Atlanta-based artists Outkast and TLC received shout-outs during the ‘Blue Georgia’ sketch, and The Office theme song finally gained lyrics courtesy of John Krasinski.
For his first song, Machine Gun Kelly sang “My Ex’s Best Friend” The punk-lite track recalled Sum 41’s performance on October 6, 2001, the second episode after 9/11. Kelly channeled Gen Z’s muffled rage, throwing his guitar into the crowd at the end of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7APH5XeFc
MGK performed “Lonely” for his second song, an emotional song about his father who passed away in July 2020. Both songs are from Machine Gun Kelly’s fifth album Tickets to My Downfall, released in September 2020.
Uproxx notes how fitting the second song is, “not just because of what he shared about watching the show being a family affair, but because these emotions of loss, grief, and loneliness are pervasive right now during the coronavirus pandemic that has been plaguing the world since last year.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_djsCw1iS8
To close the night, Machine Gun Kelly attempted to pick The Dirt co-star Pete Davidson, allowing hilarity to ensue.
Alternative duo Yo Kinky is in its nascent stage, with members Tom Unish and Laura Wight meeting in early 2020. The duo immediately felt a musical bond, and started crafting songs together.
Laura Wight and Tom Unish of Yo Kinky
Queens-based band Yo Kinky follows their first single “Somebody That I Used to Know,” with the second single, “Resistance.” The song is delicately created, yet exudes a confidence created by Tom Unish’s spaced-out guitar licks. The sonic landscape undulates with hypnotic layers of sound; the song yearns for the intimacy long lost by social isolation.
Laura Wight sings “Love is all we breathe,” and “Swing me off my feet,” transporting the listener to a beautiful place where love is all-surrounding. “Resistance” is an ode to the sanity one has during this time by finding delight in the small things in life.
“Resistance” follows their first single “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which, albeit its darker vocal passages, is playful, seductive and clever. It has received heavy play on WFMU’s radio station, as well as named as one of the best tracks of 2020 by Three Chord Monte. The band is beaming in their own path as they create and release more infectious music.
Over 2020, Yo Kinky self-produced and are releasing their first, self-titled EP. This collection of songs addresses trust, communication, love, loneliness, freedom, identity, and expectation. The group combines drum machines and bright, buzzing synths and guitars that shimmer with reverb and delay.
Yo Kinky’s music is reminiscent of Blondie, X, Mitksi, and Soccer Mommy, as they blend the pop and rock elements of indie into an incandescent artwork. When shows are possible again, Yo Kinky looks forward to playing locally, nationwide, and beyond.
Yo Kinky’s debut EP is due out on February 26, 2021.
The Kind is Garneau’s fifth studio album and resonates with the themes present in his debut album Music For Tourists. This album was written and recorded during a rough time in his life when his father passed away. Garneau goes through the motions and expresses grief and transparency. It serves as a release of emotions and explores his relationship with his father, setting boundaries, growing into and accepting self, and resilience. With every song, you feel the authenticity in his lyrics and empathize with his journey. The Gay Times presented the record and acclaimed it as “beautifully haunting.”
Along with Garneau’s candid lyrics was the production coming from versatile musician Patrick Higgins. Their creative collaboration thrived through patience and understanding. The album was carefully crafted and made with the intent of staying true. Higgins respected the time Garneau needed to tap into his most artistic self, leading to every song’s completion before entering the studio. His mellow instrumentals complemented the mood of the words in each track. The beats didn’t overpower the words, it helped bring them to life.
Garneau announced that he’s playing a live-streamed release show in New York’s oldest theater, Hudson Hall Opera House, on Feb. 14. Higgins will join him and play the drums, bass, synth, and programming. They are performing the whole album onstage. The show will be airing at 3 p.m and tickets can be found on Dreamstage.
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.
It was January 29, 1990 in Central New York and, yes, it was snowing. Fans who attended the Phish show that night at The (original) Haunt in Ithaca did so battling a blizzard and poor roads, which caused the band to arrive late, quickly set up and, after a live soundcheck, got the show on the road.
