Are You Dave?

I can’t even believe I am typing this: The Fuzzy Lemons are now the AWARD-WINNING FUZZY LEMONS! Last night at the Goldhawk, our good friend Dave Entwistle hosted the first annual Hoboken Music Awards, and the Lemons picked up the prestigious People’s Choice statuette.

THANK YOU HOBOKEN!

Dave did an amazing job setting up the awards. He was inspired by the Asbury Park Music Awards. They’ve got Springsteen, he reasoned, but we’ve got Sinatra. Hoboken deserves its own music awards. And so he made it happen, setting up a panel of judges culled from his many music-industry contacts and putting together a crackerjck list of nominees. He won’t admit it, but I don’t think he would have had a Childrens’ Music category if he hadn’t worked so closely with the Lemons for the past year.

The whole evening was a blast. The weather was wonderful, a perfect spring night, so most of us met at Ben & Jerry’s for some ice cream before andering over to the Goldhawk.

Once we got there, the event was just winding up. Kipley and I caught the first band while Brandon, Justin and Dana enjoyed a drink outside in the warm air. Big Jeff (our competition) and his wife wandered in and I invited them to take a couple of seats at our table. I say “competition” but he’s such a sweet guy and our philosophies are all about sharing and collaborating. That was Dave’s philosphy in creating the HMAs, too: bringing people together, allowing musicians to connect and honor each other and have a good time. Hoboken’s musical family is alive and well.

But I digress. After the first band was done, Dave got up and made a little speech about the origin of the HMAs. Turns out that he’s, like, HUGE in his home country of Canada. Anyway, We’re thrilled to announce that the VERY FIRST AWARD handed out at the very first Hoboken Music Awards was the “People’s Choice” prize, and we clinched it. Our fans are the best!

We floated up to the stage to accept our statuette, and only then did we realize that none of us had even remotely considered what we’d say if we won!

I’d write more about the rest of the night, but it was a bit of an anticlimax. Big Jeff (deservedly) won the Children’s Music award, and some more bands played, and some other people got awards. We finally realized that it was past our bedtimes and went home. But we’re going to update our MySpace so that we can make a big impression on the judges at the next Hoboken Music Awards!

The local paper covered the event and even took our picture, check it out here.

This past week was “The Week of the Young Child”; there were events at my kids’ school (Wednesday was Crazy Hat Day and Thursday was Pajama Day, for example). Our friends at All Saints, just down Washington Street, went all-out and booked The Fuzzy Lemons for their big Friday night event!

The most exciting thing about this gig was not actually about the gig itself. We bought a new P.A.! Tired of renting or borrowing gear and not always knowing what we’d get, we spent a couple thousand bucks on speakers, an amplifier and 16-channel mixer (plus assorted cables and stands). Justin and Brandon did their homework, and Kipley drive Brandon out to Clifton or somewhere like that to pick it up.

And you know what? It sounded great tonight. Dave Entwistle worked his magic, and as we’ve discovered in the past, being able to hear ourselves helps us to feel more comfortable and play better!

We played a very energetic set, with no slow songs. It was a party-and-a-half and we had a great audience from All Saints’ nursery, pre-k and kindergarten. Most of them were longtime Fuzzy Lemons fans, but we also garnered some new followers. We sold some shirts and CDs, and had fun autographing some of the CDs after the show. I love being a rock star.

For those of you keeping track:

April 24: The Fuzzy Lemons at All Saints’ spring bash
May 1: TFL at HOPES Father’s Group Dance (tickets available now!)
May 9: TFL play a private party
May 30: TFL at the Waterfront Museum
June 4: Pete Seeger 90th Birthday tribute, featuring some of Hoboken’s top musicians!
June 6: June-A-Palooza in Jersey City (tentative)
June 7: TFL at the OLG Fun Fest at Church Square Park
June 14: TFL at Kiddiepalooza on Pier A
July 28: Music Together at the Shipyard
August 4 : TFL at the Shipyard
August 6: The Gordys at Sinatra Park
August 11: Sitting in with Erin Lee and Marci at the Shipyard
December 6: Annual holiday show with Howie at the Hoboken Historical Museum.

Yes, that’s three Shipyard Tuesdays in a row. Awesome. Meanwhile the Lemons are putting together our mailing to try to book festival gigs all summer long, watch this space for details!
~Dave

It’s been a quiet week (2 weeks actually) in Lake Hoboken. I’ve been on break between semesters and the Lemons haven’t had any gigs.

Which is not to say that I’ve been doing nothing.

The Lemons had a big fat business meeting last Monday, and discussed a whole lotta topics. Mainly, we decided to bring Big Dan McLoughlin aboard as the official Producer (say it with a British accent: “pro-DEWS-ah”) of the first full-length Fuzzy Lemons album. We got unmixed versions of the 5 songs we recorded at Garden Street Music over the winter and I’m super-psyched about how the album is going to turn out.

We also decided to book a lot of gigs, buy a P.A., and maybe shoot a video. Meanwhile, my sister put me in touch with a band from the D.C. area called Rocknoceros, and I’ve been chatting with them about some sort of gig-exchange deal. And yesterday we hit the Children’s Museum in Norwalk, CT, which is in the process of building a stage and planning a summer concert series, and I grabbed their contact info. So it’ll be an interesting summer, watch this space for more.

In semi-related news, Kipley, Dana and I spent three of my vacation days recording at my place for a project we’re calling “Playdate Music.” We’ve knocked out six tunes so far, with a couple more on the burner. Between those six and the five new Fuzzy Lemons tunes, I’ve been really really pleased with the creative output that’s happening around me. It’s great to have such easy and fun collaborators!

That’s what’s taken up most of my time. In fact we were so busy with taxes and cleaning and recovering from work and travel craziness that we actually turned my sister down when she wanted to visit with her two kids. (We promise to have a visit soon!)

Now we’re chillin’ at my folks’ house in CT for the Easter weekend. My old, old friend Zak is cat-sitting for us in Hoboken. I may or may not write about her in some other post. The short version: She’s the first person I met in Hoboken, some 13-odd (and I mean VERY odd) years ago, and she’s back in town to visit her mom and we’re thrilled to see her.

Happy Easter!