NYS Music 20​14

Category: Interviews

  • Featured Band: Cry To the Blind

    Walt Disney did it. William Shakespeare did too. It’s taking the metal of another one’s work, and spinning it into your own gold.  It’s the alchemy of the creative mind.  It’s declaring the statement, “I can take your idea, and make it better.”  Cry to the Blind, a five-piece heavy rock band out of Rochester, NY, declared such a statement last month after walking into Oblivion Studios to record an already established hit.  One month and more than 90,000 YouTube views later, the band has itself, what a growing contingent of fans and followers think, is gold.

    “The past month or so has been pretty weird,” said Jon Lamanna, the band’s lead singer.   Back in December, the band loaded up a studio video of their recording of Miley Cyrus’ mega-hit, Wrecking Ball.  The reception to their hard rock version has been nothing short of exceptional, first leading to play time on local radio stations, and precipitating to national attention on Nikki Sixx’s syndicated show, and now satellite radio.  It wasn’t long before they obtained mechanical rights from the copyright owner to allow them to perform and sell their version of the song.

    “The energy and the excitement level at our shows, and online, are at a level I’ve never seen before.  People just seem like they really believe in us now.”

    It’s really inspiring to see.”

    Rochester's Cry to the Blind is basking in the glow of newly found attention. (Photo Credit: CTTB/Facebook)
    Rochester’s Cry to the Blind is basking in the glow of newly found attention. (Photo Credit: CTTB/Facebook)

    The band has released three CDs independently since 2009.  They are a heavy, modern rock band, who market themselves as a “therapeutic release” for their fans.  They like to promote a “positive spin on the negative energy that surrounds us every day,” as stated on their Facebook page.

    Jon explained that the inspiration to record the song came from a simple turn of his car’s radio dial, as he started his commute to work one November morning.

    “The first time I heard the song, I thought it would make a great rock song. We’ve never done a cover. [This was] just a random idea.  I texted Jesse (Maty), our guitar player, and said, ‘hey, have you heard that Miley Cyrus song “Wrecking Ball?  I think it would be awesome as a rock song.’  He was like, ‘yeah, why not? Let’s give it a shot.’  He wasn’t into it as much as I was.  But, when I polled the other guys in the band, they were really excited about it. ..  As soon as we started rehearsing it, it sounded phenomenal.”

    They changed up the second verse to make it rhythmic and heavy, which was (the band’s drummer), Jay Talarico’s idea.  Together with Ryan Mcfaul on guitars and Kory Maclauchlan on bass, Jon said, “I think that’s what makes the song stand out.”

    Since Cyrus released the song last August, Wrecking Ball has topped the pop charts in 13 different countries, including the United States.  There have been a number of different cover versions released, including that from Rumer Willis, the 25-year-old daughter of actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis.

    Today, up to 40 radio stations, including Sirius Octane, is playing their song, and the positive feedback just keeps building.  Jon said that the band has yet to be signed by a label; however, he says people who they’ve spoken to in the past, are coming back to talk.

    “[We’re] pretty confident that things are going to continue to snowball in a good direction for us.”

    Cry to the Blind play next at The Montage Music Hall in Rochester, NY on Saturday, February 15.

    You can view their breakthrough video here: http://youtu.be/diL0I17RlCk

    For more information, visit them on their Facebook  or their website at www.Crytotheblind.com.

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  • Getting to Know M.R. Poulopoulos

    In the historic Stockade district of Schenectady lives a creative song crafter we will come to know as M.R. Poulopoulos. The singer-songwriter will be performing on January 17 at Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs. We wanted to get to know M.R. Poulopoulos a bit so we sat down with him at Ambition, a small sandwich eatery located on the trendy and quaint Jay St. of downtown Schenectady.

    Tabitha Clancy:  Lets start with where you were born and raised.

    M.R. Poulopoulos: I was born in Albany, NY. So I’m a local boy. I was raised where Bethlehem, Albany and Guilderland meet. It was rural suburban area. As I grew up over the course of 15 years, all of that space was developed. I grew up on the outskirts of Albany. I went away for college but I always gravitated toward Albany.

    TC: Where did you go to college?

    MRP: Undergraduate I went to Providence College in Rhode Island. I always reminded of a Janeane Garofalo quote. She went there for a little while. There is a dorm called McVinney Hall but everyone called it the virgin vault. It was an all female dorm with restrictions that males couldn’t be in the building after 9 pm – rules that were consistently broken. The point that Garofalo made was that “you could stand on top of McVinney and drop a rock on anyone walking by and it wouldn’t matter because they’re all the same.”

    After a few years of going to school there, I found a group of friends I truly connected with on a music level. I discovered I wanted to share myself and express myself in a musical medium.

    TC: Is this the period when you started playing guitar?

