Monday, February 12, 2024

Give the Drummer Some

[cross-posted at PowerPop]

Floor Models drummer and my great good friend Glen Robert Allen...

...passed away four years ago last Friday.

Glen Bob was, of course, one of the most talented, funny, and all around mensch-y people it has ever been my privilege to know and work with. And as I've said on previous occasions, he enriched my life in so many ways I couldn't begin to enumerate them.

I will say, however, that I still really haven't come to terms with the fact that he's gone. Truth is, these days when I go into the recording studio, I inevitably look to the back of the room and expect to see him sitting on the couch yelling at me about tempos.

So you'll understand how delighted and moved I was when I awoke the other day to discover that our brilliant mutual friend Steve Notis had just written, performed and posted this tribute in his honor.

Wow.

Je repete -- wow.

That's just so heart-tugging and beautiful I lack the words.

Except "thank you, Steve!" of course.

But seriously, even if you didn't know and love Glen personally, I guarantee you can't hear that song without getting, intuitively, that it sums him up perfectly.

So -- thanks again, Steve. You did what us Red Sea Pedestrians call a mitzvah.

And I guarantee that, somewhere in rock-and-roll heaven, Glen is taking a break between sets and going "Thanks, guys. And yes, I deserved that."

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Today We Are a CD!!!

As promised, physical copies have at last arrived! Now if I can only figure out a way to get Amazon to sell the damn things. I mean, you can already download or stream it over there...

Oh well, in the meantime, because I love you all more than food, here's a sample track for free. A swell cover of the Box-Tops classic; I'm in there on piano somewhere.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Gerry's EP Update

As promised, a sneak peek track from In My Own Good Time, the fab new EP by personal friend of mine (and long-time frontman of The Floor Models) the incomparable Gerry Devine.

The rest of the EP (which features occasional bass and keyboards by some dweeb whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels) is also up at Bandcamp, but the official release everywhere else -- Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, and the rest of their ilk -- happens on Tuesday June 12th.

Needless to say, I'll keep you posted on that, as well as where and when actual physical CDs can be procured.

Oh -- and have I mentioned how hilarious the album cover is? The work of my beautiful and brilliant art director girlfriend who, as always, is working cheap. [cross-posted from PowerPop]

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Now I Can Die Happy

Sent Chris Hillman -- bass player of The Byrds and one of my musical heroes since high school -- a copy of the Floor Models Byrds tribute album and received the following reply end of December 2021.

Well done Steve, Thanks for sending your Cd. You guys sound really good. Merry Christmas!

I'm not kidding about the die happy thing.

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

WHO DID WHAT? THE COMPLETE CREDITS FOR "IN-FLYTE ENTERTAINMENT"

The album is now available on most digital platforms (YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, CD Baby, iTunes, etc.)

And after four months of beauracratic mishegass, I am pleased to announce that it is finally available for streaming and download over at Amazon HERE.

Physical CDs are also available at Kool Kat Musik.

In the meantime, here is the stuff that wouldn't fit on the actual physical CD graphics.

So -- here we go. None of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

THE FLOOR MODELS -- In-Flyte Entertainment: A Tribute to the Byrds" WHO DID WHAT!

!. "5D (Fifth Dimension)" Gerry Devine (vocals, acoustic and electric 12-string guitars, bass) Marc Moss (electric guitar, drums, percussion) Randy Welch (highland bagpipes) Owen Devine (bodhran)

2. "What’s Happening?!?!" Rob Laufer (vocals) David Achelis (guitars) Steve Simels (bass and sampled strings) Brent McLachlan (drums)

3. "I Come and Stand at Every Door" Steve Simels (lead vocals and bass) Joe Benoit (harmonies, guitars and drums)

4. "You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere" Willie Nile (vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar) James Maddock (lead acoustic guitar) Joe Benoit (electric 12-string) Steve Simels (bass and harmony vocals) Brent McLachlan (drums) Jonathan Gregg (pedal steel) The 50 Voice St. Louis Aquarium Choir -- Cait Brennan, Frank Burrows, Gerry Devine, David Hawxwell, Allan Weissman (harmonies)

