Catch Some Local Music

Spending my whole life in Southern Maryland I have realized, as many of you have, sometimes Southern Maryland is not always the most eventful place in the world. But recently, there seems to be a little buzz around this place. It seems that Southern Maryland is beginning to give birth to a growing music scene. Although still in it's infancy, more and more bars and restaurants are bringing live music to their establishments and a growing number of musicians are melding together and forming bands. The radio is great but nothing beats the chemistry of people playing live music together, jumping, singing in harmony, trading solos, packed full of all the energy and risk involved of playing in front of a live audience.

Who are some of the prominent bands in Southern Maryland? Let's begin the introductions.

Sam Grow Band - They are the undisputed champions of Southern Maryland. They have shared the stage with Ronnie Dunn, Boston, Sister Hazel, Kanye West, Bill Engvall and tons of other nationally touring acts. Their set list, now almost entirely original music, combines southern rock, hard rock, soul and pop. The band showcases 800 horsepower vocals, time bending rock-shredding, and a rhythm section tighter than Honey Boo-Boo's mother's socks. Everywhere you look these guys are headlining shows, packing houses night after night, touring, making radio appearances, doing interviews, and selling merchandise.

No Green Jelly Beenz - This is probably the most popular of all the cover bands in the area. These guys pull a ton of people wherever they go and have a fantastic party-til-you-drop showmanship that helps you understand how they got to where they are. They have an absurd number of cover songs and have the crowds eating out of their hands every time. Superstorm Sandy? That was just the leftover energy from a N.G.J.B. show. Yeah, it get's that ridiculous. Michael J. Fox? He doesn't actually have Parkinson's he just sat front row at a Beenz concert 5 years ago. Typically, on most nights they play, the police just close the rest of county so they can make sure the insanity from the show doesn't turn into an episode of The Walking Dead.


Hydra FX - This band has been rocking stages for over ten years. They blend reggae, rock, hard rock and funk into a balls-to-the-wall style that makes even the laziest of bastards get up off of their fat asses and start dancing. Newly adopted Dream Theatre shredder and Met-rx Strong Man contestant John Kinkaid, who sometimes has to pick up his own bicep and move it out of the way to play a solo, is like tossing a handful of bottle rockets into the fire (..Let's Burn it Brighter). This band's rhythm section is more solid than a bowel movement after two blocks of cheese and when they whip out their highly syncopated rock-reggae breakdowns, it takes everything in your will power not punch the old lady sitting next to you in the face out of sheer joy. Now fronted by everyone's favorite Ginger, Greg Barrick, whose on stage antics may remind you of Angus Young + an 8 ball of cocaine. This band could play at a morgue and by the end of the first set, the bodies would be doing the Wobble.

Jukebox Thieves - This tight-knit cover band has a clean and driving sound and is fronted by one of the best vocalists in the area, Tara Rae, showing off her dynamics and range from song to song and channeling popular greats like Christina Aguilera, Adele and Hayley Williams (Paramore) . (She is unfortunately taking a several week hiatus to rest those beautiful pipes and come back even stronger.) Their guitar player also has some pipes of his own, rocking out McCartney style thumping lines while belting out in the middle of sets. These guys know a ridiculous number of top 40's hits and they know how to please a crowd.

The Piranhas - Well I hope you like crapping your pants because that happens from time to time towards the end of our shows. Versatility is our middle name, we play everything from Bon Jovi and The Outfield to Rage Against the Machine, Bob Marley, Alex Clare, C.C.R., Jessie J, Guns and Roses, Gnarles Barkley, Ben Harper, Maroon 5 and so many more that if I listed them all, this blog would turn into a J.R Tolkein novel. We have a very climactic show, usually beginning with something soft, slow and simple and ending with dual harmonized guitar finger-tapping, headbanging, jumping off of chairs, climbing up poles, throwing dead chipmunks, etc. You just have to come see it for yourself.

Justin Myles - This STOMP! performer has joined forces with Rusty Williams to put on a mesmerizing blend of jazz, funk and pop. You may even see Justin pull out his tap board and begin trading fours with Rusty. His covers are soulful and entertaining and his song selection is a breath of fresh air, choosing songs like Moondance by Van Morrison, Senorita by Justin Timberlake and Maneater by Hall and Oats. He also incorporates some of his rhythmically savvy originals. His influences, Dave Matthews, Bobby Mcferrin and Jamie Cullum are quite apparent in his highly stylized playing, singing and writing. It would be a good idea to check out one of his live shows.

Diojee - No, not D.O.G. These guys have a very unique island-esque vibe and sound like they might be closer to the Caribbean than Southern Maryland. They have a solid list of original acoustic-reggae influenced grooves, carried by calming vocals and peppered with percussion. After listening to Diojee, you may feel an uncontrollable urge to buy a boat and move a little closer to the beach.

Since I would have to write a fifteen page blog to properly introduce all the great acts around this area, check out these links to get to know some of the prominent local performers in Southern Maryland:

Naked,
Patti Dorsche,
Groovespan,
Dave and Kevin,
Stereocase,
Funkzilla,
Synergy,
Pet the Monster,
No Luck for Landes,
Don't Call Me Shirley
Law-Less
Colossus of Clout
Ben Connelly
Car 54
Dave Norris

To anyone else I didn't mention - my apologies. Feel free to post your name and link below in the comment box!

