“Why” Skeleton Crew Partners With Music For Good

Skeleton Crew is proud to announce the band’s participation in Music For Good. We have partnered with Music For Good to help raise awareness and money for OXFAM America: “Creating Solutions to Poverty, Hunger & Injustice.”

Every artist selling music on ReverbNation that participates in Music For Good chooses a charity they’d like to support and splits proceeds of that sale right down the middle: $0.56 for the artist + $0.56 for the charity + $0.17 processing. So every time a fan buys a song from a ReverbNation artist, they’re demonstrating their support for indie music and a worthy cause.

Oxfam America is a global organization working to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice. OXFAM save lives, develop long-term solutions to poverty, and campaign for social change. Oxfam is one of 17 members of an international  confederation, they work with people in more than 90 countries to create lasting solutions.

Oxfam America works on the scene, helping people gain the hope, skills, and direction to create a new future. They are also active in the global arena, addressing social injustice through our advocacy, public education, and emergency assistance programs.

Skeleton Crew has contributed our song: “Why.” Originally inspired by Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award  winning film, “Schindler’s List” and the genocide that was taking place in Bosnia-Herzegovina circa 1994. “Why” has never been released as a recording to the public until now. Our purpose is to inspire the power within everyone to speak up, help others, and simply “do good.”

Download “Why” by Skeleton Crew

Skeleton Crew’s “Why” was first enlisted as the soundtrack to the band’s video of the same name focusing on the 2011 Arab Spring uprising taking place in Egypt:

Why Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYJY9F9ZE68&feature=share&list=UUMaGtvTSkV2lmE-pz55tBJw

The sound recording is the original conceptual demo of “Why,” basically written and recorded the moment that inspiration hit that same day. The song shows the band experimenting with found sounds and tape loops to help illustrate the chaos and carnage taking place in the world at that moment.

While the band would prefer that interested parties donate to a worthy cause we are also making the song available as a free download here: Nimbit Store: http://www.nimbitmusic.com/skeletoncrew/#shop/why

Skeleton Crew® Has “Faith” In First Single Release On New Label

Skeleton Crew® New Single | Faith

Detroit (November 11, 2010) – On November 11, 2010 Skeleton Crew® will release their first single, “Faith,” on their own recording label, Skeleton Crew Music. The new single is available for digital download on iTunes, Amazon.com, CD Baby, ReverbNation, Nimbit and most popular digital music download sites. “We’re excited about taking control of our music catalog and how it is presented to the public,” said William Pilipchuk, Skeleton Crew® lead singer. “We’ll be following this release up with a re-mastered version of our debut album “pre-historic…dig!,” a collection of un-released demos and new music in 2011.”

Record Producer, Marc Pastoria

“Faith” was produced by Grammy® Award winning record producer Mark Pastoria (for his work on the Luther Vandross Tribute Album with Aretha

Author, Mitch Albom

Franklin) and recorded at Harmonie Park Studios in Detroit, Michigan. The song was originally released as the band’s contribution to the Christmas in Detroit 3 project. Proceeds from Christmas in Detroit 3 went to author/columnist Mitch Albom’s S.A.Y. Detroit Charity to help the homeless in Detroit. “’Faith’ is still available on Christmas in Detroit 3,” adds Pilipchuk, “and we encourage everyone to purchase that incredible recording at http://www.christmasindetroit.org.” “Faith” single cover photograph by artist Julio Pallone.

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This not-so-stereotypical Detroit band has enjoyed a wealth of accolades bestowed on them by their hometown in recent years. The band garnering top honors at The Motor City Music Awards as “Band of The Year” and pre-historic…dig! was named “Best Pop/Rock Record.”

Skeleton Crew® was the first Michigan band to release an “Enhanced CD,” technology that combined video and computer interactivity in addition to the music tracks. “pre-historic…dig!” was also one of the first “Enhanced CD” releases in the country, even in advance of enhanced products from the Rolling Stones and Madonna!

As performers, Skeleton Crew has opened shows for such diverse acts as: The Rembrandts, the Smithereens, Robert Palmer, Todd Rundgren, Tesla, Kenny Loggins, Foreigner and Eddie Money. Venues have ranged from 2000-seaters, to the outdoor DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, Tiger Stadium in Detroit and The Palace of Auburn Hills arena.

Skeleton Crew® also merits a musical footnote in the career of superstar Beyonce Knowles as being “that scary band” that defeated the then 12-year and her group Girl Tyme on Ed McMahon’s Star Search.

