James on James: James Damion gets the 411 on CoolDad Music from James Appio.

It's hard to fathom that CoolDad Music has only been around for two years. With the amount of content and consistency of which it's delivered. You would think that CDM was a state institution with a history as long as New Jersey treasures Jersey Beat and the Aquarian. After months of getting familiar with CoolDad Music and engaging James in Facebook discussions. I decided to reach out to its creator to talk about the site, staying busy and just what I've been missing on the south side of things.

JD: How did the inspiration for Cool Dad Music come about? Had you written about music before that? Maybe had a fanzine or contributed to someone else's?

JA: I’d never done anything like this before. I just spent a lot of time sharing favorite songs, album recommendations, grainy phone pictures from shows on social media. My friends used to say to me, “You should start a blog.” So I did.
     I’d kind of gotten to the point in my professional life where I wasn’t deriving much fulfillment from work, and CoolDad Music turned into an extremely rewarding second job. I joke that I’ve put more work into and gotten more out of running the blog than I ever did from 20-odd years at “real jobs.”

JD: Did you know what you wanted to cover from the get go? What's your focus?

JA: My focus has really evolved. I’ve got the tagline at the top of the blog that says
“Thoughts on mainstream indie music from a cooldad on the Jersey Shore.” At the beginning, I was just writing mostly about the music I was listening to on something like SiriusXMU.
The “Big Indie” like Arcade Fire and The Walkmen and Vampire Weekend. I was also reviewing shows by national touring acts either in Asbury or NYC.
     In the search for other stuff to write about, though, I started to open my eyes to things happening locally. I like to say that the half-full can of PBR that King Khan threw from the stage at Asbury Lanes knocked some sense into me when it landed on my head. It was that, plus hooking up with and contributing to a great local webzine here --
Speak Into My Good Eye -- that shifted my focus a bit. Things changed when I realized that there was this whole world of local music right in my backyard. I started to try and make it a point to let people know that, “Hey. You can go out almost every night of the week around here and see something really great.”

Alex Rosen at Asbury Park's Wonder Bar. Photo; James Appio

I’ve also gotten more and more into taking pictures at shows, so there’s a lot of pics at the blog as well.
     I’ve done a couple of book reviews. A few movie reviews.
 So focus? I’m not sure I’m really that focused. But I’m much more locally tuned in than when I started. Maybe I should change that tagline.

JD: Can you pinpoint something that might set you apart from the other catrillion blog and web slingers covering music in our area?

JA: I think my point of view and my approach set me apart a bit. I like to say that CoolDad Music is a blog not a webzine. What I mean by that is that it’s still really my personal observations on what’s going on. I’m not a journalist or a critic. I would love to have as many people as possible read the blog and let me know what they think, but I’m not trying to “monetize pageviews” or produce “clickable content” or whatever. I just try to write about the way a show or a song or a record makes me feel. What it makes me think about.
How it relates to my experience. And my experience is that of a middle-aged, suburban husband and father of two who has the most wonderful amazing wife in the world. She can tell what makes me happy and encourages me to go for it. So I go out a few nights a week to see bands that I know, or to catch something new; and I try to write about it in a way that’s interesting even if you don’t know or care about the actual music. Sometimes I’m probably guilty of using the music I listen to as an excuse to write about something entirely different with the show or the album as just a stepping stone.

JD: How long before you went from a blog to a .com?

JA: I’ve been CoolDadMusic.com from the beginning. I went and got the domain, figured out how to make it point to Blogger, and went live. I still use Blogger which is both beautiful and frustrating in its simplicity. It doesn’t really take any technical knowledge to get a post on the site, but it’s also limiting in some ways. For example, I’ve developed this whole convoluted workflow to get HTML5 slideshows into my posts so that people can see the pics on their phones. I’ve thought about moving to Wordpress, but I’m a creature of habit and fear change.
     Wow. That was kind of a boring answer. Sorry.

JD: No worries, we're old.

JD: Do you feel being a .com makes you come off looking more legit. Get you more review submissions and traffic?

JA: Like I said, I’ve been a .com since the beginning, so I’m not sure how being a .com vs a .blogspot.com affects traffic. But, for me, the biggest positive influencer of traffic and readership is actually getting out and meeting people in real life. It’s funny. We’re so plugged into social media and the Internet. And I have some hermit-like, anti-social tendencies that could really be exacerbated by our disconnected electronic world. But it’s the real connections with real people that make the most difference, at least on the scale that I’m operating at now.

JD: I'm currently wracking my brain trying to remember who put me on to the term
"Dad Rock". When I picture the term, I can't help but picture fat, balding men wearing
Dad jeans. Would that be an accurate description of Dad Rock and does it relate to the term "Cool Dad Music"?

