NYS Music 202​0

Category: Features

  • Interview: Jackson Stokes, Not Just The Kid Next Door

    Imagine you’re an aspiring 11-year-old musician and your father tells you, “Devon plays music next door.” Then, that Devon turns out to be Devon Allman, son of Allman Brothers founding member Gregg Allman, and co-founder of the Allman Betts Band. If I was that kid, I would have to change my underwear. But for singer/songwriter Jackson Stokes, it is one of several galvanizing moments in this up and coming rocker’s venture into music.  

    At the ripe old age of 27, Tyler Jackson Stokes pursuit of music has been dotted with you can’t make this shit up moments, joined by those of honesty, passion, and respect, that has helped to subsidize his development.  I spoke with Stokes by phone from his home in St. Louis, MO at the latter end of a self-imposed quarantine after returning from a west coast tour, because, as he puts it, “I shook a lot of hands on the west coast.”

    Over the last few years, Jackson has been fortifying his road chops as a member of The Devon Allman Band, The Devon Allman Project, and in 2020, opening for the Allman Betts Band in support of his debut release, Jackson Stokes, out on Create Records, Devon Allman’s new record label.

    Knowing how his association with Devon Allman has turned out, I wanted to go back to the beginning when Jackson found out who his next-door neighbor was. I imagined that he started playing his guitar in the garage, door open, amp up to 11, hoping, praying, that Devon would hear it and say, “Who is that? I’ve got to go play with him!” Sharing my hypothesis with Stokes, knowing full well it wasn’t true, he joyously took the moment to set the record straight. “Well that’s not what happened. But, it’s not far from it.”

    “It was very organic. My dad, I call him a talk to the neighbor’s guy. Older fashion, knows everyone, help’s everyone out kind of thing, and I was learning and already playing guitar and really passionate about it. My dad has seven Allman Brothers vinyls, and had been an Allman Brother’s fan, but doesn’t get caught up in celebrities. He said, ‘Devon plays music next door. You should go talk to him.’  So, I walked over there. I just had an acoustic guitar and knocked on his door. He opened up and he was like ‘Hello?’ and I was like ‘Hey, I’m Tyler, I’m from next door. I play guitar.’  I remember him saying ‘well play a little bit.’ I played a little bit for him, and he could tell I wasn’t just a kid, I was passionate. He said, ‘that was cool, kid next door plays guitar, I play guitar.’ “

    “But the real defining moment; I was playing with my friends and I heard the music coming from their house. I left my friends and said ‘guys, I have to go check this out.’ So I left my friends, and I knocked on their door and Devon opened. ‘Excuse me, Mr. Allman, you mind if I just come watch your rehearsal?’ It was beautiful. You’re 11 and you just don’t really know about social norms. It’s blissful ignorance. He said ‘okay, sit in the corner and shut up.’ So, I sat in the corner. I believe they practiced every Wednesday. From 7 – 9 or 6 – 8. So, I would come home from school, do my homework really quickly, and I would just go over there and watch them work. Watch them rehearse. Watch them talk. Then afterward I would ask questions and Devon and I just became friends.“

    “We kept up for five or six years and I finally came up with some songs. I had written songs before and he would say, ‘You’re a promising writer.’ I finally wrote some that were good enough and he was like ‘Hey, I’d love to produce an EP.’ Then from the EP, we did this little five song in Memphis with my old band (Delta Sol Revival) and it went really well. So, he was like ‘I’d like to do a solo record for you and an LP.’ When we started doing it, a job opened up in his band and he said, ‘I’m already producing your record, why don’t you come on the road for 2 years, tour with me, kind of build up a little fan base. Get some sea legs underneath you. Then we’ll release it and you can go back on your own.’ So that’s somehow, exactly how it worked.”

    With that, Jackson’s voice takes on a tone of reflection. “When in a big journey, you forget the little steps, and all the things that had to just keep going right. So lately, I have been taking a lot of gratitude inventory. This is an amazing story. I never thought of it that way. It is very unique, and it’s crazy that the universe would catch both of these careers riding it and working alongside each other.  I hope that I’ve been able to help Devon’s career, but obviously he has helped my career way more than I’ll know.”       

