All good things come to an end and so it has with Fishkill. We haven't been getting the numbers we wanted at our shows and it's become harder to get all the equipment together and drag everything out to a venue then go home again in the middle of the night without much to show for our efforts. We've put on some amazing shows, but no one has actually seen them. We have a lot of people linked to us on the Internet, but there doesn't seem to be much support for our live show.

Therefore, it is with a deep remorse that I must now announce the breakup of the band. This project was my dream band, the one I always wanted to play in. Unfortunately, it came a little too late in life and I have many other things in my personal life that are preventing me from putting any more time into this project.

We've had some great times and some very memorable moments, like the time we played a live concert on Old Schoolhouse Radio, the time we went to Philadelphia to compete in the Bodog Battle of the Bands--we met some really nice folks there, too! Then there was our adventure to West Virginia for the 2nd Annual Rockbottom Musicfest. We've had some fun and I personally want to thank all of you who did come to our shows and supported us on the Internet. This project lasted for over four years, even when we were just a studio recording project. It was also your support that got us to the Bodog thing in the first place.

The band's main website site will be deactivated, but I will keep this one up as an "electronic monument" for one of the greatest bands I've ever had the pleasure to play in. If you want, you can still link to us and please, continue to play the music. Obviously, we won't be making any more show announcements, but I don't want to lose all the friends we've made here.

I dont know what's next for me right now. I need to take stock of all my creative abilities and I'm sure I'll think of something. Perhaps I'll pursue selling my songs professionally, maybe I'll record a solo album sometime in the future. It's too soon to say right now. I've also considered more writing projects as well. All of us, including me, will have to wait and see what develops.

I can honestly say that I, as well as the other band members, have come away from this experience with a greater understanding of the music business, marketing, and musicianship. Whatever I do after this, I'm sure the things I've learned while being in the band will help me. After all, life is all about the journey and not the destination. For us, it's been one hell of a ride.

We had a pretty good show last night at Pappy T's. We even had a crowd there, although they weren't what you'd call lively. However, there were some fans in the audience and we appreciate their support. It was a good show and the sound turned out really well there.

Now, we're off to Carnahan's in Camp Hill on the 17th, whcih is a Sturday. I hope you'll all come out and join us. Keep checking back here for more information and show dates.

In other news, we no longer have an e-mail list do to a catastrophic system failure, so this is now the only way to find out what's going on. Once I get control of the website again, I'll see about posting this blog on the front page.

Until next time, keep listening!

Now that the smoke has cleared from the holidays, we're back at work getting ready for the show on Friday. If you haven't heard, it'll be at Pappy T's in Hamburg, PA and you can find out a lot more by looking at our upcoming shows.

Speaking of upcoming shows, we've decided to cut back on the number of shows we're dong since there's been little turnout at a lot of them. I must say, however, we had some really energetic people turn out for our December show at the Blue moon Coffeehouse. That was a good time! We will be concentrating more of our efforts in the Harrisburg area since there's more of an audience there. Expect to see one show a month for a while.

The Scavenger, an indie music show heard on Kutztown Universite Radio now has its own web page. If you'd like to visit, go to www.thescavengershow.com.

We're also consolidating our fan lists and we're deactivating our Yahoo Group next week. If you want to stay up to dat on what we're doing, stop by this page and read our blog or sign up for our email list at our main site, www.fishkillmusic.com

Until next time, keep listening!

Recently, I was disappointed by the low turnout on some of our latest shows. I thought that once you've been playing for a while, people would take an interest in the music and come out to see you on a fairly regular basis. After almost 6 months of steady gigging, this is not the case. I started wondering what was going on here.

Obviously, the first thing I began to question was the band and our music. Did we suck? I didn't seem like it, anyway. We as members were all happy with the sound. Since the Internet community is very supportive and enthusiastic about us, it would seem that we do have something to offer people. We have people that routinely come up to us during a break and comment about how much they liked our music--the problem was that there would only be about ten people in the room and five of them were the bar staff!

