The YeahTones is the tenacious rock ‘n’ roll brainchild of bandleader and front man Jake Pinto.
Born of a natural healer and a business schemer (read: Florida man), Pinto’s deep-rooted lust for “peaceful” resistance has been long in the making. In 2012, Jake graduated from private university with a degree in music, thousands of dollars in debt and an ample angst for the injustices of the world. Plagued by the typical anger and isolation of a 20 something New Yorker, Jake set aside his pricey jazz education in search of a new more liberating form of expression: enter The YeahTones.
On stage The YeahTones explode with punk energy to deliver the straightforward anguish of Jake’s unassuming songwriting. The band makes audiences thrash and scream then hands out a goody bag of catchy riffs and melodies to take home for later. They do all of this while wearing matching outfits.
The Brooklyn-based band’s debut record, Eviction Notice, released in October 2016 is the first presentation of their fearless, unpretentious rock ‘n’ roll.
NCM, based out of Brooklyn/New Paltz, NY, is an eccentric, eclectic concoction of raw old-school punk, driving rhythms, and acoustic and folk elements, created by the musical alchemist Pete Crotty.
NCM recently started up again in 2017 with Jeremy Boniello on Drums/Vocals and Pete Newman on bass. The band currently started gigging again and hope to record their new album this fall and prepare for a tour.
NCM has released their newest album Vampire Proof, which is tantalizing eardrums worldwide. Vampire Proof was produced by Earl Slick (David Bowie), who also plays guitar and bass on some of the tracks.
NCM has played the Red Gorilla fest that coincides with SXSW in Austin 5 years in a row. NCM played the CBGB festival in NYC, July 2012, and regularly plays venues in New York City and upstate NY. The band has performed in hundreds of venues all around the country in three separate US tours.
Vampire Proof (2013) is NCM’s third full-length album, following Escape from Myopia (2008) and Dharma (2009). NCM’s music has been featured on TV shows such as MTV’s “Real World” and “Parental Control.”
The dismal realities, political or otherwise, that are part of our modern world naturally influence our creative voices. It is in this context that White Hills re-evaluated their approach to creating a new album. Having continually refined their sound, pushing the boundaries of psychedelic music, White Hills flipped the script on Stop Mute Defeat. Dave W. and Ego Sensation have brazenly produced an industrially-charged record that pulsates unlike anything they’ve released before.
Hard-line, gritty, and intellectually engaged, Stop Mute Defeat is a New York record through and through. With this in mind, White Hills drafted Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, Afrika Bambaataa) to mix. White Hills recorded with Bisi on two of their previous releases, Frying On This Rock in 2012 and its follow-up So You Are…So You’ll Be, however Stop Mute Defeat is the first time they worked with Martin “The Beast” Bisi in control of the mixing board. A native New Yorker who made his name in the city’s early hip-hop and no-wave scenes, Bisi was attracted to White Hills’ new material for its distinct early-80s Mudd Club feel. A dance hall, drug den, and bar, the Mudd Club was one of New York’s legendary haunts in the late 1970’s. As a center of a distinct art scene the club served as a major influence for White Hills and Stop Mute Defeat’s sound.
Following similar techniques to those propagated by William S. Burroughs (a regular at Mudd Club), Stop Mute Defeat sees White Hills break free from the guitar-driven structure of their earlier releases. Reassigning William Burroughs’ word “cut-up” technique to music, Dave W. and Ego Sensation deconstruct sound clips to create minimalist but rhythmically complex phrases. Title track ‘Stop Mute Defeat’ layers turbocharged bass loops with squalling guitar samples, to create a sound that calls to mind Xtrmntr-era Primal Scream. “If… 1… 2” goes even further down the rabbit hole, oscillating into the experimental electro-sound of early 80s Sheffield, UK band Cabaret Voltaire. Meanwhile the taut brawny grind of ‘Attack Mode’ industrially hardens White Hills’ rock boundaries to tribal densities.
Appalled by the rampant consumerism and the proliferation of ‘post-truth’ mythology, White Hills’ defiant lyricism is at their most philosophically scathing. Condemning doublespeak as “Subliminal seduction…a serenade with a grenade,” the song “Overlord” laments political and economic opportunism, where “In travesty, [there’s always] another dollar to be made.” On “Attack Mode” meanwhile, a clenched-jawed Dave W. channels the perverse cynicism of Throbbing Gristle, throwing scorn on “societies where misogyny leads and the objectification of young girls runs free.” Exposing Western vulgarity in bright light, Stop Mute Defeat is a fearless and necessary denunciation of the political and economic powers that be.
Between the release of 2015’s Walks For Motorists and the making of Stop Mute Defeat, members Dave W. and Ego Sensation took time out to focus on other artistic endeavors instead of keeping up their pace of an album a year. Diving deeper into the world of video, Ego has produced and exhibited a series of “Moving Stills”: videos that imbue static images with a subtle, uncanny motion. In these pieces, realism morphs with itself to create abstract visions. Through Dave W’s obsession with meditation, he was drawn back to his love of form and image, creating a series of sculpturally based hallucinatory abstract paintings in which the viewer is sucked into infinite space. These forays outside of music were instrumental in the shaping of Stop Mute Defeat.
Writing in his seminal postmodern oeuvre Naked Lunch, Burroughs states: “Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.” Rethinking their musical norms, personally and musically diving into uncertain waters, White Hills at once embrace and demonstrate the raw power of such abandon.
