Imagine what would happen if Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews came together and had a baby. That child’s name would be Stolen Rhodes. This New Jersey/Delaware Valley-based band puts on a unique performance every time they’re on stage.

Stolen Rhodes started out playing small shows along the Jersey Shore. Since the release of their EP, “The Dark Side of 88,” they have yet to look back and have no intentions on doing so.

Bil Facciponte: You guys released “The Dark Side of 88” in May of 2009. What was that experience like?

Stolen Rhodes: The dark side of 88 is a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song “Spirit in the Night.” Bruce is a big Jersey Shore guy and everybody kind of knows that he’s probably one of the most famous people to ever come out of New Jersey. We hang out in Lakewood (NJ) a lot on the “dark side of route 88.” So we’re kind of just paying tribute to that song and also where we grew up. We listen to a lot of Springsteen and it’s cool that we hung out in his old stomping grounds.

BF: Speaking of Bruce, one of the places he used to play was The Stone Pony in Asbury. What was it like to headline there?

SR: That was probably one of the most awesome rock and roll experiences. It was overwhelming. You step out on that stage and there’s people there that are into it. It really feels good to play a venue like that. A lot of people talk about getting nervous before big shows, but we feed off the energy.

BF: Speaking of feeding, you guys must love Surf Taco because you play a lot of shows at those locations.

SR: Well when we first got together we played a few gigs. Then we heard there was live music at Surf Taco. We gave the owner one of our demos and he enjoyed it and asked us to come play. The first time we played there, it was actually our CD release party, so it was a real nice experience. They ask us back there all the time so it’s good stuff. The audience is right there and they get into it so it’s real nice.

BF: Plus all the free Surf Taco has to be nice.

SR: Oh absolutely, we drink and eat like kings when we go out there.

BF: You guys have done a lot of travel and played a lot of shows. Do you have a particular favorite?

SR: We like The Shrine Bar in New York. That’s a really cool spot. It’s the most eclectic group of people there and it’s a real good atmosphere where everyone just comes out and has a good time. It’ll be a Wednesday at 11 p.m. and people will be anxious to see us.

BF: You play a nice combination of covers and originals. What’s your favorite song to play?

SR: We love to play our originals. But we all have different songs we’re into because of certain parts we get to play.

BF: Well who does most of the writing of your originals?

SR: Lately we’ve been trying to get the whole band involved and it’s been really working out. It’s definitely starting to open up new doors to our sound. We want our music to be from Stolen Rhodes since we all contribute.

BF: Where does the influence from your songs come from?

SR: It’s now gotten to the point where we talk about work and where we want our lives to go. We’ll sit at work and just think “I’d rather be playing music right now. This is something I can do for the rest of my life.” That, to us, brings up a lot of songs. A lot of our songs kind of have that working vibe to it. We’re just telling a story and to us, its real song writing because it comes from our experiences.

BF: Do you guys see this as the rest of your life? Do you see Stolen Rhodes together in 20 years?

SR: Absolutely, you just hit it right on the head. That’s exactly what we want. Any one of us could get a job as a bass board musician or a hired gun but we all want to be in a band and to make a living with music we actually care about. It’ll be great to say we can sell out huge stadiums but as long as we can make a comfortable living, that would be a big success.

Stolen Rhodes can be found on MySpace, Facebook and ReverbNation.

It’s not far off to say that the world has one similar question that may never be answered. People want to know the meaning of life. As Temporary Grace guitarist Chuck Epperly describes, life is simply a moment in time.

Local New Jersey band Temporary Grace has a seven-year history together. This history includes traveling the east coast, album releases and the coming together of a family to create one band that rocks the Jersey Shore. With a passion for music and entertaining the fans, Temporary Grace is all about the love of the music.

Bil Facciponte: Here with Temporary Grace, also formally known as Grand Theft Audio, why did you guys combine the two bands?

Rob Eelman: We’ve been Temporary Grace for seven years and we just did Grand Theft Audio as a side project to get my brother jamming with us. We decided to keep it in the family and make one big happy band, Temporary Grace, and keep the name out there.

BF: What is it like to have guys rotating instruments?

RE: It’s something new we’re trying. We’ve had Greg Forney with us for the last seven years and our bass player Jay Cagna was playing drums. Now we got Justin Grover on the drum set so we’re just trying to mix it up and get people out to have some fun.

BF: Now, you guys, like most bands, play your covers and your originals. Which are you guys more into?

RE: We were doing originals for five years in the (Jersey) shore here and a couple people kind of coaxed us into being a cover band for the last couple years to build a fan base.

Chuck Epperly: It got to the point where we weren’t making any money and we wanted to make a little extra cash while doing what we were doing. (Covers) get people into us that normally wouldn’t give us the time of day. The best thing about it is we can play [songs they’re used to] to get them into us then throw in a couple originals and get their attention that way.

BF: When it comes to playing covers, you guys do a lot of different styles. Does that come from your own personal influences?

CE: It depends on the crowd. When we first started, a lot of the songs we picked, don’t go over well with a lot of people. We don’t listen to a lot of the music we play. We want to do what makes people happy. (McIntyre’s) is fun. We get to do whatever we want and people love it.

