NYS Music 20​18

Category: Media

  • Premiere: ponder releases new single “Fits the Scene”

    Ponder this – Buffalo alt-rock group ponder (small p) today premieres “Fits the Scene,” a groove-oriented, jazz and funk inspired song arranged over dozens of shows with different musicians of varying influences as ponder’s lineup was solidified. The Buffalo alt-rock group has been on a journey since their formation at SUNY Geneseo and have found a sound and lineup that has them on a track for success.

    “Fits the Scene” was originally slated to be released in mid-2017, but when ponder’s original drummer left the band, the song was placed on the back burner while the group decided what the fate of the band would be going forward. With hard work already put into the project and with much on the horizon for the band, Gabe Birkby (guitar/vocals) and Andy Hogan (bass/vocals) chose to rally and rapidly began recruiting as many musicians in the Buffalo area who they knew would help drive the band sonically.

    “Fits the Scene” is ponder’s first release since April 2017’s These Words and acts as a definitive statement of how they have re-invented themselves. “These Words was a hodgepodge of punk, blues, funk, and indie elements — we were more or less absorbing all of our childhood influences and throwing them all against the wall to see what stuck. This new tune builds on those earlier songs like fan favorites “Toast” and “Shot Down” said Hogan. Andy Fischer (trumpet) and Paul Sottnik (keys) are also featured on “Fits the Scene.”

    Ponder’s current line up is stronger than ever with Gabe and Andy with Marcus Peters (drums) and Sam Shafer (lead guitar) helping to launch the band into its next phase. Catch them this fall across New York:

    September 14: Nietzsche’s, Buffalo, NY, with Litz
    September 28: The Firehouse Saloon, Rochester, NY with Adventure Dog
    October 18: TBA
    October 19: CyberCafe West, Binghamton, NY
    October 20: The Black Oak Tavern, Oneonta, NY
    November 1: Buffalo Iron Works, Buffalo, NY with The Werks

  • David Byrne brings American Utopia Tour to the Palace Theatre

    David Byrne’s much-hyped (and rightly so) American Utopia Tour found its way to Albany’s Palace Theatre on Sunday, September 9, after six months of crisscrossing the country, with all the buzz about the set and production having preceding each performance. Byrne’s catalog of music was on display throughout the night, with 21 songs covering his solo work, as well as that with Talking Heads and with St. Vincent and Fatboy Slim, combining for a nearly two-hour performance with the psychedelic alt-rock of Tune-Yards opening the night. With a futuristic mix of electronic, new wave and indie pop, plus a lead singer dressed like a dystopian Supreme Court justice, made for an interesting prelude to Byrne. Forty minutes of pure energy and symphonic pomp was capped by “Heart Attack,” and paired nicely with the variety of Byrne’s music that would follow.
    American Utopia TourNature sounds over the PA filled the air as the stage was set for David Byrne. When the curtain opened, we found Byrne sitting at a table holding a human brain, pointing out the purpose for the brain in the lyrics of the opener ‘Here,’ an anticipatory introduction into the evening’s performance. Slowly, an 11 piece band, including six percussionists and drummers, emerged from behind the silver strand curtains that surrounded the stage on three sides, as Byrne moved into “Lazy,” which could have easily been pulled from LCD Soundsystem’s catalog. But it was the opening beats of “I Zimbra” that brought the audience to their feet in unison, like a preacher calling the congregation back from a moment of reflection.

    Following “Slippery People,” Byrne took a moment to recognize Headcount and encouraged everyone to register to vote, and then make sure they vote in elections, which was met by thunderous applause from the audience. The St. Vincent collaboration “I Should Watch TV” and “Everybody’s Coming to my House” preceded two of the most familiar songs of the night, “This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)” and “Once in a Lifetime,” the crowd singing along some of Byrne’s finest work.

    The band was introduced one by one for a slowly growing intro to “Born Under Punches” from the acclaimed Remain in the Light. Byrne’s solo work was showcased with four songs that followed, “I Dance Like This,” “Bullet,” “Every Day is a Miracle,” and “Like Humans Do.” Blind” took on an ominous feel with low stage lighting projecting a monstrous shadow of Byrne on the curtains behind the band, with a raucous “Burnin Down the House” closing the 80+ minute set.

    For an encore, Byrne introduced “Dancing Together” as a song with lyrics provided from Imelda Marcos’ own words and originally from a musical Byrne collaborated on with Fatboy Slim about the former Philippine dictator’s love of shoes and disco. A frenetic version of “The Great Curve” followed, with the woke audience moving to the enthusiastic Talking Heads original. Returning to the stage for a second encore, Bryne chose “Say Your Name” by Janelle Monae to put a coda on the evening, which shares the names of numerous individuals who have been victims of police and/or racial violence, including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Amadou Diallo and others. It was a powerful statement to send the audience out on and left an exclamation point on an evening at The Palace.

    Byrne’s American Utopia tour continues with stops in Syracuse on Sept. 12, Queens on Sept. 15, and two nights in Brooklyn Sept. 16-17.

