NYS Music 20​16

Category: News Desk

  • Photo Gallery: Riot Fest 2016 Douglas Park Chicago Day 2

    Punk veterans, The Vandals, kicked off day two of Riot Fest 2016 with some good old fashioned fast paced punk rock tunes. They whipped the audience into a beer throwing, pogo jumping frenzy. This was my first time seeing The Vandals and I am hoping I get the opportunity to catch them again at some point.

    Other notables included the UK band The Hives, who despite a late start to their set, belted out hit after crowd pleasing hit. Alternative punk pop band Motion City Soundtrack took the stage to perform their second to last show. In March of 2016 the band announced that they were calling it quits for now and didn’t know what the future had in store for them. They invited their fans to come out to a show and sing along with them one last time.

    It would be criminal not mention another icon who played an intense and incredible set, former Husker Du guitarist, Bob Mould! I was blown away by the passion and ferocity of his performance! At 55 he can easily shred and tear up the stage with the best of them! I was humbled to finally get the chance to see him perform.

    Day two of Riot Fest 2016 ended with some of my personal favorites. What can top the Descendents and Social Distortion playing live?  I have been fortunate enough to see both bands in the past and just like before, the Descendents were absolutely incredible live. Milo and the gang came out swinging hard and didn’t let up for the entire hour that they played. They tore through classic favorites like “Everything Sux,” “Rotting Out,” and “I Like Food” as well as some new songs. After an unforgettable 29 song set, the massive crowd was screaming for more. 

    I love Social Distortion and my favorite Social D album is White Light, White Heat, White Trash so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out that they would be performing the album in its’ entirety at Riotfest to celebrate its’ 20th anniversary. Normally, I don’t get star struck when I am shooting bands but being in the photo pit when Mike Ness and the band took the stage and started playing “Dear Lover” left me awestruck with my jaw on the floor. It was definitely surreal. They ended their set with Johnny Cash’s immortal classic “Ring of Fire” which had the audience screaming so loudly it drowned out Morrissey who was playing on the other stage at the time. Thank you Social Distortion for performing my favorite album.

    Earlier in the day I sat down with singer, songwriter Donna Missal. Even though I had missed her performance that morning, we had fun chatting about music and riot fest.

    Day 2 was amazing. Please enjoy the photos and interviews below.

  • Rolling Stones to Release ‘Blue & Lonesome’

    The Rolling Stones are set to release their first studio album in over a decade, titled Blue & Lonesome.

    The Rolling Stones announced their first studio album since 2005’s A Bigger Bang will be released on Friday, Dec. 2. Blue & Lonesome is an album of covers of classic Chicago blues songs. The 12-track album was recorded last December over a three day period. It was produced by Don Was, the producer behind many of their more recent albums, including Bridges to Babylon and Voodoo Lounge. The Stones were joined by longtime touring partners Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and Matt Clifford (keyboards), as well as Eric Clapton on two tracks and percussionist Jim Keltner on one.

    The album will be available on CD, digital download, double heavyweight vinyl that includes a download card or a deluxe edition that includes the album on CD, a 75 page mini-book about the making of the album and band photo postcards. The album is currently available for pre-sale.

    Rolling Stones Blue & Lonesome Track Listing
    1. Just Your Fool
    2. Commit a Crime
    3. Blue and Lonesome
    4. All of Your Love
    5. I Gotta Go
    6. Everybody Knows About My Good Thing
    7. Ride ‘Em On Down
    8. Hate to See You Go
    9. Hoo Doo Blues
    10. Little Rain
    11. Just Like I Treat You
    12. I Can’t Quit You Baby

  • Daft Punk Tour Rumors Pick Up Steam

    The never-ending Daft Punk may be on tour again rumor has resurfaced; this time with a bit more fuel.

    daft punkA mysterious website has appeared with nothing more than a black background and the word “ALIVE” in white. As Dancing Astronaut reports, further examination reveals a countdown timer within the “I” in “ALIVE” with an end date of Oct. 27, 2016.

