Psychedelic funk-rock group, The Chris Ruben Band, released their new album Madness on Repeat on April 20.
Cover Art Credit: Will Wood Visuals and Mark DiMattei
This six-piece Long Island band is nothing short of their fiery and forceful reputation. What started off as Chris Ruben writing his own songs at 16 began to turn into something more in 2014. At this time, The Chris Ruben Band was initially formed, but players got interchanged until the ideal lineup was created.
The band started off playing in basements, but they shortly made their way onto the local music circuit. The group consists of Chris Ruben on lead guitar/vocals, Brendan Allan on bass, Frank Iovine on synthesizers/saxophone, Eugene Iovine on keyboards/cello, Nick Marino on guitar, and Russell Miller on drums.
Photo Credit: Mark DiMattei
Madness on Repeat is the culmination of eight years of songwriting and use of numerous studios. The album is reminiscent of old-school rock while also layering a psychedelic tone. Ruben’s vocals drive each head-banging track alongside the dynamic guitar work. The group smoothly blends their sounds together to develop a modern funk.
“Unsure” opens the album with a sense of groove and hard-hitting lyrics. It eases listeners into the liveliness of Madness on Repeat, and the high-octane energy developed. The Chris Ruben Band keeps the album upbeat throughout with an epic guitar solo in “Starfish” and driving drums in “Prayer for Sadness.” Madness on Repeat closes with a sensational saxophone on “Hernia” while not losing that driven passion they provide.
The Chris Ruben Band has become a staple in the Long Island music scene. They have performed at various venues there in addition to their performances at SXSW, The Jones Beach Bandshell, and more. Until those events are back up and running, The Chris Ruben Band has a livestream performance on April 29. The group will be live-streaming Madness on Repeat, tickets available here.
Los Angeles based artist, Jake Miller, announces his tour “hi, i missed you” and releases his new single, “I Hope I Die First” from his upcoming album.
Photo Credit: Zack Caspary
Miller is an independent artist who has gained a following over the years from his music and social media presence. He has over 200 million streams and headlined eight tours throughout the country. Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes and Fifth Harmony are some of the talents that Miller has shared the stage with.
In 2019 he wrote and produced his six song EP Based on a True Story in his bedroom and received 15 million streams. His single “Wait for You” off the EP made it to Billboard Top 40. Miller became a hit on Tiktok with his viral series “Quarantunes”. Throughout 2020, he released eight singles displaying his craft with different sounds.
Miller’s “hi, i missed you” tour comes after last year’s releases and is the beginning of his journey for 2021. The tour consists of 33 dates and will be stopping in major cities across the nation including New York, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles. The stop in New York City will be at Le Poisson Rouge on September 30. Indie pop duo, Fly By Midnight, and the triplet pop group, Just Seconds Apart, is joining Jake Miller on tour. Tickets for the “hi i missed you” tour are currently on sale on Miller’s website, with meet and greet packages included.
Along with the announcement of the tour, Miller also released his newest single titled “I Hope I Die First”. The song was written before the pandemic with the help of five of his best friends. It touches on the feeling of having someone that you love by your side and not wanting to live without them. For Miller, the ballad means that even when the world seems crazy, having someone special with you makes things better. The single is available on all streaming platforms through The Orchard.
The highly anticipated upcoming remake of West Side Story gives a glimpse in its trailer of the classic musical with a brand new cast. The trailer aired during the 2021 Academy Awards telecast on Sunday, April 25.
After sixty years, the love story of Tony and Maria returns to theaters. The clip is a minute-and-a-half long, giving a quick look at the beloved romantic musical drama.
The trailer begins with a New York City morning, the dawn sky and quickly shifting vignettes of the city. The town, divided in its gangs, ramps up into action with a beautiful orchestral drone in the background.
The Jets and the Sharks, the indelible rivaling gangs, collide in small action sequences. Within the tumultuous community, the two star-crossed lovers find each other, their tragic love story illuminating the screen.
20th Century Studios / Youtube
The leads in Spielberg’s production are Rachel Zegler as Maria and Ansel Elgort ofThe Fault in Our Stars as Tony. The film also features talented actors such as David Alvarez as Bernardo, Ana Isabelle as Rosalía, and Mike Faist as Riff.
The film, as well as the original, was heavily based off of Romeo and Juliet, written by Arthur Laurents in 1957 as a Broadway musical. An interesting fact about the 2021 remake is that Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the original 1961 movie, returns as a shop owner named Valentina, who employs Tony.
