Mark Pisanelli

Artist Information

Biography

Mark Pisanelli is a drummer from Beacon New York with versatile talent and big sound. Equally gifted in drums, vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, Mark also writes music and lyrics. His musical style is universal and has no boundaries crossing over from rock, surf, punk and thrash. Mark pours his heart and soul into every line and note. His harmonies are pure, his energy is contagious, and his hands are lightning fast. In 2007 while taking a break from his punk rock band the Buddha Heroes he branched out and went on tour with The Banner (Ferret Records). In 2009 he went back on the road and did a summer tour with the Buddha Heroes (Curry Street Records) to support their 1st full length album. Mark also enjoys playing as a guest drummer for different local bands and recording solo work in the studio. If you’re interested in using Mark for a session or gig write to him here: mapdrumsticks@gmail.com Mark Pisanelli. drums, percussion, vocals, acoustic and electric guitar.


FEBRUARY UPDATE!
my punk band needs your help! 100 and Zero.
Finally finished the Kick-starter campaign to help fund our debut album. Please click the link below and take a look also listen! We have 30 days to meet our goal. Reward packages are to the right! ENJOY

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1308374384/bringing-the-100-and-zero-debut-album-to-life


NEW YEARS UPDATE!

HELLO ALL! Happy New Year! I am very excited about this New Year with new album's to be released and more shows to play the progress maybe slow at times but it’s steady! This is also a time to reflect on what has been accomplished and what needs improvement. There are many reasons to play music it's challenging, creating is mentally stimulating and my favorite reason of all is its plain fun. If you have a new year's resolutions I urge you to pick up an instrument and play! It may be frustrating at first but it's worth it also encourage others too it's a positive way to spend time and energy. If you are reading this and checking out my site, shows and listen to the music I post on soundcloud (a link is on this page) I would like to say thank you and wish you the best this new year. I said it before and I'll say it again check back for upcoming shows I hope to see you there!

Best regards and deepest gratitude,
Mark


(Update December 2012)
Currently playing guitar with:
Stone street collective/Tall standing brothers

Instrumentation

Mark Pisanelli - Live Drummer, studio drummer and touring drummer

Discography

(Touring)
Buddha Heroes: "Good For Me summer tour"
July 30th -- August 20th 2009
The Banner:
January 10th -- January 26th 2005

(Studio)
The Octomen "Full length" 2013
The Costello's "Full length" 2013
100 and Zero "Full length" 2013
Buddha Heroes "Good for Me" 2009
Mailbox Baseball 2008 "Demo"
Buddha Heroes "The Fight" 2006
Soul 4 sale 2006 "Demos"
Buddha Heroes "Speedbump in my pants" 2005

Try outs!
I have tried out for these bands.
Take One Car
The Dylan Emmet band
Setting Sun
The Banner

(Bands and projects)

100 and Zero
Jim Zellinger: Guitar and vocals
Jed: BassThe
Mark P: Drums
Link: http://www.reverbnation.com/100andzero

Costello's
Bob and Lynn Costello (Guitar and Vocals)
Rich (bass)
Mark (Drums)
http://thecostellosmusic.com/
Search,The Costellos -Maverick Pop Music on Facebook

The Octomen (Surf)
Rattlesnake Ralph - Guitar
Darin Rose - Bass
Mark P - Drums
www.octomen.com
www.myspace.com/theoctomen

Buddha Heroes (Intense Punk Rock!)
Alex: Lead Guitar/Vocals
Mark: Drums/Vocals
Zack: Bass
www.myspace.com/buddhaheroes
Curry Street Records

MailBox Baseball (Punk/Rock)
Brad: Guitars and Vocals
Marky P: Drums and Back ups
www.myspace.com/mailboxbaseballrock
New Music posted at that site!

Bun Ratty (Acoustic, punk)
www.myspace.com/antonpisanelli
New Music posted at that site!

Rise by Night: (reggae, rock)
www.myspace.com/risebynight
Mark: Guitar, drums, vocals
Liam: Bass
Matt: Drums, guitar

Official Website

http://www.reverbnation.com/markapisanelli

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Sound cloud- Check here for my latest tracks!

