On Friday, April 13, Abilene Bar and Lounge will celebrate their 10th anniversary with a special concert featuring JD McPherson, plus Jake La Botz and Woody Pines.
Presented by Record Archive & DSP Shows, the show gets started at 8pm on Friday at Harro East Ballroom in Rochester. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 day of show and are available at abilenebarandlounge.com and dspshows.com.
Masters of dark synth pop Soviet Dolls strike again with their new EP Hunters. In a mere four tracks, the Rochester band flaunts their prowess at delivering decadently dark and sensual lyrics shrouded in seductive glittery electronica.
Soviet Dolls make no bones about their intentions to seduce the listener, starting from the first lines in the title track. “We are the hunters, we make sacrifices. We leave our mothers, cause we have appetites,” croons singer Alexandra Wendt in her deliciously sultry voice. Pulsating beats pound out beside undulating rhythms which swirl together to entice the listener into a mesmerizing hypnotic state.
In subsequent tracks, Soviet Dolls continue to marry supernatural reveries and pop electronica in a way that will delight fans of new wave acts like Echo and the Bunnymen, The The, and The Cure who are looking for something fresh and new. The gothic storylines also hearken back to classic themes of glorification of eternal life, the thrill of the hunt, and falling in love with a phantom. Hunters is the perfect pick to listen to on a night prowling the town, or indulging in the guilty pleasure of reading goth novels.
Follow Soviet Dolls on Facebook, and find Hunters on Bandcamp.
Key Tracks: Hunters, Ghostlover
I met the lead singer of The Elementals about a year ago at the winter Battle of the Bands competition at Lovin’ Cup at RIT. I was there supporting my brother, before I even picked up a camera to shoot bands semi-professionally. While I wasn’t there for him, Dari Pryce of The Elementals put on a great show. Dari was in a different band at the time that is no longer together, but he has brought his talent and sound to The Elementals. Dari contacted me after my brother posted the pictures I took of his last show. Dari wanted me to come out and take pictures of his band and I accepted. buta pub
Dari introduced me not only to his new band, but also to Blake Pattengale; (a student at the Eastman School of Music) and the rest of his band; Red Beard Samurai. Blake and company were electric with a sound that was not only lively with fast spitting lyrics and great beats, but also with a funk sound coming from the trumpet and trombone. Red Beard Samurai has a unique sound and creative bars, but also sounds like some famous artists of whom you might have heard. When I listen to Red Beard, his lyrics remind me of rappers such as Little Dicky and some rappers of the ’90s. I also got a feeling that I was listening to the rapper Outasight who published a popular single called “Good Morning.”
Dari and The Elementals was energetic and the crowd was happy to the band. The vibe in the room was very lively as The Elementals rocked the house. Dari’s funky love songs were blasting through the speakers as the crowd enjoyed every minute of it. The amount of passion that was exhibited through Dari’s vocals was palpable. Watching those guys up close, you could tell how much fun they were having. Geraldo the trumpet player was laughing all throughout the set as he enjoyed playing with the band as a guest musician. Even though I knew Geraldo was not an original member of the group, he blended in perfectly with the rest of the guys. The lead guitarist (Zach Cullinton) was rocking through the whole show, eyes closed most of the time as he vibed to the room and the music. The bassist (Zach Cullinton) and drummer (Christos Dembeyiotis) brought veteran talent to the group of young kids and rounded out the band very well. After the group was done, they gathered for a group shot around the pool table. I can’t wait to work with both The Elementals and Red Beard Samurai again. Red Beard will be playing again at Buta Pub on April 20, and The Elementals will be playing at Three Heads Brewery April 19 and at Funk ‘n Waffles on May 12.
Jon Lewis Band has released the video for their single “Cinnamon Only,” off their upcoming album Get Wild Somewhere. (more…)
Honest Folk has been around for almost exactly two years, and they’ve been itching to book San Francisco’s Marty O’Reilly and the Soul Orchestra ever since. The dream became reality on Tuesday night at Good Luck, and it was well worth the wait.
More than midway through their show, lead vocalist and guitar slinger Marty O’Reilly apologized that they weren’t playing straightforward folk music. Of course, no apology was necessary. The crowd had already been moved to multiple standing ovations and were visibly having a hard time containing their gyrations to the confines of their seats. No apology was necessary, regardless, because their music was their music and no one in the room was there to judge its purity. While the promoter’s name may be Honest Folk, the ‘folk’ could just as well refer to the people, not the genre. That is, the people who book the shows, the people who support the shows, the people who attend the shows and the people who play the shows, honest folk one and all.
