Charleston, SC’s Runaway Gin delivered their “Evil Phish” covers to the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY on December 26, to a crowd excited for the upcoming Phish run at Madison Square Garden. Led by Dentist and guitarist Andy Greenburg, the funky jams hit for two delicious sets.
Space Junk is Forever opened the evening with vintage instruments and their self-described “simple melodies, stirring harmonic language, and frequent key and meter changes into impressionistic, aptly titled tunes.”
Notable covers by Runaway Gin included “Punch You In the Eye,” “Stash” and “David Bowie.” “Bowie” had excellent guitar work by Greenburg, and the crowd was loving the jam in “Stash.”
Runaway Gin is on tour this winter, with more doses of “Evil Phish.” Visit their tour page here.
Brooklyn group Cousin Earth will hold their 9th annual Wintercourse on Saturday, January 4 at Knitting Factory. Joining the show will be The Breakfast, Of Clocks and Clouds and Medusa’s Disco. Check out last year’s Wintercourse event and NYS’ coverage here, and check out footage below.
A one-night-only “music and comedy festival,” was created nine years ago by Corey J. Feldman of Cousin Earth. It has since evolved to focus mainly on the music, though comedy is always present. This year’s festivities will be hosted by stand-up comedian and SiriusXM radio personality, Brett Siddell; and feature performances by Medusa’s Disco, Of Clocks And Clouds, The Breakfast (featuring members of Kung Fu,) and of course, Brooklyn’s own Cousin Earth.
The evening of music kicks off on Saturday, January 4 at The Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Ave.) Doors are at 7:30pm and the music kicks off at 8pm. The show is 21+ and ID will be required. Tickets are $15 in advance or $18 at the door and can be purchased online.
“I’m proud that we’ve kept this party going for nine years. It feels like a real tradition,” says Corey J.Feldman, ukulele bassist for Cousin Earth. “It keeps getting better and better every year. The band and I are really looking forward to this one.”
Over the past nine years, Wintercourse has gravitated towards focusing more on music and has featured performances by acts such as Bella’s Bartok, Funky Dawgz Brass Band, The Reformed Whores, Space Bacon, Chromatropic, Teddy Midnight, The Matty Carl Project, Mercury Landing, Stevie and The Lion and many others.
Chicago’s Mungion, a funk/rock jam band, and the Magic Beans, another impressive jam band from Boulder, Co, delivered funky fall tour heat at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY. Both bands wrapped up an exciting fall tour on the East Coast together, alternating closing duties nightly. Mungion did the honors at the Knitting Factory. The Bushicks, a local Brooklyn band, opened the evening for these talented bands.
John Adamski of the Busicks
The Brooklyn native Bushicks are a power trio hailing around the tri-state region. The band consists of Jonny Patrizio (Vocals/Guitar), Jessica Bogwicz (Bass) and John Adamski (Drums/Vocals). The trio was joined by a saxophonist this evening for most of the set. They delivered their signature rock, including a sweet cover of “Axilla” by Phish.
Casey Russell, Scott Hachey and Chris Duffy from the Magic Beans are feeling it.
The Magic Beans wove their tasty funk/soul/rock sounds next. The Bean band members include Scott Hachey (guitar/vocals), Casey Russell (keyboards/vocals), Chris Duffy (bass/vocals), and Cody Wales (drums/vocals). The band began by immediately dropping into a deep jam, showcasing their exceptional improvisational skills, and never looked back. This band specializes in space jam funk, and did not disappoint.
Mungion
Mungion picked up the jam vehicle where the Magic Beans left off, and dove into a rocking jam of intricate riffs. This band is made up of Justin Reckamp (guitar), Joe Re (keys), Sean Carolan (bass), and Matt Kellen (drums). The exciting directions, stellar compositions and expressive improvisation were apparent from the first note.
