FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
1. THE PONY INTERVIEW WITH ZACH GEHRING OF MAE
2. LIGHT OF DAY 6 ANNOUNCED FOR NOVEMBER 4-6
3. THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE STONE PONY: LADIES NIGHT
4. CALENDAR OF EVENTS
This Week at The Stone Pony: Ladies Night Dance Party (Thursday), New Blood Revival (Friday), Mae (Saturday), Caffeine (Sunday), Lotus (Tuesday)
New on the Pony Calendar: New Blood Revival (Oct. 7), Caffeine (Oct. 9), Mynuskris (Oct. 15), Emery (Oct. 21), Kings X (Oct. 30), Light of Day 2005 (Nov. 4), Gogol Bordello (Nov. 5), Yellowcard (Nov. 9), Captured! By Robots (Nov. 17), Badfish (Nov. 19), John Eddie DVD Release Party (Nov. 26)
Visit The Stone Pony on MySpace.com at: http://www.myspace.com/ponyrock
MAE BRINGS THE MUSIC IS MUCH TOO LOUD TOUR TO THE STONE PONY
Fresh off several shows opening for the Foo Fighters and Weezer, Norfolk, Virginia-based Mae headlines Ocean Avenue on Saturday, October 8 in support of their latest CD, "The Everglow". The gig at the club will be the third show on "The Music Is Much Too Loud" tour which will take Mae, along with Circa Survive and Mute Math, across the United States on forty dates over the next couple of months. Mae, an acronym for "Multisensory Aesthetic Experience," started out in 2001 as a studio project which eventually led to the band's debut album "Destination: Beautiful" in 2003. Their modern rock sound caught fans' interest and generated enough of a buzz to sell over 70,000 copies and land Mae increasingly high-profile touring slots. "The Everglow" is an ambitious follow-up, which has caught a lot of attention for the beautiful design and layout of its CD booklet, which invokes imagery of a children's book. Critics have also praised their sound, which drifts from gentle piano melodies to big guitars, and takes the listener on a journey that touches you on both emotional and intellectual levels.
The Pony Newsletter interviewed Zach Gehring, Mae's guitarist, prior to the start of their current tour to talk about their recent experiences, the release of "The Everglow" and some of the band's early history.
The Stone Pony: You recently played several dates with Weezer and the Foo Fighters. How were the shows, and what was it like being around those bands backstage? When you open up a show like that, are you then able to just be fans and sit back and watch the other groups perform after you're done?
ZG: The shows on that tour were surreal for us. We've all been huge fans of those bands growing up and it was mind blowing to actually play shows with them. It was an awesome experience; the crew, the production, the bands, and everyone involved were very accommodating. Even being able to just watch the show was amazing, but then being able to open up the show for six nights straight, it put us on cloud nine. It was definitely a highlight of the band's career so far.
The Stone Pony: How does the experience opening up a huge show like that differ from when you're the headliner and you know that everyone is there just to see you? Is there more pressure to try and win the fans over to what you're doing when other bands are the headliners?
ZG: We just kind of took it in stride and tried to put on the best show we could. There is such a difference between playing clubs and playing arenas; definite pros and cons to both. Our goal going in was not really clear-cut and defined. We just wanted to win over some new fans and have as many people there enjoy the show enough to at least leave with a curiosity and a desire to come and see us again. Hopefully, we made some new fans. When you consider that we are opening for two of the biggest bands in rock right now, it is actually a perfect example of small fish in a big pond, or an ocean, rather. If we could just get kids to remember the name MAE after they get done watching Weezer and the Foo Fighters, I would consider that a victory in itself.
The Stone Pony: Speaking of touring, your gig at The Stone Pony is part of a huge tour that you've got running through the end of the year. Do you get excited at the prospect of being on a national tour and being on the road for several months at a time, or does it tire you out just looking at it?
ZG: Touring is something you can't really do unless you completely want to do it. It's not something you can be lukewarm about. I would be lying if I said it was always fun and we were always smiling. But those downtimes we have, the exhaustion, the time away from loved ones, those are all aspects of the job that we have considered and we deal with. Touring for Mae is something that has built us the fan base we have and we will never get sick of it. As long as it makes sense for us to be touring, we will be touring. It is so incredibly rewarding. It's crucial for us to be on the road and, luckily enough, we all love doing it.