    Before ever getting his hands on 6 strings, air guitar was his instrument. Taking center stage in his room for an audience of siblings, he would exhibit his talents via Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘s “Gimme Three Steps,” for them. “I really got into Skynyrd,” he proudly boasts. “My parents took me to a Lynyrd Skynyrd show. It was great. It was like anyone’s first show. I had seen shows, but this was my first show where I was really invested in the band! I knew every song, I was prepared, I was ready to go. Obviously, that experience for anyone’s first invested concert is changing for most of us music people. I came home, and the next day I picked up a guitar.“

    With Stokes pursuit of music now in full force, his musical palate matured over his formidable years. He breaks down his genre discoveries by age ranges, similar to pencil marks on a wall, showing how you’ve grown. From ten to thirteen, it was, as he describes it, classic rock. Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin. Being a mid-westerner, Styx, Super Tramp, & Foreigner are in that mix in for good measure. Blues is the next notch on the wall. Barely a teenager, he could already discern the sacredness of the Blues, while looking to the masters: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, B.B. King & Albert King (a St. Louis native) to help guide him through his apprenticeship. Mid high school found Jackson taking a deep dive into jazz. Bebop to Big Band and everything in-between. Add sojourns into Soul and Latin music, and you get the depth of Jackson’s musical awareness which has served as architect to his musical evolution.      

    I hope that I’ve been able to help Devon’s career, but obviously he has helped my career way more than I’ll know.

    Jackson Stokes

    Post high school, Stokes attended Drury University where he obtained a degree in musical therapy. Not exactly the career path that one takes if the studio and road are to be your life’s calling. I asked about this decision and how he uses it today. While praising the profession, Stokes offered up a disclaimer; “I am a certified music therapist, but I do not practice music therapy. I am not doing music therapy by playing music.”

    His time studying music therapy took him down a path that varies from a typical music major. “I worked a lot in Hospice, a lot with kids with autism. A lot of that is patient preferred music. I was playing a lot of music that the people loved. In Hospice, I played a lot of old jazz standards, because there were older people. That really helped me grow in the sense of just playing different styles of music and working with people.  The college degree thing was essentially a backup. All my family is creative. My brother is a journalist, my other brother is a filmmaker. My parents were just hoping to God that one of them would go to college to get a back-up career. I did that, and I am blessed I haven’t had to use it.

    But let’s not think that school didn’t produce its own rewards. “I didn’t have a normal music school thing,” he asserts. “I got to experience a lot of heavier life things, which I think inspired my life and writing a lot. I wasn’t just sitting in a practice room and going to frat parties.  I was working in hospitals or in hospice wards, helping people in harder situations. I feel like it almost escalated some life experiences for me or sped it up. “

    Ben Bicklein, Jackson Stokes

    “It really helps me with gauging an audience in performing, because you have to adapt very, very quickly when you are a music therapist. You never know what’s going to happen.  You’re working with kids with autism, or people with mental disabilities, or people that have triggers. You’ve got to be very cognizant of how their reacting. What I’ve learned specifically is there is a thing called the ISO PRINCIPLE, which means you meet someone where they are and take them where they want to be. If someone has terminal restlessness and they are going crazy at the end of life, they’re cussing and yelling and throwing things, because obviously it’s a lot of stress, you don’t play a soft song to calm them down. You play a loud song to match their mood. Then you slowly, in about 30 minutes, slowly, slow it down, and soon they are sleeping. That taught me a lot about gauging a room. In a theater, people are going to be sitting down, so it’s not like a club atmosphere. So, you come out, you want to hit them, but playing that slow song grabs them in a different way and you could bring them up from there. Or vice a versa, you’re in a club and it’s rocking and rolling and you play that slow song, you’re going to poop the bed. I know. I have done it.”