    MRP: Yes. A buddy of mine has a Fender Stratocaster (which I now own) and a small little amp and I would play around on just making sounds. I learned a few chords from him. That was freshman year. Then sophomore year I found a group of folks and we would just sit around. They would teach me standard chord progressions and melodies. It was all these different of angles of music, a number of different approaches. Part of hanging out was trying to fuse our different styles together and make something fun of it. We all ended up playing in a band together called Men are Broccoli. I think that was my senior year.

    TC: What did Men are Broccoli end up sounding like?

    MRP: It had more of a groove to it – a groove rock. We would give it a harder edge. We also did a lot of covers that reflected our styles.

    TC: How did you break away?

    MRP: My contribution to that group was blues music. I think it was the raw expression of the blues soloists that I particularly enjoyed. I was trying to learn that style. I started playing at a place called Savanna’s in downtown Albany. It’s now no longer. It was such a great room and they had an open mic night. I played bottleneck slide on a Robert Jonson composition but I learned Eric Clapton’s arrangement.  It took me four times just to get started. By the fourth time the room was dead quiet and focused because I kept screwing up. But that fourth time I nailed it. A group of guys liked what I did and asked me to be part of a band – Manikin Ed. That is when I stepped into playing in the Albany area.

    We were playing the River Street Pub as Manikin Ed and there was a guy that was coming to these open mics. His name was Matt Durfee. We ended up hitting it off musically. I started straying away from the electric sound and started gravitating towards the acoustic again. Matt was playing acoustic. We ended up forming a band called Palatypus (intentional misspelling). We released an EP in 2007 called Lazaretto. We carried some weight with that. We travelled the Northeast a little bit.

    TC: Palatypus sort of ran its course. How did you get to the point of being a solo singer-songwriter that you are now?

    MRP: Matt wanted to do some solo work and I was going through some personal things in 2010-11. I put out a solo album called Greenhorn. That carried it’s own weight. That set me off on a solo route.

    TC: You have come a long way, learning your craft and then establishing yourself. How did you decide that this was the direction you wanted to go in?

    MCR: I don’t think its something I decided on, I think its something that decided on me. I have a drive to share myself artistically. I like playing music, I really like singing and I like stories. It’s a good little trio that can work toward a song.

    TC: Describe how you create the song from the melodies to the lyrics.

    MCR: The lyrics come from a variety of sources either a personal trial or a personal triumph. Those are some standbys, but I love books. The first two tunes that I really enjoy were a personal experience and a book, respectively. “Drunk,” the lead track off of Greenhorn is totally personal. It’s a pretty generic experience but I think the tune sounds good; it has something new to provide despite the generic title. Then there was another tune that made it onto the Palatypus CD called, All I Own. The song is loosely based on William Kennedy’s character, Francis Phelan from the book, Ironweed. I read that book and it floored me.

    TC: Clearly you draw inspiration from books but who are some of your musical influences?

    MCR: It goes all the way back to being kid. I was a fiend for Beach Boys tapes. I wanted all the Beach Boys tapes I could find. I got into a period where I wanted to listen to everything that was Billy Joel. That was probably sixth grade. I just loved Billy Joel. I think there was something natural about his voice and you could tell he was singing from somewhere. Then there was that period in high school where I got into rap. I listened to a lot of Tribe Called Quest and Wu Tang Clan. I started gravitating towards them because I liked the beats and I liked the jazz samples in Tribe Called Quest. I also liked where they were coming from lyrically. Then when I got to college I was introduced to Phish, Grateful Dead, all sorts of contemporary jam music and well-orchestrated music – I didn’t know music could or should sound like that. I took a class called the history of jazz. I got hip to John Scofield. Then I got into songwriters. I started focusing on the presentation of lyrics. Probably like most people, just a variety of influences coming together.

    TC: Lets talk about both albums.

    MCR: Anybody who listens to both of them they will know that they are two very different albums. I named Greenhorn because I wanted it to be an introduction into an artistic project. I wanted people to know that I’m not coming at this from the angle of a professional. I wanted people to know that I was just testing this out. I wanted to start from where I was actually at and not peek before I was out there. That is where the name came from and the approach I took. All the tunes were recorded live.

    Then on Harvest the Heart I wanted to show people the progression. I learned a lot. We did a lot of separate tracking. You’ll notice the arrangements are tighter. The musician parts are a lot tighter. We had gotten some really good recording equipment by chance. It’s very much a contrast to Greenhorn.

    TC: You are progressing from singer-songwriter but now you are also playing out under another moniker, Rebel Darling. Lets talk about Rebel Darling.

    MCR: It was just one of those names that came together. When the idea hit, it was such a ‘Wow, that’s a good name!’  I uttered the name on stage. It was just a good idea, people liked it and it really describes the sound. The improvisation is there and it gives us an edge. The arrangements are tight but there is that vibration, that communication on stage.

