Albany’s Senior Living has released the music video for “Heathers,” the closing track off their 35mm EP that was released over the summer.
The video was shot and directed by Nadia Boye from SUNY Oneonta, and centers on water and the fluidity of nature, with a focus on the moods and emotions inspired by the ground beneath our feet and the world that we live in and are a part of each day.
Senior Living are planning shows for January around the Northeast and Southeast. More details to come.
Pop – punk group Sleeping With Sirens will set off on a 21 stop North American tour in 2020 to celebrate the release of their new album “How It Feels To Be Lost.” Joining “The Medicine Tour” starting in Lincoln, Nebraska on Jan. 8 will be alternative rockers Set It Off, Belmont and Point North. Along the way, they will make a stop at Upstate Concert Hall near Albany on Febr. 4 before ending the tour a few days later in their current residence of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
How It Feels To Be Lost is Sleeping With Sirens’ fifth full-length studio album since emerging onto the scene in 2010. Returning to a post-hardcore sound, the record features tracks like “Leave It All Behind,” “Break Me Down,” and “Agree To Disagree,” as well as the track appropriately titled “Medicine (Devil in My Head).” Recorded at the MDDN Studios in Los Angeles, the album was produced by Zakk Cervini and Matt Good.
The group’s daring ability to push the envelope in rock has pumped out music infused with different genres from pop, acoustic and some R&B. A loyal fan base known as “Strays” has helped them reach over 1.5 million in record sales, millions of streams and three gold singles. Tickets for “The Medicine Tour” go on sale Friday, Nov. 8, at the group’s website.
Sleeping With Sirens, Set It Off, Belmont + Point North 2020 Tour Dates
Jan. 8 – Bourbon Theatre – Lincoln, NB
Jan. 10 – The Forge – Chicago, IL
Jan. 11 – Skyway Theatre – Minneapolis, MN
Jan. 12 – Granada Theatre – Lawrence, KS
Jan. 14 – Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
Jan. 15 – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
Jan. 17 – House of Blues – Las Vegas, NV
Jan. 18 – Regency – San Francisco, CA
Jan. 20 – Encore – Tucson, AZ
Jan. 22 – House of Blues – Dallas, TX
Jan. 23 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
Jan. 25 – The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
Jan. 26 – The Cowan – Nashville, TN
Jan. 28 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA
Jan. 30 – Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ
Jan. 31 – Soundstage – Baltimore, MD
Feb. 1 – Palladium – Worcester, MA
Feb. 4 – Upstate Concert Hall – Albany, NY
Feb. 5 – Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, Ontario
Feb. 7 – The Crofoot – Detroit,MI
Feb. 8 – The Intersection – Grand Rapids, MI
On Sunday, November 17, Everyone Orchestra, conducted by Matt Butler, will welcome a cadre of musicians for a performance at Garcia’s at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Butler will bring with him sacred steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Claude Coleman Jr. (Ween), George Gekas (The Revivalists), Josh Schwartz and Chris Brouwers (Turkuaz), along with Asbury Park’s Remember Jones.
If you’ve never caught Everyone Orchestra, let alone a Sunday show at Garcia’s, this performance couldn’t be better timed.
The calendar may have turned to November but the Halloween spirit was strong in Buffalo with Turkuaz dressing up in celebration of our neighbors’ to the north national pastime, ice hockey! Sammi Garett and Shira Elias even dropped their gloves and staged a hockey fight that had to be broken up by referee Chris Brouwers to the delight of the packed crowd at the Town Ballroom.
Setlist: Nightswimming, Doktor Jazz, Make You Famous, Heat Drop, If I Ever Fall Asleep, E.Y.E., Mister Man, Digitonium, Big Business > Murder Face, Take ‘Em Down, Every1’s A Winner > Superstatic, Better Get Ready > Lookin’ Tough, Feelin’ Good, Gogo Mr. Dodo, The Shape I’m In
Encore: Monkey Fingers
The annual Great Salt City Blues Concert makes its return to Syracuse on Friday, Dec. 27at 7:30 p.m. The event—being held at The Palace Theatre—is a yearly extravaganza that celebrates great blues artists. This year’s theme is to pay tribute to five legends of the genre, where current musicians will be honoring greats of the past. The honorees consist of, Albert Collins, Freddy King, Big Mama Thornton, Slim Harpo and Memphis Minnie.
