2010 was an awesome year for the Dan Sheehan Conspiracy. Although we got off to a slow start losing our original drummer, which prompted Dan to play a bunch of solo shows in February and March (that he very much enjoyed doing, by the way), by May we had found two great new Conspirators in the form of Dave and Simon, played a bunch of cool shows in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and New Jersey, started recording our new album, got various kudos from some cool people and places, did a little TV, and Dan even got to reunite with his pre-DSC band, Banter. Thanks to all the great supporters and co-conspirators who made many of these experiences all the better, and may everyone have a great holiday season and an awesome 2011!

Below are some of the highlights of the past year in DSC Land, excerpted from our news page (if you're looking for more reading material when you finish with this page, just go to the news page and you can keep reading everything from the previous years).

The DSC on Rew and Who? Television with Radio Crystal Blue jock Dan Herman

The January 27th edition of the popular web show Rew and Who featured the last appearance of original DSC drummer Bobby, along with Dan and Gian, being interviewed by none other than Radio Crystal Blue host Dan Herman and regular hostess Rew. The show also captures us performing a stripped down version of "Have a Nice Summer." To see the all three segments of our appearance, click to the video playlist to the right.

"Collateral Damage" featured in Anti-War Songs database

The anti-war rap rocker "Collateral Damage" from The Dan Sheehan Conspiracy, a song which has been used in public service announcements, aired on numerous radio stations, viewed in countries around the world on YouTube, and studied at Stony Brook University (see February 2008 news), was added to the anti-war song database at antiwarsongs.org. You can see the page for "Collateral D" here and once again we present you with the video to your left.

Dan at Mr. Beery's Band Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis

Dan spent part of Valentine's Day ripping through a solo set at the 15th annual Band Battle To End Cystic Fibrosis at Mr. Beery's in Bethpage, Long Island. This was Dan's 3rd year in a row participating in the battle, having done so in 2008 with The DSC and in 2009 on bass with Johnny Race.

set list:

See Kay (DSC)-> Sympathy For the Devil (Rolling Stones)
Springtime in February (Banter)
Rockin' In the Free World (Neil Young)
Before You Wake (DSC)
Forty Days (Banter)
Eleventh Hour (DSC)
Hey Hey, What Can I Do? (Led Zep)

Dan performed for the second year ago at the Ars Electronic concert at Bergen Community College's Ciccone Theatre on March 11, improvising guitar ambience to composer Szymon Adamczyk's piece, "Lost Memories" (video to the right). Adamczyk is a young student of Dan's and an up and coming electronic composer. Dan was proud to feature his playing along with Szymon's work. Headlining the show was Todd Reynold's with Eric Singer's LEMUR instruments as featured on Pat Metheny's current tour.

Dan with Mike Lynch at at Patti & Johnny's

Dan played yet another acoustic show, on St. Patrick's Day at Patti & Johnny's in Garden City South, about a mile from where Dan grew up on a bill including past billmates and fellow PDT clients The Vinyl Plane (fka The Headie Berrie) and Midnight Mob. Dan ripped through solo versions of rockers like "See Kay" and the Banter classic "Forty Days" as well as playing more ballady numbers like "Before You Wake" and U2's "Van Diemen's Land" (with the extra verse not sung by the Edge on Rattle and Hum) and was joined by ex-Banter and ex-DSC mate Michael Lynch for acoustic versions of Banter's "Take a Walk," The Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and Neil Young's "Rockin' In the Free World."

New band members for the DSC

In May we were excited to recruit the newest additions to the DSC lineup. Drummer Dave Mason took over the drum throne, having impressed us at his audition at Astoria Soundworks with his keen sense of timing, his taste, his diversity and his rock-ability (not too mention his willingness to bring refreshing beverages for all to rehearsals). Within a week Dave procured for us his longetime friend Simon Kono to add the second guitar that we've been longing for for some time. Simon has been adding tasteful textures and thrilling solos to the mix ever since. With these two Vermont-bred gents on board, the DSC sound tighter and more rocking than ever before (even though you thought that was not possible)!

The DSC rock Make Music New York with new lineup debut!

The new DSC debuted with 2 shows at the 4th annual Make Music New York festival. In the afternoon we performed at Athens Triangle, Astoria, and then at Astoria Park in the evening with friends Worst Case Ontario, Cosmo's Moon, and Dustin Ehrlich. These shows saw the debut performances of the new DSC tunes "Something In Return" and "Shown the Light" as well as the addition of organ to "Dark Summer" and "Tu Mochila Esta Abierta" and piano on "Have a Nice Summer." Dig more groovy photos of the Astoria Park show here.