Scott Hachey of the Magic Beans
Both the Magic Beans and Mungion are firing on all cylinders after their 2019 fall tour through the East Coast. Mungion is closing out 2019 by playing December 29-31 at Martyr’s in Chicago, Ill. The Magic Beans are playing one night at the Goat in Keystone, Co on December 28. They resume touring with Snowstalk, their own winter festival in Frisco, Co on January 24-25, 2020. The Colorado based lineup includes Kyle Hollingsworth from String Cheese Incident, as well as skiing at Copper Mountain, and is certain to be a special event.
NYS Music is proud to announce 15 Jam for Tots shows around the Empire State this holiday season. Kicking off on November 27, each show will have a Toys for Tots box set up for patrons to donate gifts to kids in need.
With a wide variety of artists, including Consider the Source, Runaway Gin, Annie in the Water, Tim Herron Corporation, Strange Machines, and Swedish metal guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, this annual series will connect live music fans with those most in need in their local communities.
Support kids in need this holiday season by bringing an unwrapped toy to any of the following shows. Jam for Tots is brought to you by NYS Music.
Regional shows include:
Mid-Hudson Valley
Nov 27 Open Jam – Main Street Public House, Philmont
Dec 5 Open Jam – The Stewart House, Athens
Dec 7 Yngwie Malmsteen – The Chance, Poughkeepsie
Dec 14 IS – Hilltop Bar and Tavern, Tannersville
Westchester
Dec 4 The Spadtastics – Garcia’s at The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester
North Country
Dec 6 Hunter – The Monopole, Plattsburgh
Western New York
Dec 14 Strange Machines w/s/g Haewa- Flour City Station, Rochester
Dec 20 PA Line “Chrismukkah Show” w/ Special Guests – Buffalo Iron Works, Buffalo
Capital Region
Dec 14 Annie In The Water, The Deadbeats – Putnam Place, Saratoga Springs
Dec 14 Consider the Source w/s/g Swimmer – The Hollow, Albany
Central New York
Dec 8 The Old Main – Woods Valley, Rome
Dec 19 The Action! – Copper City Brewing Company, Rome
Dec 28 Tim Herron Corporation – Funk n Waffles, Syracuse
Denver, Colorado psychedelic jam-trio Cycles are making their way through the northeast this week, performing a series of shows throughout New York state as part of an extensive 2019 fall tour. Last night, the band played at Buffalo Iron Works, with Colorado’s The Magic Beans and Connecticut’s Eggy, for a commemorative night celebrating the venue’s tenth anniversary. This past Wednesday, Cycles sat down for an interview with NYS Music in Brooklyn, NY, just before performing a set at famed music club The Knitting Factory.
This was a first time appearance for the trio’s drummer Collin O’Brien, not only at the venue, but in Manhattan altogether. “I haven’t been to New York in like fourteen years,” he told NYS Music. “I’ve been freaking out walking around all day.”
It was a return, however, for the band’s guitarist Patrick Harvey and bassist Tucker McClung, whom have performed as Cycles in NYC before. “We’ve played New York a few times,” said McClung. “There was Brooklyn Bowl, and then we played at American Beauty once, for a Phish after party. That was really fun.”
“There’s a really sick jam from that [Phish] show,” said Harvey.
Sick jams were definitely in full supply for their The Knitting Factory show, which saw the band deliver a full range of musical styles, from jazz to funky-metal to soulful rock, across a dizzying set of songs that were all linked together via impeccable technical abilities.
While new to the city, O’Brien is also a relatively new addition to Cycles, at least as a full time member. The Chicago-born drummer moved to the band’s home base of Denver earlier this year and jumped on board with the band just in time for huge gigs like Arise Music Festival, Peach Music Festival, and Resonance Music Festival just last weekend. “I love it,” he said. “This has been the best summer of my life.”
He certainly fits into Cycles’ live musical experiment, with constantly shifting drumbeats and tempos thrown up against barrages of shrieking guitar solos from Harvey and slap-happy bass rips from McClung. As a unit, the band navigates an amazing balance between improvisational spontaneity and technical precision, and the results fuse together unique, often even quirky, song material with a sustained sense of freewheeling whimsy. A sense that, musically, anything could happen at any moment.
