NYS Music 20​15

Author: Courtney Rae Kasper

  • Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for Out-of-State Festivals

    While most might dream of tropical getaways when it comes to vacation time, music fans accrue their days to travel across the country—or world—for weekends jam-packed with live performances, indulgent food and experimental fun. From the east to the west coasts to the Midwest, NYSMusic staffers traveled near and far throughout the year to see their favorite groups in action. Here we give you our top picks for out-of-state festivals of 2015.

    2015 festivalsBest Small Festival: Arise Music Festival, East Coast Tsunami Festival, Grand Point North Festival and The Werk Out Music and Arts Festival

    With the growing number of small-scale festivals that seem to pop up each year, it’s no wonder that our team could not pick just one or two as their favorite—so we decided to include the ones we felt deserved an honorable mention. First up is Arise Music Festival, an event in Loveland, CO, that according to Andrew Wyatt “offers a spicy jambalaya of multi-cultural live music, electronic performances, art presentations, along with numerous workshops centered around eco-activism, social justice, and spirituality practice.” With nearly 100 musical acts, the three-day festival now in its third year featured the likes of the Polish Ambassador, Rising Appalachia, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, Lukas Nelson, Turkuaz, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Trevor Hall, Emancipator Ensemble, Ozomatli and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, among others.

    Headlined by Wu-Tang Clan and Life Of Agony, the East Coast Tsunami Festival held in Reading, PA, treated hip hop, hardcore and metal fans to two full days of shows, including favorited groups Body Count, Mobb Deep, Murphy’s Law, Madball and more. And despite sound issues during day one, Jay Saint G. still dubbed the festival as “a wave of brutality that every music lover should experience.”

    Up next is the Grand Point North Festival held in Burlington’s Waterfront Park with views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Headlined by Vermont’s sweetheart Grace Potter, the fifth annual installment boasted two nights of music featuring Phish’s Mike Gordon, the Flaming Lips, Shakey Graves, Greensky Bluegrass, Amy Helm and the Handsome Strangers, among others, and special guests like Kenny Chesney who joined Potter to perform their single, “Wild Child.” Alexandra Provost and Laura Carbone noted that “as Potter walked onto the stage, her skin glistening from raindrops, the audience went wild” and that she “put on an astounding performance, showing off her piano, guitar and bluesy vocal skills.”

    And finally the Werk Out Music and Arts Festival at Legend Valley, a venue favorited by the Grateful Dead in the ’80s. With a stacked lineup featuring the Werks, Papadosio, Dopapod, Lettuce, Umphrey’s McGee, the Floozies, Consider The Source, Break Science and Tauk, the sixth year for the Thornville, OH, festival “was as always a ridiculously good time for all who made the journey,” according to Ben Landsman. With three stages, a silent disco and one fan wedding,Landsman noted that “between the beauty of Legend Valley, the bright spirit of the fans, the innovative music, this festival is one of the treasures of the Midwest.”

    Best Midsize Festival: Green River Festival
    Honorable Mention: Aura Music and Arts Festival, Boston Calling, Camp Bisco, DelFest, McDowell Mountain Music Festival

    Held at Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, MA, the sold-out 29th annual Green River Festival was “fresh, exciting and invigorating,” according to Eli Stein. Featuring four hot air balloon launches, the family-friendly July event pulled out all the stops with a craft tent, Frisbee dog show, acrobats, karate demonstrations, swimming, a Mardi Gras-style parade and exotic local fare like elk, boar and venison burgers, a Korean food truck and kabob vendors. Throughout the three-day weekend, more than 40 performers ranging from Americana to dance, blues and jam graced the event’s three stages nestled in the foothills of the Berkshires, including Eilen Jewell, the Wood Brothers, Rubblebucket, Marco Benevento, MAKU Sound System, Langhorne Slim and the Law, the Punch Brothers and tUnE-yArDs, which Stein noted was the perfect mixture:

    Musically, the festival served up a heaping slab of New England comfort food. The rest aforementioned activity, as they say, was just the gravy. Not only were the band selections great, they were clearly hand-picked and not just pulled off the nearest passing festival train. The music flowed wonderfully from set to set, and built to a nice peak at the perfect times. There was an evenness to the passion and approach of the musicians that made for a smooth transition no matter where you went.”

