Are You Dave?

Make Music New York is a HUGE city-wide music event: Musician of all stripes can be found performing in pretty much every public space in the entire city. We submitted our package months ago, and actually got offered a couple of different slots. We picked Richard Tucker Square on the upper west side, mainly because it’s on the upper west side. Specifically, it’s close to Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and that awesome Barnes and Noble where we’d played a couple of times.

However, it’s not a very BIG park, more like a traffic triangle off of Broadway. And, as we found out a few days before the event, no electricity. So we drew on the success of our recent set at KZTV and decided to go the unplugged route (Kipley and I both own small, portable, battery-powered amplifiers, so we were able to plug in three mics and the bass guitar).

We were pleased to discover that we COULD hold a crowd and put on a great show without spending 90 minutes on set-up and soundcheck beforehand. Imagine that! A little bit of amplification helped a LOT; not only could the audience hear us over the traffic noises, but we could hear ourselves and each other adequately and no one blew out their voice trying to shout loud enough to be heard (my biggest fear with this sort of gig).

We teamed up with a clothing company called Little Miss Matched for this event, one of our first stabs at the cross-promotion game. They arrived with these awesome little bundles of mismatched socks and handed them out to the crowd while we played “It’s OK To Be Different.” See? Cross-promotion. Clever, no?

It was an unexpectedly successful little show in NYC!

Photos coming soon.

A typical week in the life of the Fuzzy Lemons can include anywhere from 75 to 200 e-mails. Buried in among the discussions of set lists, copyright issues, technology, marketing and general hoo-ha are actual announcements of gigs that we’ve booked.

In an effort to keep my schedule (and my head) straight, I’m trying to cull all of my events from the e-mail torrent and get them all listed in one location. And wow, turns out it’s quite a list:

• April 11 11:00 a.m. TFL @ The Knitting Factory, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• April 11 TFL @ Room 84 in Hoboken
• April 30 - May 2 Kindiefest (a cool conference I plan to attend, though I haven’t yet registered!)
• May 21 PENDING TFL @ Jersey City Family Fitness Fair (they haven’t returned our e-mail so we’re not holding our breath)
• May 22 11:00 a.m. TFL @ the Knitting factory
• May 22 HOPES Spring Fling, 7:00 at the Rue building
• May 23 PENDING Southpaw (A cool Bklyn alt-country bar)
• June 5 11:00 a.m. TFL @ the Knitting factory
• June 20 TFL @ Father’s Day festival in Nutley, NJ, time/stage TBA
• June 21 TFL at Make Music NY at Richard Tucker Square, NYC 4:00 p.m. (this is a cool city-wide music festival and we’re thrilled to be rocking this park on the Upper West Side!)
• June 22 TFL @ Shipyard Park, Hoboken 7:00
• June 24 Gordys at Sinatra Park, Hoboken
• June 26 & 27 TFL @ The Bronx Zoo!
• July 10 11:00 TFL @ The Knitting Factory
• July 27 Music Together at Shipyard Park
• August 8 TFL @ Rumson Recreation Ctr 7-8 p.m.
• August 9 TFL @ Waterside Plaza NYC 7:00 p.m. (pre-show for a movie night overlooking the East River, should be fun!)
• August 14 TFL @ Kids Kingdom, Elizabeth NJ (thanks to our friends at This Is It! Productions)
• August 22 PENDING Morristown
• September 11 and/or 12 TFL @ Union County MusicFest, Clark NJ (Psyched to do this festival again!)
• September 26 TFL @ Hoboken Art & Music Fest
• October 9 TFL @ Clearview Cinema Hoboken (rain date Oct 10)
• Oct 17 Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle

Whew! That’s a BUNCH of road trips around NJ, a crop of outdoor shows right here in Hoboken (a favorite), a mind-blowing conference with the biggest names in the business, and jaunts to Brooklyn, the Bronx and NYC. And we haven’t even booked our Knit gigs for the 2nd half of the year yet. I’m exhausted just thinking about it, and eager and excited to rock so many places. The week of June 20-27 promises to be extra crazy… and extra fun! See you there!

~ Dave

This was our second trip to this very nice Barnes and Noble on the Upper East Side and I’m pleased to say it was just as much of a smash as the first. (Even better, actually, because we were able to sell the new CD!) Our old friend Anthony Methvin hooked us up once again, and he must be doing something right because there was a great crowd! He brings ‘em in every Sunday at noon for family events, and they keep coming back for more. It’s a thrill for us to be a part of it.

What a show! I’m going to let the pictures and post-show e-mail speak for themselves:

Photos by Kathleen Soule

Rockin' the Upper West Side

I just wanted to write and say how fantastic you guys were today! Thank you so much for bringing your rad music into the store. I am so happy to provide a venue for such insanely talented and fun performers. I love that you guys make real, honest to goodness rock n roll that just happens to be kid friendly. Seeing a room full of nuggets shakin’ a tailfeather is part of why I love what I do so much. The fact that I enjoyed the performance as much as they did was a wonderful perk. I will spread into the universe what a professional, fantastic group of people you are to work with. I see big things for the Fuzzy Lemons! I am glad to support you guys on the tipping point!

I am putting a hold on Sunday, January 17th, which is the first available date we have in the new year. If that works for you, holler at me and I’ll ink it in. If that date does not work for you, just let me know and we’ll find a date that will for a big ole’ bangin’ CD release shindig! I can’t wait to hear the album! Thanks again for everything and be in touch soon! Take care!

Anthony Methvin
Community Relations
Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle

Hi everyone! It’s been almost a month since my last post… mainly because August is vacation month! I haven’t had any gigs or classes in over 3 weeks. It’s been a lovely time. I got to do some waterskiing in CT on my dad’s boat, and the Fuzzy Lemons have used the time to write a new song or two.

Now, refreshed and ready, we’re launching into the Fall of ‘09. First order of business: FINISH THE CD! We’ve booked two more 10-hour days at Garden Street Music, for Dana, Kipley and myself to record guitars, vocals, keys, accordions, mandolins, woodwinds, and gosh-knows what else. Meanwhile, we’re starting to bounce ideas around for album artwork. The goal is to be able to put the thing in people’s hands on Dec. 1. I love seeing all of this creativity come together!

At the same time, we’ve got a bunch of gigs coming up, including some road trips!

• September 12 - Concert for the Mustard Seed school in Hoboken
• September 13 - Union County Music Festival, Oak Ridge Park, Clark NJ
• September 20 - 2nd Annual Long Island Pirate Festival, Farmingville, NY
• September 21 - Studio day
• September 28 - Studio day
• October 11 - In-Store concert at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle, NYC
• October 18 - Jubilee Day - Benefit for Jubilee Center
• October 24 - private party in Hoboken
• October 30 - Halloween party for Garden Street Music (in exchange for studio time!)
• December 4 - Fuzzy Friday
• December 5 - Dave and Howie’s annual holiday show at the Museum
• December 11 - Fuzzy Friday
• December 16 - Garden Street Music holiday party
• December 18 - Fuzzy Friday/HFA holiday concert

That’s a decent list. Playing shows, recording albums… that’s how I want my life to be!