Albany based indie-rock band Canella has dropped their newest single “Why Can’t I?” off their upcoming full length album Can’t Make You Smile.
Inspired by the sounds of 2000’s alt rock, Canella have established an electric presence in NY’s Capital Region as winners of WCDB Radio’s ‘Song of the Year’ award for their debut single “Quiet Love”.
Written on a fall afternoon, Canella lead singer Juliana sat in her bedroom and wrote a song that would haunt her forever. The sad acoustic guitar echoed the fears she was harboring regarding her relationship. Fears that came to pass months later, when all she had written to that indie rock tune came true and the relationship ended. Writing, and later performing the single helped Juliana to process the relationship ending and coming to term with her feelings. “I feel like I was performing the song even before the relationship ended but once it finally did end and I sang the lyrics again it really all clicked” says Juliana. “This person wasn’t the right one for me since I was full of doubt and fears, and I didn’t really realize that until after I heard it back once I was single and going through the grief of it all. Now I’m very happy with where I’m at”.
Coming to all streaming platforms on February 17th, Canella’s third single off of their upcoming record Can’t Make You Smile, tells a story of disappointment, which smoothly fits the album’s overall theme of a revenge journal. This 2000’s inspired rock single starts with an unexpected bang representing the shocking realization of the ‘red flags’ in a relationship, and ends with a heavy breakdown perfect for releasing anger and frustration.
The chorus-y guitar-driven single will be released along with a DIY-style documentary lyric video of one of the band’s adventures through their home-base of the Capital Region. Speaking of the inspiration behind the video, Juliana speaks of wanting to permanently capture a wonderful day with friends. “At the time my friends in the band and I had very limited time together since I was only visiting them for a couple of days. I knew we were going to spend a whole day together in the city and since I had started to live far away from them, I wanted to capture candid footage of us hanging out and having a good time”.
Juliana continues, “when I went back home and was missing them I put the videos together as a cute highlight reel of that day with “Why Can’t I” in the background, and since it made us smile we decided to add the lyrics to it and post the video on our YouTube”. The fun, carefree video of a group of friends, enjoying a night out perfectly juxtaposes the concepts of uncertainty in the future of a relationship where the parties involved can’t seem to be on the same page.
You can follow the band’s social media for updates on their upcoming releases along with the full-length album coming out Spring 2023.
Captivating the audience with beautiful harmonies and songs of both heartbreak and hope, Hayley Jane and the Hold On Honeys put on a stellar performance at Lark Hall in Albany on February 2nd. Collaborating with each other for the first time and trading sit-ins, the immediate chemistry between these two respective acts could be felt by everyone in the room.
Haley Jane performs with Troy, NY’s Hold On Honeys at Lark Hall on 2/2/2023
Kicking off the show were Troy natives The Hold On Honeys, an indie folk minimalist vocal trio comprised of Emily Curro, Raya Malcolm and Shannon Rafferty. Trading leads and singing to their strengths, each member of the Honeys’ was given an equal chance to shine, but the true beauty came when this pitch-perfect trio sang together as one. After serenading the highly receptive audience with songs like “Case of You,” “Lullaby,” and “Maple Lane,” tender ballads about finding love and losing it, the gals then showed their more optimistic and fun-loving side with “Get High,” before sending us to intermission with “Down Home Girl.” A very enjoyable set, but it wouldn’t be the last time we’d see this promising up-and-coming act.
The Hold On Honeys opened the show at Lark Hall on 2/2/2023
After a quick break in the action, it was officially time for Hayley Jane to grace the Lark Hall stage. A familiar face to the Albany crowd, Jane has been playing the area for years, mostly with The Primates behind her, or as part of Yes Darling with Ryan Montbleau. For this run however, Hayley enlisted an equally talented group of Burlington, VT based players that featured Josh Dobbs on keyboards and the former Swimmer rhythm section of Jack Vignone handling bass and Cotter Ellis on drums.
Opening her set with “Look to the Moon,” the pace quickly picked up when Hayley went into a bit of medley of mashup cover songs. Touching on a Cowboy Junkies-esq rendition of “Blue Moon Revisited” that took a ‘tasty’ left turn into the Italian classic “That’s Amore,” before eventually paying homage to the Grateful Dead with a beautiful version of “Ramble on Rose.”
