Upstate favorites Aqueous have announced an extensive spring tour taking them all through the north east and mid west including a debut string of dates in Colorado.
The tour will kick off at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn Feb. 25. Other New York dates include Mar. 26 at Ithaca’s The Haunt, Syracuses’s Funk n Waffles Apr. 16, Saratoga Springs Apr 17, and a hometown show Apr. 18 in Buffalo at the Iron Works.
March will feature a five date string in Colorado including two trips to Denver. May and June launch festival season with stops at two Ohio festivals – May Daze in Franklin and Color Dance in Athens – concluding with a Memorial Day weekend for the third straight year at Summer Camp Music Festival.
Check out the whole tour below and don’t miss seeing this excellent band.
Art by Dave Vertino
Aqueous Spring Tour 2015
2/25/15 – Knitting Factory | Brooklyn, NY
2/26/15 – Spot Underground | Providence, RI *
2/27/15 – Stone Church | Newmarket, NH *
2/28/15 – Main Pub | Manchester, CT #
3/6/15 – Tonic Room | Chicago, IL
3/7/15 – Mousetrap | Indianapolis, IN
3/10/15 – Quixotes | Denver, CO
3/11/15 – TBD | Colorado
3/12/15 – Fly Me to The Moon Saloon | Telluride, CO *
3/13/15 – Quixotes | Denver, CO
3/14/15 – Samana | Vail, CO **
3/26/15 – The Haunt | Ithaca, NY
3/27/15 – Penuches | Manchester, NH
3/28/15 – Nectar’s | Burlington, VT
4/1/15 – TBD
4/2/15 – TBD
4/3/15 – Ardmore Music Hall | Philadelphia, PA ^
4/4/15 – Pacific Standard | New Haven, CT
4/10/15 – Corktown Pub | Hamilton, ON
4/11/15 – Kings Rook | Erie, PA
4/16/15 – Funk n Waffles | Syracuse, NY +
4/17/15 – Putnam Den | Saratoga Springs, NY
4/18/15 – Buffalo Iron Works | Buffalo, NY
4/23/15 – Hinge | Northampton, MA
4/24/15 – Church of Boston | Boston, MA
4/25/15 – Arch Street Tavern | Hartford, CT
5/2/15 – May Daze Music Festival | Franklin, OH
5/16/15 – Color Dance Music Festival | Athens, OH
5/21/15-5/24/15 – Summer Camp Music Festival | Chillicothe, IL
5/30/15 – Domefest | Terra Alta, VA
6/12/15 – Illumination Music Festival | Durham, ON
6/19 – 6/20 – Mad Tea Party Jam | Hedgeville, WV
7/23 – 7/25 – Paradise Music Festival | Hustonville, KY
*w/ Pigeons Playing Ping Pong #w/Mister F **w/Yamn +w/Superhuman Happiness ^w/Box of Rain
In a move no one was expecting – mid west jam champions Umphrey’s McGee announced a brand new studio album today titled The London Session.
Recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios in London – the album features 10 tracks that were recorded in one day. Release date is April 7 – but fans may pre-order now. Anyone who pre-orders will get an instant download of lead track “Bad Friday”.
The unexpected release features a selection of tracks from throughout the bands career and (appropriately) a Beatles cover. Check out the entire track list below:
1. Bad Friday
2. Rocker Part 2
3. No Diablo
4. Cut the Cable
5. Out of Order
6. Glory
7. Plunger
8. Comma Later
9. Eat
10. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Umphrey’s McGee – The London Session Vinyl Track Listing
North Side
“Bad Friday” %
“Rocker Part 2”
“No Diablo” $
“Cut The Cable” $
South Side
“Out Of Order” +
“Glory”
“Plunger” +
East Side
“Comma Later”
“Eat” +
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” +
West Side
“In The Kitchen” #
% First time ever recorded
+ Recorded in a single take
# Live from the Brooklyn Bowl London, 6/19/14
$ Acoustic versions
Annie in the Water is a trio of guys performing their high energy acoustic music all over Upstate NY and beyond. Guitarist Michael Lashomb, Keyboardist Dillon Goodfriend and Beatboxer/Lead Vocalist Brad Hester together create a unique genre all their own that fuses Rock, Reggae, Funk, Blues, Hip-Hop and Bluegrass for an impressively fun live performance. Their original lyrics are hopeful and uplifting, with messages of brighter days ahead. When matched with their fierce looping, hip hop flair and electronic beats, their music makes you feel invincible. Their music is similar to Dispatch, laid back island attitude meets fresh powder and the mountain to yourself.
