Graduation

I’m about as good at keeping up with this blog as I am taking care of my pet cactus. The only difference is this blog keeps coming back to life.

So tonight was our last show of 2010. In Abu Dhabi. In one hour it'll be midnight on November 19th, which is exactly 5 and a half years since the day I auditioned for this then-unknown band. As we played “Please Be Mine” all I could think about were the countless high school assemblies we playing this song for, and now there are a bunch of kids halfway around the world singing along. During “Year 3000” I couldn’t help but remember when we rehearsed that song at a bar called “The Chicken Coup” somewhere outside of Wilkes Berre, Pennsylvania on a day off from the Aly & AJ tour back in 2006. Or seeing kids from the middle east sing lyrics I wrote for the song “Tonight.” It blew my mind. Being a college dropout, I can’t help but feel like I got my degree tonight. This band literally started from nothing. It’s been an honor to be a small part of this.

Here’s our setlist from tonight:

Feelin’ Alive
Hold On
Year 3000
Play My Music
Poison Ivy
Gotta Find You
B.B. Good
That’s Just the Way We Roll
Paranoid
L.A. Baby (pronounced “la baby”)
Video Girl
World War Three
Still In Love
Tonight
Hello Beautiful →
Biggest Fan
Can't Have You
Who I Am
Black Keys →
A Little Bit Longer
Fly With Me
When You Look Me In the Eyes
Please Be Mine
Lovebug
-----------
SOS
Burnin’ Up

I’m excited to get back to LA and put my time into various projects. The main one being Ocean Grove, which, if you don’t already know, is comprised of John, Jack, Ryan and myself. Expect some music real soon!


PS - just for fun, here’s a setlist of ours from roughly the same day 5 years ago: November 20, 2005 at the Bloomfield Ave Café, in Montclair, New Jersey:

I Am What I Am
Mandy
One Day At A Time
6 Minutes
7:05
Underdog
Please Be Mine
Nick J is Off the Chain
Time For Me To Fly

LetsConquer.org

Running with Joe this morning to support iWin and the Special Olympics was one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. But you don't have to be an A-List Celebrity (like Joe Jonas) or a Z-List nobody (like me) to raise awareness and help those in need. A few months ago i got involved with an organization called St. Baldricks which encourages people to raise money and shave their heads to donate to childhood cancer research. St. Baldrick’s has raised over $80 million since 2000 and shaved more than 142,000 heads.

Every 3 ½ minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer - that's 160,000 a year. Check out LetsConquer.org to find out more. Even by talking / tweeting about this, you're helping bring childhood cancer one step closer to it's cure.

here's my little youtube video for LetsConquer.org:

5

texts from last afternoon

sometimes when Bulldozer works really hard and focuses all of our collective brain power on making awesome music, we forget how to do the simple things.


ps - jack is still in the bathroom, but alive

The Very Best

I've recently gotten into a new band called "The Very Best." (kudos to whoever thought of that name.) Their first single is a tasty little number that came out last year called "Heart of Africa" and features the dude from Vampire Weekend. The song and video are radical. I can't post the embedded video, but if you want you can CLICK HERE. Now excuse me while i go back to rocking out to "Heart of Africa" alone in my bedroom, per usual.

two point oh

Well, it's been a while. 654 days exactly. For anyone who's still interested, i'm gonna give this blog another run.

A lot has happened since my blog closed it's e-doors on June 12, 2008. i moved from new jersey to LA, a new james bond film came out, and my bosses went from being really famous to being super famous. also, i grew a beard and then shaved it off.

In case you missed it, i shut my blog down due to hackers snooping through my e-mail, ichat, and facebook accounts looking for some sort of secret, shocking news story about the jonas brothers. well, i guess i'll give the hackers what they want...that's right, you heard it here first:
KEVIN JONAS IS MARRIED!!!!!!

see, that's not, and never was, the point of this blog. it's not to break news. wolf blitzer does not work here (but we'd be happy to have you, wolf.) this is merely a blog to show what life is like for a working musician / songwriter who occasionally leaves his nest in LA to slap the bass for peeps worldwide.

we'll see if it lasts this time. i couldn't resist giving it another run. neither could michael jordan, brett favre, or FDR. feel free to check back in whenever you want. i'll be here waiting for you with corny humor and mildly funny stories (at best)

eeeeeyyy,
-G

No Matter How It Starts_No Matter How It Ends

Well, it seems our time together has come to an end. A few days ago my e-mail, ichat, myspace, and paypal accounts were hacked into by an unknown culprit. Some private information made its way to the internet. It was nothing controversial or scandalous, but the mere fact that someone was rummaging through my accounts made me feel like someone was in my house and walking around without me knowing. I wondered why this would happen to me. I'm not famous, nor do i want to be famous. A-ha! But alas, i DO work for someone famous! This blog was originally intended to keep my close friends and family informed of my whereabouts while on tour, but as the Jonas Brother's fame began to take off, so did the hits on this wee little blog. It was fun, and I still tried to write very candidly to give readers an insight as to what it's like to be a professional musician on the road. But I realized this turned me into an unwanted target for exclusive information about the Jonas Brothers. I'm not sure who or how my accounts got broken into, but I'd just rather play it safe and stop before it happens again.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me telling me they enjoyed reading my humble thoughts and nonsense. It was great to hear. We had a good run.


As we all slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never face in the wrong direction.

Signing off,
Gregory G.