Gowanus Canal Boys - ProfilesArchive

About Me

The Gowanus Canal Boys aka The Band that Never Dies, got started in the mid-90's. The first incarnation was a trio, Lars Espensen, aka "Big Jim", guitar and lead vocals, Marcus the Carcass Natale, bass, and Billy Ray Peitsch, drums and vocals. After about 6 months, and many offers from many guitar players, they added Bruce Bennett, on lead guitar and backing vocals. Lars, Mark and Bruce still perform together in the A-Bones. A couple years later they added W. Scott"Hangnail" Pfaffman, on lap steel, dobro, and guitar. Mark left the band, and was replaced by Marc Lipscher, formerly of the Supertones, on bass. After a couple more years, and many miles, the Gowanus Canal Boys went on hiatus. "Big Jim" has cronic pain in his joints, and needed a break. "Big Jim" and "Hangnail" would get together occasionally, and play a party, or at a local bar. Marcus the Carcass joined up again and the trio started playing shows, and recording. Marcus the Carcass recently bowed out, but "Big Jim" and "Hangnail" will continue on. Both of them love the footlights, and the smell of stale beer and cigarettes. Maybe they'll find a bass player, maybe they won't. The GCB was designed for this. The whole idea was for members to come and go as they pleased. As a matter of fact, Rick Coraccio just played bass on 21 tracks. He also manned the tape deck, and will add some back up vocals to some songs. "Big Jim" and "Hangnail" will do some shows, and we'll let you know where we'll be. "Big Jim's" joints are getting worse, so he wants to play shows, and record, while he's able. So, stay tuned for more of the GCB saga, and keep your eyes peeled for up coming events. When these guys get started, they rock the joint all night long.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/31/2007
Band Website: myspace.com/gowanuscanalboys
Band Members: Lars Espensen aka "Big Jim" : Vocals , Guitar ;Scott Pfaffman aka "Hangnail" : Lap Steel / Lead Guitar / Dobro ************************************************************ ******** Marcus the Carcass: Bass on "Saginaw, MI" ************************************************************ ********** Rick Coraccio: Bass and Backing Vocals on "Tangled Web", "Corinne, Corinna", "I'll Be True", "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down", guitar on "Rain" Susan Aprill bass on "Rain" ************************************************************ *********
Influences: Hank Williams , Lefty Frizzel , Faron Young , George Jones , Harlan Howard , Louvin Bros , Dave Dudly , Bill Monroe , Bob Wills , Johnny Burnett , Merle Haggard , Benny Joy , Carl Perkins , Johnny Cash , etc.
Sounds Like: Just what you thought it would sound like !
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None

My Blog

2 more songs

We just added two more songs that were recorded at the Holland Ave. Institute of Recording, in Rockaway Park, Queens, NY. Read all about H.A.I.R., in the other blog. "Big Jim" is settling in, in Alaba...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Sun, 23 Dec 2007 05:34:00 PST

Big Jims Big Move

About a year ago I kicked a guy out of my apt., and the landlord was going to do some much needed electrical work. After working in the largest room in my apt., for almost 2 months, my landlord blocke...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:26:00 PST

Rain

We have a new song up. It's called "Rain", and it features Susan Aprill, on bass. We used to play this song at almost every gig. "Big Jim" also played this song in the Churchkeys. When we recorded thi...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:37:00 PST

Bill Peitsch

On September 21st, Bill Ray Peitsch died suddenly. Bill was one of the founding members of the Gowanus Canal Boys. We started the band when "Big Jim" moved back to Brooklyn, from Boston. We would rehe...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:51:00 PST

New Song

We just posted another song with Rick Coraccio, on bass. It is one of "Big Jim"'s favorites. There will be more songs coming, we'll soon have our own music store! Once Rick and Susan get setteled in t...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:42:00 PST

Video

The other day, I was on youtube. I searched for Gowanus Canal Boys, and up came "Erie Basin Rambler". We played this show 7 years ago. As usual, Marcus the Carcass found the darkest part of the stage!...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:02:00 PST

Even More Photos

Thanks to Sylvia, and her scanner, we have some new photos up. They show the several incarnations of the band. "Big Jim" and Billy Ray were playing in the Churchkeys, at the time, so we did many gigs ...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:01:00 PST

photos

We have a couple new photos up. There is one of the 5 piece version of the band, and a photo of "Big Jim" with his friend Hasil. As far as we know, "Big Jim" was the only person to regularly play with...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:16:00 PST

New Songs

We have two new songs up now, out of four that are mastered to a cd. Rick did such a good job recording, that the songs almost mix themselves. Susan and Rick are moving to Mass., so as Rick mixes the ...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:39:00 PST

Losing our H.A.I.R.

This past Saturday, "Hangnail" loaded up the mini-van, and we all headed out to Rockaway. This was our last chance to use the studio, that was set up in Susan & Rick's place. They are moving to Ma...
Posted by Gowanus Canal Boys on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:49:00 PST