Once a year, tens of thousands of people gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create Burning Man: Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. In this crucible of creativity, all are welcome. Burning Man isn’t your usual festival. It’s a vibrant participatory metropolis generated by its citizens.
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Folk mastermind Dave Rawlings and his equally masterful wife Gillian Welch are making a lot of news lately, and it is music to the ears of fans everywhere.
First off, they accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from the Americana Music Association. The award was presented at the association’s 2015 Honors & Awards ceremony on Wednesday at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, which will be broadcast later this year on PBS. Read Robyn Hitchcock’s incredible introduction to Dave and Gillian in full below (shared from Dave Rawlings Machine’s Facebook page).
They also released their new album, Nashville Obsolete, under the David Rawlings Machine moniker. Released today on Acony Records, it comprises seven compositions and, in addition to Rawlings and Welch, features the talents of Paul Kowert of the Punch Brothers on bass and label mate Willie Watson on vocals and guitar. It also includes guest appearances from Brittany Haas on fiddle and Jordan Tice on mandolin.
As if that weren’t enough to carry them through the week, they’ve also announced a fall tour that will span the country. All tickets went on sale today as well, so it was a big week for the couple! With stops in Buffalo, Ithaca, Albany and New York, fans in New York state will have multiple chances to catch the duo in action.
Full list of dates, reaching all the way into early 2016, are below:
Sun – 10/18 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Lobero Theatre
Mon – 10/19 – San Francisco, CA @ Warfield Theatre
Tue – 10/20 – Chico, CA @ Paradise Performing Arts Center
Wed – 10/21 – Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theater
Thu – 10/22 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Sat – 10/24 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
Sun – 10/25 – Missoula, MT @ The Wilma Theater
Mon – 10/26 – Billings, MT @ Babcock Theatre
Thu – 10/29 – St. Paul, MN @ Fitzgerald Theater
Fri – 10/30 – Madison, WI @ Capitol Theater
Sat – 10/31 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
Sun – 11/1 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
Mon – 11/2 – Cleveland, OH @ Music Box Supper Club
Wed – 11/4 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Byham Theatre
Thu – 11/5 – Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall @ Babeville
Fri – 11/6 – Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre
Sat – 11/7 – Albany, NY @ Hart Theatre The Egg
Mon – 11/9 – Northampton, MA @ Calvin Theatre & Performing Arts
Wed – 11/11 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
Thu – 11/12 – S. Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Fri – 11/13 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
Sat – 11/14 – Providence, RI @ Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
Mon – 11/16 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur Theatre
Tue – 11/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Thu – 11/19 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
Fri – 11/20 – Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theater
Sat – 11/21 – Richmond, VA @ The National
Sun – 11/22 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center
Tue – 11/24 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
Wed – 11/25 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre
Sat – 12/26 – Chattanooga, TN @ Tivoli Theatre
Sun – 12/27 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Mon – 12/28 – Birmingham, AL @ Iron City Music Hall
Tue – 12/29 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
Tue – 1/5 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
Thu – 1/7 – Houston, TX @ Cullen Performance Hall
Fri – 1/8 – Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre
Sat – 1/9 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theatre
Mon – 1/11 – Albuquerque, NM @ National Hispanic Cultural Center
Tue – 1/12 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theater
Wed – 1/13 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
Thu – 1/14 – Scottsdale, AZ @ Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts
Sat – 1/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Ace Hotel
To ask of another album like Even If It Kills Me from Motion City Soundtrack is embarrassing. Eight years after its release, I have to choke back the urge to cry when I listen to “Last Night” and watch my reflection in the Greyhound window blend with the brackish, gray landscape of Upstate New York. As it turns out, when I flee from a relationship, I’m still looking to seek comfort in squeamish accounts of cats clawing the floorboard. Motion City Soundtrack has a way of discussing the delicate delinquencies of modern romance with zany humor that draws from panic and frustration, while gingerly holding onto fading details. Antonia’s proclivity for collecting flashlights, eating Captain Crunch and citing Annie Hall makes me feel like I still have a shot at finding someone who won’t run away screaming when he finds out that I can’t sleep without a swiss army knife under my pillow.
It’s unreasonable yet completely inherent: I want them to sing about making terrible mistakes so I feel better about making mine. I want them to tell me it’s ok to compensate lack of love with ice-creams and ten-dollar wines. But you won’t find foreboding cats clawing the door on Panic Stations. Though sonically competent, the new album superficially touches the expansive territory plowed in the previous albums. With producer John Angello (The Hold Steady, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth) on board, it seems like the band is so preoccupied with writing “great hooks” that they take it for granted that vacant sentiments won’t knock fans off their barstools. Panic Stations is clouded with hard-driving guitars and aggressively cheerful moogs punctuated by an insincere collection of ‘whoa’s that abort even an imagined possibility of genuineness.
