Scott Ian spoke of the formation of Motor Sister via Blabbermouth:
“I wanted to cherry-pick a set list of my favorite Mother Superior songs and get these guys together and have the concert at my house.” Which lead them making an album together. Then Ian emailed producer Jay Ruston and asked if he thought it was possible to recapture the same spontaneous energy Motor Sister generated at their makeshift gig, and if an album could be recorded quickly. “He said, ‘Yeah, we can make the record in two days and we can make it sound really good.’ So that’s what we did…A week and a half later, we made the record in L.A. over a two-day period. We recorded the whole thing live in the studio and the set-up was at my house.” He continues: “Jim was totally into the idea. Pearl was a huge Mother Superior fan from way back and was in. I asked my good friends Joey Vera and John Tempesta to be a part of it because I knew they were both big fans as well and with no hesitation they said, ‘We’re in.’”
Their debut album entitled Ride will be released March 10 via Metal Blade Records.
The song “This Song Reminds Me Of You” can be streamed below.
Motor Sister is also set to make their debut live appearance at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY on February 12. No further live dates announced, but you can purchase tickets for the show here.
In other related news, Anthrax is also hard at work on their follow up to 2011’s Worship Music tentatively slated for a 2015 release.
Ladies and the rest of the No Shoes Nation get ready. Mega Country Super Star Kenny Chesney and Corona Light present “The Big Revival Tour.”
New York state will see two stops on the tour. The “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” singer will grace stages in Albany and Canandaigua.
The Big Revival Tour will see two different sides of the tour. The arena shows will see support by Jake Owen and Chase Rice. The Stadium Shows will see support by Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Eric Church and Cole Swindell.
The Big Revival is also the name of Chesney’s impressive 15th studio album. Fourteen of those albums are certified gold or higher by the RIAA. The first two singles off the new album “American Kids” and “Til It’s Gone” have quickly became fan favorites.
Chesney’s birthday will start party tour off on Thursday March 26 in Nashville, Tennessee at the Bridgestone Arena. Chesney say’s,
“Just like making this record, we had time to really get creative about the show. Some of the most creative people I know were thinking about stage design, lights, video screens – even what the set list is going to be! After all this time, when we hit the stage, we’re gonna be all out. And I’m so glad we can kick it off in Nashville where so many of my friends are.”
The candles will get blown out on Saturday August 29 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
Chesney has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and has 30 top ten hits on the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. His first platinum-selling album Everywhere We Go, churned out #1 hits “How Forever Feels” and “You Had Me From Hello.”
Kenny’s sixth studio album No Shoes, No Shirts, No Problems, saw the lead single “Young,” win CMT awards for Video and Male Video of the Year in 2002. Second single “The Good Stuff,” was Billboards #1 Country Song of the Year in 2002.
Chase Rice will also support the arena part of the tour. His third studio albumIgnite the Night, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums in August 2014. From the album you can hear RIAA certified gold hit “Ready Set Roll” and “Gonna Wanna Tonight.”
Fans tickets will sell out fast for this Spring and “Summertime” extravaganza. Lucky fans who be able to score tickets will feel like they are “Living in Fast Forward.” Those who miss out will have to settle for a “Beer in Mexico.” The Big Revival Tour Dates:
04-23-2015 Albany, NY Times Union Center | Tickets prices still TBA.
07-08-2015 Canandaigua, NY CMAC | $85.00 – $35.00 before fees.
Reactions ranging from hope for the future to anger for the decision were felt from moe.rons early last week when the band-centric festival called off the 16th installment slated for late August/early September 2015. As one of the few festivals that focus on one band and their curated lineup, making it 15 years is no small feat and is likely the longest stretch for a music festival to run with one band serving as host. Here’s hoping after the dust settles, moe.down 16 is on the calendar in 2016.
moe.rons on Facebook took it especially hard, with reactions ranging from sad, (“It’s not just a band and a crowd. It’s a way of life. It’s community and famoe.ly. It’s music, love, and laughter. It is my favorite time of the year.”), to hopeful (“I hope they’ve got a monster summer tour in store for us at least.”) , to ways to remedy the lack of three days of moe. in Upstate New York (“moe. should play three nights with the Disco Biscuits at a festival in Upstate New York (revamped Camp Bisco??)”). While fans are settling in with the news, we’ll see what moe. has in store when they share summer plans in the coming months.
Twitter handled it a little differently…
There’s no @moedown. So I’m predicting they’ll play a few nights at the Brewery
moe. turns 25 this winter and continue to be one of the biggest acts to come out of Upstate New York and have a strong legacy and influence on bands following in their footsteps a generation later. Chuck Garvey, guitarist for moe., took some time to reminisce on the formative years of moe. in Buffalo and Albany, discuss relationships with 90s jam bands and the struggles the band had early on, something bands getting their start today can identify with.
