New single “Insane” by Flight Of Mavis is out now, the second of two singles that have been released so far as part of the new album, Mavis Sings Mavis
FOM formed in the late 80s as a trio, led by power pop extraordinaire Frank Brown (guitar). They only had a few releases before rebranding under the name Buzz Zeemer, with the addition of Tommy Conwell (Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers) on guitar. Still the main writer/singer of the group, Frank continued to churn out earworm melodies over jangly guitar chords like a machine. Mavis Sings Mavis is the first official FOM studio album to be released in decades
When I met up with Frank, he didn’t mention at first any plan to record an album. We’d discovered that we lived about ten minutes from each other, and met up through mutual friend (and honorary FOM member) Mike “slo mo” Brenner on the basis of being songwriters and guitar strummers. After jamming at my place for a bit on some demos he’d sent me, he told me about booking the dates at the studio. He said the guys were flying in and whatever happens happens, but it’d be great to have you onboard. And that was that, I didn’t even have a chance to overthink it
We recorded the album in a few days, going back and forth between cutting live takes as a band and throwing down overdubs. I feel like I played damn near every instrument in the studio that had strings, keys, or an “ON” switch. It was experimental, but controlled. Every one of Frank’s songs holds its own with just an acoustic and a vocal, which is what makes the FOM/Zeemer catalogue undeniable. You can’t overstep when trying to fit your way in, you just gotta try and sort of highlight what’s going on at the core. The album consists mostly of older unreleased songs, along with some new material, including a favorite of mine, Any Other Way, a real standout track of the album I think
Mavis Sings Mavis drops June 12th. Frank and I have been gearing up for the sold out release show at 118 North on the 14th going over a mix of album songs and earlier Mavis stuff. Gonna be a great deal of fun. For now, enjoy “Insane”, a not so new Mavis tune, with a slightly new arrangement :)
My band Gum played its last gig in March. Went up to Brooklyn this weekend to get the last of my stuff out of our practice space before we officially close out on the room. Last time in the room means one last impromptu jam session of course, which is something that broke out at least once during every rehearsal. This time it was for the whole 3 hours or whatever it was. Do I hear a song somewhere in here? Does Gum ever really die? Or does it just continue to repurpose forever and ever…💀🤘
Ever feel like you were born too late? Like over 100 years too late? Here’s a snippet of a piece I wrote, along with a few others in the same vein, during the height of Covid. As a kid I wanted to play piano like Scott Joplin. That never happened, but something about being in quarantine made me wanna hit the shed hard with this left hand stride stuff. I haven’t kept up on it, and I don’t know what made me think of it, but I wanted to see if I could remember and hack my way through one of these tunes. I think with more practice and a few less wrong notes, I could’ve made a decent living in the silent film era. Temple University rejected me as a composition major, because I couldn’t sight read Beethoven or some shit. Tough critics over there. I play in rock bands now, I ain’t need your curriculum. Okay, enjoy this video that I put a black and white filter on 🤘
Please join us in celebrating one month of “Kind of Love” with a FREE show on May 16th at @philadelphiabrewing , where our band came to be 🎲
Doors open at 7pm, with @seth_daniel_sky kicking off the show at 7:30. We will also have special guests @pranzata & Bill Giffear joining us on stage to give you the full production feel!
Hoping for some good weather so we can play outside and definitely planning on hanging and celebrating all night with everyone❣️
My band @slim_chance_band , which I play bass in, will be playing a show in June at Silk City with @sasskicksass , a band I formerly played bass in. The Sass is lead by Dave Cope, one of the most prolific songwriters I’ve encountered in my musical adventures. The tune I’m playing is called Bring My Whole Day Down, a piano driven pop/rock ballad written by Dave, off the 2019 album Dave Cope and The Sass. Reimagined here as an uptempo country pickin’ instrumental, I’ve found the song translates over quite nicley. Not included in my version here is the sick bass line Dave wrote that carries the tune throughout, which I’ve played dozens of times on stage with him and the band. Those were some fun gigs. I forget most of the time that I even own this guitar, a 70’s era nylon string acoustic that I bought while living in NY. It needs work, the intonation is completely out of whack, though I seem to have gotten it to cooperate for this video. I will say, I like this guitar a lot for this thumb pick bass/finger pickin’ melody style. Not what I had intended to use it for when I bought it, but then I heard Chet Atkins do Black Mountain Rag, and well… ya know. Enjoy “Brings My Whole Day Down” by Dave Cope and The Sass, and see you at Silk City in June!