Michael, Dillon and Brad were kind enough to answer a few questions about how they came to be, their musical heroes, the winter weather and their upcoming shows with Twiddle.
Susan Rice: Where does the band name, Annie in the Water come from? How would you describe your sound to new listeners?
Michael Lashlomb: Annie in the Water was formed in the summer of 2007 when our friend Annie fell off of a dock on the St Lawrence River in the early hours of the morning. It was the first time Brad and myself had met up to write music. Brad suggested the name to me of a summary of our gnarly beginning and it stuck. We have been Annie in the Water ever since. We like to describe our sound as an Acoustic Dance Music. We use beat-box and looping mixed with live instruments and just punch it. We like to have fun and just play stuff we would want to vibe to.
SR: What music did you listen to growing up? Who are your musical influences?
ML: I was raised up on a mixture of Cat Stevens, The Beetles, Chicago, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and other folks artists like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Also being raised in Cleveland Heights, OH I was exposed to a lot of funk and early 90’s hip hop like Notorious B.I.G, Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan and Big Pun. My biggest musical influence is Levon Helm from The Band. I also take a lot from Chuck Berry, The Boss, and Dave Matthews for their raw performance abilities and as for lead guitar players, I have to give props to David Gilmore, Trey, Jimi Hendrix, Derek Trucks, Jamie Anderson of The Fritz, Mihali of Twiddle and Warren Haynes.
Dillon Goodfriend: I think the first CD I bought was Green Day’s Dookie, or Barenaked Ladies’ Stunt. I remember trying to record Rob Zombie songs on a tape whenever it came on the radio. I think it started with any one on Drive-Thru Records or Epitaph Records, then fell into classic rock and jam when I started collecting vinyl. Seeing Keller Williams perform his solo looping act is what motivated me to start playing music. I’ve been strongly influenced by artists like Andrew Bird, Zach Deputy and Keller.
Brad Hester: I always had country music in the house since my parents enjoy the storytelling, but also my sisters and I were always in choir. My grandmother always had members of the family singing at Christmas, and I was always surrounded by some kind of music. Garth Brooks was an early influence when I was very young; the Backstreet Boys inspired me to develop my voice in Elementary School and around that time I also discovered Eminem and Incubus. As I got into High School my friends and I were really into 311, Pepper, Styx, Rage against the Machine and Dave Matthews. When I got into college and started performing, Mike introduced me to bands like Phish and The Grateful Dead and Bela Fleck.
SR: What music are you listening to on the way to a show? When you’re snowboarding?
BH: Music on the way to a show ranges from Twiddle to moe to 311 to anything that people tell us to check out, and whereas sometimes I travel in complete silence to be in touch with my thoughts. While snowboarding I don’t usually listen to music because I like to hear my board on the snow. Being in the Northeast, there are sometimes a range of conditions that I need to be in touch with while tracing my path down the mountain, and that’s what I like to be fully in touch with.
DG: My car doesn’t have an Aux cord so I’m stuck with my CDs of moe., The Weekend, Canned Heat, plus I won all the Twiddle CDs in a giveaway. I don’t really listen to anything snowboarding because my phone can’t handle the cold.
ML: We also have tons of CD’s from bands we meet and love to vibe to their albums. A lot of different bands in the circuit like The Fritz, Blind Owl Band, Lucid, Spiritual Rez and Atlas Road Crew. As for music while snowboarding, I have chosen to go silent as well. The tree runs sound so rad and soothing and then when you launch some air on the cat tracks, the stomp sounds so good and def amps you up. I just sink into the snowboard experience and forget about the grind and just enjoy the pure unadulterated feeling of focus and flight.
SR: it’s clear that Annie in the Water seems to embrace the winter season. You guys are playing all over the North Country and even outside at the Olympic Sky Jumps in Lake Placid at below zero temperatures. Why? What makes the winter season so special for you and your music?
BH: We wanted to create the same success for year-round performances that we were able to find in the summertime during our first few years of performing. With the activities that come with the winter season, we became committed to become involved more with outdoor activity and making music to bring people together and to inspire more people to take advantage of the natural backyard that we have.