Haley Jane gives up her secrets at Lark Hall on 2/2/2023
Inviting you in with her undeniable charisma and vulnerability, Jayne’s storytelling between numbers left you feeling like you actually knew her. Looking around the room, you literally could see an entire audience falling in love. Working her way through a few songs from her most recent solo album, “Road Map” and “Soul Shaken,” from 2021’s Late Bloom, one of the most powerful and emotional highlights of the night came next when Hayley Jane performed “For Someone Who Needs It,” a song about depression, loneliness and reaching out for help. Fan shot footage of that can be seen below.
Taking her listeners on a humble journey, Hayley would tell the audience she was raised as a Baptist, and despite some groans, would give credit to her church choir for teaching her to sing. After belting out stellar versions of “Ignite” and “Madeline,” another of Jane’s favorite covers, Gregory Alan Isakov’s “Big Black Car” was next. Revealing a little more about herself, Jane would say the best thing she ever did was stop caring what other people think about her.
Essentially freeing her to be who she really is while also allowing a natural relationship to develop with the audience, Hayley confessed that “nerds rock” and are also “better in bed.” “Loose Screws” and “Madam Humphrey” would take a little walk on the wild side before Haley would play a new one called “Assembly of Words,” a song that was written while living in California and simultaneously going through the pandemic and a tough break-up. Some of her most vulnerable lyrics yet, afterwards she would admit to “feeling nervous” and “naked” during that one.
Hayley Jane and the Hold On Honeys captivate an intimate Lark Hall crowd on 2/2/2023
Picking the pace back up with another rocker from The Primates 2014 album Gasoline was “Hey Mister,” followed by an unreleased new song that was recently recorded with members of The Main Squeeze called “Girl.” Instead of leaving the stage and returning ala your typical encore however, Hayley would invite the members of the opening act, Hold On Honeys, to join her on stage for the remainder of the night. What then transpired was pure magic. Playing in Levon country and rambling together for the first time, Hayley and the Honeys’ uncorked an absolutely beautiful version of The Bands’ classic song “The Weight,” a rite of passage in this part of New York.
Feeling the combined energy of the women on stage, Hayley beamed with pleasantries for her new gal pals, even claiming she’d love to take them out on the road with her. As the curfew came and went, Jane would quickly check with Lark Hall staff if it was “Alright” to play one more. Once given the green light, Haley would quickly teach the Honey’s the chorus to the final song of the evening, “Make It Alright,” which was then jammed out to perfection, fusing multiple genres and stretching its legs all the way to the 15-minute mark and included “Wild Thing” teases for good measure.
Haley and the Honeys made a cold February night more than alright at Lark Hall 2/23/
After thanking everyone for coming out and wishing them well on their way home, the girls would convene near the center of the stage for a group hug and shared smiles. An exceptional performance all around and yet another reason to never miss a Thursday show at Lark Hall. An evening filled with genre bending, thought provoking, and at times heartbreaking music. Honest storytelling and songwriting, surprise collaborations, dancing, and beautiful down- home harmonies. Great medicine for these modern times indeed. While it remains to be seen how serious Jane is about taking her new friends out on the road, what we do know is that ‘Hayley and the Hold On Honeys’ sure has a nice ring to it.
Haley Jane | Albany, NY | 2/2/2023 | Lark Hall Setlist: Look to the Moon, Ramble on Rose, Roadmap, For Someone Who Needs It, Ignite, Madeline, Big Black Car, Loose Screws, Soul Shaken, Madam Humphrey, Assembly of Words, Hey Mister, Girl
Encore: The Weight, Make It Alright *Grateful Dead cover **Gregory Alan Isakov cover ***The Band cover featuring The Hold On Honeys **** Featuring The Hold On Honeys
Hold On Honeys | Albany, NY | 2/2/2023 | Lark Hall Setlist: Wisely, Calling All My Children, TN River, Chicago, Getting Home, Case of You, Lullaby, I’m On Fire, Maple Lane, Knowing, Get High, Down Home Girl
The late Gord Downie & Canadian producer Bob Rock have just released their latest single “The Moment Is A Wild Place.” The epic rock duo has also just announced their upcoming album Lustre Parfait, the ninth album to bear Downie’s name outside of The Tragically Hip, and the first to bear Rock’s.
