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An archive and tribute, in progress, to the music of Andy Martin.
Newly Added Recordings
- 2/2022 - Backwards Version of Breakdown...a rough practice version that Andy most likely appended a backwards intro to -- it seems the backwards intro is actually "Rescue Me" in reverse, which I am also adding. Just found these and like them a lot!
- 9/2020 - FareCard Captured - Six Loaded Reasons - Original EXTRA-ROUGH Instrumental Demo - MP3 - This is a rough practice recording of us working through different ideas for a new song, later to be known as "Six Loaded Reasons." It was probably the first day we worked on it. Nonetheless, it really shows Andy's creativity and the multitide of different instrumental parts he would write for a song before he/we would shape it into a final version. Recording features Andy, Chris, Paul and Mike in Mike's attic.
Featured Recordings
These were some of Andy's later tracks. While I recognize them, I wasn't particularly involved in the writing or recording of them, which is certainly part of the reason they sound so good. I feel these are great representations of Andy's skillful and catchy songwriting abilities. I'm not sure who is singing / wrote the lyrics.
- Demo Track 1 - Andy, Drenin and Someone? singing - Circa 2009/2010 - MP3
- Demo Track 2 - Andy, Drenin and Someone? singing - Circa 2009/2010 - MP3
More Recordings
- Farecard Captured - Rooting for the Underdog (2006) - MP3
- Farecard Captured - Six Loaded Reasons (2006) - MP3
- Farecard Captured - Rescue Me - Acoustic (2006) - MP3
- Farecard Captured - Rescue Me - Backwards, 1 minute (2005) - MP3
- Farecard Captured - Breakdown - Backwards Version - Instrumental - Rough Practice Demo (2005) - MP3
- Farecard Captured - Second Chances Come and Go - 2006 - MP3
- Afterall - New Song Hizzle 600 - MP3
- Afterall - New Song Hizzle 1800 - MP3
- Afterall - New Song Hizzle 3000 - MP3
- Afterall - Track 8 (A one-time-ever-played guitar solo caught on cassette tape. Based on a YouTube video we saw. It gets better as it goes.) - MP3
- Andy Martin - Dodge Viper (MIDI version) - MP3
- much more coming soon
Featured Videos
Breakfast Sandwich Story
During a basement show on 4/10/2009, Chris and Brian tell the story of inviting Andy to play guitar with them during practice.
Andy recording "600" rhythm guitar
Recording on the multi-track recorder in Drenin's basement.
A Brief Musical Biography
In sixth grade, Andy received a brand-new Squier Stratocaster as a gift and it became an instant obsession. With the help of the internet and online tablature, it was possible for us to learn basic chords and music. Even though I was four years older than him, he was very quickly the better guitarist. I will forever be trying to catch up.
The early days were filled with learning parts to songs we liked (mostly classic rock and pop punk), attempting to play songs together, and frequent trips to Sam Ash Music in Franklin Mills mall to explore their selection of guitars, pedals, amps and accessories.
Working at the Austrian Village restaurant in Rockledge, I met Mike Elia, who shared similar music interests, lived in the neighborhood and played drums. Mike and I would meet at his house to play music for hours on end. With my high school graduation party approaching on 5/31/2004, we planned to play a few songs at the party and invited Andy to join us as lead guitarist. Andy, naturally, was a great fit that day and began playing with Mike and I all the time going forward.
In 2004, Mark Gilmore, a high school friend, joined us on bass guitar and vocals, which made us feel like a complete band. We took on the band name, “FareCard Captured”, inspired by the metro payment system in Washington D.C., and booked a few shows, including a mischief night birthday party for Jess, a 3-band music fest at the Water Tower in Chestnut Hill, our famous cabbage-filled performance at the Little Dipper ice cream shop in Elkins Park, a battle of the bands at Cheltenham High school and Frank’s graduation party (7/3/2005).
In the middle of 2005 after Frank's Graduation Party (7/3/2005), Paul Welsh took over on bass guitar and the band started working on more original songs. Andy turned out to be the lead songwriter with Chris, Mike and Paul all making minor contributions. At some point, our friend Travis very generously gifted Andy a blue Fender Stratocaster, which Andy would play extensively.
Kevin Crockett, a friend of Paul’s, became the lead vocalist and the band officially became a five piece. Kevin quickly wrote lyrics to most of the band’s original music and one of his first practices was the band’s show at the Trocadero in Philadelphia — an all-day local music festival, which would be the largest show the band would play.
The band played a bunch of shows and recorded an 8 song album in Mike’s attic that was released in 2006.
We ceremoniously played Mike's graduation party in Spring of 2006, Mike left for college and the band unofficially disbanded. Andy, Paul and I turned to Brian Drenin, a friend of Andy’s, to play drums and a new band was formed.
Andy’s songwriting and guitar playing stepped up to a new level during this time, with larger sounding songs, layered guitars and instantly memorable riffs and hooks tying each song together.
The new band, Afterall, recorded a bunch of tracks primarily written by Andy. By this time, Andy had a unique way of writing songs by entering his guitar parts into an application on his computer called Guitar Pro 5. He could then layer bass, drum and piano parts on top of his guitar parts and share the songs with us. It was a pretty cool method.
In need of a vocalist, I reached out to my favorite local band and asked their singer, Vinny Vassallo, if he'd join the band. He agreed and composed lyrics to our songs. We played two official shows; One at Finn McCool's in Warminster and one at the Arcadia University musicfest.
We carried on recording various new songs and Andy had a number of projects, even bigger and better, in the works.
I've been talking about creating this archive and tribute for many years and am excited to finally have it underway. Luckily, I recorded tons of audio/video and took tons of pictures over the years. There's lot of really great and hilarious stuff. I'll be adding them as I sift through them.
Also, I was able to track down Andy's original cream Squier Stratocaster several years ago, I think with the help of Brian Drenin. It was entirely in pieces. And luckily most of the pieces were there!
Thanks for supporting Andy's music over the years!
-Chris