Toad Recordings

Hi all,

We had a great run of shows at Toad June/July. Now we are looking forward to trying to keep it going at another venue starting at the end of the summer. I will let you know when we have it al together. In the meantime, good friends Dan and Camille recorded some of the shows and linked them at their Kitchen Door web site:

Toad Shows.

Third of Four

Thanks to all who came, thanks to those who posted comments below, and thanks for your emails.

The second Thursday at Toad was even better than the first, and there is no reason to believe that the third will bot be better, with some guests lined up and yet more new material to play.

Here are some short rough video clips, compliments of the Speca's. The unfortunate part is that I am the only one you see in them. But we have a whole group of folks up there playing.


Springsteen cover


Long Island

And a couple of articles about Toad and Billy Beard that mention the residency, past and present (click)

Toad and the Regent Theater

I have been making promises I can not keep.

Chris Toppin could not make it to last week's show. And my old buddies (of which she is one) in the erstwhile Bathing Beauties, A.K.A Show People, will not be making it to this week's show. It will be more of the Crown Vic with Billy beard on drums. We will play more songs. Last week rocked, in my opinion. We will always miss Tom Polce until his return from Hollywood Babylon. But Mr. Beard is another superb drummer. We will maybe do 3 sets, one more acoustic than the others. We play a lot of old classic rock and soul songs so all you dads should come on down as a reward to yourself. We are like Taylor Hicks. You like him, right? Soul Patrol?

Also, JUNE 27 at 8: I will be playing a set of tunes before the screening of the locally made film that I composed the score for, On Broadway at the Regent Theater in Arlington Center and hanging out afterwards for a Q&A with the director, Dave McLaughlin and producer/actor, Lance Green (and maybe some others). It will be the final big screen screening around here.

Here is one of the pieces from the film:



I leave you with a song from Aretha and the choir:

And It's On!

Celts are on tonight, yes, I know, but I thought that some of you might be into coming down to Toad, a fine pub in Porter Sq. to hear some music any of the next 4 Thursday nights, starting tonight. I will be leading/hosting a few different combos of talented musicians beginning around 9 and going late, with multiple sets of cover tunes, new and old original tunes, ill-advised improvisations, beer-sodden spoke-word ramblings (if this happens, I advise you that it will be time to go).

Tonight, I am pleased to have what will surely be the bedrock band of Billy Beard, Phil Aiken, and Matt Taheny -- joined by the opening duo of Jim Buni and Chris Toppin, who will hopefully be sticking around and joining us for many songs.

Next week, June 19, we will have most of the above group as well as a resurrected band I was fortunate to be part of, the Bathing Beauties (which morphed into a duo called the Show People). This will have Phil, Top and I, joined by Paul Kolderie and Dean Fisher.

June 26 looks to be pretty much the same as tonight, though we might have other guests joining us.

July 3 is too far in the future to ponder. But we hope you will make the leap of faith necessary and choose to remain in town for the 4th of July holiday, if for no other reason than to be part of The Magic that will surely happen on this final night. Actually, some of you are old enough to remember this same sort of Toad hootenanny 2 years ago that culminated in a late-night appearance by a True Rock Star (who does not supplement his income with a real estate gig) leading the band through a 20-minute version of Neil Young & Crazy Horse's "Cortez the Killer." I can't make any promises of such fabulousness coming down Mass. Ave. tonight, nor should you require any such promise, but like the Mass. Lottery points out, you can't win if you don't play.

Your friend,

Bill

TOAD

OK kids,

Thanks to all of you who showed up in Dublin and Barcelona last week for Buff Tom. Now it is back home for the funfest.

For, Thursday is Bill Day at Toad in Porter Square, Cambridge, MA, USA this month. I will be hosting a shambolic hootenanny from 9 - close on June 12, 19, 26 and July 3. Many covers will be played. A lot from my solo records. Some BT tunes solo maybe. And I might try out a new song or 2 that I am working on.

Here is how the core is shaping up for each:

12th -- Chris Toppin and Jim Buni will play some songs together, followed by me plus a band that is 3/4 of the old Crown Victoria -- Phil Aiken (keys), Matt Taheney (bass), and the illustrious Billy Beard who has been kind enough to agree to sit in on drums for a few of these shows. Tom Polce was lured by the siren song of Hollywood, where he has sold his soul to the corporate music syndicates. Billy is well known around town as drummer for Session Americana, Dennis Brennan Band, as well as a drummer for some big time touring artists. Most importantly, he is a great guy who knows how to play the skins.

I believe the early 7-9 show will feature the band, The Rationales.

