NYS Music 20​16

Tag: Music News

  • Of Mice and Men Band Members Respond to the Departure of Carlile

    News had spread that frontman for Of Mice and Men, Austin Carlile, has stepped down from the band that he helped start up in Orange County, California back in 2009 due to his ongoing battle with Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue in the body, making Carlile vulnerable to illness at a moments notice.  Carlile stated that the disease, is now making it hard for him to scream, and could suffer permanent damage.

    of mice and men carlileCarlile stated that he will continue to write music as he heals and rests in Costa Rica, where he now resides, and that the band would not seek a replacement, and continue as a quartet.

    Hours after Carlile explained in a lengthy post on social media to fans about the reasons of his departure from Of Mice & Men, his bandmates, released this statement on social media:

    Dear Of Mice & Men Fans,
    It’s with heavy hearts that we announce Austin’s departure from the band for reasons pertaining to his health. As many of you are aware, Austin suffers from a rare connective tissue disorder called Marfan syndrome & has been struggling with the physical demands of touring since the band began.

    After his most recent series of surgeries at Stanford University Hospital, following the cancellation of our European headlining tour, his team of doctors informed him of the damage that performing, & more specifically his aggressive vocals, have been causing his body. They warned that if he were to continue on doing so, it would cause permanent & irrevocable damage to his spine & nervous system.

    Following the advice from his team of specialists, Austin decided it best that he step away from the band & change his lifestyle to better his health. Though we’re heartbroken that he can no longer continue, his health has always been of utmost importance to us & we support him now in this decision & are proud of his perseverance over the years.

    We’ve had an amazing & unforgettable past few years making music & touring the world together & the 4 of us look forward to sharing the next chapter of the band’s story with you. All previously announced shows will proceed as planned & we thank you for your continued love & support. We couldn’t do this without all of you! See you real soon.

    -Aaron, Alan, Phil & Valentino

    Carlile’s full Twitter statement can be read below. He touches all the grateful experiences he has had throughout his career, to the reason why he must step away from singing, and what the future holds.

    of mice and men carlile

  • Rare Layne Staley Recordings Up for Auction

    Blabbermouth reports that the rare recordings that surfaced earlier this year of now deceased Alice In Chains front man Layne Staley, have been put up for auction on ebay by Ron Holt. The auction ends Friday Dec. 30 around 6 p.m. ET The recordings are from a project titled 40 Years Of Hate, that Staley and Holt, who is a Seattle-based musician and songwriter, worked on before Staley’s AIC days.

    The post has a $5000 price tag with a current bid, as of this writing of $1,025. There is a reserve bid on the item as well, which has not been met, and most likely close to the $5000 dollar price tag.

    This auction is for the recordings only, and not the publishing rights to the unfinished tracks. Holt will take separate offers for publishing rights. There are six tracks in all, although earlier reports this past May by Blabbermouth have said that there were eight unreleased recordings found and were being restored and mixed by Seattle-based audio designer Jesse Holt. With the name connection, could those be the tracks in question, or separate recordings?  One of the rumored songs “Things You Do,” is not listed as part of the track listing. Holt never made it clear who his source is for the Staley tracks, or if they would see the light of day.

    Alternate mixes of two of the tracks “Party People,” and “I Don’t Care,” have surfaced on YouTube.  Also the track, “It’s Coming After,” was released by the band Second Coming, which featured former AIC members James Bergstrom and Johnny Bacolas.

    The item description posted on ebay is as follows:

    Up for sale is a rare one of a kind item. This is a 1 inch 16 track studio master from 1988 featuring Layne Staley of Alice in Chains. Prior to Alice n Chains, Layne Staley worked with Seattle musician and songwriter Ron Holt on a project they called ’40 Years of Hate’. The band featured former AIC member James Bergstrom, up and coming Seattle drumming talent Davis Martin, Ron Holt, Layne and Jerry Cantrell.  The music was a mix of industrial, rock and funk rock. The songs were never fully recorded and exist here in an unfinished state. Jerry Cantrell was slated to play guitar on this session but never did. Jerry played on the 4 track demos of these songs. So the tracks that were recorded were: bass guitar, synthesizers and drum machine programming – Ron Holt, drums – James Bergstrom, percussion – Davis Martin, back up vocals by the group and then a track of time code on track 8.
    There are 6 songs with Layne’s singing.

    Party People
    It’s Coming After (Released on Second Coming’s L.O.V.Evil CD) 
    Throw Me Down
    Tell Me How To Love You
    Dance It Up
    I Don’t Care

    The songs were digitized years ago. Alternate mixes of these songs were leaked onto YouTube. The songs I Don’t Care and Party People can be found there. The song It’s Coming After was released by Seattle band Second Coming featuring Jesse Holt, former AIC members James Bergstrom and Johnny Bacolas.

    This is an extremely rare item. The tape was baked once and digitized. The digitized tracks exist and can be made part of the sale. But publishing rights are not a part of this sale. Are NOT. This auction is for the physical tape and box only. Offers on the songs themselves will be considered. 

    Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Thank you for your curiosity and love for Layne. 

  • Grammy Nominations Filled With NY State Talent

    On Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, the 59th annual Grammy awards commence. Some artists will be catapulted into stardom with their first Grammy win, while some artists will climb towards becoming music legends, and other artists will add another award or awards to their already growing legacies.

    With the Grammys right around the corner, NYS Music wanted to pay homage to all the homegrown New York musical talent, and others who have sought out the state of New York to help jump-start their musical careers and call the state home.

    Many recognizable, and upcoming artists born and raised in New York that have been nominated for a Grammy award include, Brooklyn native Barbara Streisand for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway; Long Island natives De La Soul for Best Rap Album, And the Anonymous Nobody; New Hartford resident Joe Bonamassa for Best Traditional Blues Album, Live at the Greek Theater and from the Bronx, Fat Joe, for Best Rap Performance, for the single “All the Way Up,” which also features Remy Ma, French Montana and Infared.

    New Hartford’s Joe Bonamassa performing at Red Rocks earlier this year.

    Other hometown nominees include: Little Louie Vega (Bronx ), for Best Dance/Electronic Album,  Louie Vega Starring…XXVIII; guitarist, composer, and arranger Chuck Loeb, (Nyack), for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Unspoken; Brady Rymer and the Little Band that Could (Southold), for Best Children’s Album, Press Play; Sofi Tukker (NYC) for Best Dance Recording for the track “Drinkee;” Catherine Russell (NYC) for Best Jazz Vocal Album, Harlem on My Mind; John Coltrane’s son Ravi (Long Island) for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, “In Movement;” Claire Lynch (Kingston) for Best Bluegrass Album, North by South; Bob Mintzer (New Rochelle) for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, All L.A. Band; Andy Gonzalez (Bronx) for Best Latin Jazz Album, Entre Colegas and Steve Gadd (Rochester) for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album Way Back Home: Live From Rochester, NY. Gadd is also James Taylor’s touring drummer.

    Kingston’s Claire Lynch

    Many artist have ties to New York and though not born in the state, some call it home. Some of these artists include one of the hottest duos on the EDM scene, The Chainsmokers, who are French-born, Westchester-raised Alexander Pall and Andrew Taggart, a Scottish native raised in Maine and a Syracuse University graduate. After graduation, Taggart was part of the SU Music Business program before taking DJ gigs in NYC where he would eventually meet Pall. The Chainsmokers are nominated for Best New Artist, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their single, “Closer,” which also features Halsey on vocals, and for Best Dance Recording for their single, “Don’t Let Me Down,” which features the singer Daya.     

    Bob Dylan, the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, used to reside in New York and wrote many of his most influential music while living in Woodstock. Dylan is credited with helping to create the folk scene in Greenwich Village. His contributions stand among some of New York’s most significant musical pieces. Dylan is nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Fallen Angels, and for Best Historical Album, The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol.12 (Collector’s Edition).

    Before his passing on Jan. 10, 2016, David Bowie had a residence for many years in Woodstock. Bowie is nominated for five Grammys including Best Rock Performance, Blackstar, Best Rock Song, “Blackstar,” Best Alternative Music Album, Blackstar, Best Recording Package, Blackstar, and Best-Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Blackstar.  

    Other New York transplants nominated for Grammy awards include Snarky Puppy, for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Culcha Vulcha. You can read NYS Music‘s review of this album here. Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Real Enemies, and Patti Smith for Best Spoken Word Album, M Train.

    Snarky Puppy performing at Syracuse’s Landmark Theatre earlier this year.

  • moe.down Returning in 2017

    After a two year hiatus, moe.down is a go for 2017.  Last year the band announced that, for the second consecutive year, moe.down would not take place but have never outright dismissed the fact that it would return. Today’s announcement puts the conjecture to rest. moe.down is returning to its original location, Snow Ridge in Turin, NY June 30 – July 2.

    The July date marks a departure from previous moe.downs, which traditionally took place over Labor Day weekend, a weekend, as any upstater knows, that can bring weather ranging from excessive heat to cold rain, sometimes over the course of one day. The July date should make for a more pleasant weekend experience for fans.

    Past moe.downs have seen the band perform six sets throughout the weekend as well as sets with side projects such as Al and the Transamericans, Ha Ha the Moose and Floodwood. The festival is known for attracting artists typically not seen at jamband festivals. Past performers have included Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven and Meat Puppets.

    Early bird tickets, VIP and RV passes for moe.down 16 go on sale Friday, Dec. 16 at noon ET. Three-day general admission tickets are $130 in the early bird allotment. For more information, visit moe.’s website.

  • Greg Lake, Prog Pioneer, Dies at 69

    Greg Lake, founder of progressive rock pioneers King Crimson and founding member of Emerson, Lake and Palmer has died at the age of 69.

    greg lakeLake, a founding member of both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, was one of the progenitors of the progressive rock movement in the late 1960s through the mid 1970s. His vocal style propelled ELP to FM radio stardom in the U.S. on songs such as “Lucky Man” and his solo Christmas song “I Believe in Father Christmas,” a constant on FM radio this time of year.

    Bandmate, and lone surviving member of ELP (Keith Emerson passed earlier this year.), drummer Carl Palmer told the Los Angeles Times:

    We have a lot to thank him for. If you look at the musical landscape of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, he wrote most of the songs that got played on American radio. What he brought was a uniqueness that the music business didn’t have at that time. We weren’t an out-and-out rock band, and we didn’t play the blues. He was a choir-boy kind of singer, a very angelic sounding voice.

    ELP carried popular rock music beyond the blues-based sounds that had been coming from British bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Faces, creating a more theatrical and symphonic style of rock music based in the sounds of classical musicians such as Mussorgsky, Bach, Copland and Bartok.

    Lake balanced the bombastic keyboard work of Emerson with acoustic songs such as “Lucky Man,” a song he wrote at the age of 12, and “From the Beginning.” He recorded his first solo piece in 1975, the perennial Christmas favorite, “I Believe in Father Christmas,” but continued recording with ELP until their break up in 1979.

    greg lakeLake’s career began in 1965 as a member of Unit Four and Time Checks, cover bands that gave him exposure in the Dorset, UK scene. His time in Unit Four led to a relationship with Robert Fripp, who recruited Lake to sing and play bass for his new band, King Crimson.

    Lake performed on King Crimson’s seminal debut In the Court of the Crimson King and the follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon before parting ways after striking up a friendship with The Nice’s Emerson in 1970. The two recruited drummer Palmer from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to form what became the prog-rock supergroup ELP.

    Lake was born Nov. 10, 1947 in Bournemouth, England, to an engineer father and housewife mother. He is survived by his wife, Regina and their daughter, Natasha.

  • Phil Finger Death Punch, a Possible Glimpse Into The Future

    All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte has come up from the “Righteous Side Of Hell,” to help save the boys in Five Finger Death Punch from being on the “Wrong Side Of Heaven,” due to the band’s erratic troubled frontman Ivan Moody, to save the rest of the band’s co-headlining tour with Shinedown, a tour that also features Sixx: A.M., and As Lions.

    phil finger death punchLabonte, who is good friends with Moody, stepped up and filled in on Dec. 1 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA, doing a tremendous job in the process. Joining Labonte in helping save the tour for FFDP and their fans were Sixx: A.M. frontman James Michael and As Lions singer Austin Dickinson (son of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), lending their vocals during FFDP’s set. Phil will continue the vocal duties for Five Finger Death Punch for the remainder of the tour. There has been speculation that this could be an audition for Labonte to replace Moody for an extended period of time or even permanently.

    Moody stated on Nov. 29 to Syracuse, NY fans inside the Oncenter, that they would see the real Ivan Moody tonight. He went on and said that with all the social media outlets out there, that his life is exposed, and can’t seem to get away from people fabricating stories about him.

    One of those “fabricated” stories came days earlier in Worcester, MA, when Moody stated to the crowd that his mother was passing away as he was onstage, and cut the concert short. Bassist Chris Kael was left with the mop up duties, apologizing to the crowd for the early departure. In an odd twist, Moody’s sister stated that their mother was not ailing nor anyone else in their family, for that matter. This prompted Moody’s statement at the band’s Newark, NJ show that the mother he was referring to was his “House Mother” from rehab.

    During the same show, Moody, who has revealed his thoughts about Kanye West in the past, compared himself to the hip hop star, stating that he now “Get’s it” when it comes to the “mental breakdown” that West is has currently been hospitalized for, after West went on various verbal tirades during his live shows and cutting concerts short. Two days later, Ivan Moody is on the shelf due to illness and off the rest of the tour.

    Moody had his famous Memphis meltdown back in May of 2015, where he apparently angered drummer Jeremy Spencer with a comment he made over the mic about Spencer’s book, prompting Spencer and the rest of the band to leave Moody by himself on stage. Days later, the band stated that there was nothing wrong with Moody, or the band, and blamed poor sound equipment as the reason why they had cut their set short.

    It has been no secret, as reported previously by NYS Music, that the band is being sued by their record label, Prospect Park. Some of the reasons stated in the lawsuit include that the band doesn’t care for Moody’s well-being and that they are trying to cash in before Moody has a complete meltdown, or even worse, dies. With his past and recent actions, Prospect Park could be onto something when it comes to Moody’s well-being.

    Fans, music insiders and music executives believe that, without Moody, there is no FFDP, and with all his recent  seemingly “I’m untouchable” behavior over the past couple of years, Moody must feel the same.  Moody’s recent behaviors suggest a desperate need for an extended break from touring, the music industry, and the limelight.

    Eventually, the band will have to draw the line with Moody’s recent actions and do what’s best for FFDP moving forward. Whether they move on with Labonte or someone else, or force Moody to take a break.

    With all that being said, Labonte has the goods to deliver the songs in FFDP fashion on stage, but does he has the raw charismatic edgy appeal that Moody possess, and that fans crave and love about Moody?

    When it come’s to what’s next in the Ivan Moody/FFDP saga”All That Remains” is, wait and see.

    https://youtu.be/OdOqi03fbds

    Remaining Five Finger Death Punch/Shinedown Tour Dates:

    12-08 – Amway Arena – Orlando, FL
    12-09 – Amalie Arena – Tampa, FL
    12-10 – Infinite Energy Center – Duluth, GA

  • Cuomo Signs Ticket Bot Bill Into Law

    New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill this week that calls for harsher punishments for those using automated ‘Ticket Bot’ software to purchase large blocs of tickets for concerts and other events. These tickets often turn up on third party ticket resale sites such as Stub Hub minutes after purchase at a much higher markup.

    The new law, sponsored by Assemblyman Marcos Crespo (D-Bronx) and Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), makes using ticket “bots,” or willingly reselling tickets purchased using the software illegal in New York State.

    The use of ticket bots was already illegal in New York but this law toughens penalties beyond the civil level. It carries with it a civil penalty of a $500-$1500 fine and forfeiture of any profit made for anyone reselling tickets purchased using “bots” and rises to the level of class A misdemeanor if the person knowingly uses “bot” software to purchase tickets with the intent to resell for profit.  In a statement, Governor Cuomo said:

     These unscrupulous speculators and their underhanded tactics have manipulated the marketplace and often leave New Yorkers and visitors alike with little choice but to buy tickets on the secondary market at an exorbitant mark-up. It’s predatory, it’s wrong and, with this legislation, we are taking an important step towards restoring fairness and equity back to this multi-billion dollar industry.

    As reported by NYS Music in January, the issue of ticketing “bots” gained widespread attention when New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a report critical of the industry. Several states have anti-scalping laws on the books, but this new law provides the harshest penalties thus far.

    Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda issued a call this July, via a New York Times editorial, to get tough on ticket “bots.” In it, he praised the efforts of the AG and sponsoring legislators in pushing the bill through and called on Governor Cuomo to quickly sign the bill into law, which he did Wednesday.

    At the federal level, Tuesday the Senate, passed the BOTS (Better Online Ticket Sales) Act of 2016. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration before it can be signed into law.

  • Long Island’s Bête Noire Offers a Ska Twist on Christmas

    Desmond Dekker, Dandy Livingston, The Clash, The Specials. These artists aren’t typically associated with Christmas. Long Island‘s Bête Noire is out to change that perception with the release of its new Christmas single, “A Message to Rudolph.”

    bete noireThe song is heavily influenced by The Specials’ 2 tone remake of Dandy Livingstone’s reggae classic “Rudy, A Message to You,” recalling the infamous rude boy reindeer’s tale of one foggy Christmas Eve in a campy video.

    Bête Noire is a music collective based in Long Island. Members of the collective appearing in the video play with the bands Oogee Wawa, Aqua Cherry, Radio 4 and Hot and Ugly.

    Now that December has arrived, add a new carol to your playlist. You can download the single at Bête Noire’s Bandcamp page or through iTunes. Check the video below.

  • Tony Markellis Keeping Busy

    Bassist Tony Markellis, best known for his work with the Trey Anastasio Band, The Mamas and the Papas, Paul Butterfield, David Bromberg, and his own group, the jazz ensemble Kilimanjaro, will be playing a host of local shows in the Northeast to close out 2016.

    tony markellis

    On Sunday, Dec. 4, Markellis will join the Burns Sisters, a folk duo from Binghamton, performing their holiday show at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. Then, on Friday, Dec. 9, he will return to Caffe Lena with Jeanne O’ Connor and the New Standard to treat Saratoga Springs to fresh renditions of classic hits from the 1960s and 70s. Next, performing with moe. drummer Vinnie Amico’s side-project, the progressive newgrass outfit Floodwood, Markellis will travel to Wilkes-Barre, PA for stops at the Jazz Café on Saturday, Dec. 10, and for a private concert on Sunday, Dec. 11.

    Markellis returns to New York, rejoining the Burns Sisters for their holiday shows at the Hangar Theater in Ithaca on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 16 and 17, and at Six on the Square in Oxford on Sunday, Dec. 18. Lastly, in bringing 2016 to a close, Markellis will reunite with his longtime running mates in Kilimanjaro for a New Year’s Eve performance at the First Night Burlington festival.

    And don’t miss a chance to see Markellis with the Trey Anastasio Band this upcoming spring. New York fans will get first crack at TAB tour with two Capitol Theatre shows on April 14 and 15.

  • ‘Deep Listening’ Pioneer and Experimental Music Composer Pauline Oliveros Passes Away at 84

    Pauline Oliveros, experimental composer, electronic music innovator, accordionist, pioneer of the Deep Listening philosophy and Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, passed away Thanksgiving Day at the age of 84.

    Pauline Oliveros composerDuring my own time as a student at RPI studying soil mechanics and structural analysis of steel and concrete I somehow found the time to add an electronic arts minor to my transcript. I had heard of a class called ‘Deep Listening’ and it seemed to this then-junior engineering student like a curious subject to help round out the arts minor. It wasn’t until my senior year – when it was too late to reconfigure course schedules – that I had a taste of this subject when my advanced computer music class sat in on a session happening two floors above in West Hall.

    Near one side of the room a dozen or so students was Pauline Oliveros, deeply immersed in the multi-channel surround soundscape created with her cherry red accordion and numerous effects processing. Seeing the focus of those students in a music setting unfamiliar to me was incredible and proved an importance to her course.

    Oliveros was interested in music from a young age, learning accordion from her mother in Texas at age nine and learning the French horn and tuba later on. Her education took her through music programs at the University of Houston and San Francisco State College where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in composition. She remained in academia for several years, teaching at Mills College and UCSD. In 1981 she left UCSD to come to the Hudson Valley, where a less restrictive creative environment allowed her to further explore performance and composition where she later founded the Deep Listening Institute.

    She introduced herself to the idea of deep listening in the early 1950s when she got her first tape recorder. “I immediately recorded from my apartment window in San Francisco,” she recalls in a 2012 interview on WRPI in Troy, NY. “I listened as I recorded but when I listened back to the tape I heard things that I hadn’t heard when I recorded. So, I realized that I hadn’t really been listening. Since then my mantra has been listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you’re not.”

    The term “Deep Listening” hadn’t been coined for many years after her early experiments with tape recordings and work with the San Francisco Tape Music Center, though the ideas and teachings were there in Oliveros’ early academic career in experimental music and composition. “Deep Listening” as a term was a coincidence of pun associated with recordings made in the Dan Harpole underground cistern in Washington State in 1988 with two of her musical partners Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis who then donned the name for the group of Deep Listening Band.

    Deep listening, in brief, is about treating listening as an active rather than passive process, a process that takes some effort. “Deep Listening is listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing,” Oliveros described. “Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, or one’s own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that there is.” That philosophy has led her to have a profound influence on music through improvisation, meditation, and use of electronic music.

    Oliveros’ extensive fifty-year career as a leader in avante-garde and experimental music included numerous recordings under her own name and with the Deep Listening Band. Along with these recordings, Oliveros has many publications, videos and has given many lectures and workshops out of the classroom setting. She received several awards in her career, including the most recent biennial John Cage Award in 2012, given by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York City to individuals who have made outstanding achievements in contemporary performing arts.

    From 2001 until her passing, Oliveros had been teaching Deep Listening and conducting research at RPI in Troy. Her collaborative research at the university included the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI) – a development of adaptive musical instruments through computer interfaces for those with mobility restrictions – and others including artificial intelligence programming for improvised music and data science research with the university’s School of Science.

    In 2012 a celebration of Oliveros’ 80th birthday was held at the university’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). Oliveros, along with the Deep Listening Band, gave a performance utilizing computer simulations, developed by architecture acoustics professor Jonas Braasch, of the acoustics of the cistern in which the band recorded in 1988, implemented using technology within the theater.

    While Oliveros had an extensive career as a composer and performer, many people who have worked with her have been remembering her as a compassionate mentor, brilliant until her passing. Former student Blair Neal recalls of her impact, “Technology was never at the core of [class] discussions though, it was always the power of the human and how we communicated and listened to each other. That kind of teaching is something I try to carry with me always.” Another former student, Alex Bulazel shares simple words of gratitude, “Pauline was always an inspiration to her students, reminding them of the importance of creativity, artistic self-expression, humor, and most importantly, listening.”