An Internet band is (re)born.
In October, 2000, Timber Jerry played its first official gig at Herrell's, a small ice cream shoppe on the corner of Brighton and Harvard in Allston Rock City. The players were Jim McNamee, Tom Kachoris, and myself. We played a 45-minute set of poppy folk, to an overwhelming crowd of 12-15 people. Our pay consisted of tips by the patrons.
Over the next two years, the band gigged relentlessly. From the backyard cookouts, graduation parties, and open mics to the packed Irish pubs, college rec centers, and some of the most esteemed Boston area venues (such as Harper's Ferry and The Middle East). We were very aware of the need to connect with the audience - we even went so far as to play our own rendition of Young MC's Bust A Move, just to get a giggle (we were shameless).
During that time, Timber Jerry released two full-length recordings, Plasma Treat and Audio Cinema. Both of the recordings exhibit the "superfun jumprock" sound that we worked into our sets playing cover shows. Sometimes, we could even drop the music and hear the audience singing our songs back at us - there is no cooler feeling on the planet (yet).
Today, the band consists of several players who all contribute their own styles to the music. I've been calling us an Internet band because I'm on the west coast, while the other players are mostly in the Boston area. Even though we're 3000 miles apart, we have a process.
Typically, I'll write a foundation for a song (the chords and arrangement). Then, I take the song to Jim - who has an incredible knack for writing melodies - we usually workout some lyrics to the tune together, but other times we take our own directions. One of our more recent writing sessions consisted of a late night in the studio working out the melodies, followed by an early morning writing session at Dunkin Donuts. After that, we have a myriad of amazing musicians that lay down blistering lead guitar, killer drums, classy keys, smooth sax, funky bass, and <adjective> <noun> (... sorry, I was starting to annoy myself there...).
Soon, I'll the share the studio recordings that were a result of this. In the meantime, drop 99¢ and review our stuff on iTunes.
