NYS Music 20​14

Category: UpstateLIVE Archives

  • Upstate March Madness: Elite Eight!

    After close matchups throughout the Sweet Sixteen, we have our Elite Eight bands! Big Leg Emma and Funktional Flow come from the 716/585 West Region, each winning by a vote of 51%-48%. Close matchups were found, with some as close as 5%, but others reaching double digits, including a 39% margin of victory for Driftwood. The final matchups are coming close. Which of these eight teams will represent their region heading into next weeks Final Four of Upstate March Madness?! Four Cinderellas remain with the highest seed being moe. in the 315/Central Region. It’s anyone’s tournament!

    Elite Eight Matchups:

    518 East Region
    6 Conehead Buddha v 16 Lucid

    315 Central Region
    3 moe.  v 9 Gym Class Heroes

    607/845 South Region
     8 Driftwood  v 14 Spectacular Average Boys

    716/585 West Region
    13 Big Leg Emma v 15 Funktional Flow

    Voting is closed! Stay tuned Wednesday to find out who our Final Four are!

  • Mötley Crüe Announces Farewell Tour

    Motley Crew "The Final Tour" Tour Poster 2014

    Mötley Crüe is set to wrap up what is one great musical career with their just announced farewell tour. Coming along for the ride to support the tour will be Alice Cooper. The tour will start in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 2nd and conclude on November 21st in Vancouver, BC. The “All Bad Things Must Come To An End” tour will cover over 60 cities across North America and Canada.

    New York State will see the tour come through on Tuesday, August 26th at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y, Friday August 29th at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y, Sunday, August 31st at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Darien, N.Y and Wednesday, October 29th at the On Center Complex in Syracuse, N.Y.

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  • Hearing Aide: Amanda Rogers “WILD”

    Upstate New York native Amanda Rogers is an internationally recognized singer-songwriter whose ninth studio album WILD will be released Wednesday, April 2nd.

    Having spent the past 15 years centered around her musical career, Rogers has seen her music make appearances on television networks such as MTV and the Discovery Channel, and has multiple international tours under her belt. Her 2008 album Heartwood reached #81 on the International Top 100 Charts, and in its May 2012 issue, Rolling Stone Magazine stated that “Amanda’s tender, elfin voice is reminiscent of Heather Nova.” Additionally, Rolling Stone went on to illustrate how “[Amanda] has always been honest,” which is really an admirable trait in the pop world of music. Amanda Rogers has a classical background, while her sound is often unbound to any one genre. She encompasses various influences from Carole King’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’ style as well as Tori Amos’ classical roots and her unique sound can be classified as “lo-fi bedroom ambience,” or “pop with a dash of folk and blues.”

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    Amanda Rogers’ new upcoming album WILD was written and recorded right in the heart of Syracuse, New York, at Subcat Studios, where she worked with Co-Producer/Engineer Jon Lessels as well as L.A. recording engineer Patrick Macdougall. Towards the end of the summer, Rogers had a staggering total of roughly 30 songs written and recorded as demos. These recordings were then reworked to complete the final album. With a solid DIY way of going about the music industry as an independent touring and recording artist, Rogers’ return home to Upstate New York must have seemed fitting for the process.

    “10 Cent Songbird” is a notable song off the album with its opening piano chords under a storm of thunder-like ambiance, which is then followed by the introduction of some light fiddling of a distorted guitar. The chorus will likely be stuck in your head only after the first listen, displaying Rogers’ knack for writing catchy pop music. “More, More, More” shows Amanda’s lyrical abilities as she calls out a distaste for corrupt corporations while pushing for working-class Americans with lines like, “I’ll work three jobs and still be poor, So CEOs can have their whores.” Straying a bit from the theme of WILD, and “Walking” offers a different aspect to the album as Rogers talks of “being careful these days” and “looking for steps to follow in,” which is quite contrary to anything wild, but possibly adds to Rogers’ sincerity and honesty noted by Rolling Stone. The album could maybe have been recorded and polished up a little bit better, as the drums and electric guitar often sound somewhat generic throughout and in need of innovation and freshness. With the many rigid rules commonly found in todays pop music however, WILD takes aim towards becoming an overall original, unconventional pop record.

