NYS Music 202​0

Category: Brooklyn

  • NYC Council Members form Caucus to support Independent Music Venues

    Former hardcore musician and NYC Council Member Justin Brannan of Brooklyn and NYC Council Member Keith Powers of Manhattan have formed the “CBGB Caucus” to help support independent music venues during the pandemic. The councilmen hope to protect and help small venues from being forced to close during these trying times. 

    NYC Music Venues

    Brannan was a member of hardcore bands Indecision and Most Precious Blood before getting into politics. This close connection to being a musician and the need to keep venues afloat is one of the reasons behind the formation of “CBGB Caucus.” CBGB is an historic a New York City music club that opened in 1973 and closed its doors in 2006.

    According to Brooklyn Vegan, the councilman, “shared a letter to members of the NYC Congressional Delegation offering their support to efforts by the National Independent Venue Association.” Currently, 90% of venues will be forced to shut down without much needed aid the councilmen are pushing for. 

    To help support and save independent music venues, visit SaveOurStages.com where you can quickly fill out a form to contact your legislators about the need for aid for venues. You can also help support individual NYC music venues survive the pandemic by donating to them directly. A list of venues you can donate too can be found here.

    The full letter can be read below:

    Members of the New York City Congressional Delegation,

    We are writing to express our support of the National Independent Venue Association’s efforts to expand the Federal Paycheck Protection Program to offer more help for businesses like theirs that are completely shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are in need of support during this unprecedented time. We need to allow independent music venues to recover in order to preserve some of New York City’s — and our country’s — most important cultural institutions.

    With nearly 2,000 venues in all 50 states, the National Independent Venue Association represents an industry that has served as a cultural hub for New Yorkers of all different communities. These businesses have been particularly impacted by the pandemic due to their inability to reopen under profitable conditions for the foreseeable future. This has also affected all of the staff that work at these venues including production staff, managers, promoters, producers, stagehands, drivers, and a myriad of others whose livelihoods cannot resume until the pandemic has passed.

    We stand by the proposal to create a benefit which, along with emergency unemployment insurance, would be available to those who cannot work due to a canceled live event or performance during the continuation of the shutdown. This simple change could allow families across New York to continue to pay rent, while preserving our music venues. Flexibility in these programs, especially for the performance industry, is needed now more than ever.

    We look forward to working together in order to ensure that this valuable community in our city can get help. We at the Council are happy to lend our support.

    Thank you for your consideration, and with any questions, reach out to our offices.

  • The Next Great American Novelist Releases Single and Music Video to “Drag” from upcoming album

    Brooklyn-based indie rock band, The Next Great American Novelist (aka NGAN), share their new single, “Drag,” from their upcoming sophomore record, Careless Moon. Written before the pandemic and a better-late-than never Civil Rights revolution took the main stage of society. The new single, “Drag,” works to show that there was never a comfortable or correct “normal” in life when times were “precedented,” fully working for everyone.

    Songwriter Sean Cahill explains the new single, saying:

    I love New York City, though, some days it feels like a dysfunctional landscape of ill-routine. Living here, you realize you’re functionally necessary but of small significance or importance within the larger enterprise. I’m immersed in a series of habits: standing in line, getting on a train, heading to work, buying coffee, buying booze… Are these choices I want to make or am I just keeping the machine going.

    Cahill was on the verge of ending his The Next Great American Novelist project before it really even got off the ground. He recalls his experience saying:

    I was working in life insurance, and I had a gig at some small venue in Bushwick. I almost didn’t do it because I was so depressed from my living situation and work. I knew nobody, and my girlfriend didn’t show up. I played the show solo, and I was so over everything. I just didn’t give a shit, so I was very open and honest on stage. And this guy who was super shy came up to me afterwards and was like, ‘Hey, I really like your music. I’m a sound engineer, you should come by my studio,’ and gave me his card.

    That shy fan was Justin Helm, an engineer at New York’s The Cutting Room. Cahill later stopped by the studio and met the in-house producer, who happened to be Cummings. The two quickly hit it off, connecting over a love of The Beatles and Dirty Projectors. With Helm co-producing and engineering, Cummings would go on to co-produce and play on I’ll See You in the Art You Love, Cahill’s partially crowd-funded debut as The Next Great American Novelist. 