BF: What have you guys done lately as far as studio work goes?

RE: We just put out a new single “Close To Me.” We got a free download online with that. We’re waiting for something to break with our original music, the right person to come along and some kind of sign to say let’s keep pushing along.

BF: What’s in store next for Temporary Grace?

RE: Show wise, this summer, we’re gearing up for the four or five shows a week on the shore here from Atlantic City up to Hoboken, Maryland up to Vermont.

Original songs by Temporary Grace are available for download at TemporaryGrace.com.

They can be seen every other Monday night at McIntyre’s Pub, located at 213 Route 37 East in Toms River.

There’s no mystery as to how bad the economy is these days. In fact, over nine percent of the population is currently out of work. New Jersey is certainly a difficult state to live in, but according to Scarlet Carson front man Santino a.k.a. Hollywood, their biggest challenge has been the Jersey music scene.

After playing at shows such as the Warped Tour, Cruefest and Bamboozle, the fame has not gone to their heads at all. As Hollywood, lead guitarist Stone, and rhythm guitarist/backup vocalist Tommy Licore describe, it isn’t about the money or the fame, it’s about the love of the music. They believe in themselves, which they know, is the number one key to making it.

Bil Facciponte: Let’s start off talking about The Break Contest. Last year, you guys came in second. This year, you won the finals but they added another round with the final six bands to see who plays the main stage at Bamboozle. What are your feelings on that?

Santino/ “Hollywood”: It feels great man. It’d be easier if the winner of the The Break Contest Finals went to the main stage right away like last year. But hey, nothing worthwhile comes easy, right?

BF: Absolutely. Now that there’s an added round, do you feel pressure?

SH: It’s just the name of the game. Everything we do in this industry is a new challenge. We’re going to go in there and do what we do best. We’re confident that we have what it takes to win this whole damn contest.

BF: Honestly, are you guys going to win?

SH: You bet your [backside]. Regardless of the outcome though, it’s just a contest. If we win great, if not, whatever. We’ve still got a bunch of things happening, amazing fans and it’ll be nothing but another notch in the bed post.

BF: Your new album, “Burn It All” is available. How would you describe the album and what was the process like?

Tommy Licore: Totally awesome album.

SH: It’s a little heavier than the first, so we took a little bit of a different approach. We decided to amp it up a little bit and the next album is expected to be a combination of the first two. [Making this album] was less complicated than the last one. The mastering process didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We’re upset we didn’t get to work with [who we wanted to] but with time constraints with the CD release party we couldn’t do it.

BF: The album sounds great, still. Who did most of the song writing for the album?

SH: The main two would be Stone and myself. It’s a group effort. The whole band does write and contribute. As of late though, Mr. Tommy over here is becoming a more integral part with some of the writing, especially with the guitar.

TL: So watch out for the next album because it’s totally going to show.

BF: What would you say is your favorite song off of the new album?

SH: Well the single we’re pushing right now is “West Coast Dreamer.” We feel it’s the strongest song on the album. “The Drinking Song” we feel is pretty strong too. “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll” is one of my favorites. The end of that song is real fun to sing. “Cherry’s On Top” is fun to sing too. I don’t know man, that’s a real tough question. I don’t have one favorite. I love different sections of different songs.

BF: Well let’s talk about the name Scarlet Carson. Did you guys get it from the film “V For Vendetta?”

SH: Sure did. We were kind of going for the slightly ominous thing, nothing to blunt and obvious. No one really knows what “Scarlet Carson” is. People think it’s a girl’s named which worked our favor when we were calling ourselves “stripper rock’ back in the day. But it’s personally one of my favorite movies. I just thought it was a cool detail that was exclusive to just the movie, not even the comic. I just think it’s pretty random.

BF: That it is. How did Scarlet Carson come to be?

Stone: I answered an Ad. I never did that before. I always thought they were kind of lame but I was out of bands for a few years so I decided to do it.

SH: I actually tried putting this together in Florida but I just couldn’t get it together. I came up here….and just from recommendation by other people it came together. I definitely think this is the best line-up we’ve ever had.

BF: I think it’s great that you guys are fans of your own music. You play what you like and not just what the people want to hear.

TL: If you’re not making music you enjoy, you’re just cheating it and cheating you’re fans.

SH: I think a lot of people play what they like, but I also think they just play what they’re capable of. They don’t try to push it to stuff they normally wouldn’t do. The new album was more technical (than the first) but we pushed ourselves and plan on doing it for the next one too.

BF: You guys have done a lot in the short time you’ve been together. What have you found to be your biggest challenge?

SH: Being in the Jersey scene. It is really rough here man. We’ve played in front of a lot of people and have done a lot of great things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful. It’s like every big show, where we have to move tickets, it’s as if we’ve never done it before. It’s a whole new ball of stress every time.

BF: Do you guys see this as you’re future?

TL: Scarlet Carson is the future.

Stone: I think most of us have adjusted our lives to make it happen and do a lot of things we don’t want to do, but we’ll do it to play music.

For details on Scarlet Carson concert dates or to buy the new album “Burn It All,” visit scarletcarson.com