Audio

• My drum track
  Listen   Download
• The Cycle No Vocals
  Listen   Download
• The Fight
  Listen   Download

Lyrics

• Everyday is work
• In My Head
• The Fight
• The Hope Within

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• City's Riverfest rolls with song, arts, food and family fun [+ Show ]
  

  The vista to the north is framed by the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, while downtown Newburgh punctuates t...The vista to the north is framed by the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, while downtown Newburgh punctuates the western sky.
  
  The Hudson River links them both as it dissolves into the southern horizon, offering an opportunity to connect with a waterway that defines existence for so many Hudson Valley residents, as they kayak its waves, commute over its bridges and work and live in its communities.
  
  At the center of this scenario is Beacon’s Riverfront Park, which on Saturday will host an arts offering that will bring music from many miles away to a burgeoning Hudson Valley community.
  
  Beacon beckons New York City residents with its Metro-North train station and draws folks from Ulster and Dutchess counties with attractions that include Dia:Beacon, a contemporary art museum; The Beacon Theatre on Main Street; and art galleries that anchor this arts community.
  
  On Saturday, the third annual edition of Beacon Riverfest will be staged on the city’s Hudson River shore, with live music, food and crafts.
  
  “It’s a funny marriage,” said Riverfest Director Stephen Clair, “between a rock music festival and lots of kids and families.”
  
  Scheduled to perform at this free event are The Wiyos, Schwervon!, The Figgs, Octomen, the M Shanghai String Band and Brooklyn Qawwali Party, which interprets 700-year-old Pakistani Sufi music, focusing on the works of musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
  
  Many modern music fans know Khan from a recording he made some years ago with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame.
  
  Qawwali music, according to http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com, “Is a Sufi tradition that is completely unique to the Indian subcontinent. But with its heartbeat-like pulse, vocal fireworks and message of universal love and peace, this style has found devoted fans all across the globe.”
  
  Brooklyn Qawwali Party drummer Brook Martinez said he is drawn to Sufi music by “the passion, the fire, the intensity of it, the way it can transport both performer and audience to ecstatic states, sometimes, if you’re lucky. I love music that can just build and build, and take you to higher and higher places as a listener or as a player. That’s really the heart of the matter for me. It’s intense, passionate music and it has a great rhythm.”

• Beacon band gets the chance to shine. [+ Show ]
  

  They play hard, they play heavy, they play quick, and they play tight. Think Green Day meets The Ra...They play hard, they play heavy, they play quick, and they play tight. Think Green Day meets The Ramones, with Ozzy Osbourne’s musical fangs and a little bit of No Doubt ska sound, but with a much harder edge. The Buddha Heroes out of Beacon have more kick than a double espresso or line of Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. “I guess you could say we’re faster punk rock, not the mellow stuff you hear on the radio,” Said guitarist Alex Campone, who is 19, attends Dutchess Comm. College and has been working at key food since he was 16 and hopes to make a living as a writer, if the music thing doesn’t pan out. “We try to keep the roots together. We want to stay focused on what we love doing”. The Buddha Heroes – Alex Campone, Mark Pisanelli, 19 on drums, Clark Erb, 23 on Bass, And Rob Codichiny, 26 on guitar – will be doing what they do best Saturday night at The Chance. They are set to share a bill with the headliners The Misfits.
  
  Mystique and Magic
  
  A different incarnation of The Buddha Heroes – with Campone and Pisanelli – performed several years ago at The Chance. This famous night club which in the past hosted The Police, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and dozens of other heavy hitters, maintains a mystique and magic that many agree gives the building a personality its own. “It’s amazing, “Compone said of playing at The Chance. “Since I was a little kid, I’ve been going to see shows there – big name bands, no-name bands. My one favorite thing in the entire world is playing in front of people. It’s amazing. It’s got so much history. It’s such a presence. It’s a feeling like you’re a big band, like you’ve been around forever. So many other bands have played on that stage. It’s insane that we get to play where all these people played”. The sounds that the Buddha Heroes will bring to The Chance might be hard and heavy, but the origins of the band’s originals hail from far and wide. “One thing we love doing is bringing a whole bunch of different musical styles into it,” Campone said. “I’m a big reggae fan, Mark likes Hardcore and Rob likes classic rock. It’s a really good mix. It helps us add our melody.” Another thing you might not expect to hear from the guitar player for a punk band: “We love harmonizing together. We are really focused on the harmonies. It’s one thing we base all our music on.” Harmonies are nice, but the Beacon Buddha Heroes also keep in focus those for whom they play. “We’re all about putting on a good show” he said. “We’re not treating fans like our fans. We like to treat them like they are our friends. We’re all in it just for the love of music and playing”. For more information on the Buddha Heroes go to www.myspace.com/buddhaheroes
  

