NYS Music 20​17

Category: Rochester

  • 5 Shows to See in Rochester in December

    How’d you do with our November picks Rochester? We were able to catch a few of our recommendations and thoroughly enjoyed each and every one. We’re back with five more choice live music options to fill up your Rochester in December calendar so you can end the year strong. Check them out and let us know what you see.

    Wednesday, December 6
    lespecial @ Funk n Waffles Music Hall

    First stop is Funk n Waffles for lespecial, a young electronic-infused trio carving out a name for themselves on the jam band circuit. Childhood friends, these guys have many years worth of connection to each other behind some otherworldly onstage communication. The music flips around furiously and often, keeping surprises around every corner. Is it rock? Or is it world? Is it punk? Or is it jazz? Is it funk? Or is it hip hop? The answer is yes.

    Tuesday, December 12
    The Black Lillies @ Abilene Bar and Lounge

    The joint will be jumping when The Black Lillies return to Abilene. With a full-blooded country and blues rock sound, the old house will be struggling to contain it all. They’re a bit of a rotating cast behind frontman and multi-instrumentalist Cruz Contreras. The current lineup includes bassist and vocalist Sam Quinn, drummer Bowman Townsend, and guitarist/vocalist Dustin Schaefer. This might be the last chance you have to see them before Abilene needs to upgrade these guys to one of their “On the Road” destinations.

    Friday, December 29
    Hinkley @ Three Heads Brewing

    Rochester’s own Hinkley will start the New Year weekend off at Three Heads. Nearing the 20 year mark as a band, they will have plenty of material to draw from, but will likely be favoring their fantastic brand new album, Peak of Light. Their sound hovers amongst the Wilcos and Death Cabs of the world; hints of Americana sand-blasted with more modern and experimental rock sounds.

    Friday, December 29
    Rubblebucket, Cuddle Magic @ Anthology

    Rubblebucket has made Rochester a stop along their New Year’s tour for the past few years at least. There’s not a better time to see them than when you’re in the mood to celebrate. The afro-beat-based horn-infused dance happy music is perfect for a party and this year the party will be at Anthology. Even though it won’t quite be New Year’s Eve, they won’t skimp on the balloons, confetti and wild antics. No stranger to Rochester either, Cuddle Magic will open with their unusual instrumentation and fantastically lush baroque rock sounds.

    Sunday, December 31
    Easy Star All Stars, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad @ Anthology

    Speaking of parties at Anthology, the next two nights they’ll be throwing the Forever Party to end 2017 on a dub note. It all starts on the 30th with John Brown’s Body, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad and Thunderbody. JBB and GPGDS are both members of the reggae label, Easy Star Records. The label’s signature band, Easy Star All Stars, are known for recreating famous albums in their own image. On New Year’s Eve they’ll be presenting their spin on a Pink Floyd classic, playing through their Dub Side of the Moon album. That will be followed by another set by GPGDS. Should be a fun time!

  • Children Of Bodom Return To Rochester With 20 Years Down And Dirty Tour

    Rochester welcomed back Finnish death metal band, Children Of Bodom on Sunday with their commemorative tour celebrating the release of their first album, Something Wild. The American leg of their 20 Years Down & Dirty Tour hit 24 for cities, Rochester being the last American stop before heading for Canada. Joining Children Of Bodom on tour were fellow Finnish Thrash Metal band, Lost Society and Carach Angren, a Black Metal band from the Netherlands along with Uncured, a Death Metal band from New York City.

    Children Of Bodom This tour wasn’t one to miss, reaching both new and old Children Of Bodom fans, playing songs from their first three albums. The crowd showed diversity in sporting a variety of shirts, patches and attire, drawing in metalheads from as far as Albany and Syracuse to Anthology, a restored multi-level auto warehouse on East Avenue. While the crowd initially looked sparse and scattered before the show began as the evening progressed more people began filtering in, filling up the venue.

    NYC’s own Progressive Death Metal four piece, Uncured kicked the night off. The band released it’s first full length album Medusa in March 2017.Uncured features brothers Zak and Rex Cox on guitars and vocals, Liam Manley on drums, and Jon Kita on bass.

    Following Uncured were fellow Finns, Lost Society who unleashed their energy, keeping the crowd wanting. Hailing from Jyväskylä, Finland, the band consists of guitarist and lead vocalist Samy Elbanna, guitarist and backing vocalist Arttu Lesonen, bassist and backing vocalist Mirko Lehtinen, and drummer Ossi Paananen.

