Bloo

"...When the Long Island based Bloo made its debut opening for From Good Homes at Irving Plaza last month, the crowd was given blue glow sticks to bop to the band's mix of Beatlesque, pop, Celtic fiddle, Latin percussion & psychedelic jams". Each time the 5 piece switched instruments, a sea of blue roared approval. Not bad for a band whose average age is 21
- Robert Makin, The Courier-News, Jan 22 '98

"...It is this classical background that has provided the rich backbone for a band whose reach far exceeds their youth. While their self-funded effort reveals the holes that boku pocket wads could polish, Bloo 's grasp of folk sensitive bluegrass & rock steady humor creates a thick rhythm just one notch below perfect." - Ron Strauss, Long Island Voice, 1997

"...The up-and-coming local band Bloo whipped a Paddy Reilly's audience of 200 into a sweating frenzy as they played their way to victory in the Guinness Fleadh Band Search." - Irish Echo, June 1997

Band Members

Mike Saganic - Guitar/Vocals
Dave"Sledge" Ferrara - Drums
Bredndan Lynch - Acoustic Guitar/Vocals
Earl Maneein - Eletric & acoustic violin/Bass Keyboards/Vocals
Patrick Hurley - Bass guitar/Harmonica/Vocals
Mark Fichman - Percussion

Billboard Magazine
A Short-List Of The City s Unsigned Acts
One of the most exciting live bands to start playing around New York over the past year is Long Island, N.Y.'s

Bloo. And if reaction from the impressive crowds it has been drawing to recent gigs at the Westbeth Theater and Wetlands is any indication, it won't be long until this group is the talk of the town Bloo's eclectic blend of folk, funk, jazz, and blues rock evokes the flowing jams of the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, or Phish; the jazz quirkiness and irreverence of Frank Zappa; and the folk/funk hoedown of Dave Matthews Band. Add to that mix soft, four-art harmonies, the electrifying fiddle solos of violinist Earl Maneein and drummer Dave Ferrara's imaginative percussion playing.

Earlier this year, Bloo won the $25,000 grand prize in the Mastercard American Collegiate Talent Search held in Philadelphia and beat out 70 local bands in the Guinness Fleadh Band Search for the chance to appear with Sinead O'Connor, Soul Asylum, and Van Morrison, among others, at the Fleadh Festival on Randalls Island this summer. The band clearly struck a chord with its Fleadh appearance: Its album, "The Geology Of Planet Weird," outsold all but two other acts' releases at HMV's on-site store at the festival.

Together just two years, the quintet possesses the chemistry of a seasoned unit. Part of that comes from the fact that three of the members have played together since junior high school. The other factor is that Ferrara and Maneein are classically trained musicians who met while attending the Aaron Copiand School of Music – though that hasn't kept Maneein from plugging his violin into a wah-wah pedal. Live shows see the string-playing members of Bloo routinely trading guitars with one another, which bass guitarist/lead singer Pat Hurley says was an outgrowth of the songwriting process in which they would "go in a circle and switch around and feel out what each of us liked most." Singer/front man Brendan Lynch emphasizes the democratic process, saying that each song starts from "any one of us bringing in a little piece or a riff," with the remaining members all contributing to the final result. Perhaps the band's collective effort is best exemplified by the communal spirit in which its members live and rehearse. The Bloo house – complete with dog Meathead, family, and friends streaming in and out, and the Bloo bus parked in the driveway (in requisite color, of course) – is "a pretty positive thing." Says the band's elder, 23-year-old Ferrara. "It's kind of like a nice foundation for the future." - Billboard, October 25, 1997
Bloo's Official Webpage Webtunes.com