Brooklyn-based artist Max ZT shared his new performance video for his single “Daybreak,” off of his solo debut album Daybreak, released on April 8.
Max ZT
Daybreak traces its roots to the darkest darks of the pandemic, with all the lockdowns. Max turned to music for healing and restoration at a time when society’s future was uncertain. He would send recorded improvisations to friends and family, who found them to be extraordinary sources of solace and relief.
The reaction was shocking. I know music has always been a balm for me, but to see the effect it had on others, on such a direct, one-to-one level, was honestly incredible.
Max ZT
NPR has described him as the “Jimi Hendrix of dulcimer.” He has scored an Emmy-winning ESPN documentary, co-wrote the music for his wife Priya Darshini’s GRAMMY-nominated debut Periphery, and shared the stage with the likes of Ravi Shankar and more.
His first lead single “In It” shows his unique ability to invite deep thought through his music as the track goes through different emotions to get to a resolution. The new single “Daybreak” is beautiful and heartbreaking as it takes you on a journey through deep melodies and strong conclusions.
Max ZT’s new album Daybreak will be out on April 8 and will be available on all streaming services.
Southern Blues Rocker Dana Fuchs will be releasing her 8th studio album, Borrowed Time, on 4/29. This is her fourth release with Ruf Records.
In contrast to Fuchs earlier work, Borrowed Time is centered around the stories of other people and what they’ve learned throughout their lives. By combining her southern rock upbringing with inspiration from legends like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, Fuchs has created a universal listening experience that many can relate to.
This marks the beginning of Chapter 2, in music as well as in life, I’m going out into the world and writing about the people who share it with me. My own story is always going to be in there, too, but this is the first album where other people’s stories are informing my own emotions.
Dana Fuchs
Songs on the album have themes ranging from love and companionship to political distrust and justice, with each inspired by different real world events and headlines. Producer Bobby Harlow lent his expertise to help Fuchs step away from her previous method of mixing influences and dive deeper into the rock and roll that first inspired her.
Fuch’s newest album was recorded in Michigan, with the help of a number of people including her bandmates, bassist Jack Daley and guitarist Jon Diamond, recording engineer Kenny Tudrick, drummer Todd Glass and keyboardist Jordan Champion. With recording completed in eight days, it’s safe to say that this was the perfect combination of people for the process.
When does a band stop being up and coming? When they get signed, when they headline a tour, when they become famous. That’s certainly part of “making it” in the music industry. I would suggest though, that a band stops being up and coming when they understand themselves as artists. That to go from promise to realization happens when you know who you are creatively. CHRMR might still be up and coming in industry terms, but they’re fully established artistically.
CHRMR’s second full length album, Low in the Glow, is hardcore rock that understands where it comes from and where it would like to go. Up and coming artists often only understand one of the two. They’re either so eager to shatter conventions they misunderstand the fundamentals of their genre or they’re ideas are so indebted to their inspirations they fail to deliver originality. CHRMR uses both the dark, occult conventions of doom rock and their own original songwriting to create an LP that elevates the band from aspiring musicians to creative thinkers.
On the classic rock guitar led, Rites, CHRMR offers the tropes of devilry and mysticism associated with doom rock. “The priestess calls the demon/ and the shaman does the dance,” they sing about some dark ritual. It’s not real, though. It’s a fantasy, just some wish fulfilment for fans of the genre. Like rappers with money, or singer songwriters with breakups we rarely interrogate ourselves about why they’re present in our music or even care that they are, but we expect them, which means they have value. To run away from these ideas doesn’t “bust” the genre, it mischaracterizes it.
By incorporating staples of the genre into their album CHRMR allows itself to push up against them as their own voice shines through their songwriting. On the album’s closing track “Grain Ark”, a young boy comes to terms with the solitude of growing up, he’s referred to as a “golden foal”. A deeply poetic line that evokes something fragile but precious, a precocious foal who may become a towering stallion. Its tenderness would be out of place were it not so confidently woven into the rapid guitar riffs and cacophonous energy of the drums on Grain Ark.
Throughout Low in the Glow CHRMR’s artistic intention keep the album cohesive, propelling the listener from one track to the next. It establishes the band as artistically mature because they don’t ask themselves if a certain lyric, or down tempo rhythm might work, they know it will. And when people use the cliché “find your sound” that’s what they mean.