Justin Pierre propels the opener “Anything At All” with a part-coy, part-goofy “let’s do this”, which gives away the going-to-be-a-return-to-form album. The track is full-on power-pop strong until the vague narrative denigrates its structure. Unlike “The Future Freaks Me Out” from their 2003 album I Am The Movie, “Anything At All” ironically faces some trouble expressing the lack of communication in the relationship.
“TKO” is a tepid track about the feverish pull and push of love. Though it’s unfair to peg the song to “Fell In Love Without You”, it falls flat with a perfunctory chorus: “You keep knocking me out/ I can’t get up/ I’ll just stay down”. And the synths in the bridge only weigh down the song further. “Lose Control” bristles dangerously with a processional drum kit, drawing from stadium rock a la fun.’s One Foot, only to poignantly nosedive into mediocre results. The verse serves as a nagging reminder that this is a nautical themed record and it’s vital to the band’s artistic integrity to include lines like, “stranded on top of this ugly ocean, everybody looks the same”.
“Heavy Boots” and “It’s a Pleasure” are two of the catchiest albeit corniest songs on the album that try so desperately to relate (“You are not alone/ We’ve all had our battles with darkness and shadows/ I’m here to let you know/ It’s a pleasure to meet you”) that they become all too transparent in their out-and-out commercial outreach.
“Over It Now” is clearly intended to be a fuck-you song that everyone can relate to. From the cringe-worthy way Pierre pronounces “action figures” to the way he exploits tried-and-tested allusions to his past substance-abuse escapades, it becomes explicit that I’m not the only one aching to recreate Even If It Kills Me. If only success were formulaic. The same sentiment that was once endearing, now begins to nag, dragging along until it becomes irritating.
Melodically, “Broken Arrow” is the closest the album comes to sincerity, even though it’s unable to reproduce the somber-wonder-twin type of harmony lionized in “It Had To Be You”. The nautical theme ensues in “Gravity” with the opening line, “I didn’t want to be the anchor in your heart”. The halfhearted chorus is frustrating because it seems as if Pierre himself is disaffected by what he is singing. Crammed with even more extensive but jejune nautical metaphors (“I’d like to anchor someday”, “my heart belongs beneath the ocean floor”, “clutching the tide as the ship goes down”–you get the drift), “The Samurai Code” is tired, trite and tiring. The prosaic distortion of the guitar and the petering synths in the second verse sound over-rehearsed, like they are trying too hard to fit in a neat blueprint rock scheme prescribed by the producer.
Album closer “Days Will Run Away” is the most stripped-down song on the Panic Stations. That being said, the band just couldn’t seem to resist the urge of a no-frills production, as evidenced by the droning range of guitars that comes in during the latter half of the song. “Days” draws a very solemn vocal and guitar arrangement from Sufjan Stevens, but chooses to endorse plagiarized dime store philosophies (“living a million years in a moment”, “why is goodbye so hard to say”) instead of providing actual insight.
Panic is lacking in many ways–it distracts the listener with overproduction instead of involving them with a strong narrative. Their nautical theme—and here’s a metaphor they glossed over—leaves them stuck at sea. It surely has a few catchy hooks that make for decent listen if you don’t pay any attention to the lyrics. But that’s the thing: I don’t turn to Motion City Soundtrack for clean production and structural sophistication; I turn to them for moments that capture the fragile fluctuations of human stability so exquisitely, so simply, that I feel like I’m not alone. Maybe they got it right in the 2007 track, “Last Night”: they really can’t compete with all my damn ideas.
Key Tracks: “Heavy Boots” “It’s a Pleasure”
In the ’90s the punk/grunge music explosion was primarily dominated by male fronted bands. However, there were a few female bands who defied the norm and managed to take the scene by storm. One group of women who managed to gain worldwide recognition was the Los Angeles punk quartet, L7.
Originally formed by Donita Sparks and Suzy Gardner in 1985, the band has had a remarkable career. They have had numerous hits such as the smash breakthrough songs “Pretend That We’re Dead” and “Andres.”
Flash forward to 2015, I’m standing in line at the famed Brooklyn punk concert hall and Polish National Home, the Warsaw, the show is SOLD OUT and L7 is playing! The last time I saw L7 was over 20 years ago and I feel the same excitement as I wait for the show to start as I did back then.
