Breaking Their Cover

Bergen bar band's original thinking lands a record deal
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Benjamins. Photo courtesy of thebenjamins.net.

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Park City in East Rutherford, longtime patron of bands throughout North Jersey and the tri-state area, threw in the towel in March.

It was another ominous cloud over an already gloomy music scene. "When I first came in, the market was still fresh, still full of tons of talented bands," said Park City owner Lou Grasso, who opened the club 11 years ago. "If you were booking a nightclub and you needed 15 bands, you could choose from 20 to 30. Now you need 10, and you have five."

Not the words that aspiring bands -- or music lovers -- want to hear.

The Benjamins are one of the select few acts that packed the club. Like most of the bands that played there, they are a cover band, performing the hot tunes of the day. Unlike most bands, cover or original, this North Jersey band can earn between $2,500 to $6,000 for a performance -- a king's ransom in an industry where some bands hope to make $400 a night.

Last month, the Benjamins did something that seems utterly quixotic in the midst of a depressed music scene, launching an original music career with an album, "Chronicles of the Garden State." Apparently, staying true to their Jersey roots paid off. The album, distributed by Koch International, has made it to Virgin Music, Best Buy, iTunes and Amazon.com.

The strategy was calculated: The band has been sneaking original songs into its covers set lists. "[Cover shows are] our radio, our vehicle to push our music," said Benjamins guitarist Anthony Picone of East Rutherford.

"Maybe 50 percent [of the crowd] won't listen [to our originals]," said vocalist Joe DeGenarro of Garfield. "But if you have 300 people, and 25 percent of them listen to what you're doing, you're gaining ground."

There's no shame in playing covers, said Grasso, who has seen many bands come and go. "My best advice to original bands is to be a cover/original band," he said. "You can build a crowd and make money, and that will keep [the] band together for a longer time. ... It's an easier way to get exposure, and in the long run you take that money you make into making a CD or promoting your original music."

The Benjamins: holding their pants up since 1999. Courtesy of thebenjamins.net.

Playing covers also is a way to hone skills. "Nothing gets a band tighter than playing live," said Benjamins drummer Jeremy Luke of Clifton. "You could practice until you're blue in the face, but live is where it's happening."

Even so, it can be a prickly business introducing your originals to a cover-hungry crowd. "It's kind of sobering when you first start playing originals and 80 percent of the people just stare," said Ben DeGenarro, bassist and brother of Joe DeGenarro. "Then half of them turn away and get a beer."

At that point, you have to trust "what you feel," said Joe DeGenarro. "The more you stick to your guns, the more you show people that you're not going to detour from your plan. They either buy into it or they don't."

But if the Benjamins never doubted themselves, they can't help doubting the live music scene. There has been a downswing, agreed Benjamins agent Steve Tarkanish, president of the agency Stars Productions and active in the North Jersey music scene since the 1960s. Back then, Tarkanish was a drummer in a local band.

"I was able to play at over 60 venues, all within a half-hour distance of each other in Bergen County," said Tarkanish. Now there are only a few, like Tommy Fox's in Bergenfield and the Junkyard in Rochelle Park. Until recently, Park City was a mainstay for cover-band music. North Jersey bands trying to make a living wage now have to either take day jobs or travel across the country, sometimes traveling 600 miles between gigs.

"If I had faced the current situation, I would probably not have gone into the business," Tarkanish said.
The Nerds, veteran cover band that packed Carnegie Hall once. Courtesy of the-nerds.com.

North Jersey seems to have passed the torch of hot live music to Long Island, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

"Connecticut now is probably what Jersey was 15 years ago," said Jim Garcia of the Nerds, a New Jersey cover band still playing after 22 years in business. "There's a real scene. ... There're a lot of clubs in New Jersey now that are trying to be New York. Why try to be New York? New Jersey is a great state of mind, too."

New Jersey's live-music heyday was in the '70s, when the drinking age was lowered to 18. "New Jersey just exploded with cover bands," said Tarkanish. The scene shrank noticeably in the '80s, when the drinking age went back to 21, but had another minor growth spurt in the '90s, when garage bands became popular.

The Benjamins caught the tail end of the '90s cover scene.

"We were probably the last band to be able to just do this for a living," said Luke.

Even so, these Jersey boys may have to leave home to make their fortune. "People out of state are more receptive," said Joe DeGenarro, alluding to a jaded listening public in the vicinity of New York. So, while their album release party was at Soundgarden in Lodi, the Benjamins have had more luck selling their CD outside of New Jersey.

But that doesn't mean they've given up. "We know there's definitely been a change in the scene since we as a band have been doing different things," said Picone. "A few other cover bands are starting to follow suit. We've even had some out-of-state original bands open for us at our cover shows, bringing original music back. Hopefully it will pick the scene up."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com


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