NYS Music 202​2

Category: Album Reviews

  • Fantastic Cat Release Debut Album “The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat”

    ‘New NYC supergroup, Fantastic Cat, are a new instrument-swapping rock/alt-country/folk band made of singer/songwriters Anthony D’Amato, Brian Dunne, Don DiLego, and Mike Montali. Their debut album The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat just came out on July 29. Likewise, they’ll also be celebrating at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom with an album release show the same day. 

    So far, their newest record has been praised by Atwood Magazine, No Depression, The Boot, Bluegrass Situation and more; the singles have been added to multiple 1M+ Spotify playlists including Fresh Finds and All New Indie. The band also have a CBS Saturday session confirmed for the end of July which will air in early/mid-August. 

    The first single, “C’mon Armageddon”, is an incredible A24-style music video featuring Marc Geller who plays Kier Egan on the hit AppleTV show Severance. Along with this, the music video for the single “The Gig” shows the band playing a gig on The Staten Island Ferry after being told by their sleazebag manager he booked the band on “one of those concert cruises that are all the rage.”  

    Fantastic Cat Supergroup Release Newest Album "The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat"

    Captured in the wilds of the Pocono Mountains, the album shifts between genres and different decades of music. By mixing electrified 60’s folk and 70’s AM radio gold with 80’s heartland rock and 90’s alt-country, it encompasses a raw feel of longtime friends making music for the sheer joy of it.

    “Their music is at once fun, freewheeling, achingly intimate, and beautifully honest. They can joke about themselves and the state of things while tapping into deeply meaningful and relatable emotions… Fantastic Cat’s songs are a reminder that, even in our darkest moments, we can find a little light and love to hold onto.” 

    – Atwood Magazine

    Along with the great music the band produces, they have a very fun and humorous vibe in all their videos and photos. Particularly, the photos and videos where they wear the giant cut out cat heads. Fantastic Cat has impressively made its way into the spotlight collectively. Through the four transcend their respective roots, they have emerged as an instrument-swapping, harmony-trading, tear-jerking, wise-cracking rock and roll cooperative far greater than the sum of its parts. 

    Key Tracks:

  • Brooklyn-based Band Stay Inside Release Intense EP Blight

    On June 3, Brooklyn-based emo band, Stay Inside, released their newest work and 5-track EP, Blight, via No Sleep Records.

    Stay inside Blight Album Cover

    Stay Inside consists of Bryn Nieboer (vocals/bass), Chris Johns (guitar/backing vocals), Chris Lawless (guitar/backing vocals), and Vishnu Anantha on drums. Blight is the band’s newest release since their critically acclaimed 2020 album, Viewing.

    Jon Markson of Drug Church and Koyo returns on production for the Blight EP which showcases a more intense side of the emo Brooklyn band. Although only totaling five songs, the lyrics and carefully executed instrumentation put the release on a caliber of its own.

    The opening track, “Eraser,” starts slowly, with an emotional rhythm and vocals to draw you in before an intense build with drums and guitar. “Hollow,” plays with a unique beat and engaging message, with the lyrics “so I just sit there with my arms wide / I think I used up all my good lies / Oh god you started losing everything before you try to tell yourself to stop.” The EP was written while NYC was experiencing intense lockdown, and it fully represents the extreme feelings of the time.

    Other tracks, such as “Fracture” and “Spore” are great additions to the EP, bringing even more depth and experimentation to the work with addictive drums and melodies. Stay Inside is surely growing and expanding with this most recent EP, Blight. 

    This summer, the post-hardcore band perform at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn on July 22. Be sure to keep up with the band on Instagram here and Twitter here, and take a listen to some more of their music, available below. 

  • Kirsty Rock Drops Her Debut Solo Album Slow Burn

    Kirsty Rock, a member of the internationally renowned reggae super group Easy Star All-Stars, has announced her debut solo album Slow Burn on Easy Star Records.

