The Thursday on the Village Green concert series is kicking off on July 12th in Hamilton, NY. The concert series takes place in downtown Hamilton and is known for being a 100-year tradition with music on the Village Green dating back to 1902.
Courtesy of Thursdays on the Village Green press release.
There’s a family-friendly theme to go alongside the concert each night this year in hopes of expanding on the traditional musical performances by incorporating these family-friendly themed nights. The family themed activities will start at 5:30 p.m. and music will take place from 7-9 p.m. There will also be local food trucks and 200 ice cream sandwiches provided each week by Hood Dairy. The concert series has no cover charge and is open to the public.
The kick-off event is on July 12th and will include the American Blues Roots band Chris Merkley’s Rocky Bottom Trio paired with a First Responders Night where the local police and ambulance will be present.
Event dates listed below:
July 12 – Chris Merkley’s Rocky Bottom Trio and First Responders Night – Hamilton, NY
July 19 – The Old Main and Comic-Con Night – Hamilton, NY
July 26 – Loren Barrigar and Education Night – Hamilton, NY
Aug. 2 – Nate Gross Band and Racing Night with Matt Janczuk – Hamilton, NY
Aug. 9- Sanguine Penguin and Healthy Hamilton Night – Hamilton, NY
Aug. 16 – JJ Murphy and Veterans Night – Hamilton, NY
Ben & Jerry’s is launching a partnership with Phish. It’s a third flavor to celebrate the 21st anniversary of The WaterWheel Foundation. The flavor is called, “It’s Ice… Cream” and is a twist on the classic Phish flavor, “Phish Food.”
It’s Ice… Cream
The “It’s Ice… Cream” flavor features a caramel malt ice cream with almond toffee pieces, fudge fish and a caramel swirl and was actually one of the original flavor concepts in the running back in 1997 when creating the flavor, “Phish Food.” A portion of all proceeds will benefit The WaterWheel Foundation which was created by Phish in 1997. The foundation was created to oversee the band’s various charitable activities.
These charitable activities include Phish Food’s support of a clean Lake Champlain and its surrounding basin, relief funds created post-natural disaster eras for both the state of Vermont and the island of Tortola, and a cancer research fund as well as supporting a large sphere of needs including social services, primarily those benefiting women and children; environmental, with a focus on clean water and land conservation with public access; as well as food banks, urban gardening and arts education.Since its creation WaterWheel has managed to donated over $4,000,000 to organization across the country.
The flavor, “It’s Ice…Cream” was named after the 1991 Phish song “It’s Ice.” The artwork on the container of the ice cream was created by renowned Phish poster artist, Jim Pollock. But the artwork on the Ben & Jerry’s pint isn’t the only art available. Ben & Jerry’s will be offering a merchandise gift pack available in limited quantities through store.benjerry.com, which includes a special poster design by Pollock. All proceeds of merchandise sales will directly benefit The WaterWheel Foundation.
Phish announced the release of recordings in three different formats on November 30th of theirThe Baker’s Dozen performances at Madison Square Garden back in 2017 with pre orders available now at on their merchandise store, Phish Dry Goods.
The Complete Baker’s Dozen Box Set
In the summer of 2017, Phish performed “The Baker’s Dozen,” which was a 13-show run at Madison Square Garden held over 17 nights. The band performed 26 unique sets featuring a grand total of 237 songs with not one repeated song during the three-week run and now that incredible set of shows can be listened to in three formats. The Baker’s Dozen comes in a three-CD or six-LP set (with 13 tracks hand-picked by the band) and The Complete Baker’s Dozen Box Set, which includes the ENTIRE run on 36 CDs. Legendary engineer Elliot Scheiner (Steely Dan, Van Morrison) has remixed each show.
The Complete Baker’s Dozen Box Set includes every note of music from the historic 13-night run on 36 discs. Also included are all 13 individually packaged shows, an 86-page book with full color photographs from the shows, an extensive essay featuring new interviews with each band member, Baker’s Dozen setlist journals, an embroidered patch, commemorative tickets, a complete set of eight mini-prints and a brand new Jim Pollock screen print (7″x10″, signed by Pollock) according to Phish’s announcement.
The Complete Box Set will be limited to one printing meanwhile both the three-CD and six-LP sets will be available in limited supplies in stores. The limited edition The Complete Baker’s Dozen Box Set will only be available from Phish’s merchandise store, Phish Dry Goods.