    Rumors began to surface last month on Reddit when fans discovered a link for the band on the Lollapalooza website, leading to speculation the reclusive French duo would be headlining Lollapalooza Chile.

    Daft Punk hasn’t toured in 10 years. The previous tour in 2007 resulted in a live album, simply titled Alive. The first tour was in 1997 so it isn’t illogical to assume that 2017 could be the year for another tour.

    The sleuths have been busy picking apart this new website. One Reddit user has broken down the source code of the website, determining that the numbers within it represent coordinates of major cities around the world.

    The chatter in Daft Punk subreddits is trending towards a hoax in regards to the site but fans are holding out hope for another “Alive” tour for the coming year.

    The duo has largely kept quiet in the three years since winning multiple Grammy awards in 2013 for the Random Access Memories album.

    They most recently collaborated with the Wknd for the single “Starboy.”

  • Frank Palangi Ready To ‘Break These Chains’ With New Video

    Upcoming rocker and Queensbury native Frank Palangi, has recently released a video for his new single “Break These Chains.” With this track, Palangi just keeps getting better and better, and “Break These Chains” is one of Palangi’s hottest recordings to date. The multi-talented Palangi hooks you with his husky gritty vocals on the track while showing off some of his guitar skills in the video.

    Palangi caught the eye of Daughtry guitarist Brian Craddock, and was invited record the “Break These Chains” single at Craddock’s the Cat Room Recording Studio in Charlottesville, Virginia. When talking about Palangi, Craddock stated that Frank is an amazing young artist, with a very clear and focused direction, he knows who he is. He went on to say that Palangi is a killer singer and guitar player and is an artist to look out for.

    The frontman has been making a name for himself opening many shows across the northeast for some pretty recognizable names in rock over the years including Buckcherry, 3 Doors Down, Trapt, Aaron Lewis, Lacey Sturm, Powerman 5000 and Starset to name a few. The singer/songwriter has also appeared on some major music festivals in the capital region including the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival that featured Alice in Chains and Janes Addiction, and the first ever Rock ‘N Derby, which saw the likes of Shinedown, Ghost, Megadeth, Sevendust and Sixx: A.M.

    The vocalist has also appeared on numerous local media outlets on television and print including News Channel 13, Fox 23 News, Albany Times Union, The Chronicle and The Saratoga Spotlight.

    Besides himself, Frank Palangi’s band consists of guitarist Jared Curtis and Josh Opitz behind the kit.

  • Project/Object Kicks-Off Northeastern Tour

    New Jersey-based Frank Zappa tribute band Project/Object will be touring the Northeast United States through October 23rd with stops at Mavericks  in Ontario, Canada on Friday, October 7; The Garrison in Ontario, Canada on Saturday, October 8; at The Tralf in Buffalo, New York on Sunday, October 9 and at Lovin’ Cup in Rochester, New York on Monday, October 10.

    Founded in 1989 by guitarist/vocalist André Cholmondeley, Project/Object has gone through numerous lineup changes since its inception, hosting more Zappa alumni than anyone other than Zappa himself. Project/Object welcomes back alumni vocalist/guitarist Ike Willis and synthesizer legend Don Preston for a tour  “Celebrating 50 years of The Music Of Frank Zappa” featuring material both men recorded with The Mothers Of Invention, The Frank Zappa band, and much more!

    NYSMusic’s Amy Cavalier recently caught up with Cholmondeley about the upcoming tour and what it’s like being in the longest-running Zappa alumni tribute band in the world!

    NYS Music: Tell me the story behind Project Object’s inception? What was the vision for the project?

    André Cholmondeley: My vision for the project was simply to turn people onto music that was very influential and important to me.

    Around 1989 I started having a Frank Zappa birthday party at my apartment. We would listen to only Zappa music for 24 hours and read interviews read album covers etc. I realized that many people were showing up and did not know a lot about Zappa and left with names of records and songs scribbled on paper. This is way before the blow up of the Internet so people would come back the next year having searched record stores and maybe built a little Zappa collection.