    Key Tracks: 10 Cent Songbird, Walking, More, More, More

    Amanda Rogers on SoundCloud Website  Facebook MySpace Youtube Bandcamp

    [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/27312111″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

  • Back-to-Back Evenings with the Charlie Daniels Band and Robert Cray March 29 and 30 at the Paramount Hudson Valley

    Two great back-to-back evenings of music are set this weekend at the historic Paramount Hudson Valley in Peekskill, NY as the Charlie Daniels Band takes the stage on March 29 at 8pm and Robert Cray on March 30 at 7pm.

    charlie daniels robert crayAt 77 years old, Charlie Daniels is a true road warrior. He is presently touring with over 60 scheduled stops throughout the United States until the end of the year, including two more stops in NY on May 31 and June 1 in Albany and Rochester. Daniel’s genre defining Southern rock anthems and his award winning country hits have left an in indelible mark on America’s musical landscape and is sure to make a mark on the Paramount this Saturday. The Charlie Daniels Band is set to release Off The Grid – Doin’ It Dylan, a studio album featuring covers of 10 Bob Dylan songs, shortly after this show on April 1.

    charlie daniels robert crayFive-time Grammy Award winner Robert Cray will be joined by his band for an evening of blues. Cray is set to release his 21st studio album, In My Soul, on April 1, just two days after his appearance at the Paramount. With his performance near the release date, one could speculate that he may debut a few songs from In My Soul. There’s no April Fool’s about this weekend’s shows at the Paramount Hudson Valley.

    Check out a sneak preview of Robert Cray’s new album here:

  • Hearing Aide: Freekbass ‘Everybody’s Feelin’ Real’

    The name Freekbass is startling and inviting all at once. Is this a a  freak with a bass? A bass that sounds freaky? From the first time I heard Freekbass and saw Heaadtronics perform at The Big Up in 2010, I was wholly impressed, not because Bernie Worrell was on keys and DJ Logic was spinning, but because Freekbass was stealing the show and made his presence on the stage known, complementing the others while not overshadowing them. This studious and exemplary approach by Freekbass has led to Everybody’s Feelin’ Real, his latest album and one that features special guests and a wide array of bass-fueled funk.

    freekbass everybody's feelin' realThe result of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Sherman says Everybody’s Feelin’ Real “ended up being way above and beyond what I expected.” Sherman notes that the crowd-sourcing method for funding the album was a great success and the backers who supported him hold greater weight than the funding itself.  “The real special part was having this community of folks who are emotionally invested into the project like you are. It brings a new kind of intensity and energy to the project. I highly recommend it for any artist.”

    This summer, Freekbass heads out on the road for Particle-Freekbass Tour with Headtronics/Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz, and fans of both can expect some sit-ins during each band’s set. They’ll be on the road from April 10th through the 23rd playing shows throughout the Midwest. More dates can be found on Freekbass.com. Headtronics, always a fun show to see, particularly at festivals, and there should be some dates later in festival season with the trio. Click over to see footage of Headtronics from The Big Up 2010. 

    Now about that album. Everybody’s Feelin’ Real takes a commanding lead out of the gate with the blaring horns of “Rise”, a party starting groove, plus synthesizer courtesy of  Razor Sharp Johnson from Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins’ Rubberband and vocals from Kim Manning, Jennifer Hartswick and Freekbass. “Victoria Thunder” and thick 70s funk from Johnson’s keys recalls Sly Stone with a Red Bull chaser, giving it some extra kick. The title track has a slower paced groove with a deep grind to it, followed by Skerik’s signature horns on “Mama’s Like a Cowboy”. The instrumental “Fish Like a Man” is full of thick, heavy bass and carries over to “Never Enough”, with whispered lyrics from Jennifer Hartswick that accentuate the gritty sound, repeating “Stop the pain, don’t hurt the game, it’ll never be enough”, a great mantra with heavy bass augmentation.

