STS9 kicked off their Apo11o Tour with a stop at Buffalo RiverWorks on Thursday, September 19. Starting off the evening was a brief dj set from Mark Farina which set the mood for sonic exploration to come. STS9 came out with with an intensity that was well received by the crowd who were eager to dance the night away. Over the course of two jam filled sets the energy never let up as high fives, hugs and dance moves filled the floor.
Ambassador Music Group (AMG) will host its second annual Rocktoberfest music festival on Saturday, October 5th as a benefit for Cohoes-based nonprofit Community Miracles In Action (CMA) and CMA’s Louder Dreams project. The free, family-friendly event will run from noon to 6:00 pm in the heart of Albany’s Warehouse District (15 Pleasant Street, 12207).
The successful launch of Rocktoberfest in 2018 featured three main-stage acts and two acoustic performances. This year, Rocktoberfest will feature seven acts on the Louder Dreams main stage. Headliners include American Idol’s Madison VanDenburg, Americana-rock group C.K. & The Rising Tide and indie-rockers El Modernist. Rounding out the lineup are pop/indie/R&B artists Vince Palmeri, Julia Gargano, David Cuttino & The Antiks and This Strange Paradise.
Rocktoberfest is central to AMG’s mission of featuring local musicians, partnering with and promoting local businesses, and helping local non-profits. Fulfilling the goal of helping local non-profits, Rocktoberfest 2019 has partnered with Community Miracles in Action (CMA). CMA is a drop-in teen center offering a safe place for kids to set and achieve goals, build meaningful relationships, and connect with adults who provide structure and compassion. In support of this collaboration and in support of teens, the “Louder Dreams” rock stage will feature special performances by CMA and Youth FX (another non-profit organization helping students through film) youths in between main acts.
In an interview with Spot 518 (“Calculated Venture”) in 2018: “The community aspect of the music scene here is unlike anywhere I’ve been,” said Andrew, co-owner and artist manager of AMG. “I think there’s potential for something bigger to happen in the music scene, here in Albany,” said Rose, co-owner and marketing director of AMG. “And we’re on the brink of making it bigger than what it is right now. I think we’re all trying to make it happen.”
Ambassador Music Group (AMG) is an artist management company based in Albany, New York. AMG’s artists have performed on stages across New York and New England and benefit from a devoted management and PR team. While promoting their own roster, AMG reserves resources to support local musicians, partner with local businesses, and help children through music. Learn more at www.ambassadormusicgroup.com.
Rooted Entertainment and Woods Valley Ski Area are joining forces to celebrate Mother Earth with the inaugural Harvestfest at the ski area located just north of Rome on Oct. 19.
The day-long, first-year festival is headlined by Hayley Jane with special guest Rob Compa of Dopapod and Syracuse’s Root Shock.
The festival kicks off at 2:00 p.m. and is designed as a celebration of Mother Earth and female musicians. Joining the headliners are Connecticut r&b/soul act Erica T. Bryan from West End Blend with her latest project the New Mosaic, Ithaca ska band ¡Viva Mayhem!, and Syracuse alt-blues punks Late Earth.
A portion of the proceeds from the festival will be donated to Groovesafe, a non-profit movement organized to stop unwanted touching and sexual assault at live music events.
Tickets for the family-friendly festival are $20 and available through the Woods Valley website here. For more information, visit the Facebook event page here.
Brooklyn-based, folk-Americana group The Morning Sea recently released their new single and video, “Mad in Berlin” via Americana-UK. Recorded in band member Sonny Ratcliff’s Brooklyn apartment, “Mad in Berlin” is the second single from their upcoming album Half Keys and features footage from the band’s travels to Berlin.
“Mad in Berlin” portrays an air of excitement and freedom, and a sense of optimism slightly obscured by a wary sense of struggle on the horizon. The song’s video, directed and edited by Ratcliff, captures these emotions beautifully by combining a blend of joyful and melancholy images.
Songwriter / frontman, Adam Cohen, started The Morning Sea as a solo project in 2013, but the project quickly flourished into a full-fledged band with the help of a talented crew of New York City musicians, notably including Cohen’s long-time collaborator Ratcliff, a multi-instrumentalist and producer. The band has since gone on to create three previous albums, multiple singles and videos, and have played countless shows at New York City’s most prominent venues.
Andrew Bird has spent much of the year supporting his newest album, My Finest Work Yet, and Tuesday night at Kings Theatre was no different. The band played the entire new album nearly straight through in the first leg of the show. At one point, Andrew even confessed to the audience how much he loved playing this particular set of songs together live.
Opening the night was Chicano Batman, behind their excellent EP Black Lipstick, from earlier this summer. Their blend of of psychedelic, Latin funk was a wonderful complement to Andrew Bird. The lively grooves and melodies bounced around the cavernous Kings Theatre with ease.