    About the third and fourth year, my band played at one of these parties, performing about a half-dozen Zappa songs. It went over great so we learned another half dozen and soon we played our first gig in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It just blew up from there. Next was Lion’s Den in New York City where we connected with our first managers Howie Schnee and Mike Maietta.

    NYS Music: A pretty high bar has been set by Frank Zappa, his son Dweezil other Zappa tribute bands…what makes Project Object so unique?

    AC: Indeed Dweezil’s band is incredible.I think what makes us unique in our way is that we went out and did it before other bands, over twenty years ago. We were the first band to tour with so many diverse Zappa alumni across the USA and into Canada since Zappa himself took them on the road. We also were the first to do a wide variety of his music

    The Grandmothers (ex Zappa/Mothers members) were out there but they tended to do the very excellent early stuff ONLY. We went out there with Ike Willis then Napoleon Murphy Brock etc. and did material from every period in Zappa’s history.

    NYS Music: Is there a lot of pressure to get it right and recreate the songs as accurately as possible? Or is there still room for improvisation?

    AC: The fans know every note! We strike the balance between doing some tunes as close to the record as we can, with the correct sounds and timbre and instrumentation. And then other things we do – perhaps one of Zappa’s many live versions – we look for moments in the songs where he would leave room for improvisation.

    Improvisation is very important part of the Zappa aesthetic but at the core is doing the music accurately and getting chords and little parts correct. I have been fortunate to have so many of the actual ex-Zappa players in the band so along the way they correct parts and help us get little details right.

    NYS Music: There have been a lot of stories about Zappa’s family and disagreements over copyright issues, as well as stories floating around about bad blood between you and Dweezil, in the news. How do you get away with playing songs without infringement issues? And has the air cleared between you and Dweezil?

    AC: Early on we got so many threats from Gail Zappa that we sought the advice of a lawyer and I learned a lot about copyright law. It’s very basic and simple. As long as the venue you are performing is paying their American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) membership dues for publishing rights, you are fine. That’s why there is an enormous business in cover bands of every genre imaginable. It was always completely legal to do what we do. In the Project/Object entire career of over two decades we have had to cancel two, maybe three gigs because the venue was not part of ASCAP membership.

    I think the NPR interview I did “NPR Zappa Lumpy Legacy” is the final word on it. NPR spoke to me as well as Gail Zappa and independent legal

    counsel and they said on national radio that as long as the club is certified it’s no problem playing published music of any artist.

    As far as the recent history about the copyright issues and the Zappa family, a lot of what happened was due to the wishes and direction of Gail Zappa. Now that she is gone there is a real splintering of stuff and the siblings are sadly in dispute over many issues.

    Even before she passed away I made peace with Dweezil and have seen his band several times. He was very gracious about accepting my apologies for the previous bad vibes. He was aware it flowed in both directions. This thawing of the ice has continued after Gail Zappa’s passing and Dweezil has been very public talking about how the Zappa family trust unfairly charged him for various things and made it difficult for him to just go out and play the music.

    I’m happy to say that through his agent, Dweezil and I worked together recently to plan out these historic appearances that Ike Willis is doing with his band. I want to support anything and everything that celebrates Frank’s music.

    NYS Music: Your partner was in a serious car accident recently which caused you to postpone your tour. How is she doing and why have you decided to resume the tour at this point in time?

    AC: While Robin is still experiencing a fair amount of pain and difficulties she has come a long way in what is almost seven months since the accident. She will be with us on this tour in a very tentative and basic role – we are trying to see how much she can do safely in her regular job as merch and Production Assistant. We hated canceling that tour and she is happy to be out on this one and to be able to personally thank so many of the fans who helped us out.

    NYS Music: What is the feeling going into this tour?

    AC: We just love to play and get out and travel and this is a great time of year to do so. We have a few things we have never done before, some stuff we have not done in a decade or more, balanced with a couple of the Zappa song-along, crowd favorites that you almost have to do, so it’s a mix!

    We are upbeat and excited to get out there playing this incredible music again. Also Zappa lyrics, without even touching them up, have a timeless political accuracy and so getting out right before yet another ridiculous American election season is kind of perfect.