JA: Dad Rock to me is guitar-based rock music played, mostly, by men over the age of about 35. It’s pretty conventional and usually based on “classic rock.” I think of bands like
The National, The Walkmen, The Hold Steady, and Wilco as Dad Rock. I know it’s used as a negative and a joke, but I like a lot of those bands. But I am a dad.
     CoolDad Music is more about my being a cooldad -- a guy who’s reached a point in life where many people think you kind of stop evolving your tastes. Instead, I do stuff like go to FYF Fest in LA to traipse around in the dirt and dust with a bunch of twentysomethings. It’s kind of a dig at myself, like a joke about how all those kids must see me when I’m out there with them. Funny thing is, though, most of them don’t care and have just welcomed me and accepted me like any other music lover. Also, in the old days when I was just posting stuff to Twitter and Facebook, I would hashtag it #cooldad to kind of say, “Yeah. I’m a dad and I like hipster music.”
     I’ve expanded CoolDad Music from a purely one-man operation by adding fellow cooldad Scotch LaRock as another columnist. We met through the blog, and it turns out he’s just like me when it comes to his love of music. It’s nice to know there are more of us out there.

JD: I often kid myself about going to more shows at places like The Saint, Brighton Bar, Asbury Lanes and the Stone Pony. Truth is, I can rarely deal with driving both ways and I hate public transportation. Aside from that. I'm flat out lazy. Tell me a little bit about what's happening on your side of the tracks.

JA: It seems like so much. Like I said, it’s possible to see some quality show just about every single night of the week.
     Asbury Lanes is just a unique and wonderful place with one of the friendliest, most welcoming staffs around. Jenn, Mike, Sam, and everybody there really care about what they’re doing. Same goes for Scott and Meg over at The Saint. Plus, The Saint may be my favorite place to take pictures. The Brighton gets lots of interesting and venerable bands through, almost always paired with some local acts. I saw Jonathan Richman at The Brighton this year, and it may have been my favorite live experience all year. The Stone Pony is the big name venue in the area, but it’s still small enough that it’s great when you can see one of your heroes there. Ensuring that you end up with a good spot can take some planning and preparation, though.
     In addition to those places, there are some new-ish things happening. There are a bunch of free shows every week. Christine Feola who runs Dark City Entertainment down here puts on a free show at The Wonder Bar every, single Monday. “Happy Mondays” has grown into one of the major events of the week. Thursday through Saturday see a bunch of free shows on the boardwalk at the Langosta Lounge / Asbury Park Yacht Club complex. And there’s also a growing DIY scene at places like the Wunderloft, Red Bank Rehearsal Studios, and dens and basements all around the area.

Asbury’s Little Dickman Records is a great rock and roll label run by two of the coolest people around, Chris Yaniak and Amy Earixson.
The Battery Electric, Hot Blood, Corrina Corrina, T.V. Tramps, Inspecter 7, Wolfcock are all on the label; and they all care about fostering music here in the area.
     You may not have to travel too far to see some of the bands from down here. I think Hot Blood and The Vansaders are going to stop at
The Lamp Post in Jersey City and The Gutter in Brooklyn on their current tour. You should definitely go see them.

JD: I think it's safe to say that we are an aging breed. We're past our high school, college and mid to continually late 20's. What is it that still motivates you to leave the house, cover live music and buy records?

JA: It’s just my favorite thing to do in the world, it turns out. I was having just a crappy day at work earlier this year. I managed to wrangle myself an invite to a Sharon Van Etten lunchtime taping for the A.V. Club at the Stone Pony. I got off of my conference call and went inside to hear her do Springsteen’s “Drive All Night,” and I was transported. Everything for the rest of the day was better.
     I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been up front at a show and just stopped to close my eyes and let everything wash over me. Or how many times, confronted with some situation or moment, I’ve thought of a song that plays over it like a movie soundtrack.
     People tell me that it’s kind of funny the way I always manage to bring every conversation back to music or relate everything to an experience at a show or to an album I like, but that’s me. My wife recognized that music is what makes me happy, so she has encouraged me every step of the way.
     Sometimes I wish I had found all this out sooner -- or acted on it, anyway. But I am having a blast now.

Dentist (The Band) performing at Asbury Park's The Saint. Photo; James Appio

JD: I recall you mentioning Dentist as your current favorites. What is it about them that you love so much. Any other favorites that can't go without mention?
(past and present)

JA: Dentist are definitely one of my local favorites around here. They just hit on a lot of things that I really like. Reverb, fuzz, surf, hooks, pop. And no other Asbury-based bands are really doing what they do now, so there’s a freshness to them.