People have written about roads for as long as they’ve been around. And before there were roads, they still wrote about travel and about landscape. Landscape is the stage upon which our greatest experiences and desires play out. Steve Gunn’s music has always embraced expanse and movement. It springs from the simple and profound relationship between humans and their environment. Eyes On The Lines is his most explicit ode to the blissful uncertainty of adventure yet.
Gunn’s roots in the underground run deep, from his days in GHQ to his collaborations with Black Twig Pickers and Mike Cooper. He’s toured and recorded with Michael Chapman, and released two remarkable duo albums with drummer John Truscinski. His solo ventures, emerging over the past decade and culminating most recently the highly-acclaimed Way Out Weather, have been pastoral, evocative affairs. Here he embraces his urban surroundings through a series of songs that fully showcase his extraordinary ability to match hooks to deftly constructed melodies. Gunn is a consummate guitarist, that rare fingerpicker who can harness the enigma of the American Primitive vernacular without lazily regurgitating it. His playing is inventive and… [ show more ]
Satomi Matsuzaki plays bass and sings, Greg Saunier plays drums, John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez play guitars. But what is Deerhoof really? Hell if we know. Pitchfork went so far as to label Deerhoof as “the best band in the world. ” From their humble beginnings as an obscure San Francisco noise act, they’ve become one of indie music’s most influential bands with their ecstatic and unruly take on pop.
The band’s fearless inventiveness has made them one of the most inspiring and important groups making music today. Throughout 2017, Deerhoof will be releasing a variety of music as part of Joyful Noise’s Artist in Residence including a new proper Deerhoof album (details forthcoming).
Bettina “Poet Gold” Wilkerson: NYS Dutchess County 2017 Poet Laureate, recipient of the 2016 Dutchess County Executive’s “Artivist” Award, 2016 Dutchess County Athena Award Honoree by The Chamber Foundation, Inc., the 2016 recipient of the Exempt Firemen’s Association Black Heritage Committee’s “Outstanding Community Service Award” for Extraordinary Contribution and Dedication, and the 2014 NYSCA Individual Artist Tier Grant Awardee for Dutchess County. Gold, as she is affectionately known, is a rare talent, original, grabs you by the heart and says “Recognize.
Living with a chronic illness since childhood, Poet Gold, or as she is affectionately known as “Gold”, brings through her poetic performance a soul-searching insight about the human existence, love, dreams, challenges, and triumph.
Poet Gold believes that the arts exist not only to entertain, but also to educate, and elevate the human spirit. To fill her passion of mentoring and fostering young talented minds, Gold has collaborated with educational institutions, arts and youth development organizations such as R.E.A.L. Skills Network, Inc., Mill St. Loft, Breaking Barriers, Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Arts Mid-Hudson, The Lincoln Middle School (Passaic, NJ) and The Berta A. Dreyfus Intermediate School 49 (Staten Island); and through her mentoring and poetic performances, she has touched over a thousand middle and high school aged students engaging them in understanding the direct connection between literacy, goal setting, and the achievement of their dreams.
Poet Gold was the “Artist-in-Residence” for the “Leadership Overnight Camp” hosted by Rural & Migrant Ministry, has served as host for the 2016 RMM Rural Women’s Assembly, hosted the 2015 NYS Women’s Rural Conference and spoken at renowned organizations such as YAI National Institute for People with Disabilities (The Women Stepping Up Employee Resource Group), Omega Institute 2014 “Women Serving Women Summit”, and has inspired women with her words for the Women’s Leadership Alliance International Women’s Day.
Poet Gold’s spoken word performances are countless, and her poetic work has been featured at Arts Westchester-SHE Exhibit (part of “HER”), Barnes & Noble (Poetry Month 2016), Howland Cultural Center (You are My Blue, I am Your Red), and Queens New Music Festival/Tenri Cultural Center.
Presently, Poet Gold is the Host for “POELODIES” at the prominent venue-The Falcon, Marlboro, NY, and “Newburgh’s Open Mic”- at The Wherehouse in Newburgh, NY. Her book, “When My Soul Speaks, I Scribe…poetry” is available on www.amazon.com.
Lee Odom A native of NC study music industry and clarinet performance at Appalachian State University, other woodwind instruments including flute and bass clairente., Lee ventured to NYC in 2011 where she quickly found her way into various musical communities. First starting out as “Sweet Lee Trio” Lee “Sweet Lee” Odom has performed with Don Byron, The Karl Berger Improv Orchestra, Participated in the Jamaica Jazz Festival, Jamaica Queens; also theArts for Arts Vision Festival. The music by Sweet Lee and her accompanying bands has been sending lighting vibes throughout the boroughs of New York. With a fusion of Jazz, Hip-Hop, Classical, and free improvisation, Sweet Lee keeps the groove groovin’.A melting pot of musical styles…jazz, funk, blues and soul, all to make one….GROOVE
Daniel A. Villegas is a bilingual Latino Emcee and Poet with both spanish and english in his repertoire. He uses his verses and rap in such a style that separates himself from many other talented emcee’s. He seeks something new, something fresh and something unique with his delivery in his music and hopes that the listener will go back and forth from Spanish to English with him as he interweaves his Hip Hop. He regularly steps outside the prescribed lifestyle matrix and embarks on a journey to promote greater individual & group consciousness with his audience wherever he performs.
