Singing Along Forever

I was born in the arms of imaginary friends
free to roam, made a home out of everywhere I've been
then you come crashing in, like the realest thing
trying my best to understand all that your love can bring

oh half of my heart's got a grip on the situation
half of my heart takes time
half of my heart's got a right mind to tell you
that I can't keep loving you
oh, with half of my heart

I was made to believe I'd never love somebody else
I made a plan, stay the man who can only love himself
lonely was the song I sang, 'til the day you came
showing me a better way and all that my love can bring.

I can't believe it's been a year since I moved to Miami. Well, a year yesterday. It's not that it hasn't felt like a year, it's just been one crazy amount of emotion in 366 days. I'm endlessly happy to be back home in New Jersey after six months in south Florida. It just wasn't for me. I missed my friends, my beautiful and amazing girlfriend (she's one person), my home, my feeling like I was home. Those six months were tough, insanely tough on me. I definitely experienced palpable growing pains in the last twelve months. Emotional swings, tough, really tough decisions, issues bearing with the past, the future, present, nano-crossroads, accepting wins and losses. A wise man once said it's not the amount of years in your life but the amount of life in your years. I'm stoked (stoked being something I don't feel too often anymore) to say I've lived like that for the first 23 years and 11 months. I have no shortage of dreams and emotions (sometimes the latter is not apparent) but this past year has left me feeling dry inside, searching for anything inspiring, finding fewer reasons to do things because I want to but more often because I don't want to do/suffer the alternative. I never wanted to be that person that's bummed by having to grow up. I've never wanted to be like so many of the adults I was surrounded with as a child, scattered, stressed, graying and fraying at the ends. I never ever ever wanted that. It's fair to say I reached out to role models who barely knew me, or I only knew one side of their lives. And even the people I most admire, I wonder and often doubt my ability to uniquely replicate what they've done. In fact, if I could sum up the past 12 months in just one sentence, which is tough, it'd be that I've never felt less special, less unique or less important. I am young, and I know that, yet I don't feel like I am. I feel absolutely beat up. When you're down is when you really realize how many people lean on you, which sucks because I feel like that is ONE huge thing that I lack. I feel less like the downtown and more of the neglected bridge and I can't put my finger on it. I guess it's because I've had a lot of idealogies turn into actual experiences and haven't been happy of the outcomes. I've moved way too often, made way too many transitions and squeezed myself too tight too often. In a way it's all I know how to be: crazy. I guess the overall tone or still-hidden rationale to this is it's the only way I know how to live. And the thought of the future scares me when I know I shouldn't fear it but shape it. You can only live in so many moments. Dreams, the things that hopefully push us all, can be altered or tarnished so quickly with such little effort. I guess I have a lot of those patches on my sleeve and I'm not sure what's going to take their places. I don't mean to sound so downtrodden, so oppressed, but time is short and something nobody should be so blase about. I'm not so sure that old me would like the older me. I need to take some advice from a younger version of myself and stay stoked, about anything. About something coming. I want to be stoked for the future and for new experiences..

Couldn't get into Halloween. Couldn't fill a room at the Stone Pony. Couldn't miss the rain. I'm glad that weekend is over.

"Rain and storm and dark skies
Well now they don't mean a thing
If you got a girl that loves you
And who wants to wear your ring
So come on, mister trouble
We'll make it through you somehow
We'll fill this house with all the love
All that heaven will allow"

Check out my good friends in Racing Kites and the amazing new electronic press kit they just put together. These guys are really as honest, hardworking and humble as they are in this video. They also have a new EP Right Here, Right Now available on iTunes.

Lemuria has become one of my true favorite bands over the past two years. I saw them at the Asbury Lanes on tour

with the Loved Ones back in 2007 and bought their record Your Livingrooms All Over Me. Lemuria combines the sweetheart vocals of singer and guitarist Sheena Ozzella with the snappy, reverberating drums of Alex Kerns and smooth night-timey bass of Jason Draper. Ozzella's voice will most assuredly make every pop punk boy like myself melt, but the band is more than that. They're not a girl band. They have loud stereo songs, see "Bugbear" and "Bristles and Whiskers".

Recommended starting listening would be The First Collection. Standout songs: definitely "Bristles and Whiskers", "Hours", and "Who Would Understand a Turtle".

