Mercury Lounge July 10th w/Vic Thrill

Swimmers!

Happy Summer! Exciting news! After nearly 14 years at my job I am stepping down in a couple weeks to pursue music and writing and some other creative endeavors. Primarily I will be focusing on my personalized songwriting business called I Make You Music. Please go check out that site and get in touch if you'd like a song. Hits for all, for cheap!

To commemorate all this excitement, and my birthday (which happens to fall the first day of this new chapter of my life,) we're playing at The Mercury Lounge on Thursday, July 10th, and will be joined by our longtime pal, the legendary Vic Thrill. It's gonna be great. It's also gonna be a hot ticket so get yours now HERE

Hope to see you there, safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

"Bruetown" Featured on The Owl

Swimmers!

Some nice words about "Bruetown"

http://www.theowlmag.com/discovery/hear-this-lifeguard-nights/

Sweet. More news soon. Safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

Do Rock

Swimmers,

Today is John Dorocki's birthday and we've been working on a bunch of songs for our oldest pal, teacher, and everything the man was that can't be put into words, but we've tried our best to put into music. I couldn't pick up a guitar for a long time after John passed. I couldn't even look at one. It hurt more than I can say. Then one day John came to me and told me stop being such a pussy and to pick up the guitar and get back to doing what we did best. As he said on his 21st birthday 14 years ago today, "Fuck the Beatles. We're better than the fucking Beatles." He immediately fell face down on his driveway after that declaration, but whatever, I believed him.

So I picked up the guitar a few months back and "Tribute" shot out of me like a baby crying upon arrival into a new world. I don't like this new world but I'll never forget the old one and these songs are my way of holding onto that, and to John. Through music we meet again and again and I have John himself to thank for that.

These songs are still quite rough and there are many more in the works that he has inspired. There would be a lot less music in the world without John Dorocki, and music is the best, so thank you John for everything, everything that means anything.

Happy birthday friend.

Morristown Thanks/Setlist/Pics/Vids

Swimmers!

Thanks to all ye who came out to the Bike Walk Town party at Sona13 in Morristown last night, was wonderful to see so many old pals. Thanks to Christian and Bike Walk Town for having us. We had a wonderful time. We played the following:

The Sweet Charade
A New Family
Country Roads
Overtired
Cruel and Usual Punishment
The Break
Babyshine
Tribute
Lonely Hwy
The Red Eye
No Mistakes

Video of Babyshine and Tribute. Thanks to Lifeguard Wife for shooting.

See you this Summer, safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

Show Tomorrow Night in Morristown!

Swimmers!

Happy officially-but-sure-as-hell-doesn't-feel-like-it-yet Spring! We've been holed up in the studio recording one billion new songs, but we're taking a break to venture out into society tomorrow night in Morristown for a special event. We'll be playing at 7 PM SHARP! Get your tickets here:

http://bikesbandbeer.brownpapertickets.com

Hope to see you there! Safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

"Bruetown" EP Out Now

Stone Pony Setlist/Thanks/The Future

Swimmers!

Thanks to all ye who came out to the Stone Pony last night. We had fun. Now we're going back into hibernation to finish up some albums which we'll be releasing soon. They're awesome. Stay tuned. Setlist from last night below and thanks to Virginia Kamenitzer for the awesome pics!

Country Roads
New Family
Cruel and Usual Punishment
Overtired
Driveway Dreams
Dire Straits
Sea of Death
Lonely Hwy
The Red Eye
No Mistakes

Stone Pony Tomorrow w/Daughter Vision - ALL AGES EARLY SHOW

Swimmers,

Once more we hop upon that mighty steed, The Stone Pony, tomorrow Sunday February 16th, and our good pals Daughter Vision are opening up for us. It's an all ages early show so bring the whole family.


Daughter Vision at 6
Lifeguard Nights at 7

$10 advance, $12 at the door. We have advance tickets so let me know if you'd like to save a couple bucks.

This will be our last show for a while as we get back to work on finishing up some hot new albums. See you there,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

Knitting Factory Thanks/Setlist/Gigs

Swimmers!

Good times at the Knitting Factory last night. Played a bunch of songs we haven't played in ages, with old guards and new, and it went swimmingly. Real proud of my team and very grateful to have them on board this fun rock and roll train to nowhere. Here's the setlist:

The Kids Ain't Alright
Allie Says
Whore
Dire Straits
Driveway Dreams
Some Kind of Animal
The Gun Show
Lonely Hwy
Mexico
Batten Down the Hatches
The Red Eye

Thanks KKOD for the pic:

NEXT UP is a very special stripped down living-room show in Califon, NJ this Saturday at 8 PM which will be recorded live and shot on some real fancy video cameras for posterity. It's gonna be great. Let me know if you'd like to attend and I'll get all you the details.