• Punk on the bill in Beacon [+ Show ]
  

  Cultural center hosts high-energy concert. A Beacon arts center known for hosting classical music is...Cultural center hosts high-energy concert. A Beacon arts center known for hosting classical music is now pushing punk. The Howland Cultural Center on Main Street in Beacon Saturday night will host a punk rock concert featuring The Buddha Heroes, NCM and Another wasted day. Also scheduled are solo acoustic performances featuring the music of The Misfits and Close Enough. The Buddha Heroes and NCM are from Beacon, the musician from Close Enough are from Hopewell and Another wasted day is from the Pocono Mountains. The Howland Center exists for the community and it’s a cultural center, “it’s not just a classical music venue or something like that” said Howland Acting Director Florence Northcutt. “We encourage all kinds of music to jazz to classical. There is no reason why punk rock can’t be apart of that”. The Howland Cultural Center Staged a night of Punk rock in the spring, Northcutt said. Concert organizer Pete Crotty of Beacon will perform twice -- solo, offerings takes on Misfits songs and in the guitar-drum duo NCM.
  

• CD review [+ Show ]
  

  The Fight is a 5-song 13 Ep which is quite fast, very punk rock with a little Metal twist but a litt...The Fight is a 5-song 13 Ep which is quite fast, very punk rock with a little Metal twist but a little more progressive than the 70s punk, and very energetic. It falls flat a little in the third song, which is why it didn't get 10/10. I just felt it lacked a certain.. well indescriable pitch which the first songs hit so well. The first two songs are perfect punk rock, they combine everything you would want in a song that is agressive and fun - but the third song seems to drop off a bit. Forunately, the Third song also is a transition song between the fourth and fifth song which aren't punk songs anymore - but genre defining art works. Unforunately, personally they aren't as much as I like the first two songs. You won't hear that metal influence until the third song, which actually seems to progress itself until the guitars would be very metal sounding in the fifth song.
  I may also say as a critism the vocals seem to drop off a bit in the last two tracks. Actually about the time of the scream in the second track. This is a very good cd though, excellent if You want to go with the 9/10 being a guideline. It's very punk esc, but manages to be very entertaining. Lyrically I didn't see anything that stood out, and for some reason the third track shows a decline from the first song being probably the best underground punk track I've ever heard.. but it's still a very very good cd. There's a lot of solid guitar lines, all the music works together, and the vocals are quite good throughout the entire cd. The bass doesn't stand out - at least as much as I hope it would on a punk cd, but that's their style.
  Another reason this cd is good is that it never stops being aggressive. In fact it gets more aggressive - very much so in fact, but it starts off as an aggressive cd and never looses that "cool" which is presented inside all the tracks. It all has this steady rhythm and feeling to it, but "The Fight" increases, making an impulsive feeling of ear magic. This isn't a cd which will appeal to people not into punk rock, and it doesn't feel to seem like a cd Which Buddha Heroes spent more time then they would have on a regular cd. I haven't heard their earlier work, but this is a very professional cd, and has a sound which will change the world forever!
  So you may ask yourself - should you listen to this cd? Yes, yes you should, but it isn't the type of punk music which stands out to people who don't commonly listen to it - like special guitar lines and sing alongs. However, it is very true to itself, and is presented in a way which is enjoyable and that's more important than user interaction. It's a bit aggressive, so make sure the kids are warned before listening to it, and it's only 13 minutes (though the cd is complete, and if it was longer it may be out of place, and the 9/10 does imply the cd hasn't hit the high point of being the best thing in the world) - but you should sit down and listen to it. See it for yourself, it's a band who is from around here, putting out much better music than a lot of younger bands, and it's a well done cd. I'd pay $3 bucks for it unconditionally, though if I was making a mix tape I probably would throw the whole thing on.
  
