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 Bendt, Rhoseway 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.
This week’s featured artist on EQXPosure is Bendt. With gritty, dynamic, and atmospheric rip-roaring creative rock music, Bendt celebrate the release of their new single “January,” released on Friday January 29. On Sunday evening, we’ll also hear three from last year’s release, Brightness in The Barrnes.
Benddt – made up of Matt Plummer (singer and guitar player), John Longo (bass), Carl Blackwood (lead guitar) and Cody Bingham (drummer) came together 2015 with a mutual love of hard rock, metal, and sounds in-between. Bendt has a sound that is evocative, personal, as well as searingly loud and at times perfectly aggressive. Riffs that rumble are balanced by unique chord stacking and brilliant melodies and solid perfroamces of each song.
Also featured on EQXposure is new artist Rhoseway with a pre-release cut “Deep Valley,” which hits all streaming sites on February 5, 2021. Rhoseway is very creative and the music takes many interesting musical turns. This is a very exciting artist to keep an ear out for.
Rocker Frank Palangi brings the fourth installment of his music video series with “Bring on the Fear.” Following “Break These Chains,” “Set Me Free” and “Gone Mad,” Palangi brings COVID-19 to light with a tale of caution, shedding light with the message that we are all in this together, to use faith to face your fear, without hate.
The video and song is a statement for the times, saying we are in this together, to not to be afraid and face the fear.
For this video, I reached out to fans from the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Turkey to send in their video clips to be edited into the video. I always like to include them and due to COVID-19, I thought it was perfect since in the song I ask them to sing “Bring on the Fear.”
“Bring On The Fear” is the first self directed, produced, written and all in-house edited production from Palangi Films. Palangi notes that he always loved making films since a young age and figured now would be a great time to put that to work. The video is a one-man show in this regard, and due to COVID-19, he had to get creative. His friends and he would make small shorts with only two or three people, and that past experience was good prep.
Frank Palangi an indie rock recording artist is freshly homegrown in Upstate New York who pours the fuel on the genre that refuses to die.
The Dust Bowl Faeries will be performing at The Linda WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio in their ‘Open for Take-Out’ virtual concert series. Originally scheduled for February 1, 2021 at 8PM EST, the performance will now air on February 22, due to the early-February snowstorm.
The Dust Bowl Faeries are a dark carnival-inspired indie-rock band that draws inspiration from circus, post-punk and Eastern European folk music. They are based in New York and formed back in 2015 and their original line up was an all women trio of but now is a five piece multi-gendered power house. They released their newest album, The Plague Garden on November 20, 2020. The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Michael Schoonmaker and was partially written during the pandemic. The band’s current line up is Ryder Cooley (Faerie Queen) on accordion, singing saw, ukulele, and lead vocals, Jon B. Woodin (Rocket Faerie) on guitar, castanets, and vocals, Rubi LaRue (Feisty Faerie) on lap steel and vocals, Liz LoGiudice (River Faerie) on bass and vocals, and Andrew Stein (Time Faerie) on percussion.
Band leader Ryder Cooley spoke on the inspiration behind the band teaming up with The Linda which is based in Albany, saying that she had actually reached out to The Linda at the very beginning of March 2020 before the world knew the pandemic would crush the live entertainment industry. As time passed she had forgotten that she had reached out to them in the midst of pandemic life until one day in December when they invited the group to play a virtual concert.
This will be the first time the Dust Bowl Faeries first live-stream show and will be the first time they have all played together in almost a year. Ryder Cooley shares that although they are feeling a little bit rusty they will be “pouring our[their] hearts out at this concert since it is our[their] first show all together in such a long time.”
There is a lot to look forward to when it comes to the Dust Bowl Faeries performance at The Linda. They will be playing several songs off their new album including “Pandemic Tango” which was written during the pandemic, and will also be performing fan favorites like “Candy Store.” The video of which was shot during the pandemic by Lisa M. Thomas of Thin Edge Films and released it in November 2020 in advance of their album. They will also be performing a brand new song titled “Cuckoo,” which is a polka-jazz song about feeling cooped-up and a little bit ‘cuckoo.’
