NYS Music 20​13

Category: News

  • Pop Evil is set to invade the Capital Region this fall with Eve To Adam, The Letter Black & Black Oxygen

    Pop Evil Fall 2013 Flier
    Pop Evil Fall 2013 Flier

    Pop Evil returns to the capital region this fall Friday, Nov. 22, 2013 at Upstate Concert Hall in Clifton Park, N.Y., and Sunday, Nov. 24 at the Westcott Theater in Syracuse, N.Y. in support of their new studio album, “ONYX”.

    Special Guest also on the show include Eve To Adam, The Letter Black, and Black Oxygen.

    POP EVIL:

    From Grand Rapids, Michigan, Leigh Kakaty (vocals), Davey Grahs (guitar), Nick Fuelling (guitar), Chachi Roit (drums) and Matt DiRito (bass). In the last five years, Pop Evil has released three studio albums including Lipstick On The Mirror (2008), War Of Angels (2011) and current album Onyx (2013).

    THE LETTER BLACK:

    From Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the band consists of husband and wife Sarah Anthony (vocals) and Mark Anthony (vocals/guitar), Matt Beal (bass) and Justin Brown (drums). The Letter Black has released three studio albums and an independent album since 2007 including Stand (2007 independent), Hanging By A Thread (2010), Hanging By A Remix (2012) and current album Rebuild (2013).

    EVE TO ADAM:

    From New York, N.Y., this three-man band consists of Taki Sassaris (vocals), Alex Sassaris (drums) and Gaurav Bali (guitar). Eve To Adam now has four studio albums since 2001 including Auburn Slip (2001), Queens To Eden (2007), Banquet For A Starving Dog (2011) and current studio album Locked & Loaded (2013).

    Black Oxygen:

    From Kansas City, Missouri, this three-man band consists of David Lyle (vocals/lead guitar), Nick Lyle (drums) and Jordan Myer (bass). Black Oxygen has one studio album called, The American Dream (2012).

    Other Tour Dates Include:

    Nov 8 – Traverse City, MI @ Ground Zero

    Nov 9 – Libertyville, IL @ Austin’s Fuel Room

    Nov 10 – Wausau,WI @ The Fillmore

    Nov 12 – Battle Creek, MI @ Planet Rock

    Nov 14 – Johnson City, TN @ Capones

    Nov 15 – Greenville, SC @ The Handlebar

    Nov 17 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade

    Nov 18 – Fayetteville, NC @ The Drunk Horse Pub

    Nov 20 – Jacksonville, NC @ Hooligans Music Hall

    Nov 22 – Clifton Park, N.Y @ Upstate Concert Hall

    Nov 23 – Quincy, MA @ WAAF

    Nov 24 – Syracuse, N.Y @ The Westcott Theater

    Pop Evil also has posted on their Facebook page that the first 20 fans who show proof of purchase of the Onyx album at the Merch table will get to meet the band.

  • Donna the Buffalo Performs at The Armory on Saturday 11/16

    Donna the Buffalo The Armory Donna the Buffalo’s upcoming performance in Rochester, NY at Water Street Music Hall on Saturday, November 16th with Sim Redmond Band has been moved to The Armory on East Main Street. Tickets already purchased for Water Street will be honored at The Armory.

    With Water Street under new ownership recently and going through some changes, this re-location of scheduled performers was inevitable. Donna The Buffalo has been a staple of the Upstate, NY music scene for 2 decades, so making sure this show still went on was critical to our local music scene.

    Donna The Buffalo will play the Main Street Armory with The Sim Redmond Band on Saturday, November 16th. Doors open at 8PM, tickets can be purchased at the venue box office or ONLINE for $20 in advance and $25 at the door, this is an all ages show. For more information you can contact the venue at (585) 232-3221.

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  • Featured Band: GHOST B.C.

    Happy New Year, or Happy Halloween – which ever you choose. Today, Upstate Metal turns it’s focus on a band whose flamboyant theatrics for making a mockery out of the Catholic Church turns every day into Halloween. When Ghost B.C. takes to the stage, people notice.

