NYS Music 202​0

Tag: eqxposure

  • NXNES, Sarah King and more featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear new music from NXNES, Sarah King and many more!

    NXNES

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you..

    NXNES – “Phasez”

    This week’s featured artist is NXNES (pronounced ‘Nuns’), from whom you’ll find brilliant song crafting, with each piece of music is clever and well thought out, as it intricatley weaves heavy emotional content across an addictive and appealing set of sounds.

    NXNES’ music resonates deep, and is sonically wide, using rumbling low end frequencies and steady beats to leave sonic space for the listener to acclimate to balance of message and entertainment.

    The brainchild of Jo-Jo Rose originally from New Bedford, MA who now calls Albany, New York home. Striving to corral the culture’s hearts and minds into logical, self affirming, wellness by way of truth; holding a mirror to society and himself in order to gain a sober perspective of all things. His goal is to magnify and celebrate the greatness of blackness and black culture in an honestly unapologetic way.

    For WEQX’s Pearson, “every once in a while an artist comes across that is does something different enough to turn us on our ears, NXNES is that artist. While straddling pop, ambient, and free form, the music is so appealing and then there is the rich story telling, each piece of music tells a clear and concise story, which is exactly what songwriting is all about.”

    Sarah King – “War Pigs”

    On this classic Black Sabbath tune. Sarah King adds to the field of great artists who have brought a twist on this brilliant anti-war song. Gov’t Mule, Cake, Ween, and Faith No More come to mind, but none of those bands stripped it down and gave us such a haunting glimpse into exactly what disgust was buried in the fury of the lyrics and harmony.

    Sarah King’s acoustic rendition is chilling, and cuts to core of the song, a treatment so honest and pure that it is as powerful as the original.

  • Elder Orange, Fine Grain and more featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear new music from Elder Orange, Fine Grain and many more!

    elder orange

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    Vermont’s Elder Orange has released a new recording titled, “Brick’s in the Bathwater.” This release is a fascinating sonic journey, evocative and head bobbing, full of emotional voices, brilliant guitar playing, melody weaving, and genre bending. The album is a series of connected tunes that all work as one piece of music, one that is very inventive and unique in a world of singles that occupy the popular music format. This bold step of creativity is worthy of far more attention. Available for streaming on Bandcamp.

    Kicking off the show will be two new songs from Fine Grain. The first is a world premiere release of “Calculate,” available on Thursday, December 10, followed up by “Strings Attached.” Fine Grain is a weird punk/post-punk outfit out of the Capital District that doesn’t quite stick to genres. Their live shows feature antics, copious beer consumption and a lot of hair with a lot energy put into the music that even on record, they sound as though they’re playing in your living room. 

    EQXposure will also be featuring more music from Upstate Mixtape, Vol 1., a compilations of 518 artists, committed to amplifying Black voices and suppressing racism. One hundred percent of the sales of the release, will be distributed to black artists. Pick up a copy here.

    Upstate Mixtape Vol 1. is part of antiracist grassroots fundraising efforts, spearheaded by Jammella Anderson. Among songs contributed to Vol 1. include demos, B-sides, album loose ends and more from a group that showcases the multifaceted nature of musicians in the 518. This week you’ll hear JB and Victory Soul Orchestra‘s “God Self Icon,” NXNS “Motherbrain,” The Age “Take a Dive,” and Wurliday “Clyde.”

  • Upstate Mixtape Vol 1. Featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear artists featured on Upstate Mixtape Vol.1 and many more!

    ugly muppets upstate mixtape

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    For the next two weeks, EQXposure will feature bands and the music selected for Upstate Mixtape Vol 1, a compilations of artists from the 518 area, committed to amplifying Black voices and suppressing racism. 100 percent of sales of the release, which will be distributed to black artists.

    upstate mixtape

    Upstate Mixtape Vol 1. is part of antiracist grassroots fundraising efforts, spearheaded by Jammella Anderson, working with musicians that identify with antiracism values and commit to amplify Black voices. Among songs contributed to Vol 1. include demos, B-sides, album loose ends and more from a group that showcases the multifaceted nature of musicians in the 518.