Photo by Tom Sgroi
Pete Mason: Take us back to the first show you played as ‘Five Guys Named Moe’. What memories linger 25 years later?
Chuck Garvey: For the first proper bar gig, we opened for a Buffalo band called Monkey Wrench at the dive-y bar called Broadway Joe’s that all the SUNY Buffalo area bands played. The guys in ‘Wrench are awesome dudes and even though we were different styles, neither of us cared. It was a bunch of their friends and a couple of ours in the “audience”, drinking cheep beer and soaking up the ambiance. We played a mix of covers and a couple of our own fledgling compositions and it was a lot of fun. After that, we just wanted to do more.
PM: What did you enjoy the most from your time as a band in Buffalo? The least?
CG: The good: Cheap beer, live music, unhealthy but yummy fried food with blue cheese, art, social fun and the summers. The bad: Lake effect snow and high wind without the possibility anything closing, crime, rodents, shifty landlords and their crappy properties.
Photo by Tom Sgroi
PM: How did playing the I-90 circuit as you were starting out contribute to the growth of the fan base and lead to larger gigs?
CG: There are many small and large college towns that a band can play, helping to spread the word while honing a live set of music that people might actually like. We also traded gigs with other bands, slept on friend’s and stranger’s floors, generally making connections and trying to convert fans, one set at a time. Playing shows with bands like Monkey Wrench and Scary Chicken in Buffalo, as well as FreeBeerAndChicken and The Ominous Seapods from Albany was fun and we shared growing fan bases.
PM: Why move to Albany after Buffalo? Why not look west or go right to New York City or Boston?
CG: We planned on moving to the Greater New York Area, but only made it as far as Western Avenue in Albany. We knew people there and it was far less expensive, so we stayed for a while! This was also a time when we were beginning to tour all over the damn country, relentlessly, ruthlessly, so paying rent in NYC while living in a van and truck stops would have been a waste. Maybe that’s one thing we did correctly!
Photo by Tom Sgroi
PM: What were some of the biggest struggles and obstacles the band faced in the early years?
CG: Poverty, cleanliness, good health, booking, keeping gas in the van, trying to not get ripped off – all the stuff that touring bands struggle with if they are paying dues.
CG: He was one of those guys that loved the music, loved to promote and hang out – a true music fan who helped us by being as interested as we were in the whole thing. He still does it for the right reasons. That kind of involvement is always the best. When you are a true fan and not just a businessman, people will listen a little more intently. That goes a long way whether you’re blogging, promoting, chatting with friends. Unsolicited advertising from a source that is trustworthy goes very far. Greg is like any good music fan: he wants to tell you about what he likes and get you into his new band, the new find, etc.
Photo by Tom Sgroi
S21PM: What did you enjoy the most from your time in Albany? The least?
CG: Personally, I enjoyed it because I was near family. We had friends in town when we were not touring and we wrote & rehearsed a lot of music there. We were broke, but everything was simple and we were working really hard, so it felt good, regardless. The only thing I didn’t totally love was our house that the band, FOH engineer and Manager lived in. Parts of it were charming, then there was the waterfall of mold that came into the living room over a built in bookcase in the corner. It was so dark and weird that no one got into the house, even when we left the front door wide open for weeks while on the road.
PM: How has the relationship you formed with Conehead Buddha in the 90s stayed strong over 20 years?
CG: CB was a band that we knew – along with Yolk, Lynch and others – and kept contact with through Jim and Vinnie. Jim has played in bands with different assemblages of musicians, sometimes playing drums or bass, as he did with Lynch. Shannon and Terry have played with us for years. Greg Bell is also instrumental in keeping all of us musicians in touch by putting together great shows, as well as having laid the groundwork for our scene in the Albany area.
PM: Was there any time early on that you wanted to call it quits?
CG: Only when all our guitars were stolen in Columbus, Ohio. And when our van died on the way to a show at the Wetlands. And when we ran out of money trying to get home, stranded on the Thruway. And when some drunk whacko came into Broadway Joe’s with a gun. And when we almost wrecked and died in our camper trying to get to Chicago in the snow.
Oh, wait. None of those things made me want to quit! Never!
PM: Is there a chance we could see Ha Ha the Moose perform at Bellstock?
CG: Is that an invitation? If they do come, they won’t leave till the cops come and the liquor’s gone.
Chuck has previously written about the early history of moe., including lineup changes and events in the first decade of the band’s existence. Read more here and check out the rest of ‘s coverage on moe.’s 25th anniversary including reviews of Town Ballroom shows and Tropical Throe.down.
Special thanks to Schultzy, AFF and Kyle for contributions to this interview.
