For years Utica’s own alternative rockers Trampoline Jetstream have played shows without recording a single track. Now even with measures in place that prevented them from being together they have produced their debut EP For Days On End.
The first single off the EP, “Patience,” shows off futuristic dreamy bedroom pop sounds backed by heavy bass that produces a psychedelic image. Urging listeners to take their time in ‘deciding their own fate’ and showing yourself patience in a time of drastic change and uncertainty, “Patience” is a track you can put on and forget about now.
For Days On End was long awaited from a band that has seen some trouble since they first decided to start recording their debut album in 2018. Plans were all brought to a screeching halt when lead singer Nick Vanderwood sustained vocal injuries that lasted over a year.
Recorded completely separately due to social distancing measures implemented during the pandemic, the debut EP will consist of three songs that did not make the debut album. The band has plans to release a full debut album hopefully in the fall according the press release. ‘For Days On End’ is available for streaming on all platforms.
NYC based electro-indie/pop quartet Young Thieves released their new EP ‘Darker Dreams.’
Produced by Matt Squire, (Panic! at the Disco, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry) the pop anthem tracks provide the perfect backdrop for powerhouse vocals to reside with synth laden songs.
Young Thieves are new to the scene, but continue to rise with the help of all four bandmates; Alexandra Amor (vocals/songwriting), Dmitry Libman (guitar/keyboards/production), Andrew Lynch (guitar/keyboards) and Johnny Coryn (drums).
It’s Memorial Day weekend and typically, you might find yourself at a music festival to kick off summer. With COVID-19, the collective experiences are on hold for the year, but festivals are doing their best to provide fans with a bridge to the experience they look forward to all year. Summer Camp Music Festival, founded by moe. in 2001 is holding a Virtual Festival all weekend, with live performances, throwback highlights, new songs, interviews, panels, and much more to bring Scamp vibes to the Scamp family across the country.
Each day kicks off with OM On The River hosting Yoga. Then Scamp will dive into various panel discussions, artist retrospectives, and close it out with bangin’ late night sets from some of the your favorite performers over the years, including hosts moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Keller Williams, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Twiddle, Gov’t Mule and more. As a bonus, Zac Brown Band, Trey Anastasio Band, Jane’s Addiction, Willie Nelson, Tedeschi Trucks Band and The Roots will be making appearances in Headliners: A Look Back segment, on Sunday, May 24.
Get a 3-Day Summer Camp Virtual Festival Pass and you’ll have the ability to rewatch the entire stream through June 17! Each 3-Day Virtual Pass is just $24.99 with a portion of proceeds going towards nonprofits including Headcount, Conscious Alliance, and Backline, plus participating artists and their crew. Get your pass here, and check out the schedule below!
New York Jazz ensemble Onyx Collective have shared the official music video for their single “Where or When” off of their debut album Manhattan Special: Onyx Collective Plays Rodgers & Hart / Rodgers & Hammerstein. The song itself first appeared as part of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s 1934 musical comedy, Babes in Arms. So, while it may be viewed as a cover, Onyx Collective have added their own twist, with a feature from singer and cellist, Kelsey Lu.
Directed by No School & 22 and edited by 22 Note, the video was shot in Paris, France and served as a love letter to the city. Filmed right before the global shutdown as a result of COVID-19, the video sees Lu take to the town in black-and-white video, as the city’s landmarks, transportation services and civilian life are presented to the audience. Yet, it doesn’t feel much like a tour but rather an attempt of capturing the city’s infamous beauty, with Lu’s eerie vocals serving as our guide.
Onyx Collective is a nebulous jazz ensemble, hailing from Manhattan, NY. The group is composed of saxophonist, Isaiah Barr, Austin Williamson (on drums) and are regularly joined by Joshua Benitez on keyboard, Jack Guliemetti on guitar, Felix Pastorius and Spencer Murphy on electric bass, and Dean Torrey and Walter Stinson on upright bass, along with a collection of musicians whom like the official band members all attended New York’s musical conservatory. More recently Onyx Collective toured as A$AP Rocky’s live band.
