Friday January 13, 2023
In Latest Diabolical Shift, Mephiskapheles Switches Seance to Newsletter Format
NEW YORK -- In December, speaking on the band's monthly webcast, The Seance, members of Mephiskapheles announced that the monthly variety-format internet show that launched in October 2020 will cease, effective January 2023, and be replaced by an online newsletter. Well, Meph fans, this is that newsletter. Just like on the video Seances (all of which can still be viewed online, for Mephiskapheles Patreon members only!), future issues of The Seance newsletter will offer news, interviews, features, tutorials, and contests, as well as links to exclusive streaming content. Streaming links are valid for one month. And now -- The Seance!
Art by Andre A. Worrell
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THE DARK LORD COMMANDETH IT!
Andre A. Worrell with Mephiskapheles at Tune Inn, New Haven, CT 1992
Mephiskapheles and Connecticut:
What's The Connection? (Part 1)
NEW HAVEN -- Connecticut is known to most New Yorkers as the third state in the Tri-State Area; the heavily wooded, coastal region located north of The Bronx and Westchester; the place you usually have to pass through on the way to Rhode Island or Massachusetts. But Connecticut holds some special significance in the story of Mephiskapheles, as the location of some early successes and it also happens to be the home state of the band's saxophonist Greg LaPine.
Back in the early 1990s, when the band was starting out, a road trip to Connecticut usually meant one thing: a gig at the Tune Inn in New Haven. Often at the top of a bill that also included such New England mainstays as Spring Heeled Jack and Thumper. Along with the couple of hundred or so bar gigs played in Manhattan before Mephiskapheles really started touring cross country, gigs at the Tune Inn and similar all-ages venues were where the band cut its teeth. Out of those gigs came Meph's participation in the influential early '90s underground ska compilation Generic Skaca, which featured the classic Mephiskapheles track Satanic Debris.
In more recent times, the band has enjoyed gigs in Connecticut at Cafe Nine in New Haven and The Cellar on Treadwell in Hamden. Most recently, Meph 'bone man Greg Robinson was a guest at the LaPines' Danbury home for New Year's Eve, on which occasion he participated in a version of Gregory Isaacs' "Night Nurse" that featured Greg LaPine on piano and lead vocals, Robinson and NYC Ska Orchestra trumpeter-leader Kevin Batchelor chipping in on horns. The rhythm section did not include any names currently known to the ska or punk community but rest assured, it was positively grooving. The kicker: the Jamaican reggae classic was requested by none other than GL's mom who said he often used to perform similar songs as a young child. It was the last song played before the New Year was rung in with a Champagne toast.
Fan Photos
Snaps of Mephiskapheles from our fans across the Web. If you see your pic here let us know and we'll credit you in a later issue.
Views of Meph: Press reviews from the Third Wave era
This band has been flabbergasting critics for a long time!
Coming up in April:
Thanks, as always, for supporting our music. See you Feb. 13th !