New York City-based four-piece alternative pop/rock band Kids That Fly have released their newest five-track EP Tracks of the High Line, on December 9. With hopes of recreating their viral 2019 single “Kiss Her You Fool,” the group came up with this nostalgic, genre-blending EP. Along with this, the band has also released a VHS Music video for the song “Talk of the Town,” a catchy pop/alternative hit.
In October, Kids that Fly released the EP’s lead single, “High Line,” along with a vibrant music video to pair. “The synth-y beat and fast drums brought me back…it’s pop with enticing guitar chords and a synth that fits right in…conjures 80’s nostalgia. ‘High Line’ evokes a more technical The 1975, a less sad Backseat Lovers,” said NYS Music contributor Sydney Pollack in October.
Yet their newest “Talk of the Town” showcases the energy of Tracks of the High Line in its entirety, which can be described as a combination of sounds from the early 2000s alt-rock era, 80s synth pop, British alternative, and modern pop/rock.
Nick Smeriglio (vocals/guitar), Blake Henry (guitar/synth), Braden Frandino (bass/vocals) and Ryan Hendry (drums/vocals) make up Kids That Fly. Composed of college comrades, they formed in the fall of 2018 while attending the University of Connecticut. Having all grown up in Connecticut, the crew has had a lot of influence from other Connecticut musicians such as Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and indie/rock duo MGMT.
Tracks of the High Line is the “next logical step in the band’s evolution,” shares Nick. Composed of songs written throughout the heart and tail end of the pandemic. “It’s a reflection of lots of different romantic experiences that the four of us have had,” Nick confides. “On a deeper level though, it deals with the different struggles that came from the pandemic, how the isolation took a toll on people, and the recovery of it all.”
“Throughout the process we’ve been experimenting with different synthesizers and other interesting digital production techniques that give each song a bit of a retro futuristic style,” Braden reflects about the EP’s sounds.
Since the very beginning, the band has always put a focus on their fans, prioritizing the importance of live music. With their electrifying up close and personal performances, Kids That Fly will continue to prove their vast potential. You won’t want to miss out on their newest viral hits on Tracks of the High Line.
On December 10th, 2022 State Champs brought Frozen Fest back to Albany, NY with a packed lineup of pop-punk and alternative rock bands. For 5+ hours, Save Face, Between You & Me, Young Culture, Hunny, and headliner State Champs kept people on the feet and some surfing over the crowd at Empire Live.
State Champs dropped their album, Kings of the New Age, back in February 2022. With the resurgence of pop-punk, the demand to see them live kept many of their fans anxious. A highly anticipated return to the stage was met in back in June at Albany’s first show for their 2022 Alive at 5 series. Then in August, State Champs announced their tour for their album for late fall of this year.
The show opened with gothic rock band Save Face from New Jersey. Lead vocalist, Tyler Povanda, came out a stronger than expected. With the stage illuminated blood red, the entire band in red jump suits, and Povanda’s jerky movements, it gave the feeling more of a death metal concert… at a pop-punk show? Povanda did warm up the crowd eventually and they left with a warm cheer from the crowd.
Save Face, Frozen Fest 12/10/2022, – Photo by Jarron Childs
Between You & Me (BYAM) came all the way from Australia to join State Champs on their Kings of the New Age tour. No introduction was needed as they were an instant hit with the crowd. With a style similar to State Champs, the energy could easily be matched between the two. Their set was a rager from start to finish. Towards the end, vocalist Jake Wilson, and Tyler Povanda matched the energy of the crowd when they dragged their wired mics into the mosh pit seemingly against the advice of security.
Between You & Me Bassist, Frozen Fest 12/10/2022 – Photo by Jarron Childs
Young Culture opened for State champs for their first 7 shows on tour and had to come back home to end the tour. They brought peace, love, and positivity to every single person in the room. Vocalist, Alex Magan, greeted crowd surfers at the barricade with a warm and infectious smile. Though their set was a bit shorter than expected, the energy felt light enough to float on for long after.
