Joe Blumenthal, owner of the store, has been selling musical instruments for over thirty years. In his spare time, he also plays string bass for Klezamir, a local klezmer band, and XOPO, a Balkan dance band. Blumenthal is also treasurer of the Northampton Community Music Center.
Jim Weeks is one of the Valley's most versatile and respected musicians and recording engineers. He has been selling instruments at Downtown Sounds since 1982, and now runs his own recording studio, "Cloud Cuckoo Land". He plays guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard, and has contributed a great deal to the local music scene in such bands as R-Complex, Square One, Doom Nation, Behemoth and Dunce. He has recently recorded and engineered CD's for Ray Mason, Lonesome Brothers, Superkart, and Dunce. Check him out at:
http://www.myspace.com/iammorbidman
Keith Levreault is Downtown Sounds' resident drum expert, and one of the busiest drummers around, doing a variety of both live and studio projects. He has played with Square One, Doom Nation, Blood Oranges, Kevin Salem and Freedy Johnston. He currently drums for Robert Holmes' Love Bomb and Klezamir.
Dave Trenholm is one of the most versatile members of Downtown Sounds staff. He plays guitar, sax, flute, clarinet, bass, and drums, and is a member of the local band King Radio, and also teaches guitar, bass, and sax at the store.
Aaron Borucki plays bass, guitar, keyboards and drums. Outside of work, he runs his own small computer-based recording studio, and performs with his groups www.myspace.com/thesmokeywambas
and www.myspace.com/sueeverything
Robert Kapitzky is a local musician who plays in the pop-punk group The Skeptics, and a new project call Us Against the Archers.
Mike Benoit is a local percussionist, bassist, and singer. He has been playing music professionally since middle school and is currently a full-time member of five different projects: Fashion People, Cold Year, My My, Time Fence, and Yak Snot. Mike has studied percussion with Keith Levreault, Steve McCraven, and Christopher Swist, theory and musical direction with Mitch Chakour and Janet Polvino, and songwriting and voice with his father, the late Harold Benoit.
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Here are the links for the bands:
Fashion People: (http://www.myspace.com/fashionpeople)
Cold Year (http://www.myspace.com/coldyearhc)
My My (http://www.myspace.com/mymymusicmyspace)
Time Fence (http://www.myspace.com/timefence)
Yak Snot (http://www.myspace.com/yaksnot)