Rockout at Ruddy

Well. Where do I begin?

What happens when four guys, unrehearsed, who have never played a full show together decide to book a gig at a local place in front of an audience of a couple hundred folks? Well, I would imagine it could very easily be a shit-show of a night that is chock full of microphone feedback, out of time songs, forgotten words and missed chords, possibly some accidental pants-shitting as well. Fortunately, by a miracle, we did not have to skip town after our show and hide from an angry pitchfork wielding mob. We didn't have to sign up for witness protection. We actually had arguably the best night any of us have ever had playing music.

The feeling was just right. There was a hum of energy right from the sound check. Every song just kind of fell together. From Justin's tap dance solos (which immediately turned the heads of anyone who wasn't already listening) to Rusty's Tazmanian devil like hands smashing the cow skin congas until they whimpered to Danny's Ella Fitzgerald-like jazz scat solos dripping with melody, I would say our night was almost a miracle. A couple of us were pretty damn nervous, and thats not a thing that typically happens much when you do this full time. I think we realized about thirty seconds into the first song we were doing really well, everyone was listening, and now is one of those times when you really cant screw up.

Here is a video (Courtesy of the wonderful Laura Isaac) of us rocking out Jill Scotts "Its Love"



If every audience was this great, I think almost everyone would play music for a living.

. From Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" to Jill Scotts "It's Love" to Trains "Meet Virginia" injected with jazz scatting, rock fusion playing, latin vamping, tap dancing, four-trading, stomping, swinging, funktastic-goodness. It was such a fun night and more than anyone we have the crowd to thank. So if you came out, thank you thank you thank you! Luckily we snagged a couple videos out of the night too.



And here is the more well known Sublime hit "Badfish"



To all of you guys who came out and stayed and danced and cheered and sang, you rock! We are really fortunate all of you came out to rock with us, let's do it again soon! Thank you Carlos and Michael for having us all play, we're looking forward to next time!

Dylan

Rockfest and "The Young Professionals"

Hey guys, like always its been a while, a little too long. A lots happened in the past few months. A list of highlights include playing lead guitar for Justin Myles at Southern MD's Rockfest.

Our seven piece band rocked the heavens that day, which was no easy task, considering we were playing right after Sam Grow Band (the best band in Southern MD - they blend southern rock and pop with soulful vocals and screaming guitar solos). Everyone in Sam's band is just a monster. As I was getting out of my car when we first arrived, I could hear Mike Stacey just destroying a guitar solo....after soiling myself, I regrouped and headed to seek shade.....and some wet wipes. Joe Barrick was on the drums beating them to smitherines with his human metronome-like arms. Gene was ripping up the bass and Sam was belting out pure beauty. It was a little intimidating to know we were following.

Adding more of a challenge was the fact that our band was made of 7 members who had never played together before, some had never even met and we had 3 rehearsals to get everything airtight. Let's not forget it was about 110 degrees out. I actually saw a cloud get heat stroke and fall to the ground. Two people caught on fire. A seagull melted.

But in all seriousness the bass player for Sara and Chelsea (a duo of beautiful girls with beautiful voices backed by seasoned rockers) actually had passed out from the heat. It could have been just because he was on stage with Sara. The world may never know. They still all went on to rock out and sound amazing (and look amazing).

This was by far the biggest challenge of my musical career thus far. But I think we pulled it off very well, and everyone before and after sounded fantastic. And thank you to everyone who showed up, James and Amanda Lepore from Baynet Radio especially!

Band lineup:

Justin Myles - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Joe Pipitone - Drums (NY based drummer that grooves solid and strong, sounds Carter Buford meets Neil Pert)
Anthony Damron - Bass (bass player for "The Piranhas" , and hired gun for about every band in the SOMD music scene)
Shiloh Kestel - Sax (Kenny G, kill yourself........Shiloh will ruin your career with one note)
Danny Jauregui - Keyboards, Vocals (Jazz vocal major from Towson University, can scat like ella and croon like sinatra)
Dylan Galvin - Electric Guitar, Vocals (I playa the guitar......)
Russel Williams - Percussion (big name player here! Played w/ Lloyd Dobler Effect and Jill Scott, he has a furious, show stopping style and his hands are lethal weapons.....no seriously)

Justin has a laundry list of accomplishments, including touring with STOMP!, having a degree in dance, playing several instruments, recording, performing and producing his own CD and being a bad-ass tapdancer. Click on his name to hear his stuff, its got loads of groove, tight bass playing, complex DMB-esque guitar riffs with a heavy dose of R & B and funky soulful pop vocals. Not to be overlooked.

And in other news... I'm now in a duo with singer/keyboardist Danny Jauregui. We call ourselves "The Young Professionals". Fitting, right? Were doing covers right now, but in about a year, when we are solid and probably getting really sick of those covers, were going to start writing original music. Whoop. I'll moving back up to Annapolis again and doing music in the duo full time. Look for us in downtown Annapolis, Northern Va, Southern MD and also DC and Baltimore...hopefully we'll tack on a few more states over the next year, also. Im looking forward to seeing some of your beautiful faces out in the audience!

Dylan