    Setlist: Here, Lazy, I Zimbra, Slippery People, Dog’s Mind, I Should Watch TV, Everybody’s Coming to my House, This Must be the Place (Naïve Melody), Once in a Lifetime, Doing the Right Thing, Toe Jam, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), I Dance Like This, Bullet, Every Day is a Miracle, Like Humans Do, Blind, Burning Down the House

    Encore: Dancing Together, The Great Curve
    Encore 2: Hell You Talmbout*

    *Janelle Monae cover

  • Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Flock To Buffalo

    The last Friday of August saw jam-funk favorites Pigeons Playing Ping Pong stop in Buffalo. After previously selling out venues in town such as Nietzsche’s and Iron Works and now graduating to the larger Town Ballroom, the excitement was tangible with the sold out crowd and the band’s high-energy funk quickly turned the proceedings into an all out dance party. A lengthy fall tour will be taking the band coast to coast, however, this is the last NY show scheduled until January 26 when they play the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester.

    Photography by Matt Shotwell / Strawberry Island Dweller

  • Nashville Artist Mick Fury debuts new series “Front Porch of America”

    “My friends and family and fans didn’t seem to know how to talk to each other anymore without calling each other awful names.” This all too relatable comment from Mick Fury speaks volumes and is a statement that spans the country. So Mick, a Nashville singer/songwriter originally from Syracuse, set out to do find out how deep these divisions truly are.

    Mick Fury‘s “Front Porch of America” debuts today with all four episodes available on YouTube and soon on the All Guitar Network on Roku, and features interviews with Americans across the country, with conversations on their front porches, with the goal to answer the question, “Is America really as divided as it seems?”

    To that end, after traveling 8,500 miles across the country over 14 days, Fury has a mixed answer to that question. “If I answer that I would be spoiling the whole show, so I’m cheating when I say yes and no. The divisions are there and often there are those who are unreasonably angry about issues they don’t always fully understand. I don’t blame people for that but the places people are getting their news from are not helping them in this. I read New York Times, BBC, while others listen to AM radio and get polarized by those who try to skew their views in a certain direction. You see an anger and fervor to get their opinion out, but after 10 minutes, you see that people have the same goals in life and you’ll see both parts of that in these episodes, and see people being divisive and also very reasonable.”

    Each episode will detail the crew’s struggles to drive extreme distances on a limited budget, feature multiple interviews of Americans from their own front porches, and follow Mick’s musical journey along the way. “It started as way to integrate some new songs from my upcoming album into an issue that was really rubbing me the wrong way on social media.”

    “I thought a cool element of the project was that a front porch was a place growing up where we’d sit around, shoot the shit, and solve the world’s problems over cheap beers or coffee. I knew that as we drove around America, everyone’s idea of  a ‘front porch’ would vary based on where they lived. In DC, it was a picnic bench that a guy liked to hang out on in his complex. In NYC it was a Spanish Harlem rooftop. In Oregon it was a deck overlooking a pot farm. Everyone’s view (and thus their “view”) from their Front Porches was different, and I thought that was a critical part of our American story.

    The drive found Fury, videographer Terry Little, friend Adam James plus their gear, heading from Nashville to Washington D.C., New York City, to Syracuse, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Standing Rock, SD, Kirby, OR, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Oklahoma City and back to Nashville. You can watch all the entire series of “Front Porch of America” on YouTube.

  • Albany Latin Fest Celebrates Cultural Diversity in Upstate NY

    There’s nothing better in the world than good music, food, and dancing to make an event successful. The 23rd annual Albany Latin Fest had no problem delivering on those three markers and much more. The event was proudly presented by the Albany Latin Fest Association (ALFA) at Washington Park in Albany, NY. The event was a cultural mashup celebrating the best of the best of the Latin culture and influence in the world around us. Thousands of attendees from all backgrounds banded together to destroy barriers and appreciate the contributions made by Hispanics in an international scale. With live performances from Bachata Heightz, Don Sonero, Cuboricua, and local acts, the event was one of the largest turnouts the organization’s history.

  • Photo Gallery: Halestorm

    The Albany Capital center hosted a triple-bill of heavy metal music on Friday, Aug. 3 — Halestorm, In This Moment and New Years Day — all of which featured a female lead singer. Halestorm, the Grammy Award-winning band out of Red Lion, Pennsylvania, may have been the headlining act, but it was a special night for Maria Brink of In This Moment. For Brink, the Capital District concert was a homecoming event for the Clifton Park native. She dedicated her band’s set to her family and friends in the audience.

    Check out our Halestorm photo gallery below.

  • Weezer a Crowd Pleaser at Syracuse Show

    Weezer and Pixies‘ co-headlining tour brought a seamless blend of 90s rock nostalgia to the St. Joseph’s Amphitheatre in Syracuse, NY on July 15.

    Pixies ripped right into their set with their raw punk rock hits. Their set was much more rigid and simplified in comparison to Weezer’s. It was also so jam-packed that they left no time to interact with their fans. They undeniably showed the audience why they have been the influence to many of their other favorite artists.

    Once Weezer took the stage, they wasted no time busting out their mega hits. They kicked off their set with their most notable song “Buddy Holly.” Fans had a nostalgia overload because the band re-created the “Buddy Holly” Arnold’s Drive In video set and each band member was dressed in clothing to match while performing the song.