The Stone Pony: Your album, "The Everglow," was released in Japan last month and you'll be playing shows there in December. How have the audiences been for you in Japan, and do you find that fans and venues are different over there than in the States? Any news yet on how well the album is doing in Japan?
ZG: We've been to Japan once, early last year, and it was so great. The fans there are so appreciative to music and are very polite, so eager. It's refreshing. The venues are like they are here: clubs, smelly, smoky, great. "The Everglow" was released in Japan in August and I think we've done over 16,000 so far; so, go figure. We're going back in early December and we can't wait.
The Stone Pony: Your bio has an interesting comment about how "The Everglow" feels like a first album, even though it's officially a sophomore effort. With all of the success that you've had this year, do things still feel new and exciting for you? How has the band's relationship with each other developed in the months since the album was released?
ZG: "The Everglow" feels like a first record because it's the first record we recorded as a band. The writing was more collaborative; the songs came out of us being on the road for almost a year straight. We experienced this record, and recorded this record as band. The first record was less goal oriented, there were no expectations, no collective ideas as a "band," it was a project. "Destination: Beautiful" brought the band together and "The Everglow" was the product of that band. The thing about Mae is that we are all in love with music, to our core. We get to live our lives on the road, making and playing music together. There is connection between us, this very basic connection. Whether we fight, or whether we just get sick of each other, this connection always leads us back to this place where all we want to do is write music and hang out with each other. Everything we experience, every goal we reach, pretty much everything we live through, we live through together. Being in Mae is never old, and never boring, it's the opposite. It's challenging and stimulating, creatively, emotionally, spiritually, politically, and intellectually.
The Stone Pony: Talk a bit about the band's early history. When was the first incarnation of Mae put together and where were some of your early gigs? How did recording your first EP lead to your being signed to Tooth & Nail?
ZG: Mae's first show was at a pizza shop in Norfolk called Cogans. We still go there and hang out. They have these five dollar pizza nights; it's great. The first recordings of the Mae was basically Dave recording an idea, and having Jacob and Rob and William - the first bass player - record additional parts on top of it. Mark, the bassist now, was engineering the whole thing. So, it was just a project for five different musicians. It was all very "up in the air" and non-directional at the time. The songs were put up on MP3.com (rip) and they caught the attention of John Frazier, our A&R, over at Tooth and Nail. We were actually signed on music alone; we had never even met the label beforehand. It was a daring move on both sides that worked out very nicely.
The Stone Pony: The band lives up to its acronym with "The Everglow" as the music and the CD artwork/booklet, not to mention the website, all seem to be designed together to present an overall experience. Did the concept for the album come to you all at once, or did it develop over time as the songs were written and recorded? Did the album artwork come later, or was that being worked on and developed as the music was coming together?
ZG: The concept of the record came a few months in the writing process; Dave realized that a lot of the songs had this theme or similar idea. We sat and worked with it and recorded all of these songs that could be put in order, songs that juxtaposed the band's experiences with a personal journey as well. The storybook on tape, the artwork, and the website were all ideas that fell in line while the songs were being written and explored. Everything fell into place and we decided to go ahead with it. It was a lot of fun for us, challenging us to think in different ways about our music.
The Stone Pony: How do new songs generally get written by the band? Who usually comes up with the initial chords and song structure and how is the idea developed? Do you find any time to work on new material while you're on the road, or does that have to wait until there's some downtime and you can focus on writing?
ZG: There is no formula to the songwriting in Mae. While songwriting is collaborative in the band, Dave brings the majority of song ideas to the table, and we expound upon his ideas as a band, arrange the songs, etc. But, like I said, there is no cut and paste way to writing our songs. It happens as it happens, whether we use a guitar line that Mark wrote when he was a teenager, or piano line that Rob improvises live. As a band, I think we are relatively slow writers. We analyze things a lot and the songs go through stages. "The Everglow," the title track, was an idea from about a year before it was recorded. "The Ocean," "Suspension," all these songs have been recorded and re-recorded over months. We want to make sure each song is the best version of itself, we want to execute it as best as we can.
The Stone Pony: You've done a video for the song "Suspension" off the new CD. Did you enjoy the experience of making the video, and can you describe a little bit about the concept behind the film, where it was recorded and who was involved in directing and producing it?