Tickets for the performance on February 1 at 8PM EST at The Linda are $10 and can be purchased here and will be streamed live on YouTube. The concert will also air on the ‘Live at the Linda’ radio show but people are encouraged to buy tickets because in the visual ensemble people will get a much fuller experience of the band watching the show rather than just listening.
The Dust Bowl Faeries are also in the midst of the Winter Series of their virtual vaudeville show Wish You Were Hear. They have upcoming performances on February 13 with Tommy Stinson of The Replacements and on March 20 with Lorkin O’Reilly.
Genre fusing band Annie in the Water is set to be the next group taking part on The Palace Sessions. The Palace Sessions are a set of live music events that focus on acts regional to the Albany area. All concerts in this series are livestreamed on The Palace Theatre’s YouTube page.
Photograph by Frankie Cavone
Annie in the Water’s music exists at the intersection of Rock, Reggae, Funk, Blues and Jam written with a conscious dose of positive vibes, unique melodies and down to earth lyrics. The band has an innate ability to fill an entire night with original music and also cover well known songs in their signature style, fans share extraordinary experiences that can’t be seen anywhere else.
After over 12 years of touring and shows, founding members of Annie in the Water, Bradley Hester (lead vocals/rhythm) and Michael Lashomb (lead guitar/vocals) lead a full band composed of core members Ryan Trumbull (drums/vocals), Chris Meier (bass/vocals), Matt Richards (keys/vocals) and Brock Kuca (percussion/auxiliary/vocals).
Photograph by Frankie Cavone
The Palace has been one of Albany’s iconic downtown landmark for the past eight decades, bringing the biggest names in entertainment to the Capital Region. The Palace Theatre, built in 1931, originally presented vaudeville acts, feature films and became a civic auditorium before closing its doors in 1969. The theatre’s original design and beauty has remained largely untouched and is a historical landmark in the City of Albany.
The Palace Performing Arts Center was established in 1984 and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1989, created to operate the Palace Theatre. The mission of the Palace is to bring world-class arts and entertainment to New York’s Capital Region, greatly enhancing the area’s cultural and economic development. Our mission is carried out through core programming and community initiatives that include performing arts entertainment, free arts education, family-friendly performances, free summer movies and a classic movie program series.
PLUSH is an all-girl rock band comprised of four members, all under the age of 21, with a mission to embody the heart of rock and make a name for themselves in the music industry. With powerful vocals and a sound that holds true to the genre, the four girls set out to break the boring, repetitive mainstream culture and bring back classic rock.
If you’re a fan of The Voice, you might recognize the lead singer, Moriah Formica, a contestant back in 2017 who was affectionately referred to as “The Rock Goddess” by Miley Cyrus. Drummer Brooke Colucci, otherwise known as Rock Angel, is a well-established artist on social media, with acknowledgment from John Lennon, solidifying her talent and standing in the rock community.
Guitarist Bella Perron is a freshman at Berklee College of Music with an artsy presence on YouTube, regularly uploading impressive, drool-worthy guitar covers. Bassist Ashley Suppa ties the group together with beautiful bass backing, even being noticed by Ace Frehley of KISS.
The mission of PLUSH is to bring the heart of rock back to the mainstream with a new fresh spin on the sounds you already love. PLUSH hopes to inspire young women everywhere to follow their dreams, regardless of whatever challenges may lie in the way.
Moriah Formica
On January 18, 2021, PLUSH dropped a promo for their upcoming single, “Hate,” available to be pre-saved and expected to drop on Apple Music and Spotify. The excerpt shows how well the band flows together, as well as the emotion and passion each member brings to the table, leaving nothing to be desired. The song focuses on a topic relatable to many, wanting to hate someone who broke her heart. But being unable to forget the love she had for them, she hates that she still loves them.
Universal Preservation Hall will present a live-streamed concert of Misty Blues on February 12 at 8 p.m. This serves as a celebration of their 10th album, None More Blue, and over two decades together.
After the performance of their new album, the band will perform the “Queens of the Blues” soundtrack as a Black History Month celebration. The Queens of the Blues movie shows the lives of four African-American female blues artists: Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown, and Koko Taylor. All four of these women made an undeniable impact on blues, jazz, and popular music throughout the twentieth century and beyond.