For fans of Jawbreaker, the Ergs, the Pixies and Limbeck.

New Jersey music zine Jersey Beat has a great interview with the band on their website.

Hear more on the band's MySpace.

The last Monday in July I saw Green Day at Madison Square Garden. I now refer to July 27th, 2009 as the night I saw the greatest concert of my life. There was a lot of emotion leading up to this show, for starters Green Day is a band I've grown up and grown up with. The first time I saw them I was 14 years old at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I went with my great friends Joey, Sarah and Lauren and had an absolute blast. The band was touring behind Warning, a huge departure from their previous records and a lot of my friends weren't really into it. Warning for me however was pure beauty. Growing up and playing music wholeheartedly to this day, there's a handful of musicians that I've tried to model myself after. Names that come to mind are Bruce Springsteen, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, John Mayer, Greg Attonito and my good buddy Pete Steinkopf from the Bouncing Souls, Kris Roe of the Ataris and Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. On Warning, Billie is almost unleashed. A lion who's turned down his roar so everyone hears what he has to say. I love the band's previous work: Dookie, 1,039, Kerplunk, Nimrod and Insomniac, but not the way I would grow to love Warning. The maturity, the craftsmanship and the absolutely perfect sound of this record is unmatched to me. I'll be the first to tell you there's nothing insanely complex about the guitar, but sound of the Gibson Les Paul Juniors used on Warning is absolutely perfect. Every guitarist or musician for that matter has one idealic sound in their head, their sound. For mine it was found on "Blood, Sex & Booze" and "Waiting". Tough, full-sounding guitar. Crunch and clarity perfectly blended, exactly like the record as a whole. You have these moments of anger, desperation, melancholy, reflection and hope in-depthly encompassed in 41 minutes. That record was the record I dreamed of writing and performing in city after city after city, Billie Joe just beat me to it.

I'd wait a little over two years before I'd see Green Day again, this time as a co-headlining act on the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink 182. I absolutely loved both bands growing up, but I was starting to almots grow out of Blink. I was pretty mature as a kid and that trend kept going. I was amazed I'd get to see two of my favorite bands of all-time on one bill, on one night. Saves the Day was the opener, their record Through Being Cool was and still is one of my favorites of all-time. They were a great band, but they weren't a PNC Bank Arts Center band, not at this point anyway. Green Day came on and I remember never seeing anyone so demanding of a crowd than Billie Joe Armstrong. Not a single person sat and watched that show. What I remember the most from that show was one of my all-time top life moments. I'd started playing bass when I was 12 years old because of Mike Dirnt, Green Day's bass player and in my opinion the greatest bass player in the history of punk rock. Halfway through their set, Billie Joe searched the crowd for musicians, starting with finding a drummer, then a bass player. As he walked from side to side, he came to stage left and I yelled "BILLLLLLLIEEEEEE" from the deepest pit of my stomach. He looked me in the face with wide eyes and said "you can play bass, you can play, you swear to God?!" Next thing I know, there I am on stage next to Mike Dirnt showing me the notes to Operation Ivy's "Knowledge". I'm two inches away from him watching him play the same white bass that inspired me to play music as a kid. Fifteen seconds later it's around my neck and in my hands. It was surreal. I kept thinking "take this IN" while playing behind Billie Joe Armstrong in front of 17,000 people. I never felt more like myself or more at home. Two and a half minutes later, the song is over and Billie Joe, one of my true heroes is telling me to get off his stage because I'm making him "look bad". We share a sweaty hug and a man-kiss before I get off stage and watch the rest of their set. This concert was the first time in my life I remember thinking I'm watching a special band and the entire experience is unforgettable.

When Green Day toured behind American Idiot in 2005, I missed their Giants Stadium date because I couldn't get off my pizza delivery gig that night. Along with a show praised by three dozen or so of my friends who attended, one of my best friends, Sarah Royal, played guitar on stage with them...story-topper! This all lead up to July 27th of this year, and Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown World Tour. The Oakland natives have penned some of my favorite records of all-time, but Idiot was different. Shit, everyone knows that, what I'm saying is it was different because it wasn't stamped. The songs on Idiot wouldn't fit on any other record, and some when taken out of context could almost be perceived as messy. Together, the album is a badass punk rock masterpiece. A blend of punk and poetry never before sounded so good and it is the vernacular craftsmanship of Billie Joe that makes American Idiot one of my favorite rock records of all-time.

