The band that became known (or totally unknown) as Stronger Than Dirt® formed on November 1, 1997. Usually a band forms sometime before their first gig so they can rehearse, but they didn't have time for that because dinner was ready.
The original rhythm section of Mugsy (drums) and John (bass) formed the backbone of a weekly open jam at Big Shots in Sayreville, New Jersey (the town Bon Jovi refuses to step foot in ever again, even though his name is on the sign). With a rotating cast of musicians, the jams ran through most of 1997. Some of the regulars (Dr. John, Scottie and/or Van), in a rare sober moment, got together to rehearse a few times and decided to call themselves Stronger Than Dirt®, but no gigs were ever booked. It was that bad....
In October of that year, an acoustic guitar duo called No Clue (Rich and Bruce) actually had no clue and wandered into Big Shots looking for a gig (silly them). Finding nothing but beer, smoke, vomit and noise, they looked for a quiet spot in the corner to hide. Unfortunately, John and Mugsy were already in that corner with their instruments. The resulting collision led to a jam session. Seeing that nobody in the bar killed each other (or themselves) while they were playing, the guys decided to call themselves a band. Realizing that that name was taken, they had to come up with another.
They had two obvious names to choose from: Stronger Than Dirt® and No Clue. Guess which one they chose..........that's right: No Clue! Luckily, they realized another band in Jersey had the same lame name and changed to.....that's right: Louie and the Bowties. That lasted about a week because they couldn't stop laughing long enough to play, so they settled on Stronger Than Dirt®, which is fortunate because it matches this website. Soon the band was on a perpetual tour of central New Jersey, changing direction whenever they hit water.
One night in December 1998, Mugsy was unable to make a gig, so Steve filled in on drums. But when Mugsy came back Steve wouldn't leave, so he (Mugsy, not Steve - stay with me now) moved to harmonica. The band continued to play around, gathering considerable attention from their wives (except the single ones).
Jump to February 2000. It was a cold night at the Step Inn Ballroom. The band was minding their own business when they were approached by a hippie. Knowing hippies can sense fear, the band huddled together and stood their ground. "What do you want, hippie man?" the band asked, defiantly. "My name's Doug," said the hippie. " I play keyboards. Can I sit in?" Try as they might to resist, the band saw no way out. "Sure! You can set up over there," they said, pointing over there, and he did.
The band gigged more and more, making a lot of noise along the way. In March 2001 Mugsy and Doug left the band: Mugsy due to creative differences, and Doug.....well, we really don't know what happened to Doug. He just kinda stopped showing up. Hippies tend to do that.
Waiting in the wings was Karen and her tattoos. She'd sat in a few times, belting out a song or two at seemingly random gigs, but made her official debut in March 2001. That summer the band played their first weekly gig on the Jersey Shore at Krone's Lavallette Inn.
In September, Dirt played the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, prompting developers to make plans to knock it down. Cooler heads prevailed, and the Pony will be allowed to stay on condition that Stronger Than Dirt stays out of it.
In May 2002 we welcomed in Tammie to our mess, ..er....band, replacing the departing Karen, who discovered that she didn't have time to run a store, be in a band and create magic potions at the same time. (Karen now spends her time studying law and collecting back surgeries). We dug Tammie up at Murphy's in Old Bridge (now Old New York), saving her from a life of Karaoke Wednesdays.
In November 2002 we added Robin to the mix, giving Dirt a two-girl front. The very bitable Robin came to us via Spanish cable TV where her name was Soliel (that's French for "sun"). Why a pale white girl was dancing on Spanish TV under a French name is still a mystery. Six months later, Robin moved near Atlantic City for some reason, making travel to gigs long, boring and sometimes dangerous. After dodging one-too-many drunks racing north on the southbound Parkway, Robin decided she had to leave the band in November 2003. Today she's the mommy to a cute little girl and an cat that's frightened by computers.
To fill the gap left by Robin, we found Rhea and her then unborn child, Number Two. Rhea and son joined us fresh from the band Shore 2 Pleaze, whom they left due to spelling differences. After 15 months of gestation, baby 2's hearing kicked in and he began his escape during the third set of a Dirt gig at Rug's and Riffy's in April 2004 (hell, if I could leave I would, too). For some reason Rhea finished the gig before driving herself to the hospital - probably because she didn't want Tammie to lose her gear if she left.
In May 2004, Tammie ran off to join the circus (or to get married - I always get those confused), leaving Rhea with a ton of songs to learn, which took her about five minutes.
In October 2005 Rhea squeezed out 3 (or was it 7?), proving once and for all that the rhythm method does not work! Rhea left us in June 2006 for life in Pennsylvania (why Pennsylvania?) after 159 gigs and nearly half as many laughs. Since leaving she's hired Dirt to play her block party, joined and quit The Jersey Shades, hired Dirt to play her 30th birthday party,managed to get knocked up with Baby 4 and joined the band Kindred. If anybody wants a child you can probably borrow one of hers...she'll make more.
