Emmy-winning Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) this week, with genre-blending musical guest Lil Yachty. Brunson used her monologue to talk Abbott Elementary and praised teachers, mentioning her Philadelphia upbringing and mother who was an educator. Brunson used her first SNL hosting gig to call for better pay for teachers, reminding parents to not take teachers for granted.
A trio of solid sketches followed, with a “Drug Dealer” sketch with bathroom dealers trying to one-up each other, a Netflix Bridesmaids cult documentary that sends up the cult doc Wild Wild Country, and a gameshow ‘Couple Goals.’
The first song from Lil Yachty, “The BLACK seminole.,” found an all-female band in a starlit field/swamp, the moon backlighting them. The first track off Let’s Start Here, “The BLACK seminole.” offered rap merging with psychedelic rock and hip hop, including autotuned Yachty singing, the guitarist dropping a solo that would make Slash smile, and singer Diana Gordon taking the spotlight as LED wall projections intensified. Lil Yachty put the band front and center, with a Pink Floyd influence clear in Gordon’s singing and samples of “One of these Days” and “Speak to Me.”
https://youtu.be/XYdE4HAsXpI
On Weekend Update, Michael Che pulled “the meanest thing you’ve ever done” on Colin Jost, by getting the audience to not laugh during the first few jokes Colin told. Someone could then be heard shouting ‘you suck’, and Jost breaking his ever-stiff persona on Update, laughing at the lack of laughs, wondering if his mic was on, and Che admitting it was his April Fools. Jost replied with “You are evil!” laughing all the while, sweating too. Meanwhile, Che’s couple of early jokes got big laughs to stoke the flame.
Having set the tone for the rest of Update, the guests that joined the desk made this the funniest Update of the season so far. Michaelangelo’s David (Michael Longfellow) and featured player Marcelo Hernandez praised Short Kings, dragging Jost again, this time for being short (he’s really 6’0″).
Lil Yachty’s second song “drive ME crazy!” dropped a Disco beat thanks to an even-handed drummer and Diana Gordon taking the lead this time, singing about finding her perfect match. At first, the song is minimalist, with the stage becoming lighter as the song progressed, with Yachty joining in, wearing a hat that Shock G would have loved.
https://youtu.be/lrF32zOszgg
Tune into Saturday Night Live next week with host Molly Shannon and musical guest Jonas Brothers
NYC-based singer-songwriter and actor, Homeschool, has just announced the release of his newest EP Just Now. As a follow-up to the EP’s first track and lead single which documents D’Agustino’s burgeoning sense of self, today finds the release of another new track entitled “Loving You To Death.”
It has been a tumultuous year for Tom D’Agustino, also known as “Homeschool,” a solo project of NYC singer-songwriter. As an independent artist with unfettered control of the creative process, Homeschool has spent the past year experimenting with music and masculinity, inching closer to what they feel is an “authentic” way of being in the world. As a newcomer to acting, D’Agustino is reveling in the opportunity to explore the worlds of different characters, to “experiment with who I’m able to become,” he states.
Formerly known as the front person of the garage pop quartet, Active Bird Community, Homeschool pokes fun at traditional masculine rock archetypes by blending bedroom pop textures with anthemic, self-aware hooks to tell detailed stories of loss, identity, and self-exploration.
Just Now, the new 6-track EP slated for May 19th, is the result of this new exploration. AsD’Agustino’s first foray into self-producing his own music, Just Now showcases their independence and shameless autonomy as a gender-fluid person, while taking ownership over all aspects of their creative life, whether it be songwriting, production, acting or writing.
In celebration of these new releases, Homeschool sold out their debut headlining show at Mercury Lounge in NYC and received positive press from outlets such as Ones To Watch, Brooklyn Vegan, FLOOD, Under The Radar, Paste, Stereogum, Our Culture. Now, D’Agustino announces the upcoming release of a long-awaited brand new EP entitled Just Now, due May 19th. As a follow-up to the EP’s first track, he has also relased the single “Loveing You To Death.”
