Patent Pending

**'Patent Pending'** is an American rock band formed in Mount Sinai, New York, USA in 2001.

## Formation (2001)

Patent Pending was formed sometime in 2001 by Joe Ragosta and Drew Buffari while at Mount SinaI High School in Mount Sanai, New York City, with Joe playing guitar and Drew playing bass. The band was started quickly in order for them to perform at a local open mic night that Joe and Drew had heard about.

With no previous experience Joe and Drew practiced together for a month before the first official band practice.

Shortly after deciding to form a band, the duo recruited Joe's younger brother Michael on lead vocals. Shortly after recruiting a vocalist, the band searched for a drummer, they quickly hired Anthony Mingoia, mostly because he was the only drummer they knew of in their entire school and possibly their entire town.

The band began to play shows around long island gaining a following in Nassau County. Sometime later the band began recording some demo CD's with some songs that would be used on the band's future releases.

## Early EP's (2001 - 2004)

Shortly after performing shows and recorded demos, the band released their debut EP, titled ***'Meet the Fat Kids'*** in 2001. The EP was self released and contained only 2 songs titled ***'Sushi James'*** and ***'Saturday Morning'***. A few months later the band released their first full=length EP, titled ***'The Pirate House'***, the title was a reference to a house in the band's home town which was decorated to look like a pirate ship. The EP containted both songs from the previous EP.

In 2002, the band released two more EP's one titled ***'Air Drew'*** and ***'Drive By'*** and a second full-length EP titled ***'Don't Quit Your Day Job'***.

In 2004, the band released the EP titled ***'....Is Your Biological Father'***, they also released their first official music video for the song ***'The June Spirit'***.

## Signing to We Put Out Records and Debut Album (2005 - 2006)

In 2005, the band were signed to their first record label, We Put Out Records under the name East/West Record Group.

In 2006, they released their debut album titled ***'Save Each Other, The Whales Are Doing Fine'***, on We Put Out Records on June 6th, 2006, the album was produced by Joseph A. Padulla. The album was originally supposed to be released on May 9th, 2006 under the name ***'Save The Children, The Whales Are Doing Fine'***, but due to legal issues with the charity Save The Children, the album was delayed and retitled.

After the release, the album achieved moderate commercial success, selling over 10,000 copies due to the band's inclusion on the entire 2006 Vans Warped Tour, and supporting Gym Class Heroes and Cobra Starship on a tour immediately following.

Sometime after the record was completed, the band invited long time friend Marc Kantor to join as an additional guitarist, expanding the bands line up to a 5-piece.

## Attack of the Awesome!!! and Departure of Drew Buffardi (2007 - 2009)

Bassist and founding member Drew Buffardi left the band in 2007 shortly before the band was due to go on a tour, with him being replaced on tour by Claude Zdanow untli a permanent replacement could be found, the band was later joined by Jay Beiner as a full-time replacement.

The band performed at the 2007 Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as well as select dates on the 2007 Vans Warped Tour, in addition to touring smaller clubs and venues throughout the United States. On April 16, 2007, guitarist Marc Kantor began riding his bicycle from Levittown, New York to San Diego, California in an effort to help raise money and awareness for the American Heart Association, with a portion of the proceeds also being donated to the Rhiannon Chloe Foundation, and was successfully completed on June 7, 2007.

In 2008, Patent Pending went back into the studio with Joseph A. Pedulla to record ***'Attack of the Awesome!!!'***, an eight-song EP featuring Joe and Michael Ragosta switching lead vocal duties, and was released July 14, 2009. The band supported the EP on separate tours with Catch 22, Just Surrender, and Suburban Legends throughout the first half of the year.

## Departure of Michael Ragosta (2009)

Shortly after a concert at the Crazy Donkey in July, 2009, lead vocalist Michael Ragosta announced his departure from Patent Pending in a video with him and Joe explaining his departure and that Joe, who at the time was a guitarist and backing vocalist, would be switiching permanently to lead vocals. Joshua Dicker, took over Joe Ragosta's guitar duties for live performances during this time.

