The Saint Is Asking for Help

I spent my 45th birthday at The Saint.

I've Been Thinking...

About a week and a half ago, The Saint, a twenty-one year old musical institution on Main St. in Asbury Park, put up a GoFundMe campaign (LINK) with the goal of raising $25,000 "to keep The Saint on track to ensure stability and growth."

I'm going to admit, when I first saw this, I was a little conflicted.

I do love The Saint. When Asbury Lanes shut down for "renovations," a quick look through my photo galleries revealed that Asbury Lanes was the site of most of my pictures. The Saint was second. From a photographer's point of view, The Saint has the best lighting in Asbury Park, hands down. They bring through an eclectic selection of acts night after night, and they're willing to take chances on bands. The staff have always been great to me. There have been weeks when I've been at The Saint three straight nights.

But, as I say, I was conflicted. The Saint is a private, for-profit business; and, if they can't make it, then isn't that just the way it is? Isn't that the risk you take when you run a business in our society?

Yeah, but...

...but, as I thought about it, I thought about how much I value independent, non-corporate venues. I thought about the gaping hole that's been created by the shut-down of Asbury Lanes. I thought about what Asbury Park would be like if huge, corporate promoters actually controlled everything. I didn't like that vision of the future.

Do I personally love every, single thing that comes through The Saint? Of course not. How could I? Some weeks they put on seven or eight shows, squeezing in a late show here or making room for an all-ages matinee for some band of teenagers there. But I've loved plenty of stuff there. My buds in The Battery Electric played a "secret show" there last year on a night that just happened to be my birthday. The Men and Purling Hiss blew me away on a cold, wet Wednesday night one October. Wreckless Eric, Holly Miranda, Nicole Atkins, Wesley Stace, The Everymen, Emily Kinney, Dogs on Acid, local after local after local. I met some of my very best friends for the first time ever at The Saint.

There's something valuable there. Valuable in a larger sense than just the bottom line of some place that has bands and sells beer.

I'm not going to tell you what to do. This isn't an advertisement or a call to donate to The Saint. I will ask you, though, how you'd feel if the only places left in Asbury Park were run by national promoters. I'll ask you how you'd feel if there were no more small and intimate places with great lighting and great sound where you could stumble on some band who just happened to be stopping in Asbury Park.

The Saint could raise their full $25K and still fail to make a go of it. 100%. Are you willing to place a bet on them?

Roy Orbitron Start PledgeMusic Campaign to Fund Upcoming LP

Girls' Boyfriends

Lots of bands turn to crowd-funding to help them with the costs of making their records these days. I kind of view these things as pre-order campaigns; and, if it's for a record that I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy anyway, I have no problem placing my order up front.

That's definitely the case for me with the upcoming Girls' Boyfriends from Trenton's Roy Orbitron. I did a "pan" of Roy Orbitron's latest EP, Elston Allen Gunnn, a little while back; and most people got the joke. For those who didn't, I really enjoy they way Roy Orbitron and frontman / mastermind Conor Meara take some of the familiar sounds of rock and roll and twist or tweak them into something a little more interesting. The band have done that through four EPs already, and they seem primed for a full-length.

Roy Orbitron's campaign runs for the next two months or so, and funders can do things like pre-order digital downloads or CD copies of the album, submit 20 questions to Conor Meara, or get an acoustic house show or producer credit. Once the campaign reaches its goal amount, 75% of the proceeds above the target will fund City of Angels NJ, which offers a multitude of services to individuals and families dealing with the effects of addiction.

You can get all of the details and /or pre-order your copy of the record at Roy Orbitron's campaign page.

Dollys Taking Oh, Please Pre-orders via Indiegogo, Playing Two Shows This Weekend

New Jersey Indie Pop (-a-Go-Go)

I've seen Dollys a couple of times -- most recently, when they opened the Dentist record release show in May -- and the New Brunswick band have really impressed me with their take on indie pop. They just announced an Indiegogo campaign to complete the mastering and vinyl pressing of their forthcoming, debut full-length, Oh, Please.

The campaign offers pre-orders of both vinyl and downloadable copies of Oh, Please along with the opportunity to attend Dollys' release show and / or a listening party for the new record.

You have a couple of "Try Before You Buy" opportunities this weekend. Dollys play New Brunswick's Court Tavern with Smalltalk on Friday, June 20th. They play The Saint as part of the free, weekly Deal Casino summer residency on Sunday the 22nd.

Dollys also recently released a video for the title track to Oh, Please, which you can watch below.

Help New Jersey Stage in the Final Hours of Their Indiegogo Campaign!

Only a Few Hours to Go

Gary Wien has written books like Beyond The Palace, chronicling the musical history of Asbury Park, and Are You Listening: The Top 100 Albums of 2001-2010 by New Jersey Artists. He ran Upstage Magazine, which covered the arts throughout Central New Jersey and included features on the likes of Nicole Atkins, Johnny Depp, Jack Klugman, and Lewis Black.

He's now turning his passion for supporting the arts in New Jersey to a new, all-digital, monthly magazine and daily website: New Jersey Stage. New Jersey Stage has turned to Indiegogo to crowd fund some of the infrastructure costs associated with starting up a digital publication and getting the word out.

If you care about the arts here in our state, or if you or your organization would stand to benefit from a high-profile, online publication, run by a true pro, consider helping New Jersey Stage get off the ground -- either by contributing or by helping to spread the word in these final hours.

As Gary says on the campaign's website, "We're all in this together," and everyone in our arts community can only benefit with the addition of another voice.

The Indiegogo campaign for New Jersey Stage closes tonight at 11:59 pm.

Do it!

Asbury Park's Chris Brown Is Crowdfunding His New LP

Anchor

Asbury Park folk-punk singer / songwriter Chris Brown recorded his latest record, Anchor, with Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls. Now, Brown is reaching out to fans old, new, and yet to be converted via Indiegogo to fund the record's release. According to his campaign website, Anchor tells the story of Brown's relationship with Asbury Park, the city where he was born, raised, and now lives.

Judging from the guest appearances, Anchor will be very Asbury-centric. Brown got help from Steinkopf as well as Zack Moyle of Lost In Society, Zach West and Howie Cohen of Ghost House / Athletics, and his father, Charlie Brown.

Head over to Brown's Indiegogo page for the details; and if you'd like to try before you buy, you can catch Chris Brown when he plays as part of a loaded (and FREE, as always) Happy Mondays bill along with Small Town Scoundrels, The Brigantines, and Eastbourne on May 12th.

Harper's Fellow Crowd Funding Their Debut LP

Thanks For Tonight

Things are moving quickly for Jersey Shore neo-country / folk rockers Harper's Fellow. The brainchild of singer / songwriter Cortney Metzler, the band came together and started performing late in 2012. They recently spent time in the studio recording their debut LP and released a studio performance video for "Bow & Arrow." Today, they launched a crowd funding campaign to put the finishing touches on their record via IndieGoGo.

Contributors can pledge and receive perks ranging from a personal thank you call from a band member to a private house concert from the full band. In addition, the band are using the campaign to give back to the community by mixing and mastering the album with local businesses Lake House Music and Asbury Media and by donating 10% of the proceeds from sales of Thanks For Tonight to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.

I saw the band live a few weeks ago. Metzler's voice, some excellent musicianship, and a strong set of songs set Harper's Fellow apart in a very crowded genre. This is a record that deserves to see the light of day.