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Music

Rough Mix

by Josh Potter May 22, 2013

No Pepper As Albany Med slowly blobs its way down New Scotland Avenue, gobbling up any and all businesses in its path—including the fabled Quintessence—Valentine’s Music Hall and Beer Joint stands as one of the last ...

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Chelsea Light Moving

by Josh Potter May 22, 2013

“C—B—G—B . . .” Thurston Moore intoned as he tuned his guitar at bassist Samara Lubelski’s urging. Then suddenly: “We’re the Modern Lovers and this is [pausing for his bandmates to remind him] ‘Empires of ...

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The Flaming Lips

by Josh Potter May 15, 2013

The Flaming Lips have an uncanny knack for making bad-trip psychedelic rock sound surprisingly sweet and reassuring. It’s that desperately hopeful outlook on stark mortality that earned “Do You Realize??” it’s berth in the zeitgeist ...

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Kurt Vile

by Mike Hotter May 15, 2013

It seems the music critics of the world (i.e. anyone with Internet access) have agreed that this is the Philadelphia rocker Kurt Vile’s magnum opus, some grand summation of the studied and gifted musician’s aesthetic ...

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TSTI

by Josh Potter May 15, 2013

Shaun Smith takes his synthesizers very seriously. While some electronic artists like to keep their tools and techniques cloaked in mystery, Smith lays his whole rig out there in the liner notes of his new ...

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Albany Tulip Fest

by Metroland Staff May 15, 2013

It used to be: Come for the tulips, stay for the concert. Now, with erratic climate and hard-to-synchronize blooming, it’s come for the concert and check out what’s left of the flowers. Which still made ...

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Danny Brown

by Taylor Morris May 15, 2013

Brown kept saying, “This ain’t a rap show. It’s a party with all my friends.” This ain’t a rap show? It had all the makings of one: talented rapper, speaker-rattling beats, DJ, plenty of sweating ...

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Peggy and Pete Seeger

by B.A. Nilsson May 15, 2013

In the course of his 75-year career of promoting and enhancing the world’s folk music traditions, Harvard dropout Pete Seeger has become their most vital exemplar. His music is the music of struggle with a ...

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Youth Lagoon

by Josh Potter May 8, 2013

Trevor Powers has all the markings of a psychedlic savant: precocious age (22), obscure origins (Boise, Idaho), instantly identifiable voice (reedy and childlike), a couple of lush studio records (The Year of Hibernation and this ...

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David Lindley

by David Greenberger May 8, 2013

“Artist” is among the words that have become wobbly to the point of needing legions of clarifying adjectives (incorrectly and overused words similarly being pummeled into uselessness include genius, hero, victim, and survivor). Meanwhile, the ...

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Oobleck

by Josh Potter May 2, 2013

Some funk bands brow-beat you into having a good time. Some funk bands blast you with a horn figure they lifted from the JBs and then demand you tell them how you’re feelin’. Some funk ...

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Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie “Prince” Billy

by Mike Hotter May 2, 2013

Ostensibly a tribute to the Everly Brothers, What the Brothers Sang finds compatriots and kindred spirits in the avant-folk scene, with Dawn McCarthy and Will Oldham delivering an album that should prove deeply enjoyable to ...

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lastdayshining

by Josh Potter May 2, 2013

Were it not for the fact that Explosions in the Sky scored the soundtrack to the TV series Friday Night Lights, post-rock bands like Albany’s lastdayshining would probably get more readily compartmentalized as self-indulgent, artsy ...

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The Joy Formidable

by The Staff April 24, 2013

It was such a big weekend of music two weekends back that we’re just waking up from the hangover following the Joy Formidable’s show at Upstate Concert Hall on April 14. The Welsh power trio ...

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90 Miles featuring Stefon Harris, Nicholas Payton and David Sanchez

by Jeff Nania April 24, 2013

“It’s always a good sign when a jazz band tunes up,” Stefon Harris said as the group centered themselves, and then dipped right into their emphatic Afro-Cuban opener, “E’cha.” Trumpeter Nicholas Payton’s solo on this one ...

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Deerhoof

by Josh Potter April 24, 2013

“One bite each,” instructed Deerhoof singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki, passing a box of Fiddle Faddle into the crowd before their encore. So enamored was she of her first encounter with the candy-coated popcorn in the Valentine’s ...

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The Dirty Projectors

by Josh Potter April 17, 2013

If they’re not going to deliver, sometimes it’s best when one of your favorite bands just flop outright. When Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti have a bad show, like at Pitchfork Festival a couple summers back, ...

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Graham Parker and the Rumour

by Paul Rapp April 17, 2013

I won’t go into the strange fable about how Judd Apatow got Graham Parker and the Rumour back together after 30-plus years, nor the long, strange history of Parker, one of our more prolific, accomplished, ...

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Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Hero Award Celebration

by Jeff Nania April 17, 2013

“I hereby proclaim April 15th Tim Coakley day here in Schenectady,” said Schenectady city Mayor Gary McCarthy as he made a proclamation honoring Coakley for his contributions to the local jazz scene. Coakley is a local ...

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Eastbound Jesus

by Josh Potter April 11, 2013

Since their win at SPAC’s battle of the bands a couple summers back, Eastbound Jesus have consistently topped local polls and best-of lists in the “country” category. While flattered, the band themselves have always insisted ...

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Petra Haden

by David Greenberger April 11, 2013

Petra Haden long ago surpassed the coolness factor of being one of the triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden with a rich slew of musical endeavors. Most notable among these have been her multitracked ...

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The Knife

by Josh Potter April 11, 2013

Even if you’re not a longtime fan of Swedish brother-sister electronic duo the Knife, you likely know their 2006 single “Heartbeats,” which was prominently featured in a Sony commercial and has subsequently been covered by ...

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Dancefloor Showdown

by Josh Potter April 4, 2013

It’s been a long, dark winter for the Washington Avenue Armory. Ever since the Barstool Blackout foam party on Oct. 18 of last year, which resulted in a tussle between patrons and Albany police, the ...

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Rough Mix

by Josh Potter March 28, 2013

Blue Keynote When you think of major-label record execs, you probably picture a fat white dude in an expensive suit, telling kids to “have a cigar, you’re gonna go far” before rocking James Taylor in their ...

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Tony Levin and the Stick Men

by Jeff Nania March 28, 2013

The setup was reminiscent of a power trio, but the band actually were far from that. Both Tony Levin and Markus Reuter play Chapman Stick-style guitar-ish instruments where the main mode of sound production is ...

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