    “Battery”, with JHa’s voice creates a very pleasant ear worm as she stretches out every letter of “Baaaa-Terr-Eeee’, smooth and sultry like Adeline Michèle of Escort. Fans of Bernie Worrell will love  “Go Up”, driven by synth via Johnson, making Everybody’s Feelin Real a family reunion of sorts for P-Funk members, including Kim Manning and Executive Producer of the album, Bootsy Collins. The short instrumental “John” bridges “Go Up” and the final track “Fly”, the latter of which blasts off with a cosmic groove, a great cap to a top notch funk album. Over 10 tracks, Freekbass is both a freak with a bass and plays a bass that gets freaky. Enjoy yourself some of Freekbass’ funk on Everybody’s Feelin’ Real.

    Key Tracks: Rise, Victoria Thunder, Battery

    [bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=4287692792 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

  • Red Square Plays Host to Groovestick and The Jauntee

    Two bands I had yet to see, The Jauntee and Groovestick, were on the bill with The Assortment of Crayons at Red Square on March 21st. Assortment of Crayons are a solid group from New Paltz who have established themselves in the mid-Hudson Valley and are always a treat to see, but the other two bands eluded me thus far. The Jauntee have a fair amount of hype thanks to this article where they were considered potential heirs to the throne of Phish. A statement like that will perk my ears up any day, but I had to see them for myself to make a fair call. Their shows on Archive.org are good, but in person was the deciding factor.

    groovestick jaunteeTaking the stage quickly after Assortment of Crayons, The Jauntee started with “I Wanna Love You > J.M.O”, the latter of which was short and goofy, always a plus when a band doesn’t take the music too serious. “Mr. Murderin’ Man” had some early jam potential that built up with hypnotic guitar and keys, to the point where it was hard to tell which instrument was making what sound. Beck’s “Devil’s Haircut” wedged inside what later turned out to be the not-always-jammed “Gravity of Thought” was impressive, not just for matching the complexity of the Beck song, but putting a little twist on the song, dropping it down a tempo to create a signature sound. “My Shadow” had a dash of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” inside, an example of great band chemistry on stage – even when bassist John Loland bolted off the stage for the bathroom, the other three never missed a beat, and he was back on stage a half a minute later to fall right back into place. Impressive, but another show or two might convince me further. The Jauntee are certainly talented musicians and put on an impressive show; I’d expect their festival appearances this summer raise their bar even higher, for they are still young but the talent is already apparent to many, including myself.

    Setlist: I Wanna Love You > J.M.O., Mr. Murderin’ Man, Gravity of Thought -> Devil’s Haircut -> Gravity of Thought, My Shadow > Fractal Fuck -> Let the Drummer Take One

    Download or listen to the full show on Archive.org

    Groovestick, an Albany quasi-supergroup features Dan Gerken of Timbre Coup on guitar, Chris Carballeira of Funk Evolution on Hammond Organ and keys and The Chronicles’ Franz Celestin on drums and percussion. Opening up with 20 minutes of “Electric Shoes” was quite impressive, giving Gerken plenty of room to shred.  A salsa infusion on “Inkblot” changed the groove and ended up filling the dance floor with not-your-ordinary dancing fools: I hadn’t seen this at Red Square since perhaps Marco Benevento back in December. It was no coincidence that an organ was part of both performances.

    “GSauce” rocked some blues while “Mischief” had a nice bass groove from the multi-instrumentalist Gerken, which eventually led into “Get Down on It”. A cover happy end of the show featured a Stevie Wonder sandwich of an instrumental “I Wish” (aside from vocal “Doo Doo Doo’s”) seguing fluidly into “Superstition” and back into “I Wish”. The New Deal’s “Home” ended the set while the encore featured Prince’s “Controversy” and Charles Mingus’ “Jump Monk”, with each song of the final 30-40 minutes igniting the crowd more and more. Groovestick was impressive, and paired well with The Jauntee, two acts that are must-sees next time either play in your town.