The State Theatre of Ithaca, in partnership with DSP has announced a free live-stream in honor of Bob Dylan’s birthday on Sunday, May 24 at 8 PM. The live-stream will feature a bunch of different artists from Central New York and even some largely well known artists. All proceeds from The Bob Dylan Birthday Salute will go to supporting the participating local and national touring artists that have lost their income and livelihood during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bob Dylan’s birthday is on May 24 and he’ll be turning 79. Dylan is one of America’s top all time artists and is considered one of the most original and influential voices in music history. He is a legendary singer-songwriter that has won Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy awards, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Although he won’t be performing himself, the show will be in the spirit of Bob Dylan.
The birthday celebration will feature performances from Joan Baez, Sam Harris from the X Ambassadors, Billy Strings, Sarah Jarosz, Eilen Jewell, Aoife O’Donovan w/ Eric and Colin Jacobsen, Chris Smither, Tommy Siegel from Jukebox The Ghost, Steve Forbert, Miss Tess & Thomas Bryan Eaton from Miss Tess & The Talkbacks, Maddy Walsh & Mike Suave from Maddy Walsh & The Blindspots, Joe Crookston, and Jim Miller from Western Centuries.
The State Theater of Ithaca is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization who relies on donations from the community on top of it’s ticket sales to keep its doors open. Donations will go to the artists as well as covering the production expenses that go into creating the live-stream. DSP Shows also known as Dan Smalls Productions, is a staple promoter who largely works out of central New York. Dan Smalls played a significant role earlier this month in organizing the John Prine live-stream tribute with The State Theatre.
People can view the live-stream on the State Theatre of Ithaca’s Facebook page as well as their YouTube channel starting at 8:00 PM EST on Sunday, May 24. For more information visit the State Theater’s website or DSP website.
Back with their second full length album is Albany based TIP. They’re an alternative rock group that skips across congruous genres, creating another in depth, unique collection worth diving into. TIP is Chris Caimano, Conor McDonald, Mike Cesario, Terence McDonald shared the responsibility of writing songs on their release Full Swing, while also constantly switching instruments, which would explain the eclectic styles we see across the album. In an interview with CT Verses, the band explains their intentions for the album and their goals to grow as a band. “We are constantly riding the line between trying to improv but also (try) not to lose the power of the song.” said Chris Caimano. In this album, it seems like they have found a good balance between those two sides of music, and it pays off.
Throughout this album, we hear a number of different influences that pair perfectly with their instrumentation. The groups pulls influence from Steely Dan, (“the best pop band that ever lived,” according to Caimano), The Beatles, John Mayer and James Brown. In their interview, they spoke so passionately when it came to who inspired them. Surprisingly, the iconic sounds of their beloved influences do not come through in an obvious way. They manage to be original and unique, a sign of an impressive group and an even more impressive album.
Throughout the album, the group flaunts their ability to be powerful but reserved, thanks to their instrumentation. We see this on “Five Becomes Seven,” “Canadian Coins” and “Me & My Girl.” Their tone is a little gritty, their time signatures are unique and their tone is ever-flowing. But their songs have power, direction and energy, without overwhelming the listener with overly-abstract tones ideas. And most importantly, they create a space for improvisation. But the licks that lead them to that space are unique and graspable, ensuring that they don’t “lose the power of the song” that Caimano had mentioned.
“Lavender Burns” is their jam-heavy hit that has lots of potential to blow people away on stage. The group creates a mysterious but comfortable space that could go absolutely anywhere. On the record, this song is reserved and a bit predictable but has a lot of live potential. As straightforward as it is, there are still some delicious layers laced within the track that make it spectacular.
“Caravan” is a straight up flex and a testament to their skills as musicians. This is a cover of a song written by Duke Ellington in 1937. It became a jazz standard over the years and was widely recognized as a song that changed the rules of jazz, due to its avant garde times signatures and key changes. So it only makes sense for TIP to go off and create their very own, remarkable version of their own. It’s rocking, it’s dissonant, it’s edgy – it’s awesome.