The single is a long-fabled collaboration between Gord Downie, late front man of legendary Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer/musician Bob Rock. Their partnership began in 2006 when Rock produced The Tragically Hip’s acclaimed 10th studio album, World Container, followed in 2009 by the chart-topping We Are The Same.
Robert Jens Rock, record producer, engineer, guitarist, and songwriter has produced and engineer top-selling albums by such timeless artists as Metallica, Bon Jovi, The Tragically Hip, The Cult, Mötley Crüe, Aerosmith, Cher, Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Simple Plan, Michael Bublé and many others. He is known for his robust, radio-friendly production touch and the intuition to play to an artist’s character and strengths, Rock is perhaps best known for his long-standing role as producer for Metallica.
“I’ve always been a fan of long pieces of music,” says Bob Rock. “Setting a mood and going someplace, just taking you somewhere. The music was based on that journey, this rising tide of chords, crescendos in the chorus. Somehow, I stumbled on this magic chord, a simple minor to a major progression, and it moved me. And Gord reacted to it. It’s absolute perfection in terms of songwriting and in terms of what he did. It’s special because of what he talks about. The lyric was written before he was diagnosed with the sickness that he had. They say you gotta live in the moment. It causes you to look back, and I get choked up every time I hear it, still. I think most people will be moved by it. It’s one of his finest moments.”
More than a decade in the making, Lustre Parfait sees Downie’s peerless lyricism and incendiary heart given newfangled energy by his longtime friend and collaborator, famed producer/musician Bob Rock.
Gord Downie is the late lead singer and songwriter of The Tragically Hip, who, over more than 30 years and across fourteen studio albums, built an enduring legacy as perhaps the essential Canadian rock band. With seven solo albums to his name, Downie’s own music refutes definition, renowned for its adventurous poetry, collaboration, elastic composition, and singular vocal wail.
Unfortunately, Downie passed away on October 17th, 2017. Since his passing, The New York Times stated that Downie has “no parallel in the United States. Imagine Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Michael Stipe combined into one sensitive, oblique, poet-philosopher, and you’re getting close.”
“First and foremost Gord was my friend,” continues Rock, “and having the opportunity to work with him on these songs was one of the biggest highlights of my professional life. I am grateful that I got to witness his genius in such close proximity.”
To listen to “The Moment Is A Wild Place,” click the link here.
To preorder the upcoming album Lustre Parfait, click the link here.
Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the subways of New York City, Bandits on the Run have released their newest single, “You Have Changed,” on February 2nd. Thus, marking a new phase of Banditry; this is the first release that they have self-produced, and offers a taste of what’s to come on the follow-up record to 2021’s acclaimed EP, Now Is The Time.
“‘You Have Changed’ is about being torn apart, begrudging acceptance, and lingering love. It’s about the uncontrollable wellspring of grief that comes swooping in when life smacks you in the face, and you’re just not ready for it,” the band reveals. Written at a moment of uncertainty, when their futures seemed tenuous, they say that the creation of the song was a mediation on accepting reality. “It felt like the world was caving in under us and all of a sudden everything we loved and held onto had changed.” It’s evident that those feelings resonate with listeners.
“When we perform this song, people tend to open their hearts to us and share their stories of change and loss. For some people, ‘You Have Changed’ is about a loved one that’s passed, or a lover that’s left, or a storm that’s finally clearing up. We love that it takes on a new meaning with every person who hears it, and is about whatever is changing in their life at the moment.”
“Bandits on the Run capture the urgency of the moment… harmony rich… [with] a rousing atmosphere.”
– Rolling Stone
Comprised of Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn, the Brooklyn-based indie-pop-Americana trio is anchored by three-part harmonies and eclectic instrumentation. This includes accordion, cello, melodica, and a suitcase-kick-drum.
Their most recent EP, Now Is The Time, was produced by Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers), and surrounding that release, the band produced a short musical film, Band At The End Of The World. They’ve also gone on to compose music for the Netflix children’s animated series, Storybots, score the newest Peter Hedges movie, The Same Storm, and tour the globe with appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Milwaukee Summerfest, Americanafest, and the Singapore Grand Prix.