19th -- This looks like a battle of the bands, with the remnants of ye olde bar band, the Bathing Beauties, the songs of which Chris Toppin and I resuscitated and joined up with some newer songs to complete the CD Show People. This all star lineup featured Dean Fisher on the traps, Philly on the keys, Paul Kolderie on bass, and Top and me singing, guitaring.

And the Crown Vis facsimilie will also be playing this night. It will be a steel-trap death match.

26th -- I have no idea who will be playing. We may be the same CV band, though we might have a sub-sub drummer.

July 3 -- Same as above.

If worse comes to worse, I will play a lot of stuff solo or duo or trio. And once that runs out, we will do Jimmy Buffet covers as an audition for summer resorts.

Hope you can make it to some or all of them.

bill

Buff Tom Shows and Residency for Bill

Thanks to everyone down in Australia who came out to see us. We had a great time playing and hanging out at Coogee Beach in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and the festival at Meredith. Saw my first wild koala. just hanging out. Backstage at the festival. Here is a pic from my Blackberry.



Also, here is a pic of Chris and Tom enjoying a buena vista:



Lastly, a pic of my son, Will, ready to rock breakbeat style:




We have some Buffalo Tom shows coming up starting this Friday, April 18 at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA, the town where BT formed while at UMass. And, the venue is where we first performed at a folkie open mike night as the "Buffalo Tom Trio." This is true.

Next Friday, the 25th, we play the Paradise in Boston. It sold out last week. Thanks for purchasing tix early.

We are playing in Dublin at the Passenger Festival at the http://www.pod.ie/list_tripod.php on May 30, on our way to the Primavera Festival in Barcelona the next night. This, in my book, is not a bad way to spend a weekend. I don't take this sort of thing for granted.

We will also be playing fests in Belgium and Holland on a weekend in August. Check buffalotom.com for details

Finally, I have gotten back around to booking a month of Thursdays in June at Toad, Porter Sq., Cambridge, MA. Like 2 years ago, the core will be Matt and Phil from Crown Victoria, though sadly, our drummer, Tom Polce, is in LA. So it will b real revolving cast, a hootenanny, a Janon-nanny, if you will. Expected gusts include my soul sister, Chris Toppin. We wil spotlight the Show People CD which was a covert release still available on iTunes, CD Baby, etc.

If you will recall, in 2006, we had luminaries Theo Epstein and Eddie Vedder make a late night appearance for a 15-minute "Cortez the Killer," amongst other confections. Phil points out that Pearl Jam will be booked in Boston around June. As he said, "I'm just sayin'...."

Look for me on Facebook, all you "with it" kids.

Lovin' you is easy cause you're beautiful..do do do do do doooo laaaaaaaa,

Bill

upcoming shows

Again, I must apologize.

This time, for talking so much trash about the Giant/Pats. I am only glad I don't know much or care as much about football as I do baseball. Because, then I might be hurt.

I just like trash talking.

To that end, go Obama and I am enjoying the end of the Romney years while also enjoying watching the Republicans falling apart and fight each other over which of the candidates will not have their support.

I had no intention of bringing that up here, but I had some wine and am feeling feisty. But one of my brothers told me to get to the point earlier in my emails, so here goes.

Upcoming shows:

* Buff Tom tour of Australia in March. Charter a plane and come on down (for those of you not already residing there.)
* I am sitting in with Session Americana at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA USA on February 26. For the night, they will break out of their rule of playing only American music and will this night be temporarily named Session Britannica. You can guess why. I will of course be representing the Stones with a song that shall remain a surprise. Phil Aiken may also be playing. Last time I played with SA, it was one of my most fun nights of music EVAH.
* Buff Tom likely shows in Boston and Northampton in April, TBC.
* Buff Tom at Primavera Festival in Barcelona May 30. Maybe another show somewhere along the way where we have not yet played.

Thanks to those of you who came out see us in NY, DC, Chicago, Minneapolis.

The 2 Buff-Tom-personalized copies of the Shellac records I mentioned in the last email were auctioned off on eBay and raised over $3,000 -- and the mini auction they were a component of, organized by Drew O'Dougherty raised over $6,000 -- for the Callum Robbins Fund, for 2 y.o. Cal:

http://www.callumrobbins.blogspot.com/

All my lovin,

Bill


--
buffalotom.com
billjanovitz.com
billjanovitz.blogspot.com/

LP Auction for Charity

Hey all,

Rare LPs (only 700 copies printed) by the band Shellac (Steve Albni, Bob Weston, Todd Trainer) which were given only to those named on the LP cover, have been donated by the three members of Buffalo Tom for auction to raise money for the Callum Robbins Fund, for 2 y.o. Cal:


http://www.callumrobbins.blogspot.com/

These records have been know to raise $700+ a piece and it seems like a great rock & roll way to raise money for a kid with rock & roll parents.

