My name is Joshua-Martin Ira Lederman. Borned on January 16, 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. And shortly thereafter taken to New York by my adoptive parents where I'd live the first 3 yrs. of my existence.

So what's with the whole Joshua-Martian thing. Well, I use that name to distinguish myself from all the other Joshua Ledermans out there. And there are a bunch of us. One of which is quite coincidentally a guitarist and songwriter for a group called Josh Lederman y Los Diablos in the North East, and they are very good.

I also use the name Joshua-Martian because when I was little I didn't know how to spell my own first name, Joshua-Martin, named after my great grandfather. I used to spell it Joshua-Martian until my Mom pointed it out for me.

I also use the name to keep out of trouble in my professional life and because I'm a dork and I think it's cool.

Over time I will expand on this brief history. I moved to South Florida at 3 years old. I grew up in Hallandal, Davie, Plantation, Sunrise, and Coral Springs. All different cities in South Florida but you wouldn't know it if you went there. Everything down there looks the same. It's just one big wasteland of shopping plazas and sprawl. If I was not from there I'd be scared of getting lost down there in some kind of Twilight Zone episode where you keep leaving and coming back to the same place over and over. You'd get mugged by some wild gang from get this ...Coral Springs. I mean What the Fuck kind of gangs do they have in Coral Springs. Apparently some pretty dangerous ones. I find it hard to believe though. Stick em all in NYC for a night see how Bad they are then. Or even worse Boston. Uh huh the punk kids are worse in Boston. That's cause they have a chip on their shoulder because their not from New York. That's right you know who you are bud. Anyway South Florida had it's moments but it's such a dismal place. There are some messed up folks down there especially in the Davie area. Since I was young I've seen my share of bad shit take place in Davie. Later on during Spring Break of '89 I believe while I was at Berklee in Boston my friend Oren, from the University School, which is in Davie, was shot in the back while visiting our old school in fucking Davie. Part of my motivation to put this site together comes from Oren, a great person, philosopher, and poet. I remember how he once made a family tree of all the people he knew as friends in his life and it traced the various places and people we knew and where they were heading and who they were hanging out with. Then he invited everybody on the tree over to his place for a big bash and that was the last time I remember connecting with him before he was murdered. My friend Matt who was also at Berklee broke the news to me. He was closer to him than I at the time and he was devastated, so was I, and so was anyone who knew him. I still think of Oren. I'll go into that stuff more when i get to it. Nevertheless documenting this stuff makes me think of him. I'm not going to be very linear here. I'm just gonna talk about the "stuff" that is posted here, who plays what, what it's about and link them to various pages and sites of relevance. I'm not making a family tree of Gainesville Bands that already exists but there will be some history here as it relates to my work.

 

So what I'm doing is this.. I'm publishing everything I can on this web of mass/info/technology/thingy. Not because I think it's all wonderful. Not because I'm trying to "make It" (a mind numbing, creatively decapitating concept) but because I want to and I can so why not? You might not like this stuff? You might think it sucks. So What? Big Deal. I'm not afraid. Nobodies going to get hurt listening. I have a certain point of view and I simply don't care. I Don't Care. I love what I do! I do it for the love of the process. I'm willing to let my balls hang out there for the world to see and I don't care. It's very likely that if you don't like one of these songs you'll like another. Some of the stuff that I'll post may even have piss poor audio quality but I promise not to ruin your speakers. Like wait until I post some of the early MegaShoe Destructor Stuff. It's gawd awful but to someone with the right mindset it's some funny ass shit. Just wait. Well don't wait, go away and after a while come back here and then you'll see.

So I started playing the guitar somewhere around 14 or 15 yrs old so I could show off and try to get girls. Soon my motives changed ( playing the guitar didn't have the affect of attracting women that seemed to be so wildly mythologized). Soon I became motivated by my love for music itself, but not just playing music. I soon realized I loved recording audio nonsense. I became and still am to this day an audio junkie. I love sounds. That's why there aren't just songs up here, there are audio excursions into sublime realms. Ok, sorry forgive me. I almost took myself serious for a second. Shame on Me. SO all through my life I've had a fascination with recording. Even on our old radio shack tape recorder with the flip top cover and the cheesy little built in mic. These days what we do with sound is pure science fiction compared to that stuff. But still I'm essentially a sound peddler. "What? You don't like this? Try this." I'm a snakeaudio salesman. Except I'm not selling it. I'm giving it away. This affords me certain creative freedom. Anyway in the future people won't profit from their actual art or product, they will profit from their name. We can see this all ready going down as record companies frantically try to regulate how people trade music. It's a cat and mouse game. They can't control the medium forever and they know it. That's why concert tickets have skyrocketed in recent years. It's the name that is important. Well I want no part of it! Nah, that's not really true. At least I have no part of it anyway and that's ok. Here I can at least document my stuff and still entertain someone out there.Which is the real deal. While you may even hate my very existence there may be someone out there who loves this stuff. Hard to believe? Well, if you love this stuff then it was made specifically for you. I had you in mind when it was made and I hope it provides good therapy for you.

 

So there's some background for ya. Now we can get to the heart of the matter. Just wanna say to any one out there that I've been a jerk to ( And I know I can and have been an annoying jerk) please forgive me. I'm just a stupid man. If you've been a jerk to me (and don't even get me started) I hereby forgive you. Now that doesn't mean I'm gonna bend over and let you get me again, I'm weary of your ass now, but it means we're cool now. Be happy. Don't sweat it. Now I hereby dedicates this here site to my HomeGirl Marni. She's the one person who has put up with me all this time and continues to tolerate me. I think as long as I can make her laugh we're cool. Now let's get down to business...

Oren

So I've started the player up there off with three tunes from the Funky Miracle. I feel lucky to have had the privilege of playing with these guys. We played all over middle fla during the mid to late 90's. This group started as an idea of Codi Lazar (that guy is just brimming with great idea's) to form a group that played the music of "the Meters"( no big deal if your from New Orleans but unheard of in Mid Fla).The Meters, out of New Orleans, are one of those bands that everyone should know of but doesn't. (These guys have recently started to tour again so go see them if you get the chance. In fact go see any touring New Orleans bands right now. All of these groups are pretty much homeless now and need your support to help their families and community). Eventually we wrote our own tunes and became less of a coverband and more of an all around entertainment unit playing our ridiculous music and having as much fun as we could get away with. I think what made the FM fun was the fact that we didn't take ourselves very seriously at all. Although we took the music seriously. Big difference. The logo on the right will soon be a link to a site with recordings and pictures of us in the day.

 

 

Mike Stevens on Drums

Jeff Knorr on Keys

Steve Lesieur on Bass

Craig Anderson on Drums

Wayne Irwin on Percussion

Josh Lederman on Guitar

Codi Lazar on Bass,and Drums (not at the same time dummy)