Phish returns to Watkins Glen this August for the Curveball Festival. NYS Music spoke with Michael Printup, president of Watkins Glen International, about the festival. You can read that here.
Taína Asili is a rising Puerto Rican musician and social justice activist from Albany, NY whose music is breaking into the mainstream while bringing forward a powerful message of justice. One of the ways she is accomplishing this is by performing at several prominent festivals in New York, Rhode Island and Michigan this summer.
Taina Asili courtesy of her website. Photo by Kiki Vassilakis
With her recent performance at The Women’s March on Washington last year and her latest music video “No Es Mi Presidente (Not My President),” which was premiered in Rolling Stone and called the 2017 International Women’s Day anthem by Latina Magazine, she’s growing more and more awareness from the general public not only on social justice issues but on the way music can be a platform to bring those issues forward.
Asili works either as a solo artist or with her dynamic eight-piece band which combines powerful vocals with an energetic fusion of Afro-Latin, reggae and rock. They offer a sound that spans continents, inspiring audiences to dance to the rhythms of rebellion. Taina Asili has been creating music for social change for 23 years and has toured all of the world.
Asili is dedicated to using her art, specifically her music, as a tool for personal and social transformation. Asili’s writing is based off of liberation themes and so is her activism in political prisoner liberation, prisoner justice, climate justice and food justice movements. She has an MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College and is known for, in addition to her performance and activist work, facilitating arts workshops for both youth and adults.
She has an array of projects this summer you don’t want to miss which can be found below:
– June 8 and 9 -Asili will premier her new documentary “Resiliencia”, about Puerto Rico’s resilience after last year’s hurricanes, at Providence’s largest festival, PVD Fest and performing on the City Hall Stage with her full band – Providence, RI
– June 10 -Performing for over 45 thousand people at Motor City Pride – Detroit, MI.
– June 14 – Participating in The Human Rights Conference – NYC Pride
– June 22 – Participating in The Rally – NYC Pride
– July 14 – Joining the lineup of performers for Hamilton at the Hill Art Center 50th Anniversary celebration “Sankofa, The Legacy” at Proctors Theater – Schenectady, NY.
– July 18 – Asili will be offering two songwriting workshops at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance pre-festival conference, Culture Camp located just outside of Ithaca – Trumansburg, NY.
– July 21- Performing for her third time at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance located just outside of Ithaca – Trumansburg, NY.
– July 22- Asili and her band will be opening for Chilean musician Pascuala Ilabaca at the well-known Music Haven Concert Series – Schenectady, NY.
In Big Flats, New York, there isn’t necessarily a lot to see, but it has the Tag’s Budweiser Summer Stage bringing in people from all over central New York. On June 2, the stage was packed with fans of Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly with both bands stopping there on their summer 2018 co-headlining US tour.
Dropkick Murphys performing during encore at Tag’s Budweiser Summer Stage. Photo by Nora Hones.
Flogging Molly performed first with the Dropkick Murphys following, but nothing about the line-up made it feel like the two bands weren’t equals. During both of their sets, they were constantly boosting each other up and dedicating songs to each other. The set-up of Tag’s Budweiser Summer Stage aided to this sense of equal partnership. The merch was equal, the stage set ups were equal, the excitement from the the crowd was equal.
Flogging Molly pulled out an array of classics including, “Devil’s Dance Floor,” “If I Ever Leave This World Alive”, and “What’s Left Of The Flag,” but also included new music in their performance that the crowd really seemed to enjoy. Dropkick Murphys also played many fan favorites like “Rose Tattoo”, “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”, and “The Boys Are Back” which the crowd went wild for, and did a multi-song encore, even bringing out some of the members of Flogging Molly on stage with them and pulling up members from the crowd.
For a pile of punk rockers, the crowd was as pleasant and polite as can be and so were the bands. It was all smiles, laughs and mosh pits. Ken Casey, who is usually the bass guitarist (he wasn’t playing bass during the show due to his recent back surgery, just singing) and co-lead singer and songwriter of Dropkick Murphys, explained to the the crowd the rules of mosh pitting at his shows. Right in front of the stage, it’s an anything-goes, mosh-pit-frenzy, where you can get a sneaker to the face and that’s totally acceptable, but if he sees anyone going too crazy in the outer areas of the crowd, like where there were kids, he made sure that the crowd knew, to use his language, that anyone who starts something where they shouldn’t be has the right to have the shit kicked out of them.