Phish has played sporadically in the Fingerlakes Region of New York throughout their career, most notably and recently, Superball IX, Magnaball and shows in Canandaigua at CMAC. Their early years in the college town of Ithaca proved to be formative, bringing the band to town multiple times between 1988-1992 before graduating to larger venues like Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center (now CMAC).
The Haunt in Ithaca c.1990 (photo is not from the 1/29/90 Phish show)
From Phish’s bar years, this is an early era show that captures the band when they played to their early fans, many seeing the Burlington group for the first time. After a three-night run in May 1988, Phish would return to The Haunt in Ithaca for a show on January 29, 1990, with a loud and rowdy 18-and-over audience.
The partial tape of the show starts in the middle of “The Lizards” and continues through a “Harpua” and “Fire” encore, a setlist that is culled together thanks to David Schanker’s and Todd Ahrens’ audience recording. Thus, there is no known first set for this show.
You can hear the audience from this show quite distinctly, elated when each song ends, and fans screaming out requests despite the band being barely six years old. You may even catch drunks screaming into the mic, which was set up on the bar. One patron this night can be heard saying “Nothing like this has ever been done at The Haunt, unbelieveable man!” Quite the frozen-in-time seal of approval.
Recording aside, this is a smoking show musically, particularly for the “Weekapaug Groove” and a “Harpua” that has a tough to discern narration but full of “Purple Haze” teases. That said, you’ll get a fair idea of what it was like to see Phish at the original Haunt in Ithaca.
Dan Smalls, Ithaca-area promoter and head of DSP Shows was at the January 29, 1990 show and shared his recollections with NYS Music:
It was about as classic a Phish set as you get from the very early days. I always loved how they chose popular and also odd songs to cover, teases in jams and the like. That was a part of who they are today and was a huge bit of fun at the festivals we produced where they would learn a song backstage between sets.
My recollection is also vague but the room was solidly crowded in this era (unlike 1988 when we had a handful for those first few shows) and the band was on the cusp of the next step at this point. I remember that the band was playing The Haunt at least once a semester and often 3-4 times a year in these days. It’s where I got to know them and these shows were always fun because Fish’s parents would come down from where they lived outside Syracuse.
Phish would go on to play The Haunt another four times in 1990, then move up to the State Theatre of Ithaca for two shows in 1991. They returned the next year to perform at Cornell University campus in November 1992, the last shows for the band in the city.
NYS Music today announces The Rochester Groovecast Podcast as a returning partner and will be publishing all the major episodes starting February 2021. Since releasing their first episode in 20016, Rochester Groovecast has published over 100 episodes and counting.
To get started, check out this playlist of their most popular episodes:
At Rochester Groovecast, the mantra “We’re Fans First!” harnasses the belief that the best businesses are built by fans. Rochester Groovecast is deeply dedicated to playing an active role in the culture of its local scene.
The brainchild of Rochester native Ben Albert, Ben created Rochester Groovecast in 2016 to serve as a portfolio of the city, and nowadays, the entire region.
Rochester Groovecast believes in the artistic brilliance abundant in Rochester, NY, and the surrounding regions. Ben seeks to play a pivotal role in our community by helping give Rochester a well-earned voice. Having seen first hand the abundance of talent, character, creativity, innovation, and beauty the Flower City has continuously offered. Albert is confident that the Rochester scene could be the next great music scene in America, akin to Austin, Chicago, New Orleans, or Nashville.
The Rochester Groovecast Podcast help bring this vision to life with interviews, reviews, previews, and audio journeys to good to ignore.
Siena: “Ben Albert at Rochester Groovecast is ambitious, kind, and community-oriented. He truly cares about the Rochester community and actively lifts up voices that add value and strength to our culture. Most of all, he cares about music and the people that create it. He’s the guy to go to if you’re looking for someone who understands both music AND business, creating AND marketing. He knows the right questions to ask you to dig deeper into what your brand is and who you are as a musician. I’m grateful to know Ben as a human and grateful to have had the opportunity to be on his Rochester Groovecast podcast, which makes me proud to live and work in Rochester.”
