http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKqvvd5Rp9M

The official video for our collaborative track on "A Holiday Benefit vol 2" out on CDBaby.Com and Itunes this week!!

Dear Friends,

The good people at Rebel Spirit Music, the Canal Room, and my good friend Benjamin Wagner have assembled an amazing evening of music and merriment to celebrate the release of the new holiday record, "A Holiday Benefit."

"A Holiday Benefit" is an album featuring classic and original holiday music performed and recorded by some of NYC's best emerging musical talent including: Casey Shea, Kelley McRae, Brent Shuttleworth, Deena Goodman, Dov Rosenblatt, Rosi Golan, Ian Axel, Benjamin Wagner, Derek James, Kyle Paas, Bryan Dunn, Jamie Leonhart, and ME!

Proceeds from the event and sales of the album will benefit 826NYC, a Brooklyn based nonprofit dedicated to supporting students with their creative and expository writing skills, and helping teachers inspire their students to write.

The event on 12/1 will feature live performances, djs, raffles, silent auctions, and other holiday fun. It'll also be your first chance to buy the record!

I've been fortunate to be a part of this great project for the second year in a row. Proceeds from last year's release allowed us to make a meaningful and greatly appreciated contribution to 826NYC. We really hope to outdo ourselves this year. We can't do this without your help!

Even if you can't be there, please be sure to purchase the album, which will be subsequently available on ITunes and MySpace.

For more info and to be our friend on Myspace, visit http://www.myspace.com/aholidaybenefit

Happy Holidays. Hope to see you all there!

-Chris

Dear friends,

One last time...Hope you guys can make it. I will be playing at Rockwood Music Hall on Monday night 6/9 @ 9pm. Tony Maceli (bass) and Jamie Alegre (drums) will be joining. These guys rock...It's gonna be fun! Hope to see you there!!!

Monday 6/9 @ 9pm
Chris Abad live at Rockwood Music Hall (full band)
196 Allen St., NYC
FREE

love,
C

Just wanted to let y'all know I've got a couple of NYC shows coming up and some more on the way. Hope you can join me for either or both! These shows will be full band electric shows with Tony and Ryan. First one is up in a couple of saturdays, and then a sunday evening at Rockwood. Mark your calendars and check out what we've been up to!

Saturday 3/22 @ 8pm @ Alphabet Lounge, 104 Ave C, NYC

Sunday 4/20 @ 7pm @ Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St., NYC

See y'all there,

C

 

Unfortunately, the weekend trip to Vermont was somewhat  derailed by the flu that seems to be tearing its way through the US over the last couple of weeks. Its latest casualty was Benjamin Wagner's wife Abbi, and the outcome was that they were unable to join Meg and I up in Vermont.

That said, we've had an incredible time here, spending time with Meg's sister and brother in-law, and my best buddy, Jason up here in Androver, VT. The weekend has been filled with, among other things, good company, good food, beer, beer pong, skiing, time with the dogs, a game of Trivial Pursuit. Meg and I don't make it out of the city nearly as much as we should, and trips like this remind us that we indeed need to make more of an effort. I have to say, I am not psyched to be coming back to the city this evening.

Anyway, for the time being the Magic Mountain EP will be delayed, and may have to be renamed. But all is not lost. So as not to completely under-deliver, I just made a quick bedroom demo of a new tune called 'No Glory.' It's a tune that Tony, Ryan and I have been working on. It's a bit of a rocker with the full band, but in this form, It's a bit stripped down, but i hope y'all enjoy it either way. It's posted on my myspace page for free download. Check it out!!!

As you may have heard on http://benjaminwagner.com , my buddy Benjamin Wagner's eponymous website, he and I have some plans to make a live EP this coming weekend. See, Ben, our respective wives and a couple of friends are heading up to my sister's ski house up in Chester, VT this coming weekend. The house is a beautiful colonial inspired three story behemoth of a house set on several acres of gorgeous woodlands. On the few occassions that Meg and I make it up there, I always feel a bit more creative and inspired. Maybe it's being in the middle of somewhere so quiet, so beautiful, so far removed from the city, you can actually hear your own thoughts for a change. I mentioned to Ben that in addition to being ideal for skiing, cooking, boozing, beer pong, etc., the house would be great for doing some laptop recording. Ben came up with the great idea of a joint EP to be recorded this weekend to "remind people that we still exist." We spent part of Saturday running some tunes and coming up with a game plan, and I think we could make a pretty fun little recording together this weekend. Stay tuned!