    The third band, Carach Angren added an interesting and darker change in atmosphere and was met with an enthusiastic crowd. The band sported corpse paint, an interesting mic stand which included a spinal chord and hip bones, which the vocalist temporarily sporting a skull mask and crown for their set. Carach Angren is Dennis “Seregor” Droomers on vocals, Clemens “Ardek” Wijers on keyboard and Ivo “Namtar” Wijers on drums.

    By the time the final and headlinging band, Children of Bodom, took the stage, the crowd was riled, ready and waiting. Frontman Alexi Laiho wasted no time adding a special touch in the getting CoB fans pumped up and wanting more, eagerly met with the crowd throwing up their “horns.” The band’s return to Rochester was well received after the long wait with their prior show with Black Label Society and Clutch at the Main Street Armory on January 30, 2012. Children of Bodom is Alexi Laiho on vocals/lead guitar, keyboardist Janne Wirman, bassist Henkka Seppälä, drummer Jaska Raatikainen and Daniel Freyberg on rhythm guitar.

    Setlist: Deadnight Warrior, In the Shadows, Needled 24/7, Hatebreeder, Lake Bodom, Warheart, Hate Me!, Red Light In My Eyes Part 2, Downfall, Everytime I Die, Hate Crew Deathroll, Kissing The Shadows, Children of Bodom

    Encore: The Nail and Towards Dead End

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  • Interview: Get to Know Folk Rock Quartet Dave DiPrimo Band and Hear New Album ‘Reflections’

    Dave DiPrimo Band has just released Reflections, their sophomore full-length album. NYS Music met up with members of the folk rock quartet at Java’s Cafe, where just two months ago they played to a packed house during the Rochester Fringe Festival. Their saxophonist was unable to attend, but Michael Slattery, the photographer who did the artwork for the album cover, was available for the interview.

    Dave DiPrimo Band at Java’s Cafe during the 2017 Rochester Fringe Festival        Photo: Joseph DiPrimo

    Paula Cummings: Dave, you started as a singer/songwriter. What made you want to start a band?

    Dave DiPrimo: Being a singer/songwriter, there’s only so much you can do. Your songs come to fruition, but they never turn out the way you expect them to. They’re kind of empty. It was also kinda lonely, always doing one thing, just you on stage. There’s no one to turn around and make faces at when you say stupid stuff. No drummer to make fun of you or tell you to stop blabbering when you’re talking too long. Playing with a full band makes the songs sound better and fuller – their musicianship and the instrumentation they provide. It’s more fun to play with people, especially good people. And these guys, you know, they’re okay. (Laughter)

    PC: Who are the other members of the band, and what do you play?

    Reid Hoffmeier: I’m Reid and I drum for the Dave DiPrimo Band.

    Ian Benz: My name is Ian and I play bass. Me and Dave went to Boy Scouts 6 years ago. That’s where we met. Six months later, I started playing in Ivy’s Panic Room. He knew that I’ve been playing bass for a while. He contacted me. And this has been working out pretty well.

    DD: Karis Gregory plays saxophone and lead guitar on some songs. I go to Nazareth College with him. In previous iterations of this band, he filled in for certain shows. When the band was changing, I brought him on full time.

    PC: That leads to my next question. You’re all in college. How do you balance the demands of being students and musicians?

    DD: Very carefully! We try to practice as much as we’re available. This has been a busy time of year. We haven’t been playing too many shows, as we’ve been finishing the album. It can be a lot to try to organize practice and shows with school, but we’ve been doing okay so far. We haven’t had any VH1 Behind The Music meltdown moments.

    RH: This is one of the few things I do for fun outside of college and work, so whenever we have something that pops up, I just cut everything else and make this a priority. It’s hard juggling three jobs essentially, but having a job you care about and is entertaining to do, with a bunch of friends, you make it number one.

    IB: It’s not that bad. Weekends usually work out, and there’s only a couple weekends left in the semester. I’m cramming it in, but it’s totally worth it.

    PC: You were featured on the Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight, where you had the distinction of being the youngest artist on the series. What was that like?

    DD: It was pretty cool. It was an interesting experience to have the cameras there. Dan Gross, the host, is A) a talented professional and B) just a really great guy, so we were happy to be on the show with him. That was before we had Ian with us. We got Ian two months after that. It was a cool jumping point to have our first show together as a taped session. We also did a little recording at WITR, too. We did a live EP with them. Those kinds of sessions, where it’s not just a show but there’s something permanent left over, that’s cool. We signed the (WITR) wall near Joywave and a lot of bands who have done stuff there. We took up an obnoxious amount of space.