D’Agustino wrote, “‘Loving You To Death’ was written during the tail-end of the Covid lockdown when my partner and I had just moved into an apartment together. We had spent a year living with her parents before that, and this song explores my neediness, clinginess, and overall attachment to her. It’s a fun, upbeat way to interrogate my constant need for love and reassurance that I have value. I think by reminding someone how much I love them, I can be sheltered from how I don’t love myself enough. I’m sure all that affection can get annoying though, so in the song I am trying to convince her of all of these positive things about me so she won’t think I’m a needy little baby. But I so am.”
To celebrate the EP on its release day, May 19, Homeschool will play an EP release show at Baby’s All Right with fellow NYC rocker and queer/non-binary TikTok champion Libby Larkin. Tickets are on sale this Friday, March 31th click the link HERE to purchase.
Homeschool’s Just Now weaves genre-bending stylings into self-aware reflections that paint the pain of life with a surprisingly upbeat and humorous brush. “While some of these topics are heavy, I think a lot of this record turned into me poking fun at myself,” they say. At the end of the day becoming “just now,” doesn’t have to be a bummer. It can be a dance, a laugh. It can be the glitter on your eyes that make the tears sparkle.
To listen to “Loving You To Death,” click the link here.
For more music by Homeschool, click the link here.
The latest evidence that musicians can make great writers is illustrated in Bill Janovitz’s LEON RUSSELL: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History (Hachette Books). Janovitz made 10 albums with the alt.rock stalwarts, Buffalo Tom, and four solos while also carving out a career writing about music. He did this in articles for the likes of Esquire and The Observer and in books including the 33 1/3 series’ The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street and Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones.
But Janovitz’ exhaustively captivating profile of Russell, one of rock’s most Zelig-like and complicated figures, is something else altogether. It’s a delicious masterwork of research and insights that could only come from a musician – someone who has tread the up-and-downs of a life as a professional musician, someone who has absorbed the many genres of American music where Russell not only ventured but repeatedly innovated.
With the blessing of Russell’s estate, Janovitz conducted interviews with 130 of Leon’s musical collaborators and bystanders to the Golden Age of Rock-N-Roll’s moments of true creativity and debauched excess. There are Leon’s chops-gathering years in Tulsa and on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis, his days as a session man playing on classics for everyone from The Beach Boys and The Byrds to The Ronettes and Gary Lewis and the Playboys, his catalyst roles with Delaney and Bonnie, Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishman and George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. There’s his time as a hitmaker and, even more lasting, a writer of much-covered classics like “A Song for You” and “This Masquerade.” There’s his latter shift to country music, his slide into financial and creative doldrums beginning in the ‘80s and his return in his final chapter under the patronage of a mega-star who idolized him above all, Elton John.
Claude Russell Bridges (aka Leon Russell), piano prodigy, circa 1946. Courtesy of the OKPOP Museum
Janovitz’ book also looks and put into context Russell’s struggles with illnesses, physical and mental, addiction, stage fright, bipolar disorder and much more.
In 530-plus pages and 41 chapters, Janovitz does music-lovers a great service by reminding us of the extraordinary talents and contributions of Russell – a man who is revered by generations of star music-makers, but who is getting a bit lost in the sands of time in the mind of the general public. Here are some of his thoughts on Russell and his journey to bring Leon’s remarkable story to life.
With the amazing list of stars he collaborated with, the many classic songs he wrote and records he played on, do you think Russell is still a somewhat undervalued commodity in the annals of rock music?
I don’t think he is undervalued among those who are aware of who he is. His legacy was obscured due in large part to his own decisions, but also due to the ephemeral attention spans of the music business and trends. He refused to deal with it all pretty music after 1980.
What was “the Tulsa Sound” and the role Russell played in developing it and then, later, when he resettled back in his native Oklahoma to create a home for Shelter Records? And how did his witnessing a performance by Jerry Lee Lewis help shape his career?
There really isn’t a “Tulsa Sound.” But the mix of rock & roll, R&B, gospel, blues, country, swinging drums, etc. were all important to the musicians coming out of Tulsa in the ‘60s. In that way, it is not much different than the Memphis area. But J.J. Cale is a lot different than Leon Russell, and both are very different than David Gates, e.g.
