Ryan Dembinsky

Have you ever asked either yourself or somebody else why they stomach the time-bandit commutes and exorbitant rents to live in New York City? Well, get a load of this random New York City moment.

[Photo from The Music Slut’s Fanfarlo review]

Just before Fanfarlo took to the Webster Hall stage on Friday night, they opened the show with a crowd pleasing something extra – something BIG. The show commenced with a man being harnessed in a straitjacket and hoisted upside-down via the lighting rig, high above the stage. The band came on stage to wild applause and tore into probably their best song The Walls are Coming Down while the magician wriggled an amazing escape before the song closed to thunderous applause.

Now here’s where the funny New York saga comes into to play. As my wife and I watched this magician’s face turn tomato-red and the arteries bulge from his forehead as he struggled to escape, she says “Oh my God, that’s our friend with the parrot from our building. We totally know him.” At first, we couldn’t believe it, but she was right. This magician actually lives in our building and I confirmed it in the elevator the following day. He regularly sits out front on the stoop with a giant white parrot and chats amicably with all of the neighbors. So, in the spirit of surprise, we decided to conduct a quick chat later that day regarding the awesome feat.

READ ON for more from Ryan on Fanfarlo at Webster Hall…

How often do we all throw down ten bucks on a lousy footlong combo meal at Subway, complain that it isn’t very good, and proceed go about our day never to give it a second thought?

On the flip side, somehow the spawn of the digital music age made us all feel like we didn’t need to pay the same ten bucks for the hard work of our favorite musicians. Why? The logic’s fuzzy here.

If our friend owned the Subway, would we want that free too since we got the hookup? If nobody was working at the Subway and we could take one for free without them knowing who did it, would it be another story? Is the fifteen minutes of enjoyment of eating Subway actually worth the ten bucks, whereas the hours of enjoyment we get from the music is not?

In all seriousness, this is not meant to be a high horse ride, as we’re all guilty to some extent; however, since we try to stay on the forefront of the issues here at Hidden Track and do our parts where we can, we thought an article regarding the dire state of being in the recorded music business seemed apropos. Thus, today we have assembled a “virtual panel” consisting of Kevin Calabro, General Manager of Hyena Records and Royal Potato Family as well as Frank Woodworth, General Manager of Eleven Seven Music. Frank also recently hosted a panel at CMJ called Small Efficient Record Label – Big Results. Welcome Fellas.

Hidden Track: Of the various new forms of online distribution for album sales, such as subscription download services like eMusic, subscription streaming services like Rhapsody, or straight up online sales like iTunes, which do you think makes the most sense long term?

Kevin Calabro: It’s really tough to say. Right now, by far the most profitable form of online sales is iTunes. This is the only facet of online sales where any profit is being made. We see a lot less from subscription models like eMusic, but it’s still better than streaming.

The money artists are seeing from streaming services like Rhapsody is virtually nil. I’m not sure of the exact rate, but it’s something like ¼ of penny for every stream and it just does not add up. I suppose if everything goes to the cloud and everybody begins listening to music on demand via stream, and we see a subscription fee built into ISPs then maybe that’ll start to make the difference. But right now streaming is a scary notion for someone like myself who’s trying to fund records and then consequently spend money to promote them. Currently, there’s just no way the money being earned from streaming can sustain the costs of making and promoting records.

READ ON for more of our Virtual Panel with Kevin and Frank…

Since it’s Friday and everybody is probably a little sleepy, we’re gonna go with an easy to read quick-hitter format for our review of MSG Night 2, as opposed to the meandering narrative.

[All photos by Adam Kaufman for HT]

• To start at the beginning is to start at the end: When the band emerged for the first set, Trey tinkered around with a few discernible notes of Character Zero before launching into Punch You In The Eye. Hence, this served as a bit of foreshadowing as Character Zero bookended the show so-to-speak returning for an encore.

• Last night for the first time, it really felt like the setlist did not matter in the least. Granted, the show was packed with heavy hitters, but every single song felt like it had the potential to ascend to the outer reaches of the Red Planet.

• Furthermore, that early 3.0 feeling of standing on pins and needles during any technically challenging composed pieces for fear of a flub, is gone. At this point, the band once again feels like they are able to effortlessly cruise though the hardest of material and even start getting crafty therein. I felt like the band executed the first set near perfectly the second set came pretty close, save for one minor blip in Fluffhead.

READ ON for more on Night Two of MSG from Ryan…

Mike Greenhaus may not have gotten his start as a writer quite as far back as 15th century ancient Europe, but he is a Renaissance Man so-to-speak.

Having cut his teeth at just about every task under the jamband and indie sun, he now holds down the role of Executive Editor at Relix/Jambands.com, co-hosts the ever popular Cold Turkey podcast series, developed a burgeoning videocast for the forthcoming Relix website and continues to help lead both Relix and jambands.com into the next generation.

With all the positive changes a foot over yonder, Mike kindly offered to shed some light on everything from his humble beginnings, to the future of the Jammy’s, to the redesigns of both websites, to some tips for Larry David in this, one of our most insightful editions of Writer’s Workshop to date.

Hidden Track: For starters, could you explain how you got started writing about music and ultimately grew into the Executive Editor seat at Relix?

Mike Greenhaus: Well, I was always the type of dork that spent more time working on the school newspaper than playing hockey, but I guess I really started writing about music in college. I went to a small liberal arts school at a time when the jamband scene was coming into its own before the first Bonnaroo and got to interview String Cheese Incident, the Disco Biscuits, moe., Dispatch and Addison Groove Project as an editor at my college newspaper. Relix was my favorite magazine, and I also started writing reviews for Jambands.com, one if our websites, after sending in a blind pitch.

READ ON for more of Writer’s Workshop with Mike Greenhaus…

Seeing the boys from Leroy Justice on stage tends to remind me of the scene in Cheech and Chong’s Up In Smoke when Curtis first passes out the new uniforms to the band.

Man (Chong): No, hey man, if we’re gonna wear uniforms man, you know let’s have everybody wear something different.
Pedro (Cheech): Yea, that’s it. Yea, we want something wear everybody wears something different man, but the same, you know?

Always dressed to the nines in their “same, but different” vests and three piece suits, Leroy Justice have managed to differentiate themselves as a distinct up-and-coming rock band in New York City – no easy feat to say the least. In the past year, the band put out a killer record with producer John Siket (of The Siket Disc fame), shared the stage with some impressive names like Hill Country Revue, Backyard Tire Fire, RANA, & Cornmeal and struck up a friendship and distribution collaboration with the folks at Hittin’ the Note Magazine (an Allman Brothers & friends glossy). Trust me, it won’t be long before smaller acts hope to share the stage with them.

We caught up with lead vocalist and guitar player Jason Gallagher on the heels of the group’s big Halloween show at the storied old Greenwich Village haunt the Bitter End to check in on all the exciting developments throughout their banner ’09.

Ryan Dembinsky: First off, let’s talk about the Halloween show where you performed Steve Miller’s Greatest Hits in its entirety. Don’t get me wrong — I mean, who doesn’t like some Steve Miller — but this is a pretty random selection. Can you tell us how this choice came to fruition?

Jason Gallagher: Our friend Steve Zahn (actor, guitarist, and owner of a horse named “Dude”), suggested it a while back when we were talking about possibly doing another Halloween cover album. In high school, we pretty much listened to that greatest hits album daily, and I never got tired of it. It always represented this super sweet sounding “produced” rock ‘n’ roll. Also, it’s a ton of fun to play, and that’s what we like our Halloween shows to be. READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with Jason Gallagher…