Once again we were privileged to be asked to play for the NYC Marathon.
It’s the most fun event ever. We played a 4 1/2 hour set in the shivering cold, on the shady side of 1st ave and loved every minute.
The territorial complications of a Manhattan block kept us on our toes during set up. Some shop keepers wanted to sweep us away with the morning debris, that included humanities unfortunates. The unfortunates played us for money or cell phones while exposing their wild demons. The man, with nose dripping blood, who offered to kill us was called into check by Koji with a masterful “Back off man.”
NYCPD were great in helping us get through the road blocks and even parking! Whooaaaa!!!! They gave our Banned van a prime spot!
You gotta love them.
Homestyle Deli provided us with power and were really kind to us.
Once set up and tuned up, we played our butts off.
The runners did not disappoint. They came, wave after wave. You could see how excited they were, many their first time in Manhattan. If they wore names on their shirts, they were ours! We had a lot of fun playing for them and shouting out encouragement. The smile and wave or running to have their photos taken in front of us was pretty freaking fun.
We did get to see our friend Roger Morrison, formerly with our friends the “Squirrels from Hell” the band NYC couldnt kill. I was shocked to see my illustrator friend John Gurney.
Both looking amazingly strong at the 16 mile mark.
Louie, the Mystery Harmonica guy showed up and gave us a wicked solo, unexpected and perfect! Georgy held the mic for him and he just happened to be holding the right “A” key harmonica….. staged? I think not.

We had the addition of new Banned members this year.
Quinn Murphy strapped on the trusty Fender Jazz bass after recording here in “Off White Trash Studios” for the last couple years.
Daphna Elroy joined us from the far reaches of Jersey for super powered harmonies. Georgie Kronfeld also sang with us last minute adding sweet and bold co vocals and harmonies. The vocals never sounded better. All huge and shite!
Eric’s drums kicked butt this year with his triumphant return to the Banned.
We celebrated with Erics purchase of two large pizzas, eagerly consumed to the last strip of crust. All politely refusing the last piece, until it was agreed that we should never waste pizza.
I’m looking forward to recording with the whole team.
I missed old friends, who we have played this marathon with in the past, but welcomed new friends in the ever growing circle of Banned members. We are like a cooperative farm, all are welcome and the door is always open.
Quinn Murphy, playing bass with us, filmed some of the event. We will be posting that footage as soon as its edited.
Thanks to all the runners and all the volunteers who were as always…. perfect.

It’s been an uplifting time! I have been working with Hillie the Kid. She walked in one evening and we sang a song. The world around went sepia tone and the sounds made my soul happy. Sometimes you just know right away. The blend of voices and the twangy leanings were one plus one equals eleven. The God’s smiled and the Universe approved.
We have been working for the last few weeks on an old timey set, whilst we found our way. Recording will commence soon and I am anxious for Y’all to let me know what ya think. I expect a “My Brothers Banned” release around January ‘09. I will post a preview demo to our myspace page as soon as we have a mix mastered. I don’t mind a nudge to keep me moving.
The above photo, with the bottles and ukelele….. This summer I found my way to Joshua tree and stayed in room 8 at the Joshua Tree Inn. The green Dos Equis was my contribution. Half for me, half for Gram.

Another amazing experience with the NYC Marathon. We have played this event for the last 5 years and it’s my favorite gig of the year. The runners are amazing. After the initial burst of the front runners, the real people, who do this once in their lives or even a couple times, come though. Some have messages, one woman dragged a tire, filled with recyclable waste. Her protest taking its toll on her and was an alaming display. Some are silly, like the person in full penguin costume and full bugs bunny costume. Some were in pain, some looked happy, some looked fatigued, some looked fresh as can be. They all kept going. I hope they all finished the race. Often local residents can be unhappy with all the sudden noise and disruption of their normally calm Sunday mornings. One woman scowled at us ” You know, rich people walk through here!” That became the days catch phrase. Larry and I especially enjoyed that one.
For the most part though, many residents came out to tell us they appreciated the music and the support for the runners. The NYC police were especially helpful this year. We even got to drive the wrong way down a one way 63rd street.

One of our Friends posted the following:
They Can’t Be Banned @ The Blog That Ate Manhattan

Lyle

Ohhhhhh, how it could have been. At “Off White Trash Studios” we strive for to have at the very least ………. dry feet. Barefeet get cold fast in calf deep waters running stagantly through our frugal space conservative ways. I had water alarms, but really thought my medieval moat like trench would keep the rain from pooling under our studio. The rain came and the trench filled. You could hear water bubbling up from the floor drains and cracks in the concrete floor.The sump pump had no effect, other than the cool sounds and sights of water spurting out of the black rumpled hose. and seems to be in the dryest part of our space.
All our precious gear was raised to high ground and the numerous surge protectors unplugged. I thought about the last flood from hurricane floyd and how warm the waters were. Electrical current tends to do that, that and the tingly feeling as I was being fried wading to the outlets to unplug everything.

