Posted on: July 19, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

NYC band Julius C doesn’t go on the kind of tour most bands go on. For the last several years, the band has spent the hot months touring summer camps. Band leader Jay Stollar developed the “Rock Star Camp” program to bring more arts activities to summer camps after spending his youth hoping for such an experience. Five years into the program, the band is now sponsored by the Crocs brand of footwear and is traveling to more than two dozen camps on the East Coast where they spend the day with the campers teaching them cover songs and staging a concert with the young singers and musicians.

This year, Julius C expects to perform to almost 15,000 campers and staff. The band returns to NYC at the end of August where they will begin a residency at Rockwood Music Hall to be followed by the release of the band’s OK, OK. album in October. Before the writing and recording of Julius C’s OK, OK., this band was already going bananas. The band’s core of vocalist/guitarist Jay Stolar, bassist Mike Tuccillo and Tuccillo’s childhood friend, keyboardist Jason Wexler had rapidly expanded to a group of ten, just as quickly burned through four drummers, and finally managed to top that off with a couple of painful personal break-ups that left the guys feeling empty, lost, and disconnected from the music they were playing.

Willing to give it one last try, the guys moved into a cheap house with a broken Jacuzzi in Newark, NJ with new drummer, John Adamski. By the end of the year, Stolar and Tuccillo had both written enough material to fill their own records. Returning to Tucclillo and Wexler’s hometown of Staten Island, Julius C spent the next six months consumed in writing, arranging, and producing OK, OK. Now, standing united and determined, Julius C is ready to share their sound with the world. No more imploding, only exploding (and chest-beating) from here.

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Julius C

OK, OK.

Release Date: 10/6/10

A group of gorillas has run amok in Central Park and it’s no surprise considering they’re listening to the perfect soundtrack for the summer: Julius C’s debut single “Don’t Want Anybody.” Directed by New York-based filmaker, Jay Lap, a friend of the band since his days at the prestigious Tisch school, the “Don’t Want Anybody” clip is about as fun and funny as you might expect from a band that is able to take a tune about love, loss, and self-discovery and render it as explosively raw pop.

“Don’t Want Anybody” was shot by Jon Chen, one of the hottest NYC-based directors of photography working today. Chen has previously lensed music videos for Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Q-Tip, The Roots, and many more. You might also recognize actress, Lauren Francesca (the unmistakably sexy blonde) as the star of the Lady Gaga video spoofs that have racked up millions of views on YouTube. Most of all, you’ll notice that bunch of simians, out of their minds with abandon. Beneath the suits, you’ll find the members of Julius C.

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