Amanda Ashley of The Amanda Ashley Trio, Afternoon Cocktail: “Ben is an amazing host and a true asset to the Rochester Music Community. His love, dedication, and support of creativity isbeyond apparent in his broadcast. He is a genuine soul, and that truly comes across in his interviews.”
Charlie Lindner of The Pickle Mafia: “Rochester Groovecast does an excellent job at buildingawareness for our brand! Using interactive multimedia we were able to obtain new customersand engage with them directly.”
Kevleb: “I have had the chance to work with the Rochester Groovecast for my album release. During the COVID confinement, it was a great relief to be able to share my music on this platform. Ben suggested a few strategies to widen my audience and make the content accessible on social media. It felt productive and well prepared and allowed me to share my vision in an ideal setting. It is great to have the Groovecast support the local scene.”
Once again, NYSMusic is excited to feature The Rochester Groovecast Podcast. Keep your eyes open for many more episodes to come.
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.
Dawoud Kringle, aka The Renegade Sufi and God’s Unruly Friends, is one of the more forward-thinking, globally-centric and productive music-makers on the New York scene. The latest evidence is the remarkable cache of seven full-length albums he has just dropped on Bandcamp.
Dawoud’s music is a singular blend of East and West, acoustic and electronic, modern and ancient – sounds that transcend genre and time. Like the Sufi mystic/musician/author Inayat Khan, who inspired spiritually enlightened musicians like Coltrane, John McLaughlin and Dawoud, his primary interest is the psychoactive properties of music – the healing tenor that a sonic experience can bestow upon the listener.
The Milwaukee native/guitarist came to New York in 1983. On arrival, the 22-year old quickly secured a gig as a trainee engineer and studio musician at Shadow Sound, where he worked with artists like Kid Creole and the Coconuts. In New York, he also endeavored to deepen his guitar chops by taking private lessons with noted jazzman Kelvyn Bell (Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society) and master classes with the legendary Pat Martino.
But it was the sitar, an instrument he purchased on his 18th birthday but returned to in earnest in the mid-90s, with which he would make his mark.
Called “the Jimi Hendrix of the Sitar,” Dawoud boldly applied jazz technique and electronics to expand upon the Indian tradition of the instrument, as heard in releases like The Tao of Mystic Jaz (2000) and Renegade Sufi (2004). The latter is notable as it features a sitar synthesizer, something the crafty Kringle devised by modifying his guitar synth pickup and controller.
Dawoud would further his reputation by performing with notables like Lauryn Hill, Nona Hendryx, Brooklyn Massive Raga Orchestra, DJ Celt Islam and many others. In solo performance and with his ensembles, Renegade Sufi and later God’s Unruly Friends, he appeared across Europe, Asia and the U.S. In New York, he performed at top venues including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Apollo Theater, Blue Note, Birdland and Town Hall. He has also kept busy playing at yoga and meditation events, and with dance and theatre companies.
Seventeen of Dawoud’s mind-expanding releases can be found at his Bandcamp page, including his newly-released trove of seven full-length albums.
Wonder, Love, & Power is my favorite among the new offerings – a diverse, pristinely recorded and engineered collection highlighted by its wonderfully mysterious and airy title track. It’s a jazzy, ambient, floaty things-that-go-bump-in-the-night vibe, where you are lulled into complete relaxation then brought back to attention by a periodic gong crash. “Awaiting Joy” is another bevy of sonic surprises – cinematic, spiritual and sort of sexy like all the tracks here. Strings and a pulsing hammered autoharp reminiscent of Brian Eno discovery Laraaji at first swell, then are flipped backwards. At times, this swirling backdrop sounds like the fade out of “I Am the Walrus.” It is perfectly furthered by the eerie vocals of Chennano Manno and a gorgeous modal flute improvisation by Duane McCarthy. Another standout track is “The Unveiling,” where Kringle shows his melodic mastery of the dilruba, a bowed string instrument played in Sikh devotional music, over a synth pulse.
Dawoud’s The SymphoSynth Improvisation Series is a collection of synthesizer improvisations based on templates taken from composers like Scriabin, Slominsky, Stravinsky, Messian and jazzer Yusef Lateef. Music of Another Mind is sound design for meditation, massage therapy sessions and the like, with long tracks the artist calls “deep explorations for altering states of consciousness.”