If interested, bidding has started at Ebay. 2 of them are up so far. Look near bottom of page for 2 entries:

Shellac LPS

Thanks for your help on this and thanks also to all of you who have attended recent shows. We look forward to seeing more folks at the upcoming shows.

Bill

Nick Flynn in Esquire

I have little doubt that this will prove to be one of the most memorable things I read in 2008. From Nick Flynn, the writer with whom Buffalo Tom collaborated on the song, "Father Outside (Ink Falling)."

The Ticking Is the Bomb

I'd love to hear reaction. In fact, I would love to see any note from folks to see if anyone is checking in here apart from mentions in my email newsletter. A blog no one reads is like a town with no cheer, or a tree falling in the forest, or as Nick might say, "the falling is the tree."

Nice to see some of you out there in D.C. and N.Y. Hope to see more of you next weekend.

january update

hey everyone,

sorry, again. i am an apologetic sob, ain't i? i just have been lax in updates. i had such great intentions when i started my music blog (http://www.billjanovitz.blogspot.com/). actually, i see that it was updated in december. that ain't too bad, is it? anyway, i can't see too many people hanging on every word anyway.

i wish i could say it is because i am busy. but i have been less busy than i was all 2007, i think. but american idol started last week. plus someone sent me an invitation to join this facebook that i have heard so much about, from all the kids and such. but i see that it has hit some tipping point (btw, that's the title of a great book by malcom gladwell) and more modern maturity folks like me have signed up. it is actually the most useful of all the "social networking" sites i have found. i never quite latched on to myspace too much. and linked-in has some professional uses, i suppose. no one has made them apparent to me yet, but i'm willing to suspend my disbelief for now.

but with facebook, one can post the music, vids, little logos that allow you to dupe yourself into feeling like you are politically, environmentally, or gastonomically aware, etc. but the event announcements thing, in fact the whole interface seems very user-friendly. so that's where i have most recently posted upcoming bt shows that i hope many of you will attend. kevin will continue to update the bill and bt sites, but they are so web 1 or possibly 2.0 and this band is, like, very web 3.2.

i see that the shows are selling well, so i hope to see some of you out there on the cold and lonely plains. and there is a buff tom listeners group or something like that, which of course i had to join even though i don't listen to them (only like the early stuff) when i can avoid it. of course, we will have to listen to each other prattling on (this means you, tom) for an 8-hour ride in a van to dc this friday. so we have that going for us. how much would you pay for a podcast of that. have any of you heard the troggs tape? something like that.

the downside of facebook, and perhaps the real reason for my laxity in updates and other such things such as bathing and acknowledging the existence of my children is that it has this texas holdem poker app. which has ruined me. mind you, i have achieved "big dog" status in a mere couple of weeks and am ever so close to attaining the ultimate status of "shark." however, these achievements don't seem to resonate with my wife, who has never really encouraged my aspirations and dreams and so i don't expect her to all of a sudden wake up and bow down at the feet of a facebook-poker-recognized "big dog" now, january 22, 2008. further, she doesn't even seem enthusiastic when i finally win a few hands and come out on the positive side of my bi-weekly poker group in my favorite contractor's shop (which seems like a setting out of a tarantino bloodbath but is nothing of the sort in real life). so again why would i expect her to wake up lucid one morning and thank me for my visionary foresight?

so i recommend you sign up for the f-book as well so you can waste more of your time.

but as usual, i digress:

buffalo tom
January 25
night time
black cat
washington dc.

january 26
joe's pub
2 shows -- both night time, one earlier than the other
in the shadow of the astor place kmart
near/once home of the scrappy yet sadly soon-to-be defeated new jersey giants
new york, ny

february 1
first avenue
home to prince
and husker du
and grant hart
and the replacements
and that city that gave birth to the mighty hold steady men
minneapolis, mn
because, really, when you think about it, why go play some place warm in february? we want to keep our pale - broken-only-by-our-patches-of-psoriasis-because-we-are-so-dried-out-by-the-boston-winters - glow. let's pick someplace more miserable than boston in the winter. yes, minn. will do. but how about tomorrow? shall we go to hawaii then?

no.

february 2
double door
one of my favorite cities in the world
chicago, we-be-illinois

i be illin' so you keep chillin' and like lowell george be willin' and in facebook poker i make a killin',

Bill-in'

Tour Slide Show

Thanks to everyone who came to see us in Europe/London. We had a great time. Below is a little slide show made from some of my cell phone camera shots. More words to come soon.