Category: Best of NYSMusic

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.

Best 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.

December 28, 2015
Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Pick for Best Music Town in New York State

With an expansive state such as NY, there’s a multitude of large cities and small towns that are home to some widely diverse music venues and scenes abroad. Teetering as the fourth most populated state in the country, New York houses just under 20 million people with the majority of the larger cities snuggled along interstate 90. It’s a seamless route for bands to travel and schedule shows as they pass through the Empire State. However, our team of merry music lovers here at NYS Music voted upon one town to be the best scene for live music. I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that this 5-borough concrete jungle was the top pick for best music town in New York State. That’s right, New York City indeed. Coming in hot at #1 is the largest city in the United States and has been declared as the Best Music Town for many years now. It’s probably not going to be topped anytime soon either.

To a surprising degree, Albany and Buffalo were not so distant behind the Big Apple in the standings. The Capital District has much to offer with many venues of all capacities spread throughout the city. A brief list starts with The Hollow Bar & Kitchen, The Palace Theatre, The EGG, The Fuze Box, and The Times Union Center. Buffalo also has an impressive list of stages and events such as the Town Ballroom, The Tralf, The Waiting Room, Buffalo Iron Works, Nietzsche’s, and the First Niagara Center.

Oh, but the city that never sleeps has far more venues than anyone can imagine. Clubs, bars, city parks, warehouses, basements, rooftops, to numerous theatres and stadiums are abundant in the melting pot. It’s glorious! The most regarded venue in NYC would have to be Madison Square Garden. It’s beautiful, accommodating, spacious, acoustically dynamic, and it is just historically pleasing to be in and around. MSG holds only the world’s largest acts and will be home to Phish for four consecutive nights at the end of 2015.

The Barclays Center is home to the Brooklyn Nets, seats about 19,000 people, and opened in 2012 with a major list of performers, including Jay-Z and Pearl Jam. Its rivals in size would be MSG, Nassau Coliseum, Nikon at Jones Beach Amphitheater, and the IZOD Center (located in NJ).

Radio City Music Hall is the queen of all theaters in NYC with its 5,933 seat capacity, historical Art Deco interior, prestigious location, and Grand Stage. The elevator system in the theater is so advanced, that the U.S. Navy had incorporated identical hydraulics into WWII aircraft carriers and had security personnel guarding the theater during wartime. The Hall is sprinkled with depression-era artwork in the lobby, hallways, and the mezzanine. It’s deserving of the nickname, Showplace of the Nation.

Though, just because NYC is ample in size, poses home to the largest/most popular arenas and theaters in the country, doesn’t mean that’s where the real glory is. People tend to have more fun in the intimate venue, smaller capacity rooms where you can practically reach out and touch the artists from any angle of the room. The venues that sell tickets at reasonable prices, have great selection of beverages, are decorated with passion, and cater to the individual concert go-er rather than consumers in bulk, are what makes the experience favorable. The Empire City has all of that and more. Some other venues that hold NYC so high are: The Beacon Theatre, The Hammerstein Ballroom, Carnegie Hall, Playstation Theater, City Winery, Terminal 5, Brooklyn Bowl, Governors Island, Central Park, Bowery Ballroom, Village Vanguard, Cake Shop, and Saint Vitus are just a sliver of the pie.

New Years Eve in New York City, well really, the whole week around New Years, is chock full of music. Just check out this list put together by Catskill Chill Music Festival!

Aside from being the music mecca of the world, it’s almost in a class of its own. Until that changes, go visit the Big Apple and enjoy some live music!

December 26, 2015
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.

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.”

December 23, 2015
Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for Best Venues in New York State

Most bands and performers have goals to play their music, record albums, have fun, and entertain thousands of fans in the largest of venues that host our favorite bands. It takes years of dedication, hard work, and constant creativity to pursue these dreams and goals. For almost every performer, they have to start their careers in the smaller clubs and work their way to the large venues. Here we have our Top NYS Music Staff Picks for the Best venues in New York State for 2015.