All compositions on None More Blue were written during the pandemic and show the connections the band was able to maintain despite a remote environment. The album release date is February 14.
Misty Blues, led by lead singer/band founder Gina Coleman, was a 2019 International Blues Challenge finalist. The band has performed original and traditional blues with hints of jazz, soul, funk and tent revival gospel since 1999. They have recorded and shared the stage with Charles Neville and opened for contemporary blues artists like Tab Benoit, John Primer, Albert Cummings and Michael Powers. The band recently earned an Independent Blues Music Award nomination for the best contemporary blues song. The band’s original recordings have wide radio airplay in the U.S. and U.K.
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 Luminous Crush, Allyson Smith 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.
This week EQXPosure puts a spotlight on a variety of local artists from across the 518 and Western New England.
The latest from Luminous Crush, “Radio Kills Zombies” has a haunting refrain with a smooth underlying groove, with imagery of the Cuba Gooding, Jr. film Radio attached. The Vermont band is fronted by Laura Molinelli and Ben Campbell. With Christian Heins (bass), Brad Waugaman (keyboard) and Paul Carroccio (drums), they form a quintet that focuses on original dreamlike pop and rock vignettes. Their music has been hailed as “fearless and original” by Dan Bolles, music editor at Seven Days.
Allyson Smith a singer-songwriter from Albany has recently released “The Waves.” Her songs weave together inner and outer worlds by juxtaposing emotional and spiritual experiences with keen environmental observations. The Collaborative Magazine boasts of Smith having “powerful songwriting, full of goose-bump raising lines and beautifully dark imagery.”
You’ll also catch brand new songs from Jade Relics’ freshly released collaboration between Elder Orange, Iame, and Rico James “With You,” United Crates/The Vinylcologist, Older Zealous AKA OJ, “Vodka and Polar,” and a new release from the Bathrobe Robots, “Alt-War.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Opera Saratoga announced that their OPERA-TO-GO tour will continue virtually. The company’s in-school program will continue to provide a unique arts education experience to the students of the Capital District. The new program will feature the world premiere of “The Selfish Giant,” a one-act opera based on Oscar Wilde’s short story, written by Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad and librettist Lila Palmer. It was commissioned by the American Lyric Theater specifically for younger audiences.
Opera Saratoga has re-envisioned the OPERA-TO-GO program as a digital initiative over the past six months. It is available for free to educators for their students. The program will be ready for schools in late February, and is comprised of the following elements:
“For over 20 years, Opera Saratoga has offered its OPERA-TO-GO touring program to elementary schools in February and March each winter,” said Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson. “While we love visiting schools and introducing children to opera, proceeding with an in-person tour this winter and spring would not only be impractical, but also irresponsible. Safety must come first. However, we are still committed to providing access to the performing arts to students as well as robust arts education resources to educators – whether they are teaching virtually, in person, or in some combination of the two.”
Opera Saratoga is creating a series of short video lessons on opera, aligned to New York State Common Core Standards in Music, Theater, Visual Arts, and English/Literature at grade levels from K-5, as well as the National Social Emotional Learning Standards. For each grade level, there will be a series of six videos, each 10 to 15 minutes in length, available for use in class, or for at-home viewing. Each video is accompanied by a comprehensive teacher’s guide that includes details of the alignment to State standards, and grade appropriate follow-up activities for students.
Opera Saratoga is making a professional audio recording of the new opera “The Selfish Giant.” This recording will be fully integrated into the digital curriculum, providing opportunities to explore subjects including adaptation (how a short story becomes an opera), the role of the librettist, the role of the composer, collaboration, how words and music come together to create sung theater, the textual and musical “building blocks” of opera, and how opera is produced on stage.
Using the recording, students will have the opportunity to make their own film versions of “The Selfish Giant” by creating art that reflects the story and music. A scene-by-scene breakdown of the dramatic action of the opera will be provided to each class participating in the program, along with very clear, grade appropriate instructions. Students will be assigned specific moments of the opera to illustrate in a manner appropriate to their age/grade level, through drawing, painting, collage, or digital photography.