Kings Theatre is a unique piece of Brooklyn history. First opening in 1929 the theater hosted movies, shows and vaudeville. After sitting closed for decades and a five year renovation, the theater reopened in 2015 as a modern concert venue. Once past security, the space transports you back in time with gorgeous velvet decor and intricate carvings throughout.
The band sounded particularly sharp inside Kings Theatre. Andrew’s whistling echoed around the room, mixing seamlessly in and out of the lush strings and vocals from the rest of the band. A tall, projected backdrop framed the band and made them seem as large as the theater itself.
After running through My Finest Work Yet, Andrew treated the crowd to a few classics, including “Pulaski at Night.”
On the heels of their first 3-song second set at a Hurricane Dorian Afterparty in Charleston, SC, Runaway Gin – a Tribute to Phish has announced the “Ophishal YEMSG Preparty” along with Facebook groups Phish Chicks and Phish Tour 2014. The event will feature two sets of “Evil Phish” starting at 8:30pm on Thursday, December 26th at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY.
The band recently released an HD Video of “Tube” from their March 30th show in Richmond, VA.
Runaway Gin 2019 Fall/Winter Tour:
Saturday, September 7th: Charleston Pour House
Friday, September 13th: the State Theatre – Greenville, NC^
Saturday, September 14th, the Ramkat – Winston-Salem, NC
Friday, October 11th: the Glass House – Lynchburg, VA
Saturday, October 12th: the Lincoln Theatre – Raleigh, NC
Thursday, October 17h: Victory North – Savannah, GA
Friday, October 18th: Capri Theatre – Montgomery, AL
Saturday, October 19th: Zydeco – Birmingham, AL
Friday, November 1st: Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC^
Saturday, November 2nd: the Broadberry – Richmond, VA^
Friday-Saturday, November 8th: the Woodlands Festival – Charleston, SC
Thursday, November 14th: 1904 Music Hall – Jacksonville, FL
Friday, November 15th: the Orpheum – Tampa, FL*
Saturday, November 16th: Revolution Live – Ft. Lauderdale, FL* (with Pink Talking Fish)
Friday, November 29th: the NorVa – Norfolk, VA
Friday, December 6th: Charleston Pour House – Charleston, SC+ (Just the covers Phish afterparty)
Thursday, December 26th: the Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
Saturday, February 1st: Cervantes – Denver, CO
Since opening, Three Heads Brewing has been a bit of a temple for Rochester local music. It could be argued that no venue in town has supported the scene better. The centerpiece has been the Rochester Residency, which is rounding the turn on its second year of giving a local musician carte blanche every Thursday for a full month. So it came as a surprise when on the second Thursday of September, John Medeski’s Mad Skillet was listed to play its stage. But it was true, and truth be told, it was awesome.
Mad Skillet was born in 2015 at a New Orleans Jazz Fest jam session, but released their debut album and toured together for the first time in 2018. Medeski is joined by Will Bernard on guitar, Kirk Joseph on sousaphone and Terrance Higgins (who was replaced on this night by the talented Joe Dyson) on drums.
Musically, they explored the American landscape of sound. Medeski’s East Coast avant-garde meets Bernard’s West Coast jazz groove meets Joseph and Dyson’s deep-South NOLA brass. It’s more of a melting pot than a skillet to be honest. Covers of Eddie Harris’ “1974 Blues” and MMW’s “Wiggly’s Way” mixed well with their originals like “Tuna in a Can,” featuring a wild drum and guitar jam and the rocking “Little Miss Piggy” which spun out into a long reggae groove. They also traveled the spaceways with their version of Sun Ra’s “Golden Lady” and dashes of alien sounds thrown in throughout the night.
Medeski’s B3 stood like a museum piece, its back encased in glass exposing its intricate innards. The music was the art, however. And like all great works, there was no wrong way to enjoy and find meaning in it. You could mindlessly lose yourself in the groove or pick it apart piece by piece, figuring how it all fits together. You could move your body to a sweaty mass or stand motionless, absorbing the mastery being laid down. As individual musicians tearing through a solo or as a singular group of four creating a swell of sound, Mad Skillet never disappointed.
As it turns out, it was a Thursday night and this was technically a part of the Rochester Residency, or a bit of a preview of what’s to come next month. October’s resident is Kyle Vock, bassist for The Mighty High and Dry, The Rita Collective and probably about half of all the great tribute shows that have gone down at Three Heads and elsewhere over the past two years. Instead of showcasing himself, he will be curating a month of shows from some great nationally touring acts. Starting October 3 with the can’t-miss talent of guitarist William Tyler, followed by Levon’s talented singer-songwriter daughter Amy Helm on the 10th, and Futurebirds, a great indie rock band out of Athens, GA on the 17th. After displaying his excellent taste in music, Vock will close out his month with a couple of shows of his own, bringing The Rita Collective on the 24th and paying tribute to The Doors’ Strange Days on Halloween. Is it October yet?!
