Whatz Up Magazine; Jacob Jabits, Scene & Herd

September 14-20, 2000,

…..But I think slowly, so it is better if I can listen a few times. Such was my opportunity this weekend to hear the forthcoming CD from Rosemary Gates, to be titled, Shine. Here is another band that plays a lot of covers in their shows, but I think they've been writing from the get-go. I am not going to review the whole album here (there's another spot in Whatz Up for that), but I will say that I like it. Plus, it sounds phenomenal! I tell ya, Soundmill Studios is producig some great sounding records these days. I put this on for a friend of mine and asked him to guess who it was. After naming half a dozen national acts, he gave up. I can hear people saying, well yes, but the quality of the material is what really counts. Not necessarily, and certainly not immediately upon first listen. It is important that the CD sound like a national release (or at least a really good independent release, which I think Soundmill has been doing for quite sometime now). I don't know when it's coming out, but I think people are going to like it, and I'll even go out on a limb and say that it will get more than normal amount of radio play…..

Whatz Up Magazine, September 14-20, 2000, Mr. Whatz Up, Newz & Notez

Bands and performers who pay attention to these things will probably notice that we've used a photo of Rosemary Gates in this issue's Jacob Jabits' column for the second time in three weeks. Part of the reason is that, yes, Rosemary Gates is one of Mr. Whatzup's favorite local bands (even though he's only seen them play once, the setting was killer). The real reason though is that they just sent us a batch of new photos which include the newest Gate, Bryan "B-Funk" Bankson, who replaced founding member Scott Jackson in March of this year…..

Back to Mr. B-Funk. We might as well inform you that he's a former member of Radio Daze (the nationally touring cover band) and has played with Brian Lemert's Gypsy Circus, whose music we've enjoyed listening to the past couple of weeks, until Jabits came and got his CD back.

Speaking of Rosemary Gates, the band has a CD release party set for Shine, its debut release (more in Jabits' column) at Columbia Street West October 28. The 12-song CD includes a cover of Lenny Kravitz' "Rosemary," from which the band took half its name. We're looking forward to getting an advanced copy…..