A Word From Juan

  I have come to the decision that my time with Jupiter Groove has come to an end. For the past 15 odd years, we have created some great musical moments both live and in the studio. We have played with amazing local acts and renowned international acts. We have toured the seas and shared the stage with such top shelf acts like Animals As Leaders, King’s X, Devin Townsend, Scale The Summitt, Tony McAlpine, Thank You Scientist, Haken, Anathema, Felix Martin, Pain Of Salvation, Travis Larson Band, Magic Elf, Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, and many more. The reasons for my departure are personal.

 I would like to thank, and that with the most generous of hearts, our fans. Those who have been die hard followers from the beginning. 

The local bands whom we played with..those that immediately come to mind are Decoy Beat whom we shared the stage with many a time and so long ago. Auditory Armory..for whom my gratitude can not be expressed to in its fullest context. You guys have been waving our banner for a long time. April and Justice, you two are precious to me. To our West Coast compatriots in the Travis Larson Band. I enjoyed sharing the stage with you all every time you came to the East Coast. Your tremendous talent was a hard act to follow or precede! Thank you for having us. The Dave LaRue Band..we blew up many a venue! No more notes were ever played than on a night our bands hit the stage! 

To the local promoters who booked us at all high risk! Ben Gardner, Clint Pinder and Camden Cruz, you always took a chance with us and I appreciate it! It is hard being an instrumental band. Harder being a rock band doing so. I would venture to say that jazz bands have had a better gigging legacy in the Central Florida area than us or any band like us. 

To Jeff Knauff who recorded us at The Parsonage in Gibsonton and to Sean Shannon for mixing our album. 

To Jess O’ Donnel, merch monger mercenary!!! Your smile and enthusiasm made me feel like a rock star! 

To Prog Palace Radio and WJRR for playing our stuff. 

To Shaver. Our biggest fan without a question. You waved the flag higher and wilder than anyone else. Thank you for the bass..you should see what I did with it! Rest my friend. 

To the venues who would have us… 

The Haven/Conduit 

Shovelhead Lounge 

Will’s Pub 

The Abby 

The Plaza (Shut Up and Play 2013) 

The Bank of Blues 

West End 

Rabbit Ear Records 

Deland City Limits 

Stranded Sailor Pub 

Jacksonville Original Music Festival 

Delandapalooza 

Daytona Beach Main Street Music Festival 

Tanquerays 

Rock Bar 

Holly and Dolly’s 

The Orpheum (Ybor City) 

Progressive Nation at Sea 2014 (Thank u Mike Portnoy!!!) 

Backbooth

There are too many to remember… 

Of course, to my bandmates Ralph and Dan. I hope that you both will continue your musical journeys and remain artistically active. 

Our original drummer, Marty. 

And last, but certainly not least in any way, shape, or form imaginable, my best friend and wife Chris. You have been my biggest fan, my manager, and my shelter when it rains the hardest. You have been on every musical adventure that I dare to embark on and have always guided me in my decisions but never impeded them in any way. Thank you for being part of this chapter in my, our, musical journey. I love you and rarely deserve you.

 It was a great and wild ride.

Juan

``Music is not a young man’s game, it is the impassioned man's sport. ``

Gears of Progression and Juan get featured on 12 String.net

 12StringBass.net is a website dedicated to the 12 string bass, it's players, and music. An online encyclopedia of sorts, the site was founded in 2013 by Mark "Surf Rat" Rowe and Philip Snyder. Since then, the site has grown extensively and recently underwent a complete redesign.
 You can find our album "Gears of Progression" (on which Juan played 3 songs with his Dean Rhapsody 12 string bass) and a small feature on the Discography page. Juan has also written a couple of string reviews which are featured on the Tech page.

New goodies available soon at our shows!

 Yep...that's right! More merch for you to show your Jupiter Groove love with.
 We will be offering limited edition collector guitar picks..4 different designs. Some will feature art from our album and others will feature our Alien Note-agram on a glow in the dark pick, a Gear/Alien design, and a Dan RodZ signature pick that he will be tossing from the stage.