  

• Beacon Voices: Buddha Heroes [+ Show ]
  

  If you’re a regular shopper at Beacon’s Key Foods, you’ve undoubtedly met Alex Campone, the congenia...If you’re a regular shopper at Beacon’s Key Foods, you’ve undoubtedly met Alex Campone, the congenial cashier with tattooed arms and a shaggy mop of black hair. He started working part-time at the grocery store while a student at Beacon High School. Now that he’s graduated, he’s starting his first year at Dutchess Community College and working to support his passion, playing in the local punk band Buddha Heroes.
  
  Alex and his buddies Mark and Rob are the core of the Buddha Heroes, a band whose sound some compare to the Southern California punk scene of the early 1980’s. Listening to their demo, you can certainly hear early Social Distortion or Agent Orange, but the Buddha Heroes are not interested in comparisons.
  
  Download the Buddha Heroes' MP3 "Wavin in the Sun"
  
  I learned about Alex’s alter ego after seeing him behind the wheel of his multi-colored van, a 1987 Chevy with about 150,000 miles on the engine. Like something from a psychedelic A-Team episode, the van will be the band’s home as they tour the Northeast and beyond to build their audience one club at a time. The Buddha Heroes just came off consecutive shows at Club Crannell Street in Poughkeepsie and the Continental in Manhattan. I was able to catch up with Alex C., Mark P., Rob C., and their good friend Derrick at Mark’s parents’ house here in Beacon late one weekday night in late August (bass player Clark E. couldn’t make the interview.)
  
  Why don’t we start with introductions?
  
  Mark: I’m Mark, I play drums and sing.
  
  Alex: My name’s Alex. I play guitar and sing.
  
  Rob: I’m Rob, and I play guitar, nasty guitar, and do backup vocals, I suppose.
  
  Alex: Rockin rhythm, rockin lead, rockin everything, rockin Rob!
  
  
  How’d you guys meet?
  
  Alex: I’ve been with Mark for the past 5 years. At the end of my freshman year at Beacon High School I was looking to start a band for the first time. A friend of mine told me about a friend of his that played bass. And I said, ‘bass? I don’t want a bass player, I want a drummer.’ Turns out he was a drummer, and my friend got it wrong.
  
  So I called Mark out of the blue one day. I didn’t know him and we’d never been introduced. We hung out and kinda got a thing going. We started jamming and while we were doing that we came up with the name Buddha Heroes.
  
  Where does the name come from?
  
  Alex: I always had a big thing for Buddha. I’ve always collected Buddha dolls, and I have a whole big collection. We have a bunch of statues that we use at practice.
  
  Mark: But there’s no religious thing there –
  
  Alex: It’s more of a good luck thing – more visual than meaningful. So one day around Halloween a couple of months later Mark called me and we started the first version of the band, which was Mark, me, and a couple of other guys.
  
  Mark: A few days after that we got together and started playing in the barn.
  
  What’s the barn?
  
  Mark: The barn’s in the back of the house here. We did our first set of recordings in there. We had a mixing board and we recorded our first song for a project in school --
  
  Alex: We did it in one night – it was really fun…
  
  What grade were you in at this point?
  
  Alex: This was sophomore year of high school. This was our first recording that actually sounded kinda good. We were just kids in high school trying to start a band. We weren’t that good, but we were having fun. So then me and Mark became really good friends, and we started hanging out all the time, and decided to get serious. So one of our friends, Liam, who lives in Beacon too, got a bass and learned to play it with us, on the spot.
  
  What did that first recording sound like?
  
  Alex: Well… (laughs)
  
  Mark: It was crap!
  
  Alex: At the time we thought it was awesome, but we just listened to it the other day and it gave us a headache.
  
  Derrick: At the time we thought, ‘oh, this is amazing’, but you look back at it now, and you’re like --
  
  Alex: Four years ago we we’d spend $300 and do it ourselves. But now we know better and go to a studio. Soon after that Mark, Liam, and me played our first club show ever at Club Culture in Washingtonville. It was a big deal to us -- we were really stoked.
  
  How’d you get that show?
  
  Mark: I went to Imperial Guitars and bought my first real drum set, and as I was leaving they were like, ‘by the way, do you want a show?’ I said, ‘wow, sure!’ And I called Alex and that’s where we started.
  