The participating musicians include:
Austin John Doody, Mark Gibson, Tas Cru, Mike DeLaney, Bill Barry, Pete McMahon, Ross Moe, Jerry Neely, Mikal Serafim, Diana Jacobs, Curtis Waterman, Bob Purdy, Ron Spencer, Cathy LaManna, Dunham Hall, Jimmy Wolf, Jane Zell and Dawna Zahn.
Advance sale general admission tickets will be sold for $25 and can be purchased at Soundgarden in Armory Square & The Palace Commons, while tickets at the door on the night of the show will be $35.
Tickets for the Salt City Blues Concert can be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets.
The Flatbush Zombies drew a huge costumed crowd that packed Brooklyn Steel on Halloween night. Erick Arc Elliott opened as a DJ, playing noise-music of a sort that jumped from soothing jazz to banging trap. This kicked off the chain of shenanigans that would precede the show.
Meechy Darko emerged, in a bright yellow leather patched suit and heavy clown face paint, as the Joker to kick off the costume contest – the grand prize being $1000. They brought up ten selected members of the audience and let the rest of the crowd decide on who the winner was. The list of costumes at Flatbush Zombies included but was not limited to a Spiderman, Frozone, Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. They went down the line with hovering hand over heads and listened for the cheers. Then it was down to the final three: Frozone, Sally, and a masked killer. The crowd overwhelmingly hailed Frozone as king of the costume contest, who then proceeded to deliver a heartfelt acceptance speech before being abruptly kicked off stage by a raging Meechy.
After a set change, another Joker entered the stage waving and boasting his wrestling championship belt. Zombie Juice was following, promising to relinquish him of it. A fierce fight ensued with all sorts of jump kicks and WWE slams. When the dust finally cleared, Zombie Juice stood victorious.
In celebration of the 10 year anniversary since the band’s debut EP A Balloon Called Moaning, Welsh alternative rock group The Joy Formidable have announced ‘The Ten Years Floating Tour’ in North America for the upcoming winter. This comes just after the end of a fall acoustic tour with Devotchka, a four-piece instrumental and vocal ensemble from Denver, CO.
During the tour, the band will make three stops in New York. First performing back to back nights Dec. 5 and 6 at the Rough Trade in Brooklyn. They will then make their way to Albany for a show at The Hollow on Dec. 7.
Additionally, The Joy Formidable has released a special double album edition of their debut album. In keeping with the band’s desire to pay homage to their Welsh heritage, they will also release an acoustic Welsh language version called ‘Y Falwn Drom’. Already available through Hassle Records, there will be a double CD and double colored vinyl. It is a limited edition with only 1000 copies and can be purchased here. Featuring the single “Whirring,” A Balloon Called Moaning was originally written and recorded in a bedroom by Ritzy Bryan (lead singer and guitarist) and Rhydian Davies (vocalist and bass) over 10 years ago in North Wales.
On the new release, Ritzy explains; “We’ve been through such a lot as a band over the years, it’s been a really reflective studio session, returning to the old recordings and transforming them into these beautiful stripped back, intimate versions. It’s exciting hearing them in the Welsh language because now they have new life too and can be a celebration of language as well as memory.”