A New Beginning is a collection of six impressionistic pieces, a tour through the emotional catharsis and ultimate acceptance of the artist’s own divorce, with evocative titles like “Painful Clarity” and “Fighting Back the Tears.” A Mansion with Many Roomsis a selection of more vintage tracks that Dawoud had time to complete during the quarantine. Its closer, “For Yusef,” is one of my favorites, with gentle bells and strings bathing his melodic sitar (possibly synth sitar?) melodies.
The artist calls Tales from Isolation “a collection of very dark stuff I did in total isolation during the quarantine.” These are “guerilla recordings” according to Kringle, ones made during the long, lonely hours he spent on his radio engineering job during Spring 2020. This is a collection of 20 sound poems, from two- to nearly 10-minutes in length, where Dawoud seems to have caged his darkest musical impulses – scratchy sounds and effects, weird oscillations, jagged time signatures and robotic percussion. And they have killer titles too. What’s not to love about compositions with names like “What the Hell is Wrong with You?” and “Fighting Monsters in Nightmares!”
With The Legend of Sheikh Majnun, Dawoud returns with the second album from a fictitious character he first conjured in the Myspace days, his weird electronic artist alter ego, Sheikh Majnun.
Get your Burning Man supplies in order for this selection of 11 tracks ideal for your next rave. It’s a cornucopia of beats and sounds and samples designed for dancing, tribal not disco! There’s a Brazilian Carnival space futurism vibe here. It’s the reggae samba rhythms of the mighty Olodum crossed with the outer space weirdness of the BBC’s early synth wiz Delia Derbyshire, most evident in the album opener, “Dance of the Small Fuzzy Things.”
As if this wasn’t enough, Dawoud composed his first symphony, “Trees,” a demo of which can be found here on his YouTube channel.
With these new releases and those that have come before, Dawoud has created a musical world that unites the past, present and future of sound. For him, no borders seem to exist and the most distant of inspirations, the most seemingly warring thoughts can live in perfect harmony. This is music as a healing and calming force, something the world needs now more than ever.
Jazz musicians from around the world will celebrate Valentine’s Day with Flushing Town Hall’s band leader Carol Sudhalter for a Virtual Jazz Jam.
Even though doors are closed to auditoriums everywhere, Flushing Town Hall will still perform this year with its popular Virtual Jazz Jam: Celebrating the Legacy of Louis Armstrong. Their dynamic online entertainment program FTH At Home! will have Let Love Reignon February 10th 2021 at 7:00PM (EST). Jazz musicians from New York City and around the world will play love songs and funny valentines that embrace the theme.
Flushing Town Hall at Home has been a resilient force in an environment in which live music cannot exist. Each month, musicians come together to play songs reflecting each month’s theme, showing the power of art and music even in this time. The February Jazz Jam will include 15 love songs, and participants are invited to jam or simply watch with their significant other, perhaps share champagne or heart-shaped chocolates as they watch from the comfort of their homes.
Since April 2020, Flushing Town Hall’s monthly Jazz Jam has brought thousands of people together, not only from new york but places such as Germany, Italy, and Australia where viewers watch the beautiful performances in the early hours. The number of viewers has surpassed the capacity of the in-person venue!
Flushing Town Hall’s monthly Jazz Jam is supported by the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and has been led by Astoria resident Carol Sudhalter. House band members include incredibly talented musicians such as Joe Vincent Tranchina, Scott Neumann, Joe Vincent Tranchina, and Eric Lemon, who pay tribute to the great Louis Armstrong, performing songs associated with the legendary trumpeter/vocalist each month of the year.
Anyone who wishes to experience the monthly Jazz Jam is welcome to, free of cost, on February 10th, 2021 at 7:00PM EST. The links are here for Zoom and Facebook.
To participate, email education@flushingtownhall.org and identify the three- to four-minute tune you intend to play. Only 15 musicians will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Flushing Town Hall’s Jazz Jams are every second Wednesday of each month, and details can be found on the Flushing Town Hall website.