    Bringing a distinctive, soulful, and earthy reggae sound, Slow Burn coincides with an official video release of the title track, which was a collaboration between acrobatic dancer Julia Baccellier, Rock, and Rock’s long standing collaborator D888.

    The visuals and movements are an unveiling in which we accentuate the beauty of that journey – vulnerability, a shedding, and in finality, empowerment. It’s a personal journey with a universal message.

    Kirsty Rock

    Kirsty Rock came up in the Brooklyn music scene of the 1990s. Her first lead vocal with Easy Star All-Stars was on their 2003 album Dub Side of the Moon, performing “The Great Gig In The Sky,” which earned praise from the original vocalist. In 2003, she joined the tour of Easy Star All-Stars in over 30 countries on 6 continents. She was featured on vocals on their studio albums Radiodread, Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band, and Easy Star’s Thrillah, as well as on First Light. Currently Rock is back with ESA after a COVID hiatus.

    The first single “The Feeling” may appear to be the most lighthearted song on the album. It was the most difficult and cathartic to write for Rock since it’s a reminder of love and joy that when we release grief, sorrow, pain, and anger.

    Her next single, “L.E.O.” is filled with a steady bass groove and slapping drums. Rock wrote and sings the lyrics: “The space between us pulls me in with thoughts darker than your skin. It’s incredible. Burn my solar wings and carry me towards L.E.O.”

    Many of the songs on Slow Burn were started on the road with Easy Star All-Stars and with her own long-running band Trumystic. Without the stress and expectations of rushing out products, she just let the songs evolve. Observing diverse relationships and changes in political agendas, Slow Burn had been inspired. After the bones of the songs were recorded in her home in Vermont, Rock began reaching out to her friends to add more into the album.

    The first few tracks completed were co-produced and mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Matt Stein while the rest of the album brought in collaborators in Easy Star All-Stars. These fantastic artists including guitarist/vocalist Shelton Garner Jr., keyboardist/vocalist Elenna Canlas, drummers Ivan Katz and Cliff Simpson, and the horn section of Jennifer Hill, Buford O’Sullivan, and Matt Bauder, and other musicians.

    Slow Burn is a stunning “debut” for Kirsty Rock. She is already at work on new songs and looking forward to bringing this music on the road with both ESA and on her own in the coming year.

  • Velocihamster Uncages Lap Steel Guitar on New Album of Heavy Metal Covers

    God knows we all love a good gimmick. Especially when it wildly exceeds our expectations and produces something that is profoundly eye-opening, or in this case, ear-opening!  Such is the case with Uncaged, an album of much-loved rock covers, rendered in a supremely deep and darkly delicious heavy metal style, by Milwaukee-based lap steel slasher, Sean Williamson, aka Velocihamster.

    Velocihamster heavy metal
    Album art by Steven Bossler

    For those not in the know, the lap steel guitar, also known as Hawaiian guitar, is a steel stringed guitar, sans pedals and frets, that is played with a slide in an open tuning while laid across a player’s lap. It was an outgrowth of Hawaii’s popular slack-key guitar style, which was incredibly popular in the earliest decades of the record industry.  Like the traditional guitar, the lap steel would become electrified in the 1930s and eventually be employed in other musical styles – jazz, blues, gospel and especially country and Western swing.  While not as popular or utilized as its cousins the traditional pedal steel or dobro, the lap steel has been a standout instrument in the hands of artists of the past like Roy Smeck and modern era ones like L.A. session ace and Jackson Browne sideman David Lindley.

    In Williamson’s hands, the lap steel is another animal all together. It’s a roaring, screaming beast, an instrument of melodic assault and chordal crunch that brings to the ears a virtuosity that is way more Van Halen (Sean taps his ass off here too) than Bob Willis and The Texas Playboys. 