    RH: Dead center above the door, so walking in and out you always see it.

    WITR Studio        Photo: Bailey Gribben

    PC: Tell me about the album. What is the overall theme?

    DD: I feel like every time I write an album, it starts as a story with a start and finish. And I feel like by the time it’s done and in the right order, it’s not anymore. It’s kind of little vignettes. It’s called Reflections. Everything I wrote is not about things currently going on in my life, for the most part. They’re all sort of nostalgia and looking back. For example, on the last track on the album, “Glory Days,” there’s a line referencing this past New Year’s Eve when we had a fun time at one of our live shows. There’s a joke that’s made about that evening.

    PC: You guys are young, but have this old soul vibe going on.

    RH: We’re just more mature than everyone else!

    DD: We’re old and cool and wise… Our music has so many influences. As a songwriter, I’m inspired by soul, alternative, punk and rock, and some emo stuff. All these different genres look back and reflect on the past. I feel like there are not too many folk songs looking towards a bright future. It’s all dwelling on stuff.

    PC: When and where was it recorded?

    RH: I don’t remember the date. It was over the summer, but we did it in one day. It was exhausting. I didn’t get home until midnight.

    DD: It was at The Green Room in Ontario. Matt Ramerman, our engineer, is the owner of The Green Room. We did the session there. A month or two later, I went back. He had moved his studio from Ontario to Rochester. I went back and added some keys and worked on mixing some more.

    PC: How did this recording experience differ from the first album?

    DD: Even as we were listening to the rough mix in the studio for Reflections, it just felt like it was going to be a more satisfying product.

    RH: We put a lot of effort and hours into it. Not just in the studio, in the weeks leading up to the recording: the practice, the ideas back and forth. We had already played these songs a number of times, but we just kept nitpicking – “I want to change this, let’s run it through.” We listened to it for the first time a couple weeks ago. It was a lot of fun.

    DD: Ian, Reid and Karis put so much effort into the album, and into practice – making sure they were on and ready. I think at most we only needed three or four takes.

    PC: I like the album artwork.

    Michael Slattery: One day, I got out of work and I saw these clouds from a distance. I went home and got my camera; I went chasing the clouds. I took a nice picture and that’s the picture that’s on the back of the CD. And as I was driving home, I looked into my side mirror. I saw the cloud again and I thought it would be cool to take a picture of the cloud back through the mirror.

    DD: I love Mike’s photos. I think it fits the mood really well. And I really like my brother Joe’s photo on the inside of the four silhouettes.

    Reflections was released on November 25. It’s available to stream on their website and Spotify, and purchase on CD Baby,  iTunes and Google Play. Follow Dave DiPrimo Band on Facebook and Twitter for upcoming performances and news.

  • Exclusive Premiere: Tart Vandelay “Cloudy Doubts”

    Rochester indie pop group Tart Vandelay has released the first single, “Cloudy Doubts,” off their upcoming EP Flow, which is due out on Friday, December 1. Like others on the EP, “Cloudy Doubts” uses nature as a metaphor for personal trials and tribulations, overcoming challenges and adversity. The idea is to see how nature flows and functions and use that as a guide to narrate one’s own life. The EP was recorded at Wicked Squid studios and was produced by Josh Pettinger.

    Tart Vandelay Cloudy DoubtsYes, that band name is inspired by a classic Seinfeld, but this group is a sonic importer/exporters that began as a duo featuring musical couple Marty LoFaso and Katie Halligan. The two began dating in 2011 while studying music in their hometown of Rochester, NY. After moving to Boston, MA, the couple officially formed Tart Vandelay in the summer of 2014. The duo added a rhythm section recently, adding Stephen Petoniak on bass and Christopher Dubuc-Penney on drums in spring of 2016, and in 2017 Pete Zamniak replaced original bassist Stephen Petoniak. Stay up to date with Tart Vandelay and listen to “Cloudy Doubts” below.
     

    Follow Tart Vandelay on Instagram, Bandcamp, Facebook and at their website.

  • Dave DiPrimo Band’s Latest Single “Know You Best”

    Rochester alternative folk group Dave DiPrimo Band has released their latest single, “Know You Best.” The song comes from their forthcoming sophomore album Reflections, which is set to release on Saturday, November 25.

