NYS Music 20​14

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  • Editor’s Playlist #1: Rock n Roll Resort v4: The Dream Machine

    We are proud to present a new feature on – Editor’s Playlists. Each week, one of our staff members will take the helm and create a playlist of their own choosing, featuring music from upcoming shows, favorite bands, Upstate artists, music festivals and more. You’ll get a nice sampling of music you should know about, bands you may not have discovered and some local favorites from across The Empire State.

    Our inaugural Editor’s Playlist comes from Pete Mason and focuses on this weekend’s Rock n Roll Resort, v4: The Dream Machine, at Hudson Valley Resort and Spa, located in Kerhonksen, NY. With dozens of great bands, it’s hard to choose which ones to feature,but we settled on funk from The Motet, Turkuaz and Dumpstafunk, progressive/electronic rock from Tauk and SOLARiS, and the reggae-tinged ska of Conehead Buddha. If you aren’t going to Rock n Roll Resort, hopefully this changes your mind – it is a unique music festival experience that you just cannot miss!

    Stay tuned for next weeks playlist, including some choice live Aqueous recordings, new studio efforts from favorites Mister F, and more!

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  • 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!

  • 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” /]

  • 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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  • 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:

  • Lucid 10th Anniversary Celebration at Olive Ridley’s Friday March 28th

    20140327-135056.jpgLucid will take the stage at Plattsburgh’s Olive Ridley’s Friday, March 28th to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

    The show kicks off at 9 pm, and is for those 21 and over only. Admission is $5 and will feature special guest Chromatropic.

    A full decade of progress and development has established Lucid as one of the most dynamic, hard working, finely tuned bands in the North Country. Lucid is also featured among the surviving Top 16 bands in this year’s March Madness tournament.

    Recently, Chris “Hollywood” English left his hometown of Rochester, NY to join his long-time friends and colleagues in Adirondack-rock, blues-fusion outfit, Lucid. Hollywood is a welcomed addition to this hard working and veracious group of dynamic, respected musicians. The addition of Chris only solidifies the growth and forward momentum of Lucid.

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • 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.
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  • 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