And what about their music? Genre-less for sure. We know so far that it isn’t exactly folk. It’s also bluesy, but not the blues, soulful but not soul, and rocking but not rock. O’Reilly’s band mates, Chris Lynch on fiddle, Ben Berry on upright bass and Matt Goff on drums and percussion, aka the Old Soul Orchestra, are old souls pumping with new blood. The band’s origins stem from the blues which certainly shines through. But even in covering some traditional blues, like Muddy Waters’ “Smokestack Lightning” or Skip James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor,” the lyrics are the same, but the music is rewrote to give them a freshness all their own.
The band is touring behind their recently released album Stereoscope, a labor of love that was years in the making, featuring songs conceived of from a cabin in picturesque Santa Cruz, California. O’Reilly’s emotional and weathered voice could evoke those landscapes on new ones like “Stereoscope,” “Ghost” and “Let the Wind In,” though they were being played on a drearily rainy and cold day in Rochester, New York. The cozy and dimly lit brick confines of Good Luck made for just as perfect a setting for the rich tapestries being constructed between the finger picked guitars and vibrantly ethereal fiddle. Goff’s drums, which meandered between intricately understated and invigoratingly punctuated, and Berry’s bass boomed and moaned at all the right junctures. They weren’t afraid to let the music take control of the band. The reins were loose and the tunes stretched their legs, arriving at some rather brilliant moments, delighting the band and audience alike.
The show finished, as most of these shows seem to these days, with the band leaving the stage to join the audience, unmic’ed. Chairs were pushed aside and space made for the four members to play from the floor, as they broke into a stirring rendition of “Cold Canary Gaslight” off of their Pray for Rain album. The audience got to join in on the music-making fun with a finishing singalong of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Up Above My Head.”
Hopefully it doesn’t take another two years to get these guys back to Rochester, but if it does, at least we know it’ll be worth the wait.
The Pulse of Music lies deep in the heart of Rochester Institute of Technology. The 89.7FM WITR DJ booth is visible from the campus’s centrally located student union. But below the hustle and bustle of the popular student hangout lies the original radio studio, complete with recording booths, stacks of physical copies of music, and a recording studio large enough to comfortably fit a full band. It was here on an unassuming Sunday afternoon that, unbeknownst to most students, Rochester alternative rock band Total Yuppies were unloading their gear and setting up to record some songs for Rochester Sessions.
The show’s producer and host Bailey Gribben and audio engineer Austin Frey helped the band members to connect cables and set up the studio. Bandmates chatted lightly, joking about consuming Smart brand water at RIT as they set up for the recording. There was no need to bring a lot of equipment to the studio. WITR has microphones, cables, speakers and a drum kit (if a band wants to use it instead of bringing their own). A full list of amenities is on the WITR website, and it concludes with “…. and 1 red couch.” Bands who have been featured on Rochester Sessions have signed the black walls in white ink. Names include Mikaela Davis, Maybird, Nerds In Denial, Tart Vandelay, and Talking Under Water.
The story behind Rochester Sessions is documented by these signatures, and oral history and social media posts. There’s no formal history. People who originally started the series have long since graduated. Turnover happens frequently as students come and go from the college. And those who get involved have an opportunity to move up the ranks fairly quickly.
Gribben became involved with the program just last year. “I started booking last fall semester,” Gribben told me as we walked through the studio, “I started off working with a group called Love Hope Strength. They do bone marrow drives at concerts. They wanted to do a drive at Springfest when we had Walk the Moon. So I started working with them. They got me an interview with Andrew McMahon. That was my first interview and booking. From there, I went with it. I interviewed Kevin Devine. I primarily only do local bands now.”
When the former producer of Rochester Sessions graduated last June, Gribben took the reins. He’s incorporated some innovations into the sessions, hosting a station takeover where the session was spent with Tart Vandelay, choosing the songs from amongst their influences. As a third year Motion Picture Science student, he also incorporated his videography skills to direct and edit the first video session, featuring Zuli from Long Island performing their song “Kubadiver.”
During this session, Gribben asked Total Yuppies to introduce each song by saying a little something about it. With Frey at the helm of the soundboard, the band recorded two songs from their recent EP Care, as well as two new songs they have been working on, “Holy Place,” and “Numb.” Jacob Walsh (guitar and vocals), JT Fitzgerald (bass guitar), Ben Burdett (guitar) and Dylan Vaisey (drums) play with an intense focus and passion, but also convey the confidence and ease that comes from doing this together for years. Their music is distinctive for its pop melodies and extensive use of fuzzy effects, which balance out the somber nature of the lyrics.
Members of the band knew their way around the studio. This was their second time appearing on Rochester Sessions, Fitzgerald and Walsh used to be involved in WITR while students at RIT. “It’s really cool to see the next generation of people doing what we used to do,” Walsh told me after the recording session as the band packed up their gear.
