The annual PDN PhotoPlus Expo is going on right now (October 28-30) at the Jarvis center in NYC, and Formzine is bring live content for your enjoyment. If you’re into cameras at all, this expo is where the newest, latest, greatest and best products are being shown.

Highlights include many interesting talks, including a keynote by Chase Jarvis, famed photographer Joe McNally, and of course SLR video expert Vincent Laforet.

Things that are definitely fun this year: Nikon is back with booth babes, Sony has a skating ramp, and Black Rapid is coming out with a sport strap (to be officially released next week, spy shots below in the gallery.).

To get up to the minute news as I go explore what’s going on the photo product world, follow me on twitter at @yausunny.

The Ben Miller Band is made up of three very different musicians. Ben Miller(slide guitar, lead vocals) began his musical career on the streets of northern europe playing his distinctive delta-blues slide guitar for passers-by. He built an impressive collection of folk songs and original material as well as honing his distinctive performance style. Combine that with the home grown musical mad scientist Scott Leeper(washtub bass, backing vocals). He began his musical career at the age of ten, wowing audiences playing pop music in his family’s band “The Leepers”. Later he toured with delta-blues hero Lightnin’ Boy Malcom, and also made a name for himself as a truly astounding one man band. To complete this trio of musicians comes Doug “Cap’t Washboard” Dicharry(washboard, drums, trombone, backing vocals). As a air force brat growing up he assimilated an array of musical styles and attidudes. Moving every 4 years throughout the globe his one constant was music, from playing with punk, ska, and progressive noise bands to school marching bands. The three met in Joplin Missouri at open mic nights that Ben was running. The three naturally gravitated towards each other feeding off of their shared interests as well as their different influences.

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Michigan-based, Pleasantly Aggressive Folk Duo Nervous but Excited (Kate Peterson & Sarah Cleaver) is two songwriters, two singers, three guitars, a mandolin, a violin, a ukulele, a few harmonicas, dead-on harmony, some vaguely choreographed dancing, an impressive amount of laughter and a glockinspiel. Their original repertoire ranges in topic from smart, introspective narratives to the tactfully political… interspersed with songs of love and loss that will undoubtedly tug on your heart.

How did you guys start the duo?

Sarah: We started the band about 5 and a half years ago. We started out just Kate and Sarah, and gradually progressed into Nervous But Excited. We both played individually as singers and song-writers and found each other. Then I had a job that ended and I said: “Hey Kate! Let’s go on tour!” and she said “Heck yeah!” So we toured for a month and in the process learned how to harmonize and learned that being a duo is more fun than not being a duo.

Kate: Neither of us had any major dreams or goals about getting to this place or beyond. It all just happened very naturally. In a way, it’s telling that there’s something really special about it. I don’t think we would be pushing this hard if there wasn’t something really important there.

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Black Jake and the Carnies are a local band from Ypsi, the very unique biography from their website reads:

Black Jake & the Carnies was stillborn on October 31, 2003. The band played a single show, recorded some songs, and promptly died. All this meant was Black Jake finally had something to dissect. Over the next couple years, Jake stitched his baby back together with parts unearthed from the graveyards of american music. By 2006, the infant was looking more and more like its daddy and, once again, showing signs of life. After a couple solo shows, it became apparent, all the little monster needed now was a bit more blood.

Blood, it turns out, ain’t that hard to find.

Gus, the only original Carnie still fiddlin’ lived just up the block from Black Jake. It was rumored that Zachariah, who lived direct across the street from Gus, played mandolin. Joe Cooter, whose property line ends near Zach’s backyard, plucked bass. Up the road a bit Cooter heard the thumpin’ of Kingpin Lalonde’s big bass drum and scratchin’ on his washboard vest. By then, there were enough Carnies to take pretty much whatever they wanted by brute force, and the Kingpin and Jesse were quickly corralled. Black Jake had his Carnies and the monster had its blood.
Black Jake and the Carnies is:

Black Jake: singing, songwriting, banjo
Gus Wallace: fiddle
Zach Pollock: mandolin
Joe Cooter: bass guitar
Kingpin Billy Lalonde: drums
Jesse Miller: accordian

The Interview:

So first of all, what’s kind of the inspiration? What kind of bands did you listen to growing up?

Jake: I guess I’d say a combination of the Poges and a lot of street rock like old punk rock and stuff like that. Some people say the clash. Some people say Johnny Cash. I was sitting around with a banjo in a bad mood and this is what happened. (laughs)

So where does the name come from? It’s really interesting.

Jake: I can’t remember. I honestly can’t remember when I came up with it, but it sounded cool and so I went with it.

But were you Black Jake first?

Jake: No, I invented the concept of the band. Then I did solo stuff for six years, in the hopes that I would have a band named Black Jake and the Carnies

Then came all your Carnies.

Jake: No, but the concept of the band was originally there when I started writing songs, even though I didn’t have the band for six years. (more…)