Where are you hiding, Ben Arnold?

Steve mentioned last night that the Ryan page has been on the blog too long, and was wondering if I'd given up on this thing. No way, just too damn busy lately. Also, I had really wanted to catch Ben Arnold down in Asbury this past week before posting about him, but reality foiled that plan. Such is life...

I've been wanting to write about this guy for awhile now, but since I have not yet caught him live, felt I should really get the full picture first. I first heard him back 3-4 years ago on XPN, but they only played one or two songs. But I filed the name, and I'm really glad I did. The more I listen, the more I like -- strong gravelly voice, singer/songwriter with rock & roll edge and heart, quieter songs engage rather than induce sleep, lots of variety in instrumentation and arrangement, a talented pro who deserves some success. Philly guy, with a record release party at Johnny Brenda's on October 18th that I'm gonna try to hit.

Anyway, once upon a time he had an actual website with a bunch of great mp3s, but the whole site now seems to have vanished, and a single page with a flash player put in its place. But if you want to take music with you, that's a real problem, so I'm putting these mp3s up on my machine. Pop 'em on yer iPod...money back guarantee on this one! :)

(please ignore web errors you may see about expired security certificates)

suckin_honey.mp3
O_Holy_Ghost.mp3
Nevermind_My_Blues.mp3
Everywhere_You.mp3
Eggs.mp3
Sky_Was_Falling.mp3
Zig_Zag.mp3
Bad_Time.mp3
Timeless.mp3
Worlds_Away.mp3

A few more can be found on his myspace page.

Walt Whitman Bridge

How can you help but to root for these guys? They love the early, 100-words-per-line Bruce, they've had some great acoustic alt-country change-ups, they rock their asses off live, and their hometown apparently could not care less.

Sorry, Philly people, but how else can one explain why a band this good, ten years or so down the road, is playing a 300-capacity room in glorious Fishtown on a Saturday night, back in their hometown to celebrate the release of their 8th record? Indie cred? Right. Sure.

I caught Marah last time they played at Johnny Brenda's and I liked the room a lot, but have to admit to suffering visions of sitting in a gritty police station at 2am after discovering my car gone... (It was fine, of course...and yes, thanks, I am well aware that I've been living in the suburbs way too long.)

Anyway, Dave & Serge have kindly shared some new & improved tunes from the forthcoming record, check 'em out:

east
feather boa
the rough streets below
goin' through the motions

See youse guys at JB's on the 8th. I'll drive :-)