Gribben showed me around the rest of the studio, where RIT students interested in radio broadcasting have access to a vast array of tools and resources. While the upstairs booth is sleek and streamlined, with wall murals depicting WITR alum, the basement has an old-school station feel that hearkens back to the heyday of FM radio. Movable library shelves hold what the school boasts as the second largest privately owned vinyl collection in New York State. In addition to updated technology, they’ve retained some of the traditional tools such as reel to reel machines. There are tapes of interviews with The Ramones and The Pixies from ’88 lying atop a shelf of vinyl, crammed amongst other memorabilia.
Rochester Sessions airs Mondays from 4-5pm. Local listeners can tune in to 89.7 FM, and it can also be streamed online. The Total Yuppies session airs on Monday, March 26. It can also be found on Bandcamp. Previous sessions appear on Rochester Sessions’ Soundcloud. Follow WITR and Rochester Sessions on Facebook for program schedules and news. For more details about the station, check the RITpedia article.
The seventh annual Rochester Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony takes place at Rochester’s Eastman Theatre at 7 pm on April 22, 2018. Among those being honored this year are percussionist and composer John Beck, Sacred Steel band The Campbell Brothers, drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Tony Levin, and Emmy-nominated composer Ferdinand Jay Smith. Guest performers include members of the band L’Image and Grammy-winner Robert Randolph. More musical guests will be announced. Prime Time Funk will perform as the official Hall of Fame house band. Tickets are on sale now.
Steve Gadd is hailed as one of the most accomplished and skilled drummers of his generation. Born in the suburbs of Rochester, Gadd took up drums when he was seven years old. When he was 11, he sat in with Dizzy Gillespie, launching a lifetime of work with some of the greatest artists of our era. He has performed in studio and on tour with iconic artists such as Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Eric Clapton. He continues to make music in conjunction with other artists and with the Steve Gadd Band. His work in the field of percussion has inspired generations to follow. Chick Corea once commented, “Every drummer wants to play like Gadd because he plays perfect…He has brought orchestral and compositional thinking to the drum kit while at the same time having a great imagination and a great ability to swing.”
Bassist Tony Levin was born in Boston, but moved to Rochester to study at Eastman School of Music, where he studied under the great Igor Stravinsky. After meeting fellow student Steve Gadd, he traded upright bass for electric bass. After playing in several New York bands, he was offered the opportunity to tour with Peter Gabriel in 1977. He still plays in the Peter Gabriel Band, and along the way has become a member of such acts as King Crimson, Stick Men, and Levin Brothers. He has authored books containing photographs he has taken throughout his career, and a book of poetry and lyrics.
Percussionist and composer John Beck has been teaching at Eastman School of Music for six decades, and currently serves as Professor Emeritus of Percussion. His work has led him to perform around the world, and has earned him numerous accolades, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from prestigious organizations here and abroad. At the induction ceremony, Beck will perform solo as well as with a percussion ensemble and the Hall of Fame house band Prime Time Funk.
Sacred steel band The Campbell Brothers features Chuck Campbell on pedal steel guitar, Phillip Campbell on electric guitar and bass, Darick Campbell on lap steel, and Carlton Campbell on drums. From their humble beginnings as the house band for a House of God Church, they have been invited to bring their gospel music to such venerable music halls Hollywood Bowl, The Kennedy Center, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their work is now being featured in the Sacred Steel exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Heritage and Culture.
Ferdinand Jay Smith’s impressive resume includes his work at Jay Advertising, his early career as a radio DJ and manager of musicians, and a list of credits in the music industry for movies and television. The Emmy-nominated composer is best known for his theme songs for the HBO feature presentation, the CBS movie of the week, NHL Tonight, and the musical themes for the 1980 and 1988 Olympics. A musical medley and video presentation will celebrate Smith’s contribution to music in the entertainment industry.
https://youtu.be/CDTmv3Gjl48
Tough Old Bird are venturing from their home in the Allegheny region and taking to the road this month and next. The Northeast run began on March 15 at The Bug Jar. Local support for this show came from indie folk duo Bitter Bells and alt-country outfit Brindamor.
Bitter Bells is Ben Proctor and Rita Harris Proctor, who are better known for their work with the band The Crooked North. Songwriter Ben Proctor alternated between guitar and banjo, and they both sang. Their beautifully harmonized vocals resonated as they performed a selection of sad songs, followed by even sadder songs, with themes about loss, like unrequited love, tragedy, and being far from home. The mood was lightened by their playful banter, and a running jest about refraining from banjo jokes.
Tough Old Bird took the stage next. Hailing from Fillmore, New York, songwriting brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan were joined on stage by Jay Corwin on upright bass. From the first strum on the banjo, the music seemed to transport the listener through time and space, and everything from the psychedelic decor on the walls to the digital camera in my hand seemed oddly out of place.
