Dopapod, the palindrome-inclined quartet from Boston who have risen to quickly become a sought after late-night festival act (their StrangeCreek set in the cabin was a packed funk sauna) and continue to show that their studio work is tandem to their live shows. After Drawn Onward was released in 2011, the next chapter of Dopapod was received with great enthusiasm as they fanned out on tours across the country, unleashing one of the best kept secrets of the Northeast onto the country. Redivider is a powerful follow up that showcases the growth and musical maturity of Dopapod, in addition to a mesh of funk, electronic, jam and progrock genres to appeal to all, especially those who enjoy great music and love to dance their asses off.
For starters, there are three short interlude tracks, “Get to the Disc”, “Ooze Weapon” and “Fry the Gorillas” that keep a wonderful flow to the album, something quite welcome that allows for seamless transition between the tracks. Starting off with “Braindead”, the combo of spooky synthesizers and slick guitar licks make for a track reminiscent of Oysterhead. On “Bubble Brain”, Eli Winderman takes the synthesizer through peaks and valleys and even has a hip hop Dr. Dre feel. While there is a progressive nature to the song, building upon each section towards a fantastic ending, I am most curious to see how this structured instrumental will develop live. Crowds will get worked into a frenzy over “Trapper Keeper”; staying organized in grade school was never this rockin’. Rob Compa’s guitar work would make The New Mastersounds proud, Neal ‘Fro’ Evans’ drums drive the song at 75mph, with the mixing in a little electronic twist perfect polish to this funky number. The next two tracks, both instrumentals, “My Elephant vs. Your Elephant” and “Blast” are intense and soaring, the latter heavy with Rob’s guitar and Chuck Jones’ bass.
Picture a Nintendo game, the music starting off catchy at first, and then delving into some deep and dirty soul in the first half of the tune. Then, the video-game journey brings you key-led towards an abyss… Once “Vol. 3 #86” lands into a third movement, you have the highlight of the album and an incredible song for dancing. When it comes to late night appearances at festivals, this one will be requested for certain.
“STADA” has a spooky intro and classic Dopapod sound, while “Give it a Name” is deceptively slow to start, then drops in Soundgarden-heavy spurts amid goofy schizophrenic musical fun. “Weird Charlie” uses playful bass and accordion keys, and things get WEIRD! An excellent cap to the album, wrapping up great production and great writing by Dopapod.
If you’ve listened to Dopapod before, you’ll want this album. If you’ve seen them at festival, you’ll be well served buying this album. If you have never listened to Dopapod, what are you waiting for? Come join the party!
Key Tracks – Bubble Brain, Trapper Keeper, Vol. 3 #86, Give it a Name, Weird Charlie
Pick up the album at Dopapod.com on December 21st
The piano/organ from Marco draws out of a classical background, with intricate compositions that bring to mind the soundtracks of the Silent Film era. While Marco manipulates his organ to create a cacophony of sounds by turning knobs, the full two hours of music is completely organic, songs popping out of Bene’s head and followed in step with Dreiwitz’s bass and Borger’s incredible drumming. Highlights of the night included a “9 to 5” jam in the always incredible “The Real Morning Party” and “Something for Rockets”. When it comes to piano rock concerts, Marco is second to none, playing in a style and group that has no comparison; the group is in a league of their own.
The last time Trey played in Syracuse was 
Herring, the lead guitarist for Widespread Panic and formerly of Aquarium Rescue Unit, Frogwings, Jazz is Dead and Project Z, took his position at stage right in his usual Captain Morgan ‘one foot forward, leg slightly bent’ stance. Bandmates Jeff Sipe (drums), Matt Slocum (keys) and Neal Fountain (bass) were incredibly tight sounding after this 12-show tour. Slocum’s keys added pizzazz to each song, while Herring gave a clinic on the interweaving of jazz and blues through his Stratocaster. Highlights of the instrumental set included “Rainbow”, covers of The Beatles “A Day in the Life” and “Within You Without You” and a phenomenal and scortching version of Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” with Derico Watson and J.D. Blair on drums – three drummers for one incredible song. The 80 minute set kept the audience on their toes, with the direction of the music constantly changing. Herring’s 
Videos from Parker Harrington from Marco’s 10/11/12 show in Cambridge, Mass
However, Albany ranked at number 9 seems to stand out as an outlier in this list of 20 (which also has Dutchess County at #19), because we are neither a large metro area compared to other cities on the list, nor are we a popular tourist destination. But where did all these bands come from? If Albany has roughly 100,000 people living in the city, then conservatively, we have 1,540 bands in the Albany area alone. If you take all the bands in Albany of varying size, and even skew down by a third, we still have 1,000 bands. That’s a lot of talent, especially when compared to cities of larger size that are the home of huge signed acts. Albany has had a few in their day (Blotto, moe., Ominous Seapods, to name a few) and there are many more waiting in the wings (Timbre Coup, Consider the Source, among many others) that are making a name for themselves among the relatively small population of Albany and high number of acts, per 10,000 people.