    Best Large Festival: Gathering of the Vibes and Summer Camp
    Honorable Mention: Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Hangout Music Fest, Lockn’ Music Festival, Peach Festival, Rock Allegiance, Rock On the Range

    Celebrating its 20th year, Gathering of the Vibes offered up an impressive lineup with headliners Wilco, Weezer, Tedeschi/Trucks Band, Dark Star Orchestra, Ben Harper, Greg Allman and the String Cheese Incident. The late summer festival returned to Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT, and treated fans to a super jam called Vibes 20th Anniversary Spectacular featuring Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Meters founding bassist George Porter Jr., Marco Benevento on keys and Joe Russo behind the drum kit, plus Jackie Greene on guitar. Although the four-day festival will take a break in 2016, VibeTribers Julia Wolfe and Steve Olker recounted the last day of the 2015 event and dubbed this run as one that would set the pace going forward:

    As the sun set over Vibes for the last time, [Ben] Harper closed out with his song “Better Way,” and it was finally time to head home. Seeing so many bands perform was both enticing and overwhelming at the same time, making leaving Vibes even more bittersweet. The range of genre, popularity, age and background is what makes Gathering of the Vibes separate from other festivals. After 20 years, Gathering of the Vibes has remained one of Connecticut’s most well-known festivals, and it’s attention to bringing about change while discovering your own inner peace is what will bring success for future gatherings to come. Until next time, thank you vibes for a real good time.”

    With more than 100 bands over four days on seven stages, this year’s installment of Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL, saw a stacked lineup of bands like moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Steve Miller Band, Widespread Panic, STS9, Big Gigantic, John Butler Trio, Krewella, Trampled by Turtles, Keller Williams and Grateful Grass, Yonder Mountain String Band, Violent Femmes and many, many more. Festivalgoers also had access to on-site camping, the infamous late night Red Barn Shows, musician workshops, a nonprofit village, arts and crafts and unique food vendors, plus some impressive improvements. In Pete Mason’s review of the festival’s final day, he detailed what made the perfect ending to the much celebrated event:

    The final set of the night to check out was North American Scum, an LCD Soundsystem cover band who might be the best band to close out Summer Camp. Members of the group are formerly of This Must be the Band, a Talking Heads band from Chicago, who have traditionally played one of the final sets at Summer Camp. This incredible two hour set featured the entire Sound of Silver album and, because everyone else was playing Grateful Dead songs, a spirited version of “Scarlet Begonias” to cap the night.”

    Read more from Summer Camp Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

  • Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for New York State Festivals

    Nothing compares to experiencing live music. But when it comes to packing up and leaving the world behind to immerse in a weekend of musical debauchery with a community of like-minded souls, well, that’s the stuff that dreams are made of for music festival fans.

    From one-band to multi-artist events and crowd sizes from 2,000 to 50,000, New York State hosts a bevy of festivals annually in some of the most beautiful settings imaginable, and let’s face it, our state knows how to throw a proper fest, as it is ingrained in New York’s rich musical history having put on one of the biggest rock festivals of all time, Woodstock. Here we’ve rounded up our favorites from NYS Music 2015, so sit back, relax and relive some of the festival magic that happened throughout the Empire State this year, because we all know what it’s like to experience those post-fest blues.