ZG: Videos are always fun, and always stressful. We have never been able to spend time on a video like we really want to. "Suspension" was shot in two days on a farm in New Jersey right after Bamboozle last year. The idea of the video [was] communicated between the band and the director, Nick Carbonaro of Aquastrada. They've worked with bands like the Reunion Show, the Kites, and Underoath.
The Stone Pony: Are there any plans in the works for a follow-up album to "The Everglow," new videos or any other projects in 2006 that fans should be on the look out for? Do you expect the continue touring after the shows in Japan in December, or will you take some time off for other things?
ZG: So far, there has been minimal writing due to our schedule. We're planning on doing another video, and more international tours in the near future. We will definitely take some time off for the holidays, but not too much. Shows are continually being booked and ideas are continually being brought to the table. This upcoming headlining tour is going to [be] so much fun. We will be trying out some new gear, more songs we've never played before off of "The Everglow," and more rock than you can imagine. Every band on the tour is going to be amazing. Please come out.
Mae's official website can be found at www.whatismae.com.
Now at AsburyPark.net:
Merchants lead hurricane relief effort: The
founder of the Merchants Guild of Asbury Park says he's never seen the city
come together for anything the way people have united to support relief
efforts for the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. The guild will devote
much of its annual Rocktoberfest event to fundraising for storm survivors.
Annual charity concerts will benefit the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and the ALS Association of Greater Philadelphia
(September 15, 2005) Bob Benjamin, The Light Of Day Foundation, Inc. (www.lightofday.org), Concerts East (www.concertseast.com) and The Stone Pony (www.stoneponyonline.com) are proud to announce the 6th Annual Light Of Day Concerts To Benefit The Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) (www.pdf.org) and the ALS Association, Greater Philadelphia Chapter (www.alsphiladelphia.org) to fund patient support programs.
This year’s event will celebrate the life of Joan Dancy. Joan is the late fiancé of our friend Terry Magovern, who has worked with Bruce Springsteen for more than 15 years. Joan passed away in July from ALS, and will be missed by the many people whose lives she touched.
The concerts will be held on Friday, November 4th, 2005 at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ and on Saturday, November 5th and Sunday, November 6th at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ.
The Sunday concert will be a special Light Of Day / Writers In The Raw event, featuring well known singer/songwriters talking about and performing their songs acoustically.
Tickets for all three shows will go sale this Saturday, September 17th at noon through all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster Charge By Phone, Ticketmaster Online (www.ticketmaster.com), and Vintage Vinyl in Fords. Tickets for the Friday, November 4th Stone Pony concert will be available at the Stone Pony box office, while tickets for the Starland Ballroom shows will be available at the Starland box office. Three-day passes will be available through Ticketmaster outlets only.
Tickets are priced as follows:
Friday, November 4th at the Stone Pony (Doors 6pm):
$50 General Admission standing
$150 VIP General Admission Seating (Very limited!)
Saturday, November 5th at Starland Ballroom (Doors 5pm):
$75 General Admission standing
$150 General Admission VIP seating (Very limited!)
Sunday, November 6th at Starland Ballroom (Doors 6pm):
$50 General Admission standing
$65 General Admission seating
$150 VIP Upfront seating (Very limited!)
$165 three-day tickets entitle bearers to general admission for each Light Of Day 6 event.
The lineup for this year's series of concerts is currently being assembled. Confirmed artists include Soozie Tyrell, Joe Grushecky, Willie Nile, Garland Jeffreys, Jesse Malin, John Eddie and Jeffrey Gaines.
The first five Light Of Day concerts have raised approximately $300,000 for the PDF and the ALS charities. Past performers include Joe Grushecky, Gary U.S. Bonds, La Bamba, Max Weinberg, Soozie Tyrell, Tony Amato (a/k/a Boccigalupe), Jesse Malin and many others. Grushecky, who has performed at every Light Of Day concert, has also been joined onstage by Bruce Springsteen at each event. At 2003’s Light Of Day concert, the pair was joined by organizer Bob Benjamin and film star Michael J. Fox for a raucous finale of “Light Of Day,” the Springsteen-penned anthem from which the event’s name is taken.
THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE STONE PONY:
BOUNCE THURSDAYS
The Ultimate Dance Party!
FREE ADMISSION FOR ALL UNTIL 11! - Doors Open At 10 pm
Coming this fall: The Miss Stone Pony contest!
18 for girls, 21 for guys - ID a must! - Reduced admission all night for
ladies