AFTER THAT we'll be returning to the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park on Sunday February 16th of President's Day Weekend (so you may have Monday off). Either way it's an early show, we go on at 7 PM and it's all ages, so bring the whole family. Hope to see you there!

Safe swimming,
Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

Knitting Factory this Wednesday!

Swimmers!


We were just invited to play the Knitting Factory on Wednesday, February 5th, and you know my RSVP policy, so of course we're gonna come.

Special guest and lifeguard legend Steve Dans on the kit.
Special guest and lifeguard legend Brad Clymer on the trumpet.

The rest of us are special and legendary too.

We'll be playing the hits, which are all of them.

The Pluto Moons play after us. Check them out. It's fun stuff.

theplutomoons.bandcamp.com

8 PM
$10

Come on out. It's gonna be just like old times, except in Brooklyn.

RSVP!!!!!!!!!!

John and Peter's Thanks/Setlist/Video!

Swimmers!

Thanks to all ye who came out to John and Peter's this past Saturday, twas a blast! Would also like to thank John and Peter's for having us, The Laundrymen for kicking the night off right (and for saving the day by lending me an acoustic guitar) and my guards who powered through the long sets, especially Dr.Ew who didn't have a keyboard due to a Korg/Nord miscommunication, and Timmay who was getting over the flu and yet still managed to do sound-guy duties all night, in addition to rocking hard like a champ. I'm a lucky gal. Here's a rough rundown of what we played, some are probably out of order:

Whiny White Boy
New Family
Cruel and Usual Punishment
Some Kind of Animal
Country Roads
Lost Boy
Overtired
Dire Straits
Oh No
Lonely Hwy
The Red Eye
We
All Kinds of Fate
Over It
Fork U
Mexico
White Light
CLR
Tribute
Whore
Ruiner
Unrequited Love
Summer Dress
RSVP
The Sweet Charade
No Mistakes
Amen

Here's some video of Lonely Hwy, shot by Mike Snyder of the Laundrymen. Thanks Mike!



We'll be back soon with more fun stuff. Stay tuned and safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

Happy New Year!

Swimmers,

We shot this video the other night on New Year's Eve at Boro and Kato's fun party. Twas a last minute idea we managed to pull it off thanks to my lovely and talented wife Eve who shot it, Kato who helped wrangle everybody, and everybody at the party who cooperated and did their best to remain as still as possible for 4+ minutes, which was certainly not easy (Nick was really ramming me into that wall pretty hard). I recorded the music yesterday with some help from Steve Honoshowsky on drums, Tim Dempsey on banjo, baritone guitar and lap steel, and Brad Clymer on trumpet. It's fun stuff I think. Hope you enjoy it. Happy New Year and let's hope 2014 is a lot cooler than 2013.

Thank Yous

Swimmers,

Thank you all for coming out last night, words can't express how much it meant to us. It was bittersweet, certainly, but while we were playing those songs all I felt was love: love for John and the music we made and the memories we shared together, and love for all of his family and friends. I hope you felt that too. Those of you who couldn't make it, we felt you there in spirit and thank you for all the love you've shared over the past month. I would also like to thank my wonderful Lifeguard pals for all of their time and effort in getting the songs right:  Steve Dans, Steve Honoshowsky, Boris Veysman, Katy Cunningham Veysman (who was unable to perform due to an illness--get better soon Kato!), PJ Donofrio, Drew Brady, Tim Dempsey, Brad Clymer and Pat Calvert, you guys are the best, musically and otherwise. I think John would have given us two shocked thumbs up. We love and miss you John, and always will.

P.S. If anyone took any photos/videos and don't mind sharing them, please pass them along to me at vincentbrue@gmail.com. If the files are too big you can send them via wetransfer.com or Dropbox or one of those sites. Highest quality would be preferable. We recorded audio of the show and would like to put together some video to go along with it. Thank you in advance!

Safe swimming, happy holidays,

Vincent

Mercury Lounge Stage Set-up '13

Christmas Show/John Dorocki Tribute Promo

We made it!

Swimmers!

After 13 long years of knowing The South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band was one of the greatest band names of all time, we have finally been recognized by the Onion's AV Club in their Year In Band Names feature. They even posted our "White Light" video, shot by our friend Chris Cassidy and edited by John Dorocki.  John really steals the show in this video about halfway through, when he slides into frame with his Micro Korg, and then proceeds to pretend to solo on the Micro Korg, even though what you're hearing is a Mike Biskup guitar solo. Genius. I'm pretty sure John had a hand in us making the list this year. Thanks John. Check it out:

AV CLUB LINK

Tickets are going fast for the Christmas Show/John Dorocki tribute, so buy yours before it sells out. Link to that in the post below. Hope to see you there.

