the hell didn’t I try these sooner?

I’m not sure how I missed it, but the White Stripes were on Conan this whole week. Last night they played The Hardest Button to Button, one of the best from Elephant. You can catch it again tonight on Comedy Central at 7:00PM EST.

I’m treating my guitar poorly. It’s had a broken string for 5 days now and I still haven’t replaced it, although I did buy some new strings. I’m going to try out Elixirs and see how they sound.

I’ve been listening to my new recordings a lot and I think I’ll post the “99%”, but only so registered users see the download link. I’m not trying to give you incentives to register, I just don’t want a casual listener to hear it and think that’s my best performance. It’s not horrible, but I can do better. Anyone who takes the time to register and login already knows what I sound like so there isn’t much harm to my reputation.

Madonna’s website was hacked after she made attempts to disrupt the sharing of her new album. Doh!

By now most people are fans of the Iraqi Information Minister, but did anyone know he broadcasted a few messages about me?

Clip 1
Clip 2

Thanks Brian for sending me the links!

Collingswood favorite Jason Wheatley has some gigs coming up, courtesy of Happy Cat Records.

Thursday April 24 @ 7:30pm
Coffee Works – Voorhees NJ
(near the ritz theaters)

Tuesday April 29 @ 8:30pm $5 cover
Grape Street Pub
(upstairs Acoustic Lounge)

The current poll is pretty popular. The masses have spoken out in force against the public display of my cranium. You know I’ll just put some other equally odd picture there instead.

I got the CD I ordered from Nocturnal Noise of two recorded songs from the GSP open mic a few weeks ago. I think “I Hope I Die on the Moon” came out pretty decent, but “99%” could have been better. Now I know what you’re thinking. “That’s impossible”, right? It has nothing to do with the recording, but everything to do with my performance.

Roz wrote a short recap of our show last weekend, which is a first for his website.

BenGarvey played my break and did a pretty good Job.I always enjoy hearing him play.Unfortantly I had to take car of some stuff in the truck so I missed part of that aliens on 206 song that he’s been playing around recently.

He’s referring to my new song, “99%.” I knew I wanted to name the specific road where the abduction takes place and 206 is a great choice. It’s a super long road that has plenty of dark stretches in south jersey, but it’s big enough that almost everyone has had to drive on it some time or another. Roz also mentions an interesting point

Sarah Allen showed up which suprised me.Now I know I shouldn’t be upset but with the open mic closed where is she gonna learn to play.I mean that kid was alot of ablity and it just sucks that she doesn’t have a place to find her art.

I agree 100%. Open mics help you refine and improve yourself without the pressure of having someone withold your pay or boo you off stage (most of the time). It has to be tough for kids under 17 who can’t get out to all the distant venues in the area.

I’d love it if more locals put more stuff like this on their sites, even using a free site like blogger.com.