March 7th marks the premier of benj-o-matic presents The Only Children.  This musical idea has been floating around in my head for a while and now it's time to do it.  The Only Children will basically be an all-instrumental improv performance by the band you know as benj-o-matic, but no songs from the records.  Make sense?  We stretch songs live anyway, but always feel like everyone wants to hear the songs from the records and feel guilty if we don't play something someone knows.   Our rehearsals normally exist of free-form jams and constructing setlists, so we don't really rehease the "songs" anyway.  If you like to watch music be created and appear right in front of you, this will be a show you don't want to miss!!  Let us know your thought on ths idea and we look forward to bringing this out for y'all.  More details as they happen....

Just wanted to say sorry for all the illness this past weeks.  Scotty and I both seemed to pass it around right at two different gig times. We'll be back in full force February 7th at The Green Bean in Greensboro NC.  Thanks!

Man, what a party!!! I don't throw many parties at my home anymore, and if last Saturday night was any indication, I will be throwing them at the Green Bean from now on!!!! We just want to thank each and every one of oyu for comin out to our celebration of our new CD. The cake was great, the coffee and beer are always good AND the tunes were smokin'!!! If you missed it, the 2nd set was something to behold. Our good friend Dave Bolton, from the local blues stalwarts The Stovepipes, threw his guitar and amp up on the stage and commenced to jamming with us for nearly an hour!!! We love to write and record songs, then come out and play 'em for you, but our secret passion is jamming unrestrained, unplanned, and seeing where this ship called music floats us. Well, Saturday was one of those nights. Pure magic on stage!!!

We also recorded the whole night!!! So, look for the live disc dated 7/26/08 to hit opur merch stand soon and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks again to everyone and look for new dates soon!!!

Benjy

There seems to be many great things on the horizon for all of three us in benj-o-matic, so I thought I would fill y'all in!!!

Where do I start?

We have a new LIVE DVD entitled "LIVE from a DIVE". Recorded live at the most righteous home of stanky rock, "The Somewhere Else Tavern", it's 60 minutes of pure, unadulterated, rip-roarin' feedback soaked goodness all wrapped up in a neat little silver disc that plays right on your DVD player!!! Pro Shot with 4 cameras, it's the best representation of what we do ever documented......NOW AVAILABLE at all shows!

Jeff has new CD that will be available at shows as soon as he can find the time to mass produce them. It's funky, crunchy, nasty instrumental goodness for the people of the world....

Scotty has another possible upcoming clang quartet tour in Nov/Dec and a new RRRecords release in their RRRecycled series. Check his myspace sight for details.

Benjy will be putting together new side projects to fill musical gaps in the sonic spectrum. I love to play live, plain and simple, so I'll have musical projects filling those calls I get for gigs that my current projects just can't satisfy....instrumental acoustic jazz, etc. I'd love to be playing in your town 4 nights a week, every week, so there will be more opportunities to catch me in many different musical settings.

Clay and I still bang out the acoustic cover gig as Clay and Benjy for many inebriated screaming fans throughout the world. Check www.myspace.com/clayandbenjy for upcoming shows.

Hey, I got a new speaker in Dobro amp.........it kills.....thich, creamy tone right out of the box......ahhhhhhhhh

There's yet another great review of our new CD in Southeast pewrformer Magazine!!!! Check them out in our top friends, or go to www.performermag.com

Go to allaccessmagazine.com and check out the new review of "Hi-Test: Vol. 1"

Now THIS is what I'm talkin about!

Benjy

OK, so I'm riding home today and I see a band bumper sticker on the car in front of me. I think to myself, "Hmmmmmm, I have an idea!!.........Bwaaahahahahah!!!" I WANT TO SEE A BENJ-O-MATIC BUMPER STICKER ON A CAR IN EVERY STATE OF OUR COUNTRY!!! How, you ask? Well, for the cost of a stamp, I'll mail you one!! You put it on your car bumper, take a picture, e-mail it to us and VOILA!!! One State down, 49 States to go! Sooooooo, you down with it? Let's go NOW! Of course NC will be the first, but who's next? VA, SC, TN? If you know any friends or family in other states, have 'em send a friend request with and we'll do it. MESSAGE ME WITH YOUR MAILING ADDRESS, AND WE'LL MAIL YOU ONE ASAP. THEN WE TAKE YOUR STATE OFF THE MAP......DID I MENTION THEY'RE FREEEEEEEE!!! OH, and we don't sell, distribute or spam your mailing address to ANYONE.....ANYONE, YOU HEAR!!!!

IT'S HEEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!! The new CD "Hi-Test Vol.1: The Infinite Amplification of Silence" is now fully available online!! In CD form from CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com/benjomatic3) and from iTunes (go to itunes and search benj-o-matic....INCLUDE HYPHENS). The CD Baby page has exclusive clips of all 12 songs so GO, BUY, LISTEN and DOWNLOAD the newest from benj-o-matic!!!!!!!