    Buffalove2015sat-0626

    Best Small Festival: Buffalove and Disc Jam

    The third installment of Buffalove Music Festival saw a venue change from Cole Farm, Panama, NY, to North Fork Music Park, Warsaw, NY, with the new location offering four stages, a private beach, disc golf and wooded-area camping, and a record attendance that doubled previous years. With an impressive lineup including Kung Fu, Pink Talking Fish, Funktional Flow, Particle, Formula 5, Mister F, Space Junk, Dopapod, Aqueous and Aquapod, the three-day June 2015 festival created to celebrate Western New York’s emerging music scene was one for the books, according to Jen Foster and Thomas Sgroi:

    Buffalove came through. Co-founder of Buffalive Productions and Founder of Buffalove Cody Conway clearly had one goal in mind: keep the energy as high as possible. Every single band had heads turning and jaws on the ground. There was never a lull, never a band that just played to fill space. Every minute was dance-worthy. If you missed out this year, we can highly recommend you don’t make that mistake next year. Without any problems or unruly attendees, this festival made its mark at North Fork Music Park in Warsaw, NY. The amount of talent coming out of Upstate New York is only paving the road for more incredible shows. Buffalove, you certainly were lovely.”

    Another summer fest that saw a venue change was the fifth annual Disc Jam Music Festival, which moved from Massachusetts to New York State—and promoters recently announced that the event will return to Gardner’s Farm in Stephentown for its sixth year in June. Throughout four days of music, camping, disc golf and Flow Tribe, festivalgoers experienced live performances from more than 50 acts, including Lettuce, Electron, Dopapod, Aqueous, Brightside, Kung Fu, Consider the Source, Cabinet, Soule Monde, Roots of Creation, Formula 5, The Hornitz, Soul Rebel Project, Broccoli Samurai, Krewe de Groove and Relative Souls. According to Dave DeCrescente, the festival’s last day culminated with a “healthy dose of guest sit-ins” with jamband Twiddle, noting that:

    One of the highlights of the set was the massive guest sit in with DJ Honeycomb, James Woods, and Joe Davis from Formula 5, Scott Hannay of Mister F and Todd Stoops for the ultimate mega jam on “Apples.” The Disc Jam Flow Tribe was out in full force with fire spinners and hooping entertainers that were almost as mesmerizing as the music. The weekend ended just as it started, with mind blowing music and a close knit community who continue to make the Disc Jam Festival special. Tony Scavone and crew did a suburb job of organizing the 5th annual Disc Jam with a new location but still the same friendly, loving festival experience that keeps fans coming back each year.”

    Best Mid-Size Festival: Catskill Chill

    While Catskill Chill is speculated to make a move to Lake George in 2016, the festival’s last waltz at bucolic Camp Minglewood in Hancock, NY, this September was a success, selling 5,000 tickets, according to Chill promoter Dave Marzollo. Headlined by moe. who kicked off their fall tour at the festival and including other bands like Lotus, Zappa Plays Zappa, Lettuce, Twiddle, Turkuaz, Dopakuaz plays Studio 54 and The Motet, the sixth annual installment of Catskill Chill featured on-site cabin rentals, daily yoga, live art, a farmer’s market, craft and food vendors, a communal bonfire nightly and an open mic. The three-day event was packed with guest sit-ins and collaborations like Dopapod and Turkuaz joining forces to play as Dopakuaz, which Chill organizer Josh Cohen noted is the type of community mindset that sets this festival apart from others its size or larger by creating an environment where rising bands can experiment and grow in a unique setting:

    Point is that when comparing us to larger festivals, we’re at this cool stage attendance-wise where in many band’s cases we have the best ‘music’ out there in our prime slots. I love tons of bands who’ve been around since the ’90s or earlier but there’s nothing like seeing musicians in their youthful stages, when creativity is just exploding and you can feel it dripping off the stage as opposed to later-in-their career bands who are playing mostly songs they first wrote and fell in love with decades earlier.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R6Uk03HW9k&feature=youtu.be

    Best Large Festival: Magnaball

    It’s no surprise that Magnaball takes the cake for this category. During late August more than 30,000 phans invaded Watkins Glen International race track for Phish Festival 10. And while the three-day event took place at the site of their 2011 Superball IX festival, this time around the setup featured many upgrades, including local and regional food vendors, the five-course restaurant Festival Ate, MagnaWater Program, speciality Phish-themed cocktails and coveted craft beer from Lawson’s Finest Liquids and Hill Farmstead. (And let’s not forget to mention the interactive Glurt Institute, Drive-In movie theater, JEMP Record Store and cornhole tournament.) The Vermont quartet majorly delivered throughout the weekend’s eight sets busting out rare tunes like “Mock Song” and jamming out typical breather ballads such as “Prince Caspian” to uncharted territory, but perhaps one of the highlights was the Saturday festival tradition of performing a late-night set, which according to Pete Mason raised expectations for future secret sets:

    Magnaball’s foray into the history of Phish’s special festival sets was the Drive-In Jam and it raised the bar while putting forth a performance on par with the ‘Storage Jam,’ if not exceeded this established upper echelon of improvisation. On a 183-foot movie screen, a wide array of visual treats combined with a progressively growing ambient jam that eclipsed the Lemonwheel by a longshot and morphed into a full on jam for 50 minutes. The Drive-In Set raised the bar for surprise performances and gave fans a treat after the music on the main stage ended an hour prior.”

  • Nashville Producer Dave Cobb Rallies All-Star Cast for Concept Album

    Grammy-nominated producer Dave Cobb has rounded up some of Nashville’s best and brightest country and Americana stars for an upcoming compilation album.

    The 12-track record titled Southern Family features artists Chris and Morgane Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Shooter Jennings, Zac Brown, Rich Robinson (of The Black Crowes), Miranda Lambert, Anderson East, Jamey Johnson, John Paul White (formerly of The Civil Wars), Brandy Clark, Brent Cobb and Holly Williams.

    dave cobbAccording to MusicRow, the album was inspired by 1978’s Civil War concept album White Mansions that featured notable musicians Waylon Jennings, Eric Clapton and Jessi Colter, and for this latest project, the acclaimed producer gathered “all of my friends on one record” to share a collection of stories about growing up in the South.

    Dave Cobb is best known for his work on Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (2015 Americana Music Awards Artist and Song of the Year), Isbell’s Southeastern (2014 Americana Music Awards Album and Artist of the Year) and Something More Than Free and Stapleton’s Traveller (2015 CMA Awards Album of the Year). Cobb has also produced records for Houndmouth, Honey Honey and Lake Street Dive. This year he is nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Traveller is up for Album of the Year and Best Country Album and SMTF for Best Americana Album.

    Southern Family is expected to be released on Cobb’s own label imprint Low Country Sound/Elektra Records on March 18.

    Southern Family Track List:
    1. John Paul White, “Simple Song”
    2. Jason Isbell, “God Is A Working Man”
    3. Brent Cobb, “Down Home”
    4. Miranda Lambert, “Sweet By and By”
    5. Morgane Stapleton with Chris Stapleton, “You Are My Sunshine”
    6. Zac Brown, “Grandma’s Garden”
    7. Jamey Johnson, “Momma’s Table”
    8. Anderson East, “Learning”
    9. Holly Williams, “Settle Down”
    10. Brandy Clark, “I Cried”
    11. Shooter Jennings, “Can You Come Over”?
    12. Rich Robinson (featuring The Settles Connection), “The Way Home”

  • Another One Bites the Dust: Wakarusa Music Festival Announces Hiatus

    The times they are a changin’ for music festivals. Last month celebrated fest Gathering of the Vibes announced that after 20 years it would take a break in 2016, and the newest festival to join the group of events taking (at least) a year off is Wakarusa.

    wakarusa

    The festival’s organizers broke the news yesterday through a public social media post, noting that legal issues with disagreeable partners are to blame for the leave of absence. But according to the statement, Waka will return:

    “Wakarusa was significantly damaged by partners claiming to share our vision. Sadly, they lied. They are being dealt with appropriately through the legal system. Further, we have found that the universe is often much more effective in dealing with these perpetrators than the legal system. Regardless, it is our sincere hope and anticipation that what we have built together, we will once again enjoy on our beloved and magical mountain.

    For now, we shall dust ourselves off. We must take time to recharge our faith and our energy. Passionate people do not throw in the towel because of a bump in the road. We look brightly toward the future. We will bring more music and more art and many more wickedly unrivaled memories. We know the world is a better place when there is more music and more love…”

    Founded in 2005, the five-day event held on Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arizona, Wakarusa Music Festival offered fans a consistent, heavy lineup of artists throughout the past 12 years, including the String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee, Dr. Dog, My Morning Jacket, Twiddle, Moon Taxi, and often introduced eventgoers to rising bands like the Magic Beans.