    For more information about Project/Object visit www.projectobject.com or follow Project/Object on Facebook or Twitter.  

  • Syracuse Sounds of Music Association Honors DeSantis Family

    The Syracuse Sounds of Music Association is holding its annual dinner Oct. 20 at Traditions at the Links in East Syracuse. The dinner is a fundraiser for several non-profit organizations as well as for Syracuse Symphoria, the successor to the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and Syracuse Symphony guild. Money raised throughout the year is distributed through a grant process each December. This year’s dinner honors Mario and Maria DeSantis with the Ovation Award, an annual award presented for outstanding commitment to the Central New York music community. This year’s dinner honors Mario and Maria DeSantis and family with the Ovation Award, an annual award presented for outstanding commitment to the Central New York music community.

    musicMario DeSantis is best known as the leader of the DeSantis Orchestra. The band bearing his surname has been performing for 70 years and is now led by his daughter Maria, who has brought a modern flair to the orchestra.

    For more than 20 years, the elder DeSantis provided the soundtrack to the long-running Syracuse children’s television show Magic Toy Shop. He also performed at the Baseball Hall of Fame for Cal Ripken, Jr.’s induction in 2007.

    Syracuse Sounds of Music Association’s “Music Matters” event supports not only Symphoria but college music study scholarships as well as a variety of music non-profits in Central New York.

    In the past year, the organization has raised over $35,000 through its various fundraisers and the Encore Thrift Shop it runs in Fayetteville. The money raised was distributed among several area non-profit music organizations, including CNY Association of Music Teachers, Syracuse Children’s Chorus, Syracuse Opera and the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation. The group also provided two $1000 scholarships to high school seniors planning to study music in college.

    Reservations for the dinner can be made until Oct. 10 through the Syracuse Sounds of Music Association website.

    Forty years ago, Central New York children were glued to their televisions watching the Magic Toy Shop. Take a step back in time to hear some of DeSantis’ work on the long-running show below.

  • Armin van Buuren Collaborates With a Different Kind of Artist

    Amsterdam is known for its artistic heritage.  Two separate art forms will join forces and collaborate in a unique way this fall in the Netherlands. The Van Gogh Museum is teaming up with DJ/producer and native son, Armin van Buuren to merge two separate art forms into one.

    Armin van BuurenUsually collaborating with other music artists, this will be a first for van Buuren. The one-off collaboration will see personal commentary and personalized music from van Buuren in the museum’s special edition multimedia guide, that will takes effect October 21, titled, “Embrace Vincent.”

    Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rüger commented about the collaboration:

    This collaboration sees us bring music, art and the museum together. Each form of expression influences the other; culture works as a unifying force. The Embrace Vincent project allows us to highlight how Vincent’s legacy remains relevant. And more importantly, that this legacy is being passed down to future generations. This takes numerous different forms, as is aptly illustrated by this collaboration between the museum and Armin van Buuren.

    Van Buuren has reached another incredible feat in the music world. On Sept. 30, van Buuren reached a milestone for his career, releasing his 15 year anniversary album in his A State Of Trance series titled I’m In A State Of Trance 15 Years. The two disc set features some of the greatest trance anthems by van Buuren and other top DJ/producers throughout the last fifteen years. Van Buuren was voted #1 DJ in the world five years in a row by DJ Mag, setting two separate records in the process; as the only DJ to have won five times and the longest streak at number one.

  • Initial Lineup for Pre and After Parties for Phish NYE Run Announced

    CEG Music has announced a string of pre- and after-parties for the four-night New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

    phish

    On the first night of the run, you can catch a late-night set by Thankful for Amy at the Cutting Room on 44 E 32nd St. Thankful for Amy is a nine-piece all-star tribute to Amy Winehouse, featuring talented singer/songwriter Elise Testone, also known for being an American Idol finalist, joined by members of Trey Anastasio Band, Snarky Puppy and more. 