In addition, they stay in touch with their theatrical roots: Strayhorn is a freelance casting director currently working with The Telsey Office, Shepherd is a Broadway veteran who graced the stage in the world premiere of the musical August Rush, and Enscoe starred opposite Hailee Steinfeldin the AppleTV+ show, Dickinson, and on stage in Swept Away (by The Avett Brothers).
Their next release will be their most collaborative yet: a self-produced EP featuring various and sundry bandit friends that explores the tensions of a world that has been broken open but is putting itself back together.
Coinciding with the release of “You Have Changed,” Bandits on the Run kick off a midwestern tour with several performances at Folk Alliance. A video for the single is coming soon.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES: 2/2 – 2/4: Folk Alliance at Marriot Crown Center (Kansas City, MO) 2/3: Tiny Concert at Effing Candle Co. (Kansas City, MO) 2/6: Bishop Hill Community Commons (Bishop Hill, IL) 2/8: Rhythms & Brews @ Gibson Music Community Center (Appleton, WI) 2/9: Epiphany Center For The Arts (Chicago, IL) 2/10: Rose Bowl (Urbana, IL) 2/11: Bradley University (Peoria, IL)
To purchase tickets and for more details about Bandits on the Run, click the link here.
NYC‘s mmeadows have shared “When We Are Together We Are Really Free,” the final single from their debut album Light Moves Around You, which was released on Friday, February 3rd. The prog-pop duo will also be performing an album release show May 6th at Baby’s All Right.
Vocalist Kristin Slipp’s (Dirty Projectors) vocals weave seamlessly through Cole Kamen-Green’s production (walls of horns, synths, and piano) for a sound that’s mysterious, mercurial, and fearless. The track cements their trademark style, a permeable mix of sounds both fluid and rhythmic, organic and electronic.
The song is accompanied by a video filmed in an abandoned church, lending a visual atmosphere at once carefree and ominous, a perfect match for the track and the album as a whole.
“[“King of the Castle”] It’s a catchy, unpredictable dose of art pop…”
– BrooklynVegan
The track is accompanied by a bold video directed byHaoyan of America, in which the duo performs the song in an abandoned church. Complete with glow stick dance parties and colorful tarot cards, it creates an atmosphere at once carefree and ominous, a perfect match for the track and the album as a whole: mysterious, mercurial, and fearless.
Their singular alt-pop songcraft is ultimately the synthesis of complementary talents, mutual trust, and years of partnership. Light Moves Around You reflects this connection; a dynamic and deeply-honed collection of pop songs that silence chaos and celebrate the tender acts of making space.
“With community heavy on my mind during early days of the pandemic, but not within physical reach, I set out to write a song that I might play during one of a handful of virtual dance parties we hosted,” Slipp says. “The catharsis of sharing digital space with my friends during such a surreal time was powerful and lasting, and that energy motivated us to make this track super danceable, brimming with feeling, and short enough to demand an immediate repeat listen.”
Long Island‘s Gone Stereo is premiering a new video for the track “Don’t Think I Forgot About You” on BlankTV. Singer Matty Lupinacci says “Getting dumped sucks, but sometimes you move onto better things and you don’t look back. When your ex hits the dating pool, realizes you’re great and wants you back…it may be too late.”
Long Island has a long and storied history as a hub of underground punk and with their debut single, Gone Stereo, has added the first page to their chapter. “Don’t Think I Forgot About You” is an early 2000s pop-punk flashback reminiscent of MxPx, Autopilot Off, The Ataris or Allister to name a few.
With its catchy hooks, driving melodies, and memorable choruses, this song make it impossible to not sing-a-long and listen on repeat. B-side “Taste of This” has a pounding mid-tempo beat and soaring harmonies perfect for blasting the stereo with the windows down on a drive into the city for the pop-punk show.
The band has announced a string of shows in Jan/Feb including supporting stints for Boys Of Fall on Jan 28 in Williamsburg and Hidden In Plain View in NYC on Jan 29.
