On Saturday November 19, WonderFront Music and Arts Festival 2022 continued on for an unforgettable Day 2. Since the last festival in 2019, WonderFront has made a comeback with headliners Kings of Leon, G-Eazy, Lauren Daigle and Swae Lee, all making headway to restore the annual festival within Seaport Village along the pier in downtown San Diego.
Starting the day with Fitz and The Tantrums at the Events.com main stages, the show-goers belted the lyrics to fan favorite “Out of my League” which was a huge milestone in the band’s early career. Saturday’s afternoon sun became the perfect natural spotlight for the indie pop rock band founded in 2008 by lead vocalist Michael Fitzpatrick when they released their first hit single “Breakin’ The Chains of Love” in 2009.
Noelle ScaggsMichael Fitzpatrick
The festival moved towards transpiring viral success Tai Verdes, known for his pop and indie inspired music. Tai grew to fame during the pandemic in 2020 for his hit single “Stuck in The Middle,” which successively sprung him into a well-deserved music career. The crowd grew full as Tai was engaging with fans with an urge to hurl over the pit’s rail guard, as Verdes made it all worth the wait, especially when the performance of hit single “A-O-K” was embraced by a sea of loyal fans.
As the sun started winding down, singer/songwriter Bill Dess took a stand on the stage with his blue electric guitar. Going by the stage name of Two Feet, Bill balances a groove with a heavy tone and edgy electric guitar riffs. Representing the east coast, Bill Dess was born and raised in Manhattan where he began the production of his music career. Dess set the tone for those around as he strung his hit release “I Feel Like I’m Drowning” which reached number 36 on The US Hot Rock Songs Chart.
Leading into one of the top headliners of Saturday’s lineup was the unforgettable Swae Lee performed an impressive and crowd pleasing show. Swae leaped onto stage telling the crowd “I’m gonna make this shit unforgettable for y’all,” leading into featured hit release “Unforgettable” with French Montana. Leaning over the guard rails into the crowd, Swae was standing over the monitors, jumping from stage left to stage right and throwing his shirt into the crowd. Festival goers swung left to right as top hit “Swang” boomed through the bass. He made his appreciation for the fans known, putting on quite a remarkable show.
Swae Lee has been best known for songs from the album SremmLife from a duo Rae Sremmurd with his brother.. Swae Lee has featured artists on many tracks, such as Jhene Aiko, Post Malone, Traviss Scott and Nicki Minaj. Some of his fan favorites include “Unforgettable,” “Sunflower” and “Sativa” For one of WonderFront’s many headliners, Swae Lee put on an unforgettable show.
Headliner G-Eazy made an appearance Saturday night, having risen to attention in 2014 when his first major label album These Things Happen hit number 3 on the US BillBoard charts. G-Eazy cherished this show in honor of his fanbase to carry on their support over the years.
Playing one of Saturday’s concluding shows in San Diego’s all time ocean overlook, Ruocco Park. Echosmith took the stage to honor their last show on the band’s 2022 tour. Lead singer and keyboardist Sydney Sierota held a special place for San Diego, it being her hometown, which made their last show of the year more memorable for the fans and the alternative pop band.
To conclude an eventful Day 2 of WonderFront Music and Arts Festival. headliner Kings of Leon dropped an outstanding closing performance. The crowd was packed with show goers urging to get upfront for a better view along the marina, where fans filled the venue from front to back. With millions of follower on Spotify, their listeners were ecstatic for their show and appearance to the multi-genre festival. The group, composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan, Jared and their cousin Matthew Followill, performed “Sex on Fire,” “Use Somebody” and “Closer” from Kings’ most iconic album release, Only By The Night.
The wait for the American rock band was worth the wait when the crowd belted each song and roared of applause. The closing on Saturday November 19 set the bar for a remarkable show, raising high hopes for the final day of WonderFront Festival.
Tai VerdesSwae LeeSydney SierotaEchosmithFitz and The TantrumsMichael FitzpatrickTwo FeetG-EazyKings of Leon
On Friday November 18, Day 1 of The Wonderfront Music and Arts Festival kicked off for an unbeatable weekend. Located in San Diego’s marina, the forefront of downtown welcomed the return of the multi-genre festival WonderFront, which hit the ground running with Joey Purp as his very first show in Southern California. Purp uplifted the crowd with gratitude for their support and pursuit in his music career. Joey gained attention in 2012 after his first mixtape release “The Purple Tape,” and jumpstarted the feel for the festival and anticipation for the rest of day one.