Skeleton Crew Teams Up With Best Selling Author Mitch Albom To Promote Peace

DETROIT (November 1, 2010) ­– In a rare public performance, Skeleton Crew® will appear and perform live on The Mitch Albom Radio Show, Tuesday November 2, 2010 at 6 pm on WJR-Radio AM 760. The band will perform their version of The Beatles “I Am The Walrus” which they released as a free MP3 download to celebrate John Lennon’s 70^th birthday.

Skeleton Crew® is asking all those who download the free song to consider becoming a “tributary of peace.” John and Yoko were at the forefront of the modern peace movement. Their vision embraced new technologies to encourage peace and love throughout the world. Noting that the Internet is like a mammoth “river of peaceful possibilities,” Skeleton Crew® lead singer, William Pilipchuk would like to encourage the masses to follow in Yoko’s footsteps as she continues to harness the powerful connectivity of the Internet to help humanity embrace and share peace and love.

Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom is a bestselling author, a nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist (with the Detroit Free Press) a radio host (with WJR-AM) and a television commentator (with ESPN and ABC.) His well-known book, “Tuesdays With Morrie”, is now the best selling memoir of all time, with nearly 10 million copies sold worldwide. Albom, along with playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, adapted the book into a hit play, which opened off-Broadway late 2002. That play is currently being performed in regional theaters throughout North America. Albom’s first novel, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” was published in 2003 has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for more than a year. With a screenplay by Albom, “Five People” has been adapted into an ABC movie starring Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn and Jeff Daniels.

“We can’t thank Mitch enough for the opportunity to help promote this positive message on his radio show,” said Pilipchuk. The broadcast can also be heard streaming on the Internet at http://radiotime.com/station/s_29965/WJR_760.aspx. After downloading the Free MP3 of I Am The Walrus, Skeleton Crew® encourages everyone to visit Yoko Ono’s website, Imagine Peace, at http://www.imaginepeace.com to see how she is utilizing the Internet to spread positive messages. Visitors to the site may find some inspiration on how they, too, can help change the world.

Celebrate John Lennon’s 70th Birthday With “MPFree” Music Download

Happy 70th Birthday John Lennon! peaceloveone! ~Skeleton Crew®

To commemorate John Lennon’s seventieth birthday on October 9, 2010, Detroit-based indie band Skeleton Crew® will make an MPFree (Free MP3) music download of their version of John’s “I Am The Walrus” available to the world. The high quality, 320 kbps MP3 download can be downloaded for free the entire month of October at these two download links:

CloudApp: http://cl.ly/e11f2c7e6cb07949ec59

Droplr:  http://drp.ly/9Jxz. There’s just one (positive) catch.

Skeleton Crew® is asking all those who download the free song to consider becoming a “tributary of peace.” John and Yoko were at the forefront of the modern peace movement. Their vision embraced new technologies to encourage peace and love throughout the world. Noting that the Internet is like a mammoth “river of peaceful possibilities,” Skeleton Crew® lead singer, William Pilipchuk would like to encourage the masses to follow in Yoko’s footsteps as she continues to harness the powerful connectivity of the Internet to help humanity embrace and share peace and love.

Noted mind, body and spiritual guru, Dr. Deepak Chopra, expands on this sentiment in explaining the theory of Quantum Physics as an energy that flows freely between all things and the universe making us all interconnected. “In John’s opening lyrics to ‘I am The Walrus’ he sings: ‘I am he, as you are he, as you are me and we are all together,” in other words, as Pilipchuk points out, “John clearly defines Quantum Physics in one line of his song: amazing!”

In this era of instant-everything where it seems people are talking more and listening less, one thing has remained constant: we’re still listening to music. “The celebration of John Lennon’s 70th birthday is the perfect time to once again embrace his medium of choice – music – to encourage the world to start listening to each other, keep the peace and stop the proliferation of fear and hate,” said Skeleton Crew® drummer, Greg Tyler.

After downloading the Free MP3 of I Am The Walrus, Skeleton Crew® encourages everyone to visit Yoko Ono’s website, Imagine Peace, at http://www.imaginepeace.com to see how she is utilizing the Internet to spread positive messages. Visitors to the site may find some inspiration on how they, too, can help change the world.

Skeleton Crew | Live at Griff’s Grill | Twilight

Attention: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and gurls, cats and dogs, vampires and mammals of all ages; welcome back to another video in the Skeleton Crew® Live at Griff’s Grill series. Many songs from the Skeleton Crew® repertoire only appear in this rare video footage which makes the Skeleton Crew® Live at Griff’s Grill series a true gem.