Opera Saratoga will then create films of “The Selfish Giant,” synching the recording of the opera to the art created by the students that bring each scene to life. Each school or class will have the opportunity to create their own versions of the film. In the spring, these videos will be completed and made available to share with family members as well as on each school’s website and social media channels. Opera Saratoga will create an online library of student-created films of the opera, which will be hosted on the company’s website.
Educators who are interested in offering this program to their students in Kindergarten through Grade 5 should register no later than January 22.
Opera Saratoga is able to provide free access to the entire video lesson series with educational support materials for all teachers and all schools. However, as the company does have limited capacity to create the opera-video projects, this portion of the program will be limited to schools in Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Essex, Albany, Rensselaer, and Schenectady counties, and will be limited to the first 50 schools or classes that register for the program.
NYS Music’s Best of 2020 series concludes with a look at the best Tours and Drive-In shows of a year we’d all like to forget. When the music industry shut down in mid-March, it was sudden and continues to last into 2021. Few bands got to go on a ‘real’ tour, given there were roughly 11 weeks in which to tour, and the coldest months of the year, at that. Still, a few bands went out on a Winter 2020 tour, making stops in New York State and surrounding areas. Be sure to check out the best Streams, Covers and Jams.
photo by JD Cohen
Goose announced shows in Williamsburg for late January, 2020, and immediately added a second, and smaller third show, due to demand. Their shows at The Music Hall of Williamsburg were two of the best of their tour.
One band, Twiddle, celebrated their 15th year as a band with a Roots Tour of their own, streaming the multi-week event that looked at the venues they got their start in across Vermont, wonderfully recalled by Ryan Dempsey. In addition to these shows, Twiddle performed at multiple Drive-In shows across the Northeast, including New Jersey and Essex Junction, VT.
All that after a cross-country tour running from January through early March. The band had an impressive 2020, performing shows in Colorado to start 2020 with “Somewhere on the Mountain” in Frisco, CO and connecting with platform LiveXLive for their July Roots Tour.
photo by Dave Decrescente
When it came to Drive-Ins, there were quite a few across the Northeast – Drive-in-Live in Swanzey, NH, Jericho Drive-In in Glenmont, NY, South Farms in Morris Farms, CT, Fingerlakes Drive-In in Auburn, NY, Silver Lake Drive-In in Perry, NY and Radial Park in Astoria, Queens.
Live at the Drive, featuring Buffalo’s Aqueous, was one of the first and the most successful series, with three weekends between Lockport’s Transit Drive-in and Perry Silver Lake Drive-In. Buffalo Iron Works produced the shows, with Josh Holtzman and Grace Vesneske’s new company Twenty6 Productions garnering credit for putting on shows that set a standard for socially distanced shows that were safe, well-run and comfortable for fans and staff alike.
photo by Paul Citone
Goose also hosted numerous Drive-Ins across the Northeast and even ventured safely to Ohio, North Carolina and Maryland, as well as Swanzey and South Farms. Located in Morris, CT, South Farms was centrally located to the Hudson Valley from Albany to NYC, Western Massachusetts and Connecticut itself. As such, Goose, moe., Warren Haynes, Grace Potter, Allman Betts Band, Dark Star Orchestra, Citizen Cope and even comedian Bill Burr. Due to a recent Zoning Board ruling, South Farms won’t have live music for the time being, but they made some memorable moment in the time they were able to, in a key location in the Northeast.
photo by Chad Anderson
moe. and Disco Biscuits each hit the new Drive-In circuit, streaming online and giving fans thirsty for live music the remedy they sought. Shows in Yarmouth, MA became regular stops, with both bands heading to Cape Cod in October. Lafayette Apple Festival Grounds, just south of Syracuse, brought in Dirty Heads and Disco Biscuits, the latter of which performed three nights, culminating their Drive-In shows with a Halloween show and an audience well-prepared for the cold and mud but still got down to dance.
What will come in 2021? Drive-In concerts will surely be a regular feature starting in the Spring, until the pandemic is under control, the population is inoculated with the vaccine, and venues are able to manage crowds of slowly increasing size. Will Drive-In concerts be here to stay? The collective effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 this year and into 2022 will determine the speed at which we can return to having live music back to where it was in early March of 2020.
While a lineup of Dio, Megadeth and Savatage may sound like a great 80s metal triple-bill now, 33 years later, this show, in terms of ticket sales, was a flop.
