Sometimes I put on a song and let it play on repeat all day… I did it once in college, I think I was kinda outta my mind that day anyway… my friend Dave still tells the story. I’m not sure if it perpetuates my insanity or just proves it… or maybe it’s just a regular thing. I’ve been listening to this one song for the last 3 days.


Anyway… I spent a lot of time with different friends for the last week. My birthday happened and all I really wanted was to see my friends a couple at a time and to ride my bike. I did both. I miss my family… I’m gonna see them this week.


I rode up the West Side in the rain at night to attend this thing my friend Vashtie invited me to… I rode back down in the rain and stopped to take a picture of the old Frying Pan… lotta memories there.


[FRYING PAN]



Singles, circa 1992, written and directed by Cameron Crowe… he’s a genius.


[STEVE DUNNE]



[BLACK FLAG / MINUTEMEN]



I saw this in the mid 20′s…


[STYLE IS THE ANSWER]



The Beastie Boys… Music is fun.


[3M TA3]



[UNCLE WAYNE]



I took this picture Up-State on the way to work on this video shoot… it reminded me of Route 6 in LaPlata for some reason…


[THIS IS REAL]



[ONE TO BRO ON...]



I was joking this week that I was going to get a Cabbage Patch tattoo on my left butt cheek… Xavier Roberts originally called Cabbage Patch Kids “Little People” and produced them in a converted Medical Clinic in Cleveland… creepy.


[XAVIER ROBERTS]



Justin Bieber is down with KR3W.


[KR3W]



This is the Chambers st. on the J & Z train at night. I like when V’s are used in the place of U’s…


[SVBWAY]



[UNICORN vs. VADER]



Chuck Norris is down with Fanny Packs and close hugs…


[FANNY PACKS STICK OUT ON DESERT CAMO...]



Rubano, Tyler, Sarah Sat. & Me went out for Birthday dinner… then we went out on Matt’s roof and talked about summer and summers past…


[EAST VILLAGE ROOFTOP]



This T-Shirt from Vashtie’s Brand VIOLETTE is RADICAL.


[VIOLETTE ROSE TEE]



Vans did the ill colorway of an Old School and released it as part of a Ray Barbee capsule… Joel has them and wears them all the time… color me jealous.


[VANS x RAY BARBEE]



My friends Mat & Colleen took me out to one of my favorite spots for Birthday Dinner. It was Colleen’s birthday this week too, she flew in from Chicago and, as you can see, she was super stoked on my restaurant selection…


[M & C & PASTA]



[ME & WILLIE B. BRIDGE]



Moishe is Oscar’s the Grouch’s Israeli cousin… Oofnik is Hebrew for Grouch.


[Moishe Oofnik]



Sitting at the diner, I looked up and had to laugh… sometimes life’s inside jokes don’t have to go any further than…


[HALF]







*17,452 People listened to FIRST PERSON
this week… WHOA SO RAD!





* THIS
is the song

Yesterday, August 23rd, was my birthday and I did something I’ve never done before…


You see… I’m not actually a Holiday person… I won’t get into it, it’s not worth getting into… normally I ghost out on my birthday, I don’t answer any calls, I don’t answer any e-mails… I usually just go to a record store, go to the movies and feel melancholy all day, but yesterday was different.


For the first time in my life I spent the whole day sitting in front of the computer, phone in hand, answering every Text Message, E-Mail, Phone Call, Instant Message, BBM, Facebook… you name it, I answered and talked and thanked each and every person for loving me.


People often ask me… do you read all the messages people send you on Twitter? The answer is yes… every single one. Last night I sat for hours on end and read EVERY message, then copied EACH name down… here is a list of people who sent me Birthday messages…I want to say THANK YOU to each and every person who wrote me… THANK YOU ALL for saying nice things… THANK YOU all, even if we haven’t met yet, one day we will and the fact that a person would take the time to write something positive, something nice, blows my mind… every time.


THANK YOU ALL… Love, Josh

My desktop is littered with random pictures, at all times, that inspire or provoke different kinds of thought… Welcome to my brain…


Here’s a picture I took at a recent Miniature Tigers show, Mercury Lounge NYC.


[BULLFIGHTER JACKET]



Robert Verde… what can I say… we’re riding the same brainwave my friend.


[HERMES VANS]



A painting by David MacDowell, acrylic on canvas 11 x 20 inches


[HEY HEY HEY LADIES]



Double Rainbow at Trader Joes


[WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?]