    “What the hell is this?” recalls Upstate Metal photographer and editor, Jim Gilbert, who captured this Swedish heavy metal band earlier this year in at Rock on the Range in Columbus, Ohio. “It was Latin Catholic Church gone bad or gone good. It made me take notice.” Ghost B.C. are easily recognizable due to their unique on-stage presence. A six-piece band comprised of five musicians donned in hooded robes, while the vocalist appears in skull make-up, dressed as a Roman Catholic Cardinal. The nature of their identities is highly secretive and their names have not been publicly disclosed; the vocalist calls himself Papa Emeritus and the musicians are referred to only as Nameless Ghouls. Musically, the band is often compared to groups such as The Doors, Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Mercyful Fate and Kyuss.

    Off stage, they continue to shock. Should you dare visit their Facebook page, they describe themselves as a group who “performs pop hymns that glorify and glamorize the disgusting and sacrilegious. “Ghost is the name of a devil worshiping ministry, that in order to spread its unholy gospels and, furthermore, trick mankind into believing the end is ultimately a good thing, have decided to use the ever so popular rock music medium as a way to achieve their ends.”

    Gulp.

    The act hasn’t been off-putting. In 2010, they were nominated for a Grammis, which is the Swedish equivalent to our Grammy, for their debut album, Opus Eponymous.  Nonetheless, the subject matter by which the group sings is a bone of contention for many who worship Christianity, which has a following of 2.2 billion strong.

    Ghost-4

    “If Not For Those Satanic Lyrics, Ghost B.C. Could Be Superstars,” read a headline out of New York City’s The Village Voice in July. Though it appears that most critics recognize this as just an act.  The Voice likened Ghost B.C. to something familiar to KISS from the ’70s and early ’80s. Nonetheless, one of the nameless ghouls agreed how some perceive the band to be, and does not argue, “From a ‘Bible Belt’ point of view, yes we are [Satanics]. Because if you’re talking to someone who is a very God-fearing devout Christian with all that comes with it, obviously that person would deem us being complete blasphemy and an abomination to everything they considered dear and holy.”

    Perfect material to rebel against your parents.

    Infantissumam, their follow-up to their debut album, came out this April.

  • Lou Reed by Proxy

    I experienced Lou Reed by proxy while attending a creative writing course at a community school in Troy, NY.  Joe Cardillo walked into his class room, always wearing a black sweater, black leather jacket, Army-issue pants, black-leather boots, topped off with a black beret.  The beret partially covered his black, curly hair, and once the attention to his attire was broken away, his tough, leathery skin revealed he was not among my peers of twenty-year olds.

    He was a beatnik who admired Patti Smith.  He smashed the rigid lesson plans we were all familiar with in high school.  Writing did not have to follow a set of rules.  Poetry didn’t have to rhyme.  Stories didn’t have to flow chronologically (see also Robert Coover’s The Baby Sitter).  The very structure of a paragraph need not be followed.

    In my mind, as I write this now, Joe Cardillo was Lou Reed.  If, only, because he looked like him.

    Now, that is the extent to my experience with Lou Reed.  Before I heard of his passing yesterday, I knew little of the man.  I knew him to be the man who sang, “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.”  On a good day, I may have been able to remember he was in a band known as the Velvet Underground.  I’m sorry to admit that, but at the same time, I grew up on Neil Young, The Eagles and The Beatles.  As a know-it-all teenager, and college student, I would see Reed in his ever-present black shirt, and sunglasses, and I would see a caricature of a man from a time I recognized was twenty years behind me.

    So, as I read about the man, I’m less inclined to read over the details that encompassed his life recently.  I’m more interested in how it all started.