Darling Greatly a group composed of The Croome Brothers, drummer Brayden Tario and electric Guitarist David Mills. introducing classical rock into modern alternative. The band truly rocks on and their style says it all. David Mills performs with a cig in his mouth and all time classic aviators, as the Croome Brothers rock with a trippy button up and ruby red electric guitar. Paying their respect to the loyalty of the fans, Darling Greatly opened with top hit “Shine” as part of their first album released in 2016.
As the day progressed, Saint Motel, Lainey Wilson, Quinn XCII and Young The Giant enticed the crowd and fan appeal. Saint Motel lead with top hits “My Type” and “Cold Cold Man” as lead singer AJ Jackson ran onto stage wearing a bright red tail coat, knee high boots and a black homburg hat. AJ fascinates the fans with his style and Indie pop music genre.
Lainey Wilson, performing since a young age, brought her country groove to the festival. Singing her top hit “Things A Man Oughta Know”, Wilson engaged with fans and danced among band members. An enticing an interactive show, Lainey continues her funk and groove as a female country artist.
Rising Artist Quinn XCII gave a stunning show at the Coors Light Stage. Fans filming, singing, dancing and pulled up their flashes to light up the main stage. Beginning his career back in 2011, Quinn XCII is best known for top hits “Stacy,” “Flare Guns” and “Straightjacket.” Quinn stands for ‘Quit Unless Your Iinstincts are Never Neglected’ and XCII represents the Roman numeral of Mikael Temrowski birth year 1992.
Another top show from day one had to be Young The Giant and they gave a set to remember. The euphoric lighting, mic stands strung with flowers and erratic dancing were part of lead singer Sameer Gadhia and his unpredictability as he moved across the stage and screamed with fans who floored for intro song “Wake Up.” The strobe lights, euphoric blues and purples made for an outstanding set that concluded with a well remembered hit performance of “Mind Over Matter” released in 2014.
To represent the East Coast, New Jersey-based singer and songwriter Bea Miller led an impressive set at the Tustreams Community Stage located at Ruocco Park. Grasping her career at only the age of 13. Miller is best known for hit album Aurora released in 2018 and her fans were ecstatic to hear “Song Like You,” “Burning Bridges” and “Crash&Burn” live. Bea’s facial expressions and assurance to the loyalty of her fans says it all.
To conclude Day 1 of WonderFront Music and Arts Festival, headliners The Zac Brown Band and EARTHGANG closed the day out with a well-remembered performance at the main stage. The Zac Brown band is most known as an American Country Band based in Atlanta with a classic “Chicken Fried” that captivated the crowd as they sang along ‘Cold Beer on a Friday Night,’ on a Friday night.
Headliner EARTHGANG featured hip-hop duo Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot raised the bar as the duo synced up, fist pumping the air, jumping towards the crowd and engaging their fans. The fans showed their loyalty for EARTHGANG as the duo’s songs have a fascinating range of musical influence. Attempting the notion of the conscious and subconscious of their lyrics and musical output, their closing of Day 1 of The WonderFront Music and Arts Festival of 2022 set the tone for what’s to come on both Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday, April 21, 2023, folk-slinger Arlo Guthrie will settle down at The Egg in Albany for a stop on his “What’s Left of Me’ tour. Guthrie had announced his retirement from touring in 2020, but admitted that “retirement was fun while it lasted” and returns with a spoken word show.
The show will be moderated by author, music historian, and former director of the Grammy Museum Bob Santelli. It will also include rarely-seen video footage and an audience Q&A.
photo by Steve Malinski
Anyone who has had the good fortune to attend a performance by Arlo Guthrie knows that while the songs are wonderful, the stories are what really make the show something really special.
As the oldest son of Woody & Marjorie Guthrie, Arlo first made his appearance onstage at age 13, made music history with the composition “Alice’s Restaurant” and a legendary performance at Woodstock. After 60 years on the road there should be a lot to talk about.
