New York, NY (Top40 Charts) In an surprising turn of events, Johnny Spencer, the unassuming Brooklyn-based/Oakland-bred Athletics fan, and drummer in indie/punk band Stringer (who became an unlikely
Internet sensation yesterday after a video of him getting doused with beer at Yankee Stadium went viral) has accepted a peace offering from the men who did it.
The men contacted Johnny via social media asking for a face-to-face meeting so they could apologize and buy him a beer, and he graciously accepted.
Johnny says, "The two guys that threw the beer at me, Chris and Alex, reached out earlier today on social media. They apologized for throwing the beer and offered to meet up tonight and buy me a drink. I said yes. I harbor no ill will and was glad they contacted me. We met up in Bushwick and laughed about it and had a good time drinking and trading stories about baseball and life."
The altercation caught on video, went viral after the clip was posted to social media, and quicky grabbed the attention of hundreds of media outets including Barstool Sports, Deadspin, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, ABC News, Vice Sports, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Alternative Press, Twitch streamer and
Internet personality
Ninja and
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong (an old friend of Johnny's) who took to his Instagram to post about the incident.
After seeing the clip, the Oakland A's called on fans to help identify the man in the video, and eventually reached out to Johnny to offer him a care package and an invitiation to a game next season.
Johnny and his Stringer bandmates will be on tour with NJ's The Cryptkeeper Five in November. See dates below.
Upcoming shows:
OCT 26 Berlin - Under A- NYC (w/ Warpark, Don Babylon, Cold Beaches)
NOV 15 Metropolitan Kitchen Annapolis- Odenton, MD (w/ THE CK5 + Alements + more)
NOV 16
Wonderland RVA- Richmond VA (w/ THE CK5 )
NOV 17 Studio Brew- Bristol,VA (w/ THE CK5 + Nerve Endings + Moose Roberts)
NOV 19 The Southgate House Revival- Newport, KY (w/ The CK5, The Epidemic)
NOV 20
Slash Run- Washington, DC (w/ The CK5)
NOV 21 The TUSK- Philadelphia, PA (w/ THE CK5)
What others are saying about Stringer's "
My Bad":
"Stringer often play furious, scraggly rock music that manages to evoke the frantic energy of the city they call home but also the constant war against your surroundings that can come with living in New York. Across the album, there are also stylistic modulations, with Stringer occasionally employing a sound that's akin to a roughened echo of '80s college rock or '90s indie."- Stereogum
"... a quick and dirty blast of attitudinal rock 'n' roll that slides and glides like classic punk and feels like the kind of furious throat punch that only NYC music can deliver. You could call it garage rock but one suspects there are few garages in the heart of the city and so perhaps alley rock or gutter rock is better nomenclature. But Stringer manages to elevate the gutter to art."- PopMatters
""
Ghosts" is a ragged, punk-y garage rock song that grapples with the changes in their hometown and people's perceptions of it."- Stereogum
"Stringer's latest is a winning combination of heady indie and punk grit, smartly straddling both to great effect." (4/5 stars)- New Noise Magazine
"...A little bit of punk with a little bit of indie, combined to create this garage-rocky anthem that's sure to make quite a first impression."- Substream
"...smartly crafted, moody pop with a permeating sense of sorrow that creates an intriguing duo of works. While members of Stringer have played in various bands, they retain a DIY ethic that is highly commendable, as is their adherence to providing a new twist to standard pop-punk fare."- Jersey Beat
"... off kilter psych influenced power pop that is delivered with a punk rock attitude ...My Bad will undoubtedly to appeal to fans of the more left field punk bands, devotees of the likes of Culture Abuse, The Dead Milkmen and Baked will find something to treasure amongst the eclectic and unpredictable grooves...an unapologetically idiosyncratic album that flits between genres without ever quite settling on one...Stringer have produced something strange and offbeat that manages to defy description."- The Punk Site
"...as quirky as they are catchy....sounds like Wavves getting it on with Pkew Pkew Pkew while FIDLAR is watching from the side."- Punk Rock Theory
"...the brattiness of a Fidlar song mashed together with the straight-up rock of a band like The Hives..."- Punknews
"...an eclectic 13 songs that are relatable, colorful, and intriguing."- Spinning Thoughts
"...has that throwback garage feel, the kind where it is as dirty as a sexually transmitted disease, as contagious as Influenza A..."-
Madness To Creation
Buy/Stream 'My Bad' on Bandcamp:
https://stringerny.bandcamp.com/album/my-bad
'My Bad' on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1uEsAkPh1gbbxRoYsrL4jv.
'My Bad' on Apple Music:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/my-bad/1399884953
Order "
My Bad" on limited-edition hot pink vinyl here: https://wiretaprecords.limitedrun.com/products/620131-stringer-my-bad-12-lp.
"
My Bad" was produced by Adam Reich (So So Glos, ex-Titus Andronicus).
Check out the music video for "
Ghosts" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz-W3pGMyIU.
As one of the resident "house bands" at the beloved-- recently closed-- NYC underground venue Shea Stadium, Stringer (known in a previous incarnation as Heeney) has been active in the Brooklyn DIY scene for several years (most recently featured in the Rolling Stone doc 'DIY in NYC'). Over the years, the band has played shows with the likes of Titus Andronicus, So-So Glos, Porches,
Speedy Ortiz, Slothrust and
SWMRS to name a few.
Max Kagan & Mark Fletcher, both native New Yorkers, met on 12/12/12 during a 24-hour long noise show at their beloved hometown venue/clubhouse Shea Stadium. After joining forces with powerhouse drummer Johnny Spencer, the three have been making music under various names ever since. The most refined & fully-formed version of that collaboration can be found in the form of Stringer, who, with the addition of Riley Zimmer (bass), have been a band since late 2015. Stringer likes eating ethnic food & drinking at old man bars that open at 8am.
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