On December 6, Rubblebucket brought their tour through Lucky Strike in Albany in support of their new album, Sun Machine. The duo in Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth are keeping the Rubblebucket name alive after a long, tough road. Sun Machine is an album that literally follows their own struggles as an on and off couple and keeping their personal issues aside as they continue to work together. The songs are incredibly powerful and make for what is being considered quite the theatrical performance.
And The Kids from Northampton, MA opened the show. They’ve been on tour together a few times now as Kalmia and Alex have become close with the members, even having the “Kids” come out on stage with them for a couple songs. Rubblebucket backs themselves with an incredible touring band that changes from time to time but generally stays the same. Mixing their old classics like “Came Out of a Lady” and new ones like “Party Like Your Heart Hurts,” the band puts on an incredible production with shadow screens and, at one point, literally bringing the crowd to its knees and crowd surfing over them while playing their horns.
Rubblebucket just announced their spring tour, coming back through New York in late January and mid-March before heading west.
Dave Matthews Band has been on an extensive fall tour this year, making stops all across the United States, sounding tighter than ever and brought an incredible show to the Times Union Center in Albany, NY on December 5.
Usually, the band makes their way to the Albany area in the summer for their legendary SPAC runs in Saratoga Springs. The group opened up with “You Never Know” into “One Sweet World,” followed by “Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin).” Next, Dave Matthews and his band played crowd favorite “Everyday” followed by a cover of Aerosmiths’ “Sweet Emotion.”
The night was filled with crowd pleasers and hits like “Where Are You Going,” “Don’t Drink The Water” and of course “What Would You Say.” The Dave Matthews Band ended the night with a two-song encore featuring “Granny” and the Bob Dylan cover “All Along the Watchtower.” The group continues their tour through December 28 when they close in Miami, FL. Check out photos from their Albany performance below provided by Vinny Otto:
Setlist: You Never Know, One Sweet World, Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin), Everyday, Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith cover), Minarets, Where Are You Going, Burning Down the House (Talking Heads cover), Crush, Kill the King, What Would You Say, Here on Out, Don’t Drink The Water, Dancing Nancies, Come On Come On, Grey Street, She, You Might Die Trying
Encore: Granny, All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover)
Tis the season to enjoy live music and support a great cause, across New York State! Annually, NYS Music works with bands and promoters across the state to help those in our local communities who are less fortunate and in need of a healthy dose of cheer this holiday season. Combining live music performances and the spirit of giving during the holiday season are a natural combination, and we present these 4 Jam for Tots 2018 shows where fans are able to enjoy the best music across the state, and help kids out at each show.
Or stop by Putnam Place in Saratoga Springs all month long and drop off a toy!
In the Catskills, join John Pinder and the gang for Open Mic on the first Thursday of the month. The jam lends a hand to the Toys for Tots drive this month by asking musicians and patrons to bring along an unwrapped toy for a less fortunate child. Jam for Tots has become a cherished tradition at The Stewart House. The list opens up at 6:30pm, be sure to ask the bartender or the host John Pinder to get signed up! All are welcome. Be it a solo, duo, group, spoken word, or stand up session, head down to the Stewart House to share your talent.
It’s a Funk Night XMAS Ugly Sweater Party ft. Hayley Jane & Members of Kung Fu, West End Blend, Wurliday, & More! Come out and sing some funky XMAS classics with us at this special holiday rendition of NYS Music’s Albany Funk Night! 5$ off with a toy for our Jam n Tots drive.
On December 13, celebrate a Funk Night Christmas with an Ugly Sweater Party at Parish Public House in Albany! Join the band and sing some Christmas songs at this special holiday rendition of NYS Music’s Albany Funk Night! Take $5 off the cover charge when you bring a toy for our Jam for Tots drive.
The Funk Night Christmas lineup includes Hayley Jane, Beau Sasser (Kung Fu), Chris DeAngelis (Kung Fu), Justin Henricks (Wurliday), and Bryan Brundige and Phil Chow (The Chronicles). Tickets are $15, or $10 if you bring a toy.