It was one of the politest crowds and band combinations I’ve seen at a show like this and would be something I would definitely look to attend again. Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly continue their 2018 summer tour throughout June and show dates can be found below.
Show dates:
June 5 – Masonic Temple Theatre – DETROIT, MI
June 7 – PMC Amphitheater -KANSAS CITY/BONNER SPRINGS, KS
June 8 – The Armory – MINNEAPOLIS, MN
June 9 – Stir Cove – COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA
June 10 – Fox Street Compound – DENVER, CO
June 12 – Pop’s Outside – ST LOUIS/SAUGET, IL
June 13 – Express Live! – COLUMBUS, OH
June 16 – RI Bold Point Park – PROVIDENCE, RI
June 17 – Stone Pony Summerstage – ASBURY PARK, NJ
June 18 – Stage AE – PITTSBURGH, PA
June 19 – Red Hat Amphitheatre – RALEIGH, NC
June 21 – Festival Pier – PHILADELPHIA, PA
June 22 – Forest Hills Stadium – QUEENS, NY
June 23 – Bank Of New Hampshire Pavilion featuring Professional Boxing – GILFORD, NH
Ponder, known for spelling their name with a lower-case “p” and as one of Buffalo’s up-and-coming alt-rock/jam groups, is hitting the road on June 23 in Rochester for their eight city tour across New York and for the first time ever, Vermont.
Courtesy of ponder’s website.
Ponder was formed in 2015 as a solo project of songwriter Gabriel Birkby, but quickly morphed into a band and has become a Buffalo fan favorite. This is their first time hitting the road since 2017 when they visited spots stretching from Buffalo, clear through New York City. They’ve undergone some major line-up changes within the last six months and the group is now somewhat of an amorphous funk/rock powerhouse and are known for constantly having their friends in music hop-up on stage.
The band’s lineup setting out for the summer tour consists of Gabe Birkby on vocals/lead guitar, Andy Hogan on bass, Paul Sottnik on keys, and Rochester’s Marcus Peters on drums.
Tour dates:
June 23 – Funk n’ Waffles – Rochester, NY (w/ Mother Funkin’ Planets & Freeway Revival)
June 27 – Radio Bean – Burlington, VT (w/ The Schroons)
June 29 – Parish Public House – Albany, NY (w/ Vicious Jimmy)
June 30 – Lot 10 – Ithaca, NY (w/ Amongst the Monks & Lucky Old Sun)
July 6 – Thin Man Brewery – Buffalo, NY (w/ Amateur Hockey Club)
July 13 – Mojo’s – Jamestown, NY (w/ Cold Lazarus)
July 21 – Funk n’ Waffles – Syracuse, NY (w/ Barroom Philosophers)
July 27 – Cobblestone Music Festival – Buffalo, NY
For more information visit their website or their Facebook or Instagram. Their music can be found on Spotify and iTunes.
The Top Dawg Entertainment Championship Tour touched down at the Northwell Health outdoor amphitheater Theater at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, New York on May 30 and gave the audience every bang for their buck. The tour consists of Kendrick Lamar, SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, SiR and Lance Skiiiwalker. SZA is currently still out due to her vocal cords being damaged but the rest blew the crowd away in her absence in a one of a kind show.
Kendrick Lamar – photo by Nora Hones
When arriving at the event, the parking lot was packed with people from every age range which would be an unexpected gem when going to a rap concert but that’s what you get when you have a headliner like Kendrick Lamar– it’s more than understandable. With his recent win of the Pulitzer Prize he has shown his worth to all generations. The set opened up with Lance Skiiwalker who performed only one song and then moved on to Ab-Soul who performed three songs.Than SiR entered the stage. SiR wasn’t an artist I had previously known but he’s not someone I’m going to forget after seeing him perform. During his set he had to deal with technical difficulties where there was no sound and then where only his vocals and none of the backing tracks or live accompanying band came through the speakers but he handled it like a champ and ended up performing through it anyways.