I mentioned the Little Dickman bands. Hot Blood and The Battery Electric, especially, do a lot to try and grow the local music scene. Not only are they really good bands in their own right, but they also try to bring bands from other areas to Asbury. Corrina, Corrina are a band of under-20-somethings that I can see going onto bigger things if they stick with it.
     Smalltalk is a relatively new band made up of Zak Kaplan, Jamie Goldfarb, Tara Jones, John Chladniček, and Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls.
They do late 80s, British-sounding stuff like The Jesus and Mary Chain or
The Wedding Present. Black Wine are one of a couple of bands maybe associated a little more with New Brunswick that I think of as local. They’re a great band (they call themselves no-core) who are based down here now. Brick Mower are another New Brunswick via Monmouth County pop punky band I like.
     Then there’s the eclectic prog of Accidental Seabirds or the drone-y noise of Wreaths. There’s garage rock from The Von Mons and Ba Babes. Bob Paulos and Nick Cucci of GayGuy / StraightGuy are one of the loudest, hardest rocking two-pieces around.
River City Extension have a new album coming next year. Oh, and Dollys. Another indie pop band. They’re from New Brunswick, too; but they’ve kind of made Asbury a second home.
     I’m not trying to name drop. These are all good bands. There are more that I’m forgetting, but that’s why you’ve got to get down here and see for yourself or keep on the lookout for them in case they show up closer to you.
     My all-time favorites are artists like Bob Mould, The Replacements, Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Billy Bragg, The Clash, Neutral Milk Hotel, Built to Spill, Pavement. For the last few years, I’ve loved Titus Andronicus, Screaming Females,
The Men, Shellshag, Waxahatchee, Swearin’. I’ve also been kind of into some of these 90s revival bands like California X, Milk Music, Diarrhea Planet. And I just heard this band, Further, who are actually a 90s band that never really made it big. I’ve been loving the compilation they’re putting out in a few weeks.

Thanks for all of the questions. Get yourself down here and tell some of the bands you like to come down here and play. I’m always up for something new, and I don’t like driving much either.

CoolDad Music
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Dromedary Records Celebrates it's Twentieth Anniversary By Giving Back

This weekend friends and family gathered at Asbury Lanes for the two day event Camelfest III. An annual benefit that raises money and awareness for the Roots and Wings foundation. An organization that, since 1999, has been providing nurturing support, safe housing, educational support and practical life skills to young adults who have aged out of the child welfare system. The celebration also marked the twentieth anniversary of Dromedary Records and it's release of 'From '93 to Infinity'. A compilation featuring various artists covering  songs released during that fateful year. 

With the recent closing of Maxwell's. The event was moved from it's original home to Asbury Lanes. A full service bowling alley located  about a block from the boardwalk. Though Lanes host many a music event. Camelfest III was the one that broke my cherry. The first night featured The Everymen, Cinema Cinema, The Coffin Daggers and The Wax Darts. A rather eclectic and balanced mix that included Indie, Surf, Noise and Party Rock. Check out Dromedary Records and the new album 'From '93 to Infinity' Here. Below are some pictures and links to the bands pages. Most important is a link to the Roots & Wings Foundation Here. Be sure to take a look at what they are doing in your community. Until the next time, thank Al. James Damion

The Wax Darts

The Wax Darts

Instrumental Surf Rokers 'The Coffin Daggers'

The Coffin Daggers

Brooklyn's Cinema Cinema

Cinema Cinema

The Everymen

The Everymen

Dromedary Records Celebrates it's Twentieth Anniversary By Giving Back Part II

Below are some photos from the second night of Camelfest III. Be sure to check out the bands and take a look at what the Roots and Wings Foundation is doing in your community. Roots and Wings

James Damion

Overlake

Overlake

The Anderson Council

The Anderson Council

The Brixton Riot

Stuyvesant's Ralph Cusiglio joins The Brixton Riot

The Brixton Riot

Stuyvesant

Stuyvesant

Filling in the Blanks; An Interview withNew Jersey's Eastern Anchors

Eastern Anchors had just wrapped up a rare Monday night show at Hoboken's Maxwell's.
At the time I was feeling kind of lucky getting to see a band whose recent album
"Drunken Arts and Pure Science" had become a recent favorite by a band I honestly knew little to nothing about. It wasn't until the bands singer/guitarist Walter Verde handed me two CD's from the band Aviso'Hara that the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.
As I listened "Goodnight Sweetheart" and "Our Lady of the Highway" I thought to myself, "How did I miss this?" I mean I've lived in New Jersey for most of the 21st Century.
What could I have been doing with my life? So with more questions than answers I decided to go right to the source to fill in the blanks and find the answer to just what the hell is this thing they call "Dad Rock"? James Damion

James: Can you fill me in on lineage between Aviso'Hara and Eastern Anchors? What was time frame and evolution between the two bands?