Separately, sunday, I was back in the lab again with Ryan Vaughn and Tony Maceli, my reliable collaborators. Making new music is always more fun with fresh perspective, especially from guys like Ryan and Tony who play with so many different folks I respect, and in their own right are just stellar musicians. We're continuing to write and arrange new material. By my own admission, my process runs a bit slowly sometime, but honestly, it's starting to sound like a real rock band. The band dynamic is something i haven't really experienced in a while and I've found it to be incredibly fun and inspiring. When we're ready to launch, it will rock..I promise! Hoping to get in shape for some shows and recording soon, back in power trio format!

-C

Folks,

In case you haven't been paying attention, 'A Family Holiday,' a benefit cd i was fortunate to be a part of has arrived, and to celebrate its arrival, we are partying next week. We need your support, attendance and patronage. Proceeds go to benefit 826NYC, a Brooklyn-based non-profit focused on youth literacy. Hope to see you all there:

-C

Ben, Tony and I will be getting together to finalize and work on the final set list for the saturday's. Ben is finally back from his honeymoon in the Maldives. We haven't spoken since pulling away from the Inn at Bray's Island the morning after he and Abbi got married Columbus Day weekend..and what an amazing wedding it was. I haven't been playing much as I've been gearing up for a recording, so I'm looking forward with great anticipation to saturday's show. I came to work and received the following email promoting our show in my inbox. How can I not be psyched!!!:

From: Wagner, Benjamin
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 8:30 AM
Subject: This Saturday Night: The Buckeye Halloween Show
Just over eighteen years ago, a quartet of natty teens took the then-fledgling CMJ Festival by storm.  Buckeye's electrifying set at Greenwich Village's Electric Banana (don't look for it; it's not there) became the high water mark of '90s alternative pop performances, featuring incendiary guitar playing, saccharine vocal hooks, and knock-down, drag-out onstage fistfights.

Ten years later, Buckeye's songs have been made famous by many of the musicians who witnessed this now-legendary flameout: Oasis, Matthew Sweet, The Dandy Warhols, Paul Westerberg, and The Gin Blossoms, to name just a few.  Due to ongoing litigation with their defunct (but well-represented) record label, Flaming Cochlea, the quartet remains destitute, unknown, and relegated to selling pints of blood, quarts of saliva, and radio jingles (yunno' that PC Richards' whistle?) to make ends meet.

Join Chris Abad, Tony Maceli, Ryan Vaughn and Benjamin Wagner this Saturday night* as they reclaim their rightful place in the pantheon of '90s alternative greats and salvage their reputation as America's Most Punctual Rock Band.

Buckeye: The Halloween Show
Saturday, October 27 @ 11:00pm
The Knitting Factory
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY (212) 219-3132

* Costumes emphatically encouraged.

SEE Y'ALL THERE!

-C

I ran into the talented Casey Shea last night at the awesome Liberated Matter showcase at Pianos last night. Through a set of extenuating circumstances, he found himself band-less going into his upcoming friday gig at rockwood. Tony Maceli put the idea in his head that I would be a good addition to his impromptu backing band featuring Tony and drummer Ryan Vaughn. Whether this was a good idea remains to be seen but regardless, i now find myself sitting in on lead guitar (filling in the very large shoes of Jeff Jacobson) for his upcoming show on Friday night at Rockwood Music Hall. I am more than happy to oblige. If you haven't seen Casey doing his thing yet (whether as frontman of the heavyweights, 1/3 of Sundown, or as as solo act), you're missing out. Swing by!  We're on at 10pm!

 

For those who don't know. A good part of my weekend was spent pitching in on a great project spearheaded by my good friend, Benjamin Wagner. He, along with Wes Verhoeve of the Undisputed Heavyweights and Family Records fame, are helping to assemble a holiday record to benefit 826NYC, a non-profit whose programs promote literacy/writing among NY students. We gathered at Travis Harrison's Serious Business Studios with some of the most talented folks in NYC to cut a rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas." I was glad to pitch in my contribution which included rhythm guitar, George Michael's lines in the song, some backing vox, and a ton of canned beer for the folks involved. In addition to the group track, each act will be putting forward their own holiday song for the record. I will be submitting my version of 'Feliz Navidad' shortly – presumably the only foreign language submission. It should be an outstanding record that will support a very worthy cause. Here's a short list of the talented people/bands involved:

Jeff Jacobson

El Jezel

William and John of Flying Machines (FKA The Attorneys)

Casey Shea

Wakey Wakey – Mike Grubbs and Gene Adam

Wynn Walent

Misty Boyce

Tarrah Reynolds

Kailin Garrity

Seth Kallen

Blogger/Writer/Promoter Jenny Piston

Part-time Documentarian Langhorne Shea

These folks all rock and gave their time and art for a great well-intentioned project. Kudos, rockstars…