Playing in a teenage band backing Jerry Lee Lewis on a short tour in 1959-60 was the most galvanizing event in Leon’s journey to becoming a professional musician. Lewis was a hero of his as a pianist, but Leon also learned showmanship from Lewis.
Sam Bush, Bill Kenner, and Leon. On tour with New Grass Revival, 1981. ”For two years, we would open the show, and then we would back him, so it was strenuous work. I mean, it wore our ass down,” Bush said. Photo by Diane Sullivan, courtesy Jan Bridges
Russell was an important member of “The Wrecking Crew,” the corps of studio musicians who played on seemingly most hits coming out of Los Angeles in the ‘60s. What were some of the rock classics, and unlikely novelty tunes, he played on during this era?
So many, this list is just a sampling of some of the hits he played on in his pre-star session days:
“Mr. Tambourine Man” – The Byrds
“Be My Baby” – The Ronettes
“Da Doo Ron Ron” – The Crystals
“California Girls,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” and “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” – The Beach Boys
“The Ventures Play Telstar” – The Ventures
“This Diamond Ring” – Gary Lewis and the Playboys
Whipped Cream and Other Delights LP – Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Leon’s home/studio in Los Angeles, Skyhill, was a real locus of rock-n-roll creativity and err, debauchery during the classic rock era. Tell us a little about what went on there and who was a party to this insanity?
They called it the “Home for Unwed Musicians.” They recorded around the clock. Leon often had no idea certain people were even living there. But aside from his own Tulsa crew, Bobby Keys, Levon Helm, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Eric Clapton, Rita Coolidge, Dean Torrance, Boyce and Hart, Joe Cocker, Steve Cropper, Buddy Miles, Duck Dunn, Jerry Lewis, and other notable figures either passed through or stayed for longer stints, working or just hanging out. It was so out of control there at times that Leon went to crash elsewhere, generally with a girlfriend, though he had another apartment at some point.
The Starlighters at the Tropicana Club, 1959. Left to right: Leo Feathers, Chuck Blackwell, Ron Ryan, Johnny Williams, Russell Bridges (aka Leon Russell). A promoter at Cain’s Ballroom hired the Starlighters to back Jerry Lee Lewis at a show there. After the Starlighters’ first warm-up set, Lewis came up onto the bandstand, pointed at seventeen-year-old Leon, and declared, ”I’m not gonna set down at that piano. He plays a lot better piano than I do!” Lewis immediately hired the band to back him on a tour. Courtesy of the OKPOP Museum
Russell became rich and famous inspired by Black art forms like gospel and blues, but seemed a bit oblivious to racism, even refusing to defend his African-American backup singer wife Mary McCreary when she faced abuse from audiences. Why didn’t he take a stand?
I take umbrage with the terms “refused,” and “oblivious.” I certainly did not use those words in such contexts. As for the influence of different kinds of music, it is a continuum for all musicians, no matter what cultural background. It does not exist in a vacuum.
Gospel, for example, is informed by white and Black people. Leon was decrying racism in his earliest interviews (see The Rolling Stone 1970 Ben Fong-Torres interview quoted in my book, e.g.). He also integrated bands as soon as he could form them. And he married a Black woman and had Black kids.
While there were virulent racists who shouted epithets and did worse at his shows, I think he felt he shouldn’t give oxygen to that particular flame; don’t feed the trolls, as it were. As the Black singer in his band Maxayne Lewis said, he thought the music and the band spoke for itself. He certainly did not “refuse to defend” his wife. This is not to downplay the effect of such hatred on Mary or any of the Black artists Leon worked with. But Leon wasn’t someone to get into a physical altercation with rednecks.
Leon and his most famous acolyte, Elton John, soon after they first met in Los Angeles, 1970. Elton said Leon “was everything I wanted to be as a pianist, vocalist, and writer. His music has helped me and millions of others in the best and worst of times.” Photo by Don Nix, courtesy of the OKPOP Museum
What role did Leon play in transforming Willie Nelson from the clean-cut songwriter to the original hippie-looking outlaw of country music?
He was the primary influence on Willie changing his look and outreach to the rock & roll audience.
What role did his lifelong battle with his many illnesses, both physical and mental, play in his career and personal life?