    With a life fully consumed by music, I wondered if there was there a truly defining moment that solidified his commitment or had it always been there, and he just had to enable it? Taking a moment to ponder, “A little column A, a little column B,” Jackson responds. “I went to go see Robert Randolph, mid-high school. I had already been playing, so serious about music. You know, you’re a sophomore in high school, you kind of got things figured out, but also, the world’s your oyster. I went to go see Robert Randolph and he used to bring up people on stage out of the audience. He would suggest, ‘Who plays guitar?’ and someone would come up. If they could really play, great. If they could kind of play, they would make it work. Or jam around it.”

    “I was that kid for that night. So, he pulled me up. There was probably about 3,000 people, under the Arch of St. Louis, and I played. They kept me on stage for two long jams, so at least ten to fifteen minutes. He was ‘Wow, he can really play.’  When I got off stage you could feel that energy, and that was the moment. I was just like, that’s what I want to do! “

    “If we want to get incredibly full circle, I was at the Beacon (NYC) for the last (Allman Family) Revival show. The last one was where I was doing more of my thing. The first two I kind of helped with. But then the last one at the Beacon, Devon wanted me to play a lot. I ended up doing “The March” with Robert Randolph onstage. We finish and he was so nice, and he said, ‘You sounded great.’ I said you want to hear a funny story? What is even weirder, you know who was on keyboards that night in St. Louis? John Ginty (Allman Betts Band)! So, I played, when I was 15, with John and Robert. We played together again this year and it was great. You can’t make that up.”  

    Being on the road this year opening for John Ginty and the rest of the Allman Betts Band, Jackson has used the opportunity to present his solo debut to both east and west coasts. Recorded over 3 years in Memphis, St. Louis, & Stewart, FL,  Jackson Stokes is a well-crafted recording, that flows gracefully up and down throughout.  For the sessions, Jackson called on some of St. Louis’s best along with being graced with special appearances by Johnny Stachela (ABB) on a slide for “Sins are Forgiven” and Shannon McNally lending her vocals to tracks recorded in Memphis.

    The songs offer an unfiltered view of life, empathizing with those impacted, and trying to communicate their experiences. Some light and fun, some taking darker paths. The song “You and Your Partner,” is a melancholy number that shares the story of lost love and the pain of seeing their dalliances splashed in front of you on social media. The age-old story of amour gone awry, modernized for the here and now. Not only is this my personal favorite on the album, but before a word is sung, the music paints a somber hue across the horizon setting the stage for what is to come.

    Smack dab in the middle of the album is a Talking Heads cover. What? Talking Heads? Mid-west bluesy funk rock sort of guy?  Stokes explains it this way, “I believe in a cover. A cover is something that you don’t expect an artist to play, but it makes perfect sense. That’s when a cover is great.”  Going into the project with the idea of including a cover, Jackson and crew struggled to find one that fit the bill. Nate Gilbert, sound guy in St. Louis, having listened to the recorded tracks, suggested the Talking Heads. “I’m a high singing white guy. So what is that? That’s the Talking Heads,” he jokes. Surveying the Head’s catalog, they choose “Life After War Time,” using the logic, “You don’t want to do the most famous, but you don’t want to do one no one knows.”  

     “Take Me Home” sits at the end of the recording. It conjures up a sense of innocence, playing with your dog out back, or your mother giving you a big hug before you head out the door.  “I’m big about home, I’m big about roots, and I’m big about where you’re from. An album should take you on a journey, but at the end of it, your right back home,” Jackson asserts.  “I have to give credit to Devon for putting that song last. That was his call.”

    With touring on hold for now, Jackson is taking to his Facebook page, two to three times a week, performing for all to hear. Just a man and his guitar (and an occasional guest,) going on musical excursions, emanating from his amassed library of influences. Each show taking on its own flavor to keep it fresh. As for living next to Devon Allman, that ended a few years back, but with both still living in St, Louis, when Jackson visits the Allman house, he is not require to sit in the corner anymore. 

