Grooveshark Artists

Last Halloween, we had the opportunity to meet & mingle with several artists during the Fest 9 and our first annual “Grooveshark Sessions”. Around 17 artists met up with us at Medusa Studios to record one live, acoustic track and an interview to be exclusively released via Grooveshark. After months of unwinding, editing, mixing, mastering, etc. - the tracks and interviews are here!

Next is Smoke or Fire, a legendary punk band from Massachusetts that broke on the scene almost a decade ago. We were lucky enough to meet Joe McMahon of Smoke or Fire, who recorded an acoustic solo set during our Sessions. After his session, Joe went on to spill details about his top picks of up-and-coming artists for 2011, as well as detailing his hip-hop debut..

Evan: We’re here at Medusa Studios once again for Grooveshark Sessions @ The Fest! As these go on, my voice is leaving me because we’ve been partying a lot with a lot of great bands. One of which is here right now – we’ve got Joe from Smoke or Fire. Amazing band on Fat Wreck Chords. Hello Joe!

Joe: Howdy!

E: How you feeling?

J: A little worn out. It is Fest weekend!

E: I love these interviews – Friday and Saturday everyone was like, “Yea, I’m feeling great! Ready to party!” Now by Sunday, everybody is like, “ughhhh.”

J: Sunday is always the walking dead…it’s always Zom-town. Everyone is like, “what happened. What did I do.”

E: So - tell us about your Fest experience so far.

J: Apparently, Friday I was described as “legendarily drunk”. We played Atlanta on Thursday, I woke up at 10AM in the van, someone handed me a bottle of whiskey, and I started drinking it. We got to Gainesville around 4 in the afternoon… Apparently I checked into the hotel with one shoe on. And it just got worse from there - yesterday was just a lot of people filling me in on what happened on Friday. Apparently I wasn’t a dick to anybody – just very adventurous. Saturday (last night) we played at the Venue, and today - just going to have some beers and go see some bands.

E: So – are you working on any albums right now?

J: Yeah! Our new record comes out November 9th. It’s called The Speakeasy – it’s on Fat Wreck Chords. We were lucky enough to get copies of it for the Fest so kids got to get it in advance and throw it on the internet for their friends before anyone else hears. We recorded it over the summer in Chicago with Matt Allison – I’m really stoked on it.

E: So all you old fans listening that haven’t heard it yet – go out and buy it! And all you new fans listening – you are going to love this band so go out and buy it!

You’ve been working on some other really cool projects you were telling us about earlier – like scoring music?

J: We actually broke up for a year. We missed the Fest last year, and the one before that. We went overseas and we did Japan and Australia and Europe and came home to tour with NOFX and broke up that night. We were just cashed and we needed some time off to figure shit out. We’re all good friends, we just needed some time. I went home and it was either join the fire department or figure out how to make a living playing music. So I started doing some film score stuff and some stuff for television and started my own business. So that’s what I do in my spare time – just try to play music every single day.

E: Very cool. You were doing something recently, right?

J: Yeah! I just scored an independent film called I Owe My Life to Corbin Bleu. It has a bunch of the Disney kids in it from High School Musical but it’s an adult comedy type thing.

E: I heard you debuted your hip-hop career?

J: Yes - I rap on the movie twice! It’s pretty killer if you like old school hip-hop. I’m not a fan of a lot of the new stuff – I’m old school.

E: I wanna see that just for that. And that’s great man! So real quick – just for some people that are new to the scene – what are some bands that stick out to you that are up and coming that you’d recommend kids to check out? 

J: I would check out Jeff Rowe, he was in a band called boxingwater for a long time and now he’s doing a solo acoustic thing now that’s really good if you like Tim Barry or Joey Cape. Landmines are really good, The Arteries from the UK are a really good band, The Outsiders from New Zealand are really good to check out.

E: That’s a solid list – I definitely agree that people should check those out. And speaking of the Arteries – I need to get you to the tail end of the show! Thanks so much for doing this for us, and enjoy the rest of the Fest!