Archives For baltimore

A little over six years passed in between my last two interviews with the band All Time Low. During that stretch, I did run-in to the guys a couple of times. During a 2014 trip to Baltimore, the band’s hometown, for Derek Jeter’s last game at Camden Yards I ended up at the same bar as lead singer Alex Gaskarth. Talk about a small world: Gaskarth played a DJ set at that same venue the previous night. I was there the next day, Sunday, because it also served as Baltimore’s designated Buffalo Bills Backers Bar.

The place is owned by Alex’s bandmate Jack Barakat.

Then this past February while in Los Angeles for The GRAMMYs, I saw singer Cassadee Pope and her boyfriend, ATL drummer Rian Dawson outside of Microsoft Theater. They were chatting with friends and I was filming vignettes with Westwood One, so I just stopped briefly to say hello.

Of course, what I didn’t see was the engagement ring on Pope’s hand. Dawson popped the question that day. However a few weeks ago, the pending nuptials were reportedly called off.

Many things besides relationship statuses can change in six years. During the span in between our sit-downs, the Baltimore quartet added four studio albums to their discography and changed record labels twice. They switched up the band’s sound as well, although Gaskarth insists that the new sound has nothing to do with All Time Low’s new home at Fueled By Ramen.

“I think the change in direction of music was something that was already happening within the band,” the front man explained. “We knew we wanted to try some new things and go in some different directions on the album.”

With All Time Low’s previous deal at Hopeless Records up, the guys felt that signing with Fueled By Ramen made the most sense.

“Fueled By is rad, they always have been,” Gaskarth continued. “I love their roster now and I love what they do.

“I think the biggest part of us switching (to FBR) was that we sort of had the idea in mind that we kind of wanted to try some new things with our music, and (FBR) was all about it.”

Fueled By Ramen most notably housed Fall Out Boy and still counts Panic! At The Disco, Paramore, Twenty One Pilots and Young The Giant as a part of its roster.

“Fall Out Boy served as inspiration for us when we were younger,” Gaskarth noted. “Panic!, we kind of came up around the same time; obviously different trajectory and different path but (Brendon Urie) has been at it just as long as we have and works just as hard, if not harder than we do.”

For the three aforementioned groups, it is kind of fun to pause-and-reflect on both their longevity and evolution: FOB still headlines arenas, Panic! was nominated for a GRAMMY last year and All Time Low is charting a single at Adult Contemporary radio. Of course there have also been other acts that have come and gone not just from the label, but the scene; something ATL is cognizant of.

“Yunno, we’ve seen a lot of our friends’ bands and other bands fade out, and it’s amazing to sort of be in the other category of still being able to do it.”

And if All Time Low continues in that category for six more years, the band can celebrate a 20th anniversary.

I love tradition and routine but it was time for a break from both this past weekend: for the first time in recent memory, I took Memorial Day weekend off.

I remember spending Memorial Day weekend in 2010 at a Yankees game and I can’t recall how I spent the holiday in 2011. But I do remember 2012 because Syracuse was in the NCAA Lacrosse Final Four and I drove to Camden, New Jersey where I interviewed Niall Horan of then a burgeoning pop outfit called One Direction.

In 2013 I attended a wedding but on Memorial Day Monday and every subsequent one until this year, I would host my show in New York at its normal time.

And this year wasn’t a complete departure from work: I woke up early Friday morning and drove down the Shore for 95.5’s Pepsi Summer Kick-Off, chatting with Andy Grammer before driving back and doing my show Friday night.

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On Saturday I slept in, grabbed the new Jordan 11’s and met a friend for a drink in midtown. Then my buddy Danny visited for the weekend – we bar-hopped in the hood before hitting the East Village and calling it a late night/early morning.

Then Sunday it was up to the Bronx to watch the Yankees beat the A’s and witness Aaron Judge’s first career grand slam. We followed that up with a celebratory drink at Stan’s and then a trip to hang in Yonkers with John Foxx for dinner and drinks.

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The bad news for Monday is that I had to set an alarm for 8 am. The good news was that Danny and I were up early because we were driving to Baltimore to see the Yankees and Orioles face off at Camden Yards. The weather was dreary until we reached the DMV area. First pitch was 75 and sunny. The Yanks lost (although Judge hit another homer; he leads the league) but we linked up with friends old and new in the stadium, across the street at Pickles and across town around the Inner Harbor.

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By the way – the people of Baltimore are fantastic. We ate dinner with our buddy Rob at the Oyster House Sunday night. The lobster gnocchi and lobster mac and cheese were out of this world. Everything was super-fresh.

