The Paper Jets – Everyday Forever Album Art

You Don’t Know Jersey has named Everyday Forever one of its top NJ albums of 2018 saying “From the brilliant danceable power pop of “Say I Can” to the slow burn of “My Gemini Heart” to the punk infused “Go On Go On” the album is the band at the top of their game.”

Read the full article here.

Thanks to The Aquarian and to author Bob Makin for – um – “makin” the right choice this year!

“…If indeed The Paper Jets have played their last show then guitarist/vocalist Brian Erickson, lead guitarist Mike Virok, bassist Scott Austin Miller and drummer Frank Lettieri Jr. can take comfort knowing that they not only played one of their best shows ever but did so on the same day they released one of the best albums of 2018.”

Read the full review here.

On Friday December 7, The Paper Jets ended a ten year run with a headlining release show at Asbury Lanes. Hundreds gathered for what may well be the band’s final performance and they did everything but disappoint.

In a kinder universe, this show would have been the start something bigger; the next phase for a band who has seemed both poised, and ready, for a while yet. Instead, it served as a cap-off to a sometimes-frustrating, frequently-interesting, never-boring decade that included four records, four tours, five festivals, and nine members.

As the show progressed, The Paper Jets ran through the best of their entire catalogue, featuring several cuts from their latest album Everyday Forever alongside longtime staples “Set of Rules,” Lena Lena,” and “Atlantic City.”

The performance took a turn toward the sentimental when, for the first time since January 2011, Bill Lambusta joined his former bandmates on stage for the final suite of songs. Then, before the band’s final number, manager Bill Greenwood, former keyboardist Kristen Leu, and longtime collaborator Jeff Fiedler also got on stage!

If this is the band’s final show, they couldn’t have pulled it off any better.

The Paper Jets at Asbury Lanes Set List (with Album Title):

1. CC It’s Not Me – Everyday Forever

2. Wonderful Love – Everyday Forever

3. Say I Can – Everyday Forever

4. #Lena Lena – We Are All Strange Friends

5. Elizabeth Distressed – Almost Nine

6. *Atlantic City – My Hometown: A Tribute to NJ (Bruce Springsteen cover)

7. Friends of Friends – We Are All Strange Friends

8. Jo Don’t Let Me – Almost Nine

9. Up to You – Everyday Forever

10. Go On Go On – Everyday Forever

11. Charlie It Can’t Be Done – Everyday Forever

12. *+Two & Two – Face Forward

13. +%Set of Rules – We Are All Strange Friends

14. +Cooking Up An Accident – We Are All Strange Friends

15. +^All These Things That I’ve Done – The Killers cover

Annotations:

#Scott Austin Miller – lead vocals

*Frank Lettieri Jr – lead vocals

+Bill Lambusta – guitar

%Brittney Dixon – lead vocals

^Jeff Fiedler, Kristen Leu, Chris Dubrow – backing vocals

From left: Brian Erickson (lead vocals/guitar), Scott Austin Miller (bass/vocals), Frank Lettieri Jr. (drums/vocals), and Michael James Virok (lead guitar).

During an interview leading up to the release of Everyday Forever, Brian Erickson and Frank Lettieri Jr. dropped a pretty big bomb: The Paper Jets may well be through after the record comes out. Erickson asks sardonically, “Who is just dying to see us tour and release records? Sometimes you’ve gotta just say ‘no thanks’ and shut the lights out for a bit.”

Lettieri takes a more level-headed approach “I don’t believe this is the end of The Paper Jets.  This hiatus will hopefully allow us to come back at some point in the future with new songs and sounds.”

Read the full interview here.

100% of the proceeds will benefit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Stream and download the entire 58-song compilation here.

Since then, songs continued to be shuffled in and out of the set list but last night, the band decided to put it all in order! Familiar songs like “Say I Can,” and “Charlie It Can’t Be Done,” sat alongside newcomers “Chatter,” and “My Gemini Heart,” – ten in all – to form what promises to be the band’s best record yet!

Set List (also – surprise! – new album track-list subtly revealed):

1. CC It’s Not Me

2. Wonderful Love

3. Say I Can

4. Up to You

5. Go On Go On

6. Charlie It Can’t Be Done

7. Kiss Arcana

8. Chatter

9. Watch My Fingers

10. My Gemini Heart

Erickson (left) and Cook (right) post after a show in Belmar, NJ. Photo by Alice Magdziak.

For the past six months, Brian Erickson has been moonlighting as the bassist in Jersey shore songwriter Matt Cook’s piano rock trio. And it has now been announced that he’ll be appearing as a backing vocalist on his next album, Girasole.

As The Paper Jets continue chipping away at their forthcoming full-length, Erickson has become a surprisingly-busy sideman. In addition to touring with Cook, he has played with New Brunswick punk rock quintet Finding Feebas (and is rumored to be producing their debut EP), and has recently appeared on stage with Jesse Elliot whose album he produced in 2015.

Girasole is due out by December 2017. In the meantime, check out some of Matt Cook’s previous records via Bandcamp.

The album was tracked at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota (where legendary LP’s like Rid of Me, In Utero, and Hollywood Town Hall were recorded) and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering.

Track-Listing:

1. Analog Mind Bender

2. Aurora

3. Mustang

4. Heavy

5. Little Angel

6. My Dear

7. The Circus

8. Death Vibrations

9. Gamma Ray

10. Porcelain

11. The Shore

12. Ghosts

Dust of Days are:

Frank Lettieri Jr – vocals, drums, producer, engineer, mixing

James Harold McGee – lead guitar, piano

Mark Lettieri – guitar, producer

Scott Silvester – bass

Michael James Virok – guitar

Dana Pizzuti Marchioni – violin (on “The Shore”)

Recorded and Engineered by Nick Tveitbakk at Pachyderm Recording Studios, Cannon Falls, Minnesota

Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, Maine

Photos by Chelsea Conte, Mike Virok, and Mark Lettieri

Art Design by Frank Lettieri Jr.