With a packed house, I could feel the momentum building as the fans waited for L7 to hit the stage, and then it happens, smoke rolls out , the amp hum is heard, guitars are plugged in and BAM! Donita, Suzy, Jennifer and Demetra hit the stage wasting no time ripping right into “Deathwish” from their album Smell The Magic. Without a pause, they lit right into the mega hit “Andres.” During the song, bassist Jennifer Precious Finch miss-stepped and fell off the stage. To prove that she is still in top form, Jennifer kept right on playing, never missed a beat and jokingly quipped when the song was over, “eh, who needs notes? Notes are overrated.”
The ladies belted out a massive 18 song set with most of the songs from their most well-known albums, Smell the Magic, Bricks are Heavy, and Hungry for Stink. They ended the evening with their fan favorite song that always gets the crowd pumped, “Fast and Frightening.” L7 thanked the crowd, said goodnight and left the stage, leaving behind a drove of wild fans chanting and begging for more. Twenty years later, L7 has proven that they are without a doubt one of the most powerful female punk rock bands of all!
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The 2015 incarnation of the Catskill Chill Music Festival may serve as a farewell to host site Camp Minglewood, but since its inception, the festival has really been a big introduction to new music and groups, while also bringing in established bands that many people know.
For instance, this year’s lineup features moe., Lotus and Zappa Plays Zappa as the headliners, while groups such as the Motet, Lettuce and Electron also support the bill. Just like all festival flyers, the headliners get the most ink, while the font size shrinks with each passing line.
Enter Twiddle, on the fourth line of the Chill’s flyer. Just three years ago, it seemed Twiddle was a name at the bottom of so many festival advertisements. Yet, now, the group from Vermont has risen steadily up to headlining smaller festivals such as Disc Jam, while throwing down what band members describe as one of the best sets the group has ever played at this year’s Bonnaroo.
At the Chill last year, Twiddle played a normal set, and a Grateful Dead set, the latter being one of the most well-received sets in the history of the festival. Since then, Twiddle has exploded, headlining tours and playing venues such as Red Rocks in Colorado.
“One tidbit I often appreciate about our fest is what is great about a lot of small-to-medium size fests, which is how great it is to hear bands who are still in the early stages of their career on the main stages and in prime, night time slots,” Catskill Chill organizer Josh Cohen said in an email.
He went on to specify about Twiddle: “For instance … Twiddle. Twiddle always plays daytime sets at larger festivals, even have at the Chill the last couple years actually, but their Dead set was at night. Anyway, (they’re playing a late-night Dead set this year) and I’m pretty sure that’s going to make a lot of Twiddle fans very happy (including me!).”
This kind of exposure can do wonders for a band, especially in the jam band scene, where people listen with the most open of ears.
Just ask Ryan Dempsey, keyboardist from Twiddle.
“Last year at Catskill was one of my favorite Twiddle sets. Ever,” Dempsey said. “I thought we were all very connected and we had the privilege to have some of our mentors and favorite musicians from the scene sit in on our songs with us.
“It was also the debut of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hats idea that took on as a fad even after Catskill.”
That statement says a lot about just what the Chill has done for Twiddle. In the last year, every Twiddle show is littered with fans wearing Ninja Turtles hats, shirts and even full-on Turtle costumes. It also helps that Twiddle has one of the most dedicated young fan bases in the entire scene.
Mihali Savoulidis, guitarist for Twiddle, summed up his thoughts on Catskill Chill in a few short words.
“Bottom line is Catskill creates a super creative environment that I believe all the artists can feel and feed off of,” he said.
This year, Dopapod and Turkuaz are collaborating on a late-night set that Cohen referred to as Dopakuaz, saying this type of community mindset is what sets the Chill apart from other festivals its size or bigger.
“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,” Cohen added. “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.”
Dempsey echoed that sentiment: “They are a great ally of ours and have helped us play in front of new and old fans. They have a strong and professional staff and crew along with a lot of great music and people.”
Camp Minglewood has a unique setup which allows attendees to rent cabins if the traditional tent-style camping is not wanted. Savoulidis closed his interview by summing up not only Twiddle’s experience at the Chill, but also spoke for fans, calling it one of the best festivals he has had the opportunity to play.
“Catskill is one of our fans’ favorite festivals,” he said. “It gives them the opportunity to see us play and interact with our fellow artists in an incredibly unique setting. The way that Minglewood is set up provides a very cool experience for both the festival goers and the artists. I believe this is our fifth Chill and each year is better than the last. Our career has grown as the festival has and it’s usually the last one we do of the season so I think whenever we play at Minglewood all our creative juices are primed from a long summer of shows enabling us to come up with some really strong performances. This year should be no different.”