Join two of Buffalo’s best groups, Intrepid Travelers and Folkfaces, as they team up for an incredible night of jam, rock and much more. Bring an unwrapped gift for a 2-12 year old and the gifts will be gathered by USMC representatives. Give back to those most in need this holiday season and enjoy a great show at the same time! $5 , 21+ unless accompanied by a parent/guardian
Let’s Be Leonard returns to Caffe Lena for their annual holiday show! Expect to hear your favorite Leonard boys performing the holiday classics sprinkled with their signature Leonard flavor!
The marriage of electronic and improv-based music was inevitable from the start. The malleability of overtones provides a great platform for on-stage audibles. A lot of groups have used the modern synths to their advantage, although any music hobbyist who has played a synth can vouch for its complexity. Being able to find a good sound that is purely one’s own sound is difficult given the almost infinite parameters contained in modern synths. More so, being able to control those tones on the fly, whether in studio or on stage, is equally hard. Lord Electro, a budding electronic band from Albany, figures out a way to make their synth stand out as a staple lead tone by creating rich rhythmic grooves which fit like a puzzle piece underneath competent key lines with various changing characteristics. Their recent 10-track album, Reinvigorator, gives listeners a lot digest in terms of not only the content of each song, but the emotional arc the whole album follows.
Dan Gerken, Steve Mink and Jordan LeFleur make up Lord Electro, a trio that fills out a sound of a much larger outfit. One of their main catches, if you’re able to catch them live, is that they are an all-organic electronic group. The album reflects their ambition to remain an organic band. You can feel the chemistry on every track, with different parts within each composition lining up in sync to a level that sounds rehearsed but not computerized. Just about every piece on the album is a true dance track, staying in that sweet bpm range of 120-140. The seventh track, “Broken Glass,” features a more frenzied bass and drum line. The bass lines up almost perfectly with the bass drum accents to give the line a lot of weight, while the key parts mesh one piece providing the chord structure and rhythm while the other lead-synth part drives the melody and development of the song. This is a formula followed throughout much of the album. While this could be redundant, Lord Electro does a great job of varying even just the smallest pieces on a composition to keep it interesting.
A couple of the songs feature vocals too, whereas the rest is mainly instrumental with some background samples of different speeches or monologues related to the song. The vocal performances add a lot of texture to the album. While sparse, they are powerful and rich, relaying lyrical content that doesn’t delve too deep and provides more of a musing or reflection related to the song. On the eighth song, “Why Wait,” the vocals mirror the emotion of the tune, delivering an empowering message. The album follows a nice transitional arc too, with some tracks acting as a kind of anchor for the true sound and other tracks experimenting around that sound. This provides great variety, with every song feeling like a hard refresh. The ups and downs are in the grittiness of the bass line, or the beautiful melody of a synth lead.
On December 13, celebrate a Funk Night Christmas with an Ugly Sweater Party at Parish Public House in Albany! Join the band and sing some Christmas songs at this special holiday rendition of NYS Music’s Albany Funk Night! Take $5 off the cover charge when you bring a toy for our Jam for Tots drive.
The Funk Night Christmas lineup includes Hayley Jane, Beau Sasser (Kung Fu), Chris DeAngelis (Kung Fu), Justin Henricks (Wurliday), and Bryan Brundige and Phil Chow (The Chronicles). Tickets and more info are available here.
Pop-Fest 518 takes place at The Linda on Saturday, Dec 1 from 7-10 pm. Featured in this evening of eclectic musicians are Blockhouses, Sydney Worthley, Pop-Clique, Sarah Kohrs & Coyote, and Daniel Conley. While students can get a $10 ticket at the door with ID, all-ages $15 tickets can be purchased through The Linda’s Pop Fest 518 event page. This one-night show not only showcases original work by performers native to the 518 area, but admission goes towards the upstate arts community fostered by the Columbia Arts Team.
