Paleface
Encyclopedia
Paleface is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist who has been active in the music business in the United States since 1989.
in 1989. Johnston taught him how to write songs and Paleface began to make homemade tapes. At this time Paleface was roommates with Beck
in New York City. Beck says, "We used to go to all the open mikes together. He taught me Daniel Johnston songs on the sidewalk and let me sleep on his couch. He was a great songwriter, a generous friend, and a big influence on my early stuff". In 1990 Danny Fields
(manager of The Stooges
, The Ramones, MC5
, and The Doors
) discovered Paleface at Lach's Anti-hoot and signed on as his manager.
, and appeared in Rolling Stone
and Spin Magazine.
In 1994 Paleface recorded Generic America produced by Kramer
for the independent label Shimmy Disc
. The producer inadvertently erased the masters, and the album was never made.
Paleface was the subject of a Lisa Robinson column in The New York Post in 1995. Toward the end of 1995 he signed to Sire Records
. The album Get Off was released in 1996 on that label.
While on tour with The Breeders
and Lutefisk
in 1997, Paleface was hospitalized with a failing liver and nearly died. He altered his lifesyle to restore his health and began a prolific period of song writing in 1998.
, Langhorne Slim
, and Regina Spektor
at Lach's Antihoot in NYC. In 2000 he released his underground classic The Multibean Bootleg. PF released another of his home recordings, The Couch Tape (2001), and sold out his bootlegs at shows.
In 2002 Paleface formed a new band called "Paleface & Monkeybone" with James Broughel and Anders Griffen
to perform around New York. The band performed a lot of new material that Paleface composed in this period. Paleface also played gigs with The Moldy Peaches and other New York emerging rock bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Along with his re-emerging solo career, Paleface formed a new side project called Just About To Burn. They released Just About To Burn (Self Titled 2003), produced by Paul Kostabi
. The band toured London.
Paleface recorded "Free your Mellow" (2004) as a solo record.
In 2005 PALEFACE he was invited by The Avett Brothers
to their studio to join in the making of Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions
. Thirty-one songs were recorded, including five written by Paleface. "Dancin Daze" was chosen for the final release. Later that year Multi-bean Vol.2 was compiled and released.
I Just Wanna Play Guitar (2006) was recorded with Momotaro, Julian Summerhill, and Paul Kostabi. It was released in Germany on the trash/punk rock label Wanker Records
.
In 2007, Paleface and girlfriend-drummer Monica "Mo" Samalot left NYC and relocated to North Carolina in order to tour on a full-time basis as an Indie folk
duo. They are both featured on The Avett Brothers record Emotionalism
.
A Different Story (2008) was released next. It features guest performances by The Avett Brothers. Paleface continued to tour with Monica "Mo" Samalot. They performed at festivals such as Floyd Fest, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, and Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
. In 2009, the duo released their full length Ramseur Records debut The Show Is On The Road''. Produced by Grey Revell
and Paleface, The record features guest performances by Seth Avett, Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon of The Avett Brothers. Soon after the record released it landed on the CMJ Radio Charts and PASTE
Magazine featured the duo as “Band Of The Week“ describing the tunes as “songs you’d be glad to hum for the rest of the day”.
Paleface and drummer Mo spent the next year touring from coast to coast in support of the album, including performances at festivals such as Pickathon (Portland, OR), Riverbend
(Chattanooga TN) and Bristol Rhythm And Roots (Bristol, VA-TN), as well as showcases such as Tennessee Shines @ Bijou Theatre (WDVX Knoxville TN), Non-com (WXPN & World Cafe Live, Philadelphia PA), and South By Southwest Festival
(Austin, TX). And right after SXSW Festival, The Denver Post
featured Paleface as one of the "Top 10 Standout SXSW bands of 2010”!
During the Spring 2010, Magnet Magazine
premiered Palefaces first music video "New York, New York" from the album The Show Is On The Road, calling the record "excellent".
On April 2010 Paleface released his Ramseur Records full length follow-up "One Big Party", which features girlfriend Monica "Mo" Samalot on drums and vocals, among other friends. The record was produced by Paul 'Ena' Kostabi (Cults, The Willowz, Dee Dee Ramone). The duo celebrated the release with a special guest-performance alongside friends The Avett Brothers
at the Avett's sold out Radio City Music Hall
show Oct 13th 2010, followed by an US and Europe tours. During “release week”, Daytrotter
featured a brand new live recording session by Paleface, which includes stripped-down versions of two songs from One Big Party as well as two others from their previous record, and One of these songs was named "Daytrotter Top 20 Songs - Reader's Choice". On March 2011 PASTE Magazine premiered a short documentary on Paleface called "Paleface - The Making Of One Big Party".