Hunny was the last opening act for the night. Along with BYAM, they went the whole tour with State Champs. Hailing from the suburbs just outside of LA, their somewhat mellow indie-rock style flattened out the crowd before the main event. They had turned off the lights for the first half of their set which made you really have to just vibe with the music. Things were turned up towards the end with vocalist Jason Yarger strumming his guitar with his foot and laying on the ground out of pure exhaustion.
Young Culture Vocalist Alex Magan, Frozen Fest 12/10/2022 – Photo by Jarron Childs
State Champs came out strong and did not let up. The crowd kept up with their energy as they sent a heavy stream of crowd surfers to barricade, over hauling the security for the rest of the night. With special guest appearances from Jake Wilson and their tour manager Colin Lorne, they brought out all the stops for their final show of their tour.
Their 22-song setlist was mostly songs from their new album, Kings of the New Age, but also had certified bangers for their real fans including “Secrets,” “Elevated,” and “All You Are is History.” Vocalist Derek “Steez” Discanio and Bassist Ryan Scott Graham interacted well with the crowd, having them dancing and head banging for the whole night.
Ryan Scott Graham of State Champs, Frozen Fest 12/10/2022 – Photo by Jarron Childs
Things were brought pretty low halfway through to do a 3 song acoustic set; including a solo stunt with Discanio strumming “Our Time To Go.” Hearts were clenched, hands were held, and bodies were swaying along as Steez belted his heart out on stage.
The music was turned right back up after, making the last three songs feel like a distant memory. Derek Discanio celebrated 13 years of State Champs by releasing balloons onto the crowd. They played their last 5 songs hard and left to the crowd screaming for one more. They came back out and granted Empire Live with a 2-song encore. First their Christmas song “Ordinary Christmas,” then closed the night with their hit off their album, “Everybody But You.”
Derek Discanio of State Champs, Frozen Fest 12/10/2022 – Photo by Jarron Childs
Steez and State Champs showed so much love to his home crowd and promised to bring another Frozen Fest next year. State Champs has had themselves a year and it looks like they plan to take a break and enjoy Christmas and the New Year.
Save Face Setlist: Sharpen Your Teeth, Bad, Bury Me (Tonight!), Weak, A.M. Gothic, Glitter, Another Kill For The Highlight Reel
Between You & Me Setlist: Butterflies, Supervillain, Overthinking, Goldfish, Go To Hell, Pleased to Meet You, Deadbeat, Dakota
Young Culture Setlist: Not in Love, Hum, Kinda Over It, Party Girl, Whiskey, Drift, Different Now, Holiday in Vegas
Hunny Setlist: JFK, Shy, Halloween, Saturday Night, A Slow Death In Pacific Standard Time, Loser, GHS, Vowels (And the Importance of Being Me), Everything Means Everything To Me, Homesick, Televised, Sports With Strangers, Lula, I’m Not Mad
State Champs Setlist: Just Sound, Mine Is Gold, Eventually, Outta My Head, Criminal, Sundress, Frozen, Elevated, Half Empty, Crying Out Loud, If I’m Lucky, Our Time To Go, Fake it, All You Are Is History, Act Like That, Deadly Conversation, Hurry Up and Wait, Losing Myself, All or Nothing, Breaking Ground, Secrets
State ChampsEncore: Ordinary Christmas, Everybody But You
After twenty-five years of anticipation, NYC indie-cult fan favorites the Van Pelt return with a new album titled “Artisans & Merchants” in 2023. The Van Pelt has returned to explore what was left behind with a new collection of hit songs, including the latest track, “Grid.”
For lovers of The Van Pelt, listening to “Artisans & Merchants” is like hearing the voice of a dear friend you haven’t seen in years. This is a stand-alone album, incredible vital songwriting regardless of the long history this band has. Pitchfork even stated that, “The lines between post-hardcore, indie rock, and emo blurred on the two mid-’90s full-lengths from the Van Pelt.”
The Van Pelt is an American indie rock band from New York City that were active from 1993 to 1997, but have reformed briefly several times since then including now. The band formed around 1993 at New York University, with Chris Leo on vocals and guitar, David Baum on guitar, Barry London on bass, and Neil O’Brien on drums. In a reunion show, soundchecks revealed that the band has a voice that was prematurely muted by their inability to see clearly in the thick of their rise.