    Williamson has super-charged his lap steel with EMG humbucker-styled pickups, the kind favored by Judas Priest’s K.K Dowling, Primus’ Les Claypool, Metallica’s James Hetfield and dozens of other metal mavens.  His sound is thick, lush, layered and fuzzy, with his instrument further empowered with everything from distortion and chorus pedals to wah wah and harmonizer.

    Velocihamster heavy metal
    Photo by Greg Vorobiov

    My favorite tracks are the instrumentals. His mysterioso take on Led Zeppelin’s Middle Eastern-y “In the Evening,” his jam on Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” and his uber dirty, nasty interpretation of the Sneaker Pimp’s “6 Underground.”  Williamson does the Beastie Boys proud with his wanky, wah wah driven cover of “Gratitude,” one for which he also provides the appropriately juvenile sounding vox (that’s a compliment, Sean!) 

    Another highlight is the album opener, a super-caffeinated version of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades,” with a guest vocal by Alice Cooper bassist and Beasto Blanco frontman Chuck Garric.   Williamson also admirably covers of classics like Santo & Johnny’s “Sleepwalk” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”  And while a lot of this is shred-centric, Williamson never loses sight of the melodies that have made these songs so memorable.

    Uncaged is an album that will delight metal and classic rock lovers by breathing new life into songs you have heard hundreds of times before.  But it does something even bigger. It uncages a sleep instrument in music’s arsenal and lets it roar and thrive in new avenues and genres of sound.

  • Hearing Aide: SUSS “Heat Haze”

    I’ve been listening to the Heat Haze EP from NY-based ambient country trio SUSS for about a week. If you’re a fan of ambient music, this EP does not disappoint. It’s five songs of soothing pads articulated with a variety of instruments, mostly string instruments, often played in repetitive loops bringing about a sense of calm and focus. For me, the title track conjures less of an image of haze than that of an old shack overlooking a swamp surrounded by lush green and hanging vines.

    SUSS is a NYC-based trio of Pat Irwin, Bob Holmes, and Jonathan Gregg integrate their NYC roots into their music, playing off the similarities and differences between the Southwestern landscape (which influenced Night Suite) and that of New York, and in doing so, stretching the definitions of both “ambient” and “country.”

    Reviewing ambient music is a challenge in that it is quite different from most other music. Most musicians want you to focus on the music itself, and hear all the interesting things the artists behind them are doing to draw you in. Ambient music is meant to put you in such a state that you are completely relaxed, not focused on the music at all. Heat Haze pulls that off. I really had to force myself to pay attention to what SUSS was doing. And even then, I would find myself lost in thought and not paying proper attention.

    SUSS is credited with creating the ambient country sound, and the one critique, if it is even that, is that I have had a hard time finding the country elements of their music. Sure, there’s some acoustic guitar and even some lap steel, but neither are employed in a particularly “country” fashion. Two songs, “Grace” and “Train” hint a bit at some country roots, the latter perhaps teasing it a bit more than the former, but ultimately, I would bin this squarely in ambient without the country category.

    My favorite track is the final one, “Pine,” which I can hear being the backing track behind a Nick Cave spoken word song or possibly in the middle of a Nick Cave & Warren Ellis film soundtrack. The plucked strings of what sounds like a baritone guitar add a nice dynamic element contrasted against the droning and whirling tones that make up the bulk of the song. It’s a haunting track; one that will be part of my nighttime routine, and perhaps present on my hot yoga mix, for years to come.

  • Hearing Aide: Brooklyn Rock Duo Power Pose Release Debut Album, “I’m Looking”

    Brooklyn-based rock duo Power Pose have released their debut full-length album I’m Looking, released on July 1, with a fiery first single in the drum-backed “Honey.”

    Power Pose

    Formed in 2017, Power Pose serves up 90’s infused indie rock with a fresh feminist perspective. Inspired by emotionally evocative performers like PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Gossip, Jacqueline Bodley (guitar/vocals) and Kelly Rudman (drums) approach their songwriting with fierce candor. Together, this duo has crafted a brash, self-assured sound that commands attention.

