Three guys from the four corners of the world, quite clearly shit at maths, grown out of the primordial ooze that is Noughties music. Coming together from the Land of the Rising Sun, the Land of Ice, and Oxford.
Batteries not included.
For our very first Moss & Friends line-up, we have Marcus Bonfanti, an amazing singer/guitarist kicking off proceedings with his own take on the Blues. To follow, pull on your Dancing Trousers because we have secured the not inconsiderable talents of the Bloody Foreigners who will get our money makers moving with their own blend of Balkan punk-funk! Then, after Moss has rocked your socks off with a full-length, full-electric, full-rock set, it will be time to start dancing again to DJ Z's cosmicdiscobrokenbeatyrocky mixes. If that doesn't sound like a storming night then we don't know what will.
To coincide with the start of Moss & Friends we have also produced the first ever Moss & Friends podcast. Listen to Moss boys Erik and Finnur chat with Marcus Bonfanti about saving Tibet, life on the road, touring on a floating blues cruise with Earl Thomas, Paddy Milner and the Big Sounds, Etta James, Koko Taylor, Dr John, and Curtis Salgado, the similarities between the Bloody Foreigners and Black Cat, White Cat, Marcus' friend Lotte Mullan, house legend Ron Hardy, DJ Z's brilliant mix of 'Jolene' by Dolly Parton and somehow they even bring up Icesave (you can't get away from the Credit Crunch anywhere!) And as if that's not enough the podcast also includes tracks from Marcus, Bloody Foreigners and Moss plus an exclusive live mash-up. You can listen to it on this website or download it from iTunes.
Here it is; the first Moss and friends podcast. Educational stories about the life on the road, great music from Marcus Bonfanti, The Bloody Foreigners, Moss and a special live performance mashup if you make it to the end.
Alex is of to the US of A doing things you do over there I guess. Meanwhile we have to resort to listening to music rather than playing it ourselves. Have you tried Blip.fm? Check out my playlist there. You can also listen to my stuff on Last.fm
Join in and share with us the cool bands you´re listening to at the moment.
Great gig last night at the Dublin Castle. This is the largest venue so far and the stage and PA system made a huge difference to the overall rockness of things. Moss was the opening act so the venue wasn't what you'd call packed. But the people there seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. We had heaps of fun so we hope to be back there again closer to the weekend rather than on a school night.
Latt3girl recorded some videos on her phone but I guess it didn't handle the intense rock output from the stage.
So after a surprisingly (for me-I got into this for the "turning it up to 11" Spinal Tappery) enjoyable and successful "quiet" Moss gig, we are now turning back to the Noise!
As advertised we are playing the Dublin Castle on the 1st. I know it's a Wednesday, and so therefore a school night for most of you, but we are on nice and early, so you can all get you Moss Rock in and still be home in time for your beauty sleep (not that you need it you sexy things...).
It is our first time with a new promoter, and a good promoter at that, so we will want to impress, so please try and make it down, cos if they like us (ie. bring lots of people) they will reward us with some fantastic gigs, and we all want that now, don't we.
As it is at that Bastion of rockness, the Dublin Castle, we may put our more mellow songs on the back burner for the evening, and produce 30 minutes of blistering loudness.
Or we might not.
Either way, it's gonna be great.
Anyway I'm looking forward to it, and we hope to see you there!
So it has almost been a week since our first acoustic gig and I have to say it was quite a success! We had never played before in an acoustic setting since the first time we played together back in May, and since then we have been arranging the songs to get them as rockin as possible, so it was great to hear them acoustically with a full band! We also got some girls dancing in the back which is always a bonus…..oh and I finally heard Alex’s backing vocals!
Other than that it has been quite a quiet week. Fin and I have been busy with house stuff (he is moving out while I have just moved in). Subsequently, I have been to Ikea and spent a fortune….but hey the house is almost done. ALEX HAS A SPEAKER! Yes, you should have seen his face when we got back from the acoustic gig and there was a big Hartke (is that how you spell it?) box waiting for him….he was a 27 year old man child on Christmas day….
Actually, we do have some news! The first Moss and friends date has finally been confirmed and it will be on the 5th of November (yes yes “remember remember the 5th of November blah blah blah”) at the Good Ship in Kilburn. We have one confirmed artist who is my good mate Marcus Bonfanti. He is one of the best guitarist I have seen play live and am really looking forward to us sharing the stage again! He is also going to be on the first podcast so keep watching this site to have a listen to the first Moss and Friends podcast. I know that it is going to be a lot of work but I am looking forward to the outcome. We have a great team and it will definitely be a step up from the nights we used to put on before.
Other than that we have a rehearsal tomorrow and I really cant wait to rock out again! Then the Dublin Castle on the first! We are the first band on and it is right after pay day (for those who get paid at the end of the month) so there are no excuses especially if you haven’t seen us play live before! Till then…..
Tonight well be going back to the roots and doing an acoustic set in Shoreditch. Erik started out playing our songs as a lone ranger but now we are going to have a stab at it as a band. It is a nice change for me only having to bring one drum.
This whole Moss grow on rock thing has been taken to the next level with the purchase of the domain www.growonrock.com so spread the word.
We had a great gig last Saturday where the set finally felt right and tight. All the hard work is paying off and we can proudly say that have our own unique sound now. The headline last Saturday was the Jamie West band, they rock and are about to release their recently reccorded album. Check out their MySpace .
So far we have been playing at the Big Note events but now with the recent addition to the team, our beautiful manager Mimi, we have been scouring gigs left right and center and are very much looking forward to playing the Dublin Castle next month.
We are also working on a Moss and friends project where we invite our mates from other bands to join you and us in rock frenzy. More on that later.
We recorded this at the last rehearsal. It is a nice mellow song but has no name yet. Leave your ideas in the commenting section and you could be the lucky winner of a 1970's vintage sock with moss growing on it...