“New York City’s The Van Pelt are an influential, but too often overlooked indie rock band — cult favorites for many an emo-inclined crate digger.”
– Consequence
The Van Pelt’s newer album can be viewed as “a friend you used to share countless beers with over banter that went nowhere other than delivering a solid night. Your friend is older, they’ve changed. In some ways you’re worried for them, looks like they might be teetering on the brink of something. In other ways it’s the same old them, a nugget of a soul too unique to ever be altered.”
The chores of the single “Image of Health” describes the beautiful desperation of the album best, “And you never felt more alive / Than when the priest came to read you your rites!”
Stream The Van Pelt and their newest album coming in Spring 2023 by clicking the link here.
Listen to the latest track from The Van Pelt, “Grid,” below.
Never considering myself attracted to post-punk, I was engrossed by the story of both a visual and audio post-punk artist, Blake Sandberg of ALIENS. His story opened me up to a genre I would have not considered to be in my wheelhouse. It is one of a thousand 9/11 attack survival stories and how an artist can dig into his craft to cope with suffering on the way to survival. You can hear the rest of the story in the interview I conducted with Blake on The Long Island Sound Podcast.
EP Release Party in Brooklyn
Blake Sandberg’s New York City post-punk band ALIENS announced the last show of the year and EP release party at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Friday December 2. I was able to sample their songs a few weeks ago.
The AGORAPHONIC EP compiles singles from 2007 to the present. ALIENS new songs were captured in Brooklyn at B.C. Studios, by Martin Bisi. The singles are “Leave Luck to Heaven” and a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song.” The songs feature Blake Sandberg on guitar and vocals with ALIENS new bassist Kevin Jones and George Fiala on drums.
AGORAPHONIC is getting steady radio airplay across the country landing it in the NACC Top 200 and in the Top 20 Alternative Chart – currently at #13. Check out the Brooklyn Release Party at Littlefield’s here.
Blake Sandberg is an accomplished American artist. He creates iconic images and uses words in his paintings to explore meaning and associations with objects in our environments.
The Best Laid Plans
Blake Sandberg battles a rare inner-ear disorder and illnesses from exposure to Ground Zero after 9/11. Blake died in a hospital in 2005 and was resuscitated. He is an artist and has been described as an “idea machine.” His first guitar was given to him by a friend, it became a mission. Words he wrote quickly became songs. Chords bashed out on the guitar to carry them. And his 9/11 story begins with the planned opening of his art exhibit.
BLAKE BY ANDREA BUCCI
… and then 911 happened. And I had an art opening a couple of days before that. And my parents and my brother were in town for it. You know, there were fires a few blocks below me. It was a strange world to be in. So I think it naturally went to painting and writing and things.”
Blake Sandberg
The New EP
ALIENS frontman, Blake Sandberg says “Tower of Song” became important to him during the Covid shutdown.
I thought I might learn the song. I was home playing guitar and looking out the window
Blake Sandberg
Leonard Cohen’s lyrics have similar imagery. One day while walking to get something to eat he found a vinyl copy of Hank Williams Greatest Hits album someone had put out on their steps. He took it as a sign. In the song Cohen says “I said to Hank Williams how lonely does it get?”
Leonard Cohen
Sandberg sped up the song up to a runaway train pace, while managing to cram all the words into the song without ruining it and making something of his own out of it. He also related the current times with political upheaval and division to the lyrics of this song. “I see you standing there on the other side. I don’t know how this river got so wide.” Sandberg takes on the weight of this cover song and his vocal performance is noteworthy. Martin Bisi’s production work keeps the train on the tracks.
“Enjoy Killing Time” was released in the first Covid shutdown in NYC. This track was recorded with guest drummer Hunt Sales, the legendary drummer for Iggy Pop “Lust For Life” and David Bowie’s Tin Machine.
ALIENS are Blake Sandberg, Miguel Vela, and Kevin Jones. Vela has taken over the drums over the last 12 months. As a trio they form a powerful post-punk band capable of scream-along anthems, searing sci-fi guitar riffs, with a heavy dose of Jones’s bass and Vela’s pounding drums.