The video is hand-held, well-worn, and not up to the quality of the Palace of Auburn Hills performances, but good enough to get a raw feel of what the band was like in close quarters.

This week’s song is our precursor homage to the hugely popular and successful “Twilight Saga.” Please savor some of the tasty bass licks from our wunderkind, Chris Badynee (aka Bogdon Vasquaf), and bite into this musical serving appropriately titled: “Twilight.” Njoy!

Skeleton Crew Launches Live at Griff’s Grill Video Series

In the spirit of transparency we offer up this next series of Skeleton Crew® video performances. We don’t want to give the world the impression that Skeleton Crew® only performed at 20,000 plus seat arenas. On the contrary, Skeleton Crew® was an equal opportunity venue performer; yes we played large venues, but also enjoyed some of our best performances in smaller ones, too, like the State Theatre and Royal Oak Music.

One thing the band takes great pride in is its consistency. We played exactly with the same intensity and attention to detail in a parking lot, back lot, beer hall, bistro, coffee shop or in someone’s living room.

Which brings us to our new video series: Skeleton Crew® Live at Griff’s Grill. Griff’s was a cool place to gig, right in the heart of the city of Pontiac, Michigan and in the shadows of the Pontiac Silverdome where the Detroit Lions used to play. The video tape of this classic footage of the band was dug up by our drummer Greg’s beautiful wife, Janine Tyler. Thank you so much Janine!

Many songs from the Skeleton Crew® repertoire only appear in this rare series which makes the Skeleton Crew® Live at Griff’s Grill series a true gem. The video is hand-held, well-worn, and not the quality of the Palace of Auburn Hills performance, but good enough to get a raw feel of what the band was like in close quarters.

Come back often over the next few weeks to get down and dirty with Skeleton Crew® Live at Griff’s Grill. This week’s song is “Trumpeting Soul.” Hope you Njoy!

Skeleton Crew | Palace of Auburn Hills Concert | Lost My Way

As Jim Morrison so eloquently put it: “This is the end”…of the Palace of Auburn Hills Concert Series. We hope you’ve enjoyed watching the videos over the past few weeks as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing them to you.

Skeleton Crew® would like to send the love out to our harmony partner, Connie Marshall, who made this concert and the video footage you’ve been watching a reality. We love you Connie! And, we happen to love to love this song, “Lost My Way.” Njoy!

Skeleton Crew | The Palace of Auburn Hills Concert | Trumpeting Soul

Welcome to The Palace of Auburn Hills Concert Series! Each week we will be uploading a different song from that performance. This week’s Skeleton Crew® song is “Trumpeting Soul.”

It’s fitting we had the opportunity to perform “Trumpeting Soul” on the Palace stage as the idea for the music was first introduced there. Skeleton Crew® had the honor of performing the national anthem at several Detroit Pistons games. It was backstage at one of the anthem performances that Scott first played me the idea he had for the opening guitar line. I had had the title “Trumpeting Soul” running through my head for some time and the moment Scott played me the opening guitar line I said: “that’s trumpeting soul!”

The song deals with coming to terms with the loss of a loved one; in this case the passing of my father a few years earlier. His death to this day weighs heavily on my conscience as it was the result of an accident I felt to blame. I am forever grateful to have hugged my father the night before the accident and told him directly that I loved him. ~William

Thought you might like reading the lyrics so here they are:

trumpeting soul

no never mind i never needed to tell you i want you
i’d sooner die than believe in the weakness of fools
all my life i’ve waited…it’s true
to realize i never needed no one more than you
a hand for the helpless to help tie my shoes

listen to me (hush my darling)
hear the word, speak the truth (don’t you cry)
there’s somebody up there (keep your head up)
smilin’ down on me and you (high…)
baby i (like), maybe i’d (to), like to know (know)
the trumpeting soul

i had in mind a little faith in this trial and error world
you might have been sorry for leaving so soon
take your time don’t hurry…this through
i’d rather die than be left all alone without you
a sign for the silent and a sun dripping life

hold on to something (hush my darling)
the key that we hold (don’t you cry)
it sounds just like music (keep your head up)
and it feels good as gold (high…)
maybe i (take), maybe i’ll (con), take control (trol)
of the trumpeting soul

a symbol of hope we don’t dare let go

cry if you need to (hush my darling)
said the calm before the storm (don’t you cry)
and know that i love you (keep your head up)
as you walk through that door (high…)
Gabriel! (blow), Gabriel! (your), come blow your horn (horn)
you’re the trumpeting soul

Word & Music by Skeleton Crew® | ©Skeleton Crew Music (ASCAP)

Skeleton Crew® | Christmas in Detroit 3 | “Faith”

The recording sessions for “Faith,” Skeleton Crew’s contribution to the Christmas in Detroit 3 project, began on 09/09/09. There was a palpable energy and vibe in the air that was felt by everyone involved.