Upcoming Show Dates:
Jan 28 at The Meadows, (Williamsburg) Brooklyn, NY with Boys of Fall
Jan 29 at Gramercy Theatre, New York, NY with Hidden In Plain View
Feb 25 at Mr. Beery’s, Bethpage, NY with Skappository (live album recording)
To listen to more of Gone Stereo, click the link here to check out their Spotify.
Brooklyn‘s Lou Tides (TEEN, Here We Go Magic) has just released a mini-movie for her Infinite Loop Visual Mixtape following her first track, “Sense of Touching.” Her debut solo EP Infinite Loop EP was released Jan 20th.
The 10-minute film includes 5 chapters and a visual ode to each of the EP’s songs. Throughout the film, there are many striking visual elements that bring the viewer through a variety of worlds. This includes a bizarrely drab yet hectic beach dance, to an apartment that feels straight out of a Wong Kar Wai film, followed by a dark void where Lou Tides shines in PVC and mystical movement, then finally in a womb-like creature concert.
Nearing the end, we journey deep under the peaceful, blue sea where the transformation is complete. Lou Tides transcends her form, reborn as a radiant human-cetacean hybrid.
“I think of these songs as a map. A sequence in time. And the sequence of the songs follows that map, that loop,” says Tides. A veteran of Here We Go Magic and TEEN, she has chosen a solo moniker for her newest project.
Performing and producing solo for the first time were natural choices for an EP this personal. Tides made these songs while reckoning with the profound ways she’d been disrupted by her past. “Emotionally this music would not fit into anything strictly shaped or precise, I wanted to embrace the moods of the emotions and how I felt they would naturally flow. Time then felt different, and lush arrangements with stretchy synthesizers felt appropriate. I wanted the music to emulate the natural peaks and valleys of our lives and relationships,” Tides says.
Of her former band TEEN, NPR wrote, “What makes these wrenching themes resonate is the way TEEN’s music balances darkness with buoyancy and immediacy.” On Infinite Loop, Tides maintains that balance while moving away from previous pop inflections. Opening track “The Rake” uses jagged synths and nets of altered vocal tracks atop a constantly evolving beat. The song becomes a ghostly chorus and a doom-electronica crescendo to mimic dissociation and its effect on intimacy–and it feels totally organic.
To listen to Infinite Loop, click the link here. For more information on Lou Tides, visit her website by clicking the link here.
Brooklyn‘s Oropendola has announced the release of her newest LP Waiting For The Sky To Speak out on March 17th. Along with this exciting news, she has just released the single track on the album “Knocking Down Flowers,” accompanied with a beautifully hazy and shimmering video to go with it.
When listening to “Knocking Down Flowers,” Schubert finds life in the least likely of places: a construction site. Here, she recognizes and illuminates the power of living at the intersection of contrasts.
Waiting For The Sky To Speak is Joanna Schubert’s debut album as Oropendola, a word that means “golden pendulum.” The album’s emotional core comes through on roiling ballad “Trust the Sun” and clear-eyed album closer “When You Carried Me,” which both look to the sun, another kind of golden pendulum, as a guiding force.
Set to release March 17th, these tracks shimmer with bursts of energy and emotion, swinging from playfulness to earnestness with deft, technicolor brushstrokes. The album is a celebration of choosing life even in the face of its ephemerality, and of finding motion even in the midst of stillness.
While much of the rest of Waiting for the Sky to Speak careens across black-ice patches of inner conflict, both these songs offer a tentative hand outward, towards love, friendship, and family. The fixed sun in a changeable sky as she coaxes herself back out into the world.
Joanna says of the track and its inspiration, “In January 2020, I started recording myself improvising every morning – “morning pages” inspired by The Artist’s Way, a creative self-help book. I recorded morning pages #1 soon after a pivotal, complicated, on-and-off relationship “reached its end. Round and round we went, addicted to one another, unable to break free of a sticky cycle that prevented us from fully blooming together. That song seed turned into Knocking Down Flowers within a few days.”
To listen to more of Oropendola, click the link here.
For more information about Oropendola and upcoming tour dates, click the link here.
For the second episode ofSaturday Night Live in 2023, Michael B. Jordan, star of the Creed franchise, hosted for the first time with musical guest Lil Baby.