The late, great Ronnie James Dio is rightfully heralded as a virtual deity these days, 12 years after his death. Rainbow, Black Sabbath, those first couple Dio albums, his late work with Heaven & Hell, that voice – the man was a giant in his field. All should hail him.
Forgotten these days is that, by the late 80s, the Dio star had faded more than a bit. By early 1988, when this show happened, the Dio solo band had gone from the upward trajectory of the killer Holy Diver and Last In Line records, which elevated Dio to huge, Madison Square Garden-headlining godhood, to a slow decline which had started with Sacred Heart, the departure of Vivian Campbell, and the treading-water, unremarkable Dream Evil record, which was current when this show happened.
Dio, the band, seemed to be heading into their Spinal Tap phase – in 1984 they’d packed this venue (and RPI Fieldhouse in Troy a year later), when this show happened, popularity had ebbed, the stage was moved up to the middle of the floor, and half of the arena was closed off – and even cut in half, the place still didn’t look very full.
Opening the show was Savatage, who were promoting their popular Hall of the Mountain King record. They played a short set to a small crowd, included early tracks like “The Dungeons are Calling” and “City Beneath the Surface,” but didn’t seem to make a huge impression, although their epic, 80’s power metal was a perfect match for Dio. Savatage never broke big, but various members of the Savatage team went on to monumental success with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, so they had the last laugh.
Megadeth was the band this writer was there to see in 1988 – their first two records were huge favorites of mine in the mid-80s, and they were about to release their third, So Far, So Good, So What. The band’s lineup had shifted: joining Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson were new guitarist Jeff Young and drummer Chuck Beehler, replacing the drug-addled Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson, who’d been in the band when they played an incredible gig at Colonie Coliseum just over 7 months earlier. They weren’t big enough yet to affect the morose ticket sales too much this night, but I remember a short, killer set, kicking off with “Wake Up Dead” and “The Conjuring,” with some as-yet unreleased new tracks (“Hook in Mouth,” “In My Darkest Hour”), and some Peace Sells-era heavies like “Devil’s Island” and “Peace Sells” itself. The set finished with some covers, Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots” (the only track played from their Killing is my Business debut), and the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK”. Megadeth would return soon after, playing the Palace Theatre in Albany in April 1988, and drawing as many or more people than had attended this Glens Falls gig with Dio.
Dio and his band – now featuring Craig Goldy on guitar instead of original Irish guitarist Viv Campbell – hit the stage with first-album classic “Stand Up & Shout,” and stuck to a mostly crowd-pleasing set, playing a lot of the first-and-second album classics, and four songs from then-new ‘Dream Evil’. But in 1988 things were changing, and the stage show with the costumes, mechanical spiders and endless solos – before a not-packed hall – gave it somewhat of the aforementioned Spinal Tap vibe. Dio in ’88 seemed like the past, and Megadeth seemed like the future. I’d worshipped him 5-6 years earlier, but by the time of this gig there was so much cool thrash metal and alt-rock that perhaps Dio just seemed anachronistic to me. In retrospect, he was not.
In ’88, things looked pretty over for Ronnie, which obviously wasn’t true at all. But (probably because of the dismal sales for this gig) I think this was the last time the DIO band played the Albany area – although he’d some back with Black Sabbath and Heaven & Hell in years to come, already by then a beloved veteran, and his legacy is solid. All hail Ronnie James Dio.
Savatage setlist: City Beneath the Surface, 24 Hrs. Ago, Beyond the Doors of the Dark, The Dungeons Are Calling, Hall of the Mountain King, Power of the Night
Megadeth setlist: Wake Up Dead, The Conjuring, Hook in Mouth, In My Darkest Hour, Devil’s Island, Peace Sells, These Boots Are Made for Walkin’, Anarchy in the U.K.
Dio setlist: Stand Up and Shout, Dream Evil, Night People, Naked in the Rain (incl. Guitar Solo), The Last in Line, Holy Diver, Drum Solo, Heaven and Hell, Man on the Silver Mountain, All the Fools Sailed Away, Keyboard Solo, Rock ‘n’ Roll Children, Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rainbow in the Dark, We Rock, Don’t Talk to Strangers