In their Knitting Factory show, they showed this resolutely. Some songs bled out into super spacey, affecting moments of trippy space rock. Other moments saw battles for highest intensity between chromatic guitar picking and dramatic drums fills—sometimes while McClung was balancing his bass on one finger like a vaudeville performer. At one awesome point in the set, Harvey broke from a melodic guitar solo to incorporate audio samples of an eighties’ sounding, glam rock tune into a hard-driving metal-funk jam from bass and drums. Does that sound odd? Absolutely. It is exhilarating and actually pretty groovy.
“I think when we first started, it used to be challenging to make it sound really full,” commenting on the three-piece driving force behind such heavily improvisational shows night after night. “But now, it just feels like I get to do whatever I want all the time. We’ve been playing together so much over the past three years, I feel like we all know where to get in and fill space, or where to leave space.”
Tucker McClung, Bass.
“Yeah, there is a lot of freedom in not having a lot of people on stage,” said O’Brien. “It’s easier to communicate ideas more instantaneously.” This sense of freedom is what gives the band the inspiration to perform a live musical game show next month, at Denver’s Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom (where they will actually have many people on stage).
Tucker broke the concept down to NYS: “It’ll be one set of us performing as Cycles, but we’ll open up the night with a set of this game show. It’s going to be a super interactive experience. We might have as many as 30 to 40 people coming up intermittently and participating in the show, and we’ll be the host band for this Johnny Carson mixed with Wheel of Fortune kind of experience.”
“And,” added Harvey, “we have a game show host who is the freakin’ man! Dennis Craig. Definitely the best host any game show could ask for.”
“It’ll be a healthy amount of uncertainty,” said O’Brien. “Stuff will go wrong in the best possible way.”
Cycles Guitarist Patrick Harvey. Photo: Miles Hurley
The rest of Cycles’ schedule coming ahead has them linking up with jam scene contemporaries like The Magic Beans, Sunsquabi, and others. The trio looks forward to a huge hometown show in December: a debut at Denver’s The Fillmore Auditorium opening up for Umphrey’s McGee.
“I used to see them all over the place when I lived in Chicago,” said O’Brien. “They’re so nice. They’re just some normal guys that are like really, really freaking talented.” McClung, meanwhile, talked about seeing the six-piece staple act for the first time at this year’s Resonance Music Fest. “Yeah, they did an acoustic set which was pretty awesome. I was getting really pumped watching it.”
This week, catch Cycles as they finish their New York stretch with a show tonight at Syracuse’s The Westcott Theatre, followed by shows next week at Olive’s in Nyack and at The Hollow in Albany. While this season of touring seems to continue a road-tested sense of hardcore gigging for the band, they show no sign of slowing down, an instead an invigorated and grateful attitude for the experience.
When you’re as blessed to be doing what we’re doing, it’s foolish to be agitated at the world. Because you have this awesome opportunity to rock out. There’s nothing better than this. If there was something better than this, I’d be doing it.
Patrick Harvey, Guitar.
For more information about the band, their music, and their upcoming shows, head to their website.
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
Mungion and Magic Beans have announced a 15-date co-headlining tour kicking off November 6th in Kansas City, MO with stops bringing them to the Northeast and Southeast. The bands will trade off closing duties night to night, for a run that is full of energy and surprising shows.
“This tour will be something special,” says Scott Hachey from Magic Beans. “The two bands are matched in a way where the overall goal and outcome of our music is the same, however our means of achieving said response varies. Meaning we both set out to lift up the crowds spirits with high energy tunes, but our sounds and musical approach are different.
“However, both bands run the gamut of genres and songwriting. Anyone who is lucky enough to hit this tour will experience a very wide ranging scope of both familiar and unexpected music. Both bands should inspire each other to their upmost potential.”
Mungion’s Justin Reckamp adds, “We can’t wait to get out on the road with The Magic Beans! It’s been a little while since we got down to the south and east coast so we’re really looking forward to getting back there to show our fans what we’ve been working on. As far as pairing up with Magic Beans goes, there’s going to be some pretty wild stuff happening both on and off stage so be prepared to get weird. We’ve crossed paths with them for a while now so it’s nice to finally get a chance to tour with them and get to know each other better.”