The cold open featured Mikey Day as Attorney General Merrick Garland, who made light of classified documents found in former presidents homes, but made Garland out to seem more serious and tough than his demeanor implies. Day (as Garland) said, “I may look like I was born in a library, but there is something you should know: Merrick Garland don’t play.” The opening ended with a reference to Tyre Nichols and the recent release of videos confirming police brutality, this time in Memphis.
For his monologue, Michael B. Jordan wore a plum colored suit, offering that “Tonight, Michael B. Hosting. Michael B. Nervous. Michael B. Vulnerable. Michael will be aight.” Reaffirming that he was indeed single, Jordan had a playful monologue, with female cast members coming to the stage hitting on him, including Ego Nwodim in a full wedding dress.
The first sketch of the night was one of the strongest, with a ‘Good Morning Today’ TV show with a premise of a cooking segment being conducted by a reporter (Sarah Sherman) and weatherman (Jordan) both of whom were stuck on a roller coaster for 19 hours at full speed. Sherman ran with this out-there concept that has been present this season more than in recent memory, using her eccentric talent and joining the ranks of past female physical comedy cast members, among them Kristin Wiig, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon and Gilda Radner.
The first song from GRAMMY winning trap rapper Lil Baby performed “California Breeze” from his October 2022 album It’s Only Me. With a live four-piece band, Lil Baby wore a green basket weave coat while performing on a red-lit stage that look like you were staring into wreckage, with a giant crack through middle of the set.
Lil Baby appeared on Saturday Night Live back in 2019 during DJ Khaled’s set, joining Lil Wayne, John Legend, Meek Mill, SZA and others as a tribute to Nipsey Hussle, who was fatally shot in Los Angeles months before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLGokc-RwY
Weekend Update felt a little short this week, but did welcome back Angel (Heidi Gardner) as ‘every boxer’s girlfriend from every movie about boxing ever.’ This led to Jordan appearing as Adonis Creed from the Creed films, of which the third installment is out in March.
The second performance from Lil Baby on this week’s Saturday Night Live was the song “Forever” on the same blue hued same stage but with only a pianist and rapper Fridayy projected onto the wall behind Lil Baby and singing the chorus. Fridayy appears on the studio version, and also produced the track alongside Bizness Boi & Fortune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1k8lNjiRoY
Of note, earlier this week, a unionized group of post production workers at Saturday Night Liveauthorized a strike so as to expedite negotiations on their first contract, which they report as having stalled. The group is unionized with the IATSE-affiliated Motion Picture Editors Guild last year and handles post-production on pretaped sketches, including music videos and commercial parodies. There were still three pre-taped sketches this week, and two last week, so it may be possible that SNL will be even more live in coming weeks if the strike does take place.
SNL is back on February 4 with host Pedro Pascal and musical guest Coldplay.
New York City-based Instrumentalist and Singer/Songwriter JSHELL has announced his newest studio album, In My Head. This audio/visual rock album will be accompanied by JSHELL releasing a video for each track on the album beginning today and leading up to the complete album release which will be available on February 14.
In My Head features special guest appearances from some of the best musicians in the business, including the incomparable Steve Hackett (Genesis) , Katie Jacoby (The Who) , Jake Cinninger (Umphreys McGee) and Scott Metzger (WOLF!).
JSHELL produced, wrote and arranged all 15 tracks on In My Head while playing all the drums, bass guitar and keyboards and providing lead and background vocals, rhythm and lead guitar and percussion. In My Head also features mastering by Grammy Award-winning Randy Merrill of Sterling Sound.
“I am excited to share my music with fans of rock music and am humbled by the genius that Steve, Katie, Jake, Scott and the other contributing musicians, vocalists and engineers brought to the project” says JSHELL.
Beginning today, JSHELL will be releasing 15 videos, all of which were written, produced and directed himself, every other day over the next 30 days for each of the 15 tracks. The release schedule for each of the 15 videos, which will be available for viewing on JSHELL’s Instagram, TikTok and YouTube pages and is available on his website. The video for the lead track “Crawl” is available now.
For all information relating to JSHELL and the release of his album In My Head, please visit JSHELL’S website, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube pages.