“Spreading Mud” is their example of how they execute acoustic grunge. It almost sounds like a missing track from Alice in Chains’ Unplugged album – and illusion sold by the unbelievable vocal harmonizations on this track. It’s hard to give credit to the singer, because they whole groups shares the mic throughout the album – regardless, it works and it makes for an ethereal track with an ebb and flow of tones and attitudes.
This whole album is like an open world for listeners to explore. There are layers and layers of sounds and events in each track that give it depth and replay-ability, that will hopefully shoot TIP into the limelight. But once again, we stumble upon a band that would really flourish in a live setting. Each track is a launching pad into an improvisational wonderland of opportunities. Hopefully, we will get to witness them soon. Find the album on all major streaming platforms, or here for a list of their information.
Key Tracks: Canadian Coins, Brainfreeze, Spreading Mud
On June 1, Cousin Earth will release their new single worldwide for their newest song, “Bacon, Cat Food & Cheese.” The track, which was recorded last summer and mixed and mastered in quarantine will be available on all streaming platforms and accompanied by an absurdist video featuring the individual band members in quarantine. The video debuts three days early at Noon on Friday, May 29 via Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and NYSMusic.com, along with an audio pre-release on Cousin Earth’s Bandcamp.
That night, band will also stream an online Zoom meeting dubbed “Bacon, Cat Food & Chill” at 8pm on Monday, June 1, with special guests expected, and hosted by Wendy LaManque of The Whistles.
The song, clocking in at nearly 8 minutes, showcases all the things fans have come to love about Cousin Earth: layered vocal harmonies, extended improvisation, and humorous lyrics. “Bacon, Cat Food & Cheese” recently entered the band’s repertoire, juxtaposing a down tempo funk song with an upbeat dance-jam vehicle. It was also featured in several shows as a quirky but party-hard late set jammer.
The lyrical concept started as an inside joke, that became a meme, that became a ridiculous song about the internal strife of eating a sandwich that could definitely be better. At a time when so much is uncertain in the world, Cousin Earth took a silly moment from tour and turned it into a metaphor about life that seems all-too-fitting right now. Without gigs to support them, this Zappa-esque project shows no remorse in pointing out the absurdity in our current isolation as a society.
“Bacon Cat Food & Cheese” was written by Cousin Earth and recorded at Call Hollow Studios in Pomona, NY. in the summer of 2019 with engineering by Matthew Einsidler and Ryan Liatsis.
Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, shared an acoustic rendition of her song “New York” during the Brooklyn Academy of Music‘s Virtual Gala held this week. The performance will be available via livestream through May 20.
Due to the Covid19 pandemic, BAM held their annual gala online, which included performances and tributes from Cate Blanchett, Zadie Smith and Jeanne Donovan Fisher.
Spaghetti Eastern Music, a genre-leaping solo project from NYC and Woodstock guitarist/keyboardist Sal Cataldi has released his latest single “Peace Within.” An ambient piece that slowly unfolds in a series of waves, this aural meditation gives the listener an instrumental chapter of chill with an apt tonic for these troubled times.
Using an echoey piano, vibraphone and phased strings, ones that could be a lost track from Eno’s “Another Green World,” Cataldi provides a soothing musical bedrock. This is complemented with sustained drones from a duo of Ebow guitars, drenched in reverb, setting the stage for the lead guitar which propels the searching melody of the piece. The calming and cavernous ambience created is periodically shocked and heightened with heavily processed, thunderous percussive accents.
Cataldi’s cheekily titled debut album, Sketches of Spam, and his January 2020 single, “Her Lemon Peel Raincoat (Because It’s Raining),” have drawn notice from critics at a multitude of prestige outlets like The New York Times, Time Out NY, Jazz Times and The Huffington Post.
The single is available for download and streaming via Bandcamp, CD Baby, iTunes, Spotify. The track was recorded by Cataldi during the Covid19 crisis at the studio aboard his houseboat in Port Washington, Long Island, Houseboat Garlic Knot Studios, and at his Sonic Garden in West Saugerties, right down the road from Big Pink. The track was mixed and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Bob Stander at Parcheesi Studios.
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.
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.