It was obviously a struggle, as detailed in the book. Depression would sideline him for months sometimes. As for his partial paralysis on the right side resulting from a birth injury, it was a challenge that he met by devising his own style to overcome it.
His relationship with singer Rita Coolidge offered a look at his insecurities and obsessions. Tell us a little about their time together and, something I saw in an early review of your book, his insistence on getting a monkey when she did want to have his child.
I don’t draw a line in the book connecting the lack of a child and a pet monkey that he got for her birthday. But Rita painted a portrait of Leon as a bipolar personality, “Mr. Entertainment” one moment, an a dark brooding person at another. Like a few other women to follow, she felt she did not fit into Leon’s lifestyle during the late-1960s.
“If you’re in Oklahoma, the amount of real legends that you can just reach across, just bump into and touch, there’s not that many,” said Taylor Hanson of the band Hanson. “But Leon was one where, all of a sudden, it was a relationship.” Left to right: Leon, Steve Ripley, and Taylor Hanson. Tulsa Mayfest, 2005. Photo by Kelly Kerr
You write that Leon was a central figure in both George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh and Joe Cocker’s career-making Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour. What was the scope of his involvement in these events? And how do you think an artist like Leon, who you say suffered from massive stage fright and paranoia, could deal with this kind of spotlight?
Leon was the one who put together the Mad Dogs and Englishmen band, chose the repertoire (along with Cocker), arranged the songs and the show itself, played piano and guitar, and sang some songs. He was the bandleader. Joe was the star of the show, but it was essentially Leon’s band. He also helped out to gather the band for Harrison for the first major rock music charity concert, the Concert for Bangladesh. Yes, for both shows, Leon adopted his rock-star-preacher persona, a larger-than-life act to overcome his naturally taciturn personality. He really did have to overcome stage fright.
Elton John was one of the musicians most inspired by Leon. Tell us about Leon’s impact on Elton and Elton’s role in reviving Leon’s artist and financial fortune is his later life?
Elton told me that Leon was his idol, “everything I wanted to be as a piano player.” Leon took him out on the road to open shows for Leon and his band in 1970-71. Elton repaid that debt and went well beyond that by bringing Leon back to the public spotlight, making the hit record The Union together and lobbying to get Leon into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Your book received advanced raves from a wide range of musicians. What artist today do you think are continuing to be influenced by Russell and carry his torch?
Tedeschi and Trucks Band comes to mind.
You had a long fruitful music career with the band Buffalo Tom. Is there any music-making on the horizon for you?
The Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards announced nominees for the fifth annual honors, with soul-rock singer-songwriter Buggy Jive leading all nominees with four nominations of his own.
Six artists have three nominations, including Brick By Brick, Jim Gaudet & The Railroad Boys, Jocelyn & Chris, Michael Eck, Reese Fulmer & The Carriage House Band and Sydney Worthley. In all, 209 artists and organizations have been nominated in 34 categories.
The annual ceremony is 6 p.m. Sunday, April 30 on the MainStage at Proctors. Tickets are available now at proctors.org. A slate of performers will be announced in mid-April.
In addition to the finalists in the categories below, several honorees will be announced in the Merit Award category. “These are recognizing unique initiatives led by members of the music community in the recent past that don’t fit neatly into any other category,” explained Jim Murphy, Eddies Music Awards producer and founder. Judges–members of the 518-music community nominate and vote on all recipients annually.
With this year’s ceremony, more than 450 different individuals, groups and organizations have been nominated in the Eddies’ first five years. In addition, the Eddies have established a regional music Hall of Fame at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. Eight were inducted in a two-hour ceremony March 30: Martin Benjamin, Mike Campese, Felicia Collins, Wanda Fischer, George Frayne, Smokey Greene, Sister Mary Anne Nelson, CSJ and John Tichy.
“Our mission is to shine a light on as many people as possible; we’ve inducted 32 individuals into the Eddies Music Hall of Fame and have seen roughly 45 artists perform at our events. If you include the members of the bands and the staff of the organizations that have been nominated, it represents several thousand individuals.”