This kinda got me a little discourged and I wound up complaining to the Internet (and MySpace) about it. I was rather surprised by the answer: It turns out that this sort of thing is happening all over the country, not just in my back yard. That made me feel good about what the band's doing, but I feel uncomfortable about what's happening in the indie community. I've had people in bands all over the United States tell me that they are also suffering from low turnouts at shows. Some routinely are getting their sets shortened because the bar closes up earlier than expected.

It seems that bars no longer are the gathering places that they were in the earlier days of rock and roll when a band would draw a crowd simply by being different. This is most likely because less people are going to these establishments and those that do are only going for the party atmosphere of a large club. Many venues have stopped booking bands since they don't really make any money for the venue owner.

So what does work? The general consensus among the indie community is multi-band shows or festivals with a guaranteed crowd. Another possibility is warming up for a more established act, however, none of these are sure-fire methods. One band I spoke with gets great crowds when they play miles away from their home state, but can't seem to get anyone to come in their own city. Another one will only play shows out-of-state since there's no interest in them at home.

Indie bands need our support. Many fans are virtual fans--they will give their undying support on the Internet, but won't get out from behind the computer to attend any of the shows. The fans are needed now more than ever. As more and more of the local venues shift to either DJs, Karyoke, or something else, local music is in great danger of disappearing.

If anyone is reading this, please take the time to go out and support a local band in your community that you like. It doesn't have to be ours, but there are plenty of bands out there that need a supporting audience. If you don't know of any, browse MySpace and check out a few dozen of the bands that have profiles here. Chances are, there's one from your own back yard. Take the time to tell them what you think and offer to place a few flyers for their next show. They'll appreciate it. Without you, none of us have a reason to exist.

The preparations have all been made, the work's been done and we're ready. On Friday, we will unveil the brand-new lineup of the band and show off what we've worked so hard to build. Doug's only been with us for a few weeks, but its like he's always been here. Everything is falling into place and sounding solid. The band has a slightly different feel to it now. I can't really describe it--its just different from the way it was. I don't mean that in a negative way, just that the chemistry has been altered. We're tighter sounding and have the ability to do many more things now

We hope you'll come out and see us on Friday at the Gingerbread Man Downtown in Harisburg. It'll be a good time. Show starts at 10 PM. See the gig section of this page to find out more

Hello everybody, welcome to another week! Lots of contests and updates for you:

We're currently running in Space Junkies Magazine's Battle of the "Bands" competition to win a Featured spot in our upcoming 4-year anniversary issue.

If you'd like to vote for Fishkill, please visit our website at http://www.spacejunkies.net and fill out a ballot form (read instructions on the main page of the site first, as there are "Rules" that apply) ;)

Voting ends May 20th, 2006

We're still in the Bodog Battle Of the Bands contest. All you have to do is go here:
http://www.bodogbattleofthebands.com/bandsandmusic/profile.php?band_id=1191

click on the "Click here to vote" button and vote for us. You can vote once per day, so please begin clicking as soon as you can! We're hoping to gain a lot more listeners from this, so please help us out! Send the link to your friends as well!

We're also entered into another contest at iSound. All you have to do here is play our music at the site once per day. You know the songs, so help us out with this and help us get a bigger audience. Here's the link to our page:
http://www.isound.com/music/fishkill/

We're being featured on another Free Musician List Podcast. Go here to download the show: http://Feeds.Feedburner.com/FMLJukeboxPodcast

Don't forget to vote for it here: http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=2133

We've also created a new Online Gig Calendar that you can either access from our website or go to directly. This is where we'll be listing all our upcominmg shows, online interviews, and other band-related events. This is the direct link:
http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/Fishkill_Gig_Calendar