Syracuse native, Mick Fury, who received a Sammy Award in 2014 for Country Album of the year with Sunday Funday is currently touring with my friends Phoenix Eleven. He recently played at Toby Keith’s and Turning Stone’s Tin Rooster while home for the holidays. Mick Fury and his band Midnight Moonshine recently released a new album Nobody Knows My Name.
Just like his last album, it keeps your foot tapping with a few light hearted fun tracks while still showing you a softer side with “Kick Down My Door”.
“Boys Knight Out” The first single off the album came about with Mick and his boys hanging out at a house party in Minoa, NY one night. It’s how they’d get down on summer nights when they weren’t playing, and it seemed like a song other Northern country fans who liked to party could get into. I fully agree. This song gets you into the mood to party with the upbeat rhythm that is kind of reminiscent of something Luke Bryan would release.
“Couple a Beers” Another light hearted track that shows the world that these guys enjoy a good time. Again a nice tempo that makes you want to get up and shake it!!
“Kick Down My Door” A heartfelt melancholy song with a nice soft tone. I’m sure a lot of fans will be able to relate to the heartbreak and longing for someone they once loved. I like that this middle of the album is broken up with this soft melody that showcases his range.
“Nobody Knows My Name” In Mick’s own words “Nobody” feels great to me because there’s definitely those times when I’m bombarded with phone calls and texts and emails, and all I wanna do is hit Oneida or Ontario lake, grab a cold beer, and do some grilling, and get away from it all where no one can hassle me”. This track really stuck with me because I know a lot of us find ourselves feeling this same way.
Fans can keep up with Mick’s journeys from Nashville on their website or on Facebook. Also, their songs are available at most Upstate New York radio stations, so please if you love country give a call and ask to hear em.
Key Tracks: Boys Night Out, Kick Down My Door, Nobody Knows My Name
The members of Dr. Dog waltzed onto Buffalo’s Town Ballroom stage all in varying levels of “disheveled-ness,” each with their own unique style.
But one thing was uniform across the board. Saddle shoes. They all wore those dapper looking black and white saddle shoes. Now I only mention this bizarre detail because their dress informed their music perfectly. Each member brings their unique somewhat off-kilter sound, together hanging on the precipice of a complete cacophonous collapse. Yet they remain grounded in a fantastic one-ness. It’s gotta be the shoes. (Or perhaps Eric Slick’s stellar drumming?) All that is to say, there aren’t many bands that play this tight, while keeping it so wild and loose at all times. They didn’t even miss a beat when, upon hearing some people in the front row beat him to the opening lines of “Shadow People”, guitarist Scott McMicken handed the mic into the crowd to let them sing the first verse.
Dr. Dog brings a raucous energy to everything they do, even their down-tempo songs are rife with energy. Throughout the night it spread like an airborne virus into the crowd. The nodding-head foot-tapping audience became a rabid mass of dancing fools by nights end. The show didn’t ride any highs or lows and didn’t depend on any showstoppers to bring the set to a head or take it to the next level. They started high, ended high, and kept it up in between. The best song they played was the last one they played before you quickly forgot what it was because they were kicking your ass with the next one. Most of the tunes just flowed right into each other, there was no time to catch your breath and appreciate what was happening. Everything was in the moment.
Dr. Dog is touring behind their just released live album Live at a Flamingo Hotel. And it is great. Yet, if a band does it right, no recording, not even a live one, can completely capture their live experience. And as Dr. Dog proved once again in Buffalo, they are an incredible live band.
Normal Instruments, a supergroup consisting of Jeff Bujak, Michael Carter from The Indobox, Jules Jenssen of Higher Organix, and Matt Beckett from Cosmic Dust Bunnies, are currently touring the Northeast on their fourth ever tour and pulled into Albany’s The Hollow Bar this past Friday night.
A great two set show had a good crowd dancing all evening. Ithaca’s Solaris opened the show with an hour long set of instrumental electric fusion for their first area appearance in a long time. The whole evening gave Albany about three and a half hours to forget about the work week and start the weekend off right.
Train known for “Drops of Jupiter” is steaming into NY state this summer with their “Picasso At The Wheel” tour.
Four different locations across the state will get the chance to experience this tour including Nikon at Jones Beach, SPAC, Darien Lake and Bethel Woods.
Once at the show, head over to the Patcast Tailgate Tent located in the parking lot before doors and inside the venue after doors open. There you will find Dj’s spinning classic rock tunes. You can record shout outs for future Patcast shows.The tents will also feature a chance at ticket upgrades.
Train is also bringing back the Mermaid contest. All mermaids should register at the Patcast tent and the top three will be brought out on stage before Train performs.