## I'm Not Alone (2010)

In 2010, the band released another EP titled ***'I'm Not Alone'***, it spawned two music videos, one for ***'Dance 'Til We Die''***, a song which lead singer Joe Ragosta described as being about "Zombies, eating peoples brains". The other music video was for a song titled ***'One Less Heart To Break'***, a song which was inspired by the suicide by one of the bands close friends and has been credited for saving people's lives, it is their best known song and helped the band more attention worldwide. The song reached number one under every category on mtv.com and put into rotation on MTV2),

During the recording of the EP, long time friend Rob Felicetti tracked guitar for the record. Felicetti became Dicker's touring replacement, and eventually joined the band as a full-time replacement during the group's 2010 summer tour. Patent Pending began writing for another record throughout the fall and winter of 2010, following the departure of bassist Jay Beiner, and the inclusion of fill-in bass player Travis McGee.

## Second Family and 2012 Billboard Music Awards (2011 - 2012)

n February 2011, the band joined back up with producer Jordan Schmidt to begin pre-production for a new full-length record. They started recording at StadiumRed in Harlem, New York during March, and finished up the recording process at Schmidt's Melmac Studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Patent Pending self-released its second full-length album, '***Second Family'.***

In May, the band was asked to support a US tour with Bowling for Soup and the Dollyrots, and spent the summer on the Vans Warped Tour. In October, the band filmed a music video for the single ***'Douchebag'*** with producer/director Jaret Reddick of Bowling For Soup's music video production company Built by Ninjas, which was released December 6, 2011.

Patent Pending was originally scheduled to play on May 20 at The 2012 Bamboozle Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey following a spring touring schedule supporting Bowling For Soup, however on May 18 the band was named *Billboard*'s "Dreamseaker Artist of the Year" after winning a battle of the bands competition at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, securing a live performance slot at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards on ABC. The band was replaced by This Good Robot for its May 20 performance at Bamboozle Festival. Patent Pending played select dates on the 2012 Vans Warped Tour over the summer on the Ourstage.com Stage from July 6–12 and July 21, as well as supporting on a subsequent tour with the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

The band was also included on the Crappy Records compilation Have a Crappy Summer, on which they released a new song, ***'These Pools Were Made for Hopping'***.

In 2012, fill-in bassist Travis McGee was replaced by full-time permanent band member Corey DeVincenzo, and in October 2012, Patent Pending embarked on a two-week tour of the United Kingdom supporting Bowling for Soup, which were the band's first shows outside of North America. In addition to the tour, Bowling for Soup released a split album with the supporting acts of the group, Patent Pending and The Dollyrots, on the band's 'One Big Happy Tour'. The split was called *One Big Happy*, with each releasing a new original song and a cover of a song by the other bands on the album. The band's new original song on the split was ***'Psycho In Love'***, and the band covered Bowling for Soup's ***'Shut Up and Smile'*** and The Dollyrots ***'Hyperactive'***.

n December 2012, Patent Pending released a five-track digital cover EP called *Spring Break '99*, which included covers of Limp Bizkit, Smash Mouth, Lit, The Backstreet Boys and Sugar Ray. This was followed with a holiday tour in December 2012, and the group's first headlining tour of the United Kingdom in April, alongside a performance at the 2013 Download Festival in Leicestershire, England.

## Brighter (2013)

In February 2013, the band began production on a new record at Fantasy Land Studio in Gallatin, Tennessee, choosing again producer Jordan Schmidt, and was fan funded by a campaign on PledgeMusic. The band released its third full-length album, **'*Brighter'***, on October 7, 2013. The US release took place one day later. The album included 12 tracks, one being a bonus track titled ***'Spin Me Around'***. The same year Patent Pending opened for Bowling for Soup during the group's farewell tour in the United Kingdom.

## Mario and the Brick Breakers (2014)

In July 2014, Patent Pending released a digital download EP called *Patent Pending Presents Mario and the Brick Breakers: Greatest Hits* featuring the song ***'Hey Mario'*** and five other Mario inspired tracks. The release was supported by the band playing as Mario and the Brick Breakers during the group's late 2014 concerts, either as a spoof support act or during Patent Pending's set. A full length mockumentary was released on September 11, 2014 as well as an abridged Hey Mario music video which received airplay on several UK music channels. The EP was released on CD in October 2014 and in Australia as a double CD set with Brighter in early 2015.

## Armagedon and Riot Hearts Rebellion (2015)

On July 31, 2015 Patent Pending released another digital download EP called *Armageddon* featuring the song ***'Brighter'***, and four other brand new songs; ***'Too Much to Think'***, '***The Way I See It'***, ***'Tick Tick Boom'*** and ***'We're Getting Weird'***.

