Vedder and Epstein jam at Toad with Bill

By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff | May 27, 2006

Some 17,000 people saw Theo Epstein join Pearl Jam at the TD Banknorth Garden, and windmill his way through a cover of Neil Young's ``Rockin' in the Free World." But barely 50 folks were at Toad a few hours later, when Epstein and Eddie Vedder strolled into the tiny Cambridge club and jammed with Bill Janovitz . The Buffalo Tom singer had invited the Sox GM to drop by with his superstar sidekick, and -- lo and behold -- he did. ``I really didn't think they'd make it out," said Janovitz, who's been friends with Epstein for a few years and first met Vedder when their respective bands played at Bunratty's back in '91. Theo happily joined Janovitz and the Gentlemen's Ed Valauskas on a version of "Taillights Fade" -- a Buffalo Tom tune that's apparently a favorite of Vedder's -- before the Pearl Jam singer agreed to grab the mike on `` Rockin' in the Free World," Young's ``Cortez the Killer," and ``It Makes No Difference" by the Band. ``It took a little arm-twisting to get him up there, but not much," said Janovitz. An invigorated Vedder described the after-hours affair as ``off the grid" because, he said, the stage is ``about the size of [Pearl Jam drummer] Matt Cameron's drum kit." Afterward, the group, which included Epstein's fiancee Marie Whitney, sat around a table, talking about books, music, and family. "Eddie and I traded pictures of our kids," said Janovitz. ``It was really a great night, a total blast."

This is from an article in Boston Magazine about workspaces that artists use. Along with Bill they profiled authors Tom Perrotta, Doris Kearns Goodwin and others.

Buffalo Tom frontman Janovitz isn’t particularly sentimental about the room in which he composes his songs. “Simply having a spot is what’s important,” he says. “It removes the excuse of not having a spot.” Over the years, those spots have included a hotel room, the back seat of a tour van, various bathrooms—one of Buffalo Tom’s biggest hits, “Taillights Fade,” was composed “while sitting on the pink and black tiled floor at the end of my railroad apartment in Somerville.” His current haven is a corner room in the basement of his Lexington home. Once knotty pine, it’s now painted white (“acoustically dead,” he says of the soft wood and its carpeted surroundings), and holds a collection of guitars, some microphones, and a couple of computers containing hundreds of pieces of music. The room is a quiet place for him to record and develop melodies and lyrics in moments he steals between his day job, as a real estate agent, and his life as a husband and father of two young children. He recalls sitting in his backyard a few years ago, watching his little daughter Lucy chase a chipmunk. “You’ll never catch him,” he told her. “Oh, that’s what everyone says to me,” she responded. “I remember loving that pair of lines,” Janovitz says now. Playing around in his basement room not long ago, he came upon a snippet he’d recorded that day. “You’ll Never Catch Him”—its first two lines the very exchange he and Lucy shared there in the yard—appears on the next Buffalo Tom album, slated for release this spring.

Sven Schlijper from Kindamusic.net is working on an article on the 33 1/3 series. Here is the except of his interview with Bill about writing his book on the Stones Exile on Main St.

Link to Exile interview

Here is another recent interview with Bill from writer Michael Atwood.

link to Atwood article

Exile on Main St, by Bill Janovitz
Can be ordered on Amazon.com

Exile On Main Street Review

The Perfect Score: 33 1/3
by Michael Lindgren

"He writes movingly, almost poetically, about the Stones’ synthesis of American blues, soul, and country idioms and how it made him feel as a teenaged punk-rocker to hear this music reimagined so richly. His understanding of the record’s sonic landscape — dark, messy, potent — is unparalleled. It may be the best book ever written on rock’n’roll. "

-full review

Fireworks on TV! is the latest release from Bill Janovitz and Crown Victoria
Named the Number One album of the year by Rolling Stone's David Chiu!

Click here to buy "Fireworks on TV"