  • Darlingside Releases Additional Northeast Dates

    Rising folk quartet Darlingside will head to the Northeast this winter, with several dates in New York state.

    The indie four-piece is scheduled to play at Daryl’s House in Pawling Jan. 13, Club Helsinki in Hudson Jan. 14, Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs Jan. 15 and two nights at Rockwood Music Hall’s Stage 2 in New York City on Jan. 16 and 17 before dates in the Midwestern states and West Coast.

    The Massachusetts-based band — Don Mitchell (guitar, banjo), Auyon Mukharji (violin, mandolin), Harris Paseltiner (cello, guitar) and David Senft (bass) — met as students at Williams College and have been playing together for six years. Their textured, collective sound is being hailed as unique and genre-fresh by music critics and the like, with much praise being given to the group’s method of performing around a single microphone.

    Paseltiner said in a release announcing the dates:

    Each song and set of lyrics are created by all of us together, a sort of ‘group stream-of-consciousness.’ So we moved away from a single lead vocalist and started gravitating towards singing in unison, passing the melody around, or harmonizing in four parts through an entire song.”

    These additional tour dates are in support of the group’s latest album Birds Say; the 13-track release dropped in September and it is the second album on Nashville company Thirty Tigers, which also manages clients like Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson. Darlingside’s extended string of dates come off the heels of a successful fall run, including sharing the bill with Grammy-nominated Patty Griffin. Tickets for all 2016 dates are on sale now through the band’s website. But if you can’t wait until the New Year, Darlingside is booked at Milkboy in Philadelphia this Wednesday.

  • Blinded By The Price: New York Questions Springsteen Ticket Reselling

    Every music fan has endured the online ticketing rush; when the clock strikes on-sale time, it’s a frustrating game of repeatedly hitting refresh, chancing each click until that next one successfully  unfreezes the screen to show items in your cart. But in truth, most concertgoers stick it out to avoid being forced to pay for high-priced resale tickets, or missing out on the show entirely.

    While the secondary market has improved with the creation of fan-based campaigns and startups on a mission to embrace the face value, professional ticket brokering is still finding a way to flood the resale market. And New Jersey’s blue-jean boss Bruce Springsteen is the latest artist to fall victim (again) in the never-ending battle against ticket scalping.

    1492739_10152124321910250_1112158285_o

    Tickets for Springsteen‘s 2016 tour will be released at 10 a.m. today through Ticketmaster and Live Nation, but the New York Times reported Tuesday that hundreds of seats were already listed by resellers online with single-ticket prices beginning at $5,000.

    Thankfully, these eyebrow-raising listings led New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to send the involved sites letters that questioned the act of false advertising under state general business law, since sellers could not yet have the tickets in possession.

    The NYT also said that the sites in question — StubHub, TicketNetwork, Vivid Seats — either remained confident in their refund policy for invalid tickets or removed listings for concerts in New York until the public on-sale date. Schneiderman’s office called the removal of listings a victory for consumers and pledged to continue to work on the issue.

    Springsteen and the E Street Band are set to tour the country, making stops for two nights in New York City (Jan. 24 and 27), Albany (Feb. 8), Buffalo (Feb. 25) and Rochester (Feb. 27). Springsteen is touring in support of the box-set release of “The Ties That Bind: The River Collection,” and this run is a nod to the Boss’ career-making 1980 “The River” tour.

  • Camp Bisco Permit Saga Continues

    Well, Disco Biscuit fans, it looks like Camp Bisco will for sure not be returning to Schenectady County anytime soon as the permit saga drags on.

    DaveDeCrescente - DiscoBiscuits - Camp Bisco 2015 -17

    On Oct. 28, state Supreme Court Justice Vincent Reilly Jr. deemed the county’s ruling and safety issues raised as valid reasons for permit denial, as reported by Times Union. The summer event had been planned for a July 15 through 19 revival at Indian Lookout Country Club in Mariaville, where the three-day festival was held for seven consecutive years; however, the application for a mass-gathering permit was rejected by the county with major opposition from its sheriff.