Blockhouses
The pop trio Blockhouses will groove the audience followed by festival-seasoned, 16 year old Sydney Worthley, who takes the stage to build on that energy with her country/rock infused lyrics. Expect a blast to the past as the internationally recognized Pop-Clique takes concert-goers back with a ’60s flavored vibe. A new face joins the stage with them as notorious singer/songwriter Liv Cummins makes her Pop-Clique debut on Dec. 1 at Pop-Fest 518.
The mood changes yet again as Sarah Kohrs & Coyote deliver their take on blues and jazz; the influence of iconic female vocalists Joni Mitchell and Amy Winehouse comes through in Sara Kohrs’s performance. To cap of a great night of 518 artists, Daniel Conley has a large body of work to pull his Americana offerings from as he has launched two albums in the last year.
The Columbia Arts Team is a non-profit performing arts company that promotes local arts efforts and has partnered with The Linda to make this performance possible. The Linda is committed to growing the arts in New York as it serves as the performing arts studio for Albany-based public broadcast radio station WAMC. There is growing community interest in the cultivation of original, local, musical talent. Pop-Fest 518 gives these unique voices a stage where they can truly shine.
There aren’t a lot of options for purely original local artists to perform in a concert format…This is music that belongs in a ‘listening’ venue, not a bar. This is music that needs to be heard.
– Andy Gregory, WEXT Radio’s Local 518 program host.
The Disco Biscuits visited Albany’s Palace Theatre for a 2-night run this past weekend, the band’s first time in the Capital District since 2010’s show at The Egg. Opening up the night was the local and nationally touring band Formula 5 making their debut at the Palace. Though the weather was quite brisk, fans came out in droves to see both bands work their magic at the famous venue.
Formula 5 kicked the night off with an hour-long, all original set, opening with a newer tune “In The Sand,” into “Sad Bed,” a rocking cut from the group’s recent studio album All Points North. “Sad Bed” was left unfinished as the band transitioned into “Booher’s Pass,” a more somber instrumental tune that featured the best jam of the set, leading the group into some experimental type-2 territory. After another original “Gettin’ Tough Again,” the group closed out their set with another new song, “Breaking Glass.” The song mixes lyrical sections with synth-heavy, prog-like riffs and does it well, as the crowd was responding very positively to what F5 was laying down.
To open up the Palace show, The Disco Biscuits played the rocking “7-11,” an older song that was met with open arms by just about every fan in the theater. “7-11” was just the beginning of what became an incredible first set, which was foreshadowed by the band absolutely nailing the composed section of the tune. The jam was extremely fast-paced, featuring lots of drummer Allen Aucoin hammering away on his drum pad laying down an untzy groove for the rest of the group to build a heavy jamtronica groove off of. “7-11” was left unfinished so that the group could transition into the ending of “Above The Waves,” signaling to the fans that the band was inverting the song. Following the quick peak of “Waves” the group started working through the song’s composed section, another tune from the early days of the band.
The “Waves” jam continued the uptempo jamming from “7-11” before dropping back into the song’s chord structure and bringing the jam back to the peak it had opened with. Following a heavenly solo from Barber, the group dropped into “Minions,” a more recent tune that had a mysterious feel to it. Keyboardist Aron Magner utilized the full extents of his rig during this tune, looping a funky clavinet part during the verse and singing the chorus through a vocoder on one of his synthesizers. The majority of the “Minions” jam was the band flexing their funk muscles before they started lifting the jam into the last song of the set, “Voices Insane.” This version of “Voices” was superb, the band locked in and smoothly transitioning between each composed section, allowing some of the movements to breathe a bit before moving onto the next part.
After a quick set break, the group came out and opened the second set with “Sweating Bullets,” a grandeur tune that had a medieval feel to it during the composed section. The jam was fairly short and featured a somewhat dub reggae feel before coming to a close. The group then took a quick pause and dropped into “Resurrection,” which had an R&B feel to it and allowed for the group to show off a different side of their musical capabilities. The “Resurrection” jam was slower than most of the night’s previous jams, and served more as a jumping off point for the segue into “I-Man,” which is where the second set started to pick up.