    Featured artists that you’ll hear on EQXposure from Upstate Mixtape Vol. 1 include Blue Ranger, “Everybody Lies,” Greens, “Go Somewhere,” Carl Daniels “Morning Pages,” and Front Biz “I Want You.” More tracks from Upstate Mixtape Vol. 1 will be featured next week, as this is a collection of tunes that deserves two weeks.

    Also featured on EQXposure are two cuts from Liam Singer’s forthcoming release, The Ocean, due out on January 15, which features a mixture of vocal and instrumental pieces, in the vein of new-composition and experimental music. “Cannon Beach” features guest vocals by Arone Dyer (Buke & Gase, Mistresses, Drone Choir), and “Heavy Water / I’d Rather be Sleeping” is a cover of a song by the artist Grouper, from her 2008 album Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill.

  • Ugly Muppets and many more featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear the latest from Saratoga’s Ugly Muppets and many more!

    ugly muppets

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    Ugly Muppets – Rocket Science

    Ugly Muppets is a three piece psychedelic indie garage band coming from the sewers of Saratoga Springs, and straight into your heart. With fuzzed-our guitars, blistering kazoos, and sometimes-on-key vocals, people have said of the band, “Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of them.”

    This group of proto-post-punk weirdos includes Josh Clark (vocals, guitar, bass), Daniel Burt (vocals, drums), and Jeremy Katz (vocals, bass, guitar, kazoo, synth, production)

    Pulling on influences including The Stooges, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Black Angels, Black Lips, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, and pretty much any band with black in the name, and for Josh Clark, Oasis, Ugly Muppets has been together for five years, while performing in various bands since high school both independently and together.

    The sound of Ugly Muppets is has an overall character that is as much a result of wanting to create something raw while embracing the happy accidents.

    Ugly Muppets have well crafted songs that retain a raw production quality, which ties the full band sound together and in a way, becomes a character, if not member of the overall band.

    Katz says of their sound, “We used a franken-rig of all our collective gear to do the recording and tracked as much as we could live so the sounds already had their own unique character, which we tried to lean into when we did the mixing,” with Burt adding, “It took us a while to form a sound we where happy with, a heavy garage influence was inevitable considering the music we were listening to and the gear we were working with.”

  • Son of a Gun and many more featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear the latest EP from Albany’s Son of a Gun and many more!

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    Son of a Gun – “Call of Days Past,” “Wind of Change,” and more!

    In Fall 2018 Ben Sokol (vocals/guitar), Tyler Treacy (bass) and Rob Piccola (drums) started jamming through a mutual friend who worked at a music store. Rob had a place to jam and Ben and Tyler had been playing together in another band that had gone through some lineup changes. It was time for something new. It was clear pretty quickly that the chemistry was good. Work began immediately on some songs Ben had written and as Tyler and Rob contributed their pieces to them an overall sound took shape. From there, Son of a Gun was born.

    son of a gun

    Ben would often (and still does) record rudimentary versions of his original songs with the basic structures and lyrics on an acoustic guitar, and Tyler and Rob would come up with parts. Those parts would almost always get tossed at the next rehearsal, the band preferring the material they would come up with on the fly when improvising off each other.

    The songs still stay between the lines of the basic structure that was written, but they end up with a more custom paint job, and that can be true at live shows too. They wouldn’t consider themselves a jam band, but the hunt for new sonic territory is always there, and each show has moments of spontaneity. The band started to make the rounds locally, and sold out their first show at Albany’s Jupiter Hall. It was a kickoff to winning over audiences all over Upstate New York.