    He graduated from Syracuse University in 1964, where he studied journalism, film directing and creative writing, but not before developing a fondness for rock and roll.  As a songwriter, he set out to tell a story.  But, he wasn’t invoking Pete Seeger through  folk songs he penned.  He was cynical,  Not because it was cool, but because he had reasons to be cynical. He was Jewish. He was guant.  He was bi-sexual.  (As a teenager, he suffered through electro-shock treatment to “cure” him of such acts.)  He wrote about drugs and sex, not vaguely, but quiet directly. His Velvet Underground was a mid-20th century version of a chamber orchestra for artist Andy Warhol and his factory of artists, writers and actors – a place for exchanging ideas, freely.  (Warhol?  Campbell’s soup?  Meek looking, bi-speckled gent with crazy hair?  I’ve seen him before.  Warhol was shot by a man-hating lesbian?  See also Valerie Solanas – and, yes, she hated men.)  In 1975, Reed released a solo double-album called Metal Machine Music, which included nothing but over-modulated feeback and guitar effects.  Years later, he would collaborate with Metallica, and claim he established the Heavy Metal genre. Others still see it as Reed throwing up a middle-finger to conformity. I only now appreciate the fact that Reed was not a product of non-conformity, it was his non-conformity that established a product – a way of holding one’s self in a society that did not accept differences.

    By now, every Lou Reed obituary is quoting from music producer, Brian Eno, who said, “The first Velvet Underground album sold 30,000 copies in the first five years. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!” But, it speaks of how Reed’s popularity germinated from the 60’s and seemed to blossom over the decades.  He was “avant-garde” when it was more hip to say “avant-garde.”  As the baby-boomers of his generation grew older, his talent was appreciated more commonly.  And, the following generations seemed to catch on.

    Joe Cardillo was blowing my mind while I was still an easily impressionable man of eight and ten.  I still take some of the things I learned from his class with me everyday.  I think it’s clear now that Lou Reed had a profound influence upon my instructor. So much so, it permeated into my lessons. I still don’t think I’m the right person to be writing this.  I can not properly articulate the influences Lou Reed had upon the masses who now mourn his death.  But, to see some of the names who speak out with such reverence for the man, who am I to think I need to define his legacy? I’m just ashamed that I’ve only now recognized that Reed is… was prototypical.

  • Upstate New York’s FireDean & The Brooklyn Garden Club Release New Video ‘Betula Nigra’

    Upstate New York based Fire Dean & The Brooklyn Garden Club have recently planted their roots in Upstate NY and they have brought their unique blend of alternative folk to the music scene here. Bandmates – FireDean, Daniel Weintraub, and Jason Broome have been acquainted with one another for some time, linked by music and friendship.

    The band has recently debuted a new video titled, ‘Betula Nigra’ and is available on YouTube. is happy to help spread the word about this  emerging new band, look for upcoming shows in the near future. For more information on the band check out their website at www.firedean.com

  • Eastbound Jesus Will Join Lucid for A Halloween Costume Party, October 25

    On Friday October 25th Plattsburgh’s Lucid will be accompanied by the Capital Region’s Eastbound Jesus at the Waterhole in Saranac Lake for a costume party to celebrate Halloween. 

    This will be the first performance by Lucid at the Waterhole since their album release of Home is Where We Wanna Grow in June. Lucid has made their mark on the music scene with their unique blend of  blues, jazz, rock, ska and hip-hop. Eastbound Jesus will also bring their fresh sound to the stage with their six-piece acoustic and electric band playing bluegrass, Americana and Northern rock. The event is 21+, $10 at the door and doors will open at 9 pm. The Waterhole is located at 48 Main Street in Saranac Lake, so get your costumes ready for an epic night of music and dancing.

    Follow the Waterhole @SLWaterhole | Waterhole Facebook

  • Umphrey’s McGee 2014 Winter Tour Announced

    Umphrey’s McGee has released their winter tour schedule for 2013 and  2014. The band will be making a stop in Buffalo, New York October 26th at the Town Ballroom and continuing their lengthy tour into 2014. Later in their tour, Umphrey’s McGee will be making a stop at Upstate Concert Hall February 2nd in Clifton Park, New York as well as the F Shed at the Market in Syracuse accompanied by Kung Fu on February 8th, and the Harro East Ballroom in Rochester, New York the following day on February 9th.
    UMp
    They will also be playing two nights at the Beacon Theater in New York City on January 17th and 18th.

    This tour celebrates 16 years of touring coast to coast and will be shared with many special guests throughout the tour including, The Werks, Kung Fu, Moon Taxi, and more TBA.