This past September, Train released their seventh studio effort Bulletproof Picasso. Train first saw success with their hit single “Meet Virginia” from the band’s debut album Train. The bands second studio album Drops Of Jupiter, catapulted the band to mainstream success going certified double platinum. Title track “Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)” won 2 Grammy awards in 2002 for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist. In 2011 the band won two Billboard Music Awards for Top Rock Artist and Top Rock Song for “Hey, Soul Sister.”
Early in 2014, The Fray released their fourth studio album Helios. The Fray won three Billboard Music Awards in 2006 for Digital Songs Artist, Digital Album Artist and Digital Album of the Year for the single “How to Save A Life.” The Fray’s debut album How to Save a Life, is certified double platinum by the RIAA. Lead single off the debut album “Over My Head (Cable Car)”, gained them immediate national exposure.
Matt Nathanson’s last studio album Last of the Great Pretenders was released in 2013. His current single “Headphones” features the singer Lolo. Nathanson has released eight studio albums in his career. Many of Nathanson’s songs have been featured in various television shows including NCIS, Private Practice,One Tree Hill and Scrubs to name a few. Matt also serenaded a couple on season 16 of The Bachelor with his hit “Faster.”
Picasso At The Wheel N.Y Tour Dates: Click venue in your area to purchase tickets.
Hailing from our eastern neighbor region of Glenville, singer-songwriter Charley Orlando has earned quite a live performance reputation here in the Upstate region, playing upwards of 3,000 shows. Though he has decided to take a break from music for this upcoming year, he has ended 2014 with a bang, and it’s name is Starseed.
Orlando released this eight-track album on December 9th, where it has since been released on Spotify, Facebook, and of course, his own website. He has established himself as a pioneer for an “Organica Groove” genre, that stems from the Acid Folk he grew up listening to. Through most of the album, I agree that the ever-present bright timbre of the acoustic guitar brings me back to Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde days, but Charley’s voice in particular sings to the tune of a more recent ensemble to me: The Decemberists. Though they are more in the indie rock sphere, the Decemberists maintain a high folk sensibility through their lead vocals, which Orlando also embodies, whether it was his intention or not. In songs like “Drop,” “Think It Over,” and “Rise,” the throbbing rhythmic pulse is supported by a multitude of fresh drum patterns that aren’t familiar to the traditional pop-trained ear. Other songs, like “Positive Fire” have very intricate pre-chorus sections, with attention to his abilities as a guitarist. My favorite, however, is the 80’s New Wave style synth that accompanies “If You’re Down.”
Along with his choices of instrumentation, Charley Orlando has an interesting strategy to his songwriting. Along with the constant major chords that ring throughout his album, he is trying to adapt a new recording style through use of his Ableton software. Before ever adding vocal and instrument lines, he is working on recording and creating based primarily on rhythmic pulses, allowing the music to find itself. While I’m not sure when he’ll return to the music sphere, I can guarantee that Starseed is only a preview for what is about to come from Charley Orlando.
It’s here – it’s finally happened; the lineup has been announced for The Taste of Country 2015 Music Festival. Last year the crowd on Day Three were treated to a preview of the first headliner announcement of Tim McGraw. Ever since that day, this top stellar lineup has only gotten better and better. Shortly after the first announcement the fans were given the next two stars, Keith Urban and Toby Keith. Fans hurriedly purchased their three-day passes without even knowing the final lineup just knowing that the Taste of Country Music Festival is going to the be “the” event to be at this year. However, since that time, show announcers have kept us on the edge of our seats to see who else will round out this event.
This morning I, like so many others, waited patiently as the announcement was made. NYS Music is happy to bring to you the final lineup for this years 2015 Taste of Country Music Festival. Added to the already major names of Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, and Toby Keith will be the following: Billy Currington, Eli Young Band, Jerrod Niemann, Sara Evans, Easton Corbin, Chase Bryant, Colt Ford, Josh Abbott Band, Tracy Lawrence, LOCASH. Attendees will also be treated to their favorites of Logan Mize, Western Underground, Rachel Lipsky, Sasha McVeigh, Jackson Michelson and Annie Bosko.
Eli Young Band
The 3rd Annual Taste of Country Music Festival, the Northeast’s first and only 3-day country music camping festival, will be held June 12-14, 2015 at Hunter Mountain Resort (Hunter, NY) in the Great Northern Catskills of Greene County. Tickets are on sale and we highly suggest you make this purchase as soon as possible to secure your seat to the greatest shows this year.
Just like his last album, it keeps your foot tapping with a few light hearted fun tracks while still showing you a softer side with “Kick Down My Door”.
Hailing from our eastern neighbor region of Glenville, singer-songwriter Charley Orlando has earned quite a live performance reputation here in the Upstate region, playing upwards of 3,000 shows. Though he has decided to take a break from music for this upcoming year, he has ended 2014 with a bang, and it’s name is Starseed.