    Crowds overwhelmingly responded positively wherever the band played, and their connection with the original songs was especially apparent, Lyrically the songs deal with subject matter that sometimes comes from Ben’s personal life, but other times the narrator of the song may be a character. Regardless, Ben doesn’t mince words. Whether he’s writing about something he’s been through, something he’s seen from others, or something else entirely, if you listen to the songs, you’re going to know how he feels about it.

    The simple beauty that makes it work is that you’ve felt like that too. The band self-recorded their eponymous debut album at Rob’s studio (Sundog Sound) in Voorheesville, NY, and released it in January 2020, just in time to begin cancelling touring opportunities that had begun to materialize. The band did what the band does, and hit the rehearsal room again with a new batch of songs. As of this writing an EP has been recorded and the guys are working to get it mixed, mastered, and digitally released in the early part of 2021. The plan is to get back to torching stages as soon as possible, hopefully to support the EP that’s coming your way!

  • Slaughterhouse Chorus, Trampoline Jetstream and more Featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear the latest EP from Slaughterhouse Chorus, Trampoline Jetstream and more!

    Slaughterhouse Chorus

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    The Slaughterhouse Chorus – ...In the Name of Progress

    … In the Name of Progress is the first Slaughterhouse Chorus recording to a music collective, Built4BBQ. Albany audio extraordinaire Ryan Slowey tracked the band live in vocalist Chris Jordan’s rural Rensselear County cabin, resulting in a lean and mean collection that fully represents their on-stage energy and lyric-driven songwriting. While the band’s previous recordings occasionally incorporated an “Honorary Chorus” of auxiliary instrumentation ranging from banjos to horn sections, … In the Name of Progress relies entirely on two electric guitars, bass, drums, and vocals – with the notable exception of one high-lonesome bluegrass harmony section provided by John “Henry’s Rifle” Pipino and Dan Wilson of Kimono Dragons and the Rechorduroys.

    slaughterhouse chorus

    From the opening garage-punk ripper “Greenplates” to the ZZ Top thump of “Used Tombstones”, from the signature country-punk barnburning of “Hambone” and “Pedestrians” to the cathartic dirge of closing track “Wellsville”, … In the Name of Progress finds The Slaughterhouse Chorus stretching their sound into narrative songs that unfold like short stories set to boot-stomping sing-alongs. Simultaneously pared down to basics and more expansive than anything else they’ve recorded, it’s a fitting swan song for a band that’s spent ten years doing things their own weird way.”

    As for what’s happening now, even with The Slaughterhouse Chorus coming to an end, the band never really stopped getting together to write and record new music. Weekly basement practices due to COVID precautions were put on hold, and later moved to Chris’ socially distanced garage and started working on fleshing out a batch of Chet Atkins/Jerry Reed style acoustic guitar ideas he’d been kicking around for years that never really fit in with Slaughterhouse. This evolved into a project they’re calling Timing. It has a lot of the country/Americana side of Slaughterhouse, but much more weirdness and much less punk rock.

    Trampoline Jetstream – “Jerry”

    Utica’s Trampoline Jetstream will also be featured on this week’s EQXposure, with Pearson spinning their song “Jerry.”

    The four person indie rock band began to record “Jerry” in Utica two years ago. Before they could finish, vocalist Nick Vanderwood suffered an injury that left him unable to sing. The band put the project on hold until February 2020, just before the COVID epidemic put everything on pause. Trampoline Jetstream had finished recording, but had to delay production and gigs further. Read more on Trampoline Jetstream here.

  • Stellar Young Featured on This Week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear the latest EP from Albany’s Stellar Young!

    stellar young

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    EQXposure host Pearson came across Stellar Young’s song “Old Roots” and was struck by how the character in the voice, the feel of a waltz, and the urgency in the performance gave the song a desperate and anthemic quality. This track pulled Pearson in and when he learned their EP And Turned to Ash was part of a trilogy, he wanted to dig in further.

    stellar young

    On Sunday, November 1, Pearson will play the entire And Turned to Ash EP, and over the next few weeks he will feature the other two EPs. Playing a full artists release on a radio station in this climate is a departure from the norm, but Pearson couldn’t think of a better time to start doing this.