West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, is set to hit theaters in December 2021.
Brooklyn-based rock group Toshio Band has released their new single “The Devil Is Chatting In My Ear,” leading their second EP Lock Your Doors.
Photo Credit: Sivan Miller
Consisting of frontman Tim Lavigne on the vocals and bass, Daniel Imana on drums, Nick Valle on guitar, Ben Deixler on keyboards and Brandon Garcia on percussion, all members of Toshio Band contribute vocally with a style reminiscent of alt-rock from the 90s and early 2000s. Their central themes come from ominous and dream-like films and literature. The band is influenced by legendary rock artists David Bowie, Tom Waits, Charles Mingus and Roy Orbison.
The new track “The Devil Is Chatting In My Ear” is the lead single from their second and forthcoming EP, Lock Your Doors. The EP has a neo-noir concept exploring a hero’s journey through hysteria and gloom in an unforgiving world. It presents themes of an anti-hero, prevalent in cinematic works from Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch and William Blake and with musical influences coming from The Pixies and Tom Waits. Lock Your Doors was mostly written and recorded during the pandemic and is a continuation of their debut EP A Splash of Blood that was released in 2019.
Toshio Band dives into temptation and dwells in devilish places in “The Devil Is Chatting In My Ear.” The song starts with distorted guitar sounds, immediately creating a feeling of chaos and getting into trouble. The line “The devil is chatting in my ear” is anaphoric and straight-forward, every time you hear it, you can imagine reaching a point of giving into doing something you shouldn’t. The guitars settle and the beat becomes whimsical as Lavigne sings the line “What hath the night to do with sleep?” from the poem Comusby John Milton, which he added in to get a quote from the devil himself and to keep consistent the theme of mixing literature into the music. Then returning to chaos, the track leads you further into disturbance until it ironically ends back on the whimsical sound.
“The Devil Is Chatting In My Ear” will be self-released by the band on Friday, April 30. This is the first of many forthcoming releases for the band this year. Their second single “Cassandra” releases on June 4 by the label Spirit Charity. Lock Your Doors will be another self-release, coming out on June 25.
Buffalo based four-piece rock group, Grosh, is locked and loaded for their release of Not Down for Long. The group, consisting of Grace Lougen (guitar), Josh English (drums), Megan Brown (vocals), and Dylan Hund (bass) are some of the area’s most talented musicians.
Grosh is a high energy rock band that regularly sells out shows in Buffalo, showcasing their heavy-hitting style of hard rock. Recorded and mastered at GCR studio in Buffalo, Not Down for Long is Grosh’s second full-length album. The album offers tunes reminiscent of bands like Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam. But overall, it has a clear Grosh stamp on it.
The band never abandons their fast-paced energy throughout the album, with hard hitters like “The Fight” offering a great idea of what Grosh brings to the table. The band isn’t afraid to break out of the hard rock element, and sprinkle in some dirty funk in the second track, “Not Down for Long”. Lougen’s guitar riffage is absolutely spot on, chugging the song along and breaking into face-melting solos that soar over Hund’s thick bass line and the ever-climaxing drum beat.
Relentless, this album grabs the listener and holds them throughout the long jams, and even pop melodies in songs like “Mr. Rogers.” Brown’s vocals hold their place among a luscious instrumentation, with the lyrics featuring a trade-off between her vocals and male vocals. The conversation-like feeling of the song yields a nice story as well. The horn section shows an alternate side of the band’s heavier sound earlier in the album.
The band has a soft side too, as they show their ability to create a beautiful dynamic arc in “Don’t Forget Me.” The acoustic track feels like a musical number, with yearning vocals and a wonderful transition to the final song, “Tread the Wave.” Here, the band rounds out the release by offering another harder song with some prog-rock influence. English’s work on the hi-hat is stuff of gold, and a master-class in how drums, when played this well, can give a song rhythmic layering.
Lucky for listeners and supporters, Not Down for Long is set to be released on May 1. You can find the album streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. You can keep up with the band on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The group also has a YouTube page with official videos and quarantine recordings. Keep a look out for the group to be playing live as things continue to clear up and venues open at some capacity.
Key Tracks: Mr. Rogers, The Fight, Don’t Forget Me
The State Theatre of Ithaca announced its 10th annual “Benefit My State” free virtual concert which will take place on May 8, 2021. The benefit concert will feature tribute band Pink Talking Fish who will also be playing some Grateful Dead tunes in honor of the Cornell ’77 performance.