    Bodley and Rudman share a feminist outlook that informs their art from involved in #MeToo movement, to writing lyrics are both an exploration of self and an examination of the ways that women must work to navigate their environments. Feelings of isolation, desire, fantasy, escapism, and the urgent need to reclaim one’s agency are woven into the fabric of their songs. These feelings are expressed forward with danceable beats and driving guitar riffs in their new songs.

    Power Pose “Honey”

    Their first single “Honey,” is a DIY, carefree video–an at-home dance party complete with playful colors and wigs as the duo jam together. With a nod to Joan Jett’s anthemic rock-n-roll style, “Honey” kicks off with a pounding drum beat and went along with the thumping rhythm, winding bass groove and infectious guitar riffs. Their sultry vocals added the tune a flirtatious, playful energy as the duo remains carefree, confident and unabashedly themselves.

    Setting the tone in the opening verse, Bodley sings, “Saw it on TV / Did I waste my time / Cause it feels like I / Spent all my life / Taking what was offered me.” The track sees the duo unwilling to settle, to get nothing less than what they deserve, and encourages listeners to do the same.

    The lyrics for “Honey” originated in a dark place, but the song transforms that darkness into something joyful and empowering. When you aren’t well, it’s easy to lose confidence and feel disconnected from your physical self. “Honey” is about someone living vicariously through the media they consume and plunging into fantasy to escape their reality. Ultimately, the narrator wakes herself up to reclaim her strength and sexual confidence. The song is about shaking off your insecurities and completely letting go. Its danceability celebrates the feeling of moving and connecting with your body.

    Bodley

    The video, made with an iPhone and shot, directed and edited by Bodley herself, allowed the duo to play with identity, blur reality and fantasy, and act out different personas. They would like to invite the audiences to join the fantasy with the boundary-blurred reality and fiction expressed in this music.

    Power Pose I’m Looking

    In addition to the single, the duo’s full-length debut album I’m Looking arrived July 1, 2022. Over the seven tracks, the duo finds a new approach to their womanhood as they explore themes like desire, agency, modern romance and everything in between. They are unafraid to confront emotions ranging from rage to carefree joy while they find strength in taking back their space and bodies. Feminist and fearless, Power Pose offer a gritty and honest point of view that brings catharsis during a time of reckoning, which redefined womanhood and reclaimed their agency and femininity as they blaze their own trail.

    The tone of the album was heavily influenced by what was going on culturally at the time. MeToo was a huge part of the news when we first started writing music together, and there seemed to be constant think pieces being published that explored women’s perspectives in unprecedented ways. This got us thinking about our past experiences in a new light. The ways that women are socialized to approach desire and pleasure, the ways we are stereotyped and objectified, the ways that we are expected to behave and the coping mechanisms we develop to navigate social pressures. These were all themes that were simmering in our minds when we wrote these songs.

    Bodley

    Bold, bouncy and confident, “Honey,” out everywhere now, allows Power Pose to assert themselves as they fiercely claim their space and reconnect with their bodies. In a time of a raging pandemic and reproductive rights in question, Power Pose feel reinvigorated and ready to bring forth their fresh perspective with their debut album I’m Looking, out July 1, 2022 and available for pre-order now.

  • DJ Atlas.B Releases “First Launch EP” on June 24

    Capital District electronic music producer and DJ, Atlas.B, has released First Launch EP today, Friday, June 24. Heavily inspired by ‘60s/’70s funk, soul, and blues music, the 15-minute EP brings a lot of character over the course of the 5 tracks. The EP relies all on the high creativity of the instrumentation and layering of beats, with the occasional sampled phrase here or there.

    Atlas B

    Originally from Albany, Atlas.B worked on the EP over the course of a few months, with the final project finished with 5 tracks full of addictive rhythms. For his first EP, Atlas.B sampled dozens of vinyl records, overlaying drums, synths, keys, and other instruments which he recorded live from his own studio.