My friend and bandmate Pete, along with my younger brother, hopped into a U-Haul I’d rented to drive 70 miles down the PA turnpike to fetch this baby grand I found for free on FB marketplace. I’d been sifting through ads for a long time for one that was worth the trouble to move. Most are free for a reason and have went to shit from years of neglect. The seller wasn’t the one who played, but they knew a couple chords. I told them some chords was all I needed to hear, and soon as I did I arranged the date and rented the truck. The three of us rolled up, and were greeted by a family of which the father(the pianist) had passed away. Of the bunch there was one young able bodied guy who was able to act as another set of hands. Four average sized dudes, a 600 lb baby grand piano, no special equipment but a light duty furniture dolly, which the piano teetered on like a seesaw, some ratchet straps, and about 3,000 blankets, which ended up being barely enough. Not to mention it’s February and there’s snow on the ground. I won’t go into detail about how we pulled it off, this post is long enough, but to call it a nerve wracking experience would be an understatement. There were far too many moments I thought I was about to witness this family’s beloved piano go down and explode into piece’s right before my eyes and all of theirs. Hours after we’d expected to, we got it safely back home. After the reality of being a DIY piano mover had fully kicked in, plans of getting it up the stairs into the studio were abandoned. We rolled it through the garage right into the basement, an easy path with no steps, and that became its new home. I like to think that my fellow movers agree that the years we shaved off of our lives was worth what this thing delivers. The clips in this post are of the songs Crash and Winter’s Coat from the SodaJerk demos Pete and I made, which was the first time this piano was used to record. This piano can also be heard on the new @sodajerk.band single called “On My Own Again”, and on my other band @slim_chance_band ‘s new EP Kind Of Love. Here’s to many more recordings to be made with the instrument that survived, some already in the making
We are proud to present to you…”Kind of Love”, now available on all streaming platforms! This EP means a lot to us and we hope you enjoy listening to these songs even half as much as we enjoyed arranging, recording, and playing them.
Many thanks to the following people who helped make this possible and to everyone else who has supported us along the way!
✨Trumpet - Bill Giffear
✨Organ - @jeffreyandrewmusic
✨Mastering - @2trackmastering
✨Cover art - @ragdollxox
Not to mention, all our songs were recorded and mixed by our very own @johncunningham975 ✨
Just set the old VCR and tube TV up in the garage. Clinging onto a bygone era for dear life. I believe I found this tape at a flea market when I was around 11 or 12. A Beatle’s diary told by driver/roadie Alf Bicknell. It’s all on YouTube now but was a super cool find as a kid. These guys are digging in like nobody’s business. Paul doing the real Kansas City, with the “crazy little women” and the “might take a plane might take a train” line. The Beatle’s version didn’t include those. Love this
New @sodajerk.band single “On My Own Again” is out now! Pete and I formed SodaJerk a year or so ago and threw some demos up on bandcamp, titled Dem-O’z. Today our first single is out in the world and has been a long time in the making. On My Own Again was written by Pete and the two of us performed everything you hear on the track, including all of the sound effects. No pre-recordings of any kind were used. Available everywhere you get your music. Soon to be available on YouTube as well. Enjoy “On My Own Again” by SodaJerk. Oh, and catch us at West Chester Porch Fest May 16th and Philly Porch Fest May 30th
The album Safe In Sound had a lengthy residency in the CD player of my old car. I miss being able to pop in a disc. My current vehicle is even older, but the stereo is some newer aftermarket junk installed by the previous owner. I don’t think there’s a single Boggia composition that isn’t a winner, but this one was always a favorite of mine. Enjoy
Talk About The Weather by Jim Boggia
I want whatever Andy Partridge was on when he came up with this shit. Gives me chills every time. Who’s makes music like this? Post touring era XTC was my introduction to their music. I sort of worked backwards through their discography, so the post punk/new wave sound they had as a band came as a surprise to me, but I love it. Drummer Terry Chambers left the band in like 82 or something. Seeing him sit down at the kit and play all the xtc songs he played on back then, ten feet away from me at a small club in Philly a few years ago, was one of the coolest things I’ve witnessed.
Rook by XTC
