I was going to start this blog by saying my band Mighty Fine's new record Get Up to Get Down came out a week ago. But if we're really going to hang let's start at the beginning. Not the moment I took my first breath beginning but the moment I met Greg Dulli, fast forward to me becoming a backup singer for the Afghan Whigs, to the Whigs opening for Aerosmith on the "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" tour, to me getting shot 6 times and being left for dead on a rainy New Orleans street.
Waking up in intensive care with family and friends around me one of my first thoughts were "well, I'm not dead," second " How long will this take to heal," and third "as soon as I can walk I'm moving to New York" and that's exactly what I did.
Moving to New York, specifically Brooklyn was exactly what the doctor ordered for both body and mind. I was shot at the base of my spin so I really shouldn't be walking or doing anything below the waist that didn't require wheels or a bag. I also had to relearn how to walk which was a humbling experience in itself but by moving to NYC I was thrust into basically gorilla rehab by having to walk everywhere... so that was a plus. Also I thought I could move here and have some breathing room, where no one knew who I was or would ask about the shooting but of course I was wrong. I would walk down Avenue A and hear a random "Steve Myers! Glad you're alive dude!" or riding the train once I remember a women leaning over to me saying "I heard you were moving to New York glad you picked this neighborhood". It felt like the entire city had my back and I felt safe... another plus. On the other hand my friends(god bless them) couldn't keep a secret to save their lives. They couldn't wait to tell people that I lived thru a few shotgun blasts even if I wasn't ready to tell people or not. My situation made great party talk.
I moved to Williamburg, Brooklyn right before the "Brooklyn Renaissance", when no one was trying to get a record deal, when it wasn't about being young or hip but you were an artist of some type and you needed space to create and it was super close to the city. At this point I had no interest in being in a band again. From time to time I would join Greg on Twilight Singer shows and that was enough for me. I was pretty worn out on the whole thing but I loved to perform and I was good at it. I consider myself sort of a throwback song and dance man, my stage persona was based on performers from my childhood like Brown, Jackson & Tresvant and if you can barely walk or stand that persona is kind of hard to pull off. It wasn't until friends Kyp & Gerard who were busy becoming TV On The Radio turn me onto a record called "Ultraglide in Black" by the Dirtbombs that I started to get the itch and confidence to start performing again. But what do you do when you're not a kid and you're living in New York sans roommates paying that rent !? There's no time to go on the road and figure it out so Mighty Fine is a band built from 5 different people who have a love for music but also has day jobs. Mighty Fine is the ultimate weekend warrior project our drummer Richie Pomerantz is a full blown scientist, I'm talking" white coat can get you a monkey scientist", our guitar player Mitro Valsamis teaches fencing and owns Don Pedro's in Brooklyn our bass player Paul Verciglio work's in TV and Gary French Mighty Fine's keyboard player is a graphic designer... so we work. But we also work it out on our own terms.
Making our new album Get Up to Get Down was a labor of love, the record was made on & off over three years with a lot of life happening in between. From broken necks(I'll explain another time) to new babies, a few things got in the way but we never took our eye's of the prize of making a kick ass garage rock party record. I got my start working behind the scenes with NOLA rap labels Cash Money & No Limit and I always admired how hip hop comes together for "collabos" which isn't the norm in rock music so I really wanted to include a few on this album so why not call a few friends. The Afghan Whigs /Twilight Singers fans have been very supportive from the beginning so I had to call Dulli for the track "Ready to Roar" which I considered a companion piece to his "So Tight" from the album Amber Headlights. Also after opening for the Dirtbombs a few times Mick Collins asked if we were done recording the track "Something For Your Ass", which I replied " not if you want to be on it!". It's was great working with and including both Greg & Mick on this record because it's their fault I'm doing this. We were also blessed by having Dave Hillyard & Glen Pine from The Slackers playing horns on this record. These guys added so much to the record, after sax player Jagon Eldridge left Mighty Fine back in 06 we all agreed if we ever had horns again on our recordings it had to at least match the skillz of Eldridge who was an insanely ballsy player, look no further when Glen & Dave are in the room.
We filmed the video for the single "Black Train" with director Aaron Wilson on the first 100 degrees day deep in Bushwick back in July. Grown ass men sweating it out in suits is pretty rock & roll. We had a two hour window to get that thing done and I believe Aaron shot the video in a hour an a half. I never seen Aaron's first video "Titty full of Beer" by Mr. Move but I had confidence that he could pull it off which I think he did for a budget of zero.
So now between changing diapers and punching the clock Mighty Fine is planning world domination one city at a time. Hitting the road(on the weekends of course) after the holidays, making more videos and making people dance, Welcome to the party people.... now let's dance.
Mighty Fine's Get Up to Get Down is out now via Drug Front Records