  • Ja Rule’s “New York”: How the City Began a War Within from One Hit Record

    Hit records celebrating a city are supposed to bring people together. Take Ja Rule’s 2004 smash single “New York,” for instance. Featuring hip-hop heavyweights Fat Joe and Jadakiss, the song was released as the second single from his 2004 studio album R.U.L.E. and peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Having caught on with the masses as a major hit, it should have also served as reminder amongst New York emcees of the bond they share as the proprietors of hip hop. Here you have a global record with an infectious chorus – What native New Yorker doesn’t enjoy chanting “I’m from New York?” – Yet, it served as the fulcrum for the ensuing turmoil between the city’s rap juggernauts. 

    The year is 2004, 50 Cent – on the heels of his incredibly successful debut studio album Get Rich or Die Tryin’— is the biggest rapper in the world, oh and he happens to hate Ja Rule’s guts and subsequently, anyone who associates themselves with him. Their beef stems from 50 feeling slighted because their big homie Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, chose to back Ja Rule’s music over him. That along with many other incidents – that have been covered in magazines and documentaries – have led to the two Queens rappers loathing each other for the better part of 20 years. They’ve gone back and forth with numerous diss records and even had an altercation at the world-famous Hit Factory studios in New York City, which resulted in a brawl between each other’s entourages and 50 Cent being stabbed. 

    While 50 Cent’s contempt for Ja Rule drove his actions, it’s also important to note that although the latter reached fame and notoriety a few years before his adversary, in 2004, 50 Cent had a ton of pull as the most in-demand and popular rap act of the time. Which means, he acted without any regards for what his contemporaries thought, and since he was backed by Dr. Dre and Eminem (the highest selling rapper of all-time), he didn’t need to maintain relationships with his New York counterparts. So, what began as a dispute between 50 Cent and Ja Rule quickly transformed and saw the “Many Men” rapper taking shots at Fat Joe and Jadakiss on his sophomore album The Massacre. On the diss-record “Piggy Bank” – which he also attacked Nas, Nas’ then-wife Kelis, The Game and Lil’ Kim on – he slams Fat Joe, “that fat n**** thought Lean Back was in the club/ my sh*t sold 11 mil, his sh*t was a dud. He then proceeds to go after Jadakiss on the very next line, “Jada’ don’t f**k with me, if you wanna eat/Cause I’ll do yo’ little ass like Jay did Mobb Deep/Yeah, homey, in New York n**** like your vocals, But that’s only New York dawg, yo’ ass is local​.” 

    With that began a division between 50 Cent and two more prominent New York rappers (add them to the list), and since 50 Cent had beef with Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Jadakiss, so did everyone associated with him; including his entire G-Unit crew (because that’s how 50 rolls and who wants to piss off the biggest rapper in the world?). 

    While New York consistently delivered rappers with hard-hitting lyrics along with plenty of big hits, the division amongst them wasn’t easy to overcome (It wasn’t all on 50 Cent as other rappers like Cam’ron also had the propensity to verbally assault their contemporaries).  Nonetheless, as the South grew stronger, major acts like Outkast, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, UGK, T.I. and Young Jeezy were all delivering a stellar product and it was much easier to find cohesion among their power players, eventually paving the way for the south to become the “it” region in hip hop.

    50 Cent and Fat Joe have since settled their differences in 2012 when their mutual friend and business associate Chris Lighty passed away, while Jadakiss and 50 have also found common ground. As for Ja Rule and 50 Cent? Well they still can’t stand each other. Yet, the two hip hop legends have given us plenty of hit songs and iconic moments to discuss for years to come and “New York” serves as just a small part of their long and complicated history. 

  • Hearing Aide: Gawain and the Green Knight release new single “Doctor”

    Brooklyn-based Folk duo, Gawain & The Green Knight, are delighted to share their new single “Doctor”. The song continues the two’s exploration of universal aches as told by history’s ghosts- a path first started down on their debut EP, ​Ghosties​.

    gawain the green knight

    Written by Alexia Antoniou and arranged by Mike O’Malley, the song considers the strangeness of one’s anxieties manifesting physically in the body and expresses it through a doctor struggling to locate their own particular pain. Featuring the duo’s usual latticework of guitar, bouzouki, and close harmony, the song is worked into a grand panic by a cinematic string section.