    TC: Who exactly is Rebel Darling?

    MCR: Its this amorphous collection of guys who play music together as a group and sometimes not. There is a Rebel Darling that I play with in Cambridge MA. She is a viola player. Sometimes we play other songs, but by in large, it is my songs.

    TC: You seem to have a soft spot for playing Caffe Lena. Would you consider this home base?

    MCR: Caffe Lena is the kind of room where I don’t get to make that decision. That room is really something special. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have a gig there. That room is historic and full of spirit without a doubt.

    M.R. Poulopoulos will be at Caffe Lena on Friday, January 17, 2013. Poulopoulos will share the stage with NYC singer Caitlyn Canty.

    You can also catch M.R. Poulopoulos on the following dates in the Upstate area:

    Friday, February 21: Shelburne Falls, MA
    Friday, February 28: Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
    Saturday, March 1: Peekskill, NY
    Saturday, March 8: Easthampton, MA
    Sunday, April 6: Saratoga Springs, NY

  • One Fan’s Experience Sitting in with Marco Benevento

    Fans love to meet their musical idols, whether backstage, walking down the street, or just outside a venue. The experience is hard to come by but when it happens, it’s like a dream come true. But what happens when you meet a musician you are a huge fan of, possess a solid degree of musical talent yourself, and you are invited to play music with them, live on stage? Quite possibly the best night ever begins to unfold. Holly Bowling, a Suzuki Piano teacher from San Francisco had the unique, once in a lifetime experience sitting-in with Marco Benevento on December 1st at The Chapel.

    And then it happened a second time later that month.

    sitting in marco benevento holly bowlingPete Mason: Let’s start with the basics: you’re the mystery guest who sat in with Marco not just on December 30th at the Highline Ballroom, but also in San Francisco on December 1st at The Chapel. Who are you exactly?

    Holly Bowling: I live in San Francisco and teach Suzuki Piano. Really, I’m just a girl with a piano and a dream. And a unicorn outfit… but I don’t usually talk about that. I like long walks on the beach at sunset and the Tahoe Tweezer. Actually, I can take or leave the long walks on the beach at sunset. I’ve played piano since I was five. I’m classically trained but play all kinds of different stuff. I teach piano lessons for a living, mostly to kids. When I’m not doing that, I see a lot of live music. A LOT of live music.

    PM: What is your experience in playing piano?

    HB: I played classical piano all the way through school growing up. It was simultaneously a really amazing thing as well as kind of a stressful competitive thing that I sort of stepped away from for a while. It’s a really intense scene. I came back to it for a while and majored in classical piano in college, and I’m really glad I did. But I really enjoy more freeform styles of music. And although you can lose yourself in classical music for sure, there’s something really cool about losing yourself in music that’s being created in the moment – whether you’re the performer or a member of an audience who are all experiencing the same thing.

    PM: What draws you to music?

    HB: What draws me to music is something I could talk about for hours but it’s the same things that draw everyone to it. It’s a form of expression, a way of conveying emotions to others or of experiencing someone else’s emotions. And it’s transportive; you can lose yourself in and it carries you somewhere, maybe someplace you remember, maybe someplace you’ve never been, whether you’re playing a Beethoven sonata or you’re in the crowd at a Phish show.

    It’s elation, it’s despair, it’s contentment, it’s anticipation, it’s release… I mean it’s everything really. Also there’s an element of music that’s like a beautiful complex puzzle, with repeating patterns and cycles that go in and out of phase and mathematical ratios and perfect structure and order and also breaking all of that structure and order apart. Figuring out a new piece of music when you’re unfamiliar with it is fun that way. It’s a brand new puzzle to unlock and understand.

    Also, music is the place in my life where I feel like I’m best able to 100% live in the exact moment I’m in and appreciate it fully. I’m right here for an instant and nowhere else. That’s increasingly hard to find, and hard to get to. It’s a pretty awesome feeling.

    PM: Beyond your experience as a piano player, what draws you towards pianists in particular?

    HB: On most instruments, you get to play one note at a time. Even on the guitar, where you can play chords, you still pretty much have to choose melody or chords, not both at once. There are amazing jazz players out there that can throw crazy harmonies underneath the melody as they improvise but for the most part, most instruments are one note only. The piano opens up all kinds of possibilities. But really I think i’m mostly drawn to it because I play it.

    PM: What led to the sit-in with Marco Benevento in San Francisco?

    HB: I went to a show on December 1st at a one of my favorite small venues in San Francisco called The Chapel. It was a benefit for a really fantastic nonprofit called Bread and Roses (if you haven’t heard of them, check them out – they bring live music to people who can’t go out and see it cause they’re stuck in the hospital, etc). Marco was playing with with the guys from Tea Leaf Green. I almost didn’t go, all my friends flaked and it was a sunday night. I decided to go at the last minute because I rarely miss a Marco show in San Francisco and I was excited to see him play with Reed (Mathis) again.