    It wasn’t long before the pair went from friends to true creative collaborators. As soon as Art You Love was completed, they started approaching a few dozen bedroom demos Cahill had written. Eventually, Cummings expressed a not-so-secret desire to join NGAN, and Cahill was happy to welcome him to the foil. From that moment, the band’s trajectory dramatically changed.

    Cahill had never fostered a strong ambition to take his music beyond a personal escape. He’d studied classical guitar in college, but left the program when the criticism and perfection of academia began to suck the fun out of the art. Now with Cummings to play off of, Cahill was rediscovering the joys that attracted him to writing and performing in the first place. The duo have applied creative efforts outside the band as well, writing jingles for everything from Swedish Fish to dog medication.

    More than ever, Cahill wanted NGAN to become a band people brought their friends to come see live. United, Cahill and Cummings set to work creating new songs that would “make sense live.” It all came together in the studio with drummer Danny Sher of Horse Torso (his outfit with Baroness bassist Nick Jost) laying down the rhythm live to tape as they built towards their new record, Careless Moon.  

    Careless Moon is about the relationship between romance and indifference. How it’s possible to see different concepts in the same symbol. One night, you could look at the moon and see an illuminating presence, brimming with light, offering clarity to a sky that is otherwise shrouded in darkness. The ridges of its surface appear as something familiar, a face, looking down and bringing you comfort. Other nights the moon can seem callous: an indifferent rock suspended unwillingly by gravity. You remember that the moon drifts from the earth by 3.8 cm each year, orbiting away from you as it barrels out into space. Your life changes but the moon doesn’t, each night you can find it waiting for you. When you realize that it has no attachment to you, it is frightening.

    Sean Cahill – The Next Great American Novelist

  • Ian Holubiak Releases Music Video to “The Ballad of Michael Brown”

    Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and self-taught musician Ian Holubiak, who goes by the name Great Ian Alexander, has released the music video to his new protest anthem, written in response to the death of George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

    Ian Holubiak

    “The Ballad of Michael Brown,” was originally supposed to be a battlecry for the late Michael Brown, a victim of police brutality. As the years have passed, the song has maintained its relevance, serving as yet another voice in defiance of the systemic racism inherent in America’s police forces. Great Ian Alexander presents a song to aid in the revolution, to form a new police system and oust the racism that has been perpetuated and brutalized through the 13th Amendment.

    Written by Ian Alexander Holubiak, Larz Principato & Denis Lipari, the song is a part of Holubiak’s solo project, Great Ian Alexander. Holubiak, a self-taught musician from the age of nine has toured with the Atlantic Records band, Oh Honey, as both a member and co-songwriter. Among the other groups he has toured with include Beach Weather and singer-songwriter acts inducing Grammy award nominated Elle King. 

  • Interview: Escaper Guitarist Will Hanza Talks Quarantine, Producing “Apotheosis,” And Future of The Band

    Escaper guitarist Will Hanza’s spirits are high as he and his fellow bandmates prepare for the highly anticipated release of their new album Apotheosis this Friday (June 19th Ropeadope Records). Hanza spoke to NYS Music about the inspiration and process involved in creating Apotheosis as well as the future plans of Escaper with quarantine in mind.  

    Thomas Lent: The album art for Apotheosis by Matthew Chase is striking – what input and guidance, if any, did you and the band members have on the design?

    Will Hanza: Oh the art is all Matt’s and he’s done a lot of work for us in the past but as far as our contribution goes he gets an advanced copy of the album, listens to it, and the we discuss what the album is about, what the meaning is, and then he creates the art. Apotheosis definitely feels like a breakthrough in his own art.

    Escaper - cover art - Apotheosis Will Hanza

    Tl: What was the songwriting process like for Apotheosis?

