Paleface (musician)

Early career

Paleface met songwriter Daniel Johnston in 1989. Johnston taught him how to write songs and Paleface began to make homemade tapes. At this time Paleface was roommates with Beck in New York City. Beck says, "We used to go to all the open mics together. He taught me Daniel Johnston songs on the sidewalk and let me sleep on his couch. He was a great songwriter, a generous friend, and a big influence on my early stuff". In 1990 Danny Fields (manager of The Stooges, The Ramones, MC5, and The Doors) discovered Paleface at an "Lach's Anti-hoot" (NYC open mic), and signed on as his manager.

Recording career

Polygram signed Paleface to a major label deal in 1991. He wrote and recorded his first album, which includes "Burn and Rob" and "There's Something About A Truck" among others. He went on tour with The Judybats and then The Crash Test Dummies to showcase the album in 1992. He next toured with Billy Bragg, and appeared in Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine.

In 1994 Paleface recorded Generic America, produced by Kramer for the independent label Shimmy Disc. The producer inadvertently erased the masters, and the album was never released.

Paleface was the subject of a Lisa Robinson column in The New York Post in 1995. Toward the end of 1995 he signed to Sire Records. The album Get Off was released in 1996 on that label.

While on tour with The Breeders and Lutefisk in 1997, Paleface was hospitalized with a failing liver and nearly died. He altered his lifestyle to restore his health and began a prolific period of song writing in 1998.

Current activities

Paleface met and became friends with artists The Moldy Peaches, Langhorne Slim, and Regina Spektor at Lach's Antihoot in NYC. In 2000 he released his album The Multibean Bootleg. PF released another of his home recordings, The Couch Tape (2001), and sold out his bootlegs at shows.

In 2002 Paleface formed a new band called "Paleface & Monkeybone" with James Broughel and Anders Griffen to perform around New York. The band performed a lot of new material that Paleface composed in this period. Paleface also played gigs with The Moldy Peaches and other New York emerging rock bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Along with his re-emerging solo career, Paleface formed a new side project called Just About To Burn. They released Just About To Burn (Self Titled 2003), produced by Paul Kostabi. The band toured London.

Paleface recorded Free your Mellow (2004) as a solo record.

In 2005 Paleface was invited by The Avett Brothers to their studio to join in the making of Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions. Thirty-one songs were recorded, including five written by Paleface. "Dancin Daze" was chosen for the final release. Later that year Multi-bean Vol.2 was compiled and released.

I Just Wanna Play Guitar (2006) was recorded with Momotaro, Julian Summerhill, and Paul Kostabi. It was released in Germany on the trash/punk rock label Wanker Records.

In 2007, Paleface and girlfriend-drummer Monica "Mo" Samalot left NYC and relocated to North Carolina in order to tour on a full-time basis as an indie folk duo. They are both featured on The Avett Brothers record Emotionalism.

A Different Story (2008) was released next. It features guest performances by The Avett Brothers. Paleface continued to tour with Monica "Mo" Samalot. They performed at festivals such as Floyd Fest, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, and Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion. In 2009, the duo released their full length Ramseur Records debut The Show Is On The Road''. The record features guest performances by Seth Avett, Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon of The Avett Brothers. Soon after the record released it landed on the CMJ Radio Charts and PASTE Magazine featured the duo as “Band Of The Week“ describing the tunes as “songs you’d be glad to hum for the rest of the day”.

Paleface and drummer Mo spent the next year touring from coast to coast in support of the album, including performances at festivals such as Pickathon (Portland, OR), Riverbend (Chattanooga TN) and Bristol Rhythm And Roots (Bristol, VA-TN), as well as showcases such as Tennessee Shines @ Bijou Theatre (WDVX Knoxville TN), Non-com (WXPN & World Cafe Live, Philadelphia PA), and South By Southwest Festival (Austin, TX). And right after SXSW Festival, The Denver Post featured Paleface as one of the "Top 10 Standout SXSW bands of 2010”!

During the Spring 2010, Magnet Magazine premiered Palefaces first music video "New York, New York" from the album The Show Is On The Road, calling the record "excellent".

On April 2010 Paleface released his Ramseur Records full length follow-up "One Big Party", which features girlfriend Monica "Mo" Samalot on drums and vocals, among other friends. The record was produced by Paul 'Ena' Kostabi (Cults, The Willowz, Dee Dee Ramone). The duo celebrated the release with a special guest-performance alongside friends The Avett Brothers at the Avett's sold out Radio City Music Hall show Oct 13th 2010, followed by an US and Europe tours. During “release week”, Daytrotter featured a brand new live recording session by Paleface, which includes stripped-down versions of two songs from One Big Party as well as two others from their previous record, and One of these songs was named "Daytrotter Top 20 Songs - Reader's Choice". On March 2011 PASTE Magazine premiered a short documentary on Paleface called "Paleface - The Making Of One Big Party".

Current lineup

Full length albums

Compilation albums

Collaborations and appearances

Press links