The performance is dubbed “PINK TALKING FISH play DEAD”, and is being performed and streamed live from the historic State Theatre of Ithaca. The tribute jam band will perform the music of Pink Floyd, The Talking Head, Phish, and Grateful Dead tunes inspired by the treasured concert on Cornell’s campus, exactly 44 years to the day of the original show.
Pink Talking Fish formed back in 2013 and has performed over 500 shows including headlining numerous historic music venues throughout the country. Additionally, Pink Talking Fish has appeared at many prominent festivals including The Peach Music Festival, Jerry Jam, StrangeCreek Campout and The Buffalove Music Festival. They are known for creating a fusion of some of the most beloved and well known bands in the jamband scene.
On Mothers’ Day back in 1977, The Grateful Dead performed one of the most significant concerts of their extensive career at Barton Hall in Ithaca, New York. The Grateful Dead are known for playing more than 2,000 concerts in their time but the performance at Cornell University’s Barton Hall on May 8, 1977 has continued to spark interest and provoke discussion quite like any of the other of the bands performances. A lot of the Deadheads know it as simply “5/8/77” and this performance is one of the most collected, circulated, and debated concerts by any band ever, and has topped numerous fan polls through the years.
The annual “Benefit My State” concert is the State Theatre of Ithaca’s biggest fundraiser of the year. This event will also feature an online silent auction with over 25 unique, one-of-a-kind items offered to all viewers and is particularly needed this year in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Doug Levine, the Executive Director of The State Theatre, spoke on this benefit saying, “We are still in need of additional support to help us get through this very challenging year. The lack of shows due to COVID resulted in huge hurdles to overcome and we are not out of the clear yet. We hope that the folks that are able to tune in and enjoy this show will consider making a donation to help sustain us until we are allowed to safely reopen.”
Although the concert is free, donations will be accepted with all proceeds for the 10th Annual “Benefit My State” concert directly supporting The State Theatre of Ithaca. The Pink Talking Fish Play Dead benefit will be streamed LIVE from The State Theatre of Ithaca for free at The Relix Twich Channelon Saturday, May 8th at 7PM EST.
For more information of the benefit concert visit the State Theatre Of Ithaca’s website.
Central New York’s Creative Concerts have announced that Blackberry Smoke will perform at Apple Valley Park in Lafayette, NY on Tuesday, June 29. Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday, April 30 at 10am at applevalleypark.com
Apple Valley Park is located in beautiful LaFayette, NY. With its rural atmosphere, rolling hills, and expansive fall foliage, it has proven to be a wonderful home to the annual LaFayette Apple Festival since 1973. More recently it has expanded to host other live entertainment events, including a few successful drive-in concerts in the fall of 2020.
Throughout their career, Blackberry Smoke— vocalist/lead guitarist Charlie Starr, guitarist/vocalist Paul Jackson, bassist/vocalist Richard Turner, drummer Brit Turner, and keyboardist Brandon Still—has embodied Georgia’s rich musical legacy, honoring the people, places and sounds of their home state. As the band celebrates their 20th anniversary this year, their reverence for Georgia has only deepened.
On their latest album, You Hear Georgia, the follow-up to 2018’s critically acclaimed Find a Light, Blackberry Smoke is further celebrating these roots with 10 new songs that feel like Georgia, accented by the addition of Grammy-winning producer and fellow Georgia-native, Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile).
Over the years, Blackberry Smoke has toured with ZZ Top, Zac Brown Band, and Eric Church, while the group’s last four full-lengths reached the top 10 of the Billboard country charts, with two of these albums (2015’s Holding All The Roses and 2016’s Like An Arrow) landing at No. 1. You Hear Georgia reinforces that the band members have come so far together because they also can rely on one another for support and creative direction, no matter what the circumstances.
Having played music together for so long, it does become a sort of a telepathic thing, where we all are nodding our head at the same time, like, ‘A-ha, I know what this feels like,’ or what it should feel and sound like. That’s what makes it so enjoyable to be in a band: to play with the same dudes decade after decade. Because when you land on something that works to you, you don’t want to stop. You want to keep doing it.
Charlie Starr, vocalist/lead guitarist for Blackberry Smoke
Like previous events announced in this outdoor series, events will be socially distanced, with fans being able to purchase tickets in roped-off PODS (Personal Outdoor Dance Space) for parties of 2, 4 or 6. In an effort to create a safe experience for guests, a carefully throughout site plan has been developed allowing for temperature screenings and surveys to be conducted upon entering the event grounds.
