Saturday, May 31, 2008


This is personal music culled from and inspired by life experiences within the unique community and creative culture of Asbury Park, NJ.

Late Bloomer is my 10th solo "album" a.k.a. my latest compilation of quirky musical weirdness. The cover illustration was hand drawn by my wonderful daughter and emerging recording artist in her own right Brianna (www.briannabrice.com) and was digitally effected by me.

One June 3, 2008 I will turn 40 years old! Ouch, I'm officially middle aged. Wow.

In all honesty, I really can't complain. Thus far I've enjoyed a truly fortunate life and have had so many incredible dreams come true and have enjoyed such an incredible and wide variety of life experiences. Sadly I've often been too self absorbed and consumed with anxiety and fear to fully experience the depth and magnitude of it all. Oops..

Yet, despite whatever I may have endured from others or inflicted upon myself, I remain youthful in spirit and hopeful for the future and in the inherent positive potential of all humanity - sometimes anyway :)

Slowly and stubbornly, I'm learning to be present in the here and now. Though I'm still perplexed how we humans can have such profound intellectual understanding of our personal issues yet remain so stuck in the quagmire of our addictions and ego patterns. Or is that just me?

I've also come to realize and accept that I'm more of a personal musician than a professional one. I'm genuinely proud of that. My music is an honest reflection of me - the warts and bruises as well as the good stuff. It is my sincere hope that discerning listeners can appreciate that distinction.

I feel that too often audio technology is used to hide or gloss over an artist's technical imperfections. We're often sacrificing too much of our authenticity in our reckless haste to satisfy some perceived market formula or subjective standard of sound production. When the truth is that the record machine is broken and its anybody's game. Why don't we try something radical and just be ourselves?

At any rate here are my personal track descriptions for my latest batch of tunes. I'm calling the collection the aptly entitled Late Bloomer. I hope you digg it!

Thank you for listening,

Colie Brice

Track Descriptions for Late Bloomer:

Hang Ten - Growing up at the Jersey Shore, I can fondly recall the Fender reverb twang of surf guitar sounds leaking out on to the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights. Later as a teen living in Sayreville I had a Ventures record I used to play along to. "Hang Ten" is a sentimental tribute to long boards, endless summers, and girls in their summer clothes..

Stone Pony Blues - Featuring references to real life, contemporary Asbury Park Rockers such as Rick Barry, Gordon Brown, Jimmy Capobianco, Days Awake, Geena, Joe Harvard, Last Perfect Thing, April Smith, Status Green, Tony Tedesco, Turtle Soup, and Jay Walker the song addresses the classic plight of a struggling musician trying to get a gig at "the cool club". In this case, one of the most legendary clubs in rock and roll history. Around here, bands kind of come and go as the top dogs that can fill the joint.

Currently, local favorites like Status Green and Last Perfect Thing are holding court in this rock and roll kingdom, but you never know when the scene is gonna change and some new kid will rule the stage. Recently Live Nation took over the place, so I desperately hope they keep an open door for and provide performance opportunities to Asbury Park's indigenous musician population - since it collectively comprises the very soul of the city they are seeking to capitalize upon..

Planetary Lapse of Reason - a pretentious title for yet another one of my utterly self indulgent space jams. Though the title does reflect a true sentiment.

Dolphin Love - one day during an idle discussion at work, one of my co workers expressed a sincere interest in shall we say a little cetacean sensation? Needless to say we were all a little taken back by this scandalous remark, but we were also laughing until we were turning blue. "Dolphin Love" is just a goofy narrative spoof about one man's strange desire..

Smooth Am Prog Jam - this was improvised while messing about with Logic Studio.

Playing Cat and Mouse - yet another instrumental blues jam in Am. I know, I know.. I need help!

Prakasha - this one is dedicated for my beautiful, Yoga Dea wife Manuela. An extremely dedicated and accomplished student for several years, recently she decided to become certified and start working as a Yoga Teacher. I deeply respect her for that accomplishment. She works at Yoga Bliss in Ocean, NJ. Go take a class!

Dolphin Serenade (Je t'aime Eriq) - the follow up to my soon to be smash hit "Dolphin Love". The Dolphin strikes back and respond's to Erik's longing. Ah yes, but what is she actually saying?

All Hail Geena Queen of Cookman Ave. - Geena is an Asbury Park icon and a great singer and songwriter. I spent the past year of my life playing lead guitar in her band Geena and Dragster and/or the 45s and had the opportunity to meet and play with tons of incredible local musicians. Though I ended up leaving the band to spend more time on my own music, I remain deeply grateful for the experience and the opportunity to start playing out again. This tune features a loop of Dragster with Geena on guitar, me on guitar, Jay walker on Bass, and Marcus Croan on drums up in Geena's Cookman Ave. loft - scene of many late night rock & roll crimes. I over dubbed the backwards guitar, vocal screams, and reinforced the main riff wile trying to summon a sense of the shamanic vibe that often visit's Geena's home/portal.

Loose Change - another lazy, space jam noodling around in my home studio/man cave.

Flamingo Lounge - is a silly but tight instrumental vamp poking fun of myself and other "never were" musicians. "Flamingo Lounge" has been an imaginary venue in my mind somewhere in the out skirts of old school Las Vegas for many years. Its a final resting place for rockasauruses like myself :)

Radiant Perception - I love nothing more than syncing up cool delay effects to the BPM of weird musical sequences I concoct and giving them utterly pretentious track titles that imply these improvisations have more substance than they actually do. Hey, at least I can admit it..

Cosmos (for Mike Black) - Mike Black is one of the NJ shore area's most interesting musical specimens via his ambient explorations with Go No Go. He's also a science teacher and radio personality that was hugely inspired by the work of Carl Sagan. This strange piece reminded me of outer space exploration and alien contact - kind of like jamming with Mike, so I thought it would constitute a fitting tribute! Brice Black shall rise again..

Every Guitarist's Dream - yet another self indulgent head jam over three chords and the fundamental truth that lead guitarists really like to hear themselves fit in every possible riff they can in one solo. Actual songs just get in the way man..

The Power of Now - kind of a folk rant with my six year old son Elijah bashing away on his starter drum kit..

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Its not a matter of Obama toughening up, it a fundamental question of basic decency. Hillary is a chronic liar. The latest example is her miracle math for the popular vote that includes a state that Obama didn't even appear in the ballot on because he complied with the party rules ALL the candidates agreed to - including Hillary. Her miracle math, coming from the person who supposedly feels "passionately that all votes should be counted" also politely ignores votes derived from caucuses.

It goes on and on. She's a shameless liar that has been caught over and over again. Don't any of you people still supporting her care?

Is that really what you want in a President?