Filling her shoes (well, actually wearing her own) was Eryn, an excellent singer/songwriter who came to us from Soul Project (from New Orleans) and Jody Joseph & The Average Joes (not from New Orleans). In her spare time, Eryn formed her own Eryn Shewell Band with John, doing her own material. She released her first album Window Pane in August 2008 with John on bass.
In August 2007 we said goodbye to founding member Rich after ten years and 539 gigs, but he wouldn't leave. It took us until October to finally ditch him, so now he's played 543 gigs, but who's counting (besides me)? After receiving his gold watch from STD, Rich joined 9 South. Don't know if that's a highway, an exit or a shoe company.
Replacing Rich is Rich. Confused? Were you confused when Dick Sargant replaced Dick York? This is no different. This so-called "new" Rich came to us from various bands including Piece of Candi (he was not the blonde chick singer), Crown Regal, Spider Daniels and Black Cat Bone. New Rich debuted with Dirt on October 26, 2007. Since nobody was seen running from the room screaming we assume he did OK, so we kept him.......until he left in April 2008.
Dirt was reduced to four, the smallest number larger than three! Rich (the first one) and Rhea (the pregnant one) dropped in at random to help, but the band missed having a permanent fifth member to point their fingers at when things went wrong. So in August 2008, Andy stepped in to accept all blame. Andy used to fill in for Rich many years ago and is a life-long member of Swoop (formerly One Fell Swoop, the Jefferson Swoopship and the Garden State Arts Center).
In January 2009 Eryn left Dirt to work fulltime on her own band. Once again Dirt needed a singer, so once again they conducted an extensive worldwide search (of New Jersey). Many great candidates auditioned, and at the last minute Melissa showed up, straight from a construction site. She comes to us from her own band Awry whose second album So Over U came out in March 2009. She made her dirty debut on March 6.
What's next for Stronger Than Dirt? You didn't actually ask that so I won't actually answer.
Hi Stronger Than Dirt, Thank you for being our Friend! rockers like you keep the music ALIVE!!! We can't wait to Rock out for YOU!!
NEW to Jersey So we need YOU!!
Please help us spread the word!
SEE LIVE Bands OFTEN
COME SEE US NOW or Hear about it Later! 6/13 The Cozy Tavern -131 Queene Anne Rd, Bagota,NJ
6/19 VIP Party - 588 Gramatan Ave, Mt Vernon, NY (please join our mailing list for invite)
Rock out with Girls mamma Warned you about! If you like Journey, Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, Katy Perry, AC/DC, Nirvana, Van Halen, Pink, Paramore & much more , you will have a blast!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for the Friendship!
The Fourth Annual Wave Gathering Emerging Artist Music Festival will be held in Asbury Park, NJ on June 19th, 20th, & 21st. Tickets for one- and three-day passes for the 2009 Wave Gathering are available now for sale online and by phone via TicketWeb. http://www.ticketweb.com/snl/EventListings.action?orgId=23381
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for the Friendship!
The Fourth Annual Wave Gathering Emerging Artist Music Festival will be held in Asbury Park, NJ on June 19th, 20th, & 21st. All artist submissions for the 2009 Wave Gathering Festival are currently being accepted thru Sonicbids.com Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2009
OUR ALBUM 'You Are Here' IS OUT SOON IN CD FORMAT!!!! WE HOPE YOU WILL GET IT BEFORE IT SELLS OUT....
Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, U.K. U.S.A can preorder from Amazon now !! ...
Austria www. amazon. at Canada www. amazon. cn China www. Joyo. com France www. amazon. fr Germany www. amazon. de Japan www. amazon. co. jp Spain www. amazon. com U.K. www. amazon. co. uk U.S.A. www. amazon. com
Hello Luv, I wanted to extend an invitation to my CD Release party on May 14th at 46 Lounge, Route 46 East, Totowa-8pm! I'm also having one on May 22nd at Europa South, Point Pleasant Beach-7pm.
Hey thanks for the request! Always great to meet other NJ musicians! Fun Rockin' sound! Man, your female vocalist can really belt out those tunes! Good stuff! Hope to see you along the way . . .
Myspace Comments, Hi5 & Friendster graphics: CoolMyspaceComments.com HEY, NJ PEEPS ATTENTION, LISTEN TO 101.5 FM RADIO FROM 2:PM TO 7:PM, THERE IS GOING TO BE A BIG RALLY TO PROTEST JON CORZINE. BUDGET PLAN TO INCREASE THE ROAD TOLLS 800% AND TO MAKE RT 440 A TOLL ROAD AND HE REFUSED TO CUT STATE SPENDING, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THE RALLY IS TAKEN PLACE FEBRUARY 8TH 2008, FROM 12 NOON TO WHEN EVER, AT THE STEPS OF THE STATE HOUSE IN TRENTON,NJ SO PLEASE LISTEN (WHEN PIGS FLY)...JAY...MAKE A STAND AND BE HEARD WWW.1015.COM
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