    Setlist: Electric Shoes, No Time for That, Shark Bait, Inkblot, Big Foot, GSauce, Wormhole > Bakers Dozen, Mischief > Get Down on It, I Wish > Superstition > I Wish, Home
    Encore: Controversy, Jump Monk

  • dopapod Announces 2014 Spring Tour

    Prog-Rock superstars, dopapod recently announced their Spring 2014 Tour Dates. The band will be playing some Upstate, NY dates – 4/24 at Saratoga’s Putnam Den with Aqueous, 4/25 at The Westcott Theater in Syracuse, NY with Aqueous and then 4/26 at The Waiting Room in Buffalo, NY with a third night with Buffalo’s own Aqueous and favorites and Albany natives,  Mister F. For tickets and info please visit www.dopapod.com.
    dopapod_tour2014

  • Upstate March Madness – Sweet 16!

    The second round of March Madness on the basketball court led to a slew of upsets, including a #1, two #2s and three #3s among others. The same can be said about Upstate March Madness, where all the #1 seeds are now gone, as well as a few formidable higher seeds that failed to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Things are about to heat up as we are down to 4 teams in each of the 4 regions, especially in the 716/585 region where only the bottom four seeds are still alive, assuring at least one Cinderella in the Final Four! Click the bracket below and see how the tournament has fared thus far for some bands.

    Click the bracket for a larger, printable version.
    Click the bracket for a larger, printable version.

    Sweet 16 Matchups:

    518 East Region
    14 Mister F/Timbre Coup v 16 Lucid
    6 Conehead Buddha v 15 Formula 5

    315 Central Region
    4 Joe Bonamassa  v 9 Gym Class Heroes
    2 Blue Oyster Cult v 3 moe. 

    607/845 South Region
    5 Sim Redmond Band v 8 Driftwood 
    7 Jimkata  v 14 Spectacular Average Boys

    716/585 West Region
    13 Big Leg Emma v 16 Smackdab
    14 The Manhattan Project v 15 Funktional Flow

    Voting is closed! Stay tuned Saturday when the Elite Eight will be revealed!

  • A Different Kind of Racket: The Failed Crossover from Sports to Music

    Most of us took Jersey Shore’s Angelia’s stint in the music industry just about as seriously as we took The Newlyweds. We humored her as she rapped about being “Hot as an ice cream cone with a cherry on top” like we humored Jessica Simpson’s banter about “mouses” and taking Louis Vuitton bags on camping trips. But it turns out that Angelina is not the only one trying her luck in the music scene.

    Marnie Michaels, the prettiest girl in HBO’s Girls, who leads the stereotypical post-graduation I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-with-my-career life in Williamsburg, has also decided to tap into the music industry on the latest season of the show. It seems like breaking into showbiz is the latest trend for everyone who is either attractive, rich, or simply in possession of DAW software on their computer.

    Tennis stars are similarly trying to crossover into music. It was the Danish sports star, Caroline Wozniacki, who trigged this movement with her auto-tuned debut, “Oxygen”. With generic lyrics and overly compressed drum kits, let’s just say that winning 21 WTA single titles does not necessarily equate to ranking a hit single in the music biz. (Having a drummer and bassist in the music video does not convince me that the song was not entirely composed on Garage Band).

    As if Wozniacki’s experimentation in the music industry wasn’t enough, Serena Williams’ urge to be number one could not hold her back from following suit in May 2012 with her rapping debut. In her own words, the tennis player “balls hard” even without a tennis racket: “My name is Serena/ On the court, I serve them up/ No Suppeona!/ I win, I, I go in/ I got game like ESPN. I know you see me on ESPN”. Though rhyming ESPN with ESPN is nothing short of sure-shot talent, listeners seemed to think Williams left the key parts of her game behind on the court and preferred when she stuck to the regular kind of slamming sets. Serena, however, disregarded feedback in her song “I Win” with lyrics like “I can’t see these haters through my Gucci glasses”.

