Through her music, Liana Gabel takes seemingly familiar stories, themes, and tropes about being human and transforms them into that which is profoundly unfamiliar and novel, yet warm and comforting. Her observations about the changing landscape of our relationships, the country, the world, clearly inform her work as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and percussive tap dancer. Be ready, as inspired and encouraged by Pete Seeger, she will get you singing right along.
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).
The Love Astrologer introduces the 12 Zodiac signs as an evolutionary journey of the soul. Are you on fire, down to earth or go with the flow? Bring your questions to “Ask the Astrologer”, Kathryn Andren in this fun and informative session. All are welcome.
Kathryn Andren is a professional consulting astrologer & licensed massage therapist with over 20 years devoted to healing service. Her private consulting practice integrates astrology & tarot with energy healing bodywork. She is the founder of “The Love Astrologer”, offering individual astrology readings & dynamic classes for Empowerment, Passion & Purpose. Explore career direction, soul purpose, couples consulting, or family dynamics with parent & child chart readings.
Kathryn currently resides in the Rhinebeck, New York & works with clients across the USA. She gracefully integrates over two decades of professional experience with intuitive wisdom. Ready for a reading? Consult with Kathryn. consultwithkathryn@gmail.com
Born on a family farm in upstate New York, Justin Suarez is an artist who brings together the rural and the urban. Celebrating wildlife, he paints flora and fauna flawlessly over concrete and brick. The animals he paints come to life as the viewer is drawn into the world of the painting. With over 15 years experience, he has painted murals across the US, and his work has been exhibited around the world. Justin Suarez brings the intensity of a raptor to his artistic endeavors, as well as his work as valued handler of birds of prey at Wild Wings Animal Sanctuary outside Rochester, NY, he is able to capture the majesty of the natural world through his explosive graphics and remarkable technique. He also works well with humans, with a rich history of collaborating with other artists on a vast array of murals. He is responsible, punctual, a master of logistics and a born team player.
In the fall of 2015, Suarez co-founded Roc Paint Division, the City of Rochester’s Youth Mural Arts Program.” Roc Paint is just that and yet so much more. Under the leadership of local artists, Justin Suarez, Lisa Barker and Sarah Rutherford, Roc Paint Division’s mission was to beautify the city’s R-Centers through mural arts while providing employment and training opportunities to young developing artists. What developed through the initial 13-week pilot program in 2016 was nothing short of phenomenal. A team of seven youth created murals at 6 of the City’s R-Centers. The murals were unified by their common theme of growth, chosen in part to acknowledge the major role that the R-Centers play in the lives of the young people who spend time there during their formative years. The project not only provided the seven youth with work experience, it resulted in breath-taking artistic depictions of youth, energy and hope that glow like beacons from the corners of the community that they shine from.