    Weezer was the complete opposite of Pixies and had numerous interactions with the crowd. The band’s front man, Rivers Cuomo even visited the cheap seats on a small stage in the back of the amphitheater and performed a few hits including “Island in the Sun” and “Feels Like Summer”. He traveled to this other stage via the S.S. Weezer which was a small boat with wheels that security operated in the absence of water.

    The crowd could be heard singing along with every song with Rivers all the way to the parking lot. You could tell Rivers and the rest of Weezer were genuinely enjoying themselves and putting on the best show they knew how.

    Weezer setlist: Happy Days Intro, Buddy Holly, Beverly Hills, Pork and Beans, Undone – The Sweater Song, Hash Pipe, Perfect Situation, My Name Is Jonas, El Scorcho, In the Garage, Susanne, Happy Together, (The Turtles cover) (with a snippet of Longview by Green Day), Keep Fishin’ (Brian Bell vocals), B-Stage, Island in the Sun – (Rivers solo), Take On Me – (a‐ha cover) (Rivers solo), Burndt Jamb, (Smells Like Teen Spirit lyrics, without Rivers), (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To, Feels Like Summer, Africa – (Toto cover)

    Encore: The Good Life, Play Video, Say It Ain’t So (with Black Sabbath “Paranoid” outro)

  • Photo Gallery: Rockin’ on the River with Skeeter Creek and Sydney Worthley

    Sydney Worthley opened for local country rockers Skeeter Creek on the rain date for their show earlier this summer at Troy’s Rockin’ on the River. Worthley played songs from her album Strong as well as a few covers with a mix of Alt rock and folk to a growing crowd for 75 minutes. Skeeter Creek, co-formed by guitarist/singer Joe Kulewicz and singers Dave Ahl and Renee Lussier-Ahl kept the crowd highly entertained all night into the dark. Playing country rock to the dancing crowd, Dave enjoyed going out into the crowd to sing with them and invited Sydney Worthley to join them to sing the encore “Shut up and Dance.”

  • Photo Gallery: Mallett Brothers Band at Troy Rockin’ on the River

    For the second week in a row, Troy’s Rockin’ on The River had a rainy start before the sun came out. Saratoga Springs’ North and South Dakotas kicked off the night with a mix of Americana, mountain folk and bluegrass. The Mallett Brothers Band headlined, featuring brothers Luke and Will who formed the band in Maine in 2009, and occasionally have Phish drummer Jon Fishman behind the kit. Their new album Vive I Acadie is out now.

  • Arise Music Festival Emerges as an Antidote for Dangerous Times

    These are dangerous times in which we live. Our culture is teetering on the brink. And if music festival organizer, Paul Bassis is correct, the Arise Music Festival held last week outside Loveland, Colorado may well be an antidote to help stop the madness. Bassis’ claim is a bold pronouncement, for sure, but he and his hearty team of Arise staffers and volunteers have made painstaking efforts to make that claim a reality.

    From the festival’s inception six years ago, Arise has staked a claim among a short list of conscientiously-based music festivals that promote environmentally conscious practices as a “leave no trace” event that plants a tree with every ticket purchase. In addition, as in past years, last week’s event featured a wide range of workshops and presentations focused on environmental and social justice issues that ran alongside its hefty live music schedule. While such offerings are familiar to Arise veterans, what has changed recently is the urgency in which Bassis and the Arise crew have pushed its more communal and activist leanings. “There was a time when I wouldn’t have called myself an activist, but now things are different. So much is at stake.”

    This year’s edition of the Arise fest did include a number of popular live and EDM music acts, including Slightly Stoopid, Thievery Corporation, Opiuo, and Trevor Hall, that perform at many other festivals around the country. However Bassis intones that while many festivals offer escapism from turbulent cultural events, Arise is designed to engage festifarians in local and national political affairs. “We have got to build a community that makes changes and makes things right,” he stated on the festival’s closing day. “My stump speech is,” he continued, “there is a reason why call this the Arise Festival and not the Wake-Up Festival.”

    That sense of urgency permeated the festival grounds throughout the weekend by way of world-renowned presenters like environmental activist Julia Butterfly and grassroots activists seeking signatures for a number of issues including a petition to ban oil fracking. After the rousing bluegrass set of the Kitchen Dwellers from Montana, bassist Joe Funk commented that he felt the Arise Festival sense of purpose was  clear and that the festival, itself, came as close as any to be able to change the world.

    Alongside its progressive social and political focus, the Arise Festival featured a diverse entertainment line-up that included a number of magical performances from the little-heralded but fiery acts such as Guerilla Brass Band, and Colorado-locals, the Gasoline Lollipops, with their unique style of psychedelic punk/folk music. Festival stages literally soared with the dazzling acrobatics of Quixotic. Even the festival’s last performance boasted the thunderous, raucous Colorado return of the New Orleans-based funk group Dumpstafunk.

    As to whether the Arise Festival will change the world, only time will tell. But festival organizers like Bassis say they have no other choice. “We must all be activists, and we must meet the challenge.”

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