Best Club in New York State – Brooklyn Bowl (Brooklyn, NY)

This bowling alley and live-music venue fully embraces the bowl-a-rama theme park idea. This is a great place to kill a few hours by your-self or with a group of friends. You can down a pitcher of Brooklyn Brews, chew your way through the food menu from the Blue Ribbon team (delicious fatty brisket, Old Bay–fried chicken) lane-side between frames, while listening to/watching some the best music from around the world on their music stage. This establishment is also certified L.E.E.D Green with use of 100% wind energy, all beverages being on-tap only (No cans and bottles), cork and recycled truck tire flooring, and energy efficient electronics and appliances. There’s no wonder why this was voted the best club.

“Basically, Brooklyn Bowl is the Pimp My Ride of music venues. It has a 16-lane bowling alley with big-ass HD TV screens situated above the pins. “Rock. And Roll. Fries” and the “Really Sloppy Joe” are on the Blue Ribbon-supplied menu. And they book wonderfully odd and unexpected novelty shows such as Lebowski Fest, the Regional Air Guitar Championships, and Snoop Dogg. Most of the time, however, the Bowl brings out the latest in indie rock, punctuated by seasonal specialties like Questlove’s weekly DJ residency. Their couches are really comfortable, too.” – The Village Voice

Best Theatre in New York State – Palace Theatre (Albany, NY)

The top pick by our staff for best theatre turned out to be a good one. The Palace Performing Arts Center is a Baroque-style theater dating to 1931 hosts concerts, classic movies & the Albany Symphony Orchestra. This theatre is a favorite among many bands and performers visiting the capital region with its 2,800 person capacity, beautifully carved moldings, and painted ceilings. It holds events that spawn from broadways the Nutcracker to celebrating New Years Eve with the progressive jam-band Moe. The theater has also been profiting tremendously for the last 4 years straight since under new management.

Best Arena/Amphitheater in New York State – Saratoga Performing Arts Center (Saratoga Springs, NY)

With a close race in this category, SPAC came out on top for our staff pick of the best large venue in New York State. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is a complex with a large Amphitheatre and smaller theatre that hosts every single kind of music known from around the world and also hosts banquets and events for local high schools and companies. This year of 2016, SPAC is celebrating its 50th anniversary and is also up for its contract renewal with New York State.

Best NEW Venue in New York State – Lakeview Amphitheater & Funk ‘N’ Waffles Downtown (Syracuse, NY)

Tied for Top Pick of the best NEW venue in New York State by our staff are two venues located in Syracuse, NY. The Lakeview Amphitheater was built this year and opened to the public in late summer, hosting one of Country music’s biggest stars, Miranda Lambert. The all-new state of the art venue seats over 17,000 people and has a picturesque view of Onondaga Lake.

Funk ‘N’ Waffles Downtown was established in late 2014 and is located near Armory Square in downtown Syracuse. The 2^nd location is an offshoot of the original restaurant-slash-club located on Marshall St, near the University. The downtown spot is set up to hold 100+ people and divided into two sections (Coffee shop and Bar with live music). They serve a wonderful selection of local and popular NYS beers, have state of the art technology for their visiting musicians, and have an original tasty concoction of waffles to choose from. NYS Music is also co-sponsoring Wednesday Nights with live music every week in December.

December 22, 2015
Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for Best Shows by Region

A lot of great shows and festivals took place around New York over the course of 2015, from big festivals to small club shows and everything in between. The team at NYS Music loves live music. You can always catch us out and about at live music happenings. Here are what we considered the best concerts of 2015, sorted by region of the state.

Best Show in Western New York: Aqueous Halloween
When Aqueous announced they were going to pay tribute to “Dark Side of Oz,” the legendary mashup of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and the cinematic classic The Wizard of Oz, their fans were pumped. However, this was a multi-night run, and it wouldn’t be fun without a theme for the first night. Back to the Future was chosen, and the band covered many of the hits off the soundtrack.