Their music taps into the time-honed tradition of roots music, plucking at the heartstrings and reviving forgotten innate rhythms. The intriguing story lines in the lyrics carry listeners on a journey through the instrumental landscape. In addition to a selection of songs they’ve written over the past five years, their set included a stunning rendition of Tom Wait’s “Cold Cold Ground.”
This was the first of many dates they have lined up over the next several weeks, as they trek along the Eastern Seaboard and venture into the Midwest. I picked up a copy of their latest CD, Where The Great Beasts Are Buried at the show, but their music can also be bought online.
Brindamor closed out the night. They brought copies of their brand new CD released that day, and handed out copies throughout the night. The songs on the EP are titled “About You” and “Betsy, Before I Forget,” and they were recorded nearby at 1809 Studios with Dave Drago. That was all I knew about them before the quartet took the stage. Even though we were heading into late hours on a weeknight, I was intrigued and I stuck around a bit later than planned. I’m glad I did. Brindamor’s sound is grand and seems larger than the sum of its four members. The music straddles the lines of indie folk and contemporary alt-country, giving it broad appeal.
Tough Old Bird’s Upcoming Show Dates:
MAR 18 – Bourbon & Branch w/ Deep City Healers – Philadelphia, PA
MAR 19 – PIANOS – New York, NY
MAR 20 – The Bebop w/ Aaron Wardwell Lindsey Sampson – Boston, MA
MAR 31 – Hot Mama’s Canteen – Buffalo, NY
APR 6 – Postcrypt Coffeehouse – Manhattan, NY
APR 7 – Cafe Veritas – Rochester, NY
APR 14 – The Geneseo Riviera w/ Straw Hat – Geneseo, NY
APR 18 – Hotel Crittenden – Coudersport, PA
APR 19 – The Funhouse At Mr. Smalls – Millvale, PA
APR 20 – The Listing Loon w/ Warrick & Lowell Moriah Haven – Cincinnati, OH
APR 21 – Evangeline’s – St Louis, MO
APR 23 – Blue Canoe – Tupelo, MS
APR 24 – Alley Cat – Carrollton, GA
APR 26 – The Grove – Fayetteville, WV
APR 27 – Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar w/ Jordan Ashby Gio – Charlottesville, VA
APR 28 – The Purple Fiddle – Thomas, WV
APR 29 – The Purple Fiddle – Thomas, WV
The latest episode of Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight features Tough Old Bird. On the show, brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan talk about their songwriting process and performing together with the host Dan Gross. They also discuss the renaissance of folk music in the region, and the consistent presence of the genre despite going in and out of popularity with audiences. Tough Old Bird is on tour this month, with shows spanning from Buffalo to Boston. Following the interview, they perform a selection of songs from their catalog, including “Built It Again” and “No One Knows Your Mind.”
The live events are free and open to the public, and are recorded at Bop Shop Records at 1460 Monroe Avenue in Rochester from 7-9pm. Upcoming Spotlight sessions include Vanishing Sun on March 9, Grand Canyon Rescue Episode on March 10, Seth Faergolzia’s Multibird on March 16, and Jimmy Highsmith Jr. on March 31. The remaining four guests for Season 5 will be announced soon.
Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight is produced and hosted by Dan Gross. Camera operation and video production are done by Jason Thibault and Dallas Greene. Audio is recorded by David Clapp and Dan Gross and mixed by Josh Pettinger of Wicked Squid Studios. This season is made possible by Bop Shop Records, Rowe Photographic Video and Audio, Bernunzio Uptown Music, Sound Source, Joe Bean Coffee Roasters, Three Heads Brewing, Wicked Squid Studios, and patrons who contributed to the Season 5 indiegogo campaign.
For more about the Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight, read the NYS Music feature. For the latest news and access to dozens of episodes, visit Dan Gross Music and Journalism.
Juicy Connotation is the latest band to be featured on the interview/concert series Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight. The five piece group blends funk, jazz, Latin and rock to create what they identify as “juice funk.” In this episode, they speak with the show’s host Dan Gross about their origin, the magic behind the making of their material, and their upcoming self-titled album.
Upcoming Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight featured artists for Season 5 include Tough Old Bird, Hannah PK, Vanishing Sun, Grand Canyon Rescue Episode, Seth Faergolzia, and Jimmy Highsmith Jr.
Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight is produced and hosted by Dan Gross. Camera operation and video production are provided by Jason Thibault and David Clapp, and audio is mixed by Josh Pettinger at Wicked Squid Studios. This season is made possible by Bop Shop Records, Rowe Photographic Video and Audio, Bernunzio Uptown Music, Sound Source, Joe Bean Coffee Roasters, Three Heads Brewing, Wicked Squid Studios, and patrons who contributed to the Season 5 indiegogo campaign.
For more about Juicy Connotation and Rochester Indie Musician Spotlight, read the NYS Music feature. For the latest news and access to dozens of episodes, visit Dan Gross Music and Journalism.