    WH: It sort of depends on the individual track, the first few albums were instrumental but then we had some vocals. “Apotheosis” was one of our first tracks with vocals. A lot of our writing process comes from jams at first, and then we refine It from there. Open sky for example started as a solo acoustic. I brought it to the band and then fleshed it out more. For “No Strings” I remember Phil saying he wanted an “Ah Ah Ah!” feel, then we dug into that and then we started refining it into what “No Strings” finally became. The first track, “Vista,” was born out of us jamming after a song during a concert and a new sort of ‘danceable’ track came up and we decided to make it into another own song. We called it “Vista” because we felt the song elicits the feeling of climbing a mountain and reaching a new vista point.

    TL: For the listener, what would you like the main takeaway to be from Apotheosis?

    WH: We want this album to be a journey, start at “Vista,” goes to Open Sky – “Eye in the Open Sky”- then you realize that you are it, that we all can have that ‘Third Eye’ realization. I mean, the third track “Superhead” is all about your higher sense of self. Then when you make it to “No Strings,” it’s a fun song, once you find your sense of self, you can go onto the dance floor so to speak.

    TL: Your “Escaper at Home” Youtube video series is a real treat to see. How was much of Apotheosis created in this virtual way during quarantine? 

    WH: Oh well ya that series was partly a treat for the fans but the album was created by us when we were together last year. It largely came out of our new drummer (Ricky Petraglia) and playing smaller shows and harvesting new material from the quartet and writing with each other late last year and refining it. Near the end of that year, we got to work with John Davis again and recorded and mixed the whole album in 6 days. Much of it was actually recorded live as well. “Res Magna” for instance had a lot of improv involved in its creation.

    TL: Quarantine has made life harder for just about everyone, how do you see artists making it in this new lockdown environment?

    WH: There’s a lot of hurt, it’s hard to complain about anything in my life, I don’t want to take away from other peoples struggles now with all of the new movements and causes but we scheduled this release 6 months out and had to cancel our tour we had planned with it so it’s hard. To compensate we’ve done these online things but were itching to play. We’ve looked at private parties, beaches, small events outdoors that can have a certain capacity. I know it’s somewhat controversial but music is good for people’s souls, and I believe people need that. Hopefully, by fall or next summer, we can be back on the road.

    TL: What is one more thing you would like to impart upon the listener for Apotheosis?

    WH: I’m hoping everyone will get it into their ears, now there’s vocals, songs with messages and important feelings that make a positive album. We’ve also tried to include the danceable part of it to have the experience and the grove as well since we’ve missed dancing with people at shows. Overall we’re very proud of the album, we hope it can help people “Escaper” a little bit.

    Escaper will release Apotheosis on June 19th 2020, on Ropeadope Records.

  • Brooklyn Drug Couple share pair of B-side singles

    Brooklyn-based duo Drug Couple return with two new tracks, “No Outside” and “Alone 2gether,” a pairing of B-Sides released via Papercup Music. The prescient tracks were written and named before the pandemic, and offer a meditation on bunkering down with someone special while the world outside burns

    The two tracks find Miles singing and playing guitar, keyboard, and chimes, with Becca on bass and vocals. Their music attempts to showcase a dialogue between genders, as opposed to the one-sided soliloquies that define so much of popular music. The two singles precede the release of their sophomore EP Choose Your Own Apocalypse, due out August 2020 on PaperCup Music. 

    Choose Your Own Apocalypse stands to be a collection of songs about finding someone special to share the end-times alongside. The music is not fresh from the effects of the pandemic, but find their roots in the summer of 2016. As events lead up to the election of Donald Trump, it already seemed certain that, one way or the other,  Armageddon was right around the corner. Drug Couple decided to make a record based around the concept of falling in love mid-apocalypse without fully realizing that’s exactly what they were doing.

  • Premiere: take an “Unhurried Journey” with world traveling Elena Moon Park

    Having just released the “Unhurried Journey” on May 29, Brooklyn musician Elena Moon Park, current co-Artistic Director of Found Sound Nation, a member of Bang On A Can, and a former player of the Grammy winning Dan Zanes and Friends, today premieres the video for the eponymous single. The world traveling Park, along with artist Lauren Gregory, illustrate what a free spirited world could sound and look like.