Early career
Paleface met songwriter Daniel JohnstonDaniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas....
in 1989. Johnston taught him how to write songs and Paleface began to make homemade tapes. At this time Paleface was roommates with Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
in New York City. Beck says, "We used to go to all the open mikes together. He taught me Daniel Johnston songs on the sidewalk and let me sleep on his couch. He was a great songwriter, a generous friend, and a big influence on my early stuff". In 1990 Danny Fields
Danny Fields
Danny Fields is an American journalist and author. As a music-industry executive in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, he was one of the most influential figures in the underground and punk rock scenes.- Early life :...
(manager of The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
, The Ramones, MC5
MC5
The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...
, and The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
) discovered Paleface at Lach's Anti-hoot and signed on as his manager.
Recording career
Polydor signed Paleface to a major label deal in 1991. He wrote and recorded his first album, which includes "Burn and Rob" and "There's Something About A Truck" among others. He went on tour with The Judybats and then The Crash Test Dummies to showcase the album in 1992. He next toured with Billy BraggBilly Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, and appeared in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
and Spin Magazine.
In 1994 Paleface recorded Generic America produced by Kramer
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer , known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc...
for the independent label Shimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, it was responsible for providing a mass audience for acts including Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween,...
. The producer inadvertently erased the masters, and the album was never made.
Paleface was the subject of a Lisa Robinson column in The New York Post in 1995. Toward the end of 1995 he signed to Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
. The album Get Off was released in 1996 on that label.
While on tour with The Breeders
The Breeders
The Breeders are an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 by Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. The band has experienced a number of line-up changes; the current line-up consists of Kim Deal , her twin sister Kelley Deal , Jose Medeles , Mando Lopez Todd the Fox...
and Lutefisk
Lutefisk
Lutefisk or Lutfisk is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries and parts of the Midwest United States. It is made from aged stockfish or dried/salted whitefish and lye . It is gelatinous in texture, and has an extremely strong, pungent odor...
in 1997, Paleface was hospitalized with a failing liver and nearly died. He altered his lifesyle to restore his health and began a prolific period of song writing in 1998.
Current activities
Paleface met and became friends with artists The Moldy PeachesThe Moldy Peaches
The Moldy Peaches was an indie group founded by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson. Leading proponents of the anti-folk scene, the band has been on hiatus since 2004...
, Langhorne Slim
Langhorne Slim
Langhorne Slim is an American singer-songwriter, . Scolnick attended high school at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, part of the SUNY system.He began to gain public notice through several years of touring with the...
, and Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.-Early life:...
at Lach's Antihoot in NYC. In 2000 he released his underground classic The Multibean Bootleg. PF released another of his home recordings, The Couch Tape (2001), and sold out his bootlegs at shows.
In 2002 Paleface formed a new band called "Paleface & Monkeybone" with James Broughel and Anders Griffen
Anders Griffen
Anders Griffen is a drummer, composer, and trumpet player from Brooklyn, New York. Griffen works in a range of contexts including folk, jazz, pop, improvised music, and modern dance theater.-Career:...
to perform around New York. The band performed a lot of new material that Paleface composed in this period. Paleface also played gigs with The Moldy Peaches and other New York emerging rock bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Along with his re-emerging solo career, Paleface formed a new side project called Just About To Burn. They released Just About To Burn (Self Titled 2003), produced by Paul Kostabi
Paul Kostabi
Paul Indrek Kostabi is an American artist, musician, music producer and audio engineer. He is the brother of artist Mark Kostabi....
. The band toured London.
Paleface recorded "Free your Mellow" (2004) as a solo record.
In 2005 PALEFACE he was invited by The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers is a folk rock band from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett, who play the banjo and guitar respectively, and Bob Crawford who plays the stand-up bass. Joe Kwon, cello, and Jacob Edwards, drums, are touring members of...
to their studio to join in the making of Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions
Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions
Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions is a 2006 album by The Avett Brothers. Recorded in a rented house in Robbinsville, NC over the course of 10 days in early 2005, Four Thieves Gone saw the introduction of electric guitar and heavier drums to the band's ever-evolving sound...
. Thirty-one songs were recorded, including five written by Paleface. "Dancin Daze" was chosen for the final release. Later that year Multi-bean Vol.2 was compiled and released.
I Just Wanna Play Guitar (2006) was recorded with Momotaro, Julian Summerhill, and Paul Kostabi. It was released in Germany on the trash/punk rock label Wanker Records
Wanker Records
Wanker Records is a Marburg, Hessen-based independent record label, focused on punk rock, which was started by Nick Wanker in 2001.Wanker Records have released and worked with artists like Dee Dee Ramone, One Way Down Wanker Records is a Marburg, Hessen-based independent record label, focused on...
.
In 2007, Paleface and girlfriend-drummer Monica "Mo" Samalot left NYC and relocated to North Carolina in order to tour on a full-time basis as an Indie folk
Indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, country music, and indie rock. A few early artists included Lou Barlow, Beck, Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith...
duo. They are both featured on The Avett Brothers record Emotionalism
Emotionalism
Emotionalism, in its meaning as a research paradigm, refers to an approach to conducting research studies that provides a gateway to understanding people's experiences through the use of social inquiry methodologies such as ethnography....
