Discography – DAVID J. LAURIA

New Old Stock

Here’s the formal press release for the new album! There might be some info here that you don’t already know, or maybe it’s just me talking about myself too much. Why not both, I guess…

David (D. J.) Lauria spent over twenty years as a performing musician in the New England area: writing, recording, touring, teaching, and gigging with many area acts. In the 90s, his D. J. Lauria Band released several singles, and one CD called Satellite Pictures, but many of their most popular songs only existed in the air at the bars, clubs, and theaters they played from Portland, ME to Philadelphia, PA. His new album New Old Stock is an attempt to finally bring some of those great songs to the general public.
Straight-up rock and roll tracks like “Seen This Episode Before” and “My Beatle Paul” (which, coming from a noted Georgie, is NOT about McCartney) mix with more introspective songs like the haunting “Indecision”, featuring local singer-songwriter Casey Ruth Little. “How Does It Feel To Be a National Joke”, which was previously released in a very different arrangement on Live at CBGB, turns the cliché that there’s no such thing as bad publicity on its head. Meanwhile, “When It All Falls Down” is the interior monologue of a scammer, and “Sketch Artist”, a funky piece originally written for James Montgomery (for whom Lauria sometimes played guitar), is a singalong with a killer extended guitar solo.
This modern version of the DJLB, with Lauria’s son Jacob on drums, has brought their no frills rock aesthetic to the modern age. New Old Stock is named for the forgotten guitars in the warehouse, aged to perfection but never played. It’s finally time to take these classics out into the light and crank the volume.

—
David Lauria’s love of teaching led him to his second career, as a public school educator, and he currently teaches chorus, digital audio, guitar, and songwriting at Mt. Hope High School in Bristol, RI. With his students, he has started the Mt. Hope Music platform, and they have released two full albums (with a third on the way) and several singles. He also led the CCM band Listen Above, and currently plays with By George! (a tribute to George Harrison) and Topaz.

Moon in the Morning Sky

I was a member of the band Rumours (a tribute to Fleetwood Mac) for about ten years. Being left-handed, and a bit more of a Peter Green than Lindsey Buckingham, it was always a little bit of an odd fit. We had a great time, though, and I love all that music to this day. Our good friend Eliza Hope has been a Stevie Nicks disciple her entire life, so when I wrote a song that evokes “Dreams” and “Rhiannon” I was obviously going to give it to her to sing. “Moon in the Morning Sky” is moody and mysterious and groovy and slightly weird. Most of the lyrics are callbacks to 70s rock lore or specific FM incidents that have become legend over the decades. The background vocals were a happy accident that happened when Eliza was messing around with something else, and the guitar solo sounds like David Gilmour. I swear, Lindsey, it’s not personal.
Watch the official video
Feature article in East Bay RI

Buy/listen online
iTunes Amazon Spotify YouTube

Live at CBGB

Even for the time (1997) it was an old camera/VCR setup, and the video quality in a dingy, poorly-lit club was beyond bad. You had to bring a VHS tape and $20 in cash to get the sound engineer to hit record at that start of your set. On the plus side, though, sound was straight off the board and they took that part pretty seriously. Besides, it was CBGB, and we had no idea that we would continue to play there, so we really wanted a keepsake for that first show.

Considering how unlike the other bands we were, I something think that maybe this was the most punk thing we ever did: going to CBGB and playing a straight rock set in 1997. Clearly, the ska/DMB crowd had no idea what to do with us, but they were gracious about it, regardless. We got the recording, watched it once, then didn’t think about it again for years. John A. ended up with it and brought it to Oregon when he moved, where it ended up in a box in his basement. He sent it to me around 2010 and I promised to digitize it, so of course I threw it in a closet and forgot about it myself. When I finally dug it out in early 2023, it had problems: dropouts on the tape where the sound and video just disappeared. After some painstaking editing in Reaper all the songs were whole again and we realized that this was an album that deserved to be heard.

I only noticed it as I was putting the album together in March, but the set list inadvertently tells a story with the titles:
Partners – We’re really not. Yikes, things are going bad, fast
Day Before We Met – It’s over. Remember how we felt at the beginning, though?
Huddleston Pond – Watching the people in a park on a summer day, trying to forget about it for an afternoon at least
How Does It Feel To Be a National Joke? – Everyone needs to stop talking about what happened. Except me, obviously
Time That I Forgot – For the love of Mike get up off the floor, already
Public Therapy – Please stop oversharing. Please?
Seen This Episode Before – DON’T GO BACK DON’T DO IT NOOOOO

The DJLB was a great live band and I’m so excited to be able to share a small piece of that history. Now if we could just get the video cleaned up…

Buy/listen online
iTunes Amazon Spotify YouTube

Cover image of band with guitarist looking at ceiling

Show’s Over

Eliza Hope is an up and coming singer/songwriter whom I’ve known for a LONG time – she was a student of mine in high school, for starters. She has a really interesting mix of influences, with Lana Del Rey and Stevie Nicks at the top of her list, and a singing style that is unique and immediately recognizable. We started working on her EP towards the end of 2020. COVID-19 was raging, so we had several outdoor writing sessions in my backyard, with everyone socially-distanced so that we could unmask for a bit. “Show’s Over” was the first song from that batch that we finished recording. Eliza brought the original idea and the verses, and Jacob and I added the chorus and arrangement bits. We were so happy with this that we immediately released it as a single (impatience is an issue), but there’s a lot more to come and we can’t wait for everyone to hear it. Especially Eliza’s other former teachers, some of whom can’t believe her first single has an f bomb in the opening line.

Buy/listen online
iTunes Amazon Spotify YouTube

From the Inside, Out

“From the Inside, Out” is the first full-length album released by Mt. Hope Music, the catch-all for music published by our high school groups. Each of the songs were recorded at home, during the pandemic of 2020, and almost every one of the seniors in that year’s Vocal Ensemble took a turn out front, singing a solo. It’s a testament to these students and their hard work that this ended up being an eclectic, yet enjoyable, collection of music. The video for “You Love”, which was directed by Mark Bettencourt, was very popular in Rhode Island, and was used as the theme song for a fundraiser for the homeless and underprivileged, who were affected so terribly by COVID-19.
Read the blog for the behind-the-scenes story of the making of this album!

Buy/listen online
iTunes Amazon Spotify YouTube
The choral arrangement for “You Love” is available from JW Pepper and SheetMusicPlus.

You Love (Mt. Hope Vocal Ensemble)
Wayfaring Stranger (Colby Dagwan Santos)
Boy in the Gallery (Sam Lima)
Sidewalks of New York (Georgia MacDougall)
O Promise Me (Olivia Vezina)
Give My Regards to Broadway (Jenna Goulart)
Skye Boat Song (Nicole Black)
Senior Year (Jenna Goulart)
A135 (Produced by Chip Guerriero)
Just Us (Produced by Rob DaCosta)
You Love – A Cappella (Mt. Hope Vocal Ensemble)

Instruments
Drums – Jacob Lauria
Clarinet on “Boy in the Gallery” – Nicole Contente
Sax on “Give My Regards to Broadway” – Logan Lemay

“You Love” copyright © 2020 David J. Lauria (BMI)
“Senior Year” copyright © 2020 Jenna Goulart
“A135” copyright © 2020 David J. Lauria (BMI)/Chip Guerriero
“Just Us” copyright © 2020 Robert DaCosta