  Alex: After we played that we got our first show up at Club Crannell Street in Poughkeepsie. Then they opened the Loft, and we played there a lot. And we thought, maybe one day we’ll play the Chance.
  
  Were you still the Buddha Heroes at this point?
  
  Alex: Yeah, every time we’d stop and start a band with new guys we’d try and think of a new name for the band, but it always came back to Buddha Heroes. Always. At first it was corny, and it kept getting cornier and cornier, but now it’s just stuck. We can’t even get rid it, it’s who we are.
  
  Mark: So a year went by and I saw Alex at a party and I was like, what are we doing?
  
  Alex: I just got out of high school and we were just realizing what we wanted in life. We weren’t sure if we wanted the band or not.
  
  How did Ron enter the scene?
  
  Alex: We knew Rob from another band, Soul 4 Sale. We played shows with them all the time. Mark called me and asked me to jam with him and Rob. We didn’t have any intention of calling it the Buddha Heroes, we just wanted to play. We all wanted the same kind of style, the same kind of outcome. We wanted everything the same. It was great.
  
  Rob: And I was a huge fan of the Buddha Heroes before I was in the band. So I had no objection to being called the Buddha Heroes. I was cool with that.
  
  Mark: With the addition of Rob it’s been great. It was always a lot of fun, but Rob brings a real business sense, booking shows, and doing promotional stuff.
  
  Rob: I sit in front of a computer all day, and that helps. I’m just constantly sending press kits, talking to people, getting shows. It’s coming along. We’ve already hooked up with two promoters before our first show – really good promoters. We’re in the process of getting a guitar sponsor, and before our first show we had offers to be on compilations. If we had a video we could have been part of a video compilation. So it’s already going pretty well.
  
  Where did you learn to play?
  
  Alex: I took a couple of lessons, but you can’t be taught guitar. You can be shown what to play, but you really have to do it yourself.
  
  Rob: I did the same thing. Took lessons for a couple of months, and then –
  
  Mark: I actually learned guitar from software on the computer. I swear to God.
  
  Alex: For a drummer Mark’s a pretty good guitar player.
  
  Derrick: Yeah, Mark’s a prodigy. He just picks up an instrument and starts playing.
  
  Alex: He writes a lot of our guitar stuff too.
  
  Mark: I enjoy playing all the instruments. I don’t want to stick on one thing.
  
  
  Were there a lot of people playing music in Beacon in high school?
  
  Alex: This area at the time was very musically diverse. We were the only people who liked what we liked. It was hard. Every year we played the talent show at high school. But we couldn’t win because Mark didn’t go to Beacon High. He went to school at Lawrence.
  
  Derrick: They made me shut off the spotlight…
  
  So you’ve been with the band for a while?
  
  Derrick: I’ve been with the band since day one. I went to school with Mark in second grade. And I didn’t see him for a long time. One day a friend told me that his friend’s brother was going to be playing a show at a barn behind his house, and he asked me if I wanted to come and work security. And I was like, sure, why not? So I go there to work security and I saw Mark, and we had a little reunion, you know, with tears and hugs. And I ended up working security at the show and ended up going to every Buddha Heroes show from then on. I was always with the band at practices and at shows, no matter what.
  
  Alex: He’s watched us grow.
  
  Derrick: I’ve watched every transition through every Buddha Heroes. I had to encourage them to keep going and rock harder. I always had the dream that they’d be huge and I’d be their manager.
  
  Alex, have you’ve always been the singer?
  
  Alex: I don’t feel like I’m the singer. I sing most of the songs, but I’m not the lead singer.
  
  Mark: You look some of these bands now, they have one front man who takes all the credit.
  
  Alex: And I don’t like thinking I’m the front man. I like to think we’re all the front men, we’re all the show.
  
  Derrick: But Rob brings in all the girls.
  
  Mark: We want everyone to get some attention. We want everyone to feel good.
  
  That’s how bands stay together.
  
  Rob: That’s right.
  
  Who would you say your influences are?
  
  Mark: I listen to heavy stuff sometimes like Pantera –
  
  Alex: But it’s cool because we all listen to different stuff and bring different influences to the band. Mark really likes a lot of heavy stuff. I like more mellow stuff, like reggae. I bring that kind of melody tone to the lyrics I write. But at the same time I like it heavy and fast –
  
  Rob: I like the faster stuff. I think you could say we sound like Comeback Kid or Pennywise. Big Wig is a big influence. But we’re very versatile.
  