Jim Murphy, Eddies Music Awards producer and founder
Musical performances will be held by six of this year’s nominees. The line-up represents a range of musical styles including mainstream and indie rock, funk, singer-songwriter, outlaw country and jam band sounds. The emcee for the 6 p.m. show is Albany-based comedian/actor/producer Greg Aidala. Hosts are Eddies founder Jim Murphy and Eddies administrator Kelly Auricchio.
You can’t have a music awards show without exciting musical performances. And we have no shortage of amazing local artists to choose from. It is both one of the most enjoyable tasks and one of the hardest decisions because there are always way more artists we would like to present than is possible.
Jim Murphy, Proctors Collaborative
New this year is an Eddies Advisory Council, created late last year, that will meet 5-6 times annually with Murphy and Eddies administrator Kelly Auricchio. Members from the music community are Julia Alsarraf, Greg Bell, Wanda Fischer, Andy Gregory, Mario Johnson, Jason Keller, Pete Mason, Matt Mac Haffie, Kevin McKrell, Keith Morales, Steve Nover, Truemaster Trimingham, Al Quiglieri, Paul Rapp, Zan Strumfeld, Alex Torres, Chris Wienk and Don Wilcock. Murphy adds that blues artist Thomasina Winslow, who passed away Jan. 13, was an inaugural council member. “She was very supportive of the Eddies Music Awards and remains in our thoughts.”
The Eddies Music Awards and Hall of Fame are an initiative of Proctors Collaborative. See a full list of nominees for the Fifth Annual Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards at theeddiesawards.com.
A collaboration no one expected will tour this summer as ‘The New Beetles.’ Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the two surviving members of The Beatles, will be joined by Boy George and Elton John, which, according to Starr, will allow “A new generation to be able to say they saw John, Paul, George and me, Ringo.”
The New Beetles say they will perform classic songs from the original Beatles catalog and Boy George songs, as well as new classics such as “Instant Karma Chameleon,” “Can You Feel the Love Me Do,” “A Day in the Wind,” “Cry Baby Crying Game,” “I’m Still Seeing her Standing There,” “Do You Really Want To Hold My Hand,” and many more.
“I’m most excited to play “Goodbye Yellow Brick Submarine” and “Get Back, Honky Cat,” said Elton John. “I always felt like my songs could use a little influence from the Fab 4, and here we are, rehearsing “The Bitch Is Back In The USSR.” It’s really quite fascinating.”
The New Beetles tour is sponsored by the 2023 Volkswagon Beetle. Tickets for the surviving Beatles on tour with Boy George and Elton John are available exclusively at this Sam Goody located on Long Island.
Amayo, former frontman of Antibalas for 23 years, will embark on a spring tour and perform seven shows across the country in April, with two shows in New York, at City Winery on May 8 and Colony Woodstock on May 13. Amayo is credited with bringing Afrobeat to a global audience, leading it to become a genre of itself.
The Grammy-Nominated Antibalas album, Fu Chronicles, in the category of Best Global Music Albany, was his vision, from concept to compositions and illustrations. The album became the launchpad for Amayo’s solo career, where Kung Fu meets Afrobeat.
A unique blend of styles creates a magical landscape for Chinese & African rhythms, where Amayo sings traditional Yoruba & Edo lyrics and plays piano, electric keyboard, organ, and the Gbedu Spirit Drum. Joining Amayo is his band, featuring chekere, guitar, bass, flute, violin, drums, percussion and horns.
The band carries the spirit of Kung Fu masters and philosophers of Asia, freedom fighters, the royal warriors of Edo & Ife Kingdoms, and Fela Kuti.
Amayo’s songs guide people through Kung Fu movements and stories of the Nigerian Edo & Ife Kingdoms. As an anointed Orisha “Awo” Amayo sings traditional Nigerian spirituals and stories that have been passed down in a sacred lineage.
Additionally, Amayo has been a senior master (Sifu) of the Jow Ga Kung Fu School of martial arts since 1982 and performs traditional Chinese Lion Dance as a salutation ritual to begin his stage performances to bring good fortune to the audience.