    The group has been playing across the city at prominent NYC venues, and even in the midst of global chaos, the two folk architects are bringing their music right to your computer with their live streams every Monday at 3pm on their Facebook page. Stay tuned into their social media for news and music updates.

  • Lorelle Meets the Obsolete at Rough Trade NYC

    Lorelle Meets the Obsolete hail from Guadalajara, Mexico and have been releasing psychedelic post-punk since their debut, On Welfare, back in 2011. The band consists of primary members Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto González who come together to create walls of dystopian noise they dub “pattern music.”

    Lorelle Meets The Obsolete at Rough Trade NYC – Photo: Joseph Buscarello

    The band came through Rough Trade NYC this past Monday for the first show of a tour supporting Berlin goth-rockers The Underground Youth. The tour was supposed to be centered around various appearances at the now cancelled SXSW festival in Austin, but will continue into April with stops all across North America.

    Lorelle Meets The Obsolete at Rough Trade NYC – Photo: Joseph Buscarello

    The show started with the opening track “Ana” from LMTO’s fantastic 2019 release De Facto. The song starts from nothing and slowly builds into haunting vocal mantras and waves of heavily distorted guitars. It’s a dark, brooding track the set an ominous mood for the rest of the show. The band would play about half of the new record and also included other tracks such as “Waves Over Shadows” and “Eco Echo” from 2016s Balance. The band delivered a dense 9-track set filled with extended psych jams and lengthy outros that the showed the group feeding off each other’s energy.

    Lorelle Meets The Obsolete at Rough Trade NYC – Photo: Joseph Buscarello

    Last October, LMTO released a remix of the De Facto track “Unificado” by Pye Corner Audio – check that out HERE. Catch them on tour throughout March and early April and be on the lookout for more remix singles.

  • B.A.D.A. releases new single “Exile”

    Brazil/NYC-based electro/indie-pop duo B.A.D.A. explore the inner workings of an artist’s journey in their new video for “Exile,” title track to their upcoming album. “Exile” is a dark pop thriller, held almost entirely on a minimal synth bass line, murmured vocals and melodic sorrow.

    Aiming for conceptual depth while standing out in the overpopulated electronic-indie-pop scene is B.A.D.A.‘s ambitious mission. Brazilian artist/producer Pedro Cesario and Brooklynite multi-instrumentalist/producer Carey Clayton devoted the whole of 2019 to this mission after the vision for Exile came to Cesario during Burning Man in 2018. The story that underlies the single is very personal to Cesario, who states, “I quit music after experiencing a traumatic experience recording a demo when I was ten years old. The lyrics and film represent the creative hiatus in my life and my search for that grit again as an adult.”

    The self-produced, trilingual album was recorded internationally throughout 2019, first in a cabin in Woodstock, NY, then at the Abbey Road Studios in London, and finally in Clayton’s bedroom in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. B.A.D.A. worked with the house engineer of Abbey Road, John Barret (George Ezra, James Bay), several guest musicians, and mastering engineers Luke Moellman (Great Good Fine OK) and Chris Gehringer (Janelle Monae, Harry Styles) along the way to create an auditory and visual experience through their music.

    While the album navigates the same sonic palettes as contemporaries Bon Iver, The Japanese House, and Muna, B.A.D.A.’s sound unashamedly flaunts its romance with the dance floor, and each song seems to be specifically designed to soundtrack a lysergic trip. The uniqueness of the concept lives in the fact that the album’s scores are a blueprint of the journey itself, as the artists use their own identity and experience as a white canvas to perform the transformation. 

    The duo originally started as a remote project between Brazil and New York City, before Cesario decided to join Clayton in the city so that they could materialize the project into the real world. “Exile” materializes an unobvious music journey that reflects the chaotic state of pop in the turn of the decade, where boundaries of language, genre or identity no longer apply.