The band very suddenly dropped into the fan favorite “I-Man” during the “Resurrection” jam, beginning with Barber singing out the opening lyrics of the tune, which was met by loud cheers from the entire crowd. Following the lyrical sections, the group started into the jam of the night, a supernatural peak that was incredibly patient in its build up, delivery, and subsequent redelivery as the group started back into the song’s chorus. Following “I-Man,” the group broke into Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia,” a song that has only been performed three times prior by the Biscuits. The “Knights” jam was full of untz and dove back into the jamtronica side of the Biscuits, before a very dramatic drop back into the song’s lyrics and main riff. To close out the set, the group broke into the upbeat “Story of the World,” which rounded out the stronger second half of the set. After the main composed section, the group broke into some more funk-themed jamming, bringing back some of the musical flavor that “Minions” was offering during the first set. The peak was pretty quick and brought the tune back into the melody of the tune before one last chorus and ending the set. For an encore the group played an extremely short, “World is Spinning.”
Saturday night was a spectacle of its own, with the crowd revved up from the night before and ready to rage the Palace. Opening with “The Tunnel,” which has found its way back into the rotation in the last few years took a journey that ended up in the latter section of “Spectacle,” which would also open Set 2 with the first portion of the song. “M.E.M.P.H.I.S.” brought the energy level even higher through the composition and eventual jam, which worked into Biscuits anthem “We Like To Party,” a statement that encompasses the tone of the crowd over the weekend. “Rock Candy” and “Save the Robots” took it back old school for a tight pairing to close the set.
To keep the party going in the second set, a 45-minute pairing of “Spectacle” -> “spacebirdmatingcall” made for a sweaty run of energetic of the Biscuits signature trancefusion jams. A brief “Hope” was a well placed breather, if you consider the flowing peaks of the song a place to rest. “Reactor” featured an inverted “Crickets” sandwiched inside, a crunchy progression of classic Biscuits jam vehicles that brought the set to a tremendous finish. “Portal to an Empty Head” closed the night in the encore slot, wrapping up the first multi-night Biscuits run in the Capital District since Camp Bisco was held in nearby Mariaville.
The Disco Biscuits have been on fire as of late, and have a few more runs you can catch them at before their NYE run at The Fillmore in Philadelphia. Check out photos from Filip Zalewski for a taste of what the the evening was like.
Setlists
Formula 5, Friday, November 23, 2018
Set: In The Sand > Sad Bed*# > Booher’s Pass, Gettin’ Tough Again, Breaking Glass
*”In the Sand” tease
# Unfinished
The Disco Biscuits, Palace Theatre, Friday, November 23, 2018
Set 1: 7-11* > Above the Waves (Inverted) > Minions > Voices Insane Set 2: Sweating Bullets, Resurrection > I-Man, Knights of Cydonia**, Story of the World Encore: World is Spinning
*Unfinished
**Muse Cover
The Disco Biscuits, Palace Theatre, Saturday, November 24
Set 1: The Tunnel -> Spectacle, M.E.M.P.H.I.S.-> We Like to Party-> Rock Candy, Save the Robots Set 2: Spectacle-> Spacebirdmatingcall, Hope, Reactor-> Crickets (inverted)-> Reactor Encore: Portal to an Empty Head
The jam scene in the Northeast is as healthy as it has ever been, with bands regularly touring across New York State, building audiences and markets in the process. When the shows are over and the crowd still has energy to keep the party going, that’s when DJs and post-shows come into play. During the upcoming Disco Biscuits run at The Palace Theatre this weekend, post-shows will be great in number, with J.E.D.I. performing late-night Friday, Scumdog Millionaire$ at Parish Public House on Saturday, and uptown at The Low Beat they will present ‘History of Wyllys’ featuring MoonSine and Sex on Decks. The latter of these will be going very late after The Disco Biscuits close out The Palace, and feature a variety of beats from Wyllys spanning the history of his career as a DJ. Wyllys spoke to NYS Music about what to expect from the late night performance and what it’s like touring as a DJ.