Indie rock kingpins Pixies will be joined by Modest Mouse for the third leg of their North American tour, which includes performances at three New York venues. The bands will perform twice at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City on Aug. 21 and 22, the Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown on Aug. 25, and the Artpark Amphitheater in Lewiston on Aug. 28. The upcoming tour is in support of Pixie’s latest studio album, Doggerel.
Pixies members, from left to right: David Lovering, (drums, percussion, backing vocals) Black Francis, (lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar) Paz Lenchantin, (bass, violin, backing and lead vocals), and Joey Santiago (lead guitar, backing vocals.) Credit: Pixies.com
Pixies originated in Boston, Massatuchetts, and consists of David Lovering, (drums, percussion, backing vocals) Black Francis, (lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar) Paz Lenchantin, (bass, violin, backing and lead vocals), and Joey Santiago (lead guitar, backing vocals.) They have been performing for over 30 years, and their debut album, Surfer Rosa, was released in 1988, supported by their lead single “Gigantic.” Over the course of their career, they have released a total of eight studio albums, most recently 2022’s Doggerel, which their upcoming tour supports. The band disbanded in 1993, and reunited in 2004, with their first release since reuniting being 2014’s Indie Cindy, their fifth studio album. They are known for being “one-of-a-kind” performers, due to their concerts having no pre-determined set lists, and whatever song plays next is what “feels right.”
New Musical Express (NME) called Doggerel “the most inventive since their reunion nearly two decades ago.”
Tickets to see the Pixies perform with Modest Mouse on their North American tour, and all other venues, go on sale Friday, March 31 at 10 a.m.
LEG ONE: (various support acts):
MAY 2023
4 Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
5 BeachLife Festival, Redondo Beach, CA
6 Golden State Theatre, Monterey, CA
8 The Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ
9 Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe, NM
10 The Mission Ballroom, Denver, CO
12 Encore Theatre at Wynn, Las Vegas, NV
13 Encore Theatre at Wynn, Las Vegas, NV
14 Kilby Block Party, Utah State Park, Salt Lake City, UT (Festival)
18 Teatro Metopólitan, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico
21 Corona Capital 2023, Mexico, Mexico
LEG TWO (with Franz Ferdinand and Bully):
JUNE 2023
8 MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Boston, MA
9 The Met, Philadelphia, PA
10 The Anthem, Washington, D.C.
12 Kemba Live!, Columbus, OH
13 Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA
14 Andrew J. Brady Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
16 Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh, NC
17 Rabbit Rabbit, Asheville, NC
18 Bonnaroo, Manchester, TN (Festival)
20 Coca-Coca Roxy, Atlanta, GA
21 The Fillmore, New Orleans, LA
23 Bayou Music Center, Houston, TX
24 Southside Ballroom, Dallas, TX
25 Moody Amphitheatre, Austin, TX
LEG THREE: (co-headline with Modest Mouse, special guest Cat Power):
NYC-based multihyphenate creative Nicole Daddona, also known as FRIDAY, has shared her new single and music video, “Dear God.” The grunged-out ballad is a punk reclamation of emotions, paired with a video that shows her dressed up as a crying, cigarette-smoking clown as she takes over an empty indoor children’s entertainment facility.
When Nicole Daddona preforms as her alter ego FRIDAY, she channels her creativity in each moment and brings a sense of nostalgic fun to each track. Daddona catches her audience with an emotionally deep sound that when you listen, you’ll transport you to a world where the weekend never ends.
With each song, FRIDAY captures different aspects of the human experience, adding her unique, colorful perspective. When listening to “Dear God,” her hook-filled songs and playful melodies will get stuck in your head and your heart.
Besides Nicole’s new project FRIDAY, she is the founder and designer of the “lowbrow, high fashion” clothing and accessories company Magic Society, creating iconic, playful, and maximalist designs like the Judy Bag (a purse made from deadstock blow-up dolls). She’s also one half of the production company Magic Society Pictures, who just debuted their most recent film The Mundanes at this year’s SXSW.
It’s well known that FRIDAY is a true creative powerhouse. This talented artist is not only a visual artist and filmmaker but also a fashion designer who has turned her hand to music. Through her whimsical and eclectic solo musical project, FRIDAY explores themes of love and loss with a touch of nostalgia and DIY aesthetics. In fact, she once described her music as “Harry Nilsson meets Nirvana,” which gives you a taste of the unique sound she brings to the table.