  • In Focus: Terrapin Family Band Shines at Brooklyn Bowl

    There’s something amazing about the music of the Grateful Dead; it is a catalog of songs that has spoken to music fans for generations. It’s a collection of music that, since the 2015 Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago, has exploded, ushering in a new generation of musicians that are carrying the torch of the Grateful Dead Family. These songs are the only collection of music in the world that has a whole scene based around it. One that is growing around the next generation of musicians covering, experimenting and paying tribute to this amazing catalog. Since its formation, The Terrapin Family Band is one of the top bands doing this and has brought a new and fun sound to this music that has new and old Deadheads alike excited for whats new and what’s next.

    Thursday night this remarkably talented group of musicians brought their take on The Dead catalog to the intimate Brooklyn Bowl. The band, led by Grahame Lesh, also includes Ross James, Alex Koford, Jason Crosby, Elliot Peck, and Nathan Grahame, treated Deadheads to two sets of classics like “Bertha,” “New Minglewood Blues,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “The Other One.” But It was the addition of the TAB horns of James Casey and Natalie Cressman on songs like “Dancing in the Street” and “Brokedown Palace” that show why this music is thriving again – it’s moments like this when the next generation of musicians are taking these classic songs and throwing their vision and musical style into the mix. It’s moments like this that show the magic of the Grateful Dead and why the Terrapin Family Band is so much more than a cover band, they are the leaders in this movement that’s reminding all music fans that family is what the Grateful Dead community is all about.

    Keep an eye out for more upcoming dates, and hopefully some festival appearances from the band this summer. And don’t be surprised if most of this band will be at The Capitol Theatre next weekend joining in the celebration at Phil Lesh’s 80th Birthday Party.

  • In Focus: Sunsquabi lights up the crowd at Town Ballroom

    Town Ballroom may want to look into a new room after The Floozies, Sunsquabi and Late Night Radio blew the lid off the Buffalo venue on Sunday, March 1.

    Sunsquabi showed up with a production that would have made any fan assume they, not The Floozies, were the headliner. No punches were pulled as the 3-piece band created an experience greater than the sum of their individual tracks. A high energy and seemingly nonstop dancing frenzy was on tap all night, with each jam and each mind-melting riff flowing seamlessly into the next.

    The set included fan favorite bangers including “Just a Little” and “Deluxe.” However, one would not have needed to be familiar with the band’s discography to get down to their elaborate, funky blend of electronic and jam music. The Sunsquabi love at the Town Ballroom that evening was real, and contagious. Never miss a Sunday show.

    review by Philip B. Right

    Setlist: Just a Little, Bacon and Cheese, Torque, Chrysalis, Night Moth, Deluxe, Sticky, Wizard, Steamcat

  • Hearing Aide: Timothy Alice and the Dead Star Band ‘SpaceStation AM500’

    SpaceStation AM500 is the debut album from Timothy Alice & the Dead Star Band, a trio hailing from Buffalo, NY. Timothy Alice (stage name for Timothy Patrick Henderson) displays an astonishing number of influences in both his writing and singing styles throughout this record. With the help of Matt DiStasio on bass and Bub Crumlish on drums, Alice’s lyrics paint incredible pictures of an America we can all recognize today. You could be on the Great Lakes, in a sprawling metropolis, or the last bar on the highway between this state and that; each of these locations share a tale that Timothy Alice invokes with each track.

    The opening track, “2 Am,” paints a picture that many may find familiar. The promise and elation of this song invokes the feeling of many 2 am’s we’ve all felt while bar-hopping around New York State – still full of energy and grit, while openly wondering where the night is going to take you. “It’s 2 AM and this place is jumping. I’m just trying not to lose my head again.”  The song feels like a packed bar with 2 hours left before last call, full of vigor and hope.

    SpaceStation AM500 mixes soul, blues, R&B and folk roots into a delightful set of songs with so much heart and movement in them. The band excels at feeling like you’re on the road with signs flying by in the darkness during “Just Take My Hand.” “Shadow on My Tail,” the longest track on the album, really showcases the soul in Timothy’s voice and also features a ripping solo from guest guitarist Andrew Kothen. The album also features a love song to the Windy City. The soul in Timothy’s voice while singing “Oh, Chicago” makes me long for a city I’ve only ever been to twice.