    “Know You Best” is the first track on the new full-length LP. In this intensely emotional tale of longing for connection, pleading lyrics give way to bellowing vocals in the chorus. The song establishes the nostalgic tone that pervades the entire album.

    Dave DiPrimo Band is: Dave DiPrimo on vocals/guitar/keys, Reid Hoffmeier on drums, Ian Benz on bass, and Karis Gregory on saxophone (and sometimes guitar). While based in the folk tradition, DDB weaves in influences from genres as far flung as soul and punk to create a sound that’s both timeless and contemporary.

    https://soundcloud.com/nysmusic/know-you-best

  • Ron Gallo and Naked Giants Blow the Doors Off the Bug Jar

    “I don’t know why there’s anyone here but it’s fucking awesome,” said Ron Gallo a few songs into his blistering rock and roll set at the Bug Jar in Rochester. “I thought the rule was, the first time you play a place only three people show up…”

    But this show, from top to bottom, was in complete defiance of all rules. As that’s the very definition of punk, it was very fitting that the show ended with both Ron Gallo’s trio and their tour mates, Seattle trio Naked Giants, all on stage, mostly shirtless, romping through The Stooges’ “TV Eye,” screaming and thrashing about the stage like a group of maniacs.

    Rules likely also dictate that the opening band will be some half-baked group of local musicians defiling gems from The Stones or trying to work up yet another rendition of “Crazy.” But on this night, the crowd was treated to 40 minutes of excellent original songs from Rochester’s Dangerbyrd. Mixing blues, country and early 60’s psychedelia, they settle comfortably near the sounds of The Band and Credence Clearwater Revival, keeping it simple while nailing it in the process.

    Next up were the aforementioned Naked Giants, a trio of Gianni Aiello on bass, Grant Mullen on guitar and Henry LaVallee on drums. They played with a frenetic energy, going after every single note with reckless abandon, completely untethered. The set began with a noisy, effects-laden jam, swimming in cymbal crashes. Aiello danced about the stage, somehow still keeping total control of his bass sound which, at times, he seemed to be changing with every other pluck of the strings. They weren’t a band to follow the rules either. The bass was as much a lead as the guitar was and traditional song structure took a back seat to rhythm and pure enjoyment. No one was having more fun than the three on stage.

    The small stage couldn’t contain LaVallee’s excitement when, just a few songs into the set, he kicked the back door open and ran outside mid-song, the first of many times that door would swing open that night. Mullen shredded impressively throughout their set which included songs like “Slow Dance 2,” “Pyramids,” “Twist” and the closing White Stripes-esque “YaYa.” The energy was infectious and the mostly unfamiliar crowd was smitten by set’s end.

    By the time guitarist Ron Gallo and his trio (bassist Joe Bisirri and drummer Dylan Sevey) took the stage, the crowd was at a fever pitch. Gallo played off of this by stepping to the mic, monotonously and stiffly reading from a piece of paper: “My name is Ron Gallo. That is also the name of our band. We are excited to be at the Bug Jar in Rochester New York, one four six oh seven. Thank you and enjoy yourself.” It was the calm before the storm, immediately followed by fuzzed out bass blasts and a heavy guitar jam. Usual rock show protocol would dictate that the guitar player wouldn’t jump into the crowd until late in the show, but Gallo was jamming from within the crowd before the first song even started.

    The entry jam lead into an opening combo of “Put the Kids to Bed” and “Kill the Medicine Man” off his stellar new album, Heavy Meta. They mixed tracks from the album together with new songs (“Man Keep Your Hands on Your Pants”), older songs (“Really Nice Guys”) and covers (Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be”). When “All the Punks Are Domesticated” got called out from the crowd, Gallo responded,”…is the name of the next song we’re going to play” and launched into it without missing a beat. During the slow dripping, heavy blues of “Black Market Eyes,” Gallo followed LaVallee’s earlier lead and left the stage out the back door. 30 seconds later he returned running through the back of the crowd and back on stage to rejoin the band for a another heavy rock jam.

    The racing train car of a rock show finally went off the rails during his solo on “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me.” He once again went out the back door, this time mid-solo, and with his guitar, continued to play outside on Monroe Avenue. He eventually reentered the room, bringing along the boys from Naked Giants as well as a couple of other new fans off the street. The two bands shared the stage as a double-trio for raucous versions of “Sorry Not Everybody is You” and “Age of Information” from a split EP they released together earlier this month. They followed that up with a through-the-roof cover of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” which was a meta (heavy meta?) description of exactly what was happening. Playing the denouement to that climax, the six were prompted to play one more song, which brings us back to the shirtless and thrashing “TV Eye.”