Ken: We had all played in the same scene together for a while, but I think the link originally formed between Aviso Hara and a band I was playing in with Aviso drummer Benny Rodriguez called Clydesdale. We asked Walter to record some demos for us. Soon after we recorded our singer/guitarist Bill wanted to move to a pure vocalist role, so we asked Walt to step in and fill the guitarist spot. Clydesdale broke up about a year later and Walter and I decided to keep things going with a new band, which became Eastern Anchors.

Walter: To piggy back off Ken, it took a few years and lapses in activity till we came to this version of the band.  We were a 4 piece with Dave on second guitar.  Dave left for a while and we became a 3 piece, which is where we switched up our direction and I started using different tunings to make the new material work better with one guitar.  Then our bass player left, but by then Dave was available again, so he came back in on bass.  And that’s how we got here today.

Dave: It's a totally muddled path but somehow we came back together as this rock unit. When Aviso' Hara broke-up I had a band called The Slow Wire and put out two records and toured a little. Then when that fizzled out eventually it made sense to me when I got the rock-bug to look for something else. Not to mention after Aviso broke-up we played a bunch of re-union type shows up until last year with Ken on drums! So in reality it's been the same group for some time. Just different songs in different keys and tunings with years in-between.

James: You've been quite busy writing new music and playing shows. What inspired the rise in activity and creativity?

Walter: Well, we put out a record in October of last year, so the increase in shows was definitely in part to sell Cds.  When we did the record, it was basically everything we were playing live as well, so you start to want to be able to switch up the setlist, which leads to more songs.

Ken: As far as the writing goes, I think we get pretty restless playing the same songs over and over.

Dave: Yes, it's true we go through booking spurts and in turn writing sessions that sometimes manage to be super productive. I'm already thinking of the fall. Right now we're in that writing stage again because somehow we don't have any shows until end of May at Asbury Lanes. So we're taking advantage once a week to build up a "new" catalog of tunes so we can try them out and mix them in the set. We're constantly throwing down ideas at home and then when the time is right and we've done some self editing we bring a tune to practice.  Sometimes it's really just a miracle with our schedules that we can even fit a practice in before a show.

James: In writing songs, do you have a certain approach? What's the building process like?

Dave: We're trying to demo everything.
I think we officially have a back-log of songs we're trying to write this summer.

Ken: I think the writing process differs from song to song. Sometimes Walt or Dave will come to practice with a new riff and the song comes together almost instantly. Other    times, we could labor on a riff for months until something comes of it.         

Walter: It varies, sometimes songs come in pretty complete, sometimes we play through a bunch of ideas and see what works. I try not to be too precious about anything because I think we have a sound as this band, so not everything is going to work.  I probably dump more stuff than I keep in this band just because it might not work in the context of a really loud and noisy three piece.  But what ends up an Eastern Anchors song, could only be an Eastern Anchors song.

James: Can you offer a little insight into the CD's title "Drunken Arts and Pure Science? It sounds like an inside joke. Or the secret answer you have to give to get into a club or retrieve your online password.

Walter: It came out of a term that I heard during a city architecture tour, Drunken Architecture.  Then I was thinking about the whole process of writing, recording and finally performing an album.  So, it’s this blend between the science of how it all works, and the drunken art, which is the sense of abandon I think you need to let songs kind of write themselves.  Now that I look at my explanation, it sounds like a bunch of bullshit, doesn’t it?  Ok, it just sounds cool.

James: The album art "Robot in the woods" looks vaguely familiar. What was the idea behind it?

Dave: This is a actual color by numbers painting by our good friend Neil O' Brien. who used to play drums in The Van Pelt and now has a band Ribeye Brothers with Tim from Monster Magnet. Neil also plays in a more experimental group called Wands. I actually won a copy at a benefit auction years ago and when i rediscovered the piece I proposed it to the band as the album art. I think walt came-up with the title as he was ease dropping on a conversation on a train or something.

Ken: We actualIy kicked around a lot of ideas for the album art. But, we all knew as soon as Dave showed us the painting that we should use it as the cover. We also used artwork from Neil O’ Brien for our first CD.

Walter: I just want to add that in addition to Neil’s awesome painting, the rest of the design and layout was done by Stu Wexler at Meat + Potatoes.

James: Can we expect a new record soon?