To adhere to social distancing guidelines, all PODS are spaced a minimum of six feet apart. A variety of food and beverage options will be available for purchase. Site map and FAQ for the venue can be found at applevalleypark.com/faq
Kicking off on September 9th in Minneapolis, MN, Machine Gun Kelly will embark on a tour of the country. MGK will feature his latest hit album Tickets To My Downfall at venues for the first time since release, including fan favorites such as “Bloody Valentine” and “My Ex’s Best Friend.”
Starting Tuesday, April 27, tickets are available for pre-sale, then going on sale to the public by Friday, April 30. Everything regarding ticket sales can be found through MGK’s website, as well as the national tour dates and locations.
On September 13, Machine Gun Kelly will perform live at Central Park SummerStage, the only show of the tour to take place in New York.
The tour across the United States will come to a close on December 18, in the artist’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
Machine Gun Kelly’s “Tickets to My Downfall” 2021 Tour will include performances from special guests such as carolesdaughter, jxdn, and KennyHoopla.
Central Park is not only the continent’s first public park, but arguably the most iconic. Artists have traveled from across the globe inspired to paint, play and write about the 843 acres of beauty.
The sacred space is surrounded by world-renowned music venues, museums, and galleries. Harlem’s home for R&B and soul, the Apollo Theater, sits just 15 blocks north of the park while Carnegie Hall attracts world-class orchestral talent just two blocks south of it (slightly northeast of Radio City Music Hall). Rock aficionados frequent the Beacon Theatre on West 72nd street to the west of the park while sophisticated symphony-enthusiasts admire the NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Hugging Central Park on the east, art-lovers marvel at the rotating and static exhibits on Museum Mile and photographers snap photos of New York’s impressive architecture.
It would be hard to imagine one of the world’s most culturally blended cities without a gathering place for people to connect with nature and community. And some of the most memorable gatherings in the early to mid-twentieth century occurred at Sheep Meadow between West 66th and 69th streets. To bookmark the tumultuous 1970’s in the drug-infused, crime-filled, disco and punk era, James Taylor played the last big concert at Sheep Meadow in front of a quarter-million people. After Sheep Meadow closed its grass to tarps, blankets and bare feet, large concerts were given a new space on the Great Lawn located mid-park between 79th and 85th street.
They don’t call it the Great Lawn for nothing. Some of the largest crowds in recorded history packed the 55-acre plot of land to “be a part of it” as Frank Sinatra would say. Maybe it’s the park’s natural setting that makes it so appealing for concert goers or it could be the central hub, but many performances in the ‘80s created a sense of hope and peace during some of the roughest years. While the NY Times called 1980, “the worst year of crime in the city’s history,” music provided a momentary lapse of chaos. In June 1980, an estimated 200,000 spectators on the Great Lawn welcomed Pavarotti and then two months later, Elton John entertained 400,000 fans.
The following September, Simon & Garfunkel reunited for their first live performance in 11 years as a duo. The free benefit concert supporting the nonprofit Central Park Conservancy was expecting around 300,000 guests, but an estimated half a million people showed up for the legendary reunion. After opening with “Mrs. Robinson” and “Homeward Bound,” Simon commented, “Well, it’s great to do a neighborhood concert,” and thanked the police, the fire department, the park administration. The subsequent live album recorded that night went on to peak at number six on the Billboard 200 chart in 1982 and was positively received by music critics and worldwide fans of NYC-based folk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OegZZNPsKA
While the magic created that night in Central Park between the future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers sparked a world tour the following spring, the relationship between the two musicians was creatively impossible to maintain, so they decided to call it quits before ever releasing a reunion album. On the positive side, their benefit concert to support the park’s restoration and maintenance plans was reimagined by other artists on the Great Lawn for decades to come.
Another major Great Lawn milestone took place in June of 1982 as part of the “No Nukes” movement. Central Park’s Rally for Nuclear Disarmament was held on June 12, 1982, and invited chart-topping musical guests including Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Jackson Browne to play in front of an estimated crowd of 750,000. Four years later, in July 1986, a record-breaking 800,000 people were reported at the New York Philharmonic and U.S. Marine Band joint concert to celebrate the restoration and reopening of the Statue of Liberty.
In April 1990, another massive crowd of three-quarters of a million packed Central Park for Earth Day. The musical guests were the B-52’s, Hall & Oates and Eddie Brickell. That same year, the Central Park Conservancy’s SummerStage concert series was moved to Rumsey Playfield, located just off the East 69th and 5th Avenue entrance to Central Park. While not as big as the massive Great Lawn and Sheep Meadow gatherings, the SummerStage has brought world-class acts to the area for over three decades, promoting everything from Central Park preservation, Greenpeace, voter awareness and social justice.