    This news continues a chain of events that has plagued Bisco since its 2014 hiatus, regarding safety concerns with transportation, emergency plans and insurance coverage, plus the festival’s failure to create a zero-tolerance drug policy. But the EDM-focused concert did return this summer with a venue change; Bisco 13 went off without a hitch at Montage Mountain in Scranton last July, and NYS Music contributor Jimmy Chambers reported on its success in his glowing review of the festival (revisit Camp Bisco here).

    While the Philadelphia-based band has yet to announce plans for Bisco 2016, hang tight and take a look back at Camp Bisco 13 with the recently released aftermovie.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zT1SazqseQ&feature=youtu.be

  • Mister F Gives Fans Insider Pass to ‘FTV Cribs’

    Who can forget when Mariah Carey showed off her plush Manhattan penthouse, with its decadent chandeliers, lavish closets and Marilyn Monroe’s piano, or when Lil Wayne revealed his mobster movie-obsessed living room and impressive car collection on MTV Cribs? It was a show that rocked a generation by allowing an exclusive peek into the personal lives of favorite culture figures before social media came along and made such connection instant. Well, get excited fans of Albany-based Mister F — now you can take an all-access tour of the band’s neat-and-clean dude ranch on YouTube.

    Mister F

    Published on the band’s channel last week, the near 13-minute “FTV Cribs” episode gives viewers a satirical but honest look at the home of these “hard and dangerous rock stars,” plus their whips, yard and places “where the magic happens” for Andrew Chamberlaine (Mister A), Ben Pickering (Mister B), Scott Hannay (Mister S), Matt Pickering (Mister M) and Mike Dean (Mister Manager). According to the press release, the idea was in the making before Mister F was even a concept.

    Hannay said in the release:

    Our drummer Matt had been wanting to make an MTV Cribs-style video for the band house since six years ago when the other guys were still in Timbre Coup… Over the last year, I put together a very silly Vulfpeck-esque video of us playing with a bare-bones setup in totally nonsensical costumes around a dinner table (“This One Goes to 11 – Live at the Dinner Table“) and a three-song series of more serious in-studio multi-cam videos (“The Snow Day Sessions“). I’d gotten back into the swing of video editing, and so we decided to finally make our own MTV Cribs-style episode, aptly titled “FTV Cribs.”

    The virtual tour begins in the living room where the band catches up on Netflix (Arrested Development, of course) to the “all around awesome” two-acre party lot set up with plastic patio ware and can jam before moving into the bare-cupboard kitchen with Mister B who highlights a heady collection of craft beer and opens the fridge door to showcase “all the fixins for hamburgers and hotdogs.” After a short faux commercial break featuring Now! That’s What F Calls Music, a compact compilation of the “crunchiest jams to bop your head to” from Aqueous, Twiddle, The Heavy Pets, McLovins and more (found here), the segment returns with a private look at the shabby chic bedrooms—take note of Mister M’s hat and shoe collection—and concert poster covered practice room before kicking viewers out. So sit back, tune in and invade the space to see “how the other F lives.”

  • Hearing Aide: Vulfpeck ‘Thrill of the Arts’

    Thrill of the Arts, the debut full-length release from Vulfpeck is an entertaining score of influences —Motown, superfly funk, disco ballads, ’80s easy listening, other music your parents probably owned—and classically trained elements that mix confidently with technetronic effects. The result isn’t nostalgic or avant-garde, but geeky cool in its carefully composed yet vibrant sound; it’s revenge-of-the-nerds with soul-train swagger.

    vulfpeck thrill of the artsThe four-man rhythm section formed at the University of Michigan—Jack Stratton (keyboards/drums/guitar), Theo Katzman (guitar/drums/vocals), Woody Goss (keyboards) and Joe Dart (bass)—self-produced the album through a 59-day Kickstarter campaign and open it with the appropriately named “Welcome to Vulf Records,” an upbeat symphonic theme song that signals it’s time to tune in, brassy saxophone solos and all.