A full 48-piece orchestra filled the Fenway Park stage on September 13 to back up and showcase a long list of Who tunes, many of which were from the band’s two great blockbuster albums – Quadrophenia and Tommy. The latter helped coin the term “rock opera.” The Who celebrated its 50th anniversary in May of this year. This evening, they paid tribute to Eddie Money who died that day at age 70 after he had been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer. The show was dedicated to Eddie
One can only imagine this show must be the vision that Townshend had for these albums over four decades ago as the pieces that would push The Who beyond its previous pop-rock limitations and into an area far more radical, which features the 74-year-old artist windmill-strumming his six-string surrounded by violins, french horns, bassoon, and timpani.
This huge 31-date tour has been labeled the “Moving On!” tour and promotes the band’s eponymous new album that has a release date in November of this year simply titled Who, its first since 2006. But this two-hour set was a celebration of the band’s past penchant for an over the top performance, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for enduring fans to witness the songs performed as they were meant to be showcased. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey deserve much respect for constantly finding new ways to extend this final tour, allowing fans to continue to want to see them and not see the same old show.
The thought of a full symphony orchestra and a rock band duking it out to be heard would be tough at even the most acoustically perfect venues. And Fenway Park is not known for the best acoustics, however, congratulations to the sound team on this one. The rock band was sharp and crystal clear, and conductor Keith Levenson’s orchestra cut through with precision rarely heard in situations like this.
As with a standard symphonic piece, the concert was sectioned into three movements: first, a Tommy-centered medley with the orchestra at full strength; then a cluster of early-career odds and ends without the symphonic outfit; and finally a Quadrophenia-focused segment that concluded as most Who shows have in recent memory, with the grandiose “Baba O’Riley.”The Tommy block ran through seven of the albums 24 tracks, from the elaborate “Overture” to “Sparks,” which allowed Townshend to shred with a blur of arms and fingers, proving at 74 that he is still one of rock’s most virtuosic guitar men. The favorites “Who Are You” and “Eminence Front” were also placed in this section and boomed raucously.
The orchestra left the stage after almost an hour of music and the core band — now merely a seven-piece — ran through a handful of “golden oldies, just like we are,” as Daltrey put it.
Here fans heard an animated “I Can See For Miles” —the band’s only Top 10 single in the U.S. — and a folksy rendition of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” featuring only the duo of Daltrey and Townshend.
Daltrey has suggested this tour could feasibly be the band’s last. “I’m just being realistic about going through the 75th year of my life,” he told Rolling Stone in January. If that were to happen, and The Who never get to showcase whatever new material is coming, this would be a fantastic send-off: tracks from its most respected projects, revamped by a magnificent orchestra and unleashed in a way that showcases one of the greatest bands to ever rock.September 13, 2019, Fenway Park, MassachusettsWith orchestra: “Overture”, “1921”, “Amazing Journey”, “Sparks”, “Pinball Wizard”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “Who Are You”, “Eminence Front”, “Imagine a Man”, “Hero Ground Zero”
Without Orchestra: “Substitute”, “I Can See For Miles”, “You Better You Bet”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”(acoustic), “Behind Blue Eyes” (with orchestra string section accompaniment)
With orchestra: “Ball and Chain”, “The Real Me”, “I’m One”, “5:15”, “The Rock”, “Love, Reign O’er Me”, Baba O’Riley
Brooklyn alternative hip-hop artist, Jason & The Rex recently released their debut single and accompanying music video for “Bullets Are Flying.” Inspired by emotion from the Parkland shootings, Jason unfurls a pensive, sometimes manic flow that expresses the convoluted public discourse surrounding the gun violence epidemic in the U.S. over vibrant horns, a melancholy piano lead, strange-sounding synths, and a reverb-washed chorus create a dense soundscape.
Hoping to inspire activism within his art, Jason layered hidden meanings and messages with each aspect of both the video and the track. The dancers movements, the TV screens, sounds and atmospheric layers created from voice samples of common gun-violence soundbites are just a few examples of the extreme intuitiveness found in the creation of this video, conveying an emotive message of gun violence. 100% of proceeds from “Bullets Are Flying” will be donated to March For Our Lives.
Hip-hop, future-funk, and dream-pop influences blend to create a densely layered lamentation of our nation’s gun violence crisis in “Bullets Are Flying.” Jason draws on his love for socially-conscious 90’s hip-hop artists like De La Soul and Common with the synth-heavy, lush soundscapes of psychedelic dream-pop artists like the Cocteau Twins, the Cranberries, and Tame Impala. The video is directed by Samantha Silver and produced by Tag Brum.
“Bullets Are Flying” will appear on Jason’s forthcoming EP Synthesizer or Variations of: An Endemic Cycle, which will explore and expand the theme of living in the mass shooting generation.