We wrapped up the night with a trip to Horseshoe Casino where I left with a few extra dollars in my pocket and retired to the Hilton by Camden. It was an early-ish night because I had a 10 am train back to New York on Tuesday morning.

And of course, it should come as little surprise that I missed it by about 10 minutes because I accidentally typed in “Penn Street” in to Google Maps as opposed to “Baltimore Penn Station.” But the good news was that 20 minutes later, an Acela departed and dropped me off at New York Penn just before 1.

The timing was perfect: I arrived at the studio with just enough time to interview an old friend… Niall Horan.

click here for the facebook album.

click here for the facebook album.
so i was in DC for the weekend… pictures to come, but for now, here’s this week’s portion of the ralphie report that describes some of the randomness that occurred…
The Green Apple Festival is billed as the world’s largest Earth Day celebration. This year’s festivities were scheduled in eight cities in landmarks across the U.S. Sites included Central Park in New York City and The Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Another location – The National Mall in Washington D.C., did not party with scheduled acts The Roots, Ne-Yo, and will.i.am. Despite a celebration of Earth, Mother Nature did not cooperate. Downpours brought thunder, lightening, and damage to the sound equipment. The day-long concert began at noon, but would not last much after. The only big act to perform a quick music set was American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis.

In yet another sign that this world is smaller than we all think, I ran into Lewis at the bar inside The Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue later in the night. Turns out the Seattle-born singer did not find out that he would perform at the festival until 48 hours before hand. Of course, Lewis was disappointed that the dismal weather cut the event short.

“Like literally, right when I stepped on (stage), the rain started,” he told me over a beer. “It’s too bad, because there was a nice crowd too, and by the time I finished there was about 6,000 people there.”

Officials ended the event just after 3 pm. The large crowd never saw The Roots jam with will.i.am. or Doug E. Fresh. Even Lewis planned on jumping in on the action – but instead relegated back to his hotel room.

Meanwhile the lead emcee of The Black Eyed Peas packed his bags and hopped on the next first class flight to Los Angeles. After spending a mere few hours at home, will.i.am would jet off to London, supporting his CD, Songs About Girls, which is still receiving copious amounts of love overseas.

Lewis planned on spending the night in our nation’s capital – as unsexy as that might seem. After all, this was a Sunday night in a city filled with weekday warriors working the 9 to 5. A flight home awaited the Idol contestant in the morning.

And me? Well the weekend was a far cry from a disappointment. After an eventful Saturday evening in D.C. with one of my college roommates, I spend the early part of Sunday watching my Yankees defeat the Orioles in Baltimore.

Of course, the evening wasn’t so shabby either.

so i was in DC for the weekend… pictures to come, but for now, here’s this week’s portion of the ralphie report that describes some of the randomness that occurred…
The Green Apple Festival is billed as the world’s largest Earth Day celebration. This year’s festivities were scheduled in eight cities in landmarks across the U.S. Sites included Central Park in New York City and The Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Another location – The National Mall in Washington D.C., did not party with scheduled acts The Roots, Ne-Yo, and will.i.am. Despite a celebration of Earth, Mother Nature did not cooperate. Downpours brought thunder, lightening, and damage to the sound equipment. The day-long concert began at noon, but would not last much after. The only big act to perform a quick music set was American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis.

In yet another sign that this world is smaller than we all think, I ran into Lewis at the bar inside The Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue later in the night. Turns out the Seattle-born singer did not find out that he would perform at the festival until 48 hours before hand. Of course, Lewis was disappointed that the dismal weather cut the event short.

“Like literally, right when I stepped on (stage), the rain started,” he told me over a beer. “It’s too bad, because there was a nice crowd too, and by the time I finished there was about 6,000 people there.”

Officials ended the event just after 3 pm. The large crowd never saw The Roots jam with will.i.am. or Doug E. Fresh. Even Lewis planned on jumping in on the action – but instead relegated back to his hotel room.

Meanwhile the lead emcee of The Black Eyed Peas packed his bags and hopped on the next first class flight to Los Angeles. After spending a mere few hours at home, will.i.am would jet off to London, supporting his CD, Songs About Girls, which is still receiving copious amounts of love overseas.

Lewis planned on spending the night in our nation’s capital – as unsexy as that might seem. After all, this was a Sunday night in a city filled with weekday warriors working the 9 to 5. A flight home awaited the Idol contestant in the morning.

And me? Well the weekend was a far cry from a disappointment. After an eventful Saturday evening in D.C. with one of my college roommates, I spend the early part of Sunday watching my Yankees defeat the Orioles in Baltimore.

Of course, the evening wasn’t so shabby either.