  Mark: We don’t want to be a metal band, where all we play is metal or punk.
  
  Alex: We want to have it all. We want to keep people guessing…
  
  Derrick: I think it’s the energy they bring to shows, even when they record. It’s always been fun, and it’s never been forced. You can tell they’re enjoying what they’re doing. It’s that level of energy that just makes it that much more fresh. They’re all committed, but it’s never a burden.
  
  Where do you practice in Beacon?
  
  Alex: Right here in the basement.
  
  Do the neighbors mind?
  
  Mark: No, we’ve never gotten one complaint.
  
  What would you say is your ambition?
  
  Alex: We want to go somewhere with this band. This band is my life
  
  Rob: I think 2006 is going to be our year. We’ve already done things in the first month of this band that I haven’t done with any other band.
  
  Mark: I’ve been in other bands in the past, and you know it’s not going to work.
  
  Alex: One thing that really made me feel cool…we just played our first show back at this place over in Warwick at the Tuscan Café. I was really nervous. I hadn’t played a show in about a year and a half, and I was really scared. But these kids came up to us afterwards and they were like, ‘yo, I’m so glad you guys got back together. I remember seeing you guys at Club Culture.’ And that was our first show back in the day, like four years ago. So kids remembering us from then and liking us now was the greatest feeling ever. And then they came to the next show too.
  
  Rob: It was a hardcore crowd and they were really grooving on us, so that was really cool.
  
  Mark: We gave out lots of free demos, and we got hooked up with a recording studio. Things like that make me feel like this has a pretty good chance of going somewhere, which is all I need.
  
  Where do you want to go?
  
  Mark: Maybe get on a good label and tour.
  
  Rob: We’d like to be able just do this and that’s it.
  
  Where do you want to tour?
  
  Rob: I want to play in Japan. Buddha Heroes! (in strong Japanese accent) I want to play in Iraq. Everywhere.
  
  Mark: I’ve always wanted to be a musician. I don’t care if I’m one of those guys who plays at nursing homes. I don’t really care, as long as I’m playing. This is the best shot we have right now.
  
  Tell me about the van.
  
  Alex: I bought that about a year ago. My friend’s family was selling it. They used it as a vacation van. Before that it was a lady driving it every so often. I loved the van so much, and he always said you should buy it, as a joke. And the day he was going to sell it , I said, I’m gonna buy it. So I sold my little Nissan in a day for $100 and bought it.
  
  It’s called the Fun Bus. It’s what these guys started calling it and it just stuck. The seats are like beds. There’s a couch in the back, tv, VCR…
  
  Mark: We’re putting it through its first test on Saturday when we drive down to the city for a show at the Continental.
  
  How did that come about?
  
  Rob: I sent a guy a press kit, and when I called the guy he said, ‘dude, I have like 1000 press kits in front of me. I don’t even know where yours is.’ And I said, ok, just try and get to it when you can and make sure you give me a call. Two hours later I got an email offering us a show at the Continental, the same place where the Ramones played and lots of other punk bands.
  
  It’s a good promoter because they book shows all over New York and New Jersey. So I want to get in good with these guys.
  
  Mark: It’s a good feeling. Growing up I’ve been to the Continental and the Chance, and now we’re playing these places. It’s an awesome feeling.
  
  Alex: We just got our second Chance show ever, and I only found out about it by seeing it online. It took us four years to get our first show there, but when we broke up they told us to let them know if we ever got back together again. And here we are…
  
  Where are you guys working?
  
  Alex: I work at Key Food and I’m starting DCC in the fall.
  
  Rob: I appraise houses, as part of a family business in Sullivan County. Family businesses are great because you don’t have to apply for it, and it’s doubtful I’ll ever get fired. We can go on tour and I can always come back to it, so it’s great.
  
  Mark: I’m going to be going to DCC full-time, so there’s always that back up plan.
  
  Do you guys ever play in Beacon?
  
  Alex: We played a Christmas party at the Piggy Bank. Two of the guys who used to be in the band worked there, so we played Christmas songs, lots of crazy covers. It was lots of fun.
  