.
A Different Story (2008) was released next. It features guest performances by The Avett Brothers. Paleface continued to tour with Monica "Mo" Samalot. They performed at festivals such as Floyd Fest, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, and Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion a non-profit organization which hosts an annual 3-day Americana music festival in the twin cities of Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee....
. In 2009, the duo released their full length Ramseur Records debut The Show Is On The Road''. Produced by Grey Revell
Grey Revell
Grey Revell is a music producer and songwriter originally from Los Angeles, California. In the late 1990s, he moved to New York City, where among other artists, including Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis and Regina Spektor, he found a creative home in the Lower East Side Anti-folk community.In recent...
and Paleface, The record features guest performances by Seth Avett, Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon of The Avett Brothers. Soon after the record released it landed on the CMJ Radio Charts and PASTE
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
Magazine featured the duo as “Band Of The Week“ describing the tunes as “songs you’d be glad to hum for the rest of the day”.
Paleface and drummer Mo spent the next year touring from coast to coast in support of the album, including performances at festivals such as Pickathon (Portland, OR), Riverbend
Riverbend Festival
The Riverbend Festival, or called Riverbend by locals, is an annual music festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was started in June of 1981 as a five night festival. Over the years, the festival grew into the nine nights of its current run and presently ranks in the top 10% of all American...
(Chattanooga TN) and Bristol Rhythm And Roots (Bristol, VA-TN), as well as showcases such as Tennessee Shines @ Bijou Theatre (WDVX Knoxville TN), Non-com (WXPN & World Cafe Live, Philadelphia PA), and South By Southwest Festival
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
(Austin, TX). And right after SXSW Festival, The Denver Post
The Denver Post
-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...
featured Paleface as one of the "Top 10 Standout SXSW bands of 2010”!
During the Spring 2010, Magnet Magazine
Magnet (magazine)
Magnet is a music magazine which generally focuses on alternative, independent, or out-of-the-mainstream bands.-History:The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music magazines with a similar focus in the 1990s era included Option,...
premiered Palefaces first music video "New York, New York" from the album The Show Is On The Road, calling the record "excellent".
On April 2010 Paleface released his Ramseur Records full length follow-up "One Big Party", which features girlfriend Monica "Mo" Samalot on drums and vocals, among other friends. The record was produced by Paul 'Ena' Kostabi (Cults, The Willowz, Dee Dee Ramone). The duo celebrated the release with a special guest-performance alongside friends The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers is a folk rock band from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett, who play the banjo and guitar respectively, and Bob Crawford who plays the stand-up bass. Joe Kwon, cello, and Jacob Edwards, drums, are touring members of...
at the Avett's sold out Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
show Oct 13th 2010, followed by an US and Europe tours. During “release week”, Daytrotter
Daytrotter
Daytrotter is a website for the recording studio Horseshack, which hosts recording sessions with many popular and typically upcoming indie music acts, although it works with local bands in the Illinois area as well. The sessions can be compared to that of a radio station's lounge recordings, where...
featured a brand new live recording session by Paleface, which includes stripped-down versions of two songs from One Big Party as well as two others from their previous record, and One of these songs was named "Daytrotter Top 20 Songs - Reader's Choice". On March 2011 PASTE Magazine premiered a short documentary on Paleface called "Paleface - The Making Of One Big Party".
Current lineup
- Paleface "PF": guitar, harmonica and vocals
- Monica "Mo" Samalot: drums and vocals
Discography
- Paleface, Polydor, 1991
- Raw War, limited edition self release, 1993
- Raw, Shimmy Disk, 1994
- Gett Off, Sire Records, 1996
- Multibean Bootleg Vol.1, 2000
- Couch Tape, self released, 2001
- Se La Voo, self released, 2002
- Bottlefed, Art Monkey Records, 2003
- Just About To Burn, Art Monkey Records, 2004
- Free Your Mellow, self released, 2004
- Multibean Bootleg Vol.2, self released, 2005
- I Just Wanna Play Guitar, Wanker Records (Germany), 2006
- A Different Story, self released, 2008
- PALEFACE Faves, self released, 2008
- The Show Is On The Road, Ramseur Records, 2009
- "One Big Party", Ramseur Records, 2010
Press links
- My Old Kentucky Blog - Record Review: One Big Party
- PASTE Magazine Feature
- SPINNER
- DAYTROTTER
- Magnet Magazine
- BLURT
- BLURT Interview - Feature
- Time Out, Salisbury Times
- Dayton Daily News
- The Daily Times
- The Scene, Cleveland Times
- Athens News
- The Post And The Courier
- Performer Magazine, record review
- Performer Magazine, show review
- The Village Idiot, record review
- The Appalachian, Q&A
- Purply Grotto, Q&A
- East Tennessean