The Joy Formidable – Tour Dates
Nov. 29 – Rock & Roll Hotel – Washington, DC
Nov. 30 & Dec.1 – Boot & Saddle – Philadelphia, PA
Dec. 3 – Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA
Dec. 5 & 6 – Rough Trade – Brooklyn, NY
Dec. 7 – The Hollow – Albany, NY
Dec. 10 – Velvet Underground – Toronto, ON
Dec. 12 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
Dec. 13 – Colectivo – Milwaukee, WI
Dec. 14 – Fine Line Music Cafe – Minneapolis, MN
Dec. 17 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
Dec. 18 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
Dec. 20 – The Chapel – San Francisco, CA
Dec. 21 – The Teragram – Los Angeles, CA
Blues Traveler delivered a healthy dose of Four and a few covers at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Friday night. The band kicked off their Four Live Tour, celebrating the 25th anniversary of their seminal album Four. The audience was mostly full, and loving every nostalgic moment of hearing their favorite songs from the mid ’90s with the stunning architecture of the Beacon Theater serving as a backdrop.
The current line up in Blues Traveler is John Popper (singer/harmonica), Chan Kinchla (guitar), Brendan Hill (drums), Tad Kinchla (bass), and Ben Wilson (keyboards). This fall, the band is playing Four in its entirety to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the certified platinum album. They did just that and brought back many fun memories of this album.
The band sprinkled a few covers into the set, including a rocking “One Way Out” by the Allman Brothers and “West L.A. Fadeaway” by the Grateful Dead. They also played a memorable “Shout” by the Isley Brothers.
Setlist: Just Wait, One Way Out*, Crash Burn, Fallible, Look Around, Stand, Run Around, The Mountains Win Again, Freedom, West L.A. Fadeaway**, Just Wait (reprise), Price to Pay, Brother John, Shout***
Encore: 12 Swords, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Drum Solo, Hook
* Allman Brothers Cover
** Grateful Dead Cover
**Isley Brothers Cover
Catch Blues Traveler on their Four Live tour this fall, and celebrate 25 years of Four with them.
Upcoming Tour Dates
Tuesday, Nov. 5 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson Theatre
Wednesday, Nov. 6 Richmond, VA The National
Friday, Nov. 8 Louisville, KY Headliners
Saturday, Nov. 9 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
Sunday, Nov. 10 Cedar Rapids, IA Paramount Theatre
Wednesday, Nov. 13 Grand Rapids, MI 20 Monroe Live
Thursday, Nov 14 Chicago, IL The Vic Theatre
Friday, Nov. 15 Minneapolis, MN Pantages Theatre
Sunday, Nov. 17 Madison, WI The Sylvee
Simple ingredients, assembled one at a time, in careful order add up to more than the sum of their parts. In the kitchen: eggs, flour, water, sugar and heat become cake. Musicians are no different as guitar, drums, and bass join together to become a collective far greater than the sum of their parts. In musical costume, the creative behemoth known as Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, dressed as chefs for their performance of “Stop Making Cake,” sliced a mashup of originals, garnished with Cake and Talking Heads covers for night two on their Halloween run through Boston, New York, and Connecticut.
“Macho Man” Andy Frasco & the UN, dressed as their favorite 80s wrestlers, got the crowd going early with a high energy opening set of fun covers and originals, along with a heavy dose of Andy and his shtick. He’s hard not to love, funny as hell, backed by great musicians with a singular desire to party and have a good time. He delivered. Some set highlights included covers of “Baker Street,” “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “Bulls on Parade,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Killing in the Name,” and original “Change of Pace.” Music is just a a part of Andy’s show, as he came down from the stage several times to either smoke a joint with some folks up front, crowd surf, or, best yet, a crowd-surfing pillow fight on an air mattress with Ernie Chang, the UN’s saxophonist.