Pete Mason: Your upcoming performance in Albany celebrates the History of Wyllys, featuring MoonSine and Sex on Decks – what can we expect from a set of music spanning the history of your career?
Wyllys: My career will always start with ambient and drum and bass. I had always loved spacey music and the very second I heard drum and bass for the first time…LTJ Bukem-Logical Progression, that was it. I wanted to DJ. After that I will slide into Nu Disco where I will be joined by MoonSine. Zac and I have been collaborating for quite a while and he was the first keyboardist for Space Disco which we played many great gigs under. After that we will take house music till the end with a good friend of mine Sex On Decks. Dan has been playing many of the same rooms and festivals with me for years so I felt it was time we got together and flowed. B2B is an art form and it takes someone like Dan to make it hum. He has a great ear and style.
PM: How and where did you get your start in the music industry?
Wyllys: I started learning how to do lights and sound with Rane. I was also writing a good chunk of the lyrics for them along with my dear friend and killer writer Dave Griffin. Alan from Rane, who is now president of Telefunken, gave me my first set of decks and it was ON after that.
PM: What were your early gigs like and what is touring as a DJ like?
Wyllys: So much terror when you first start gigging. Really it’s about balancing the sound from your headphones with the monitor and PA and a lot of times there would be this NASTY slap back delay that fucked with your beatmatching. Plus I was playing all vinyl which comes with its own sets of challenges such as the bass feeding back through the needle or the bass moving the needle around the wax. After about a year I was more comfortable but the trick is to never get “too” comfy so as to keep learning and stay on your toes. Back then I was doing small shows in Hartford with Rane and a few other bands. Very modest and slow build to what I am doing these days.
Touring as a DJ is interesting. I have worked on all sides of the ball in this industry and the “DJ Tour” can get weird quick. I rarely could afford a TM and since I was a TM it all came easy. However things can get out of control quick with no one to put you in check. It was never about ego with me, just getting into trouble and making piss poor decisions. I felt like I had finally “made it,” paying the bills with guarantees and what not. But when that happens you literally have to gig to survive and that sucked a lot of the joy out of it for me. Once it starts feeling like work it’s time to examine the situation.
https://soundcloud.com/wyllys/for-jordan
PM: The Hustler Ensemble was a notable period of Wyllys’ evolution – bring us back to that era and how the sound changed with musicians on stage with you.
Wyllys: The scene needed a funk and disco version of DJ Logic’s previous excursions. Jay was a huge influence on me in that regard. I loved Nu Disco but the BPMs were too slow for prime time sets. I felt that adding musicians would be just the reinforcement I needed and push me out of my comfort zone. I was lucky enough to have Jen and Natalie as my core and bandleaders and they taught me so much about how to communicate with players effectively and how to prepare everyone as best you can before show. Rehearsal was not all that frequent because I would have people coming in from all over but the nature of it all was improvisation with a set of “heads” or tracks we start from. I look back on that time as my biggest period of musical growth and it made a LOT of people very happy. In the end the universe has bestowed a gift to you and it is up to you to share it…to bring people joy. We did that in spades!
PM: Your live sets and mixes dive deep – without revealing secrets, where are you finding these funky undiscovered gems?
Wyllys: Oh I can tell you right now (and Jon ‘The Barber’ Gutwillig will tell you the same) that Juno is a great place for underground tracks both on vinyl and digital. Crate digging is still huge for me too. If you are a DJ that plays vinyl the key is to form a relationship with your record store owner. They will get to know your taste and have a pile of wax for you to listen to. That inevitably will lead you down many wormholes with artists and genres you had never heard before.