Walter:  I can’t say how soon, but we’re definitely writing.  I’m finally to the point where I can record the band at home.  We just did a track for a tribute comp to benefit the family of Jason Molina (https://www.facebook.com/songsmolina?fref=ts), which is the first full band track we recorded completely in my house.  Unlike the last record, where we recorded everything we had, I want to demo a lot of songs on our own this time, and then go into the studio to record the actual album. That being said, I plan on making the demos release quality, so that whatever does not make the record can be used for comps, b-sides, etc.

Dave: I would love for us to start tracking in the fall but first we need a big swath of songs to choose from and we're 1/4 of the way there. Which is a good start and we just need to put the blinders on and keep writing. I'm pretty sure we'll have another record out before the Wrens do. We challenged them last year when we heard there was movement in their camp that would get a record out before them. Charles conceded and we won the gentlemen's duel.

James: I had the pleasure of watching the documentary on the band. How did the idea to do the doc come about? Do you think it paints a good picture of the band in general?

Dave: I just had finished doing a web documentary series for Ogilvy & Mather  where I was recently working for the past four years and they asked me to make another piece of original content for the One show awards. So I decided to use some of those resources and all my producing skills i learned over the past couple years and apply it to a story I wanted to tell. So luckily it lined up with the release of our record. So many bands have regular rock videos and in the spirit of documentary film making we wanted toe true about the story and not be all glory. Some of the dark side I left on the cutting room floor and you'll just have to ride in the van with us to hear those stories.
I do have a follow-up planned but we're gonna have to track down all our old drummers and some old band mates to make it happen. Who knows maybe with the next record we'll do part two!

James: Did you have to bribe Jim Testa to say all those nice things about you?

Dave: I've known Jim since 1991 or so. He really does not need too much coaxing; if he has fond memories or at least what his subconscious might not of wiped out. Cool, because our old band certainly had our shitty nights and for some reason those are good memories. He seriously is a pro though. He was saying off camera to me when we were shooting that he had just taken part in a Yo La Tengo documentary and some other one and was not sure if they would ever see the light of day. If it weren't for people like him we would have no idea what it was like as a fan. He wrote about aviso at least a dozen times. He did ignore the first Eastern Anchors record and came through solidly on Drunken Arts like a champ. Although he did see us play he has not been able to catch this version of the band live as of yet but he will.

James: I was living in New York City in the 90's and apart from the occasional Hardcore show or touring band playing Maxwells. New Jersey Rock was pretty much a mystery to me. Can you paint a picture of what the Jersey scene was like then. The bands, the venues, the energy?

Walt:  Wow, early 90’s and late 90’s feel like two different lifetimes for me. Maxwells was always a major spot, and that is where I saw most of the shows that really influenced me.  Well, there and City Gardens in Trenton.  We were mostly associated with New Brunswick, which was great, from the city, to the venues, to the bands and labels that were active at the time, all great.  Then there was the shore scene around the Brighton Bar, where you had Monster Magnet, Godspeed and a ton of other great bands, as well as Heat Blast Records documenting the whole thing (I recommend the Holier than Seattle Comp, if you can find it). Oh yeah, and the Fastlane in Asbury!  I think people might forget how most great indie bands used to actually play in Asbury Park at that time.

James: Tell me about the term "Dad Rock"

Dave: For the record I'm the only dad in the band. Although Ken has cats. It's another way to say we're "experienced".
In term "Dad Rock" made me think of age and playing in bands as we're older and have more responsibilities.

James: Does it get harder to get out and play with the responsibilities of adulthood. Does it make it a little harder to sell and promote your record when you can't play out every week and don't really tour?

Ken: I think it takes a lot more planning in terms of scheduling things like shows and recording time. Even getting together to practice can be a challenge. As far as being able to promote the record goes, I think that using social media and having our record available on sites like "Bandcamp" and "Spotify" helps to make up for the lack of touring.

Dave: I would add to this that our Tumblr site http://easternanchors.tumblr.com has led to new fans and sales as well. It's basically part of our virtual store-front along with twitter and Facebook we use it all when we can to help promote us and our friends.

Walter: Touring isn’t a good option for us, we just do not have that time anymore, but I do think we can and will do some quick weekenders. We just have to make sure that when we do, that it is worth the time. As far as the internet and social media, etc., I do not think it makes up for not touring. But it does offer a ton of possibilities that were not there in the old days. We put this out on our own label, so I see everything that comes through.  I was really surprised by the amount of foreign sales we have, mostly Europe.  I don’t know where that comes from.  Maybe from the Rolling Stone thing helped some, but we were getting them before that.  So, thank you Internets!

Eastern Anchors  Band Site

Upcoming Event Asbury Lanes Show Details