Paul Simon returned in 1991 to a giant crowd on the lawn, but every attendance record for a single artist was destroyed by Garth Brooks in 1997 for a show better known as “Garthstock” due to the giant turnout in a city not known for country music. Dave Matthews Band would bring the free benefit show back to the Great Lawn in 2003 to support music and art education in the NYC public school system, drawing an estimated 85,000. Matthews greeted the crowd saying, “So nice to run into you in the park here, the greatest park in the world, and the greatest city in the world.”
The Black Eye Peas filled the Great Lawn in 2011 for yet another benefit concert raising over $4 million for the Robin Hood Foundation. In 2019, nearly $1 billion was raised during the Global Citizens Festival supported by headliners: Queen + Adam Lambert, Pharrell Williams, Alicia Keys, OneRepublic, H.E.R., and Carole King. The city’s incredible fundraising ability is only as powerful as the people that support the events — artists, promoters, attendees. Concerts on the Great Lawn are not only legendary due to the phenomenal performances in the epic “green lung” of the country’s largest city, but many of the concerts have transcended music and focused on the greater impact of people helping people.
What’s so special about Central Park is that you don’t have to be one of the hundreds of thousands to enjoy a memorable live music experience in Central Park. The grounds are full of talented performers from all over the world, and the magic of New York’s most iconic park is that you never know who you’ll run into playing in the paths and park entrances.
If you happened to be in the park during 2013’s installment of Jazz and Colors (a Peter Shapiro sponsored event), you might have run into an impromptu jazzy set with a touch of psychedelia. Bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist Eric Krasno, and drummer Joe Russo dropped their equipment on a random path and started playing to a crowd of zero, then a few dozen, then a few hundred. It’s moments like these that accentuate the excitement of being in the park on a fall afternoon.
Just this past September, as the leaves began to turn during a global pandemic, you might have run into Phish’s Trey Anastasio playing solo acoustic in support of the Parks Foundation’s SummerStage Jubilee. When asked the energy of a quarantined city, Anastasio remarked, “Yes, it’s weird walking through Times Square right now, but Times Square was tourists. But if you go into residential neighborhoods, I mean listen, it’s the greatest city in the world…always has been.”
Alt-pop trio Lovelytheband alongside fellow alt-rockers Sir Sly announce their 24-date tour across North America coming this fall: Conversations with Loverboy.
Lovelytheband is riding high from the release of their 2020 sophomore album, Conversations with myself about you, that earned the group their third Top 10 radio hit “loneliness for love” as well as Top 20 hit “buzz cut” which received a remix featuring indie pop band Misterwives. Most recently, the trio joined singer-songwriter Tessa Violet for the collaborative single “Games,” a standout from Violet’s debut album.
We are in tears still from announcing a tour! we can’t wait to share a space with fans and friends and get back to doing what we all love to do.
Lovelytheband
Lovelytheband consists of vocalist Mitchy Collins, guitarist Jordan Greenwald, and drummer Sam Price. Hailing from Los Angeles, the trio solidified their place in alt music history when they broke Billboard’s Alternative Songs Longevity Record with a total of 76 weeks on the chart, 9 weeks at #1, and over 300 million streams worldwide with their debut hit single, “broken.” Tickets for the nationwide trek — which includes stops in major cities including Los Angeles (The Fonda Theatre, 11/16), New York City (TBA, 12/1), Nashville (Cannery, 12/6), and Austin (Emo’s, 12/13) are available here, other dates include:
TOUR DATES
11/12/21 – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades 11/14/21 – San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom 11/16/21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre 11/17/21 – San Diego, CA – Observatory Northpark 11/19/21 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall 11/21/21 – Kansas City, MO – Truman 11/22/21 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater 11/24/21 – St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall 11/26/21 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall 11/27/21 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews 11/29/21 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club 12/1/21 – New York, NY – To Be Announced 12/4/21 – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club 12/6/21 – Nashville, TN – Cannery 12/7/21 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Heaven) 12/9/21 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues 12/10/21 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room 12/13/21 – Austin, TX – Emo’s 12/14/21 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall 12/17/21 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theatre 12/18/21 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren 12/19/21 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues 12/29/21 – Seattle, WA – Showbox 12/30/21 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