    During the show, someone reached up and hit one of the keys on Marco’s piano. Somehow it became a running joke between Marco and the crowd that for a one dollar donation to Bread and Roses you could reach up and touch the top end of his piano. So all kinds of people were handing Marco singles and playing a note. Actually they were handing him small bills for all kinds of things… a group of people handed him a pile of singles to play happy birthday to their friend. He played “Hava Nagila” for everyone celebrating Hanukkah. So it was definitely a night of shenanigans and banter.

    He kept asking the crowd “Does anyone else want to pay a dollar to touch the top end of the piano?” throughout the night and I’m thinking to myself, “Hell yeah I want to touch Marco’s piano!” But if I’m gonna touch it I wanna do more than just play a note… So I figured I’d go over there, hand him $2, and reach up to the top end of the piano and play the opening notes to “Atari”, because its my favorite Marco song and I wanted him to play it. $2 seemed fair… $1 for a note, double the rate for a handful of notes and a request.

    I went over to hand Marco my $2 but I realized I couldn’t reach the piano over the monitors and all. So I handed him my two bucks and just climbed onstage. He was really cool about it and thankfully no one tackled me or threw me offstage or anything. He made room for me on the bench and offered for me to sit down next to him. Who turns that down? Not me! So we’re sitting at the piano next to each other and Marco starts playing “Heart and Soul”, that song everyone plays when they’re a kid, whether they know how to play or not, and I just turn to him and say “Uh-uh. Can I pick?”, and he stops, and I start playing the opening notes of “Atari”.

    At this point I’m sure I have the biggest smile on my face and can’t be much happier because I AM SITTING NEXT TO MARCO BENEVENTO who is one of my favorite musicians and I am PLAYING MY FAVORITE MARCO SONG, but then Marco starts playing the bassline on the bottom end of the piano, so now we’re playing a duet. We played the whole song together, we high-fived, I gave Marco a hug, he tried to give me the pile of small bills that was on top of the piano from all the shenanigans earlier. I climbed off-stage and Marco kicked over his piano bench, said “This show is OVER” and walked offstage.

    Here’s the crazy thing: I didn’t know a single person there. All my friends bailed last minute, and (my husband) Jeffery was in Los Angeles for work – I had literally dropped him off at SFO right before the show.

    So this crazy thing happened, and no one I knew was there to even witness it. Luckily people in the crowd took video and sent it to me afterwards, which was awesome, because otherwise I think would’ve tried to tell my friends “Yeah I totally just climbed onstage and sat in with Marco tonight” and I think “suuuuuuuure you did” would’ve been their response.

    On December 30th, Holly and friends attended the Phish show at Madison Square Garden, then went to the Highline Ballroom afterwards for the Marco Benevento post-show. 

    PM: What led to the sit-in at the Highline Ballroom?

    HB: It’s post-Phish and my whole crew is at the Highline up in the balcony, and they’ve all been giving me shit the whole week about how I have to get up onstage and play with Marco again. Obviously they haven’t let it go by the time we get to the Highline. So the night goes on and the show starts to get weird like Marco shows always do (and I mean that in the best way… I blame the tiger mask) and it’s getting late,  past 2 am. I figure if I’m gonna go for it this is the time. So I make my way up to the stage and between songs, I yell “Hey Marco, is it still a dollar to play the piano?” and hold up a single. He says “Yeah, it’s still a dollar! come on up here!”

    So I got to play “Atari” with Marco again, but this time with Dave and Andy! Awesome. This time it was on a different piano, which was interesting because it only had maybe 6 octaves on it, so there was much less room to play around, especially with two people on it. I couldn’t believe I got to play with Marco… TWICE. I was pretty on top of the world.

    The show continues and Marco does a cover of “Benny and the Jets”; it’s mostly instrumental but he usually sings the high “Benny! Benny! Benny and the Jets” part towards the end, except this time he sings “Holly… Holly… Holly is the best!” I seriously lost it. I’m like “Am I hearing this right? What is he saying?! I think that emboldened me a little to go back down there during the encore and see if I could play one more song with him. I definitely wanted to respect his show and not mess anything up but I figured he seemed like he was having fun with it during “Atari” so why not ask? I mean, the worst he could do is say no, which would’ve been totally fine. But I’m glad he said yes.

    During the encore I went to the bar and bought Marco a beer. An encore, actually. I handed it to him, along with my buddy’s ridiculous neon green RAGE hat. I really wanted to see Marco wear the rage hat, it’s kind of a legendary. We played the encore together as well. Marco threw in some Phish teases as we were trading phrases at the end which was awesome. I teased “Tweeprise” and we jammed on that for a minute and then Marco brought it back to “Twin Killers”.

    Epic Night.