Just picked-up the new YES! Weekly and caught a review of our new CD. The first review, as a matter of fact. I continue to give our hometown press a chance. And yet, they still just don't get it. The beauty of the internet is that reviews are not all one-sided anymore and they can actually be responded to. A review of the review....in a sense. That is what you're about to witness. Let's start by giving you the whole review. Here goes:


April 29th, 2008 YES! Weekly Magazine
benj-o-matic: The Infinite Amplification of Silence
by Heather Macyntire
"Well, I'm not completely sure what the target audience is for this album. I have to admit that it's very eclectic- a lot of tracks sound like they should be on seperate releases. It seems like a collection for the mature mind with an immature heart from tracks that contain lyrics that make little to no sense, or just nonsense about.....Gary Busey? A few of the tunes actually possess some enjoyable vocals and beats, but a lot of this album is hard to enjoy one after another. A little bit of country, a little bit of grunge, a little bit of rock and roll, and even some fast paced singing and drumming that remind you of some post-punk band you never got into a decade ago. I suggest this for good drinking music at a bar or air guitar in the bathroom for the young at heart."



Hmmmmmmmmm...So, where do I start? First, I'm not sure I care about a "target audience". I'm an artist, not a marketing analyst. My target audience would be the people-who-listen-to-good-music.

Second, can an album not have some variety to it? Now, if these said songs were to be on seperate releases, what would those releases sound like? They'd probably have an easily identifiable genre attached to them.....ya know so reviewers weren't stuck actually having to listen to and describe the music they hear. If you would have read the genre description on our myspace page as "southern death pop" you might have gotten the joke......or a least one or two easily identifiable words to classify it. We intentionally don't care.

Third, and my favorite part, "a collection for the mature mind with an immature heart".......what? My fans with "immature hearts" thank you....I'm sure it's a complement......somehow, but to say that the lyrics make "little to no sense" or "just nonsense" is a slap in the face. The song you mention is called "Gary Busey Crazy" and is NOT about Gary Busey. Had you listened, It's actually a finely crafted story song about a girl leaving her boyfriend as if she were "Gary Busey Crazy".....a term I made up. Listen closely again (or for the first time) and the lyrics distinctly describe the girl throwing all her boyfriend's belongings out the window of her car as she drives down the road because she's just found out what a douche-bag he really is. See, the term "Gary Busey Crazy" is called a metaphor......a widely used term in journalism. The song then continues to quote the LA Times article from the day Gary Busey had his near-fatal motorcycle accident.......he's been a bit looney ever since. Now, that just took me 5 sentences to explain the song. You explained it in one word....."nonsense". ??? One word for you..........listen.

But, all in all, the review can be dissected and used in press just like any other review. Let's all try it, shall we. YES! Weekly says "I suggest this for good drinking music......" Maybe another, hmmmmm OH I got it, YES! Weekly says "....a collection for the mature mind..." Oh wait....I feel another coming on.....YES!Weekly says ".....enjoyable vocals and beats." See how it works? Ain't it fun. Now we can be in on the joke in the future.

All kidding aside, Thanks for the review, you're the best. mean it! Come out drinkin' with us sometime, or maybe I'll play air guitar in your bathroom.

Kisses,
Benjy

It's been a while, huh? You know you're too busy when you drive around thinking of what you would post in your current blog, but have no time to actually get to a computer and do it! So this one will be a little scattered.....hang-on, there's a lot of catchin up to do!

First, the new benj-o-matic CD will be titled "Hi-Test Vol. 1: The infinite Amplification of Silence" and it will available soon. I just have to mix two songs and we're done. The record industry is getting weird real fast. Take note kids, we're seeing a shift from CD's to digital downlods right before our eyes. I saw the shift from vinyl to cassesttes as a kid and I definiteloy saw the shift from cassettes to CD's, well, here we go again. So much so, that we seriously considered a straight-up digital only release, but we do like to sell merch at shows and the a la carte iPod bar is not quite accesible at our merch booth, so this one will be replicated like our past releases, but packaged in quite the indie fashion. We will rubber stamp each digipak case with the new cover design and fill it with exclusive photos and liner notes, so each run of 50 or so will have a totally different set of inserts and photos. Don't worry, these aren't CDR's, they're the real thing, but this will also let us package the first three records as a 3 CD set for future release. Cool indeed children!!! We have also recorded the last three live shows and have those for sale at all shows.

Second, I have a new toy!! I recently met Dale Laslie who runs a shop called DJL Vintage Audio here in Greensboro. I was told by a mutual tone fanatic that we must meet. His shop is very cool and he happens to do modifications on some great guitar amps. His current specialty is modding old tube PA heads that were never intended as guitar amps. I acquired an old Bogen Challenger all tube PA head from my church........it was headed for the dumpster and a certain death!!! I rescued it and let Dale work his magic and now I have a new fuzzy, nasty, LOUD tone machine!!!! It will most definitely see time in the studio and may make a special appearance at live shows soon. Go visit Dale at www.djlservice.com/AudioIndex.htm His amps will blow your mind!

Third, we want to thank The Red Lion in High Point NC for a great night last Saturday!!! It was our first time at the Red Lion and being a primarily blues based club, I was a bit concerned........but once we hit the first note, BANG! It was ON! We have a new home in High Point and it is The Red Lion. We played two sets well over an hour-and-a-half each and the place was HOPPIN at last call!! Thanks to all of you who came out and we look forward to doing it again ALL NIGHT reeeeal soon!!

Fourth, Jeff Beck rules.....period.

be good
benjy