If hearing these words from the Lion’s mouth got you as pumped as I did writing this, clear your weekend plans and get yourself to the Lion’s den. It’s an experience that cannot be recreated anywhere else.
Promoter Stu Green and his partner Charlie Schmitt announced the re-opening of the Magic City Music Hall after a seven-year hiatus.
The venue will be at a new location at 1240 Upper Front St. in Binghamton at the old Ames plaza and will re-open Oct. 23. The new venue’s first national artist, REO Speedwagon, will perform that same weekend, on Oct. 25.
Excitement and news of the re-opening has been spreading quickly on social media with the venue’s Facebook page gaining over 2,000 likes in the span of a few hours. That’s proof that the area has sorely missed “the magic” Magic City Music Hall brought to the area.
The first month of performances include:
-REO Speedwagon on Sunday, Oct. 25
-Sublime with Rome on Saturday, Nov. 14
-Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland with Special Guest Brandy Clark on Friday, Nov. 27
Tickets for all three shows go on sale at 10 a.m. this Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Magic City Music Hall Box Office and on Ticketmaster.
You can find their official Facebook page here.
Starting this week, Rochester’s indie electro sensation Joywave sets off on their “World Tour USA 2015” that won’t quite be a national tour, though it might be taking the world by storm in the process.
The band will bring its acclaimed debut LP How Do You Feel Now?, released this April, on the road. After opening up with a sold out show in San Francisco, the band will play to another sell out crowd in Los Angeles, among a handful of other West Coast dates, before making the trek east across the country.
Joining them on the road will be teen Soundcloud discovery Grace Mitchell, good friends, collaborators and CultCo label mates KOPPS, and indie rock cellist Mikaela Davis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUyeviPn3DI
After having the absolute pleasure of reviewing his long-running band, Mandate of Heaven’s most recent work and anticipating their new release, Syracuse singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Greg Pier has released a solo outing, Three Bird Songs and Six More.
Released on July 25, 2015, all songs were written, performed, recorded, and mixed by Greg Pier at Neon Witch Studio, from 2013-2015. As stated on his bandcamp page, “The songs on this demo are inspired by the countryside of Onondaga and Oneida counties in central New York.” He lists his Townes Van Zant and Lightning Hopkins as influences, I’ll add my thoughts to that at the end. As a listener that was only recently introduced to his band, this is completely new and unexpected ground, expectations are high.
The acoustic guitar, when well played is like listening to three parts, melody, bass and metronome. It has a percussive accent and bass line from the right thumb, melody from the right fingers, direction and foundation from the left. It tells a story for the voice to sing about. “Kitty Kills the Cardinal” is a striking example right out of the box. You can almost feel the wind under the wings come from Pier’s soft, but steady, right hand and his voice changes character fluidly as the multiple perspectives play out their versions of demise. Right into “Amber Eyes” with a bit of a bounce belying the topic, but there’s an energy of change, renewal and introspection underlying. With the mist of a tambourine interlaced, Pier’s voice softens with the nylon strings and speaks in a voice of knowing.
“Blue Jay Blues” is just that, Pier flexes skills, sounding right at home with the blues, walking blues that is. It’s the feeling of motion while talking to a friend, in this case telling a story to the only ears listening. Verbalization of dreams is often the best way to attain them, no matter who the audience may be. “Fields of White” is bassy and percussive, it yearns to find shelter and safety for a child of desolation, all the while knowing the end is impossible to avoid. “Easy to Say” is one of my favorite picking patterns, it’s strong and aggressively attacked with both hands. It’s youthful and staunch, yet the protagonist is learning lessons deeply and painfully. The brash use of his B and E strings close distinctly cold, as cold as the dismissed heart.
“Prison Creek” gets a bit Delta Blues, reflected through the tone and timbre of the finger pick, combine that with the doubled vocals and it gets eerie, fast. The voice has a tinge of spirit presence, apparition-like, but somewhat soothing, foretelling, maybe that’s the hook. When it doubles it feels like doom. Then “Paper World” is lilting and lost, but eloquently said. Analogizing a love cycle to a paper map that’s easily torn. The sylph harmony at the end is faint in its agreement.
“Red-Winged Blackbird’”takes a first person position as the ever observant red-wing, wings beating furiously, rising, drifting, voiced by the acoustic while the notes he takes smolder out. The multiple tracks thicken both words and notes adding a element of pace. The multiple voicing is used very sparingly throughout, but nicely here in the bridge. The closer, “Spring Ponies” is perfect in its delivery and ability to let the mind wander attempting definition. It’s more free than that with its bounce and bravado, its push start and heralded arrival of spring.