Safe swimming,

Vincent

Christmas Show - John Dorocki Tribute Set

Swimmers,

Our annual Christmas show is taking place at the Mercury Lounge on Thursday, December 19th at 7 PM. Obviously our usual enthusiasm and excitement has been tempered by the overwhelming sadness of the past couple weeks. The thought of playing the set we had been preparing seemed absurd. Quite frankly the thought of playing any set at all seemed absurd. But we know John would want the show to go on, and the only way for the show to go on is to pay tribute to the man himself and celebrate the life and music of the one and only John Dorocki. So that's what we're going to do. We will be dedicating our entire set to John and playing songs he wrote, songs we wrote together over the years, and a couple songs for him. Many of these songs have never been performed live or even heard by most people, and they deserve to be, because they are great. There will be special guests and old friends and we hope that for one night at least, we can provide some brief comfort for those who love and miss him, and remind everyone what a special talent he was.

Also performing are East River Bandits, Wormburner, and the original Yule Dogs featuring members of all bands plus special guests, performing a wide variety of rock and roll Christmas classics.

If you would like to attend, please purchase tickets in advance because this show usually sells out. Here is a link:

Christmas Show Tickets

Hope to see you there, love and safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights

R.I.P. John Dorocki

Swimmers,

It is with unbearable sadness and a giant hole in my heart that I write the following words. John Dorocki, the legendary co-founder of the South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band, guitarist/keyboardist/monkey-noise-maker/player of various exotic instruments, the man who taught me how to play the guitar, and my best friend of about 24 years, passed away Friday morning.  I am devastated beyond belief, as all of us who knew him and loved him are.

I was honored to have been given the opportunity to eulogize John yesterday.
It was incredibly difficult to write, and yet he made it easy for me by just being who he was.
I could write a novel about  John Dorocki.
I probably will someday.
In the meantime, here is the eulogy:
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"Thank you all for coming here today to celebrate the life of our great friend, brother, uncle and son John Dorocki. This hurts. This hurts a lot. And it hurts this much because of how much we all loved John, and how great of a friend he was to us all. Everyone loved John. Just look around you. Many of us have known John for most of our lives, but there are also many people here who only met John a handful of times. John left that kind of an impression on people. It was impossible not to like him immediately. John was full of love. He loved his family, he loved his friends, he loved complete strangers. He loved life. He loved people. He loved having a great time. He became friends with everyone I ever introduced him to, and for that reason I always looked forward to introducing him to people. As a friend said to me the other night, you were proud to introduce John Dorocki to people. You were proud to be friends with him. That's the kind of person, the kind of friend John was. He was a legend.

John and I met in 4th grade at wrestling camp. He was a wrestling champion who had just moved to Basking Ridge from New Providence. He had trophies and medals and framed photos on his wall to prove it. I was a chubby little dork looking for a friend. One day at camp I overheard John talking about his Sega Genesis and the many games he had for it. "When can I come over?" I asked him. “Whenever. I just have to ask my mom.” he said. He had a real high pitched voice back then. I would end up coming over a lot, as the Dorockis can tell you. Their house became my second home. I ate so many dinners over there I think my mom started to become a little jealous. Best tuna noodle casserole in the world. I’m pretty sure the household grocery bill doubled after John and I became friends.

John and I liked all the same things: the same video games, the same sports, the same movies, the same bands, and yes, occasionally the same girls, which would often lead us right back to where we started: wrestling. He would win, of course. Both the wrestling, and the girls.
Like I said, he was a champion.

John was also an artist.
And he was a genius.
Anyone who has ever seen his photography or heard his music knows this. His photographs captured the soul of everyone and everything around him, and his music was the outward expression of his own soul. When you look at John’s photographs you see life through his eyes, and it was an amazing life.
When you hear his music you hear his heart.
There was nothing cliched or derivative about John’s art.
It was special. It was one of a kind. Just like him.

In college John taught me how to play the guitar. Every night for months we sat in his apartment and he would show me chords and scales and we would make horrible, horrible noise together until after a while it actually started to sound like...less horrible noise. The night we started The South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band was the happiest night of my life. We wrote and recorded 18 of the worst songs you'll ever hear in your life, but I didn't care. I was making music with my best friend and there was no better sound in the world.