It’s refreshing to come across an artist who takes his suffering and joys and bangs out raw emotion into his music. Post-punk is a discover, I need to explore, it’s an appropriate megaphone to express what we need to hear. ALIENS deliver!
In the early stages of a 24-date North America excursion that kicked-off last week, The Smile (a side project by Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner) came to New York City this past weekend for a set of three consecutive shows.
Thom Yorke (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael Dinger
The run began with two nights at the majestic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn (November 18-19) and the third at Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan (November 20), a turn-of-the-century opera house. NYS Music was front and center for The Smile’s opening night at King’s Theatre on Friday evening and the NYC finale at Hammerstein Ballroom Sunday night.
The Smile, who take their name from a collated poem in Ted Hughes’ 1970 literary work Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow, are touring in support of their 13-track debut album that was released in May 2022, A Light for Attracting Attention (XL Recordings). Furthering the Radiohead connection, the record was produced by longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. Born during the 2019 COVID lockdown, as many creative endeavors have, The Smile released a string of singles and eventually, the announcement of a world tour.
The current trek marks the first shows on American soil for Yorke and Greenwood since August 2018, when Radiohead wrapped up their world tour in support of 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool. Yorke was slated to tour North America in 2020 with stops at Kings Theatre behind his excellent solo album Anima, but this tour was ultimately postponed and canceled as a result of the pandemic.
Supporting The Smile for the tour’s duration is Robert Stillman, a multi-instrumentalist and composer born in Maine who has called the United Kingdom his home for the past decade. Like his tour mates (with whom he contributed to their album), Spillman is presenting new material from his eighth studio album What Does It Mean to Be American? (Orindal Records/KIT Records), released in January 22.
Robert Stillman (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael Dinger
Taking the stage at approximately 8:15 pm each night, dressed in white from head to toe, Stillman unassumingly acknowledged the audience for a moment before taking to his synthesizer. For approximately 30 minutes, Stillman mesmerized the audience each night with a deliberate looping process between his synthesizers and a tenor saxophone, curating an eclectic sonic palette drawing on elements of jazz, drone and psychedelia.
Kings Theatre (Friday, November 18)
On Friday night, fans lined up early ahead of doors at Kings Theatre in Flatbush, donning various Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Sons of Kemet and other associated apparel. The recently renovated classical movie theater is an exquisite example of how a modern music venue can be incorporated into a historic space. The cavernous venue, decorated with red velvet and ornate gold accents, boasts a deep sonic experience that continually attracts artists of all genres who want their music experienced in such a gorgeous space.
The show got underway with Yorke, Greenwood and Skinner taking to the front of the stage as they basked in a thunderous ovation, with a return of gratitude to the fans. With Yorke behind a familiar piano, Greenwood on bass guitar and Skinner behind the kit, “Pana-vision” started the festivities. The song begins with a swirling piano arpeggio before a dark, jazzy rhythm kicks in. Yorke drives the song with his signature falsetto as his voice swells and calms for several waves of the song. The band then dove into a tight rendition of “Thin Thing”, a psychedelic Kraut-rock song which highlights The Smile’s style perfectly. The music is “stripped back” in a sense that it is confined to a trio, but the blend of dissonant vocals, driving punk rock infused strings, and jazzy percussions creates a dense palette which overwhelms in a live setting.
In addition to the songs from A Light for Attracting Attention, the band has been playing many unreleased songs on this tour. On Friday at Kings Theatre, Stillman joined the band and contributed his saxophone for two such songs “Colours Fly” and “People on Balconies”. Other new songs performed Friday were “Bending Hectic” and “Read the Room”. The main set ended with the vintage punk sounding “You Will Never Work In Television Again”, which got fans bouncing all over the venue. The final song of the night was surprisingly long-time favorite Thom Yorke solo song “Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses”, self-released back in 2009.
