MP3 milkweed - ROCK: Americana

dark humored, lo-fi, bluegrass and country-tinged, folk-rock, from city rubes all self taught.

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Americana, ROCK: Folk Rock



Details:
milkweed started life in roxbury, massachusetts on mission hill way back in 1993 when zev hardman, g. honey porter (who was still living life as gregg porter) and blindbanjodjim (that's me) were living together in our roach infested apartment.

after learning some of the basics of banjo playing and wanting to hear gregg sing (he and i were in a band prior to milkweed, called goop), i decided that i wanted to go in a new musical direction, which was actually a return to my roots (folk,blues, old-timey & bluegrass & a smattering of tasteful country). zev discovered that he had a violin in his room, though he had no idea how he came about ownership of it and so after a few beers on sundays, we began writing songs about drinking beers and other meaningful (to us) detritus.

we began playing shows at the urging of our friends, and our very first show was at the now famous, jacques in boston, in a supporting role for the band bugjuice and the "queen" zola (who despite sharing a drink with us backstage, decided that they had better things to do that night- like entertain someone who was going to pay them lots of money). we did, however, share the stage with a seemingly intoxicated, dancing inflatable female...

our first cassette, milkweed, was released in 1994 and 3 songs from it were chosen to appear in the indie award-winning (pat on the back) film "the darien gap". this cassette is now out of print.

while this was being released, i decided to move west, with my girlfriend, to oregon. during which time, zev, gregg and myself were all busy writing new songs. in 1995, i returned home for a month and we began working out the new tunes, which were much more mature in structure and direction. and after another year in oregon, i decided that it was time to return to massachusetts to pursue the milkweed way of life a little more seriously.

upon my return, we immediately began recording the songs we had each been working on, using beat up 4 track recorders and old stereos to capture ambient sounds, and our own strugglings on instruments none of us had ever played. the product of those efforts was released in 1998, on cd as another self-titled project milkweed. (this is the cd available on cdbaby now, only as a digital download).

by the end of the summer, gregg and zev had moved up to the portsmouth, new hampshire area and instantly began making friends with the flourishing local music scene (unbunny, one-man posse, space mountain, torrez). we began playing shows with some of these folks at every venue in town and sharing bills with them outside of the region as well. we also shared the stage with folks like:
smog, edith frost, milksop holly, crooked fingers and the sadies.

following the release of the cd, we immediately began work on a new set of songs and by 2001, we had completed another cd, titled: "cry, lonesome and high" and prepared to tour the u.s.in the fall, but certain political events put a bit of a damper on our plans and so we huddled back up in a shack in maine for the remainder of the year and worked on our most recent cd, which is finally complete, but not released yet, called "further to fall". this coincides with the fact that in 2004, we decided to call it quits and play a farewell tour, due to each of us living in different parts of the country and/or being preoccupied with other things.

the songs for "further to fall" were recorded in a variety of locations, including our beloved shackabin in southern maine, several buildings on the estate (see: myspace.com/blindbanjodjim), where the chamber pieces were recorded in the gymnasium, and at our pal, darron burkeâs studio space: makeshift studios (www.makeshiftstudio.com).