In a business of fading ambition and countless homogenized releases, Green Day put together something completely different, looking backward and turning forward simultaneously in 12 tracks. Not to mention American Idiot was released in an era where Americans were ready to burn the Dixie Chicks at the stake for criticizing President Bush and the direction of the nation.

With Idiot being one of my favorite records of all-time, my anticipation for 21st Century Breakdown was unmatched. Not only did it blow my own expectations away, I've never felt a record more than 21CB. There's so much emotion, so much honesty. It's as good a rock record as any that's been written in the last twenty years. When the band headed to New York City to play Madison Square Garden on July 27th, I had to be there. I bought my ticket (note: singular) the morning of the show and headed to the city at 5 p.m. That night would be unforgettable.

Green Day opened the show with "21st Century Breakdown". Billie set the tone for the night by literally screaming at people who were sitting down in the first row of one section and constantly belting out "NEW YORK CITY", each time to a rousing response. It was the world's best band on the grandest stage. As they belted through classics like "When I Come Around" and "King For a Day", there was almost a feeling of not belonging in this building. Not in a bad way, just who would let us run this place like this. It was amazing. The floor that's held heavyweight brawls and championship celebrations was shaking beneath my feet. The band played for almost three hours before Billie Joe ended the night with "Last Night On Earth" and "Time Of Your Life". The best concert I've ever seen? Absolutely. This was loud, emotional and communal, it was a fucking blast. I felt that night with every sense, each fabric of my being. I remember walking out onto Seventh Avenue and almost feeling lost. I wander-ly walked to the subway and made my way back home in a haze of sorts. I felt that for two full days before the hangover-of-sorts went away. My only regret is missing the second night.

Who is the most famous person you've ever met?

Bruce and I at Starland Ballroom

My friend and Hudson bandmate Mike and I spent a day at Starland Ballroom hanging with our friends in At A Glance a few years back. We were all sitting around in the dressing room after their set awaiting Streetlight Manifesto to take the stage when the Boss walked in. It was surreal. He walked up to me and I stood up and said "Hi, I'm Sean", he shook my hand and said "Hey, I'm Bruce". I thought in my head; "fuck YEAH you are, just let me look at you!!!". He was sweet and it was cool that he took a few minutes to come in and just say hello, he didn't have to do that. None of us even knew he was at the show. I've heard from many people I've told the story to that Bruce, despite being one of the most famous and successful American musicians of the last thirty years, still buys tickets like everyone else and will just hang out in the crowd at a concert. I'll never forget meeting Bruce Springsteen, my only regret is that I wasn't nearly as big a fan of his then than I am now. I like to think that meeting him played a part in me becoming a huge fan of his. I saw Bruce and the E Street Band this past Wednesday and I'll be back at Giants Stadium this coming Thursday.

This seemingly douchey beef between Newark mayor Cory Booker and Conan O'Brien is starting to become ridiculous. I really wish Mayor Booker would realize he's only adding on to the negative reputation New Jersey already (unfairly) has, not to mention he's looking like a serious moron in the process. I mean come on, this guy is in the

mayor's office shooting YouTube retorts for O'Brien to air on his show. I get the fact you're trying to be funny, but how about you try to clean up your city. Yes, it's the state's biggest and guess what: despite the fact I live literally three minutes away from Newark, I've spent probably five hours of my entire life there because most parts of it are almost an actual dump. That's not to mention the almost comical crime rate and the fact that Newark made national headlines in September for giving, of all city employees, garbage men an extra service day off because they're trying to lasso in spending. Trash literally piled and fermented on the street for an extra day for the 280,000+ residents of that city, and yet Mayor Booker is on Late Night making jokes and speaking about how Newark's a desirable place to live and work. Right. Maybe instead of looking sharp in your Brooks Brothers suit you should roll up your sleeves and get to work to combat the absolutely absurd crime that your city is synonymous with. Going on Late Night television like you've done something positive makes you come off as a total douchebag.

I wonder how long before Vox let's you "like" posts...comments are so 2007!