 In addition to the picks, a new T-Shirt design is in the works. This will feature artwork based on the original concept  for the "Gears Of Progression" album. That artwork was thought to have been lost on a corrupt hard-drive but eventually was recovered after our album had gone to print with the new art work (you can read about that in an earlier post here on the Groovy Blog). We hope to have these shirts by mid Sept.

Area 51

We have a new section over at our Official site. It's called "Area 51" and it's a way to share with all of our fans some exclusive tracks.
Every month (or so) we will upload a live, previously unreleased, or re-mix of one of our tunes that we have stashed away at a super duper secret location.
 Here is a quick screen cast of how to download the files.

 Did we mention that these tracks are FREE? That's right. It's our way of saying
"Thank you" for all your support!
 So what are you waiting for? Get yer FREE STUFF!

Now what?!?

 Oh oh...
 What's Juan up to now?

 This is an NS Stick..brainchild of Emmett Chapman (inventor of the Chapman Stick) and Ned Steinberger (inventor of the Steinberger Bass, NS Cello, NS Upright Bass, and designer of the NS/Spector Bass).

 "In addition to being a bassist, I also play 10 string Chapman Stick. I recently added the NS Stick, complete with a Roland GK-2 MIDI pickup, to my collection. Ralph and Dan have been asking me to add the Stick into some of Jupiter Groove's music for years now but it just didn't seem to fit."

 Until now.

 The NS Stick offers the best of both (or all three) worlds: Stick, bass, and guitar. Adding the synth capabilities of the Roland GK-2 expands on the sonic possibilities. The NS Stick has a unique tone due to it's active, Tele-style EMG pickups. It has a total of four, two for each set of strings. There are four "bass" strings and four "melody" strings. Each set gets a neck and a bridge pickup. The NS can be run in stereo or mono.

 "I decided that I would make the NS Stick my main axe as it does provide for me the familiarity of the bass as well as the low tension, low action versatility of the Stick. Indeed, Emmett's vision for the NS Stick was for it to be a "multi-mode instrument" allowing the playing to easily transition between bass, guitar, and Stick techniques. And the tone is amazing and versatile. At first I figured I would play the NS occasionally and as a back-up to my basses. But it ended up being the other way around. In fact, I haven't played bass for our last 5 gigs! They just sit there on stage, waiting...weeping..."

 If you wanna check this instrument out in action, make sure you visit our gig calendar at the Official Jupiter Groove Webpage. You can find out more about the NS Stick and Chapman Stick at  Stick Enterprises. And to find out more about Ned Steinberger's amazing creations, please visit  Think NS.

New T-Shirts comin soon...

  A new t-shirt design will be appearing on our site and for sale at our shows very soon.  A brand new full color graphic based on our "Gears Of Progression" album art.Here's a preview...

Sharing the stage with the Dave LaRue Band

Ok folks..we got a treat for ya. We will be playing a show with the Dave LaRue Band this Saturday Sept 15th at Deland City Limits Taproom in Deland Florida.

 "Dave LaRue is the bass player with the virtuoso rock group Flying Colors. He is also a long-time member of the instrumental groups the Steve Morse Band and the Dixie Dregs. LaRue’s technical prowess is formidable among other jazz-fusionists, but his unique talent is to project his virtuosity with remarkable soul and feel.
LaRue continues to be the go-to guy for many leading guitarists, having worked with Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Vinnie Moore, The Hellecasters, Pat Travers, Steve Lukather, Mike Stern, Eric Johnson, Andy Timmons, Albert Lee, Paul Gilbert, Tony McAlpine, and many other top notch acts. "

 We have played a few shows shows with Dave in the past and they have always been an amazing experience for both the audience and the bands. We look forward to this Saturdays show..and so should you! Make plans..you do not want to miss this!