Next came Jay Rock who put on a show performing,“King’s Dead” off of Black Panther: The Album, which was one of the first singles off the record that was released, to the crowds excitement. Even though the song features Kendrick Lamar, Future, and Jay Rock on the studio version the fact that only one of the three was on stage was barely noticeable because of the amount of energy and devotion Jay Rock was putting into the song. Next ScHoolboy Q came out on stage to perform his set list and this is when the audience really started to get excited screaming along to their favorite songs including “Collard Greens” which cut short just before Kendrick Lamar’s verses leaving the the audience hungry for Kendrick Lamar to appear.
Than after all the waiting and anticipation the king finally made his appearance standing on a stage half way above the stage and opened with his hit song, “DNA” with the background behind him reading “Pulitzer Kenny.” He proceeded to perform an array of songs from his albums, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, To Pimp a Butterfly, Untitled Unmastered, DAMN and Black Panther: The Album. To the crowds delight and my own he performed quite a few songs Good Kid, M.A.A.D City which was a welcomed and exciting surprise. He said that he just felt like playing songs of his old stuff to the crowd which everyone was more than happy with screaming along to every word.
He continued to wow the crowd performing, “X” which features ScHoolboy Q, 2 Chainz & Saudi in the studio recording with ScHoolboy Q live and “Money Trees” with Jay Rock and performed, “King’s Dead” for a second time which the crowd wasn’t expecting in the slightest and from the look of Jay Rock’s face when Kendrick Said something along the lines of, “Let’s do King’s Dead again” he wasn’t either. The show ended on Kendrick telling the crowd he hadn’t been to Jones Beach since 2011 and he wanted to kick it up a notch and performed his hit song, “Humble” twice. Once with barely any music and with the crowd just singing the entire song and then once with the full music and Lamar accompaniment. To quote the guy behind me talking to his friend about what he was going to do after the show saying, “I guess I’m gonna cry myself to sleep tonight, idk man” sums up the show experience, unbelievable and sad that it’s over.
Teddy Midnight, the Brooklyn-based live electronic band, dropped their newest EP, titled French Press, at its release party at Pianos NYC on April 26. The EP has a jazzy feel to it. It’s sample heavy, but it doesn’t feel like it is when listening to it. It doesn’t sound like something you’ve already heard; it’s got its own originality to it. One of the ways it’s able to do this is with it’s blend of new and vintage synths, keeping the music unpredictable. It uses combinations of Disco, Soul, 90s House, New Wave, Techno and a little Hip Hop, into non-stop, dance party vibes to keep itself intriguing to the listener.
The EP starts off with the song “Say it Loud!” which is an all instrumental track except for the very end when the title of the song is said. It has a very, almost “New Order” feel to it which mostly comes from the repetitive drum machine acting as a backbone to the song. It then moves into the song “Eclipse (Go There)” which is also an instrumental track but more upbeat and best illustrates the intended Hip Hop feel. This sounds like a song that you might hear in a dance club soon. Both songs are good, but slightly repetitive and long. Each song lands close to the six and half minute mark, and for someone not particularly knowledgeable or invested in electronica, it was hard to sit through without having some repetitive pieces of the song to anchor onto, like a chorus.
Then French Press takes a turn with its next song, “Come Over (feat. Tara Lawton & David Schnurman).” You finally get to hear some vocals and the fact the song is six minutes long is barely noticeable, unlike like the previous songs. The album then goes into “Mind the Gap,” which is another instrumental piece. It is very upbeat and has a lot of change-ups that make it one of a kind and continually interesting; this is important since it’s almost nine minutes long. The next song is “Not Enough” which starts off saying, “It’s not enough baby. It’s just not enough,” building up with the tempo in the song. The techno dance party feel increases with those lines appearing often in the change ups of the song. This song, much like “Come Over,” was easier on a listener like myself who might not have as much experience listening to instrumental electronic music. Even though it only really landed on those simple phrases throughout the song, it acted as a point of destination for the song to loop itself back in. The EP concludes on an instrumental version of “Come Over,” which was good, but knowing what it sounded like with the lyrics it felt like it was missing something slightly important to its overall feel. It was able to convey the emotion through the music but, without the words, the listener is left without a direction in which to run those emotions.
The six song EP has a run time of 41 minutes, which is long but, if you’re into mellow synthesized electronica, this definitely could be an album for you. Even the dance party songs have very mellow undertones to them to make the EP something the listener can just close their eyes and disappear into. Not being someone who previously listened to much electronica music, this album wouldn’t necessarily be something I would pick up to listen to regularly, but it was a satisfying mix of those mellow, almost entrancing, undertones, and upbeat, “can’t sit still while listening to” overtones. First time listeners might want to start by dipping their toes in and starting with “Come Over” or “Not Enough.”