Best Show in Central New York: moe. at Saranac Brewery and K-Rockathon 20
Two anniversaries were celebrated in Central New York, and they brought the crowds and rave reviews. New York’s favorite jamband, moe., celebrated their 25 years in Utica at the FX Matt Brewery, home to Saranac beer. The multi-day celebration had a festival vibe with multiple bands performing each day. New York’s biggest rock radio station, K-Rock, celebrated their 20th annual K-Rockathon with headliners Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown.

Best Show in the Capital District: Dead & Company at Times Union Center
2015 was a big year for the music of the Grateful Dead. The much anticipated Fare Thee Well shows in Santa Clara, California and Chicago celebrated the 50th anniversary of the originators of the jam scene. Following the shows, billed as the last shows the remaining four members would play together, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann announced they would go on tour as Dead & Company with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti. They kicked off their fall tour at Albany’s Times Union Center.

Best Show in the North Country: The Waterhole’s final show with EMEFE
The Waterhole, a mainstay in Saranac Lake, shut its doors after over 20 years of providing live music to the residents of the North Country. The venue will be missed by many. EMEFE played on the last night, dedicating the song “Good Future” to the Waterhole staff.

Best Show in the Mid-Hudson: Twiddle at the Rock n Roll Resort
The Rock n Roll Resort festival is always a favorite. It takes the best parts of a music festival and brings them to a chic resort hotel. Rising stars from Vermont, Twiddle, took the resort by storm with their headlining set.

Twiddle – Rock N Roll Resort

Best Show in the Finger Lakes: Phish’s Magnaball
A lot can be written about Phish’s 10th festival. A lot has already been written about it. Tens of thousands of Phish fans returned to Watkins Glen International, the fabled NASCAR track that was home to 1973’s Summer Jam. Not one fan that attended Magnaball had negative comments. That should say it all.

Best Show in the Southern Tier: Rob Zombie at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena
Rob Zombie brought in the Halloween season with his nightmarish heavy metal show. Fans arrived dressed in costume for the show that was opened by Zombie’s drummer, DJ Ginger Fish. Chris Besaw had the opportunity to sit down and speak with guitarist John 5 before the show about his inspiration and favorite horror films.

Best Show in New York City
It’s difficult to pick just one or two shows in a city that has several amazing shows on a nightly basis. Here are some of what we thought were the best shows in New York City in 2015.

Ghost at Terminal 5
L7 at The Warsaw
Faith No More at Webster Hall
Vulfpeck at Brooklyn Bowl
Soulive’s Bowlive VI (and more here and here and here and here and here)

Best Show on Long Island: Biohazard, Sworn Enemy and Zire’s War at Revolution Music Hall
In a night of hardcore music that rocked Revolution Music Hall, Biohazard and Sworn Enemy co-headlined what was practically a homecoming for them. Life of Agony’s guitarist Joey Zampella started a new band, Zire’s War, that kicked things off.

December 21, 2015
Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for Albums, Overall

The past year has been a great year for music. In addition to the great albums released by New York artists, there have been some excellent albums released around the world. The NYS Music team picked their favorite albums of 2015. This is just a sampling of those albums.

Courtney Barnett released her critically acclaimed debut Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit back in March. The 27 year old Australian singer/songwriter has received nothing but praise. Will Hermes, reviewing it for NPR, says:

Barnett’s facility for wordplay and compressed narrative has more in common with great rappers than pop songwriters, and her debut is the best rock record I’ve heard this year. She’s a poet of panic attacks and short attention spans and the kind of heartbreak that always seems to be following right in your blind spot.

In his five-star review for The Guardian, Everett True writes “listening to most – if not all – of Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is a richly rewarding experience, one that increases with each listen.” Rolling Stone’s Jon Dolan gave the album 4.5 stars and said “wherever Barnett ends up, we’re going to want to go with her.”

