Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mike Ferraro - Judge


Mike and Jimmy with Judge at CBGB's, Photo: Jeff Ladd

Although it's taken us a year and half to finally get him on board, here he is... the man, the myth, the legend, the one everyone's been waiting to hear from, the one and only... Mike JUDGE. Mike kicks off his DCXX debut with a memorable show entry, but we're crossing our fingers that someday we'll get a little more from him. For now, enjoy this great story from the memories of Mike JUDGE. -Tim DCXX


There’s so many great stories in my head from back then, it's hard to pick one. I will tell one that sticks out. Around the time I first started hangin out, I was just this punk rock, hardcore kid. I just wanted it loud and fast. So me and my friend Paul were on St. Marks and we were heading down to this great record store called Free Being. We were going to see the Bad Brains at CB’s later that night and had a bunch of time to kill. Right next door to Free Being was a pizza shop. I don’t remember the name of it but it was a favorite for most of us cuz it was 75 cent slices. Paul and I sat down to eat and started talking music. Paul was older then me and was one of the older punks in my town that I had looked up to. He was in a band called Sand In The Face. A real good punk band. He also was the guy who lent me the Jealous Again record. That’s the record that got me hooked on the music.


While we were eating, Dave Insurgent, who was the singer of the great NYHC band Reagan Youth, came in to eat.We had never met Dave but it was a small place, so Dave sat with us and we started talking about how psyched we all were for the Bad Brains that night. Like I said, I was just a loud, fast rules kid at that time and I complained that the only thing that I didn’t like about the Brains was the reggae songs. At that point Dave gave me a lesson on how to listen to music, especially live music. He explained that heavy isn’t always the sound of the music you're hearing but the mood of the music you're hearing and what they're trying to say. Kinda like the “you're listening to the music but are you hearing it” kinda deal. Anyway, I listened to him and that night, the Bad Brains were great as usual but they were just that much better to me.

I still listen to music the way I had learned to that day. I find heaviness in the lyric or the meaning, not always the sound. Whether it be hardcore, metal, country or rock, if the band is being real, i'll give it a listen.


Mike feeds the City Gardens crowd a solid dose of Fed Up, Photo: Ken Salerno

6 comments:

Brett said...

we can all only hope that there is a ton more to come from mike. sick.

love, love, love the site. i check it/hope for an update every day, religiously. keep it up!

Simón said...

Very cool; Mike seems like an eclectic guy. Really hope we get to hear more from him in an interview or guest article. Thanks Mike!

dangerclose said...

great read, Mike makes a great point; essentially making the difference between fans of music and consumers of music

Anonymous said...

this just made my day!!

mza said...

Dave Insurgent was the man
R.I.P.

NOT SORRY said...

Awesome. Here's to hoping for more.