    The latest addition to the list is Denitza Todorova, who is better known by her stage name, Dena. The Bulgarian junior tennis champion’s debut album, Flash, surfaced on the music scene this March. Coming from a family of tennis players, she was number three in her country and was geared towards pursuing it as a profession until she moved to Berlin and joined a band. Todorova describes her music as “Effortless raps set to 1990’s R&B and hip hop with a touch of Balkan beat” that captures the broke bohemian vibe of Berlin. Her lead single off her album, “Cash, Diamond Rings, Swimming Pools”, unfortunately, comes across as a sad attempt to recreate the buzz Lorde’s “Royals” stirred last year. With lyrics like “If you are listening to this in a hot country/ please come rescue me/ I’m give you what you need/ I’ll bring my friends we’re just about twenty/ If you got a swimming pool, then we can be hanging”, the tennis player-come-rapper’s pool seems pretty shallow. Her look is reminiscent of M.I.A. circa Arular, but the resemblance ends there. A faux street-cool sound might be able to garner a few remixes on Spotify, but dotting sentences with “Yo’s” and hip-hop gestures can only take a 31-year-old so far.

    Although there are a few athletes who have somewhat successfully crossed over into music like Shaun White with his band Bad Things and the Bryan Brothers with their guitar duo, the vast majority of them prove that being good at Tennis does not mean the ball is in their court musically. Even if you are 5’9″ and on the receiving end of pretty girl privileges, lyrics like “Boy, you’re my match point” won’t crown you poet laureate of the millennium. Yes, even if you’re Wozniacki, the similarity between the racket and guitar ends there.

  • Hearing Aide: Mikaela Davis ‘Fortune Teller’

    Pretty strings with an indie dig – that would be the formula followed by Mikaela Davis on her second album, Fortune Teller, released in January. The classically trained harpist carries along an impressive record of talent which she uses to craft the six track album. How impressive? Davis studied harp with the principal harpist for her hometown Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and has won awards for her performances. She is now studying Harp Performance at the renowned Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. Joining Mikaela on the album are Alex Coté on drums and percussion and Cian McCarthy on guitar, sitar, and keys.

    Mikaela Davis Fortune TellerThe performance on the album isn’t purely singer-songwriter or indie lo-fi. Davis starts with a simple one guitar, bass, and drum lo-fi core but refines it to a much cleaner soothing sound. Where one would typically hear a droney guitar line we hear the that graceful harp sound which complements the rival indie sound trying to make its way to the forefront. The album combines elements of classical, ambience, noise, and energy orchestrated into a well-rounded eclectic composition. Davis’ placid, melodic voice bundles this all up like a cozy knit scarf and presents it to you in Fortune Teller.

    Mikaela Davis Fortune Teller“I Wouldn’t,” a song with love as its theme, leads the album in with a simple singer-songwriter feel while building anticipation for the more eclectic sounds throughout the rest of the album. In “Lady Lavender” we hear the highlight of how Davis’ harp compliments McCarthy’s guitar along with a bridge introducing a synth line that goes beyond lo-fi to blend musically into the song. “Interlude In The Sky” seems to build of the solo harp outro of the previous “Lady Lavender.” This one is a beautiful instrumental track incorporating woodwind sounds which would serve well as the soundtrack to stargazing on a warm spring night or walking down a trail on a crisp, colorful fall afternoon. “When The White Horse Takes Me Away” takes us away on an atmospheric journey with an ambient harp and vocal mix before picking up in energy in the later part of the song. “Feels Like Forever” features more of the vocals carrying the melody with a stringer prominence of the classical-indie rivalry. Lastly, the title track “Fortune Teller” rounds out the album with a similar style heard in “I Wouldn’t,” though the sounds of Davis’ harp are more at the front of this track.

    Mikaela Davis will be performing tonight, March 27th at Red Square in Albany and again in her hometown of Rochester at Bug Jar on March 29th.

    Key Tracks: Interlude In The Sky, When The White Horse Takes Me Away, Fortune Teller

    Fortune Teller is available for purchase as a CD or download at Mikaela Davis’ Bandcamp page.