ML: I love the snow and everything mountains so I will play any season, anytime of year especially for an event that involves people launching off of jumps doing flips. It’s not that we strive to always play in negative temps but we have had more than usual this season. It is actually pretty difficult because you can freeze up and lock up during the first minutes of the performance but we push through and stay focused on giving our fans a solid performance. The human body is so amazing how it adjusts and then warms up your body to meet the challenge. By the end of performances, our hands are steaming and we have plenty in the tank… The winter season is just so awesome and makes us who we are. The mountains and snow scene has had a huge influence on us and the style and culture of the ski and snowboard scene is very alive and cool. We like that and keeping wanting more and more. Plus we continue to meet such similar minded people that are great.
SR: How do you feel about opening for Twiddle to help kick off their big winter tour at the Pickle Barrel at Killington VT? Have you been long time fans of Twiddle?
BH: I got that fire burning for this show because I know it is going be a great transition from us to them. We started hearing of Twiddle because multiple people who were at our shows across the Northeast asked us if we had heard of them. It naturally unfolded as we slowly became involved in some of the same circuit.
ML: Twiddle has a unique relationship with its fan and supporters because of the vibe they emit on and off stage and we really like that. They are being themselves and working within their own framework which has proved to be successful and growing very fast. This past year we have crossed paths with them and hung out with them a few times at shows. We are very grateful they added us to the bill at Pickle Barrel and we are very excited to contribute to the overall vibe of the night. It will be our first time linking up which will be unique and exciting.
Check out Annie in the Water and one of their first music videos “Hey, I’m On My Way” below that showcases their love of snowboarding, traveling and music.
Saratoga Spring’s Wild Adriatic enjoyed a 2014 chock full of press and band milestones. Their blues-funk-rock jams are full of pop potential without being emblematic of anything today’s pop scene contains. While shades of The Black Keys and The Strokes may exhibit themselves to a casual listeners ears – what we truly have here is an original sounding trio full of fire, emotion and quite possibly eternal hell fire. Wild Adriatic rocked the Montage on Saturday night with Conehead Buddha and will continue to rock Upstate with upcoming shows April 16 at Buffalo’s Ironworks and a hometown gig April 18 at Vapor.
moe. fans have come to know the horn section of Coxsackie NY’s Conehead Buddha well over the past year with the two collaborating on multiple occasions. Those fans should get their butts down to see the full experience of the ska/world music based band who has toured for years. If the moe. connection isn’t enough, consider they also recently added Suke Cerulo, former guitarist for the down right epic defunct jazz/psych/funk trio Schleigho. Upstate will have another chances to run Buddha’s belly Feb 13 at Syracuse’s Funk n Waffles.
Tribute bands come and go and many jam fans – especially those of the Phish-y variety, tend to turn their noses up at them. But like most of life every rule has its exceptions. Band’s such as Dark Star Orchestra (Grateful Dead) and Start Making Sense (Talking Heads) have generated ample buzz and following, dedicating their lives representing musical heroes with great respect and talent. The Lawn Boys seem perfectly poised to join this upper tier with their spot-on recreations of composition-based Phish pieces and their own fiery originality within improvisational jam sections that scream “Phish 1.0”.
After a nicely executed sound check “Possum” and a short break, the Boys took the stage and wasted no time getting into the fan favorite and relative rarity “Curtain With”. Featuring shreddy lead passages from TLB’s resident “Trey” Darren Rodney – this rendition could easily stand up among the tops of those of the phab phour themselves. After a fan requested a well done Funky Bitch, came one of the best duo’s of the night: “46 Day’s” into Robert Palmer’s “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley”. The filled venue with fans of all ages did their part, bouncing all around the room dancing. The jam itself contained many hints at an impending “2001” funk-fest but ended up back into the main Sally theme. At least for this night, the band seemed completely focused on pre-hiatus material with the set ending on a peaktastic goose bump inducing “Slave to the Traffic Light”.
