Press Clippings

Eleven rave-up rock and rollers that bring to mind Riverboat Gamblers or Statues in terms of energy and diversity, each song (a little different from the last and a little different from the next) bristles with intensity. Raging punk rock ditties that let loose with Greg Ginn-style solos flying all over the place are interrupted by twangy barroom waltzes and then peppered with some frenetic, danceable indie rock tunes.

- Jeff Proctor, in Razorcake, date published unknown

The best part of the night ... was that I got to see an absolutely awesome band called Ben Franklin, featuring drummer SARAH TOMEK. BF is an intense, extremely tight, dramatic power-pop trio with a bit of a Gang Of Four/Fugazi influence, and Tomek brings all kinds of personality and chops to their material. I picked up their full-length CD, Optimist, at the show, and have been playing it nonstop since.

- Adam Budofsky, Editorial Director, Modern Drummer Magazine newsletter, March 20, 2010

One of the best things I've heard this year, and it cost me nothing! I highly recommend, this is a rock album in every sense of the word!

- Zac Clark, Rocker Tycoon, September 15, 2009

The trio rocks like a quintet, mixing throbbing, melodic basslines, slashing guitar leads interspersed with head-bouncing riffage, and driving backbeats, melding a hectic fusion of pop, punk, and funk — imagine Cheap Trick jamming with early Black Flag at Dismemberment Plan’s 4th of July BBQ.

- Jim Testa, Jersey City Independent, August 13, 2009

Ben Franklin’s sound could be described as the music of Violent Femmes with a little bit of over the top brashness of Tenacious D.

- Zac Clark, The Steaming Pipe, June 29, 2009

With a mixed bag ranging of epic rock themes to small human stories to political statements, the neopunk band Ben Franklin rocked the house of Brooklyn's Club Europa.

- Vandal Truong, Knocks From the Underground, June 9, 2009

Biography

Ben Franklin is a new DIY group, formed by three old hands in the NY/NJ DIY music scene. Guitarist Billy Gray comes from North NJ’s now defunct post-punk group The Meltdowns, bassist Eddie Garza hails from Brooklyn’s Imperialists and L.A.’s The OAOTs, and drummer Sarah Tomek is an award-winning session drummer from Asbury Park and the Brooklyn-based art-rock band Cavalier Rose.

The band was originally formed to help fill-in a few shows, and called “Ben Franklin Was a Whoremonger and God Bless Him.” In December of 2008, Eddie and Billy started writing a lot of personal and political material together and decided to chop the name down and start a new project, writing a new record that would become Optimist.

Over the course of the winter they recruited Sarah to get behind the kit, the drummer of Billy’s first band, many years ago. The immediate result was an explosion of hyperactive energy, wry humor, and pounding rock. Throughout the course of the year the band gained a reputation for putting on a thunderbolt of a live show that usually ends in no small amount of mayhem.

In May of 2009, the group enlisted Daniel Schlett (who recorded A Place to Bury Strangers, The Roadside Graves) to record and mix their debut album at Hoboken’s Hudson County Pigeon Club. In September the full-length was released to a full room of eager fans at Pianos in the Lower East Side. Generating some glowing reviews and local airplay (WBJB, WRSU, 105.7 The Hawk), they’re poised to make an impact on the indie rock scene. The record moves from vicious and visceral punk rock to sober and melancholy bar crawlers. For a trio that tracked all the instruments live, the record has a remarkably non-stop and full sound, from the slow and sweet numbers to the slash-and-burn shouting matches.

Filthy bars, sweaty basements, and the oddest of performance spaces await Ben Franklin, as do many friends and fans. The band will be taking short tours on the East coast in 2010 to promote Optimist and build up their audience while they write for their next record. Optimist is now in its second printing.