    The album Unhurried Journey offers a fresh and dynamic collection of reimagined East and Southeast Asian music and original, Western-style songs that encourage listeners of all-ages to slow down and appreciate each moment, finding the joy in their journey. Park says of the single of the same name:

    The track “Unhurried Journey” is inspired by a serene and beautiful scene of the same name, created by artist Kristiana Pärn, which reminds us to take our time and make space for self-care on this journey of ours. In the song, I celebrate the beautiful things in nature that flow around us, slow and steady, with patience and care. I invited the wonderful musician Elizabeth Mitchell to sing this with me, as her music exemplifies patience and care for me. 

    On the website for the album, Park offers a suggested activity for kids (and adults) that accompanies the song, where you can try to draw a representation of something in the world that moves around you, slow and steady. The website also serves as a gallery dedicated to the collection, sharing the artwork that inspired each song, as well as the lyrics in original languages, translations of songs, stories, videos and more.

    elena moon park

    The video for “Unhurried Journey” was created by Park’s childhood friend Lauren Gregory, an oil painter and animator from Oak Ridge, TN. Park always found herself mesmerized by Gregory’s creations using stop motion oil painting animation. Gregory also created the video for the song “Anta Gata Doko Sa” from Park’s last album, Rabbit Days and Dumplings. Gregory said of her method behind the video:

    When Elena asked me to make an animation for “Unhurried Journey,” I wanted to paint a sort of lullaby experience that was both adventurous and cozy.  The landscape that this little bear family travels through is inspired by the foothills of the Smoky Mountains where Elena and I grew up as neighbors and friends.  The two bears aren’t concerned about getting anywhere fast, they’re just enjoying the journey and getting some good quality time in together.  

    Unhurried Journey was produced by Elena Moon Park and Rob Friedman and was recorded, mixed and mastered by Rob Friedman at littlelife studios and David studios in NYC. The 16 song collection encourages listeners of all-ages to slow down and appreciate each moment, finding the joy in the journey. 

  • Hearing Aide: Iris Lune ‘Lovelosslove’

    Ella Joy Mier, under the moniker Iris Lune, delivers her debut album ‘Lovelosslovee,’ a poetic and sonic masterpiece that examines the seamless relationship between love and loss.

    The Brooklyn native is a songwriter who came inter her own, via the folk music of her heritage, Israel. Bringing a contemporary take on the sounds she is familiar with, Mier showcases her ability to tie rich, sonic passages along with beautiful poetry and wordplay. She exhibits a palpable mystique focus but diverse mood board throughout.

    After loosing her mother from a six year battle with cancer, Mier has been desperately trying to piece her life back together, trying to survive in a world without her mother’s physical presence. These songs take the audience through that emotional journey.

    The project starts with a well thought-out drum intro, followed by a rumbling, synthesized bass line. Intertwined vocal melodies, textured guitar and well organized percussion hits are a constant throughout the albums track list. With a central theme of love and loss, the tracks on this album mend together creating an emotive and captive tapestry of sound. With a clear knowledge of radio friendly pop structures as well as dreampop-like instrumentation, Mier falls inter her own on this album, creating a space that she is clearly confident in.

    The production lets her vocals shine and remain the focal point from song to song. The album being co-written and produced by Asher Kutz, is full of highs and lows along with dynamic songwriting. Lovelosslove fulfils Miers’ want to let us in briefly to the journey of the endless relationship between love and loss.

    Key Tracks: Midas, Haven, Summer Blue

  • This darkness has got to give: Music venues during COVID-19 across New York State

    As we enter June, the fourth month where live music performances are postponed until it is deemed safe to have mass gatherings due to COVID-19, we take a look at the music venues across the state that are closed for now, but in the coming months will hopefully reopen.

    Working with 13 photographers to document more than 60 venues in 20 cities across New York State, we present this monthly series that will look at the current conditions of these beloved venues. As they reopen, we will provide photo documentation recording the changes over time in all corners of the state.

    Great thanks to all photographers and venues who take part in this series.