Perhaps we all need to be Modern Noahs. Make our homes floatable, when necessary. It might even be fun! Bungee attachments to keep us from relocating to a lawn obsessed neighbors yard, tables with raised edges, so we can eat, drink and be merry while we rise and rock? It’s a dream I know……

Instead the waters came, they cleansed… the room needed a good wash’n anyhow!

The last few months have been pretty way amazing and unusual, like one of those things you kind of don’t see coming and then in retrospect don’t see how you missed the signs.
Two friends and band members left to seek fame and fortune outside the indy free for all arena we built here at “Off White Trash Studios” I miss them a lot.

The seeking for new brothers began and HOLY CRAP!!! hahaha I never imagined my new found location could be such a liabilty. The northern Wastes of Westchester County, the quiet wooded land of slash and burn building for Graceland wanna be new construction homes and narrow roads overburdened by hoards of gasoline thirsty mobile campsites, the refuge of tired executives pretending to be family oriented, the affluent communities directly above NYC, are apparently very distant from every convenience. The meeting of new people has been extremely entertaining though! I met the full range of folk. Some talented, some not, some kind and some mean, some giving and some thieving….. a good rounded group!

In the meanwhile, I have been recording many of my friends. “Off White Trash Records” seems to be thriving. I will add links to our new websites and all the new bands who are working with us.
Mean while anyone wanna sing?

Our last Cd has been officially accepted onto itunes and a host of other digital music providers. That’s pretty exciting. The new CD is about half finished and I would like to have another voice and maybe guitar before I call it a day. It’s a dangerous time to be alone with my Roland Space Echo and mighty collection of odd instruments!! Beware the Pump Organ Kenny!

“We’re having some technical difficulties” said Mr. Dennis
… seems our host server changed somethings unannounced and we went blank. Mr. Dennis came to the rescue and we put up a new header. Things seem back up and running. We’ll go over the site and see what may still be a broke’n.

In the meantime “Off White Trash Studio” is nearly finished with our half behinded upgrades. The Bugs seem worked out.

“Conspiracy of Four’s” Lagond came through, as always, with some Gear guidance that has given us some new possibilities that sound amazing. Writing is finished for the next CD and recording about half way through. Just in time to try out the poly octave pedal! hahaha I wonder why I love this so much and it was discontinued so fast after its introduction? When will we have sliding poly octave with reverb and delay pedals? Why is this thing so huge? ……..these questions keep me awake night after night.

www.DayofPeaceWorld.org presents an event to promote peace….. now how can that be wrong? June 3rd at 2pm…. Manhattan… place to be announced soon.

“My Brothers Banned” will perform an acoustic set and support any and all functions regarding this event. “Off White Trash” recording artist Tony Impenna will be joining me and we look forward to meeting y’all.

Welcome to our new website. We just moved to new servers, and gave the place a facelift. I’m struggling to learn my way around so bear with me and feel free to write with suggestions. Mr. Dennis really came through and essentially set this all up. A king among men I tell you!

We decided to get back into that dump we call our studio. Off White Trash Studio Control room, complete with Wasabi peas and theramin. Its been a while since we recorded anything new and we have a nice pile of songs to get busy with. We lightened up our calendar to accommodate a recording schedule and we are REALLY slow. We have a few drums tracks down and will begin bass and guitars after this weekends gigs. We picked up a beautiful new acoustic guitar from our friends at “Uncle Wade” I’m kind of anxious to hear how it records. It’s so HUGE! its a Gibson SJ-200

The Gear heads can view our gear list on the regular band web site, though it hasn’t been updated in 6 months. Did I mention we had issues with productivity? Perhaps it was implied.
We will play some of the new songs and try them out at the next couple gigs. Let us know what you think.

Great many thanks go out to Mr. Dennis, who has also been helping us with our web page. We are all slow and dim compared to his masterful ways…… hopefully soon we will have everything up and running.

Hi Guys,
I just loaded “Feel Just Fine.” Give it a listen and let us know what’dja think! Our CD “Come with me” is available on CD baby as of today.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mybrothersb

We have gone back into the studio earlier this week to prep recording for the next release.
Hopefully in a few weeks we will have some clips on our website.
Anyone know a web designer to help us with that thing? It’s a mess and hasnt been updated in 6 months… I wish we weren’t so backwatered wayed

http://www.mybrothersbanned.com