July 20th was the Brooklyn debut of the DSC as well as Dave and Simon's club debut with the band, and it rocked! We shared the stage with Voice of the Population, a great New York power trio with super catchy tunes, and Boots With Spurs, a concept album band from Chicago. Joining us onstage to play keyboards was longtime DSC friend Michael Lynch (of Michael Lynch, The Split Signals, The Anything People, Shaw 'Nuff, The Briimstones, etc.) who filled in as our temporary bass player when the band started in 2007/2008 before Gianluis came into the fold.

To the right you can see a video of our last 2 songs from the night, "Dark Summer" and "Have a Nice Summer."

The DSC Start Recording Album Number 2

In June The DSC started recording the new album tentatively entitled Confessions of the Dan Sheehan Conspiracy starting with the tracks "Have a Nice Summer," "Something in Return," "Eleventh Hour," "Shown the Light" and "Dark Summer."

BANTER, Dan's pre-Conspiracy band also consisting of drummer Joe Smith, guitarist Jeff G and bassist Doogie, played their first show since 2004 at Cambridge live music hub TT the Bear's on Friday, August 6th. The band ripped through a set featuring songs from their Urban Pastures album, the Side One EP, and covers "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" by the Kinks and the Simple Minds classic "Don't You Forget About Me." Original lead guitarist Lance Vallis joined the band for the classic Banter tune "Claireville Countryside," making it a truly special reunion (Lance had not played with the band since it's earliest days in the late 1990s). A reunited Wide Iris and two newer Boston bands, Monalisa Overdrive and Alechmilla, also put on great sets and made for an awesome night of Boston rock and roll!

Simon and Dan on Working Musicians

In the absence of Gian and Dave, Simon and Dan had to put extra energy into ther renditions of the latest DSC tunes (and a few old classics) at the taping of 2 episodes of the Westchester cable show Working Musicians on Sept. 27th. The fellas blasted through all-guitar and vocal versions of "Have a Nice Summer," "Dark Summer," "The Valley," "See Kay," "Shown the Light" and the newest DSC tune "The Ever Pleasant Notion."

Part I of Simon and Dan's semi-unplugged performance and interview with Roger premiered Friday Nov. 12th on White Plains Cable, with part II debuting Friday Nov. 19th.

DSC return to the stage with Brooklyn show

The Conspiracy returned to the stage for the first time since the summer on October 9th with a set at Brooklyn's reknowned Trash Bar that featured the debut of the new songs "The Ever Pleasant Notion" and "I'll See You There." Whereas the the band's summer shows all featured guest keyboard players, for this show the guys opted for a straight-ahead, rock and roll 4-man guitar and drums lineup. We've posted photos from the show and you can see a video to the right and the other videos from the show right here!

The DSC play the big city

The Conspiracy's new lineup played its first Manhattan show at Desmond's, playing to a fired up crowd after opening act Bandsaw. Dan debuted his new Les Paul Studio and the band debuted the new Kono/Mason/Sheehan composition "Forevermore."

DSC songs licensed to Alli Sports

Dan signed off on a deal to have "The Valley" and other songs from The Dan Sheehan Conspiracy album appear in ads for the skateboard/BMX company Alli Sports. The conspiracy spreads to the skater crowd!

DSC in Radio Crystal Blue podcast

We have to give a shout out to Radio Crystal Blue podcaster Dan Herman for continuing to play music from our 2008 CD and for letting folks know of all our activities. Dan spun "Go Outside" from The DSC on his November 7th show and talked us up quite a bit. Go to his website check out the podcast and also check out our videos from our appearance with Dan as guest co-host on the web show Rew & Who? from earlier this year.

The DSC pay tribute to John Lennon at Travelling Guitar Foundation benefit

The Conspiracy joined several area acts at the "Come Together" John Lennon tribute benefitting the Travelling Guitar Foundation on December 15th at Bergen Community College's Ciccone Theatre, performing the Lennon-penned classics "Working Class Hero" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey" alongside the Conspiracy tune "I'll See You There." The event was hosted by Q-104.3's Maria Milito and raised money to give guitars to schools.

The DSC featured on first Alive With Clive Top 20 music compilation to raise money to fight AIDS

"Rock Song" from the debut Dan Sheehan Conspiracy album is featured on Clive Swersky's downloadable album The First Alive With Clive Top 20, an album which will raise funds to battle AIDS in Swersky's home country of South Africa. Alive With Clive is Swersky's show on White Plains Cable. Dan appeared on his show in late 2008 and subsequently battled for a position in the Top 20 guest artists on the show, finishing at number 6, thus garnering track 6 on the compilation. A video of Dan discussing and performing "Rock Song" on Alive With Clive can be found on YouTube. Clive also blogged about this song on 2 occassions (occassion 1, occassion 2). Swersky's press release for the release can be found here.