    Ron Gallo Setlist:
    Intro > Put the Kids to Bed > Kill the Medicine Man, Man Keep Your Hands On Your Pants, Really Nice Guys, Please Yourself, Black Market Eyes, All the Punks Are Domesticated, You Gotta Be (Des’ree), It’s All Gonna Be OK, Temporary Slave, Young Lady You’re Scaring Me, Sorry Not Everybody is You*, Age of Information*, Helter Skelter (Beatles)*
    E: TV Eye*
    *with Naked Giants

  • Interview: Kyle Waldron on Creating Barbarosa’s ‘Loud and Pretty’ Sound

    There is no greater joy in life than discovering music that resonates with the soul, sending spirits soaring into heights of ecstasy. I recently found myself captivated by a performance by Barbarosa. The self-described “loud and pretty” Rochester band combines both male and female vocals over intricately arranged instrumentation. The overall effect is like being guided through a labyrinth in the dewy haze of dawn. I met up with the band’s founder, Kyle Waldron, to discover more about the origin and evolution of this captivating band.

    Paula Cummings: What sparked your interest in music?

    Kyle Waldron: I’ve always liked music a lot. My dad was a bass player back in the 70’s. He had a lot of instruments. I learned to play bass, I learned to play guitar. I got super into it. It feels like something I was supposed to do. And I used to go to church. That’s how I learned to play in band, in the church. After a while, it was like ‘I want to start my own band.’ I started Barbarosa while I was in college. I’ve always been obsessed with it. There’s nothing in life I’ve ever felt so strongly about.

    PC: Why the name Barbarosa?

    KW: We were looking for a name for the band and my bass player in college came up with the name Barbarossa. It means red beard. I took out the extra “s” because of copyright with a band in the UK. I’m really into history – I was a history major in college. It’s got historical significance. Barbarossa was an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the name of the Nazi invasion in Russia in WWII. It comes back to my interests and what I look like.

    PC: So you and Hannah Gouldrick take turns on vocals on the songs?

    KW: Hannah has been helpful with writing vocals. That’s not really my strong suit. I like to come up with songs and guitar parts. Lately it’s been fun. We’ve actually started taking vocal lessons with a coach. So now I feel like “Oh, I can do this harmony.” I just couldn’t do that before. Now I like it a lot.

    PC: What is your songwriting process?

    KW: Almost always it will start with an idea I came up with on guitar and then I’ll record it. I’ll have someone make drums for the song. And then I’ll go back and flesh it out with bass and vocals. Usually vocals come last. I’ve started changing that. I realized some of the best songs have integrated vocal and instrumental parts. I used to be into post-rock instrumental. Lately I’ve been trying to write vocals, simple songs with chords and then add everything else. I’ve experimented a lot with how I write songs. I strive for not just doing things the same way.

    PC: Do you think the changes in the songwriting process have been the result of taking vocal lessons?

    KW: I feel like for a lot of musicians, you have a preconceived notion of how you think people write songs. Then you go through it and do it for a while. Then you’re like “Oh, I think there’s a bunch of ways that people do this.” It changes how you think. The more you do it, the more the process shifts. I realized that if I do the vocals first, it would make them more prominent in the song. I think that’s what most people identify with is vocals. I’ve tried hard at improving. Like I said, it was always an afterthought. It’s still a work in progress.

    PC: And it’s probably changed as the dynamics of the band has changed.

    KW: That’s another major change is getting away from guitar music and into synth – keyboards. I was really into guitar amps for a while but now with the synth… I’m really into gear, so it’s a whole new world to explore. That’s changed a lot too because my friend Nick Maynard did the first two songs on the new EP and he’s a master at that stuff. He has cool synth stuff, vintage gear, and he knows what he’s doing. That helped me out a lot. Nick’s not into doing the live stuff. He loves writing music. He was instrumental in helping me learn that stuff. My roommate also plays keys. Dave Heeks is really into that stuff. He’s going to probably end up being our keyboard player. We’ll be adding keys on more songs. It’s cool because there’s progress. I’ve had three different people work on drums. Matt Battle (of Oh Manitou) was the original drummer. He was on the first song I recorded, “Colorblind.” Then I did another song with him. Then Frank Dicesare, who’s more into hip-hop, which was kind of cool. He plays groovy, and adds stuff you wouldn’t normally hear in indie rock. And then Greg Best. He’s done all the live shows with us. He did the last two songs we put out. Greg is amazing. He went to Nazareth for performance and studied under a famous jazz drummer. He comes up with things in no time at all.