    Thursday, Dead Sessions performs at the American Beauty Bar, located on on 251 W 30th St., before and after the Phish show. Dead Sessions is a 16 year long project known for its authentic and unique renditions of Grateful Dead classics that features a rotating cast of musicians. In the past, members have included artists from big names like TAB, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, and Assembly of Dust.

    On Friday Dec. 30, The Marcus King Band will do an after-party at the Cutting room. Marcus King is a young phenomenon with dazzling music ability and style that he describes as “soul-influenced psychedelic southern rock.” This is only improved by members of his band, as they “[broaden] his sound, touching upon everything from funky R&B to Southern soul and Americana in the process.”

    Finally, on New Year’s Eve, catch Holly Bowling at the Cutting Room, for a pre-party prior to the Garden party. Bowling is a talented pianist rapidly growing in popularity due to her impressive renditions of beloved songs by Phish and the Dead, which she transforms into solo piano interpretations. Snarky Puppy will be playing at the Irving Plaza, for an after-party that is not to be missed. Celebrate the new year with this talented ensemble of an array of musicians, as they take you on a journey of an eclectic, unclassifiable jazz/funk/global collective. Snarky Puppy is a 2014 Grammy Award winner for “Best R&B Performance,” and was nominated in 2016 for the “Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.”

    More shows are to be announced. NYS Music will bring you updates as the announcements come.

    For more information, visit the official Phish After-Parties website.

  • Slick Rick’s Coming Home Tour

    London born and newly naturalized U.S. citizen hip-hop legend Slick Rick will begin his “Coming Home Tour” in the United Kingdom on Friday, November 25, 2016, at Mantra in Manchester. The tour will continue the next night at 02 Forum in London, followed by stops at 02 Academy, Bristol on Sunday the 27th, Birmingham’s 02 Institute on Monday the 28th, and The Sugar Club in Dublin, Ireland on Tuesday the 29th, before concluding in Brighton at the Concorde 2 on Wednesday, November 30. Not only is this a homecoming for the rapper from Mitcham, Surrey, it’s his first ever UK tour. For tickets and tour information, visit Rick’s website.

    slick rick tourSlick Rick is known the world over for his glamorous accessorizing, which has often included capes, robes, crowns, extensive jewelery, and his celebrated eyepatch, but truly it’s the lasting cool of his landmark raps that affirms his status as pop pioneer and hip-hop icon. Timeless ballads “La Di Da Di” and “The Show,” have been sampled over 700 times combined, influencing musicians from every generation since their release, including the likes of Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Kanye West, Nas, TLC, Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, and the Beastie Boys.

    DJ Kaos and the Rickettes will accompany Rick the Ruler on the Coming Home Tour, which comes in wake of a 23-year battle with the United States Immigration Bureau that kept him from traveling abroad. For more on that story, click here.

    Slick Rick is on Instagram @therulernyc, Twitter @therulernyc, and Facebook SlickRick.

    Tour Dates:
    Nov. 25 – Mantra – Manchester
    Nov. 26 – 02 Forum – London
    Nov. 27 – 02 Academy – Bristol
    Nov. 28 – 02 Institute – Birmingham
    Nov. 29 – The Sugar Club – Dublin, Ireland
    Nov. 30 – Concorde 2 – Brighton

  • MTV Live teams with nugs.net for Weekly Jam Series

    Jam fans looking for a live fix at home will soon be able to get it via MTV Live beginning Oct. 2. The recently re-branded cable channel (formerly Palladia) has teamed up with nugs.net for a weekly series of live music from the nugs vaults called nugs.net Live Stash.

    According to Jambase, the premiere episode airs this Sunday night and features a performance from the Disco Biscuits at their Camp Bisco festival this July. Each week’s broadcast will feature shows from the nugs.net vaults.

    The show airs at 9:00 p.m. each Sunday and according to the Jambase post, Widespread Panic will be visiting living rooms across the country on Oct. 9 in a show taken from the band’s July visit to Red Rocks.

    Further examination of the trailer (shown below) reveals clips from Dead and Company, Phil and Friends and moe.