Joe Sapienza, center, and Sunny Gang in a brotherly moment. (Click to enlarge)

redbankgreen got this email last week from a proud Red Bank dad, Bill Sapienza, and it’s just too good not to run pretty much verbatim:

My son Joe’s band, Sunny Gang, performed at this year’s Afropunk Festival in Brooklyn’s Commodore Barry Park on Sunday. Kind of a big deal for him. They even got their picture in Rolling Stone.com along with several other sites.

Joe is a product of the Red Bank school system, and played piano and percussion in the Middle School band, took piano lessons at the Musician’s Studio, and guitar and bass lessons at Monmouth Music.

“Joe Sap,” as he has been known since 4th grade, started his own band, “At the Ready,” while attending High Tech High School in Lincroft. Joe has recently completed his B.S. in Marketing with Honors from the Rutgers Business School. For his Capstone project, Joe wrote a thesis on breaking into the music business, which included completing a two-year internship with the campus recording studio, forming the band Sunny Gang with some classmates, and beginning the music production company Illuminati Records.

Sunny Gang has been performing in the New York/New Jersey area for the last two years, and were finalists in Afropunk’s battle of the bands contest, which won them a spot on the stage in this year’s festival. Red Bull Sound Select has recently signed the group to a performance contract for some of its upcoming sponsored events.

Of course, this is proud father talk, but thought you may be interested in local kid making some waves. He doesn’t know I am sending this (he’s a regular reader). He is currently back home in Red Bank as he is performing the challenging “I just graduated college and can’t find a job” stage of life. He ultimately wants to run his own music production company, and is hoping to find a position somewhere in the entertainment industry and utilize his marketing, music, and audiovisual production skills (just in case you know somebody).