    October
    10.21 State Theatre, State College, PA
    10.23 House of Blues, Cleveland, OH
    10.24 Sherman Theater, East Stroudsburg, PA
    10.25 Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA
    10.26 Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY
    10.30 State Theatre, Kalamazoo, MI
    10.31 The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI (w/ London Souls)

    November
    11.1 The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI (w/ Cosby Sweater featuring Joel Cummins)
    11.2 The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI (w/ Boombox)

    December
    12.16-20 Mayan Holidaze, Puerto Morelos, MEX
    12.28 The Fillmore, Denver, CO
    12.29 The Fillmore, Denver, CO (w/ Joshua Redman + Dumpstaphunk) SOLD OUT
    12.30 Venue TBA, Denver, CO
    12.31 The Fillmore, Denver, CO

    January
    1.17 Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
    1.18 Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
    1.29 Track 29, Chattanooga, TN
    1.30 Tennessee Theater, Knoxville, TN
    1.31 LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH

    February
    2.1 The Fillmore, Detroit, MI (w/ The Werks)
    2.6 Upstate Concert Hall, Albany, NY
    2.7 Lupo’s, Providence, RI (w/ Kung Fu)
    2.8 F Shed at the Market, Syracuse, NY (w/ Kung Fu)
    2.9 Harro East Ballroom, Rochester, NY
    2.13 The NorVa, Norfolk, VA (w/ Moon Taxi)
    2.14 Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville, NC (w/ Moon Taxi)
    2.15 The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD (w/ Moon Taxi)
    2.16 The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD

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  • The Future History of Valentine’s will be Written at Quail & Central

    The end is nigh. Valentine’s, the longtime Albany music venue and home to many a metal, moe. and Dr. Jah show, will soon close its doors as the Albany Medical Center expansion clears out the Park South neighborhood, taking with it many memories and a location that was tough to beat, both for up and coming bands and established acts over the past 20 years.

    Nothing will replace Valentine’s, but owner Howard Glassman isn’t throwing in the towel. Sometime in the new few months, Valentine’s will relocate to 335 Central Avenue, most recently occupied by Cagney’s, right next door to Pauly’s Hotel and across Quail Avenue from The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio. While the name is still up in the air, Glassman says that after coming up with a name for the new venue, a search of a name revealed a bar in Albany years ago that already had that name, but shares, “We’ll come up with something. It’s 50/50-60/40 that it’s going to be Valentine’s. It’s of a time and a place, I don’t think you can take this here and call it Valentine’s but, you never know. Maybe we’ll open a bigger place and call it Valentine’s.”

    The new venue has about the same width as the current Valentine’s location, but with an Adirondack feel to the room as all the wood interior and surfaces give a North Country cabin feel that fits right in for Capital District live music fans; the bar will look and feel great. The stage will be located in the back of the venue, stretching the width of the room and have installed LED lights and a soundboard built into the end of the bar. While there is a lot of history at this new location (who in Albany didn’t go to Cagney’s when they were in high school/college?) and while some of this history will come from Valentine’s (The PA, Hank Williams and Muhammad Ali are coming along, per Glassman) the rest of the decor will start from scratch. Glassman adds “We’ll probably have some sort of garage sale for some stuff. People have already asked if they can have certain things. Someone already asked for the ‘No Pepper’ sign.” Fans can expect similar capacity and amenities akin to the current Valentine’s, but a big highlight to the new venue is a great amount of free parking on Central, Quail and in The Linda parking lot, which is free after 6pm – a big improvement on the crowded New Scotland/Park South area streets, which fans will quickly appreciate.

    The last couple months at Valentine’s is shaping up to send the venue out with a bang. Many bands are planning to perform, including Subduing Mara, who according to Glassman have been “Putting the feelers out for getting together and coming to play. Can’t Say is doing a gig (December 27th) and The Disenchanted are back together (December 28th). Greg (Bell, of Guthrie/Bell Productions) has Wreckloose, they’re doing a night and the next night he’s got (Peter Prince and) Moonboot Lover and Dr. Jah (and the Love Prophets) and I think he’s putting one more on that bill.” These final shows are expected to be announced for mid-late December and will confirm as soon as the dates are firm.

