“Live At Rockwood Music Hall” Available Now!
As The A-Team's Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."
Benjamin Wagner "Live At Rockwood Music Hall" is available for download now!
The online-only LP comes in two flavors: an 8-song iTunes version, and 10-song Authentic Records version.
Tracks were culled from three separate performances over the course of sixteen months: March 25, 2007; July 10, 2008, and September, 25, 2008.
My longtime band mates and pals Chris Abad (guitar), Tony Maceli (bass), Ryan Vaughn (drums) and Jamie ...
Hey, Whatever Happened To That Documentary?
What's going on with Wagner Bros. Pictures, LLC's still-forthcoming documentary, "Mister Rogers & Me?"
I'm glad you asked. Or, I'm glad my pen pal Magnus did.
"When I inquired about the documentary a few months ago [you said] it was on hold," he writes. "I don't know what the progress is, or what's holding it up, but I just wanted to encourage you to keep at it. I know you are extremely busy with all your other endeavors, but this project is as important now as it ever was. Keep at it! You were chosen to remind people of the deep and ...
Backstage At The TRL Finale (Or, At Home At The End Of The World)
When I walked into Times Square this afternoon, the sidewalks were overflowing with wide-eyed, stargazing teenagers hoping to steal a glimpse of a celebrity -- any celebrity -- pouring out of a limo and into MTV Studios.
Tonight was the end of an era: the finale of MTV's flagship, Total Request Live.
Two hours after navigating the crowds, gaining my credential, and prowling around backstage, I walked towards Downtown Studio's great mezzanine windows and looked out on the masses. Kids screamed, waved signs and pointed at every ...
The Observer Effect
In physics, "observer effect" refers to changes that the act of observation will make on the phenomenon being observed. The rule applies to rock shows.
Remember those junior high school plays? Ever dig that VHS tape your parent's recorded out of the basement? The show were better in your memories, right?
Well, way back in the '90s, my brother, Christofer, video taped almost every one of my shows. It may have been the tiny microphone on the camera, or that I was a terrible performer. Either way, watching those game tapes was ...
This Is What Growing Up Feels Like (And Why It Kinda’ Sucks)
I've spent a fair dose of my twenties and thirties clinging to adolescent joys like making records, playing rock shows, and drinking beer, all while holding down a semi-respectable day job.
For a while there, I had a pretty decent balance. Between October 2003 - December 2005, I released three LPs and two EPs, and logged roughly six weeks of touring. This, of course, in addition to my gig at MTV News.
It wasn't perfect; my former-boss once interrupted a rowdy pre-show, back-of-the-bus party (I believe PBR, Templeton Rye and Roman ...
Christmas In 2:03
I've spent a lot of time recording, but I'm pretty sure this one takes the cake: thirteen months of studio time for two minutes and three seconds of song.
That's right. I've been tracking this bad boy for over a year, recording, re-recording, adding and subtracting, then tweaking each of the twenty-four tracks, nudging levels, EQing, panning, normalizing, gating, adding reverb, and then tweaking again. And again, and again, and again. For hours -- God knows how many hours.
Because the thing is, stakes are high for my recording of ...
Twenty-four Hours Of “Twilight”
The red eye may be as close as we get to time travel. Without it, there's far less of a chance that I would have volunteered to fly to Los Angeles for twenty-four hours (well, 12 in the air, and 12 in L.A., anyway).
What would motivate such a trip at the end of a week that included my ninth New York City Marathon and twenty straight hours of election coverage? Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight."
At one point this summer, all four novels in Meyer's "Twilight" series topped USA Today's top seller's list. She's sold more than 17 million copies ...
Sometimes I Wish I Was An Academic
Just days after graduating from Syracuse, I took two of my most beloved professors, Bob Gates and Tobias Wolff, to lunch to quiz them on the pros and cons of academia.
I loved college. I loved the lectures, the discussions, the reading and writing. I loved all the newness, excitement of ideas, and that sometimes my brain hurt. And I was pretty good at it (particularly in contrast to my fairly-average high school performance). So I thought it might be the life for me.
That is, until they both individually warned me that university ...
Official “Live At Rockwood Music Hall” Track Listing & Art
I'm sure you've already marked your calendar. And, in the event you live somewhere other than New York, I'm sure you've already booked your travel.
"Live At Rockwood Music Hall" will be released on Wednesday, November 19th at (get this) Rockwood Music Hall.
It's gonna' be a big rock show featuring all the musicians who made this record possible: bassist Tony Maceli, guitarist Chris Abad, and drummer Jamie Alegre. And yes, the extraordinary Mrs. Jamie Leonhart will be there to lend her divine voice to my cover of "Killing The ...
Yes
At 10:59 tonight, the crowd 29-stories below my office window began counting down as if it was New Years Eve.
At 11:00, Charlie Gibson called California for Barack Obama, then projected his victory. Which is when the cheering began.
Over two hours later, they're still cheering.
My mother still talks about shaking President John F. Kennedy's hand when she was a teenager.
In February, I traveled with my colleagues to Scranton, Pennsylvania, to meet Barack Obama. He was articulate, compassionate, and poised. He was congenial, ...