    Stellar Young’s And Turned to Ash is an awesome record to share because it weaves through a narrative of the PAST. That nostalgic, raw emotional pondering is evident in the treatment of the songs and the how the band orchestrates the presentation with bass, drums, layers of human harmony, guitars, and lingering tone beds – it’s rather well made album too. So put on some headphones and let’s go on a journey together. From the radio to your soul.

    A captivating blend of atmospheric indie-rock and upbeat post-punk, Stellar Young features John Glenn (vocals/keys), Erik Flora (guitar/vocals), Kyle Hatch (guitar), Dave Parker (producer), and Tim Brosnan (drums). Together the members work to create the most accurate portrayal of key moments in life that everyone understands, but often can’t explain.

  • The Parlor, Haley Moley, and More Featured On This Week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear music from The Parlor, Haley Moley, and many more!

    the parlor

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    This week’s EQXposure is a bit moody and is about exploring wide sonic spaces.

    The Parlor – “Dive”

    Named after a room in the 19th century farmhouse where they live, farm, and create, The Parlor is a project by husband and wife team Eric Krans and Jen O’Connor. The multi-instrumentalist, producer-composers create intimate art-pop intended to reflect some of the most powerful aspects of the human experience.

    The Parlor’s music is the sonic corollary to what the couple is bringing to their land, an artisanal re-imagining of an antique dream. Jen O’Connor + Eric Krans make their home in Upstate New York. Their farmhouse is filled with jars of feathers + herbs, piles of broken guitars, trays of wings + claws, upright basses, a sampling synth, braided onions, polyester pants, Casio + Zenith, antique mirrors. Ghosts. They write and record music in a room called the parlor.

    Haley Moley – “Souvenirs”

    In early 2015, house music DJ and dance music producer Jennifer Maher Coleman (DJ Jennifer Haley) and indie rocker Paul Coleman (Mount Mole, Sinkcharmer, Beaked Whale, The Operators) combined their aliases and their musical sensibilities to form Haley Moley.

    Moody synth and guitar rock over electronic beats ultimately blossomed into a full-on five-piece with the welcome addition of Andrea Kosek (aka DJ Goldeedust, keyboards) Pat Thorpe (of DJ duo Partyhorn, bass guitar) and Mike Broomhead (also of Partyhorn, drums.)

    With a high concentration of electronic, funk, and disco dj’s on board as well as decades of rock experience steeped in atmospheric, dirty guitars, Haley Moley delivers a complex amalgam echoing these disparate roots and emerges refreshingly uncategorizable.

  • El Modernist, ERIE and More Featured On This Week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear music from El Modernist, E.R.I.E.and many more!

    El Modernist

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    El Modernist – “Evolution”

    El Modernist delivers a new take on the world of indie rock. With pulsating hooks and lush melodic waves of psychedelia, the band combines upbeat, catchy garage-rock with a modern alternative hip-hop sound.

    “Evolution” is an anthem for queer artists who have been contributing and pushing the boundaries of art since the beginning of time, while more often than not having to hide their true selves while doing so. Artists like Freddie Mercury and Elton John were often thought of as eccentric rather than LGTBQ+ (occasionally thought of as womanizers), but laid the groundwork for today’s LGBTQ+ artists and pioneers. “Evolution” is a fight song. A fight for equality. A fight against hatred. The future is gay as hell.

