Hudson Falcons!

I have had the pleasure to share the stage with Mark Linskey and co twice and hope that more opportunities will be ahead. More sympathetic person is hard to find. There is not much that can stop them once they kick off. Fine working class rock 'n' roll from New Jersey at its best. Enjoy the reading…

• Please introduce the band to the readers / who does what?

I’m Mark Linskey, I founded the band and play lead guitar and sing (and write and do all the driving!) Because of different people’s schedules we have a few guys who rotate and do whatever tours and recording they can.  A few of our regular guys are
Uncle Chris – original guitar player, lives in New Jersey also has a killer band called Triple Deuce.  Jim Meyer – original bass player, lives in Switzerland now, also works as a union organizer
Chas Snyder – drums, lives in Kansas City was in the legendary band Tanka Ray
Danny Trashville – guitar, lives all over, amazing singer/songwriter, check him out at http://www.dannytrashville.com/
Guido Suave – guitar/bass, lives in Austin, king of the bad asses, also plays in Threes Away
Pesky Jones – bass, lives in Germany originally from US is in the band the Uprising, was in Far From Finished
Schnabel Jones – guitar/bass from Germany, co-leader of City Rat Booking
Danny Chapa – drums, from Corpus Christi, TX in the legendary band the Booked
Bryan Garcia – guitar, from Corpus Christi, TX in the legendary band the Booked and fronts the band Capital Crimes
Nick Ferrero – guitar/bass – from New Hampshire, great singer/songwriter

• Where are you based / how long have you been around (some background info).

The band is based on New Jersey.  Although we have had folks from all over the US and a few Europeans play with us as well.  

I’ve been playing in bars since I was 16, started off playing lots of blues, Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, etc.  I started using the name Hudson Falcons in the early/mid-90s. The main influences on the music I wrote was Springsteen and the Stones, but I always wanted to play harder and faster, but I knew NOTHING about punk rock at all. I knew and liked the Clash and the New York Dolls but nothing past that at all. A friend of mine who was in punk bands at the time came to see us and after seeing our set, he told me that I should listen to some punk cause we were a punk band! He gave me tapes of lots of old UK bands – Blitz, the Business, the Vibrators, Sham 69, the Boys, 999, UK Subs, the Ruts, etc.  When I heard Stiff Little Fingers, I heard what my friend had heard in us. That’s exactly what I was trying to do at the time!

I put some ads out looking for other folks who wanted to play, and that’s how I found the “original” Falcons bass player, Jim Meyer, and guitar player, Uncle Chris. We played our first show up in Albany, NY with the Trauma School Dropouts in Dec 1997 after their singer heard one of our songs on a punk comp.  We found our first long-term drummer, Alyson Cina in May 1998, and started playing out very regularly and started touring a few months later.  We’ve had a lot of line-up changes over the years as I wrote above because of the amount of touring we do, but a good number of the people who played with us still play with us when they can. In fact, our old drummer Alyson, sat in on guitar with us a few weeks ago when we played in Baltimore.  Once a Falcon, always a Falcon!

• Describe your sound / any links to songs you've made.

I generally describe it as fast, aggressive rock ‘n’ roll.  Take Springsteen or the Stones and speed it up.  Over the years our sound has changed because I write whatever I am feeling at the time.  The earlier songs were a lot harder and more punk rock, as time has gone on the music has more rock ‘n’ roll influences come out.  When we play live we do a mix of both. You can check out some of our stuff at http://hudsonfalcons.net/music.htm or https://www.reverbnation.com/hudsonfalcons

• Have you released any albums? / are you working on anything at the moment? Tours?

We’ve released 6 full lengths and another 2 full-lengths worth of stuff in the form of split CDs and 7”s and compilations.  We released our latest record, “Peace of Mind” earlier in 2015 on East Grand Records in the US and Ring of Fire in Europe.  We came to Europe in 2015, but probably won’t be coming over in 2016. We will be touring the US and Canada next year, and hopefully come back overseas in 2017.

• Where can we buy your merch?

For folks over in Europe you can get our newest “Peace of Mind” on LP or CD at http://ringoffirerecords.limitedrun.com/.  For people in the US you can get “Peace of Mind” on CD or digital download at https://hudsonfalcons.bandcamp.com/album/peace-of-mind.  For our other CDs and LPs you can go to www.hudsonfalcons.net.  Hopefully we’;ll be getting some old released back in stock but always have at least a few different CDs available 

• What bands / artists have influenced you most? Any band or album you wanna recommend?

Bruce Springsteen is by far my biggest influence as a songwriter.  A lot of New Jersey musicians really shaped how I approach music – Southside Johnny, Little Steven, Bobby Bandiera.  The Rolling Stones, in my opinion are still the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of all time.  I love the Clash, and Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros first record is one of my all-time favorites.  I was also influenced a lot by a bunch of blues artists – Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Albert King, Albert Collins.  

One band I highly recommend is, Dressed for the Occasion – a killer rock ‘n’ roll band from Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  We did a US Tour with them last year, great band and great guys.  

• When will we see you in Sweden or Europe again?

We tried to make it to Sweden in 2015, but we couldn’t arrange it.  When we come back to Europe in 2017 we will try our best to get up there, and hopefully play some shows with the Fliints!

• Anything you wanna tell the readers?

Hoepfully we’ll see ya soon.  If anyone has any other questions for us, you can email me at mark@hudsonfalcons.net  Hope to see ya on the road!