Andy’s quote of the night, “I may not be as good at music as everybody else, you know, I’m not the best, but I like to have a good time.” It’s just this type of self-awareness that makes his shtick authentic and his show worth seeing. Bravo, sir.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong in matching chef jackets and hats took the stage shortly after 10:30; the adoring crowd received their “kitchen staff” eagerly: “Scrambled Byrne” Greg Ormont, “Frank Sinatra” Jeremy Schon, “Chef Gator” Alex Pretropolis, and “Baker Ben” Carrey. “Too Long” got the kitchen party going before the band added a few extra ingredients, The West End Blend(er) Horns, for “Burning Up My Time” > “Love You Madly” (Cake) > “Burning Up My Time.” Accompanied by Jeremy Schon’s dizzying solos and Greg Ormont’s chicken scratch guitar, the rhythm section of Ben Carrey on bass and Alex Petropolis on drums drove the crowd into a frenzy all night. Just to highlight that point, the first set drum solo featured Chef Gator playing not only his drum kit, but an assortment of mixing bowls – with a mix of spatulas, whisks, and wooden spoons. “Julia” sandwiched the first Talking Heads cover of the night with “Flowers” to close the 75-minute set.
After a moderate 20-minute break, PPPP returned with “Henrietta” to whip the crowd up some more. The next ingredient was a cover of “Burning Down the House,” which was a highlight cooked to perfection. Just like its first set counterpart, Ben was still way up in the mix, dropping consistent bone-rattling bass-bombs mixed with frenetic beats that kept the crowd moving. The West End Blend horns continued to be in and out, adding beautiful layers of trumpet and trombone solos to the Cake, served up by Pigeon, especially during the “Horizon” > “Sheep Go to Heaven” > “Horizons” combo that ended the set. “Ocean Flows” in the encore slot gave the crowd one more chance to boogie down after several moments of raucous applause.
It’s always a pleasure to share increasingly bigger rooms with this band, as they continue to grow and please their adoring Flock. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong has a unique creative edge that keeps their fans coming back time after time. Enjoy.
Setlist via Phantasy Tour:
Set 1: Too Long, Burning Up My Time*> Love You Madly (Cake)*> Burning Up My Time> Sunny Day> The Distance (Cake)*> Sunny Day, The Liquid*> The Great Curve (Talking Heads)*> Upfunk> Drums> Upfunk, Julia> Flowers (Talking Heads)*> Julia.
Set 2: Henrietta, Naive Melody (Talking Heads)*> Porcupine> Burning Down the House (Talking Heads)*> Porcupine*, Lightning*, Crosseyed and Painless >Horizon*> Sheep Go to Heaven (Cake)*> Horizon.
Encore: Ocean Flows.
*w/ West End Blend Horns
The holidays are fast approaching, and if you’re not ready, a listen to Big Band Holidays II will surely get you looking forward to the final months of 2019. The sequel to the critically acclaimed 2015 release from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis features original arrangements of holiday classics, and are joined by an all-star assortment of guest vocalists, including Veronica Swift, Denzal Sinclaire, Catherine Russell, Audrey Shakir, and the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin.
There are familiar classics (“Cool Yule,” ft. Catherine Russell) and newer songs (“Rise Up Shepherd and Follow,” “(Everybody’s Waitin For) The Man with the Bag”), all kicked off by a brassy rendition of “It’s the most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
A solo piano rendition of “O Tannenbaum,” featuring the late, great, Aretha Franklin, has never before been released and serves as one of her final recorded performances. Her brief and passionate take on the classic was a surprise performance during the 2015 edition of Big Band Holidays.
A jazzed up “We Three Kings” featuring Denzal Sinclaire, and “What will Santa Claus Say? (When He finds Everybody Swingin’)” is fast moving with Carol Russell on energetic lead vocals. “Silver Bells” with flute and bass highlighted, and the smooth instrumental “Snowfall” nicely varying the tempo of the album.
The upbeat “Brazilian Sleigh Bells” has a Bossa Nova beat that speeds things up, making for one of the most energetic holiday songs you’ll encounter. “Silent Night” starts out heavier and bolder than familial versions, before soothing vocals from Sinclaire and Audrey Shakir, who trade verses before joining together in the final minutes.
Listen to the original album below, and enjoy the holidays this season with these fresh takes on classic songs.
Key Tracks: O Tannenbaum, Brazilian Sleigh Bells, Silent Night