Although doors were more than two hours away, a large (and rapidly growing) contingent of fans already lined the West 34th Street sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan on a near freezing late Sunday afternoon. Mercifully, at 6:30 pm, the shivering fans hoping to get a spot on or near the stage rail were ushered into the warm confines of the Hammerstein Ballroom lobby, housed within the Manhattan Center. Extensively renovated in 1997, elaborate architectural decorations adorn the historic venue which seats 2,500 (all of which would be sold out tonight) – complete with box seats, three balconies, a proscenium arch and a hand-painted ceiling mural 75-feet above depicting an “orchestra of angels on a heavenly stage”.
At approximately 9:20 pm, The Smile took to the stage, with Yorke pausing along the stage apron as the audience’s applause and wild cheers rained down. After assuming their stage positions (Yorke at stage right, Greenwood at center stage and Skinner on his kit at stage left), The Smile commenced their 90-minute set backed by a large video screen displaying broken, horizontal line patterns. Bathed in red stage lighting, the first of ten offerings from A Light for Attracting Attention was “The Same”. With Greenwood seated at the piano, Yorke took up his vintage Guild Starfire II bass and let his haunting, signature falsetto do the rest.
Thom Yorke (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael DingerJonny Greenwood (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael DingerTom Skinner (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael Dinger
Throughout the evening, Yorke and Greenwood seamlessly interchanged their instruments, each playing guitar, bass and piano. Ensuing magnificent presentations of “Thin Thing”, “The Opposite” and “Speech Bubbles”, guided by the loose-limbed Skinner and his punishing rhythmic dialogues, Yorke briefly addressed the audience as he took his seat at the piano for “Pana-vision”. “We’re a new band called The Smile, but I guess you knew that”. Up next was “A Hairdryer”, with Greenwood bowing his Fender Precision bass during the opening refrain of the 8-minute masterpiece.
The night’s only snafu followed approximately one-third into the show, a technical malfunction that led to “Waving a White Flag” being scratched from the set. While two other tracks (“Open the Floodgates” and “Free in the Knowledge”) from The Smile’s debut album were not performed Sunday night, fans were treated to three new, currently unreleased songs – “Bending Hectic”, “Read the Room” and “Bodies Laughing”.
Up next was “Skirting on the Surface”, developed from an unreleased Radiohead song and featuring Greenwood’s guitar arpeggios. As Yorke introduced “People on Balconies”, he acknowledged The Smile fans in attendance a second time. “I very much enjoy being back to New York City. We wish we had another week, or two, at least”. After welcoming Robert Stillman and his sax back to the stage, The Smile gave us “The Smoke” and “You Will Never Work in Television Again”, a banger in every sense of the word. Following an encore break, the last fifteen minutes of the epic show comprised “Just Eyes and Mouth”, “Colours Fly” (with Stillman rejoining the band) and “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”.
The Smile will continue their string of U.S. dates until a pair of Los Angeles concerts on December 21 and 22 close out the run for the year. A 2023 show has also already been announced at the Bluebird Theater in Denver on February 16.
Kings Theatre Setlist: Pana-vision > Thin Thing > The Opposite > Speech Bubbles > Free in the Knowledge > A Hairdryer > Waving a White Flag > Colours Fly (with Robert Stillman) > We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings > Read the Room > Skrting on the Surface > Just Eyes and Mouth > People on Balconies (with Robert Stillman) > The Smoke (with Robert Stillman) > You Will Never Work in Television Again (with Robert Stillman) > Encore: Open the Floodgates > The Same > Bending Hectic > Encore 2: Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses (Thom Yorke song)
Hammerstein Ballroom Setlist: The Same > Thin Thing > The Opposite > Speech Bubbles > Pana-vision > A Hairdryer > Bending Hectic > We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings > Read the Room > Bodies Laughing > Skrting on the Surface > People on Balconies (with Robert Stillman) > The Smoke (with Robert Stillman) > You Will Never Work in Television Again (with Robert Stillman) > Encore: Just Eyes and Mouth > Colours Fly (with Robert Stillman) > Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses (Thom Yorke song)
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!
Each Sunday evening from 7-9 p.m. 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 No More Death Stars.
