Posted by Marissa Prianti This is it:
Link: The Long Islander...
on 8/14/2005, 11:33 pm
24.47.9.219
150 years almost to the day after Walt Whitman released "Leaves Of Grass," the weekly newspaper he started does a piece about Beatnik, Tom Gould. 7-7-05
Tom Gould, as a songwriter and producer, began the Bossa Nova Beatniks in 1992 and worked day and night to make his music dream a reality.
Together - with Tim Stapleton on bongo and djembe, Annie O'Hara as lead singer and bassist, and George Vahamonde on drums - they played CBGB's at the corner of Bowery and Bleeker, the small and dark club where artists like Blondie, the Talking Heads, The Ramones, and The B-52s got their start. They even
toured the Midwest, but the Huntington resident soon realized that while they were all having fun "in the band, no one was able to make a living at it. After a number of years touring, recording, and playing gigs in New York City, Gould decided that while the band would continue to record, it was time to look to a more stable career and applied to Touro Law School.
Only now, after he graduated last month and the band is no longer touring, he finds that the Bossa Nova Beatniks is bringing in more money than ever thanks to the Internet and music download programs like iTunes. A Google.com search on the Web revealed nearly 5,000 results, including the band's website, a number of host sites where you can stream their music on your computer, and online music stores where you can purchase many of their nine albums, including Moonlit Bossa, released earlier this year.
Gould says that he was inspired to go to law school after watching reality TV shows like "Surnvor." He said that he has asked himself, "How would I handle a challenge like that?" Not interested in traveling to a remote tropical island to find out, Gould decided that law school would be the way to go.
"If you don't know the law there are many out there who will take advantage of that fact," he said. Gould, who just graduated cum laude from Touro and is currently studying for the New York State Bar exam, hopes to go into appellate law because he says "there are few opportunities in the music world because the music business is hurting badly." But his history in music has much deeper roots than his interest in law does.
Gould says that he has been interested in music ever since he was a young child. His older brothers had a folk act that they would perform at a resort in Pennsylvania every week. In order to perform with his brothers, however, Gould needed a standup bass. Gould says that he joined the school orchestra just to have access to one. "Music has always been in my life; I didn't choose it, it chose me," he said.
The Bossa Nova Beatnik's music is a mix of Latin influence, straight rock n' roll, folk and classical music. The band's music has found a home on Satellite Radio channel 24 also known as Disorder 24 because of the eclectic mix that it plays.
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