After a “we’ll be back in 10 minutes” break we all took a journey through the “Maze” before the second set got a phabulous anchor with a “Mike’s->Reba->Weekapaug” sequence with bassist Miguel Lantigua dropping soul shaking bombs all over the place and keys man David Kaufman making Page proud. Mid set the band showed their appreciation for Phish’s humorous side with the resident Fishman – drummer Andrew Mega – whipping out the vacuum for a hilarious take on “I Didn’t Know”. A well oiled “Harry Hood” would finish the set, but the packed Lovin’ Cup floor wouldn’t let them end quite yet so they came back out for a triple encore of “Chalk Dust,” “Fuego” (The only new era song for the night) and the obligatory “YEM” to finish it off. Boy Man God Awesome! Keep an eye on The Lawn Boys tour – and don’t miss your next chance to see them.
Set 1
Curtain With, Funky Bitch, 46 Days->Sneaking Sally, Split Open and Melt, Axilla, Wolfmans Brother, Slave to the Traffic Light
Set 2
Maze, Mikes->Reba->Weekapaug (unfinished)->Cities->I Didn’t Know, Theme from the bottom->Weekapaug, Harry Hood
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood will be taking the stage at Woodstock’s Bearsville Theater February 10. The band, Chris Robinson, Neal Casal, Adam Macdougall, Mark Dutton, and newest member Tony Leone, will be bringing their brand of psychedelic rock to hollowed stomping grounds. None of the members in The Chris Robinson Brotherhood are strangers to Woodstock as they have played at either Bearsville or at Levon’s Barn, which is right down the road, in other bands through the years.
They are touring in support of their latest release Phosphorescent Harvest, which came out last April. It is the band’s third studio album in under 4 years of being together. The constant output of music by CRB have kept them tight as a band and lets them feel at home on stage playing to crowds all over the country. Chris has a strong love for this band saying that this is his future in music and sees no signs of it winding down.
Tickets for the show are on sale now and cost $30 for standing room, $49 for balcony, and $59 for the first two rows of balcony. Tickets can be purchased here. The show is an evening with, which means it is going to be a long two set show with a great rock and roll band that will move in and out of psychedelia at will. This is their only Upstate appearance for the band before they play the rest of the East coast, go to Australia, and go back to the West coast so don’t miss this one.
The duel galactic bodies of Rochester’s Planet Assassin and Inner Planets joined forces Saturday Jan 31 at The Firehouse Saloon downtown for ROCKchester. Despite the Hoth-like chill in the outside air the music room at Firehouse filled up nicely and was ready to get their groove on.
The Firehouse Saloon is relatively new to the Rochester scene but has been a great friend to the music community. Non genre focused bar hoppers and music fans alike can enjoy a variety of acts on any given night. The bar showcases an excellent beer selection, free popcorn, a nice outdoor patio, and if you’re game, a free to play ping pong table.
Planet Assassin was up first after some technical amp difficulties. Playing in only their third public facing show, the stoner-groove-rock focused 4-piece features Daren Johnson and Josh Cooke sharing guitar hero and vocal duties, Frank Ashcraft on bass, and Nick Pryor (Also in Hot Mayonnaise and formerly of Abandoned Buildings Club) smacking the skins. Citing their influences as Dead Meadow, Rush, Hawkwind, and Hall & Oates (Seriously guys?) – the bands hard droning rock sound maintained a uniqueness and surprising tightness for such a new band.
Inner Planets – not nearly as new to the scene having formed in 2009 – took the stage next for duel sets of songs featuring a solid rock base with a generous side heaping of jamming. The Rush influence continued along interspersed with shades of Phish, moe. and more.
http://youtu.be/IqysP-USNcA
This weekend Firehouse will continue to showcase it’s diverse schedule with a burlesque Mardi-Gras celebration on Friday ($7 at 9PM) and local cover band Trapper Keeper on Saturday ($5 at 9PM). All shows are 21+
Born from the depths of the admittedly hilariously named Coxsackie, NY, Upstate’s Conehead Buddha have been on the scene a long time. Presenting a blended genre jam based sound containing hints of ska, reggae, world music, and good old rock and roll – the Conehead Buddha will hit Rochester’s Montage Music Hall this Saturday night with Saratoga based rockers Wild Adriatic.
Wild Adriatic have been featured in such publications as Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, Relix and more. Fan’s of The Strokes, Black Keys, and London Soul should not miss this rare area appearance. Ticket’s are available online for only 6$ (7$ at the door). Show starts at 9PM. 18+ Let’s get wild ROCKchester!
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.
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.
