JD and the Robbery
I got involved with what would be JD and the Robbery (aka JDR) when Autodialer started easing back on the commitment in favor of other projects--we were all pretty busy. My friend Avi (really more of an accquaintance at the time) asked me to play in his cover band as they were throwing a house party and needed a bassist. I had time so I obliged, and learned 12 songs the night or so before my first practice with the band, then known as the Bobby Rosenwood Band. Three shows and a few months later, Avi moved to Philadelphia and the rest of us regrouped as a three-piece and came up with the current moniker. I'm JD (initials and all), and Rob + Ari = Robbery. It was the best way of incorporating all three of our names into the band. We don't have any original tunes, but I have us on this page because of an unusual claim to fame of ours: we're DC's only all-Jewish cover band. At least, we're the only one that admits it.
Autodialer
Autodialer, a current musical project (albeit presently on temporary permanent hiatus), has been fourteen years in the making. While I was working on A Bass And Its Boy (see below), my friend Vince (former guitarist for Guyana Koolaid, see way below) was playing in a cover band called FishHead. I wasn't looking for a gig, but they needed a bassist to fill in for one show. I agreed to do it, and that led to me being in the band full time. Eventually Vince and I began writing together, and we left FishHead to start Autodialer. Vince's wife just had twins so he's a little busy right now, but we're still making the rock n' roll happen.
A Bass And Its Boy
After the demise of Mobia's Trip (again, see below) I decided that I'd try out the singer-songwriter thing... but I'm just not a guitarist. Playing solo bass and voice performances has proven something a of a challenge, but it's been a rewarding one. With a nod to the Chronicles of Narnia and with a desire to not have people gloss over an unfamiliar and otherwise non-descript name like "Joshua Edelstein" in local music listings, I named the project "A Bass And Its Boy."
Mobia's Trip
At its inception in 1995, Mobia's Trip consisted of myself on bass and vocals, Evan Field on guitar and vocals, and Paul Hoffman on drums and backup vocals (replacing Yoni Sandler with whom Evan and I had been playing from '94 to '95). In 1999 we added C. Brian Crane on keyboards, acoustic guitar and vocals as well as Paul's brother Preston on congas, bongos and the saw. We also had a great road crew in Tim Devine on sound and Matt Hill on lights and fog. Our sound went through as many changes as our line up--in 1996 we were a progressive rock band, circa 1998 we were a funk rock band and by the time the music stopped, we were a jam band in the vein of Phish and others. Below you will find studio recordings from the beginning and end of our career as a band, in reverse chronological order.
Somnia | Splatter | Window | Cello | Jack Be Nimble | Legacy | Blackberry
January 2000 Demo EP
Legacy |
Attitude |
Window |
Tight Buns and Alotta Pride |
Kill Your Idols |
Dao'N'Homer
A Long Walk From Eden
Hourglass |
Dao'N'Homer |
Burn |
14 Bands Of Silver |
Staring Problem |
Palintone
Harbour |
Sheva |
Shitkicker |
Praise The Daffodil |
I Feed The Demon |
Epilogue
Guyana Koolaid
GK was my college band along with Joe O'Brien on vocals, Michael Wilder on lead guitar, Vince Martinez on rhythm guitar and Ramon Varela on drums. We played our first show at Georgetown University as "Who Stole My Skull," called ourselves "The Disconnectors" for a while and settled on the tasteless but catchy name that a friend suggested. Hey, it was a metal band. We found out later that the capital of Guyana is Georgetown and that we had a sister school there--who knew! We then found out that there was a Canadian band called "Jonestown Punch," so we weren't the only ones being irreverent . . . GK played from '91 to '94 with a one year hiatus in the middle, and did a reunion show in '96. Below are the rare surviving recordings.
Fountainhead
In 1990, I had just finished high school and agreed to play a summer gig with my friend Jon Jaffe's band, who--including Jon--had all just finished the 8th grade. Having started out on guitar, I wasn't even considering myself a bassist yet but I had one and figured I'd be at least as good a bassist as they were everything else. The show wound up being one of the reasons that I shifted full time to bass a year later. The following summer I hooked up with Carter Evans and Mahesh Cleveland (the drummer and lead guitarist, respectively) since Jon was away at camp, and we jammed in Carter's bedroom and came up with five songs. The summer after that, we got back together and wrote five more songs. We decided that in the time we had we could either perform a show or record an album, and we opted for the latter. The songs from that album, entitled So There, are below.
So There | Highway Bleeding | BFC | Anything At All | Satisfied | :30 Of Silence
Before all that, way back when I was a beginning guitar student in 1987 or 1988, my guitar teacher Kelly Villaverde laid down tracks for a song I wrote and had me sing on it. I was what, 16? The song is called the "Love Rejection Blues," and was inspired by 80s dance band Dead Or Alive. They had a song called "Cake And Eat It" on the album Youthquake, in which they sang the line "I got lots of things that you could use/So don't reject it or I'll get the love rejection blues." I figured if he was gonna get the love rejection blues, there should BE a love rejection blues. Wrote a song about it, like to hear it, here it goes: