Montage Mountain, in Scranton, PA is ready for another four-day festival weekend this summer, as the Peach Music Festival, has announced its 2017 lineup for the festival’s sixth annual event which takes place Aug. 10-13.
This year’s lineup will include several New York State, including New Hartford native Joe Bonamassa, NYC natives Lettuce, who will feature Chaka Kahn during their set, and Buffalo’s Aqueous, performing two sets during the festival.
Other artist appearing over the four-day festival will include Gov’t Mule and Friends, My Morning Jacket, Dark Star Orchestra, Rusted Root, Mike Gordon, Papadosio, the Record Company, Whiskey Myers, Pink Talking Fish, Holly Bowling, the Jauntee, Elise Testone and Widespread Panic, who will be performing on two separate nights.
Also, Umphrey’s McGee, and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, will each perform 2 sets in one night during the festival.
Jam band fans love the Peach Music Festival. The festival has a wide variety of music genres that include folk, country, jazz, and several styles of rock.
The festival was created by the Allman Brothers Band, along with Live Nation Entertainment, in 2012. Festival lovers were worried in 2015, that the annual event would end, after the Allman Brothers Band decided to quit touring after 45 years in 2014, but side projects of band members appearing at the festival, helped ease the minds of attendees that the Peach Music Festival is sticking around for awhile.
Vendors for the festival have not been named as yet, and the festival itself is still taking vendor applications.
There are several different ticket levels to purchase. Pass levels include General Admission (GA), Reserved, VIP, and Super VIP. All passes include all four days of the festival. No single day passes are available. Prices for passes increase $20-$30 over time as the show draws closer. Children passes (ages 6-10) will be available at the door for $60 before fees while supplies last. Children five and under do not require a ticket.
Sunday night, The Barkley Ballroom in Frisco, CO was home to a reunion of two former New Yorker bandmates turned Colorado transplants. Thom LaFond, former guitarist for Albany-based and Camp Bisco alum, Dirty Paris, joined his former bassist, Chris Duffy, with Duffy’s current band The Magic Beans for an ambient take on The Magic Bean’s space funk rager “Jabu Jabu’s Belly.”
LaFond lent his hand in setting the tone with an opening improv jam, heavy with ambient delay which built the suspense and anticipation for the first drop into the meat of the song where Casey Russell took over with a soulful organ lick to get the bodies moving. Chris Duffy held things down for the bulk of the song with his thick bass grooves while the rest of the band moved through keeping things danceable yet continuing to utilize the spacey vibe that has become more familiar to a Beans dance party as they develop as a band.
Around the 8:20 mark, drummer Cody Wales started laying out the heavy snare hits, signaling the jam to open up, transforming into a high flying shred fest. Lafond adeptly built the speed and intensity of his lead work while Beans guitarist Scott Hachey complimented, both matching LaFond’s picking runs and building things up behind LaFond to take the final few minutes of this jam into something that had the whole room soaring before being dropped straight back into the dance party for a few more measures.
If you haven’t had a chance to experience The Magic Beans in person, be sure to catch them on tour in April.
The Magic Bean’s 5th annual music festival Beanstalk, will be held June 22nd-25th at the legendary festival venue Rancho del Rio along the Colorado River in Bond, CO. The lineup includes tons of faces familiar to the Northeast jam scene including Holly Bowling, lespecial, Corey Henry, Tom Hamilton as well as a smattering of established and up-and-coming awesome Colorado based bands. Don’t miss out on a chance to learn why Colorado is so in love with The Beans.
You can catch LaFond’s band, Banshee Tree, at License No. 1 in Boulder, CO every Saturday night for a swing dance-dance party.
WEQX, The Real Alternative, has three big shows in Albany this weekend! Thursday March 2: Slothrust at The Hollow
This Brooklyn-based trio of graduates from Sarah Lawrence College bring their Indie-grunge rock with influences of jazz and blues to The Hollow on March 2nd. They recently performed at Upstate Concert Hall this past November. Check out their latest album Everyone Else.
This pop duo from California hits The Hollow the following night, and will be performing at SXSW Festival later this month. Fun fact: singer Asa Taccone (brother of Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone) helped Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer produce “Dick in a Box,” among other Lonely Island numbers.
Self proclaimed ‘Dairy Rock‘, this San Francisco garage pop rock comes to The Low Beat on Sunday night. Their latest EP, We’re Set, has found them joining the stage with the likes of Hinds, Night Beats, Adult Books, SWMRS, The Aquadolls and many more.
This past Saturday, February 25, Joe Mansman and the Midnight Revival Band brought their original sound to Retro Live, a new concert venue in Plattsburgh, NY. Between original guitar solos from Alex Mansman and the leadership of front man Joe Mansman, each member perfectly complemented each other.
The band brought a fully stacked set list with them and most being originals. I found myself head banging to new riffs that felt right. To sum up Joe Mansman and the Midnight Revival Band, the only words that I can use to describe them is rock and roll. Joe Mansman brought a stage act that to me has been missing with a lot of newer bands. With songs like “Below or Above” and “Dead as it Gets,” I really felt that I was at a rock show in the late 1970’s but with fresh with new rock music. About half way through the set, the front man and keyboardist Chris Becker played a couple duets to give the show a smooth transition to a heavy ending.
Joe Mansman and the Midnight Revival Band is a group that gives people an option to let loose and bang your head. They ended the show with “Live Free or Die,” and were not afraid to bring the show off the stage. With front man Joe Mansman jumping onto a pool table and guitarist Alex Mansman hopping down to the venue floor to play heavy riffs, the group brought a show that had something for everyone.
Setlist: Dead as it Gets, Below or Above, Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf cover), Reap and Sow, Cold Virginia Nights, Blaze of Glory (Bon Jovi cover), Hell or High Water, All Along, Den of Thieves, Mother (Danzig cover), She’s Mine, Long Rope, You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive (Darrell Scott cover), Rock and Roll ain’t Noise Pollution(AC/DC cover), Nobody’s Sun, Boundless Grace, Too far gone, Cut out my tongue, Crowbar hotel, House of Wolves, Live Free or Die
Twiddle has announced the 2017 lineup for their second annual Tumble Down music festival, held on the Burlington, Vermont waterfront, will include Fruition, Madaila, Aqueous and more.
Tumble Down, Twiddle’s music festival returning to Waterfront Park in their hometown of Burlington, Vermont July 28 and 29, features four sets from Twiddle along with sets from Americana/bluegrass act Fruition, Burlington psych pop band Madaila, Buffalo jammers Aqueous, and San Francisco-based Midnight North. The festival also features daytime sets from New York based acts Lucid and Teddy Midnight, along with Strange Machines, Holly Bowling and Vermonters Navytrain and The Mangroves.
In addition to the waterfront festival, Tumble Down features late night performances each night. July 28 will see the Everyone Orchestra, conducted by Matt Butler and featuring Holly Bowling along with members of Twiddle, Fruition and Midnight North, at Higher Ground, while lespecial and the Pitchblak Brass Band play Club Metronome. On July 29, Mihali and Friends play Higher Ground, and Gang of Thieves with Backup Planet are at Club Metronome. All the late night shows start at 11 p.m. The Higher Ground shows are all ages and are $18 in advance or $23 at the door, while you must be 21 or over to attend the Club Metronome shows, which are $10.
Tickets for Tumble Down 2017 and all the late night shows are on sale now. A two day pass for Tumble Down costs $63.
An eager, tight-knit crowd impatiently awaited a double header of CT-rooted funk-fusion Friday, February 24 at Putnam Den, straight from the talents of lespecial and Kung Fu.
Fresh off the heels of a sold-out double header at Vermont’s own Nectar’s and Bishop’s in Northampton, livetronica act and festy favorite, lespecial, is riding their wave of growing fame. Last year at Disc Jam they offered an unforgettable late night set to their fans in Stephentown, NY, just 40 minutes out from the Den’s home. Kung Fu made a return to the Saratoga Springs venue in less than a year, after their last run around performance with Particle to a 330-person crowd. Acting as their first show of 2017, the five-some will soon after embark on tour before hitting the summer festival circuit, incorporating one original set and one Steely Dan set each night of The Fez Tour.
lespecialhopped on stage with an impressive amount of gear to warm things up for a Saratoga crowd. As the aggressive, death-funk dance trio exploded into the first set of the night, gentle improv ensued but not for long. Completely unforeseen, the genre-spanning musicians swiftly ditched light and airy tunes and kicked into high-gear heavy metal paired with matching facial expressions. The intensity was written all over drummer Rory Dolan’s face as the grit grew stronger, so did the jam face.
Dipping into afro-latin fusion with “Harambe Zombie” and funky, self-explanatory acid jazz improv, they took the crowd by storm with Star Wars’ delights as the opening notes of “Imperial March” had all ears perked up. Jonathan Grusauskas and Luke Bemand swapped their guitar and bass to face each other on synths and samplers for the Darth Vader theme. Another treat of the night came wrapped up with a Beau Sasser sit in. The Kung Fu keyboardist aided the trio with a Beatles cover, bringing the naturally slow and emotional “Because” into an unforgettable reggae jam with sprints of polka sprinkled in between. Cowbells were broken out during “Jackwise” ahead of a “Feel it in the Air” cover that segued in and out of what sounded comparable to R.L. Grime/DipLo and Friends mix samples.
Their hard-hitting and glitch-hop tunes have a way of capturing you inside of a real-life video game as each level-up introduces you to yet another genre or sample. Conventional isn’t their game– and that’s why they’re so captivating. Their ability to span multiple genres in one song and effortlessly transition between them makes you wonder why these guys haven’t gotten the blown up recognition they so rightfully deserve. Yet at the same time, you cherish the fact that they’re still loved in a small, niche group and not popularized to the masses for your own selfish reasons.
An already amped crowd moved forward and tightly packed together for Kung Fu’s introductory show of 2017, which quickly and almost instantly incited an electro-fusion 70’s dance party. In addition to recent waves of global warming, Kung Fu brought the heat, making Den dwellers feel as if they stepped into a groovy time machine.
Beau Sasser, Todd Stoops’ keyboard replacement, Adrian Tramontano and Chris DeAngelis of Fu have all been recently found in the Albany/Capital Region area playing with side projects and supergroups at local pubs and restaurants, offering smooth tunes at Speakeasy 518 or getting funky at the City Beer Hall for what used to be Funk Night Wednesday’s. Although this Putnam Den stop wasn’t scheduled as part of the Fez Tour, fans certainly got a treat of what was to come with two Steely Dan songs, “Black Cow” and “Peg” sandwiched throughout the night’s tunes of “Scorpion>Gungho” and “Bopcorn,” before closing out with an encore of “Getdown.”
Imaginations were left to roam wild and wonder what Steely Dan bust outs will make their way to the national, 28-date Fez tour.
If Friday night was anything close to what fans can expect from both groups on tour and on festival bills, summer 2017 is one to be cherished. lespecial will continue their current tour with four more NY dates in Ithaca, Buffalo, Rochester and NYC while Kung Fu embarks on their inaugural tour of 2017, making their Putnam Den stop feel like an ultimate launch party.
lespecial Set List: Improv> Pentachronic, Harambe Zombie, Pressed for Time, Acid Jazz Improv, New Fish, Imperial March>Force>Lamp, Because*,Sound We Do, Jackwise, Bugg’n>Air>Bugg’n
*the Beatles
Kung Fu Set List: Hammer>Paragon, Black Cow*, Scorpion> Gung Ho, Bopcorn, Peg*, Do The Right Thing, Saul Good, Samurai
Encore: Getdown
*Steely Dan
It’s hard to be so humble and mature when talent comes so naturally to someone, but Bobby Paltauf proved in an interview it’s possible, as he is undoubtedly one of the most professional and grounded young musicians out there.
He’s coming to the Fairfield Theater Company‘s secondary venue, Stage One, on Saturday, March 11 and NYS Music revealed some information about the show and how he got started. Paltauf also talks about a pre-show fundraiser with organizations like Horns For Kids, along side Rock Cottage Studio as well as how a portion of the ticket sales going to Zach Staden, a man who requires stem cell therapy for a spinal chord injury.
Dave Ostroff: What age did you pick up the guitar?
Bobby Paltauf: Around 7, I’ve been playing for about 10 years now. Started right on a Strat too, it’s a huge guitar. My dad used to play a lot and he had an acoustic and Strat and I dove right into those.
DO: Did your dad tempt you to play?
BP: It was always more of my doing. My dad always played great music. When I was a kid we would just rock out to Led Zeppelin. He played one Zeppelin song and it just intrigued me. I picked up his guitar one day and I tried to learn it.
DO: Did you ever get stumped and need that extra push to keep learning?
BP: Definitely. It was hard especially when you have those baby fingers. There were songs that I wanted to learn, a lot of Led Zeppelin stuff. It was about a year, year and a half where I was kind of getting it… and then it just clicked.
DO: When did you get together with the people you put the album out with?
BP: 2013. I started going to BRYAC. They had a funk night and there, someone told me about this bass player and drummer and we met in their basement and we just clicked right away. We added a keyboard player that we knew and then we put together that record.
DO: You guys sound fantastic. One of my favorites is Atmosphere. Talk us through the creative process of that song.
BP: When I first met with the drummer Kaitlyn, and the bass player Miles, we jammed on a funk tune and directly after, Miles started playing some diminished line, and we wrote the tune right there on the spot. It was the first or second time we met. We molded it out every night that we were on tour and it just came to be the song.
DO: What would you define the album is in terms of genre?
BP: A lot of it is instrumental, it’s funky with a little bit of jazz influence, so I would just call it a funk rock album.
DO: A lot of the music, as you said is instrumental, but in some songs you sing. Did you want to stay more instrumental because that’s your strong suit?
BP: At the time we put out the record I was only 14 and at the point your voice is changing every couple of months. At that point my voice wasn’t my strong suit and I was more engulfed in the guitar, so I just wanted to make that album based around instrumental stuff. I wanted to let my voice develop more. That’s actually what I’ve been doing for the past year/ two years now is writing lyrical based music. The next record is going to be a complete twist, all lyrical stuff.
DO: Led Zeppelin was your muse for your guitar work. Do you pull any inspiration from famous vocalists?
BP: Back then I was focused on guitarists. But in the past couple years I’ve been getting into folk singers like Bob Dylan. I like his less technical approach, just singing from your soul. I’ve been working on my own, which will be on the new album.
DO: Is there an expected date for the album drop?
BP: Mostly likely early May.
DO: Compared to Lost and Found, are we going to see a similar genre? Striving for something new?
BP: I’m definitely going to go for more of a rock and roll feel, going back to the music I really fell in love with years ago. It’ll definitely be more rock based, there will be tracks that go off a little bit and jam with a little bit of funk thrown in. Also some more lyrically developed idea.
DO: You’re show at the FTC is coming up in March, are we going to see anything from the new album?
BP: We’re actually going to play the entire new album. We might throw in some stuff from lost and found, but it’ll almost all be new stuff.
DO: You got to sit in with Buddy Guy among other famous musicians. How did you get that gig and what was it like?
BP: I played with him at the Ridgefield playhouse and my aunt who works there set me up with him. I didn’t really know who he was. I was more into the rock stuff, but I started to check him out and thought, “I need to see this guy he’s a legend!” She ended up getting me to meet him before the show, he had me play a little bit in front of him, he said, “Stand over here by the side stage and I’ll call you up for a song. It was just so incredible and surreal.
DO: Was that the most memorable sit in with an artist?
BP: Buddy Guy was probably the big one. The other one at Catskill Chill when I sat in for The Meters with Paige from Phish. That one was incredible. I was around 14 for that one. I happened to be a in a Meters phase too. It was incredible to play with George and Leo.
DO: Did any of these big names say or do anything that will stick with you for the years to come?
BP: I’ve seen Buddy Guy so many times after that. You see he brings so much energy to the shows. It shows that it’s all about the music, but you need to keep people engaged, especially nowadays. The Meters show was a fun jam for jam lovers, but the Buddy Guy one stuck with me. You need to keep the crowd engaged. He walks around the stage, into the crowd and up into the balcony. He has a lot of fun with it.
DO: You’re playing with Grayson Hughs at the FTC, have you talked to him? Know him at all?
BP: I’m actually in his band too. He called me up a few years ago, I had no idea who he was. He got my number from a girl in my school who was family friends with him. He’s this legendary soul singer from the 80’s who fell out but is making a come back with a few albums. He happens to be from Danbury and he tried to put together a band, he found me, a drummer and bass player and we’ve been rehearsing for about a year and a half. We thought about the idea of merging the two bands at a bigger venue- Stage One in Fairfield.
DO: So your group is going to open first, and then you’ll combine together for the second set?
BP: We’ll do a little over an hour and then change over and he’ll do about 90 minutes with us.
DO: Do you guys plan on heading over to NYC anytime soon?
BP: We plan on doing a bigger run when the album drops. We loved playing New York City, and hopefully try to get a nice run together for the early summer.
DO: Any other info regarding your upcoming FTC show?
BP: Before the show we are going to have a bunch of local organizations and causes setup in the art gallery at FTC StageOne to promote what they do and to raise donations. There will be a table for Zach Standen setup where they will be collecting donations for medical funds, stem cell therapy, and more (as well as a portion of the ticket proceeds will be also going to him). Rock Cottage Studio will have a setup to spread Horns For Kids, which gives instruments to underprivileged kids who can’t afford them. There will be many other things set up at doors before the show and we will also have merch and cd’s.
This past Saturday, February 25, The Benevento/Russo Duo and WOLF! played at the Brooklyn Bowl as a part of the Freaks Ball XVII.
The show was The Duo’s first official show in the states in 7 years, although they played a last minute warm-up show for Jamcruise at Threes Brewing in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Both bands have strong ties to the Freaks Ball as Joe Russo has played in 14 of them, but Scott Metzger of WOLF! has him beat with 15 appearances himself. The show sold out in 30 seconds, extras were expensive or scarce, and although the venue was packed, it was full of people who wanted to be there.
WOLF! played a great opening set, they let the energy build up as Scott Metzger shredded throughout the whole set. The Benevento/Russo Duo slid back into their catalog like a worn glove. They crushed all the classics, the peak of the night came during the “Becky” and “Scratchitti” section. They paired two of their most loved, high-energy songs together and the crowd at the Brooklyn Bowl was losing it. Though they’ve played together throughout the years in different bands and line-ups, it’s hard to deny the chemistry and connection those two old friends have when it’s just them on stage together making music. The Duo has no other shows scheduled for this year, but I think it’s safe to say that they will be back again soon.
Setlist: Best Reason To Buy The Sun, Sunny’s Song, 9X9, Soba, Powder, Walking, Running, Viking, Welcome Red, Becky, Scratchitti > Something For Rockets, Hate Frame, My Pet Goat
School of Rock Albany has announced that former Assembly candidate, Jesse Calhoun, has been named as General Manager. The position brings Calhoun’s experience as an organizer and musician to a nationally famous program. Thanks to the 2002 Jack Black film, School of Rock has 11 chapters around New York State, expanding in recent years and opening an Albany chapter in 2013. Calhoun spoke to NYS Music about his new role and what he brings to the job, and why we need to save the arts.
Pete Mason: How did you first get started in music as a kid when you were growing up?
Jesse Calhoun: I had been involved with vocal music ever since I was a kid, had my first solo thanks to Miss Mescudi in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, (fun fact that’s actually Kid Cudi’s Mom.) But I really dove in my senior year of high school. I asked my mom for a guitar that Christmas, and then spent every waking hour that I wasn’t in school trying to learn riffs from my favorite bands. I learned the little riff from “Come Out and Play” by the Offspring and the riff from “Song 2” by Blur and was hooked forever after that.
JC: I started a band called “Cultural Relativity” in Ohio with my best friend since 5th grade, Charles Pope. We recorded a little 5 song demo CD called The Controlled Demo – which the same night we recorded it and put it up, I was contacted by a DJ from Leaf Pile Radio out of Columbus who loved our song “Name Your Price for Freedom” and wanted to put it into rotation. We were sharing that song all over the country to local activist groups. It was right about the time of the Patriot Act being passed and I was concerned with a swift erosion of liberty that was happening in our country. It wasn’t long before Sean Muniz, a local organizer (who would eventually become our bass player) asked us to come do a benefit concert here in Albany, NY. A few years down the road not only had my view on relativism changed but our moniker had changed as well.
PM: What can be done to increase access to music and arts education in schools today?
JC: Great question! To me Paul Green (the guy the School of Rock movie was based off of) in his creation of the School of Rock has found an amazing answer. In the current educational model, what’s the first thing to get cut? The arts. Always. Not only does the current educational model come from a scarcity mindset, meaning that there are very many talented music teachers out there in the world, decreed officially or not, not many of them can find work, they have to wait for the music teacher to retire or die and then fight for that job amongst hundreds of other applicants. The School of Rock Albany not only enables local, active musicians to teach some of the greatest skills that they have learned both on stage and on their instrument, but it provides an outlet for children who are interested in music that might not be getting it otherwise. Here locally we are happy to supplement great local music programs and provide opportunities for children to unleash their inner rock stars, building confidence, teamwork and more.
PM: Can you tell us about what’s behind the planning for a Blues show and David Bowie tribute this spring?
JC: We are early in the season right now, so we’ve cast a variety of students into each show. We aim to teach concepts in context of some of the famous songs that many of us have come to love. We try to choose songs for each student that challenge them or help them learn concepts and expand their musical vocabulary. Right now it’s cool to see the students starting to learn both about the blues form and the roots of Rock ‘n’Roll, and also to explore the multifaceted artistry of David Bowie.
These shows have filled up due to popularity so we are excited to announce that on Thursdays we are starting up a Tribute to Nirvana show rehearsal from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. So if you know any young aspiring musicians who are looking to make friends, learn music, and get on stage – let us know!
Pierce The Veil fans are running in circles from the excitement of the Rest In Space tour.
Pierce The Veil, alongside direct support Falling In Reverse and Crown The Empire, are scheduled to play at Upstate Concert Hall in Clifton Park, N.Y. on Sunday, March 5.
On May 13, the band released their fourth full-length album, Misadventures. Fans are welcoming back the band to perform their new material at the Clifton Park venue for the first time since their nearly sold-out show in 2013 with Memphis May Fire, Letlive and Issues.
Their third U.S. headlining tour promoting the album, the Rest In Space Tour will be hitting North America until March 10. Since the release of Misadventures, Pierce The Veil have released music videos for fan favorites, “Circles,” “Dive In” and “Floral & Fading.”
Direct support Falling In Reverse are scheduled to release their new album, Coming Home, on April 7 via Epitaph Records. Their fourth full-length release, Coming Home features hit singles, “Loser” and “Coming Home.”
Following the departure of vocalist Dave Escamilla, in July of last year Crown The Empire released their third full-length album, Retrograde. Their Retrograde Tour promoting the album hit the Clifton Park venue in late November.
Doors open for the Rest in Space tour at 6 pm on Sunday, and the show kicks off at 7 pm.
The Magic Bean’s 5th annual music festival Beanstalk, will be held June 22nd-25th at the legendary festival venue Rancho del Rio along the Colorado River in Bond, CO. The lineup includes tons of faces familiar to the Northeast jam scene including Holly Bowling, lespecial, Corey Henry, Tom Hamilton as well as a smattering of established and up-and-coming awesome Colorado based bands. Don’t miss out on a chance to learn why Colorado is so in love with The Beans.
The band brought a fully stacked set list with them and most being originals. I found myself head banging to new riffs that felt right. To sum up 
Joe Mansman and t
PM: What can be done to increase access to music and arts education in schools today?