My friends Abbey Lynn & D.Celis came to visit this week… I love them.


[A & D]



CREEM MAGAZINE icon designed by R.Crumb for 50$ in 1969.


[BOY HOWDY]



99% of Companies & Corperations today do not understand branding… these guys do and I love it all.


[SATURDAYS SURF NYC]



Rich, Poor, Young, Old, Black, Yellow, Tan, Red, White, Thick, Thin, Tall, Short, Gay, Straight, Punk or Not, Male, Female… ANYTHING in between… the members, the family and the entirety of the band GALLOWS does not discriminate… one of the most inspiring forces I have had the fortune of coming into contact with. All love, No hate… well maybe a little dis-like for that which is deserving… I love these people.







Pow Wow Boot by Itasca Moccasin.


[POW WOW BOOT]



The only thing in recent SUPREME collections that I like are the hats…


[HATS]



I took this, in Mid-Town, at 7 a.m. this week.


[BATHTUB]



An early Birthday Present from the CEO of idobi industries…


[MADDEN MUG]



Manhattan after midnight, things get interesting, even on week nights…


[CHICK-IN-A-BOX]



I took this picture of my friend Sean P. of The White Tie Affair.


[SEAN PATWELL]



This is one of my favorite Tank Tops from Hurley, called the Rest Easy.


[REST EASY]



I’m not a car guy by any stretch, but I like this one.


[AUDI]



Rad Hourani is a stylist turned fashion designer. If fashion was a horse race, this would be my horse.


[RAD]



This is the Versace of waters.


[ACQUA PANNA]



Lincoln Hawk going Over the Top.


[OVER THE TOP]



I run 40 miles a week in these. These are the best running shoes money can buy… they aren’t expensive either.


[ASICS GEL LYTE 3]



This is a screen shot from a music video that isn’t out yet. It was made for 2K… good ideas outweigh dollars.


[WALDO WORLD]



This is one of my favorite new t-shirts from the brand PEG LEG… simple… perfect.


[USA]



“Frank, where ya goin’… where ya goin’… where ya goin’ tonight… some place exotic?”


[CATCH ME IF YOU CAN]



When you know people who’ve made something… anything… out of absolutely nothing… you feel proud.


[GC]



[SELF PORTRAIT]

I’ve spent the last couple days away from internet…


[ZOMBIE]



I spent the last 30 hours in the mountains… deep in the forest…

[ABDUCTION]



I can’t wait for everyone to see this one… pretty insane!






*ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO
ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO

Sometimes when you find yourself standing in someone else’s bathroom and that bathroom is nicer than your apartment, you wonder… what’s it all for?


Sometimes when you enter a club and the promoter treats you like amateur because you chose to wear dirty Vans and ripped jeans instead of a 150$ vintage t-shirt and Jordan 4′s, you wonder… why even try?


Sometimes when the same person who was laughing in your face a year ago returns to Hi-Five you and tell you how much they love “whatever” it is they were laughing at last year, you wonder… who cares anyway?


Then you know… it’s just time to go for a long bike ride.


[REFLECTION]

Years and years ago when I signed up for Myspace I chose the name Frequent Flyer… the funny thing about this is, I had never actually flown on a plane… I guess it was subliminal-aspirational thinking.


When I chose a logo for my laptop, the one I write and DJ on, I once again chose the logo of a plane… The Santa Monica Airlines plane that sat atop my first skateboard…


I honestly never thought much about the how and the when of my opportunities to travel… years ago hundreds of thousands of dollars in College debt (I’m still not rich guys, and that’s more than okay). I was never really deterred from the idea that one day I’d get to go places I always read about and see or even be part of things that would be written about, even if it was just me writing about them.


I guess what I’m trying to say is, every time I get on a plane, train, bus… in a car to travel, I’m grateful. I jump at the chance to get out, do, see and be part of. The only thing I can assure about the life I’ve chosen is that it’s not exclusive, I hold no imaginary key to this prospect. Anyone can choose to get out and do the same… and I encourage you to. The world and the people in it are really beautiful up close.


I started last weekend at 6am on Thursday… if your flight leaves from JFK there’s really no reason to go to Laguardia first… but I did. #IAMAMESS


[MOVING WALKWAYS]



This is why you don’t want to see me before 9a.m.