Grammy Award winning artist Mr. Worldwide a.k.a. Pitbull, is back and better with another North American tour featuring Australian singer Iggy Azalea, and Jamaican artist Sean Paul. The “Can’t Stop Us Now” tour will run from July 28 to October 19 with performances at Darien Lake Amphitheater in Darien Lake on July 31 and Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh on August 5.
Other big industrial city stops during the tour will be Montreal, Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Additionally, Pitbull’s openers will be SiriusXM Globalization DJ’S, while his performance in Darien Lake is a part of Evans Bank concert series.
Pitbull is an outstanding example of having one of the most impressive careers considering all of his success. In fact, he has countless awards, dozens of international number ones, hundreds of gold and platinum certifications, millions of single sales, 25 million album sales, and cumulative video views in excess of 15 billion.
Along with being a worldwide superstar, Pitbull is an education advocate, business entrepreneur and motivational speaker. In addition to being the co-owner of Team Trackhouse, a NASCAR racing team, he has a variety of partnerships. These include but are not limited to 305 Worldwide, a new multicultural marketing agency, Espanita Tequila, LivexLive, and “From Negative to Positive” Podcast.
Tickets for this tour go on sale Friday, April 15 at 10 A.M. on Ticketmaster. However, fans can also register now for early access to tickets for the artist presale. Those who register will receive the presale password via text and email 25 minutes before the presale begins.
CAN’T STOP US NOW TOUR DATES:
*Not a Live Nation Date | ^On Sale Now | +With support from Iggy Azalea | #With support from Sean Paul
Thu Jul 28 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek+
Fri Jul 29 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live+
Sat Jul 30 – Hershey, PA– Hersheypark Stadium+
Sun Jul 31 – Darien Lake, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater+
Tue Aug 02 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion+
Wed Aug 03 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center+
Fri Aug 05 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater+
Sat Aug 06 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena*
Tue Aug 09 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center+
Thu Aug 11 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheatre+
Fri Aug 12 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre+
Sat Aug 13 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage+
Wed Aug 17 – Omaha, NE – Baxter Arena+
Fri Aug 19 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre+
Sun Aug 21 – Des Moines, IA – Wells Fargo Arena+
Tue Aug 23 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center+
Wed Aug 24 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center+
Thu Aug 25 – Highland Park, IL – The Pavilion at Ravinia*+
Fri Aug 26 – Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater+
Sun Aug 28 – St. Paul, MN – Minnesota State Fair*+
Tue Aug 30 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena+
Wed Aug 31 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre+
Fri Sep 02 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center+
Sat Sep 03 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre STL+
Sun Sep 04 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center+
Thu Sep 08 – Durant, OK – Choctaw Casino*
Fri Sep 09 – San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center#
Sat Sep 10 – Laredo, TX – Sames Auto Arena#
Sun Sep 11 – Houston, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman#
New York City-based A Beacon School is back with his first single in three years, “Dot,” an immersive multi-instrumentalist dreampop track. In addition to the songs’ release, A Beacon School is having a release show at The Sultan in Brooklyn, featuring Creature of Doom and S.C.A.B on April 9th.
Photo Cred: Max Mellman
Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J. Smith is the mastermind behind this dream pop project. Smith began making music as A Beacon School in 2009, releasing a home-recorded demo single was released in 2011, and a self-titled EP by a full-band lineup appeared near the end of 2012. He has played with bands such as Modern Rivals and Bluffing, additionally working with Parquet Courts’ Max Savage as part of Maxband.
In 2018, A Beacon School’s Cola was released by Grind Select. After receiving positive press and slowly gaining a worldwide following, an expanded vinyl edition of Cola was released in 2019 in conjunction with Fat Possum’s House Arrest imprint, amassing over 40 million streams.
Smith adds layers of soothing guitars and vocals with ease, reaching a build-up that feels natural, without ever fully peaking.
The Fader
“Dot” marks the first A Beacon School release in three years and coincides with a headlining performance at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn, signaling a long-awaited new full-length is on the horizon. On the track, A Beacon School says, “‘Dot’ is a song about seeing patterns in your life emerge but feeling helpless to change them. The song oscillates between these moments of unfiltered wonder and inspiration, and the immediate skepticism that follows them.”
“What he (Smith) shares is wisdom ahead of its time – acceptance of the inequities of
life as a path toward redemption. Destiny is preached as a set-in-stone limitation, but
soft tones and enchanting melody highlight our ability to adjust our sails in intractable
winds, holding that former philosophy to the fire with heavenly optimism.”
– PopMatters
Listen to A Beacon School’s new single “Dot” here.
Tickets to the release show at The Sultan can be purchased here.
The Swyer Theatre at The Egg played host to a sold out afternoon performance on Sunday, April 10 by Triveni, featuring three of the greatest musicians in Indian classical music – Zakir Hussain, Kala Ramnath, and Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh. The three musicians have been honored in India and abroad with numerous awards, and have collaborated for Triveni’s initial tour in North America.
The mixed crowd drew from the large South Asian population in the Capital Region, all captivated by the sonic experience the trio had to offer this afternoon.
All three performers walked out shortly after 3pm, taking their seats behind their respective instruments. Hussain wished the crowd a happy Palm Sunday, and said that they were all very glad to finally be performing, which was greeted by loud applause from the audience. Ramnath and Kumaresh – wearing traditional saris – flanked Hussain on each side, with Ramnath playing violin to Hussain’s right and Kumaresh the Saraswati Veena.
Hussain noted they would treat the performance as a train on a journey, stopping at different stations. Noting the North Indian raga tradition background of Ramnath, and the South Indian veena of Kumaresh, Hussain served as the bridge for the two to meet, culminating in hypnotic interplay between all three and, at times, duets between them.
The combination of sounds from each of the stringed instruments joined with the tabla made for a consistent musical conversation, one with no breaks in between, just a constant flow from song to song. With the group’s name of Triveni derived from the mythical site of the union of three sacred rivers in India, the name was on point as a perfect one for this concert of musicians.
In one segment, after 20 minutes of continuous interplay between Ramnath and Kumaresh, Zakir joined in after quietly observed the pair. As the collaboration progressed, Hussain used the rapid drumming of his fingers on the tabla to drive the tempo of the “train” quickly uphill. After taking a lengthy solo, Hussain was joined by once again by Ramnath and Kumaresh, bringing the performance to a ferocious close.
After a slightly more than 90-minute set, the trio went out in front of their instruments to bow in appreciation to the audience. At this time, Hussain stepped back, allowing the women to soak in the appreciation from the Swyer Theatre audience.
Triveni Tour Dates
4/12/2022 Pittsburgh Cultural Arts Pittsburgh, PA 4/14/2022 Sixth&i Washington, DC 4/17/2022 Global Arts Live Somerville, MA 4/19/2022 Davidson Theatre Columbus, OH 4/20/2022 Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland, OH 4/23/2022 Indian Classical Music Circle Austin, TX 4/24/2022 Wortham Center Houston TX
The “Dead and Gone” podcast by Payne Lindsey and Jake Brennan returns for season two on April 6. The new season of the true crime podcast will investigate new unsolved murders relatedly to the Grateful Dead.
Season two will focus on four unsolved cases spanning from the 1980s-2000s, all of whom bear some connection to the Grateful Dead: Adam Katz, Jennifer Wilmer, Bridget Pendell-Williams, Jeremy Alex. Each of these cases was supposed to be featured in season one before until Payne and Brennan decided to dedicate a full season to these cases.
Season one discussed the investigation into the 1986 double murder of Mary Regina Gioia and Gregory Allen Kniffin. Through an “a mysterious tip from a fellow Deadhead” Payne had reason to the case’s ruling had led to a wrongful conviction.
Episode one of the new season, which will be avaialble on all podcast platforms will recap season one and introduce the case of Adam Katz. The 19-year-old who was killed outside of what is now Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford New Jersey after a Grateful Dead concert on Oct. 14, 1989. Subsequent episodes will detail the investigations of the remaining three cases.
Payne Lindsey is the co-founder of Tenderfoot TV. The company’s first podcast was the popular “Up and Vanished” true crime podcast series which has been downloaded 350 million times. He is also the creator and host of popular “Atlanta Monster, “ “Dead and Gone” and “Radio Rental”.
Jake Brennan is a music journalist who created the podcast series Disgraceland, a true crime podcast about notable cases in the music industry. In 2020 Disgraceland won the iHeartRadio Best Music Podcast award. It is the most downloaded music podcast in the world. Brennan is also the co-founder of podcasting company Double Elvis.
New episodes will be released every Wednesday starting April 6.
Heavy metal rockers Queensrÿche brought an extended show to Paramount Hudson Valley on April 3 in a one-off headlining set in between shows supporting Judas Priest’s North American tour. The night was packed full with opening sets from Black Dawn and Hittman.
Black Dawn
Formed in 1996 on Long Island, Black Dawn kicked off the night with songs from their five-album discography. NYC’s Hittman has an even longer history in the NY Metro area metal scene dating back to the mid 1980s. Their fast-paced set echoed some of the core sounds of their NYC scene neighbors Dream Theater, just without the higher degree of progressive metal elements.
Hittman
Queensrÿche landed on the Paramount’s stage with an off-night between supporting shows for Judas Priest in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The extended time afforded by their own headlining show allowed them to dust off some songs they weren’t able to fit in their supporting shows such as one of their latest songs “Man the Machine” (from The Verdict, 2019) and other steadfast favorites from the band’s four decade history.
With a long history Queensrÿche has had a few lineup changes over the years; most notably the departure of original singer Geoff Tate in 2012 whose vocals helped shape the band’s sound. The replacement by Todd La Torre has proven to drive the band forward with continuity in their sound and presence.
Queensrÿche Setlist: Queen of the Reich, Warning, En Force, NM 156, Breaking the Silence, I Don’t Believe in Love, Man the Machine, Walk in the Shadows, The Whisper, Silent Lucidity, Jet City Woman, Operation: Mindcrime, The Needle Lies, Eyes of a Stranger
Encore: Take Hold of the Flame, Screaming in Digital, Empire
Infamous rock culture icons Korn and Evanescence have just announced a summer tour and accompanied by special guests varying across select dates. Korn and Evanescence will perform live at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, as part of the Cadillac Tri-State concert series, on Sunday, August 28, 2022.
“We’re looking forward to going on tour this summer and bringing our friends, Evanescence, out,” said Jonathan Davis of Korn. “Whenever Amy comes to one of our shows, I always love seeing her on the side of the stage watching the whole set and rocking out. We’re gonna have a great time on this tour, and we can’t wait to see you there.”
“I fell hard into Korn’s music in high school. It was an inspiration during the formation of my own band. The chances we’ve had to play together over the years are special, a part of our history. They remain one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen,” said Amy Lee of Evanescence. “It’s an honor and a thrill to go out with our friends again, our first full tour together since ‘07. We’re all really looking forward to this.”
Korn has changed the world with the release of their self-titled debut album that would eventually end up pioneering the rock genre. Korn has continued to push the limits of the rock, alternative and metal genres, while remaining a pillar of influence for fans and generations of artists around the globe.
Two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Evanescence has made an impact on people around the world with their 2003 debut album Fallen. The album spent a total of 43 weeks on the Billboard Top 10 and sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. Global hit “Bring Me to Life” reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and marked their first U.K. #1 hit single. The equally popular “My Immortal” peaked at #7 in the U.S. and U.K.
TOUR DATES:
Tue Aug 16 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
Thu Aug 18 – Maryland Heights, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sat Aug 20 – Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sun Aug 21 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
Tue Aug 23 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
Wed Aug 24 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
Fri Aug 26 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
Sat Aug 27 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion
Sun Aug 28 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
Wed Aug 31 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
Thu Sep 01 – Pelham, AL – Oak Mountain Amphitheatre
Sun Sep 04 – Houston, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Tue Sep 06 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion
Fri Sep 09 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre
Sat Sep 10 – Nampa, ID – Ford Idaho Center
Tue Sep 13 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena
Thu Sep 15 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre
Fri Sep 16 – Ridgefield, WA – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
Tickets and VIP Packages go on sale starting Friday, April 8th at 10am local time here.
The North American leg of Måneskin’s “Loud Kids World Tour” will stop and perform at the Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom on December 2nd and December 3rd, 2022.
The first world tour for Måneskin, “The Loud Kids” tour is produced by Live Nation and will consist of 48 days throughout North America and Europe. The tour will kick off in Seattle at the end of October and will continue through to 17 North American cities before heading to the European leg of their tour.
We’re so thrilled to be able to finally tell you that our LOUD KIDS tour just got sooooo much louder, worldwide – and will now see our very first headline tour in North America
Måneskin
Måneskin consists of a four-piece Italian band that began as teenagers in the streets of Rome. In 2021 the band grew with over 3 billion streams, hit #1 in numerous countries and across the Global charts, and becoming the #2 song on TikTok.
Måneskin continues to build their connection with their fans around the world by performing at major festivals such as Coachella, Reading & Leeds, Rock in Rio, Pinkpop, Rock Im Park / Rock Am Ring and more. The band has also received massive support on social platforms, nationwide radio, TV appearance on The Tonight Show, Ellen, The Voice, and receiving “Top New Rock Band of the Year” from Billboard #1 chart placements.