We had the pleasure of working with Grammy Award winning record producer, Mark Pastoria, and Pastor Henry Covington who brought in the choir we incorporated for backing vocals on the  “Faith” recording. Pastor Henry is featured in Mitch Albom’s new book, “Have a Little Faith.” The choir was both inspirational and perfect for this song; they weren’t professional singers, but a group made up of diverse individuals who in some way or another ran into varying degrees of hard luck in their lives. These beautiful individuals, with the help of Pastor Henry and others, have managed to turn their lives around for the better. They have gone on to help and inspire others.

It was during the subsequent recording session to record this choir of hope that we had the pleasure of enjoying a break from recording to talk to one of the choir members. During our conversation about the overall recording experience, the topic returned to the song “Faith” and its meaning.

It was at this moment that the individual we were speaking with offered to share a story that moved us deeply and one we will never forget. The choir member revealed that there was a time in the not-so-distant past where they had slept in a cardboard box outside of the very recording studio in which we were working.

This candid individual lived to party and often frequented Lola’s, the nightclub that occupied the first floor of the building that housed Harmony Park Studios, located in the newly revitalized Harmonie Park area of Detroit. This person eventually dug down deep for the courage and pulled themselves up and got their life moving in a positive direction through the help of people like Pastor Henry and others.

Then came the point in our conversation where this individual told us that they were about to leave the mission that helped them get their life in order and where they worked helping others. This person did not share with us whether they were leaving to become the denizen of despair they fought so hard to conquer or if they were leaving to pursue other opportunities.

It was at the time the choir member was about to announce their departure from the mission when Brian, the talented choir director, handed this person the lyrics to our song, “Faith.” They had not heard a note of the music nor had they ever heard of the band Skeleton Crew before. The choir member told us that immediately after reading the lyrics they were so moved they changed their mind and decided right then and there not to leave. The lyrics moved this person so much they felt this was their reason to stay on at the mission and continue helping others. Speechless and holding back tears we thanked this individual for sharing their very personal story with us.

The reward for writing and recording “Faith” has exceeded even our greatest expectations. To have a song like “Faith” or something you’ve created affect someone so much to the point it alters their life course and steers them in a positive direction is priceless and worth every effort in its production.

Skeleton Crew would like to thank Brian and Mark Pastoria for generously inviting us to participate in this incredible musical journey. We would also like to thank our engineer Alan and everyone at Harmonie Park Studios for making this one of the most memorable recording experiences of our career. Here’s to working together again soon and Merry Christmas to all!

peace & love ~Skeleton Crew®

PS: Help the homeless in Detroit and enjoy some great music by purchasing Christmas in Detroit 3 at http://www.christmasindetroit.org.

Skeleton Crew® | Star Search Backstage | So Long Serenade

Our heroes are taking their loss on Star Search in stride. Here we find them relaxing in the lobby of the Orlando Airport Hotel. Doing what they do best and what they will always do: play music. Njoy!

P.S. Fear not. This may be the official end of the Star Search Revisited Series, but it’s not the end totally. There will be more fun behind-the-scenes video and antics to come in the not-so-distant-future. We won’t leave you hanging too long!

peace&love~Skeleton Crew®

From the pen of Bogdon Vasquaf:

This is our finale after appearing on Star Search for 7 weeks, enjoying 3 weeks all expenses paid in Disney World Florida. We played our music by the pool, in bars and restaurants, on the streets in and out of Disney World, on the main stage in Pleasure Island, we played our music while standing in lines, in the rain, for strangers, in the green room with a little boy named Justin Timberlake, on stage against a little girl named Beyonce, taught our songs to a singer named Beth Hart, and had more fun than i ever had with music and friends… This is the moment after everything was done, we earned the title as “non winners” and relaxed as we waited for our flight home… (our conga drums were actually seat-belted in first class seats!!!!!!!!)