Read NYS Music’s interview with Arlo Guthrie on Thanksgiving traditions and his family legacy.
The son of legendary Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie is best known for the Thanksgiving song/saga “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” the classic “The City of New Orleans,” and “Coming into Los Angeles.” He also performed at Woodstock in 1969 on Saturday, August 16.
Tickets for Arlo Guthrie “What’s Left of Me” are currently on sale online at theegg.org or by telephone at 518-473-1845, or in person at The Egg Box Office Monday – Friday from 11 AM – 3 PM.
SUNY Fredonia’s student body is an active partaker in the local music scene, as demonstrated from the Rocktoberfest event which rocked the crowd on the night before Halloween from 6-9pm in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Williams Center.
At the October event, which was held through the collaborative coordination between SUNY Fredonia’s Sound Services program and Music Industry Club, students dressed in festive-themed costumes to rock out to the high-energy performances delivered by the Fredonia-based band Relentless Moisture and Buffalo-based musicians Cooler and SAINT BLIND.
Rocktoberfest Poster
Taking a look at the Rocktoberfest lineup, Cooler is a three-piece band from Buffalo comprised of Alley Sessanna, Nick Sessanna, and Jake Sessanna, who performed at the special occasion. The group creates pop and rock songs that are heavily accented by guitar chords.
Cooler Band
Aileen (Alley), Cooler’s vocalist and bassist, opened up on details around the music, performances and influences of the band:
Heather Occhino: When did Cooler form and who else is in the band?
Alley Sessanna: We started in 2014. Our current lineup is me on vocals and bass, Nick on guitar and vocals, and Jake on the drums.
HO: How would you describe the music of Cooler?
AS: Dream-o. We really love heavy guitars and emotional lyrics people can relate to with a catchy melody of course.
HO: How was your performance at Rocktoberfest? Have you played SUNY Fredonia before?
AS: We’ve played at Fredonia before, but not for this specific event. We play at Fredonia any time we can. There’s just something special about the music scene.
Cooler at Rocktoberfest
HO: It seems like your most recent work is your single “Cringe.” Is this what you performed at Rocktoberfest?
AS: We did! If you’ve ever laid in bed at night and had intrusive thoughts about something embarrassing you did 10 years ago, this one’s for you.
HO: Are there any artists who’ve inspired you or influenced your sound?
AS: All three of us have very different music tastes, but some common ground bands are Smashing Pumpkins, Tigers Jaw, Pity Sex, Now Now, Mansions, and Pinback.
AS: December 2nd at Mohawk Place with Quit Yourself, Amateur Hockey Club, and BP & the Oil Spills.
Single by Cooler, “Cringe (Reprise)”
Fredonia’s own Relentless Moisture, a post-psychedelic musical ensemble also played at Rocktoberfest, bringing with them an experimental sound as their foundation. The group described the concept behind ‘moistcore’ and much more in their chat with NYS Music.
Relentless Moisture at Rocktoberfest
Heather Occhino: In your bio for your Instagram and Twitter account, I saw that you included that your band is a moistcore band. Can you define ‘moistcore’ and how does that correlate with your group’s name?
Relentless Moisture: Moisture is something you can’t exactly describe, but you know it when you hear it. Sounds can absolutely be wet. Moisture is a mind set.
HO: How would you define the music you make?
RM: …Moisture.
HO: Are there any artists, whether rising or prominent, who’ve influenced your sound or who’ve inspired you creatively?
RM: There’s a lot of Ween mentality to the music, and there’s hints of Deftones, Nirvana, Michael, Nickelback, and the Big Bopper. Alongside Rihanna, those are our major inspirations. It’s actually mostly Rihanna and Shakira.
HO: How was your performance at Rocktoberfest? Was this your first time performing at the event/SUNY Fredonia?
RM: This was our first non acoustic show on campus and certainly our first time playing at Rocktoberfest, and we loved it. The crowd was awesome, and we didn’t expect people to mosh but they certainly did. Also, Saint Blind and Cooler were amazing. We love playing music, and we love performing.
HO: When is your next show?
RM: We are pulling up to Stamps in Tonawanda on January 13, it’s like 40 minutes off campus, absolutely come down if you can and get stamped.
SAINT BLIND, a Buffalo-born alternative/indie rock and synth-pop musician (real name Aaron) is a musician familiar with the Fredonia music scene and played Rocktoberfest. He has previously performed at the Main Street Studios and interacted with music lovers there, as was the case on Saturday, October 15th, when he shared the stage with other alternative bands Karrot Kake and Personal Style.
Five days after the Fredonia concert, on the evening of November 3, notable Buffalo venue Nietzsche’s hosted live performances by a trio of up-and-coming bands, Power Creep, Breakfast Beers, and RAM! The three bands also sat down with NYS Music to discuss their backgrounds, creative outputs and shows delivered in Buffalo.
Liam Slater and Jon Andrews are part of the Buffalo-based rock band Power Creep, fronted by singer Tyler Will. Power Creep has two debut singles that were published this year, the most recent, “Defy Belief” from July and “Hideous,” which was released in February.
Power Creep Band
In a taped interview, the band’s frontman Tyler Will went into further depth about the history of the foundation of the group, the band’s released works, and their show at Nietzsche’s.
https://youtu.be/e8vM6iU1s9c
Interview with Lead Singer of Power Creep Band, Tyler Will
Justin McKernan, Alex Couturier, and Jacob McKernan of the three-piece band RAM!, are also from Buffalo, and are all blood-relatives. Following RAM!’s formation in 2020-the year the pandemic broke out–the group’s debut album, Mr. Russo’s Class on Teaching a Generation, was released in August 2021.
RAM! Band
In a recorded conversation, RAM! discussed the band’s music, the challenges being a budding band from Buffalo and the group’s formation.
https://youtu.be/k_ACYKToGf0
Interview with Members of RAM! band
The eight-piece rock group Breakfast Beers are based in Buffalo and call Nietzsche’s home, as well as Philadelphia.
Breakfast Beers members Andrew Ajaka, Darren Valdera, and Paul Guardiola, talked about how their band came to be, their musical influences, and their live performances.
Heather Occhino: I read on your website that your band is based in Buffalo, NY and Philadelphia, PA. Can you elaborate on how this is?
DarrenValdera: Well, when Breakfast Beers first started we were 9 people and due to school and life we’re a little separated right now. Two of our members (Sofia Fasullo and Matt Guardiola) are currently going to school in Philly, and have the capacity/permission to play as Breakfast Beers if they wanted to. So we’ve got two “branches” of Beers HQ so to speak.
Andrew Ajaka: Also Darren and I are originally from NYC!!
HO:What led you guys to form your band?
DV: (I feel like someone else can answer this better than me but…) PORCHFEST!! An event in the community we lived in – in Binghamton where anyone with a porch can sign up their porch for festivities or enter to play at a specific time slot on a porch. I was originally planning to just come and watch it but the week of, Andrew asked me if I wanted to play a song or two with them and I joined Breakfast Beers!
AA: Yea Porchfest was for sure a big part of it, but it really started during the pandemic! Paul and I were living together in Binghamton and were playing a bunch of music with our roommate Jacob Parker, and started very loosely writing stuff together with our roommate Hannah Nathanson. Moving in with Sofia Fasullo and deciding to do Porchfest were really the deadline; we all needed to really focus on our instruments and come together as a band that was actually prepared to perform live for an audience.
Breakfast Beers Members [from left to right], Sofia Fasullo, Andrew Ajaka, Paul Guardiola (on drums), Darren Valdera (wearing hat) and Jacob Parker (Photo Credit: Sullivan Harris)
HO: Are there any artists/bands who inspired you to make music and/or influence your style of sound in your music?
DV: A band I’d say that inspired us to make music is the Droogz (shoutouts to them for FINALLY putting out their first EP). Their music and stage presence is just insane. They’re all little rockstars. And just everyone in the local Binghamton scene is so inspiring, and our music really is an amalgamation of everything we listen to. My current rotation of artists are Pinkshift, Hello Sleepwalkers, and Good Game.
AA: I feel like we’re constantly talking about all the ways the music we’re listening to at the time sort of bleeds its way into our writing in different ways. Sweet Pill and Carly Cosgrove have been heavy on my rotation lately and their new records have been super inspirational for me.
Paul Guardiola: I definitely draw a bunch of inspiration from other local bands we see and play with. There are so many cool people in the northeast making really inspiring music, and being able to digest it while we’ve been growing as artists has been a big part of how I write. Shoutout to Bunk, Happy To Be Here, Stay Off The Fence, Dirty Band-Aid, Feeble Little Horse, Bug, and Waxgirl. We also have a whole 8 hour playlist of all our different favorite songs and inspirations on our Spotify page.
HO: You had a show as part of Foxhead Fright Night on Saturday, Oct. 29. How was your experience performing at Main Street Studios? Do you think events like Fright Night allow for your listening/fan base to grow?
BB: It was super sick! The venue was super cute, and everyone’s costumes were adorable. It was also a blast to meet all the heads running Foxhead and to see Ozymandias rip some Black Sabbath that night!
AA: For sure! Events like Fright Night give us the opportunity to play our music for people and show them who we are and what we care about. Hopefully that begins to invite people into the community we are trying to create between us and our audiences. It was a super fun time playing for Foxhead Fright Night! Shoutouts to everyone at Foxhead for having us join them, everyone’s costumes were awesome and the venue was so cool!
DV: Events like Fright Night are definitely one of the main ways we grow as a band! It puts us in touch with cool artists who we can play with/plan events with again and lets us share our art and sound with new people who might vibe with us.
HO: Do you have any upcoming work to be released soon?
DV: Hopefully! We have a lot of songs in our rotation that are done that we just haven’t recorded yet. Some of them you heard at Foxhead Fright Night like Crabapple and Post Modern Baseball Reunion Tour Pt. 2. (Taylor’s Version). We’re taking a short writing/recording period break for December through January so hopefully we’ll have some new things to release by then.
PG: Yeah nothing official to announce yet but we’re always writing new material to play out, and finding time to record when we can.
The Western New York music scene has been home to bands like Goo Goo Dolls, Ani Difranco, Rick James, Aqueous, and dozens more. Artists including Breakfast Beers, Relentless Moisture, Cooler, SAINT BLIND, Power Creep and RAM! are among the next generation of bands from the greater Buffalo/Fredonia music scene. Catch them at clubs while you can!
The holidays are upon us, and that means time once again for Jam for Tots! Since 2014, Jam for Tots has been held across New York State and the Northeast, bringing live music fans together to support those most in need in their local communities.
At 10 venues around New York State, fans are encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy for a child (under 13) and drop the toy off in the box. These toys will be brought to local charities within the venue’s community, to ensure that these toys brighten the day of children within the local area.
Things kick off this week at Lark Hall with The Last Waltz, on Wednesday, November 23rd. The second annual Last Waltz on Lark Street will feature local musicians, including Brian Bean (bass and vocals), Mike Coleman (bass), Tom O’Connor (guitar and vocals), Rick Rothermel (keyboards and vocals), Sarah Sheppeck (vocals), Joe Sorbero (drums and vocals) and Jeremy Walz (guitar and vocals). And, in the true spirit of The Band, Levon Helm and The Last Waltz, the band will joined by special guests throughout the evening.
Then on Saturday, November 26, eberwine and Quantum Cosmic will be at Putnam Place, with a night full of special guests in store.
See below for the full lineup of Jam for Tots shows across New York State (alphabetical order)
Local to the Hudson Valley, Soul Blind released their newest alternative single “Feel It All Around” on November 11th. “Stuck In A Loop” leans into the band’s ‘90s alternative influences, flowing through rich guitar tones into an intoxicating breakdown.
As you listen through tracks like “Ain’t Hard To Tell” and “System (Failing),” it’s easy to see the juxtaposition of the environment the band grew up in bleeding into how they approach music. The songs serve as a pair centered around people sucking the life out of you, as “Ain’t Hard To Tell” takes the viewpoint of watching a person change into someone unlikable, “System (Failing)” finds one progressing past the relationship.
The band explains how inner struggles serve as a recurring theme throughout the album, this particular track feeds into the paranoia of the mind. “Imagine the visual of being stuck in a loop inside one’s thoughts due to a mental lapse onset by a drug induced night, and not knowing how to escape” vocalist Cen comments on the song’s lyrical content. “The ‘view’ is this other, brighter side that you can put yourself in, but the ‘glue’ has you stuck in a loop until you can get yourself out.”
Soul Blind is Cen (vocals/bass), Justin Sarica (guitar), Finn Lovell (guitar), and Steve Hurley (drums).
Much of Feel It All Around was written in Soul Blind’s hometown of Hudson Valley, NY, which the band describes as “a place of beauty within hopelessness of its people, where you find the richness between the despair.”
Alternative rock band Soul Blind pushes the boundaries of their genre with a rich collage of sounds and emotionally charged lyrics. Formed back in 2018, the band hit their stride in 2021 with the release of their critically acclaimed Third Chain EP. They have been praised for lush, distorted riffs and divine, whirling vocals, the band build on those elements on their upcoming full-length album, Feel It All Around.
To listen to Soul Blind releases and Feel It All Around, click the link here.
After two years under wraps, The Wonderfront Music Festival makes its first return since 2019. Running from November 18-22, 2022, Wonderfront was started by CEO Paul Thornton and is located right in the marina along the waterfront piers and parks of downtown San Diego. Wonderfront is a multi genre annual festival hosting over 80+ artists, including award winning headliners Gwen Stefani, Cage The Elephant, G-Eazy, and The Zac Brown Band.
WonderFront 2019
One of Southern California’s biggest cities, San Diego has become the perfect location for festival grounds in the SeaPort Village Marina. The Wonderfront Festival is bringing a full package to the comeback lineup for 2022 with many art installations, food vendors like Sophias Kitchen, Pressed and Smash City Burgers, in addition to hosting various retail vendors and partnering with The San Diego Museum of Art, one of the region’s largest and most-visited art museums to accentuate the visual arts experience.
WonderFront Music and Arts Festival Lineup
The lineup includes artists coming from around the globe. Headliners include Gwen Stefani, G-Eazy, The Zac Brown Band, Cage The Elephant, Young the Giant and EARTHGANG. While hosting over 80 artists, Wonderfront pulls from rock, alternative, rap, pop rock to appeal to a wide range of community for the fans. Not only does Wonderfront bring award-winning headliners but brings deserving attention to many more well established artists. Other artists featured on the lineup include Fitz and The Tantrums, Bea Miller, Joey Purp, Hippie Sabotage and many more.
NYS Music will head west for WonderFront Music and Arts Festival and will be reporting back on members of the East Coast music community, several of which are making an appearance at Wonderfront Festival 2022. Bea Miller from Maple Wood, New Jersey, launched her career after placing 9th on X- Factor at the age of only 13. Some of her top hits from album Aurora include “Song Like You,” “Like That,” and “Motherlove.” Another artist representing the East Coast is Two Feet, originally from Manhattan and gained attention in 2016 and rose to success after releases Pink and Max Marco is Dead Right? in 2021.
When you listen to “Without A Me,” you are brought into an intimate space: a belfry filled with fluttering bats, a cluttered room, the side of a highway where people hold signs and implore honks and kool-aid condenses in its paper cup, an attic — evoking those bats again — all imaginary, all in the mind of Syracuse singer-songwriter Stephen Mullane. Except of course, that the song was recorded in Mullane’s own self-contained world as well: the song is his first to be written, performed, recorded and produced entirely in Mullane’s home studio, a space he fashioned by himself for himself.
“Without A Me” is Stephen Mullane’s newest single; it follows two albums he released in 2021, recorded at More Sound Recording Studio in Syracuse. Mullane is an independent — it’s just him, his voice, his guitar. His lyrics are the highlight, they’re ripe with imagery, wit, ad-libs and inconsistent rhyme schemes that all seem to work out in the end. Called to mind are Elliot Smith’s slowly unfolding “King’s Crossing,” Pavement trading incomprehensible verse in “… And Carrot Rope,” or Bob Dylan’s self-critical look at current affairs in “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”.
Mullane thrives in this folksy, rambling space of sound because his lyrics hold enough interest and nuance to be stark against the minimal acoustic background. The stream of consciousness is overwhelming, but the consistent rhythm and vocals hold strong against the current.
The song is out now, listen below. To see Stephen Mullane live in Syracuse, his next gig is at Skaneateles Brewery on Sunday, November 27, his third show at the brewery.
NY’s Bad Mary have just released their newest music video for their upcoming song “It’s All Trash,” which was released on November 8th. Bad Mary is made up of lead vocalist Amanda Mac, with her husband Mike Staub on bass, her dad Bill Mac on drums, and her Hofstra University professor David Henderson on guitar. This four multi-generational equal parts which continue to inspire each other with their musical prowess and distinct skill sets.
When asked about the song bassist Staubexplains, “This song is a sort of realization that despite a fancy label or how we dress up a lot of what we consume, much of it is still just… trash. I wanted to still convey this message in our own, cheeky, and bratty way, hence the 80s glam metal “oh yeahs” in the chorus. In the end, even Trash can be a lot of fun. This is also, to me, one of our heaviest songs, which I like as it encapsulates a fun-yet-aggressive vibe” shares bassist Mike Staub.
Guitarist David Henderson explains the video was shot in an abandoned psychiatric center creating the perfect aesthetic for the song. “We shot the video in an abandoned psychiatric center. We had to get a guide, Krispy DeRato, who knew their way around to help us find a good place to shoot. We had to walk through partly flooded dark tunnels full of white mud and dripping water to get there, it was pretty gross honestly, and if Krispy had not been guiding us, we definitely would have got lost down there. Once situated, I just played the song on my phone and said, “OK, just do the Amanda dance around the building.” Amanda took off and owned the space, I pretty much just followed her around making sure I got everything. It had rained the night before, so all of the dripping water and mud were just part of the natural atmosphere of the place.”
Around the middle of December, the band plans to bring some holiday cheer with the release of their holiday EP “A Very Bad Christmas.” You won’t want to miss their edgy rock n’ punk versions of Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard High, and Little Drummer Boy. Bad Mary’s songs have been a staple in rotation on SiriusXM’s Underground Garage, but “It’s All Trash” really perked up their ears.
“Bad Mary just seems to constantly provide an endless stream of entertaining content. They’re an incredible band, and it looks like they just have so much fun with everything they do”
Folk N Rock
Bad Mary is originally from Long Island, but they rehearse in Kings Park. Band members Amanda and Bill are originally from Massapequa, Mike is from Hicksville. Currently, David lives in Kings Park, Mike and Amanda are local to Huntington.
Their newest EP Trash And Glamour will be out in early 2023. You can catch their weekly live stream on Twitch on Tuesday nights at 8 pm EST. To watch, click the link here.
To check out Bad Mary’s newest video for “It’s All Trash,” below.
Project of New York-based producer Jake Muskat, Sea Glass is back in collaboration with a euphoric artist named Benét. Their dreamy new single “(i have jokes) If You Wanna Hear One” has just dropped on all platforms. Sea Glass has been praised by the likes of Indie Shuffle, Wonderland Magazine, WFUV, Record of the Day, Variance Magazine, The Wild Honey Pie among others, garnering over 250k streams on his last EP alone.
Inspired to release music after the birth of his first child, Sea Glass’s music taps into universal emotions around growing up and dreaming. His sound invokes yearning, hope and nostalgia filtered through a positive lens.
Coming back into the alternative/indie scene with his new single “(i have jokes) If You Wanna Hear One” in collaboration with euphoric artist Benét, the duo unite ethereal melodies and flowing narratives into a sound of their own. Finding its origins on a simple, classical guitar, this new single was written the week Sea Glass’s son was born as a lullaby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Bq9xhNKqs
He shares, “I liked the idea so much I decided to record it, but wanted to make it fit my production style. As I worked on it, I was more excited by its progress than anything else at the time. It took me 6 months of searching for a good top line when Benét offered to write on it. Their playful melody and lyrics just smashed the demo death loop I was in into smithereens. It came together very quickly from there. I had my close friend Jared Saltiel add live drums and the whole thing gelled together perfectly.”
Written during Sea Glass’s last few months in Brooklyn as he prepared to depart the city, he states, “My son was just born and I was both thrilled to have this new love in our family but also overwhelmed with the added pressure that the responsibility brought. The music was a sort of escape from the moment, an idealized version of how I hoped things would go. It was written in the summer and there are definitely island vibes to the sounds, but the escapism I’m exploring in the music also makes this song relevant for any time of year.”
To listen to Sea Glass’s newest song “(i have jokes) If You Wanna Hear One,” click here.