## Other People's Greatest Hits (2017)

On April 17, 2017, the band announced their first full album of cover songs, *Other People's Greatest Hits*. The first single released was their version of the Spice Girls' ***'Spice Up Your Life'***, which featured in the set of their UK Spring Break 2017 tour that followed the announcement. Though the album was available to purchase at the live shows, it is not officially due for release until May 26, 2017. However It was later released on that date.

## Punk Rock Songs and UK Tour (2019)

On August 9, 2019, The band released their first original single in four years, titled "Punk Rock Songs". They later embarked on a UK tour with shows in Norwich, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol and the Reading and Leeds Festivals with support from Never There and Eternal Boy. Guitarist Rob Felicetti didn't join the band on the tour due to complications with Bowling For Soup playing at the Reading and Leeds Festival and was replaced with Joshua Dicker.

On December 26th, 2019 the band played X-Mosh Christmas show in Long Island.

They later played a show on the 28th of December.

## Wobble and COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)

On 9th of March, 2020 the band announced they would be playing the Four Chord Music Festival on the 11th of July. It was unknown at the time if the concert would go ahead due to the 2019-2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.

On 17th of April, the band released a new single titled "Wobble" featuring Awesten Knight.

On 4th of May, it was announced that the Four Chord Music Fesitval had been postponed and would be rescheduled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. On 3rd of August it was announced that the Festival had been rescheduled to July 17th, 2021.

## Four Chord Music Festival and Annual Holiday Show (2021 - present)

On May 26th, 2021, the band announced that the Four Chord Music Festival had been again postponed to September 2021.

On September 11th, bassist Corey DeVincenzo announced that he would not be performing with the band at the Four Chord Music Festival due to private matters.

On September 17th, the band performed at the Four Chord Music Festival, due to Corey being absent his place was taken by Henry Menzel.

On September 20th, Spotify posted a song titled "Back Away" and claiming it to be one of Patent Pending's songs, the band responded with them stating that the song doesn't belong to them.

On October 27th, the band announced that they would be pefoming their annual Holiday show at 9 Railroad Avenue in Patchogue, New York with support from Waiver, NOTA and Few Faces. On December 22nd, it was announced the show had been postponed due a member of the band's crew testing positive for COVID-19.

## Members

**Current members**

* Joe Ragosta – Lead Vocals (2001–present), Guitar, Backing Vocals (2001–2010)
* Anthony Mingoia – Drums/Percussion (2001–present)
* Rob Felicetti – Guitar, Backing Vocals (2010–present)
* Robert Ragosta – Guitar, Backing Vocals (2018-present)
* Corey DeVincenzo – Bass (2012–present)

**Touring musicians**

* Joshua Dicker – guitar, vocals (2009–present)
* Henry Menzel - bass guitar (2021)

**Former members**

* Michael Ragosta – vocals (2001–2009)
* Drew Buffardi – bass (2001–2007)
* Jay Beiner – bass (2007–2010)
* Travis McGee – bass (2011–2012)
* Marc Kantor - guitar (2006- 2018)

## Discography

### Studio Albums

* *Save Each Other, the Whales Are Doing Fine* (2006)
* *Second Family* (2011)
* *Brighter* (2013)
* *Brighter/Mario and the Brick Breakers* (2015)
* *Riots Hearts Rebellion* (2015)
* *Other People's Greatest Hits* (2017)

### Extended Plays

* *Meet the Fat Kids* (2001)
* *The Pirate House* (2001)
* *Air Drew* (2002)
* *Drive By* (2002)
* *Don't Quit Your Day Job* (2004)
* *...Is Your Biological Father* (2004)
* *Attack of the Awesome!!!* (2009)
* *I'm Not Alone* (2010)
* *Spring Break '99* (2012)
* *Mario and the Brick Breakers: Greatest Hits* (2014)
* *Armageddon* (2015)
* *Season's Greetings* (2016)

## Trivia

* The band is well known world wide due to their upbeat demeanor, diverse song subjects, close relationship with their fans, and energetic live shows.
* Lead vocalist Joe Ragosta and drummer Anthony Mingoia are the only two members left from the band's original lineup, although Joe's role in the band has changed with him switching from guitar to lead vocals while Anthony's role remains the same.