Teddy Midnight will perform next on June 1 at Olives in Nyack, NY. And be sure to check out the entire EP available on SoundCloud and Spotify
A recent study shows that learning an instrument is an effective way of improving one’s working memory. Working memory is often thought as something that can be improved by doing interactive tasks, like simple games for children that involve memory ability, or improving quickness with vocabulary and mathematics. But becoming a musician might be a better choice.
Working memory, according to Scientific American, is theorized as being basically the “limited number of ‘items’ or ‘chunks’ of information your brain can hold on to at a singular time. This includes the memorization of digits, letters, words, or other units. And maybe one of the most interesting things about working memory is that it is subject to the bias of our subconscious, just like most other things in life. This means, according to research, for some people remembering the flavors of ice cream offered in order will be harder that remembering the first ten digits of pi, just because of the type of information it is they are trying to remember.
A study examining this difference was published this month in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. The 41 Canadian participants were between the ages of 19 and 35 and were either musicians who only spoke English; non-musicians who only spoke English; or English speakers who were fluent in a second language but did not play a instrument. They were divided into these three groups and asked to listen to, then categorize, a series of sounds while their brain activity was being scanned. They were supposed to separate the different sounds they were hearing into three groups: human-caused (such as a sneeze), environmental (like wind rustling trees), or a note from a musical instrument.
What was discovered was that musicians excelled at categorizing sounds and at pinpointing their locations compared to the bilinguals and the non-musicians. This showed that musicians have an aptitude in tasks that strain their working memory. For the musicians to be considered in the study, they had to have at least seven years of training and be currently active in performing music. After looking at the brain scans, researchers commented that musicians’ brains “showed distinct task-specific patterns of activation” in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is in the frontal part of the brain and is associated with processing, learning and memory.
This research could help individuals whose cognitive abilities are suffering because of aging since working memory usually declines with old age, because of degradation of the prefrontal cortex in the brain. Learning to play an instrument could help counteract degradation of working memory from aging. It is also possible it may counteract it in mental illnesses that have a negative effect on working memory, like individuals who suffer from depression and schizophrenia.
The reason this could help individuals who suffer from depression and schizophrenia is because these conditions, according to Scientific American, “are associated with decreased functioning of prefrontal cortex, which can be revealed via neuroimaging.” Because of this, depression and schizophrenia are also associated with having a decreased working memory ability. Playing a musical instrument helped improve working memory, and could potentially help improve the working memories of individuals suffering from depression and schizophrenia.
The Kitchen announced they will be hosting the New York Premier for the film, “Tour Without End (Twenty-One Portraits and a Protest)”, on June 11 at 8 p.m.. The film was created by Lauren Parnes and is a Trump–era commentary on contemporary culture and politics told through the casting of real-life musicians, artists and actors as bands on tour. At the screening there will also be live musicians accompanying, including BB TAY VEE, Macy Rodman and JD Samson’s New Band.
Photo courtesy of the Tour Without End website.
The film was shot between 2014-2018 and involves over 15 DIY music spaces created around New York City. The film tries to act as an urgent time capsule to show how rapidly gentrification is affecting the city. It managed this by shooting in real environments and situations. Most of the scenes were semi scripted for the core group of characters but a lot of it ended up being improvised. The press release revealed that, “Because many of these performers are legends themselves in the New York City downtown scene, they are archetypes playing archetypes. The work revels in the sometimes hilarious— but always complex —band dynamics the characters endure in touring, collaborating, and aging in a youth-driven music industry. As the players move in and out of fictionalized characters and real life, the film moves in and out of non-linear narrative and historical document.”
The Kitchen is one of New York City’s most forward-looking nonprofit spaces and is known for showing innovative work by emerging and established artists across all disciplines. Their programs range from dance, music, performance, and theater to video, film, and art, in addition to literary events, artists’ talks, and lecture series. The Kitchen was created in 1971 and has been a powerful force in shaping the cultural landscape of this country ever since.
Show Information:
Tour Without End
June 11 – The Kitchen -New York City
Tickets $15 General / $10 Members.
With any questions about the screening, please contact the box office at boxoffice@thekitchen.org or by phone at 212.255.5793 x11.
For more information on Tour Without End visit the website