    As the night grows longer and we get further into the album, “Honeypie” provides a tale of distorted love, building up to a cacophony that would be exception to see live. “4 Am,” the final track on the album, really highlights the difference two hours can make in a night. It tells a somber and sobering tale that we’ve all experienced in our lives, regardless of what time the clock is showing. With the help of an amazing band, Timothy Alice’s lyrics paint pictures of an America we can all recognize today. Whether he’s a in a league of his own or the product of a new generation of storyteller, he shows us all that we have a lot of great music and art coming our way in this next decade.

    Key Tracks: 2 Am, Just Take My Hand, Honeypie

    https://timothyalice.bandcamp.com/album/spacestation-am500

  • Juelz Santana Releases ‘#FREESANTANA’

    It seems like not even jail cells can keep Juelz Santana away from what has been his life’s true passion. On March 3, the veteran emcee released the 9thfull-length project of his career, #FREESANTANA. Santana – born LaRon Louis James – was arrested in March 2018 after he fled the scene when TSA found a gun in his bag at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Seemingly counting down the days until his rumored summer 2020 release, the rapper’s Twitter page recently posted on behalf of the incarcerated artist, acknowledging the one year anniversary of his incarceration.

    The surprisingly cohesive mixtape is packed with star power, featuring the likes of Lil Wayne, 2Chainz, Jeremih, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Dipset cohort Jim Jones, and younger Harlem native Dave East, along with samples of Drake’s number 1 record, “God’s Plan.” 

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B9QlboQlOhK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    Juelz Santana uses the 36-minute project to touch on a myriad of topics. On records like “23 & 1,” “Do You Believe” and “In My Life,” he raps introspectively about past friendships and relationships, while reflecting on his incarceration. On “Pink Eagle” and “Ez Work,” he spends time reminding listeners that he’s a respected hustler, with plenty of street tales. The project’s outro record is a sample of Jay – Z’s classic record “Dead Presidents.” Titled “The Get Back,” with a feature from A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Santana reflects with a mixture of street tales, lessons and hope for his future post-release. 

  • Thin Lear Releases Single ‘Maniacs’ and Announces New Album

    Indie singer-songwriter Matt Longo, known as Thin Lear, has announced a new album queued for release on April 24. The full-length album Wooden Cave will be released under Egghunt Records and is primed to be a wonderful addition to Thin Lear’s already stellar collection of songs. He has yet to release a full-length album, but has been releasing singles and an EP that solidify the singer as a whimsical and thoughtful songwriter as well. Prior to the album release, Thin Lear put out a new single, “Maniacs.” Drawing from influences that range from Leonard Cohen, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, to Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Sam Cooke, to the leaders of the ’70s like John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan, Longo creates a vibrant and exciting track that sits perfectly in the pocket and allows the melody to develop.

    Regarding the album as a whole, Longo says, “Disillusioned people getting lost in self-destructive or just generally dangerous thinking is a major theme of this album…the narrator in ‘Maniacs’ is pitching a cult-like community to an alienated, uncherished internet dweller. And you just know it’s going to be a rapid descent for this person, that they’ll soon be indoctrinated. That relentlessly chugging beat and the quick, dynamic changes in the song reflect a desperation and rapidly changing attitude. I wanted the song to feel like one breathless, spiraling fall from the very start, with that mellotron-laden opening. And I knew I needed a wild, unhinged sax solo at the end. It was really the only choice for the conclusion of the track.” And a wild sax solo indeed takes the song out on a more manic note, capping off a great first peek into what’s to come this April.

    Listeners can find the new single on streaming platforms, and can pre-order the upcoming album on the Egghunt Records Bandcamp page. Thin Lear will also be playing at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC on April 16, just prior to the album’s release. Until then, explore and enjoy delving into the deft songwriting Thin Lear is certain to become known for.

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