Rockin' the Nokia Theater in Times Square at the Battle of the Ad Bands. (That's me with the guitar painted like the Partridge Family bus.)
I've won new business. I've won awards. But nothing feels cooler than seeing your own CD in an actual record store.
CRANKDADDY
And now for something completely different.
About 10 years ago, after a lifetime of listening to music and wishing I could be in a band, I did something about it.
I signed up at my local Parks and Recreation department for group guitar lessons. There, I learned three chords and did what any self-respecting punk rocker would do: I started a band.
I called it Crankdaddy, because it consisted of four 40something Dads getting together in my basement once a week to crank up their Marshalls and make an unholy racket. I started writing original songs, creating a Cheap Trick-meets-Ramones style of music that could best be described as "sloppy poppy punk rock-n-roll."
Less than two years later, Crankdaddy played its debut gig at the first-ever "Battle of the Ad Bands," held at the legendary club CBGB in New York City. We were asked back to play in four more of these fun industry events, where we rocked the stages of places like Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory, and the Nokia Theater.
Crankdaddy burned brilliantly for nearly 10 years. We gigged in Syracuse, Utica, Albany, Baltimore -- anywhere they'd have us. We recorded two CDs worth of original sloppy, poppy punk rock-n-roll anthems. And we shot a music video that's guaranteed to get your head bopping and your devil horns flying.
Crankdaddy was a great life experience, and silly as it seems, I think it tells you a lot about who I am. Feel free to ask me for a CD if we ever get together.