Ever since my interview with Engine 9 I’ve had a slight obsession with Jersey City firefighters. They are the best of the best. Nick Fargo is no exception… but Nick leads a double life, well maybe a triple life. Nick is Jersey City Firefighter and welder by day and a huge rockstar by night. Nick […]
Recap of Party for Planned Parenthood
Last Friday, May 26th, I decided I’d go to Party for Planned Parenthood, and I’m glad I did. It ended up being a wonderful night of music, community, and social activism. Organized by Jersey City’s David Acosta and Christine Colonnese of Pyrrhic Productions, Party for Planned Parenthood brought together over 100 people to an awesome […]
Overlake
Overlake’s music is warm and receiving with an anchor held firmly in fun, much like their personalities. As I walked into their practice space I was greeted with a smile and a beer and as the conversation went on that one beer led to a few more. We talked about pinball machines, gushed about Dinosaur […]
Babraham Lincoln
The Babes have been a band I’ve been hearing about a lot lately. They came up many times during my interview with the always awesome Desir Decir, they just released an amazing record and played killer show at everyones favorite new hot spot The Pet Shop. So, I decided to drop by a practice where […]
Fredo
Fredo are a 3-piece rock band that have expertly applied their scholarly musical abilities, light-hearted personalities, and all-around love for music into some truly epic jams. These dudes are taking the Jersey City scene by storm by taking their unique style and positive vibes to The Citizen, one of my favorite venues, as well as […]
Desir Decir
I’ve heard about Desir Decir a lot lately. Whether it’s seeing them on show flyers around Jersey City or hearing about them going on tour with a mutual friend, I decided to check them out. These dudes write some seriously ballsy, no frills rock n roll with catchy hooks and straightforward riffs this was exactly […]
EP Review: Victory Dance – The Spectrum
Recently I’ve been a bit starved for new music. Now, I’m not saying all music released recently has been bad but nothing has particularly caught my ear. Basically, I haven’t heard a hook that has taken refuge in my head and refused to move out. Luckily I was contacted by Victory Dance, an indie pop […]
Night Birds, Dirty Fences, Crazy & The Brains @ Monty Hall
There were so many shows going on in Jersey City last night but the place to be was Monty Hall. A full night of cheap beer, high energy and fast as fuck punk jams turned the hall upside down. It kicked off with Jersey City favorites Crazy & The Brains, known for their xylophone player […]
MOTOMONDAY PRESENTS: JESSEFEST
Wow, what a night (is what I said to myself after a rough wake up Saturday morning). The night before, JC’s favorite dive Lucky 7’s hosted a very special MotoMonday event all in the name of our friend Jesse James Madre. Jesse, a staple of the punk scene and piercer and shop manager at Jersey […]
Pat Byrne
Shot by Greg Pallante Pat Byrne is a natural-born entertainer. I first heard about him after seeing some buzz online about his DIY Variety Show Prove it All Night live from WFMU‘s Monty Hall. I’ve always been a huge fan of late night talk shows and when I heard Jersey City had its own, I […]
WFMU
Shot by Greg Pallante A fun fact about me, I used to be a Hip Hop Director at my college radio station back when I lived in Montreal and had a morning show “Hip Hop with DJ Coko and Big Dave” ( I don’t know why I chose such an awful nickname). After two years […]
Cicada Radio
In an attempt to cover more musical genres in the Jersey City scene, I put out on social media that I wanted to take a “hip hop” break and get on the rock n roll side of things. Upon seeing my status, Josh Bartchs, the drummer from Cicada Radio got in touch and sent me […]
Sasha
Sasha is the last (but not least), of the Balance Salon “Stylish Peep” edition and she is a total babe! She seems a little quiet and reserved in comparison to the rest of the Balance crew but definitely has her own rock n roll style going on. I know many Jersey City “stylish peeps” that […]
Dancing Tony – Rock-it Docket
On Friday, I celebrated ChicpeaJC’s one year anniversary with the biggest post of my blogging career; my interview with Mayor Steven Fulop. The day after the post, I thought to myself “Who/what would be a worthy post to follow the Mayor?!” and right away I thought about the guy who “runs fun” in Jersey City: […]
Patrick Bucket Rogers
Patrick Rogers is the newest addition to the Balance Salon family and he fits in so perfectly! He invited me to sit in his chair and we got to chat while he styled me. Patrick is a character and he his hysterical! I feel like he would be the perfect person to go to Luckys with […]
Elena Venetia
I spent a few hours good hours at Balance Salon because I wanted to get to know the whole team and really get a feel for the vibes and how everyone interacts with each other… I didn’t want to leave! In fact I asked Carla if I could get a job there….Anyway, Carla insisted I […]
Balance Salon
Balance Salon is not just a hair salon, it’s a community center, a congregation…a spaceship. There is nothing like this place in Jersey City or anywhere else. Writing about Balance is like writing about the Mayor or the JC Pimp. It’s the holy grail of all ChicpeaJC blog posts and I’ve been waiting for a […]
Devi
I met Debra a long time ago when she started taking my hip hop classes pre-chicpeajc; Debra is small, spunky and energetic so obviously I loved her right away. Debra is also the lead singer of “Devi” a classic rock band based here in Jersey City. She reminds me so much of Joan Jett! It’s […]
Kari Pulizzano – Chicpea’s Girl Crush
Girl Crush alert!! I first laid my eyes on Kari at the WYLDLIFE/Wax Darts/Vomitface show at Lucky’s a few weeks back.. She was rocking out while frontman and boyfriend Dave Feldman (stylish peep) of WYLDLIFE was bringing the house down… I couldn’t stop staring at her! she is just gorgeous , animated, stylish , amazing smile….. […]
Dave Feldman – Wyld & Crazy JC Kid
When I launched CHICpeaJC I knew I wanted someone edgy with a rock n roll “I don’t give a f-k” attitude to be one of my stylish peeps…. Then I found Dave, on Facebook out of all places. I decided to reach out to him, thinking there was no way in hell he would want to […]