    Buffalo – photos by Zachary Todtenhagen

    Capital District – photos by Zach Culver

    Brooklyn – photos by Joseph Buscarello

    Hudson Valley – photos by Mickey Deneher

    Long Island – photos by Andrew Camera

    Plattsburgh – photos by Jerry Cadieux

    Manhattan – photos by Jamie Huenefeld

    Syracuse – photos by Josh Davis

    Utica – photos courtesy of The Stanley Theatre

    Ithaca – photos by Casey Martin

    Long Island – photos by Rob Tellerman

    Brooklyn and Manhattan – photos by Steve Malinski

    Port Chester – photo by Chad Anderson

  • Hearing Aide: Hayfitz Releases Debut LP ‘Capsules’

    NYC-based indie folk artist Hayfitz releases debut album Capsules, which debunks the value of time and nurtures brief yet defining experiences into lush songs.

    Hayfitz

    The foundation of Capsules was recorded over eighteen days in a Seattle home surrounded by idyllic views of the Puget Sound and the region’s mountains and evergreens. The setting brought Hayfitz the emotional space to deliver the record with resolve, bringing intentional details to each song and distilling the franticness of a Brooklyn lifestyle.

    Capsules took on its current shape in a secluded winter cabin in Parker, Pennsylvania where friend turned collaborator, Patrick Gregg, hosted Hayfitz for two separate week-long periods. Each inspired by contemporaries like Andy Shauf and Chad Vangaalen, Gregg and Hayfitz collaborated to bring a range of woodwinds to the recording process, with Gregg playing everything from bass clarinet to saxophone. Gregg’s added aptitude in both modular and analog synthesis formed the underlying soundscapes that created a cohesive record, running Hayfitz’s demo midi sequences through various vintage synthesizers.

    The album opens up with the song “Pinpoint,” an illustration of Hayfitz’s complicated and perplexing emotions towards a girl. Throughout the album are songs like “Daylight,” that display Hayfitz’s fear and susceptibility and “Hold On,” which demonstrate Hayfitz’s perseverance to have strength and hope in his darkest moments. The song “Kitchen,” relates to today’s current situation, making it the perfect quarantine reflection: 

    “Kitchen” is about being left alone with someone you’ve just met and quickly becoming enamored with them. We hardly ever have control over the circumstances of these first moments we share with a stranger and it’s utterly terrifying to think about what’s going through their head. It’s oddly coincidental that my song about being unexpectedly trapped in a kitchen is coming out during a time where we now all find ourselves in isolation, without having planned for it. We’re finding expedited and deeper connections with those who we’re sharing our small spaces with and being forced to adapt immediately to this new way of life.

    People have experienced feelings of fear and uncertainty due COVID-19, but Hayfitz’s album communicates that all we have to do is just “Hold On.” 

    Key tracks: Pinpoint, Daylight, Hold On

  • Escaper releases new single, “Open Sky”; announces upcoming studio album ‘Apotheosis’

    With their new single “Open Sky,” Brooklyn’s Escaper give a taste of their upcoming studio release, Apotheosis, their first official studio album in nearly two nears. Due out on June 19, “Open Sky” fits the mood of the country right now – comtemplative, melodic and a needed reminder to take time to celebrate the simple beauty of human existence while the world is on pause.

    Guitarist Will Hanza says of the album,

    “[Apotheosis] represents change and growth for us as a band, as well as individually… On “Open Sky”, the first single from the album, we feel a freedom of being.” “Open Sky” represents the sheer Escaper way of breaking free of confinement and allowing our most true selves through. The idea… reflects the climb to self actualization.”  

    The single was recorded and mixed by John Davis at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, and colorfully exhibits the refined sound of Escaper’s dedicated core of musicians. “Open Sky” is the combination of each band member’s individual expertise combined with their musical sensibilities, keeping your feet moving and brain grooving as you listen.  

    An airy sequence starts off “Open Sky,” with light percussion and keys being introduced before a velvet smooth bass line frames the song as Hanza and company work into the structure of the song. The song has a full-bodied quality to it, with no one member standing out more than the others. “Open Sky” finds Escaper firing on all cylinders in a groove that is reminiscent of their live performances.

    Escaper continues to bring fans both new and old their weekly Escaper at Home video series, and listeners can expect a great deal of fresh content ahead of Apotheosis‘ release on June 19 on Ropeadope Records.