    Atlas B

    The track “Someday Soon” offers a mix of soul and electronic beats, alongside sampled music, which blends seamlessly together. “Midnight Run” begins with a bass track underlying most of the piece, incorporating keys and building with electronic synthesis as it continues.

    Atlas.B first released music in October 2021 and has since played at shows and festivals across the capital region. With performances including Empire Live, Photo City Music Hall, Bowery Ballroom, and Funk N Waffles, the DJ’s live sets embody all of the music that influences and inspires him.

    Fans of artists like Pretty Lights, Griz, Gramatik, Manic Focus, and Marvel Years may find their next favorite artist with Atlas.B’s First Launch EP out on June 24.

  • Fernway Release Debut Album “Autocrave,” Announce Summer Tour

    Buffalo-based band Fernway released their debut album Autocrave on June 17, and will hold an album release show on June 25 at Town Ballroom in Buffalo.

    fernway
    Photo Credit: Matt Sledziewski

    Fernway formed as a band in 2017 and consists of RJ DeMarco (vocals/guitar), Brett Robertson and Jonah Wrest (guitar), Tanner DeMarco (drums), and Alec Dube (bass). The band has diverse influences, from Stand Atlanic, The Band Camino, COIN, and Bo Burnham, among others, no member of the band listens to exactly the same music.

    The new album includes 29 minutes of new music across 9 tracks. Produced and engineered by lead singer RJ DeMarco, the album’s refreshing sound blends pop-rock, alternative emo, and elements of jazz.

    Autocrave as an album acknowledges the immense impact technology has on our society as a whole. A large focus of the project is on mental health and regaining control over your own happiness. 

    fernway

    Even the album artwork’s underlying messages focus on concepts of the addictive forms of technology and the way it can interrupt human connections. Created by Aaron Gordon and Quinn Gundel, the artwork was one of the most important parts of the album creation process.

    The artwork of the record is a representation of how the advancement of technology has consumed each and everything around us. The red lips represent technological consumption and domination of all that is around us while the white represents the vast unknown.

    Aaron Gordon and Quinn Gundel

    Many of the tracks come from deeply personal experiences of the band, including the track “Compass Free” which was born out of guitarist Brett Robertson’s struggles and is now one of the band member’s favorites. Of the album, the band shares that they “hope these songs comfort you while you learn to navigate the ever-changing terrain of the world we live in.”

    In the months leading up to the album release, Fernway has had 3 successful single releases and a great Spring tour across the Northeast region. In March, the band opened up for The Dangerous Summer and Cory Wells at Buffalo’s Rec Room.

    Fernway will celebrate the recent release at the Town Ballroom’s new Oxford Pennant Stage. The stage was built with a specific focus to showcase local and up-and-coming touring acts. The tickets for the release show on June 25 can be found here, and Fernway will also be joined by close friends Marquee Grand, Ghostpool, and Amateur Hockey Club.

    Following the celebration of the album, Fernway will be touring this summer with 10 shows across 6 different states. The Rock and roll band Imposters will join them on the road for 4 of the shows.

    Listen to Autocrave, out now on streaming services. Fernway also updates their playlist, “Spread The Love”, every two weeks, which showcases artists they wish to bring more exposure to.

    Fernway Summer Tour Dates

    July 6 – Mercury Lounge – New York, New York

    July 7 – Balmville Grange – Newburgh, New York*

    July 8 – Soundbank – Phoenixville, Pennsylvania*

    July 9 – House Of Independents – Asbury Park, New Jersey*

    July 10 – Barca City – New Brunswick, New Jersey*

    July 13 – Local 506 – Chapel Hill, North Carolina

    July 14 -The Milestone – Charlotte, North Carolina

    July 15 – House Space – Charlotte, North Carolina

    July 16 -TBD – Nashville, Tennessee

    July 17 – Legends Bar and Venue – Cincinnati, Ohio

    *with Imposters

  • Hearing Aide: Living Room “New Years”

    On Friday, 10 June, Brooklyn quartet band Living Room released their new album, New Years. After their growth in the last decade, the band performed their surprising leveling up in this album.