    When asked by WEQX’s Pearson on what they are currently working on and how they are coping during this time, they shared:

    What we’re working on/how we’re coping… Well, now that the bustle of the record release and the release party is over, we suspect performance opportunities will unfortunately be few and far between as the weather gets colder. We have a nice collection of songs just waiting to be properly demoed for what will eventually be LP2. So, the plan will be to hunker down and focus on that, which will be the first time the four of us write together. We’re definitely looking forward to letting some pent up creativity bounce off the walls, albeit mostly from separate houses/studios. The pandemic has certainly taken a toll on us all, personally speaking. The opportunities we get to play together in a room have been incredibly therapeutic, and we’re certainly grateful we can still do that responsibly. But ahead of the pandemic, we were all gearing up to play out a lot – it’s something all four of us really needed in our lives for a variety of reasons – so the fact that it all came screeching to a halt is tough to cope with, especially with no real end in sight. Like everyone else, I think we’re just pivoting the best we can and diving into the next record maybe a little sooner than we otherwise would have. I write a lot of songs, so I’m always ready and willing to jump behind the board and make some magic happen.

    All BandCamp proceeds for the track will be donated to The Trevor Project.

    E.R.I.E. – “Fire Away”

    Hailing from New York’s vibrant Capital Region, rock outfit E.R.I.E. debuted on Mint 400 Records with Don’t Wanna Live, Don’t Wanna Die in September. Combining addictive progressions with alternative undertones, the record boasts an anthemic pop-rock aesthetic, with the integrity of an early 2000’s basement or VFW hall.

    E.R.I.E. has brought me back to my roots, in a way. Growing up, I played in scrappy punk bands and as I got through college and beyond, my interests and writing style began broadening. I started taking myself more seriously, arguably to a fault. While creating this record, my main goal was to have a positive and fun studio experience. I paid a lot more attention to content rather than mechanics. Ultimately, creating Don’t Wanna Live, Don’t Wanna Die was a natural process, without most of the stresses recording can bring.

    TJ Foster, E.R.I.E.

    Upon listening, it’s not hard to hear that sense of lightness and clarity songwriter TJ Foster was striving for. The record exudes a sense of urgency that has drawn comparisons to the likes of Frank Turner and The Gaslight Anthem, while also embodying an intimacy one would expect from Death Cab For Cutie or Frightened Rabbit.

  • Ciarra Fragale and more Featured on this week’s EQXposure

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear music from Ciarra Fragale and many more!

    ciarra fragale

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    Ciarra Fragale – “Miss That” and “Too Good For You Baby”

    Ciarra Fragale is an indie pop act born and raised in New York’s Hudson Valley. By blending the nostalgic traditions of songwriting with unique new-wave sensibilities, she creates a sound all her own. Ciarra spent years playing solo, until early last year when she joined forces with Kingston drummer Eli Marzano. Since then they have brought their dynamic set all across the Northeast, opening for renowned acts like Sammy Rae & the Friends. Ciarra relocated to North Adams, MA at the end of last year and just last weekend sold out two shows at Mass MoCA, her first shows since March.

    After the release of my second LP, Call It What You Will, I found myself already collecting a bunch of new material. Last fall, I visited a friend of mine’s studio (Sleeper Cave Records) while I was passing through for a show and really fell in love with the space. I had been familiar with [Andy’s] engineering work, as a lot of my friends had recorded with him. After a few conversations, we went in to record “Too Good (For You, Baby)” and quickly realized that we weren’t just recording a single—we were making a record. We’ve been plugging away on it ever since. It feels really good to push the envelope. I just know so much more now than I did when I was making the previous records, both as an artist and as a producer. I’m really excited to share these new songs, most of which no one has never really heard. The climate is different now…usually you write a new song and you try it out at a few shows to gauge interest. Since that is not really an option right now, we’re just going for it on this record and it feels quite liberating. The collection of songs on this album feel like my most honest, which is why I decided to make the record self-titled. This new album is not necessarily a “quarantine record,” even though a lot of the songs were written during this tumultuous time. They are just a snapshot of where I am, right now.

    EQXPosure will open the show 7pm Ciarra’s “Miss That” and later play “Too Good For You Baby” later in the 7 o’clock hour.

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