[EARLY BIRD]



No zone is a Fun Zone this early in the morning…


[FUN ZONE]



The flights were booked last minute so I had connectors to Chicago… when I finally got there I was greeted by one of my best friends and my host for the weekend Mat Devine…


[Mat Devine]



Mat just wrapped up a tour, opening for the Smashing Pumpkins, with his band Kill Hannah… a few weeks ago they were in NYC for a Spin Magazine 25th Anniversary show…


[Mat & Me]



We started off the weekend attending a few parties… this picture was taken by my friend TYLER
.


[Me & Judy "The Society Type" lady]



Gregg & Mat took me all around Chicago… we went to a bunch of parties real fast…


[SEE NO, SPEAK NO, HEAR NO]



Next we went to the Underground where I DJ’d the first night of the weekend… it was crazy, as I started the set I looked out to see a half packed club… the next thing I knew the place was so packed you couldn’t move! The Underground GOES OFFFF!!!


[Mat, Me & DJ Rock City]



The next day we went to Lollapalooza… All I can say is, it’s big… it’s huge-big… like miles long big and all the bands played full sets… so many bands… This picture was taken by APRIL FRANCIS
. She’s probably the most stylish girl in Chicago.





The next night I DJ’d at LePassage, I was super stoked when T.Pain showed up as I’m a huge fan… I think it’s safe to say we all love a little T.Pain… I also got to see my good friend BRONQUES
who is somehow, never tired and always ends up taking photos that capture life’s moments perfectly…


[CHI-TIRED]



I’ll admit, I didn’t take nearly enough pictures to even begin telling of the weekend’s adventures… I need to get another flip-cam, I like using the Nikon, but it’s hard to carry it everywhere… by the way, my birthday is in 2 weeks (hint)


On Saturday night I DJ’d the Edward Sharpe afterparty with my pal Ana, at Crimson… that night was pretty monumental, just because I don’t think they’ve ever had an all “Oldies” set played there, but the packed club danced like it was a 50′s sock-hop and it made me wish I could play a set like that once a week somewhere… anywhere…


I slept for 3 hours and headed back to O’hare where I rushed through security and to my gate… there was a moment where I was sitting all alone and I watched this little kid walk up to a girl who was playing a Nintendo DS and he just started talking to her… the interesting thing about this whole exchange was well, she didn’t speak any english and there was probably a 20 year age difference between the two of them… this little dude just walked up and asked if they could exchange systems and he started showing her the game he had been playing…


[AIRPORT FRIENDS]



After being in packed clubs, walking the mile long diameter of Lollapalooza, standing on stages, offering up passes to get here and there, standing on either side of velvet ropes… the silent moment of my weekend came when I was reminded that we’re all playing on our own little system and sometimes it’s nice to trade, to look from someone else’s view and share the one we have…








*Thank you Mat, Brad, Bronques, Tyler, Underground, LePassage, Crimson, Tavern on Rush, Blue 13, DJ Rock City, Ana Calderon, B.Ling, Vlasic Family & Lexi Bien… this was a great weekend!

THIS CITY IS GR-R-R-REATTT!!! THIS WEEKEND IS ABOUT TO GET EPIC!!!


ALSO DON’T FORGET THIS
TONIGHT!!!


[THURSDAY]



[FRIDAY]

[SATURDAY]

Band names are kinda interesting… If I had a band I’d probably wanna call it the NYCobras or something cool like that…


I see a lot of bands and sometimes when I’m telling someone about a band and they’re like “What do they sound like?” it makes me think… well they’re nothing like the name sounds, but sometimes they are…


Back when I met Kam, from Chain Gang of 1974, a couple years ago I expected his band to sound like Johnny Cash or Elvis or some “Jailhouse-Blues-Rock” or something, but they actually sound like THIS
…


[CHAIN GANG OF 1974]



One of the members of Chain Gang was wearing Saddle Shoes like a 1950′s guy… I thought that was pretty sharp…


[Saddle Shoes]



My buddy Mat Devine, from the band Kill Hannah, was in town last week… they were on tour opening for Smashing Pumpkins… Mat’s band is a bunch of sweet dudes, they wouldn’t actually kill anyone…


[Me & Mat Devine]



I rode down to D.C. and back, in a single night, with my friend McInnes to check in on the Freelance Whales kids, as they start their tour with Tokyo Police Club… we went to my old hang out The Black Cat. It was awesome to be there but 3 hours is nowhere near enough time…


[Black Cat... Black Cat...]



Catch these kids on tour… thank me later…


[Freelance in D.C.]