  Mark: We don’t do covers much, but we like to pull them out from time to time.
  
  Alex: Every show we do something different, like the Golden Girls them or ‘Dream’ from the Everly Brothers. Monster Mash on Halloween. It’s lots of fun.
  
  So Beacon doesn’t have a place to play?
  
  Alex: Not really. But if there was a little club I’m sure kids would come to support it. Hopewell Junction has a lot of kids who come up to Poughkeepsie to come see us.
  
  I’ve done a lot of open mic stuff at the coffee shop, but those people weren’t really into my music. They kinda told me not to come back.
  
  Mark: Beacon is more folk music, Pete Seeger, that kind of thing. I’d love to play a Strawberry Festival, the Corn Festival, but we’ve never been invited.
  
  Alex: I bet we could bring a nice little crowd.
  
  Switching gears, which bands do you think have done it right over time?
  
  Mark: That’s a tough one…
  
  Rob: Well, I’m not the kind of person to say a band has sold out because they’re making money. Personally, if I could make money and do this and nothing but this, I’d take it. If I got that offer from the right person, and we had creative freedom over the music, I’d take it.
  
  Alex: My definition of selling out is writing music to suit other people’s tastes.
  
  Rob: We don’t write music that’s going to appeal to some A&R dude. All those songs on the radio right now – we could write 20 of those a day.
  
  Rob: I think NOFX has done it right. They never went to a major label. They took all the money they had and opened up their own label. Then they recruited bands that they liked, and created their own business that way, which is great. And they’re still doing exactly what they want to do. If someone waved a big wad of money in front of me, I hope I’d have their willpower. (laughs)
  
  How about Green Day?
  
  Alex: I’m a big Green Day fan. They’re my favorite band of all time. They’re very well-centered, but I’m not sure about what they’re doing now, putting such a strong image out in their music. Not that they’re trying to force an opinion, but –
  
  You mean with their politics?
  
  Alex: Yeah, I hate politics.
  
  Rob: Like the whole Bush thing –
  
  Mark: I hate going to a show, and all the bands are, like, f*** Bush!
  
  Rob: I’m so tired of that crap.
  
  Mark: Me and him (gesturing to Derrick) have family in the war. It’s pretty tough, you know, but you have to deal with it. You might as well support it.
  
  Rob: It just seems so trendy right now to say “bump Bush.”
  
  Alex: It’s what people like. It’s what kids want to hear.
  
  Derrick: And it’s hard to resist what’s trendy. A lot of people see the punk scene and say it’s cool to not like Bush. But you’ll never see the Buddha Heroes running around on stage spouting politics. It’s never been about forcing anything on anyone.
  
  Mark: We’re here to entertain. And make sure noone gets hurt. (laughs)
  
  

• NY Times: Once a Month, a City’s Art and Music Spill Out After Dark [+ Show ]
  

  BEACON, N.Y. — The folks in T-shirts, shorts and artsy eyewear at the Fovea photography gallery wer... BEACON, N.Y. — The folks in T-shirts, shorts and artsy eyewear at the Fovea photography gallery were deep in a discussion over what someone had labeled “iPhoneography,” the visual clutter and glut in a world where everyone with a cellphone can be a photojournalist. Then a voice piped up from the front row.
  Summer Nights
  
  Strolling Main Street Summer Rituals
  
  This is the fourth in a series of articles exploring how people in the New York City area spend their summers after dark.
  
  Previous Articles in This Series »
  
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  Michael Sullivan, a personal trainer and art enthusiast from Newburgh, N.Y., at the event.
  
  “Are we concerned about the shifting sands — and it sounds like an oxymoron — of the new cliché?” asked Andrew Courtney, a photographer and filmmaker from Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
  
  Mr. Courtney, it turned out, had a lengthy résumé that included an upcoming photo exhibit on African Palestinians, and films and photos from Cuba, apartheid South Africa, Iraq and post-Katrina New Orleans.
  
  Fovea, the gallery said, refers to “a small depression in the retina, constituting the point where vision is most clear.” It seemed just about the right place to begin Beacon’s Second Saturday for July, in the sweltering summer of 2012, when clear vision is hard to find, the shifting sands (at beaches, at least) can be too hot to please and anyone with an Internet connection knows that the new cliché is just a tweet away.
  