    Yet there was only a brief moment when Glassman was not considering to open another Valentine’s. “There was a small, small window of a day or two when my wife was like ‘Well now you gotta go get a job’, and I am uniquely unqualified for anything, so I had to go find the place.” The search had been ongoing since December 2012, but “Push came to shove and it was like, ‘Let’s do this’. The staff’s all on board, everybody’s ready to pick up and come on over here.” But the reality of the new venue and what is being left behind is not lost on Glassman. Not by a longshot. Howard’s views on the history of Valentine’s and his vision for the new location, whatever its name, are reassuring and inspiring to current Valentine’s patrons:

    “It’s gonna be a little different, only because it’s going to be our bar. It’s going to be our building. We can do whatever we want and not have to worry about getting kicked out. This is what I do, so this will be around as long as I’m around. I think people need to feel like they have their place. Think about all the bars that have closed. CBGB’s, Maxwell’s, think about when the Palais Royale was still open. It’s not the same (as Valentine’s) but it’s not the same for different reasons. But once we open up, hopefully the first Wednesday when The Deadbeats play, and people come in and they’re like “Ah there’s Grumpy and there’s Chris’, and they settle in, and I think when their ass makes an indentation in the seat, they’ll be cool and say ‘Alright. This is where we’re gonna hang for the next 20 years.’ I think it’s the vibe. It’s totally a vibe thing.”

    Stay tuned to Valentine’s for upcoming acts in the next few months. Stay tuned to on Facebook and Twitter for updates and news throughout Upstate New York.

  • Buckcherry boots bassist

    Buckcherry has divorced from bassist Jimmy Ashurst, and it was confirmed in separate statements this weekend.

    “With heavy hearts and with great difficulty, we have decided to part ways with our longtime bandmate Jimmy Ashurst,” stated the band. “This was not an easy decision, nor was it a rash decision made in haste. It’s not our desire to air dirty laundry or inner band circumstances that brought about this result. Every band has its issues, and while we have gone to great lengths to minimize them and work through them, this band has had its own issues like any other.”

    Ashurst, in short, says that’s crap.

    “Over a month ago now the band collectively decided that they would prefer to proceed without me,” he said. “If you’re looking for a reason you’ll need to ask them, since the one they gave me of my being ‘unhappy’ and of them ‘doing-me-a -favor-to-release-me-from-this-torment’ isn’t really resounding with the ‘Ring of Truth’.”

    Buckcheery started off from Los Angeles, California in 1995. Ashurst joined the band in 2005, when the band reformed after a brief hiatus.

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  • New York City’s Historic Roseland Ballroom To Close in April 2014

    One of the joys of being from Upstate New York is having New York City just a stone’s throw away. There is next to nothing as spectacular as seeing a performance live in a city as vast and full of energy as Manhattan. The wide array of venues, both small and large,  have hosted some of the biggest names in the world. The Roseland Ballroom is one of those venues and is set to close in April of 2014.

    The West 52nd street venue has been home to a plethora of different musical and non musical performances throughout the years. The venue was originally opened as a dance hall until it was torn down and relocated to its current location, which was originally  intended as an ice skating and roller skating rink. The hall held great amounts of character in its architecture and decor making it a colorful and quirky addition to the long list of historical venues in Manhattan.

    The venue has hosted all types of events from Hillary Clinton’s birthday party, to annual gay circuit parties, movie premiers, and every type of musical performance in between. The venue is also known as the backdrop to many of David Letterman’s outside skits, as his studio is directly next door.

    Roseland Ballroom is owned by Larry Ginsberg and booked by Live Nation, and in terms of capacity and location it is extremely ideal. According to Billboard Magazine the competition that is brought by AEG’s Best Buy Theater at about 2,500, the 3,500-capacity Hammerstein Ballroom, Bowery Presents’ Terminal 5 at 3,000 cap and the 2,800-cap Beacon Theatre, operated by Madison Square Garden is most likely not the reasoning behind shutting down the venue, but instead most likely attributed to property value.

    There is still yet to be an official announcement and it is still entirely unclear as to why the ballroom will close it’s doors come April, but it will certainly be sad to see a place with so much history, character and potential go.