I spent some time hanging with my homegirl Doris… I love all the kids in this band like little cousins, they’re all so smiley and positive…


[Doris & Me]



I ran into my old roomie & Madden family friend Kelly Towels… awww mannn, KT is doing rad, making all kinds of great art down there… helping D.C. look pretty. Speaking of pretty, dude finally got engaged to his pretty fashion designer girl Virginia… congrats you crazy kids.


[Kelly & Virginia]



Back in New York on Wednesday, or at least I think it was Wednesday, I got to see a new band called THE NARRATIVE
… They just released their first record… congrats Suzie & Co.!


[The Narrative]



Who dat man is? That’s just Dubin… he takes good pictures of bands… I decided to take a picture of him doing his thing…


[XDUBINX]



We watched THE GAY BLADES
… they are very rad… I’ve been a fan of their music for a while but this was my first time seeing them, they definitely delivered the goods…


[GAY BLADES]



Don’t blame me for trying to be creative… I mean, I know I’m not the photographer extraordinaire, but I’m giving it a shot…


[Green Light]



The Blades have a new record coming soon… keep and eye or two out for it…


[Blades Blades Blades]



Where else do you end a night in NYC but at The Meatball Shop… Rubano, ever the gentleman, puts on a shirt with buttons when he goes out to eat…


[Rubano getting his Meatball on...]



It was to late for me to eat (I’m tryin’ to watch my svelt physique) so I just went along for the rad hang time…


[MEatball Shoppin']





*I see more music in a month than most of the people who work for record labels see in a fiscal quarter… and I love it. Thank you people for making music.

This week went by so fast I don’t know where to begin… I went to D.C. and back in a day, I ran 40 miles (literally), I made a PLAY LIST
(that you can download), I saw a dozen bands, rode 60 miles on my bike, the most people ever (15,748) tuned in to FIRST PERSON
, I wrote some for a NEW PROJECT
and I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff…


I’m gonna sit down and go through pictures tonight…




*I am excited to finally hear THIS
in it’s entirety!






*Oh also… this was fun… watch it!

About 3 years ago my friend played me what would be the first demos of a band called Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros… from the first notes of a song with no vocals on it, I knew something special was in the works…


I’ve been fortunate to watch and participate in the amazing process of the beginning and growth of a few things in my life… it’s always a wonderful experience, brand new every time… from music or art based movements to friends and family having their first children these things grow, go out into the world and reach further than you could ever imagine… it’s these experiences that keep me in “the game” and make me want, more and more, to be a part of what is new, from the very beginning.


My friends were in town this past week, seeing them reach the world at each new level, share the positive message they have and make so many people stoked is so awesome… for the first stop, we took a boat to Governor’s Island… SOLD OUT show!


[Governor's Island crowd]



[Stuart in his green jeans]



It’s hard to remember to take pictures of this band… they start to play and it kinda makes time stand still…


[Manhattan in the distance]



Before you know it… the night is over and the microphone used to deliver the voices is lying on stage… just a microphone…


[Microphone]



Next stop 2 SOLD OUT nights at Webster Hall… Jade is always… well I think she was born smiling…


[Nico, Alex & Jade]



I sneak down between the stacks of speakers…


[between the stacks]


People write about Alex, the voice of Edward, but the funny thing is when you are with the band, there is no one, no singular person… I’ve never been around a group of people of this number that operate as one unified force…


[Alex & Christian]



I think this is the secret, the method, that can’t really be described… it’s the formula that makes it all work and makes what this family of people so powerful both in front of the world and behind the scenes when they create…


[smiles]



[hands in the air]



I once witnessed a monologue Michael Stipe gave in the middle of an R.E.M performance describing his experience, as a kid, watching a band from the back of the room… I always try to catch some of the show from that vantage point. He was right, it’s still special for me…


[back of the crowd]



["home is wherever I am with you..."]



My good friend Bryan was the first person to play Edward Sharpe music for me…


[B.ling]



Alex is in the crowd… if you look, you can make out a smile on every single face…


[happy crowd]


The Matuso Twin’s younger brother “Deuce” is a lighting wizard… watching the show from his vantage point in the booth is also priceless…


[little brother Deuce]



Nico plays guitar, the rest of the band lines the stage and Alex sits on the floor, the entire crowd sitting and singing along with him… “If the floor is to dirty for you, sit on your friend’s lap… then we’ll all be sitting on each other’s laps…” he jokes.


[everyone sits down]










*If you haven’t seen this band yet… make it a priority… your soul will thank you.




* I LOVE THIS BAND.