Pier reaches for a different foothold securely. His vocal expression mixed with the varying patterns on the acoustic combine in a superb way. Whether light or dark, blues or otherwise, he sings and plays in colors all his own. He creates motion as well as emotional imagery in a style that is very distinct. His phrasing is deft, his playing is nimble and strong, the subtlety of the mix is near immaculate. There are moments that conjure thoughts of George Harrison, Elliot Smith and Nick Drake, John Fahey, Sufjan Stevens. Likewise with breaths of acoustic delta blues players, Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotton. Pier certainly pays respect to his strongest influences, I really dig that and my favorite musicians consistently do it. He’s more than capable of whatever he wants musically, I wonder if this acoustic work coincides with fatherhood.
Key Tracks: Kitty Kills The Cardinal, Prison Creek, Red-Winged Blackbird
Please check out this and the rest of his extensive catalog at bandcamp (solo) facebook (MoH) and bandcamp (MoH).
Los Angeles born ska and funk pioneers Fishbone will make a stop in Albany tonight at The Hollow with guests Downtown Brown as part of their current U.S. tour.
After 25+ years of making music, the band is continuing to reach into new territory with their most recent project, a mockumentary video series that picks up where their 2010 documentary, “Everyday Sunshine,” left off. The video project also comes on the heels of Fishbone’s latest album, Intrinsically Intertwined, released in April 2014.
On top of their prolific career (17 album releases) and notable collaborations (Gwen Stefani, Flea, Chuck D, etc.), Fishbone is still intertwined in a notorious, long standing lawsuit in which a fan sued the band for 1.4 million after lead singer Dr. Maad Vibe landed ontop of her after, what one can only assume to be, a stage dive of historic proportions. As a result, your patronage for this show effectively fights the good fight for rock and roll, in addition to witnessing what is sure to be a kick-ass concert by American ska moguls.
The show starts at 9 p.m., with doors at 8 p.m. Michigan based ska-punk-experimental-funk Downtown Brown will open the show, as part of their own national tour. Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 at the show.
Fishbone w/ Downtown Brown, Wednesday, September 16, 8 pm doors / 9 pm show, $20 advance / $22 day of show, The Hollow Bar and Kitchen, 79 N. Pearl St Albany NY
High energy and good humor characterized the evening of Saturday September 5 at Funk ‘n Waffles Downtown as Albany-based Mister F and Syracuse group Vaporeyes dished out mystical reverberations of sonic opulence. Mister F, featuring Matt Pickering (Mr. M) on drums/samples/vocals, Scott Hannay (Mr. S) on keyboards/vocals/vocoder, Ben Pickering (Mr. B) on bass/vocals and Andrew Chamberlaine (Mr. A) on guitar/vocals, channeled a Particle-esque vibe, while displaying plenty of original character for the audience.
After an energetic performance of “Machine,” Pickering announced sarcastically, “that song’s not about robot voices at all.” Hannay quickly followed up, speaking purposefully into the mic in a distinctly altered voice, “no, not about robot voices at all…” Although the band freely jokes around on stage, they take their actual musicianship quite seriously. Pickering frequently spices up his intricate drum beats with clever pauses and commanding breakout jams.
After finishing an impressive jam halfway through their set, Hannay walked over to Pickering, momentarily commandeering a drumstick to serve as a bottle opener before immediately returning to his post and fluidly sliding into the next jam. At it’s conclusion Pickering called out to the crowd, “We’re Mr. F, give it up for beer!” Members from Vaporeyes scattered amongst the unfortunately sparse crowd, including bassist Shannon Zory and his girlfriend who had plenty of dance room to face each other and playfully weave their heads back and forth in a snake-like fashion, clearly enjoying the music.
Vaporeyes, composed of notably younger musicians than Mister F, certainly held their own on stage. With a slightly muddier, grungier sound, Jonas Reddy-Nicholson playing keys/synths, Shannon Zory slappin’ bass guitar, Sean “Chid Law” Cadley on drums, Jamie “Jyms” Tynan on guitar and Stephanie Donato playing saxophone delivered a string of equally dance-worthy tunes to listeners. As the evening progressed, the musicians called out to the crowd, “Is it still Saturday?” There were in fact ten more minutes before midnight, so they opted to play a number aptly titled “Saturday Song.” It carried a lighter, more ambient sound than some of their heavier jams and incorporated more prominent synth effects.
Throughout the evening, Zory’s gilfriend mingled with the other bandmates’ girlfriends and snapped photos of the band’s performance, occasionally gesturing with a victory fist pump reminiscent of a golfer making a hole-in-one. The close-knit flock of dedicated followers supporting the members of Vaporeyes makes watching the band more gratifying, knowing their musical endeavors are supported by the ones they love.