    Over the following half-hour, the band grooves through a variety show of offbeat instrumentals, starring guests like rhythm-and-blues vocalist Antwaun Stanley, who sings about the self-aware, TED-talk giving “Funky Duck,” and guitarist Blake Mills in the spaghetti Western rockabilly number “Rango II” that moseys on until mid-trail distortion time warps listeners back to the future. Mushy Krongold (Stratton’s alter ego) brings the 10-tracks to a close with “Guided Smile Meditation,” a spoken-word bit that uses outer-spacey synths to help visualize manning “mission control” and sends TOTA off with a “sense of smile spreading through the eyes.”

    vulfpeck thrill of the artsMost songs remain under the five-minute mark, but existing live footage reveals that these guys aren’t afraid to improvise and can deliver unexpected transitions with impressive precision. And they’ve also been known to cover a classic song or two like The Band’s “Up On Cripple Creek” and Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie on Reggae Woman” and will occasionally breakdown their instrumental configurations for the audience before jamming out. Vulf has yet to announce a tour schedule in support of the album; however, the band is booked for two nights at the Brooklyn Bowl on Nov. 21 and 23 and special guests are soon to be announced.

    Vulfpeck‘s premiere feature compilation is dressed to thrill and proves that independent musicians in the 21st century can provide much more than studio session backtracks.

    Key Tracks: “Funky Duck,” “Rango II,” and “Christmas in L.A.”

  • Smashed Face: Cannibal Corpse Collaborates on Craft Beer Release

    If pop-culture critic Chuck Klosterman taught us anything from his memoir Fargo Rock City, it’s that Midwesterners love their metal. And one Munster, Indiana, company has been making new noise for the hard-fast-and-heavy genre by crafting special-release beers in concert with favorite metal groups.

    Smashed FaceThree Floyds Brewing Company, whose coveted Citra-forward American Pale Ale Zombie Dust holds a steady Top 20 Beer Advocate rating, started hosting its annual beer-and-metal festival 12 years ago to showcase rising bands and release its “demonic” Russian imperial stout bearing the same moniker as the once-a-year event, Dark Lord Day. And in 2010, the metal-friendly brewery began collaborating with groups like Pelican (The Creeper Doppelbock), Pig Destroyer (Permanent Funeral Pale Ale) and Municipal Waste (Toxic Revolution Stout) to create limited-batch brews; Three Floyds‘ latest victim is Buffalo-spawned death metal vets Cannibal Corpse.

    On Oct. 14, the brewing company announced through its Facebook page that Amber Smashed Face—a play on the band’s Hammer Smashed Face (1993) album—would soon be released. The brewery describes the beer as “an aggressively hopped American Amber Ale sure to crush your skull and liquefy your brain.” Sounds like every metalhead and beer nerd’s wet-hopped dream.

    Smashed FaceFor a brewery that aims to cook up “intense” beer labeled with Vince Locke’s gore-obsessed artwork and a band whose graphic lyrics of blood and carnage spill across its 27-year catalog, one can only believe it’s the perfect pairing—plus, it’s fun to fantasize about the grotesque tasting notes if life were to truly imitate art. Think: a malty base of crushed bone and blood broth with juicy notes of worm and maggot pulp that finishes with a heavy mouth feel and the nose smells a bit of dead flesh, like a “Rotting Head,” a “brain turned to soup, ears are dripping goop” for fans—err, zombies—to drink up.

    Vince Locke gave fans a sneak peak of the label art on his Instagram account:

    Cannibal Corpse is currently on tour in support of A Skeletal Domain—the bands’ lucky-number-13 studio release—with one nearby stop in Pittsburgh on Nov. 3. The 12-track album, produced by Mark Lewis (The Black Dahlia Murder, DevilDriver) at Audio Hammer Studios in Florida, where Cannibal Corpse is now based, debuted at number 32 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart during its first week, and ASD remains as the band’s highest-charting record to date. We’ll raise our skull chalice to that.