FRIDAY’s music draws inspiration from a range of artists, including Marc Bolan, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Nirvana, and Harry Nilsson. Her sound is an accumulation of multiple genres, inspired by Art Rock, 70s power pop, grunge, bubblegum pop, and NU-Disco influences.
From the influences of NYC, her music is inspired by vintage horror films, unrequited love, dreamcore, and weirdcore. It’s a cross-genre project that has something for everyone. FRIDAY channels her creativity in each moment and brings a sense of nostalgic fun to each track.
To listen to “Dear God” by FRIDAY, click the link here.
To watch the music video for “Dear God,” click the link here.
On Tuesday, March 28, the talented piano player RIOPY graced the stage of the Church of Intercession Crypt. This intimate concert setting added a unique and hauntingly beautiful atmosphere to RIOPY’s already mesmerizing music.
Photo by Kevin Condon IG @weirdhours
RIOPY, born and raised in France, began playing the piano at the age of six. He has since become a world-renowned pianist. His music is a blend of classical and contemporary, with a focus on emotional depth and storytelling through music.
The performance opened with a piece called “La Nocturne,” a haunting and melancholic melody that set the tone for the rest of the evening. From there, RIOPY gave the audience a preview of his upcoming album, Thrive. The album will be released on April 14th under Warner Classics.
Photo by Kevin Condon IG @weirdhours
Throughout the concert, RIOPY shared stories about his life and the inspiration behind his music. He spoke about how his music is a reflection of his experiences and how he hopes that his music can bring comfort and healing to those who listen to it.
RIOPY’s concert at the Church of Intercession Crypt was a testament to the power of music. His beautiful melodies and emotional depth left a lasting impression on everyone in attendance.
The Crypt Sessions is a concert series that takes place in the crypt of the Church of the Intercession, located on West 155th St in Upper Manhattan. The Crypt Sessions series was founded in 2020 by Andrew Ousley, who wanted to create a unique and intimate concert experience for both the performers and the audience.
The concerts are held in the crypt, which is a small, underground chamber beneath the 180 old Episcopal church. The space has a unique atmosphere and excellent acoustics, making it an ideal venue for live music performances. The Crypt Sessions feature a wide range of musical genres, from classical and opera to jazz and indie rock. The performers are often world-renowned musicians who are attracted to the unique setting and intimate atmosphere of the series
Setlist: La Nocturne, Piano Allegretto, Ukiyo, I Love You, Rockefeller Room, Drive
Frank Palangi’s new single “Fall From Grace,” proves that the rock genre still has a place in the music business – as does Palangi. The rock singer has been performing for more than 10 years and continues to make noise in the music industry, “Fall From Grace,” being only his most recent track to hit music platforms. “Fall From Grace,” is sure to leave fans eager to hear more.
Raised in Upstate New York, Palangi first hit the music scene in 2011 with his self-titled debut EP, and since then has had the opportunity to work with a number of music producers. Over the course of his more than decade-long career, he has released a total of five EPs, received Best In the Region for local Glens Falls and Albany areas and national unsigned-only competition finals, radio artist of the year (radio wigwam) and an LA Music Award single Nomination. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Palangi wasn’t discouraged, and his optimism shined through his music. Guitar World magazine said of the artist, “Palangi’s positivity extends beyond his music into the way he interacts with his fans.”
Palangi stands out positively from artists today in a number of ways, and “Fall From Grace,” is living proof of that. Palangi’s newest single echoes the sounds of hit rock bands and some of his biggest inspirations such as Ozzy, Def Leppard, Megadeth, and Three Days Grace, just to name a few. “Fall From Grace” can have a subjective meaning to listeners, so almost anyone can resonate with it, one way or another. For some, it could be about a fall-out you had with some of your closest friends, who you thought would stick by you through anything, or for others, it could be about being turned down for a job you really wanted or desperately needed. Either way, “Fall From Grace” is likely going to go down as just one in a long list of hits by Palangi.
“Fall From Grace,” is available on a number of music streaming platforms.