Being in a band with John wasn't always easy of course. But it was always entertaining. It was always an adventure.

We played a show at a festival in Georgia 6 or 7 years ago. We were about to play a song called White Light and I was a little worried. John was notorious for playing the keyboard part in the wrong key. I looked over at him and asked him "are you ready?" and he held up his hands and said "wait wait wait wait wait" (his voice had dropped by then) and then played the melody on his keyboard once to refresh his memory. "I got this I got this" he assured me. He assured the band and even assured the crowd as well. "I got this." A few seconds later we started the song and yep, he was in the wrong key again. I glared at him and he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders and jumped offstage.  A minute later John returned to the stage with a bag of popcorn and for the rest of the show he fed everyone in the band popcorn out of his hand while we played. Bag Of Popcorn wasn't exactly the instrument I was hoping he was going to play that night, but I didn’t care, it was hilarious.

You could never stay mad at John. It was impossible. Even at his most stubborn. And John could be pretty stubborn at times. He had what I liked to call his "Book of Facts" a series of minor inaccuracies he touted as truth, sometimes even long after being proven wrong. One night at practice John swore that Kris Kristofferson had died recently. He said he remembered coming home from work that day and mourning with Lauren all night while listening to Kris Kristofferson's greatest hits. The rest of us disagreed with him and we bet a pizza on it. We went online and checked and even after we saw that Kris Kristofferson was not only very much alive, he was on tour and playing in New York the following week, John was STILL pretty sure Kris Kristofferson had died. He did buy us the pizza though.

The past few days have been unimaginably painful for all of us. My heart breaks for John and for the entire Dorocki family and for everyone who knew and loved him. Like all of you I am still having trouble believing this is real. I want to call him. I want to text him. I expect to see him online and chat with him. I expect him to walk through the door right now and say “what’s up?”

And then I remember, and it hits me all over again.

But John is not gone. He lives inside all of us now, in the stories we will share for the rest of our lives, in our greatest memories and in our heavy hearts. The one person who has gotten me through the past few days is John himself. Going through old photos and videos I couldn't stop smiling and laughing and that's what we should all try to do every day. Think about John's life. You will feel incredibly lucky to have known him.

We love you John. You will always be missed and will never be forgotten. Rest in peace old friend. And say hi to Kris Kristofferson for me. Thanks."
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I will be posting more stories, photos and videos in the coming days as we remember our greatest friend and bandmate. Here is a video Eve shot a couple months back after practice at our house. An outtake from the Church of Song Promo Video. It is beautiful.

"For Shore/Some Kind of Animal"

New Digital 7"! Shows!

Swimmers,

Enjoying this Indian Summer? You know we is. A few wonderful announcements:

Next Tuesday October 29th we'll be releasing a special Digital 7" in honor (honor is probably the wrong word) of the 1 year anniversary of Sandy. A digital 7" is the same as a physical 7", except without the actual vinyl, because that costs a lot of money, and I've given up the practice of setting my money on fire in exchange for a bunch of crap I'll never get rid of as long as I live. Though an actual 7" would be cool. Maybe someday. There's two songs on it. They are:

Side A: For Shore
Side B: Some Kind of Animal

"For Shore" was written in the immediate aftermath of Sandy, as we sat in our house without heat or power for over a week which sucked, but could have sucked a lot worse. Just about everyone we know in the area was affected, including our percussionist and local legend PJ Donofrio who is still not back in his house one year later. FU Sandy. This song features PJ on the congas, Steve Honoshowsky on drums, Boris Veysman on bass, myself on guitars/vocals, and Cam "Sax Beast" Hassard all the way from Australia on the mighty saxophone.

"Some Kind of Animal" was written on our honeymoon 5 years ago on the cliffs of La Jolla, along with "In This Light" from "The Miss Factory, Vol. 1" and "Miracle" from "Lifeboat For Fatty" -- it was a productive couple hours.  Twas thrown on the backburner for a while, but was resurrected thanks to the fine work of Boris Veysman and Steve Dans on the bass and drums, respectively. Dr. Ew Brady tickled the ivories (and the ebonies), Tim Dempsey added some lead gee tar, and I played the acoustic and sang. It's sexy.

This will be released through BANDCAMP ONLY at the moment, for a mere $2. Will put the link up Tuesday.

We also have a couple sweet shows coming up:

Thursday, Nov 7th at Fat Baby in NYC at 9 PM.

Thursday December 19th at the Mercury Lounge in NYC at 7 PM -- ANNUAL XMAS SHOW!

More details soon. Stay tuned and safe swimming,

Vincent & Lifeguard Nights