PM: You’re playing a post Disco Biscuits show on Saturday, November 24 – how have the Biscuits influenced your musical interests and performances, and what is their legacy as they approach 23 years in the jam scene?
Wyllys: I really don’t even know where to start here. I had been DJing for 3 years before I actually saw them and when I initially heard them there was no “trancefusion” in their wheelhouse. Once they started that mutation it was over. You take that and their revolutionary inversion and dyslexic techniques and you have a juggernaut of a band. Their influence on me is quite massive. Sammy (Altman) was a master of drum and bass as well as Allen (Aucoin) and they showed me how to layer melodic content as a way to shape the narrative under the flurry of drums and percussion, to take the audience on a journey without sacrificing the pulse. They also taught me not to fear improvisation but to know that sometimes your ideas are going to fall flat on their face and you have to persevere, you have to get past it with grace and energy. The audience is going to respect that despite you just dropping a track at the wrong moment.
Their legacy will always be that marriage of electronica and rock and roll and really, being the last TRUE jamband in the scene. I don’t think any band is going to touch what they do every single night. They have always been the punk rock of the scene in that DIY/take no prisoners way and “Bisco” is truly a culture all of its own. That raw and untamed energy they bring is that of a team that leaves it all on the field every single game. I feel blessed to have supported many of those games over the years and look forward to more.
The Egg recently announced five great musical acts visiting the Capital Region for shows this coming spring. The first is Americana, rock, and improvisational group Railroad Earth. The group self identifies with rock-and-roll, but their distinct bluegrass influence is undeniable. Who says you can’t have the best of both worlds? You can see this incredible fusion of musical genres yourself Feb. 14.
Railroad Earth
Next in the line up is local talent who hail from Albany, the folk group Dannybrook Fair. The three original members recently celebrated a successful summer tour. You can catch the trio during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations on March 14.
March’s offerings continue at the performing arts venue as Pat Metheny’s recent jazz project Side Eye makes an appearance on March 30. Universally recognized as one of the best guitarists in jazz history, Metheny is joined by pianist James Francies and drummer Nate Smith for this musical experiment. You will not want to miss a performance from the unmatched Pat Mentheny.
Last, but not least, Candlebox comes to Capital region audiences on Thursday, April 25. The Seattle rock group, who rose to fame in the ’90s grunge scene will be showcasing songs from their sixth album Disappearing in Airports.
Funk Night returns to Parish Public House, this time, boasting a musical selection of the late Aretha Franklin tunes on Nov. 15. Beau Sasser (Kung Fu) is no stranger to hosting Funk Night in downtown Albany, as he’s done many times prior with Albany’s own Justin Henricks, as well as members of Kung Fu, Turkuaz, Wurliday, Dopapod and more.
For Funk Night’s latest installment at the downtown Albany brick accented bar and music venue, a changing lineup of Beau Sasser (Hammond Organ), Bill Carbone (Drums) and Justin Henricks (Guitar) of Beau Sasser’s Escape plan will serve up a tasty tribute to the sorely missed Queen of Soul.
Get your tickets in advance and hold your place in line to boogie. “Ain’t no way” you’re missing this one!
The night was filled with crowd pleasers and hits like “Where Are You Going,” “Don’t Drink The Water” and of course “What Would You Say.” The Dave Matthews Band ended the night with a two-song encore featuring “Granny” and the Bob Dylan cover “All Along the Watchtower.” The group continues their tour through December 28 when they close in Miami, FL. Check out photos from their Albany performance below provided by Vinny Otto:
The marriage of electronic and improv-based music was inevitable from the start. The malleability of overtones provides a great platform for on-stage audibles. A lot of groups have used the modern synths to their advantage, although any music hobbyist who has played a synth can vouch for its complexity. Being able to find a good sound that is purely one’s own sound is difficult given the almost infinite parameters contained in modern synths. More so, being able to control those tones on the fly, whether in studio or on stage, is equally hard. 