    Barbarosa at Wicked Squid Studios

    PC: I saw you last month, and you did a cover of a No Doubt song, which was different.

    KW: That was Hannah’s idea. We kind of changed it around so it sounded more like Barbarosa. It came together. That’s one of Hannah’s biggest influences in music and she was happy to be able to do that song. Now it’s in our repertoire. Now that we’ve done that, I can see where Hannah gets a lot of her melodies from.

    PC: What was the first concert you went to?

    KW: It was at Madison Square Garden. It was a Christian music festival. TobyMac and Jars of Clay. That was 5th grade. I didn’t know what was going on. It ended up being “Woah!” It was loud, and you get the adrenalin for the first time. I got into more shows in high school. I saw Balance and Composure in Philadelphia. It woke me up to crowd involvement. And punk shows where people were going nuts and piling onto each other, moshing and stuff like that. That set up my whole idea of playing music. It was a community thing. It was so cool to see so many people in one area connecting. I didn’t know that was possible at that point. That it can make them happy or make them sad. That’s when I realized I want to do this. I want to start a band.

    PC: Where do you get inspiration?

    KW: There’s a podcast called Song Exploder. They interview artists and go through their songwriting process. It changed my songwriting process. For one of the songs on the EP, I was reading. I was on a history binge. I was going through a bunch of books about the WWII era. I was reading about the Nazis and how they were on drugs. But it was legal. They had these crazy pharmacies in Germany. Nobody knew what heroin was yet. They were just like, “I take this drug and work all night.” It was basically heroin. It probably helped spur WWII. Hitler was an opiate addict, and I’m sure a lot of the terrible decisions he made had to do with that. The drug was called Pervetin. It was the miracle drug of their day. I took a bunch of quotes from that book, mixed them all up, and picked lines that sounded the best. Then we picked the melodies and crafted the song. And it sounded awesome. It was a lot of fun. I got the idea from the Rivers Cuomo episode on Song Exploder. I never would have thought to do that.

    PC: Music is meant to be fun, right?

    KW: It got me out of my rut of songwriting. I was like “I’ve got to sit down and write some lyrics.” Some of it you can’t force. When it comes to art, you have to let it burst out of you. If I’m sitting there having fun and trying new stuff, it comes out. I try to do that more often. (At the EP Release show) I’ll be playing in Brotherless, too. For Brotherless, we’re going to be covering a Nirvana song. We’re playing this song and it’s so fun. I get to slam power chords and sing harmonies. It’s so much more carefree. I’ve also been pushing a lot of my music in that direction. I’ve learned to simplify because you realize that no one is going to notice. If you can write a simple song that is entertaining that’s so much more important than being able to write a ten minute song full of guitar solos and technicality. I’ve really toned down the riffage and time signatures. I still want it to be creative, but like a mix or creative but also easy to understand and accessible. Like the first song on the EP is not in 4/4, it’s in 7/8. That’s what I want to do is find ways to impress musicians but also at the same time doing it in a way that people who don’t know these things will understand. If you reel yourself in, then you’re a little more within your capabilities, everything’s a little tighter. People underestimate how important the basics are.

    Barbarosa is available on Bandcamp. Physical copies on CD will be on sale at the EP Release Show on November 25 at The Bug Jar in Rochester and at their show on December 7 at Bushwick Party House in Brooklyn.

  • Joywave Leaves Fans Feeling More than Just Content on Day One of Tour

    Joywave answered the question off their first LP, How Do You Feel Now? with this year’s second LP, Content.  To promote the new album, they spent the summer touring with Young The Giant and Cold War Kids. Now they’re on their own headlining tour. Thanks. Thanks for Coming 2017 tour began on November 11 with a sold out show at Anthology in their hometown of Rochester.

    The frigid cold weather didn’t stop people from arriving early. An hour before the show, the line had already wrapped around the corner from Anthology in Rochester’s East End district. Once the doors opened, a smoking hot rock ‘n roll performance by The Demos helped to warm people up.

    The Demos

    All-female quartet The Aces wowed the audience with their indie pop prowess. Then KOPPS took to the stage, combining vivacious electro-pop songs with synchronized dance moves. By the time the supporting bands wrapped up, the sleek but chic industrial space had filled to capacity.