    Living Room
    Living Room


    Based out of Brooklyn, Living Room is anchored by a decade-long friendship between their members, and now joined indie label Fear Icon Records. It has Scott Fitzpatrick and John Nicholls on guitar/vocals, Kevin Dobbins on bass, and Fred Trumpy on drums.

    Influenced by late ’90s and early aught acts, Living Room released a rich discography that blends emo, shoegaze, and post-punk. Their discography displays their evolving and precise musicianship with lyrics that reflect the complexity, vicissitude, and euphoria of life.

    The first powerful impression of this album is its strong sense of rhythm. Based on the intense drumbeats, “Mauve Frame” successful built a cheerful but absurd environment. And the drum is the spine to support the emotional storytelling from the lyrics and vocals.

    Guitar and bass played an important role in performing their shoegaze style. The long and droning riffs in “Flood” expressed the shoegaze style of the band. This album widely used such sound in guitar and bass performing.

    Stand out tracks like “Petrol Head” and “Flood” have big choruses that shine with the production work of Gary Cioni. Cooperated with the Scott and John’s vocal, the big choruses amplified the emotion embeded in the songs.

    Lyrically the album used metaphor to express their feelings. Written by the two vocals, the lyrics told the feelings of romance and life experiences. “All I saw was the mauve frame. It all looked burnt orange to me. I’m sorry, it’s not funny. A world so colorful yet so boring”, they sang in the “Mauve Frame”, with the bright melodies reflected the loneliness in the song.

  • FARROW to Release Debut Album “Agitate” on July 9

    After three years together, Rock ‘n Soul band FARROW, from Buffalo, is gearing up to release their first album, Agitate, on July 9. With joyous music and infectious melodies, this diverse group of musicians excels on this newest project.

    Agitate will be the first of three EPs in a series.  To accompany the sound component of the album, FARROW will have video releases for each song every month.  These videos will be available to the Farrow Fan Club on Patreon.

    FARROW is made up of seven talented musicians and artists.  Led by André Pilette (producer/bass) and Michael Farrow (lyricist/singer), the band released two previous singles on Spotify, “Rise Up” and “Insoluble” in 2020. Other members feature Tim Webb (drums), Michael Ruopoli (percussion), Cory Clancy (guitar), Rufus “Breezy” Cole Jr. (keys), and Danielle Johnson (backing vocals).

    The new album is filled with joyous, empowering lyrics and snappy beats. The second track, “Steal My Joy,” opens up with laughter and the lyrics “you ain’t gonna mess with me today!” – a phrase that seems to encapsulate a theme of the album. 

    Just one listen and it is easy to move to the rhythm. FARROW’s Agitate explores different beats and instrumentation on the album, and all 6 tracks are energetic and thought-provoking.

    The group has a history of performing around Western NY, with other performances including Buffalo Iron Works, Sportsmen’s Tavern, Bowery Electric, Rockwood Music Hall, and more. In the future, they will extend their reach, including a performance at the North By Northeast Festival in Toronto. 

    To celebrate the release of their first album, FARROW will hold a party and concert at Sportsmen’s Tavern in Buffalo on July 9.

    Key tracks: Steal My Joy, In This Place, Love Me For Me

    FARROW is also performing at the following upcoming events:

    June 18 – NXNE Music Festival – Toronto

    June 26 – Elmwood Summerfest – Buffalo

    July 7 – Thursday & Main – Buffalo

    July 9 – Sportsmen’s Tavern – Buffalo

    July 22 – Sunset at the Stables at Knox Farm State Park – East Aurora

    Aug. 19 – The Erie County Fair – Hamburg

    Sep. 17 – Borderland Music + Arts Festival – East Aurora