Dead Best – s/t LP

Dead Best LP
| Brian

Because life is random a global pandemic can result in creative results.

You may not know this but Adam Goren and I are next door neighbors. We met when we were in the first grade and our lives have been entwined ever since. I’m very fortunate to call him a friend. During the lockdown of 2020 Adam and I had numerous discussions about our shared anxiety regarding the state of things. Looking at each other over our shared fence we discussed music as a possible outlet for the jittery nature of our existence. So, we began working on music together.

Funny enough, while Adam and I have shared parallel musical experiences we had never been in a band together. As we started working on songs we were pleasantly surprised with the results and the creative process continued. After six months we realized we had enough music to consider the project a “thing”. We sent the recordings to a friend and he offered to release it. Random.

Our band is called Dead Best. Our debut album is now available for pre-order here. It comes out on December 10, 2021.

We’re already working on our next album.

The first song from the album is available to listen to here or whereever you choose to stream your music. Hope you enjoy!

Franklin live in Red Bank, NJ

| Brian

No idea on this one. Clearly it’s Red Bank, NJ but I have no idea when this show occured. I’m thinking sometime in 1997 which is when Roy had decided to leave the band and Josh Mills brought his talents into the group.

It’s a short set but has some nice moments.

FINAL FRANKLIN SHOW AT THE KHYBER, 2000

| Brian

An old friend messaged me today asking if I remembered the date of the last Franklin show. I immediately responded, “1999” because while I did not remember the specific month or day, I absolutely swore I knew the year.

Franklin broke up in 1999 after playing two final shows in Philadelphia. The first final show was an all ages show with Unwound and Atom and His Package. Our second final show was a blow-out at the Khyber where we tried to play every song we ever wrote. When I asked him why he was curious about the dates he responded with a wonderful surprise – he had digitized a video he made of that final show.

This friend spent his own valuable time encoding this video to share it with whomever was interested. Amazing.

Thank you Joe Coyle. Oh, and those final shows? They were played in 2000 not 1999. It seems the details of even the most cherished memories get fuzzy over time.

RALPH DARDEN INTERVIEWED FOR LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!

| Brian

Ralph Darden-4454 WEB
Joseph A. Gervasi continues his excellent interview series Loud! Fast! Philly! with a very candid conversation with Ralph Darden. There are no words that could describe Ralph’s importance in my life and the value, exploration, insight and humanity he brought to the experiences we shared together personally and creatively. This interview, however, reminds me that we are all always and at all times desperately trying to learn from (and understand) those we surround ourselves with and this challenge is central and never ending. Ralph continues to work as a DJ under the name Major Taylor and splits his time between Chicago and Los Angeles.

If you have some time, enjoy this one.

Photo of Ralph by the talented Karen Kirchhoff.

FRANKLIN DISCOGRAPHY NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

| Brian

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I got around to spending a few hours compiling the Franklin discography onto a dedicated Bandcamp page. The goal of course being a clean, easily traversed roadmap of our time as a band for those who may be interested in easily downloaded/digested digital files.

I’m still not sure why it’s so important to me to dedicate resources and energy into documenting these materials but the guiding force of, “If not me, then who?” seems pretty logical.

With that being said, please feel free to have a visit to the brand new Franklin bandcamp page located on the internet at http://gokidgo.bandcamp.com. Enjoy!