    Joywave started with the title track from their new album. In “Content” singer Daniel Armbruster plays with the homonym ‘content’ and the relationship between commercialism and satisfaction. The theme prevails in other songs from the new album, including “It’s a Trip!” and “Little Lies You’re Told.”

    Interspersed between the tracks from Content were songs from across their seven year span, including more obscure tunes like their 2011 single “Golden State” (featuring Armbruster on guitar) and the bonus track from the compilation Swish called “Life In A Bubble I Blew.” They also premiered a brand new song called “Alice.” A Joywave set wouldn’t be complete without songs from How Do You Feel Now?. The crowd went wild with “Destruction,” jumping in time to the beat and singing along, ” Oh my God, there’s nobody who can set me right. I’ve been sent to torch the palace down in broad daylight.”

    Daniel Armbruster of Joywave

    The tour is called Thanks. Thanks for Coming, so named for one of the tracks on Content. It’s also representative of their immense gratitude for everyone who has been a part of their journey. They took a break between songs to thank everyone, including the supporting bands, the venue, and the local alternative radio station.

    The last song of the set was “Going to a Place.” The room resonated with the sound of a thousand voices and a thousand pairs of hands clapping along. Keyboardist Benjamin Bailey extended the outro of the song. He continued to play long after the rest of the band left the stage, before eventually conceding to the end of the song.

    Benjamin Bailey of Joywave

    It didn’t take much to convince Joywave to come out for an encore. Armbruster picked up the guitar again, plucking along to the simple but sincere tune “Confidence.” They picked up the pace with “Nice House” and “Tongues.” The evening concluded aptly with a performance of “Thanks. Thanks For Coming.”

    Joywave is on tour through the end of the month. They will be joined by The Aces, The Demos, and Maybird on select dates. In addition, they are playing a few shows in December. The second leg of the Thanks. Thanks For Coming Tour was just announced. Tickets go on sale Friday, November 17.

    Setlist: Content, Now, It’s a Trip!, Shutdown, Life in a Bubble I Blew, Parade, Traveling at the Speed of Light, Alice, Rumors, Little Lies You’re Told, Golden State, Destruction, Doubt, Somebody New, Going to a Place. Encore: Confidence, Nice House, Tongues, Thanks. Thanks For Coming.

    [FinalTilesGallery id=’988′]

  • All Them Witches and King Buffalo Turned the Bug Jar Upside Down

    With a fully furnished retro 60’s apartment hanging from the ceiling, Rochester’s Bug Jar is the original Upside Down. There were some frighteningly stranger things going on between it’s walls on Sunday, November 12. The music put forth by Nashville’s All Them Witches and Rochester’s own King Buffalo could be described as a lot of things: rock, metal, blues, psychedelic, sludge, stoner. But perhaps one word summed it up best: BADASS. How else could one elicit the concentrated pulsating power billowing through the small rock club? What else could properly describe two different bands sporting shirtless drummers?

    This saga began with an ominous electric drone put out by King Buffalo‘s bassist Dan Reynolds. The suspense built as guitarist Sean McVay added some additional noise before drummer Scott Donaldson found his way to the kit. The set opening “Orion” continued to build steam until it exploded into a full-fledged rock out. “Can you hear me / through the smoke and the haze?” The band seems to run on the antithetical premise that the slower it gets, the harder it rocks. During “Drink from the River Rising” an unnatural pulsating from the intersection of guitar and bass had the entire space vibrating, before finally closing out with the same electronic drone that began the set.

    All Them Witches King Buffalo

    All Them Witches took the stage to deliver more of the same: Brooding, mysterious and bursting with dark energy. They may be the most un-Nashville Nashville band, though their geography shines through with some Southern-rock touches. The band, with Charles Michael Parks Jr. on bass and lead vocals, Robby Staebler on drums, Ben McLeod on guitar and Allan Van Cleave on keyboards, showed a great propensity for stretching songs out in long bouts of improvisation. It appeared early on with a massive “The Death of Coyote Woman” that opened and closed with extended blues rock jams. Staebler towered over his drums, pounding out an incredible amount of sound from a bare bones kit.

