Cloaca Melodia

Surf Club, Ortley Beach, NJ.... Surfstock 4. Below is a contemporaneous review of this show I wrote for injersey.com. Surfstock 4, the July 4th concert at the Surf Club in Ortley Beach, was a worthy successor to the fine previous shows on the beach. This year, sponsoring radio station FM 106.3 selected bands to give the show a well-rounded diversity of styles, and the approach seemed to work well for most audience members. The whole of Surfstock was greater than the sum of its parts, and each performer contributed a great deal to the fun and energy of the event. Not only was the music terrific, but the atmosphere was appropriately party-like. The weather was ideal, the crowd was eager and receptive, and the bands and artists themselves were largely accessible to fans--most of the performers strolled around the beach when they weren't on stage, gladly signing autographs or simply chatting with admirers. The headliner, former Dramarama frontman John Easdale was clearly the crowd favo...

Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ Here's an interview I did right before this Stone Pony concert, originally for injersey.com: Reel Big Fish is not just a band--it's an addiction. Their songs are quite catchy, and their style is hugely entertaining--it sounds like a bunch of guys having a great party, and you can't help wanting to crash it. It's hard not to get involved in the loopy sense of fun. The band plays a ska-punk blend, similar to labelmates Goldfinger. Unlike their friends in Goldfinger, though, Reel Big Fish includes not only the traditional rock instruments of guitar (Aaron Barrett, who's also the lead singer), bass (Matt Wong), and drums (Andrew Gonzales), but also two trumpet players (Scott Klopfenstein and Tavis Werts) and two trombonists (Grant Barry and Dan Regan). In 1995, Reel Big Fish put out a local record, Everything Sucks, in their native Southern California, and were quickly signed to Mojo Records soon after. Their latest effort is Turn the Radio O...