If you're looking for some new T-shirts or a converstation piece, check out our Online Gift Shop with lots of new items, including black T-shirts with the band logo, a new line of "Shut Up and Listen" shirts designed by our very own Mike Williams, a large full-color band poster, and a wide assortment of other items. Come visit, see if there's anything you're interested in. Wear the t-shirt to one of our shows! Here's the link: http://www.cafepress.com/Fishkill

UPCOMING GIG:

June 10 9:30PM @ The Blue Mountain Lakes Resort, Schuylkill Haven, PA
$5.00 cover, 21 and older


Fishkill
"Shut up and listen..."
http://www.fishkillmusic.com
.. Fishkill360

This has been one heck of a week! We're still putting the finishing touches on the studio preparations and learning the last few songs which will make up the new CD. We're starting to get a lot more familiar with each other's playing styles and we're really starting to come together as a band. I've been working on some songs with Mike and one of them will be on the new CD. You'll also get to hear the talents of Jack as he will be featuring one of his songs and his vocal talents as well! We have other material that will be in our live show including some covers of old favorites we like to play--just for fun! Also, as summer approaches, our gig schedule is filling up. More on that toward the end of this newsletter.

We're still in the Bodog Battle Of the Bands contest. All you have to do is go here:
www.bodogbattleofthebands.com/bandsandmusic/profile.php?band_id=1191

click on the "Click here to vote" button and vote for us. You can vote once per day, so please begin clicking as soon as you can! We're hoping to gain a lot more listeners from this, so please help us out! Send the link to your friends as well!

We're also entered into another contest at iSound. All you have to do here is play our music at the site once per day. You know the songs, so help us out with this and help us get a bigger audience. Here's the link to our page:
www.isound.com/music/fishkill

We've also done some overhauling to our Main Website. Now, the front page loads a lot faster and there's more content on the home page. You can sample our CDs right on the main page with the option to download them directly to your computer. Try it out! www.fishkillmusic.com

Eventually, we'll be moving to another server where we won't have the annoying pop up window that shows up each time you click on it. Hopefully that will be happening soon.

We've also created a new Online Gig Calendar that you can either access from our website or go to directly. This is where we'll be listing all our upcominmg shows, online interviews, and other band-related events. This is the direct link:
http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/Fishkill_Gig_Calendar

If you're looking for some new T-shirts or a converstation piece, check out our Online Gift Shop with lots of new items, including black T-shirts with the band logo, a new line of "Shut Up and Listen" shirts designed by our very own Mike Williams, a large full-color band poster, and a wide assortment of other items. Come visit, see if there's anything you're interested in. Wear the t-shirt to one of our shows! Here's the link: www.cafepress.com/Fishkill

For those of you looking for something completely different, check out "The Scavenger" on KUR Radio, Fridays from 9 - 11 PM (Eastern Time). The Stereo Angel Plays a host of unusual and undiscovered music from all over the globe. We've been getting airplay there, so has ATP, Carfax Abby, Autohypnosis, and I:Scintilla! Come listen to what you've been missing:
www.kutztown.edu/activities/clubs/KUR/index.html

Click on the "Listen Live" button for either on or off campus, depending on where you live. Don't forget you can AIM or call in live during the show! The contact information is posted at the site link above. Let her know you're out there!

UPCOMING GIGS:

June 10 9:30PM @ The Blue Mountain Lakes Resort, Schuylkill Haven, PA

Fishkill

"Shut up and listen..."

www.fishkillmusic.com
www.myspace.com/fishkill

Just a quick note to say hello and thanks for taking the time to listen to us.

Come visit our main site: www.fishkillmusic.com

You'll find band member bios, song lyrics, photos, and all kinds of interesting stuff there.

If you'd like to hear more music, go here: www.soundclick.com/fishkill

We're also on the FML Podcast this week:

http://Feeds.Feedburner.com/FMLJukeboxPodcast

Don't forget to vote for it here:

http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=2133

That keeps them in the to 50 so more people will see them.


Later!

Fishkill
"shut up and listen..."