    No one’s calling them a jam band, but they could spar with the best of them. At the heart of the set laid a 30 minute segment that began with “Internet,” moved effortlessly into “Blood and Sand/Milk and Endless Waters” before finishing up back at “Internet.” Filling every gap within were flourishes of psychedelic organ and electric piano, staccato guitar freak outs, melodic slide guitar progressions, and low end drum rumbles. Behind driving bass work the pace quickened and mellowed over multiple distinct sections. In a quasi-apology, Parks announced, “That was a song about being alive, thanks for sticking it out with us.” There was no apology needed though, it was glorious.

    With the blistering rock-out “Sleeping Through the War” the set closed showcasing their dynamic variety. The crowd which had patiently meandered with them earlier in the set, took the opportunity to squeeze the last bit of energy out of the weekend and a mosh pit broke out. The show ended just before midnight, and as Sunday turned to Monday, reality set back in. Unfortunately, the right-side up beckoned.

    All Them Witches Setlist: Alabaster, When God Comes Back, The Death of Coyote Woman, 3-5-7, Elk.Blood.Heart, Internet > Blood and Sand/Milk and Endless Waters > Internet, Am I going Up?, Sleeping Through the War

  • Hearing Aide: Jon Lewis Band’s ‘Baby Brother’

    One of the best parts of reviewing albums is being exposed to music that you most likely would have never discovered on your own. At first, I listened to the Rochester-based Jon Lewis Band’s recently-released EP Baby Brother solely for the sake of writing this review. And then, one morning, I woke up with the melodies lodged into my psyche and I listened because I wanted to.

    Don’t let the term local singer/songwriter fool you. Don’t let the genre label “indie rock” push this album out of the grasp of your musical appreciation.  Baby Brother resonates with a driving sense of urgency, possibly a reflection of the head space Lewis was in when he wrote and recorded it earlier this year.

    “After a freak car accident at the end of March, I found myself inspired to write and create music with more of an edgier attitude,” said Lewis. “We were also just returning from a short tour and I was eager to collaborate more on music that would feature the group and the intensity of those live performances. The process was so quick and often had a sense of profound urgency, energy and cohesiveness.”

    From the first track “Let Me Go,” the EP quickly seizes your attention with smokey, sultry verses, gradually leading to a bridge that builds into a chorus filled with shredding crescendos of hard-hitting rock. The third track on Baby Brother will keep you “Hanging On” with its yearning, soul-calling melodies, precise guitar harmonies and memorable lyrics.

    “What should you say, when my light is fading

    And all my bad decisions come collected

    To keep me hanging on

    Would you keep me hanging on”

    Baby Brother travels into familiar territory with hints of grunge and indie rock, yet with enough rock n’ roll and pop to set the Jon Lewis Band apart from today’s age of dime-a-dozen artists.

    A full-time musician, Jon Lewis bleeds, breaths and sleeps music. Since hitting the road as an acoustic singer-songwriter playing in coffeehouses and bars in Upstate New York in 2013, he’s released four EPs and two full-length albums –  some on his own, others in collaboration with some of Rochester’s well-known and up-and-coming artists, building a solid band of talented musicians along the way. Self-taught and determined to grow as a musician, he’s dedicated himself to producing music at a pace that matches his ambition.

    Partnering up with Producer/Engineer/friend Dave Drago of 1809 Studios, Lewis released two EPs in 2014:  Trail of Dreams and In Disguise. In 2015, he released his first full-length album Panic Rock on which he collaborated with Jacob Walsh on drums and Shawn Brogan on lead guitar, both of whom are now fundamental players in the Jon Lewis Band.  

    Soon after, Lewis began production on Out To Lunch which was released in 2016, this time joined by Alex Northrup on keys, completing the five-piece Jon Lewis Band. Wasting no time, the group released their second full length album Exquisite Corpse on May 15, 2017 and immediately followed it up with Baby Brother which was released in September, 2017.

    When he’s not on stage with the Jon Lewis Band, you can find him playing fun, educational music to kids at Park’s Departments, birthday parties and other events in Rochester with his wife as “Mr. and Mrs. Loops.” 

    “It is incredibly rewarding and fun, and an amazing way to instill the silliness that is so easily forgotten in our lives,” he said.  

    Nominated two years in a row in the City Newspaper’s Best of Rochester Contest, Lewis said the five-piece Jon Lewis Band is focused and hellbent on producing more music and you can expect to see them playing in and around the Rochester area. Be sure to keep your ears peeled. Based on their latest offering, it’s bound to be good.

    Key Tracks: Let Me Go; Hanging On

    https://www.facebook.com/JonLewisBand/videos/1922496671345016/