Holly Bowling has been getting the attention of Phish fans around the nation with her solo piano covers of their repertoire, the most well-know of which being the “Tahoe Tweezer.” The release of her crowd-funded album, Distillation of a Dream, was much anticipated. Bringing a fresh look at the music of Phish, it’s no wonder everyone who gave it a listen fell instantly in love. The first disc of the double album offers her interpretation of studio tracks, while the second disc covers live jams as performed by Phish. Bowling “does justice to the variety of songs she chose for the album.” Reviewing the album, I wrote:

Overall, Distillation of a Dream is a solid, creative tribute to Phish. The album reflects the difference between studio Phish as heard on disc one, and live Phish as heard on disc two. Bowling’s musicality, experience and talent are in full display on this album. The creativity and effort put into the re-creation of these Phish songs and jams make for a fun and interesting listen.

Many great albums were released in 2015, and while we can’t review all of them, some other picks by our staff include Todd Rundgren’s Global, Trey Anastasio’s Paper Wheels, Fear Factory’s Genexus, Circles Around the Sun Interludes for the Dead and Faith No More’s Sol Invictus. From debut albums to comeback albums, 2015 had some great releases that are not to be missed!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKP98hDBJ8w&list=PLZnIUmBPJGRmDbnrtHd00eybNRXHLieC_[/embedyt]

December 20, 2015
Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for Albums by New York Artists

The NYS Music team has voted and these are what we chose as the best albums released in 2015 by New York artists. Turkuaz’s Digitonium, Lettuce’s Crush and Consider the Source’s World War Trio Parts II & III each received multiple votes from the staff.

Turkuaz’s Digitonium is “the future of retro pop funk.” Turkuaz has been quite busy lately, having recently completed an extensive fall tour that spanned the continental U.S. Featuring great tracks like “Nightswimming,” “Percy Thrills the Moon Dog” and “Doktor Jazz,” the album is “the ideal listen for any pre-party or when you are just ready to share in the groove.”

From our review:

The 23 track album is a mature testament to the bands growing sound that continues to push the boundaries of funk with heavy ’80s influences. The album is full of instrumental segues of experimental melodies that set the stage for evolutionary funk tunes with classic, raw Turkuaz energy. Digitonium is built upon layers of exploratory themes, characters and repetitive lyrics that get the listener to pause, rewind and think outside the album.

The latest release from Lettuce, Crush, is the first album in three years from the seasoned funk band. Jeremiah Shea calls it their “most aggressive, ambitious, and funkiest album to date.” With highlights, such as “Phyllis,” “Trilogy” and “Pockets of Change,” this is a must-hear album.

From Shea’s album review:

If you’ve never had the opportunity to dive into some Lettuce head first, now might be a better time than ever. Crush is the convergence of road tested and polished material, musical exploration, deep pockets of groove, and a band that is simply on top of their game. With a discography full of hits, this album somehow stands above them all.

Sticking to the funk theme of the other albums is Consider the Source and their latest effort, World War Trio Parts II & III, the follow-up double album to last year’s World War Trio Part I. In reviewing the album, Shea says “If pop music is reading at an elementary level, World War Trio Part II + III, is at least a 400 level college course.” The Middle Eastern sci-fi psychedelic funk fusion trio has been quite active in recent years. This album was no small undertaking. Of its 20 tracks, “This Dubious Honor,” “Up to, But Not to Exceed… Whoa,” “I’ll fight for the Imp” and “You are Disappearing.”

Of the album, Shea says:

Never before though has the band done it this masterfully and with such vision. This isn’t just food for thought, but a feast, with such lush sonic depth that can’t simply be explored in one pass. This is music that commands focus in a time when fans are more flippant than ever. You could say the band is fighting a natural progression, but I applaud the effort and what they force a willing listener to listen to. The continuity between songs is beautifully orchestrated and only possible with an overall delivery being kept in perspective from the onset.

Among the many albums released by New York bands this year, others receiving additional accolades included Johnny Cummings’ Radiate, Misery Kills’ My Ugly Insides, ShwizZ’s My Good Side/My Bad Side, Sean Rowe’s Her Songs EP and Stellar Young’s Vessels. It’s been a good year for New York artists. These were just a sampling of all the great music released in 2015. Here’s to an even better 2016!

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OayMa_Qzfk[/embedyt]

December 19, 2015