Mungion, on the road in support of 2018’s Ferris Wheel’s Day Off, will also be performing a handful of midwest dates in September and October before celebrating Halloween with a show at Durty Nellie’s in Palatine, IL. They’ll also be ringing in New Years Eve with a three night run at Martyrs’ in Chicago, IL.
Magic Beans, fresh off the release of their new album Off Leash this past June will be heading into this run directly off a 3-Night Run of String Cheese Incident Halloween after shows in Austin, TX. The band will also be on the road for a run of dates with Cycles in late September, along with an appearance at Resonance Music & Arts Festival and culminates with a late night Magic Beans show to conclude Pigeons Playing Ping Pongs’ Flocktoberfest in Philadelphia on October 5th.
MUNGION / MAGIC BEANS TOUR
11/06 • Knuckleheads • Kansas City, MO
11/07 • Stickyz • Little Rock, AR
11/08 • Martin’s • Jackson, MS
11/09 • Proud Larry’s • Oxford, MS
11/10 • Howling Wolf • New Orleans, LA
11/13 • Nowhere Bar • Athens, GA
11/14 • Salvage Station • Asheville, NC
11/15 • Pour House • Charleston, SC
11/16 • Precarious Beer Hall • Williamsburg, VA
11/17 • Tellus360 • Lancaster, PA
11/20 • Wonder Bar • Asbury Park, NJ
11/21 • Knitting Factory • Brooklyn, NY
11/22 • Sprout Music Collective • West Chester, PA
11/23 • Kings Rook • Erie, PA
11/24 • Beachland Ballroom • Cleveland, OH
MUNGION TOUR DATES
9/13 • Larrypalooza • Gibbon Glade, PA
9/19 • The Cabooze • Minneapolis, MN
9/20 • Mill Creek • Appleton, WI
9/21 • Gabe’s • Iowa City, IA
10/18 • Kenny’s Westside Pub • Peoria, IL
10/19 • Canopy Club • Urbana, IL
10/26 • HiFi • Indianapolis, IN w/ Tauk
10/27 • Bell’s Eccentric Cafe • Kalamazoo, MI w/ Tauk
11/01 • Durty Nellies • Palatine, IL
12/28 • Martyrs • Chicago, IL
12/29 • Martyrs • Chicago, IL
12/31 • Martyrs • Chicago, IL
MAGIC BEANS TOUR DATES
9/07 • Hightopps Backstage • Timonium, MD
9/19 • Bourbon on Division • Chicago, IL w/ Cycles
9/20-9/22 • Resonance Music & Arts Fest • Slippery Rock, PA
9/25 • The Jewel • Manchester, NH
9/26 • Nectars • Burlington, VT w/ Cycles
9/27 • Iron Works • Buffalo, NY w/ Cycles
10/02 • Port City Music Hall • Portland, ME w/ Cycles
10/03 • The Hollow • Albany, NY w/ Cycles
10/05 • Flocktoberfest After Show at The Foundry • Philadelphia. PA
10/26 • The Summit • Denver, CO w/ Tnertle & Frogleg
Brooklyn’s Bad Luck has announced a brand new EP Drug Phase to be released on March 29 via Take This To Heart Records, and has released the infectious new single “Sheep Song.” Listen below and on all platforms here.
Bad Luck. started out as a Long Island solo project before the band came together in Florida in 2014, when they released Cold Bones and Noise in Your Head the following year. These two compact yet abrasive pop-punk releases placed nostalgia and neuroses on the same plane. “Sheep Song” showcases the dynamics that made 2014 “Cold Bones” LP from Bad Luck an underground hit. The whole song is a chorus that will have you singing ba-ba-ba in under 3 minutes.
Anchored by brothers Dominick and Joe Fox and colored in by a rotating cast of touring friends, Bad Luck.’ssecond wind offers the same great pop hooks chased with hard-hitting backdrops that originally captured crowds’ hearts. Having since returned to their home base and their homegrown mentality, Bad Luck. is looking to add to their short but sweet legacy and score a longer winning streak. They embark on a four-show tour later this month.