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 the new album .jpg by No More Death Stars will be played on EQXposure. The group comes out of Albany and is the creative brainchild of Kevin Cardinale, and a bunch of collaborators. They self-identify as a pop-punk collective, being compared to indie-punk contemporaries such as Jeff Rosenstock and AJJ.
The group reemerged this year to create their new album, which takes influence from Radiohead and Brian Wilson. It incorporates orchestral instrumentation composed by Cardinale and performed by newcomers Anthime Miller, Ben Burt, and Sam Mark.
The songs off the new album “Halloween 2008,” “Have you ever wondered if Osama Bin Laden has ever fallen in love?” and “Emotional Lint Roller” will be played on EQXposure.
The punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, created by Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione in 2001, held nothing back deep in the woods of Woodstock for a three night run at The Colony from November 10th to November 12th. The best way to experience this band is up close and personal, which made the Colony the perfect place for their first live performances since 2018 in the UK, as the venue held roughly 150 people from the floor to the balcony.
Palmer, now 46, still performs like she is 25 at the start of The Dresden Dolls’ birth. Her raw energy and flawed flawlessness that she puts into any one of her performances is something that cannot be explained through words, it’s something that needs to be experienced. Her vocals are unmatched with a mix of melodic sounds and scream-singing and her skills on the piano complement that so well. She is one of the most passionate artists out there and is a sight to behold. Her passion is so strong that it spills out from her voice into her piano and every single move she makes. She breathes a new breath into every single performance.
Viglione on the drums, back-up vocals, bass, electric and acoustic guitar complements that beautifully. He matches her energy and that brings every performance from a 10 to a 20. The things he can create, on the drums especially, is an artform all by itself. The two clad in cabaret styled clothes and mime-like face paint created an experience for the audience that is part rage, part beautiful storytelling, with a little bit of everything mixed in. Everything includes a cover of “Fight For Your Right” by The Beastie Boys where Amanda got up from her piano and took over the drums while Brian played guitar and guest bass player Manta joined in.
The performance overall was a mash up of high-energy rage-filled songs like “Girl Anachronism” and some lower-energy ballads. This included their song “Delilah” which was accompanied by a newer artist named Veronica Swift who’s vocals were out of this world. It was truly show-stopping.
The performance and the reaction of the audience breathed new air into The Dresden Dolls and if you’re lucky enough to score a ticket to any one of there other performances, GO. Long live the Punk Cabaret.
Setlist: Good Day, Sex Changes, Gravity, Bad Habit, Backstabber, Modern Moonlight, My Alcoholic Friends, Missed Me, Mrs. O, Astronaut, Delilah (with Veronica Swift), Gardener, Ultima, Fight For Your Right, Amsterdam, Mandy Goes To Med School, Coin Operated Boy, War Pigs, Half Jack, Girl Anachronism
Encore: Truce, Sing
Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione rocking out Colony. Photo by Samantha Rychlicki
Pop punk is alive and well these days. The fanbase now spans multiple generations who are selling out festivals and reunion tours all while spawning a thriving scene of up and coming bands with a new found energy and creativity. This was all on display on Sunday, November 13th at Brooklyn Steel for State Champs third show of the ‘Kings Of The New Age’ tour. The Albany-based pop punks led a deep quadruple bill also featuring California natives Hunny along with relative newcomers Young Culture and Between You & Me on support.
Fresh off their appearance at When We Were Young Festival (the Las Vegas pop punk festival featuring almost every band you ever heard of) State Champs were in fine form as they celebrated Kings Of The New Age, their fourth LP released back in May. Frontman Derek DiScanio and bassist Ryan Graham bounced from one side of the stage to the other, greeting a relentless stream of crowd surfers rushing the stage. The band breezed through a career-spanning, 18-song setlist with many of the new songs already becoming crowd favorite sing alongs.
Brooklyn Steel was only the third stop on the tour, with North American dates running until mid December. State Champs close out the stretch with a hometown show at Albany’s Empire Live on December 10th. Tickets for that show are still on sale. Check out the full photo gallery from Brooklyn below and from their last performance at Empire Live in 2021 here. Also make sure to listen to the band’s recently released acoustic singles “Act Like That” and “Outta My Head”.
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.