  Second Saturday, a monthly assortment of art shows, free wine and cheese, street music and people-watching, has become a favored institution in this old Hudson River industrial town, where Dia:Beacon, the giant modern art museum that opened in 2003, jump-started postindustrial life and made Beacon one of the Hudson Valley’s aspiring arty towns.
  
  The days are too hot for the parade up and down the mile-long Main Street. But when the sun goes down, people meander until well into the night past the giant mural of the American Indian looming over the Hudson River; past the local band, the Costellos, flanked by tiki torches on the flat roof of Hudson Beach Glass; past the Hop craft beer and artisanal fare tasting room and the Artisan Wine Shop; past Foxy’s Beauty Salon and Sexy Nails; past the Masjid Ar-Rashid Islamic Teaching Center of Beacon and more than a dozen galleries until things peter out just past Feng Shui America and the high-end Roundhouse at Beacon Falls hotel, spa and restaurant taking shape across the street.
  
  Second Saturday, like Beacon, seems to hang its hat on the idea that art, as muse, recreation, status signifier and economic development strategy is one of the few things that have a permanent growth market.
  
  “When you get to a point in your life where you have a wall, paint on the wall and now you’re thinking of hanging art on the wall, you’re a little bit beyond just having mayonnaise sandwiches,” said Michael Sullivan, a personal trainer (his business card reads: “Hudson Valley Muscles”) from across the bridge in Newburgh. “If you want to talk to God, you better have a poet or an artist.”
  
  Mr. Courtney’s second stop was the “Summer Blues” group exhibition featuring 14 artists, most from the Hudson Valley, at the Theo Ganz Studio, with the “Don’t be Frackin’ Crazy” sign in the window.
  
  The show was not strictly about summer, though Margaret McDuffie’s blue Westport chair, a precursor to the Adirondack chair, sitting by the window, afforded perhaps the perfect perch for watching the passing parade. Instead it was full of diverse images, many with a dissonant buzz, like Elana Goren’s “Through Humans’ Scope,” a series of etchings with explosive dark fields reminiscent of gunshots depicting or hinting at violence to animals.
  
  “I used to look forward to summer when I was a kid; it took forever to be summer again,” said Eleni Smolen, an artist and the gallery owner. “But it seems now summer has this unpredictable quality, it’s chaotic. So I didn’t want this to be purely celebratory because summer can be melancholy and sad, with climate change and erratic weather and this darker part that’s there.”
  
  Beacon has its celebratory and melancholy vapors as well, and the long trek across Main feels a bit like walking across America. Its two ends, like the East and West Coasts, are destinations of energy and culture, where the cool people hang out. Much of the space between is frayed, barely hanging on or waiting for better days: an abandoned building bears painted faux storefronts of imaginary businesses like the Neighborhood Deli and Main Street Flowers.
  
  Still, the trek has its rewards. At the DGAF Gallery (the letters have varying meanings, some printable), Catello Somma, a former graffiti artist from Brooklyn, and V’Nessa Tzavellas, a singer-songwriter and photographer from Queens, preside over a small, vivid space the size of a railroad car. There are skulls made from computer parts hanging from the ceiling and lots of photographs infused with Goth, salsa and punk sensibilities. Mr. Somma works as a security guard at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center to pay the bills.
  
  Down the street at Barbara and Steven Riddle’s Marion Royael Gallery, there’s a D.J. playing techno music and a “directed art project” called Cheap Shot in which visitors finish canvases by shooting at them with a paintball rifle, to add color and texture, before the artist signs them.
  
  Strangers and friends wander in and out or camp out on chairs on the sidewalk. But, for night owls, Brooklyn it’s not. Almost everything winds up by 11.
  
  The stragglers meander back on Main, past the sporadic signs of life: the Edward Hopper glow of the Yankee Clipper Diner, the blues band at Joe’s Irish Pub, the woman improbably still cutting hair at one of the hair salons and jazz pouring out of the Chill Wine Bar. Achieving neo-Beacon has always been a few steps forward and a few steps back, but for this night at least, it feels as if the shifting sands are shifting in the right direction.

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Set lengths are in the range of 45min.-2 hours

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