5. "So You Want to Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star" The Floor Models (all vocals and instrumentals)

6. "All I Really Want to Do" The Floor Models (vocals and instrumentals) Stu Daye (additional harmony and guitar) Joe Benoit (outro guitar)

7. "Wasn’t Born to Follow" The Floor Models (all vocals and instrumentals)

8. "The Bells of Rhymney" Marc Jonson (lead vocals, harmonies, electric 12-string) David Achelis (electric rhythm guitar) Steve Simels (bass and tacky roller rink organ solo) Brent McLachlan (drums)

9. "Here Without You" Peter Spencer (lead vocal, acoustic and electric guitars, drum programming) Caleb Spencer (harmony vocal) Steve Simels (intro guitar riff, synth strings, bass)

10. "Lady Friend" Stu Daye (vocals, guitars, bass) Rafael Fuentes (vocals, guitars) Dave Donen (drums) Steve Simels (glockenspiel)

11. "We’ll Meet Again" Ronnie D’Addario (all instruments and vocals)

12. "Chimes of Freedom" Gerry Devine (all instruments and vocals)

The Floor Models: Gerry Devine (lead vocals, guitars) J.D. Goldberg (guitar) Andy Pasternack (vocals,12-string guitars) Steve Simels (bass, keyboards) Glen Robert Allen (drums)

Produced by Steve Simels. Except tracks 1 and 12: Produced and engineered by Marc Moss at Target Studio, Red Hook, NY

Special thanks: Randy Welch for loan of the acoustic 12-string; Tommy Perkins for the album title

Inside cover photography: Allan Rosenberg

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Update on What Is Definitely the Album of the Year

This post is for Hardcore Byrds Fans (HBFs), a small subset of humanity that -- unless I'm very much mistaken -- includes a fair number of the people who hang out at this here blog.

Okay, to make a short story long: Back in June of the storied 1967 Summer of Love, the aforementioned Byrds released a single called "Lady Friend."

Apart from the fact that it was an absolute masterpiece -- and this is something that's been confirmed by the judgement of history -- it was also the only Byrds single written solely by David Crosby.

In any case, the teenaged me bought the damn thing, and played it endlessly, to the point that by August it was more or less worn out. And I recall, vividly, waiting in breathless anticipation for the release of the next Byrds album, so as to be able to enjoy the song in stereo, as nature intended.

Imagine my chagrin, then, when said album, which came out in January of 1968 and turned out to be the otherwise fabulous The Notorious Byrd Brothers...

...did not feature said song in either mono OR stereo, and that Crosby had been fired from the band and replaced on the album cover by a horse. Which presumably Crosby is still pissed off about, although who knows?

Cut to the present, where attentive readers are aware that my old band The Floor Models has been working for over a year -- pandemic very much? -- on a Byrds tribute album.

But what said attentive readers do not know is that just last week we finished -- 95 percent -- the last track on the album, which by an odd coincidence turns out be "Lady Friend."

And because I love you all more than food, here is said version. Enjoy!!! Oh -- and I should add that the track features our good friends and musical colleagues Swifty and Dupree's Amplified Heat, a crew that I will tell you more about when the album arrives (we have all sorts of interesting guest artists on it.)

BTW, to my knowledge, despite the splenditude of the song, the only cover version by a band anybody's ever heard of is by the usually estimable Flamin' Groovies. Alas, IMHO, it sucks. There's another one by The Posies, which is nice, but it's unplugged (i.e. all acoustic without a rhythm section), so I don't think it counts.

I should add that when our Byrds tribute album is commercially available -- which should be by late June -- I will be alerting you folks quite loudly.

I should also add that the guy playing the glockenspiel part on the intro and outro of the song is some asshole whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels.

[cross-posted from PowerPop]