New No. 1
We asked our writers and members of the local music scene to name their favorite local bands. The results will shock and amaze you.
Tim Livingston
The Last Conspirators 2007-present; the Morons 1979-1982
Real Danger (circa 1980). Short-lived but fast, fun, and danceable new wave band formed from the ashes of Albany's new-music pioneers the Dialtones. Fronted by the triple threat of songwriter/guitarist Rory McPherson, the Keith Richards cool of Dennis Herbert (guitar) and the gorgeous voice and high-energy sex appeal of vocalist Sara Ayers, this band had the goods. Great original songs like "We Are Real Danger" and "I Love My Job" plus hip covers like "Too Much To Dream Last Night" and and "Angel in the Morning". Best live gig was when they opened for Peter Noone's Tremblers at the Hullaballoo!
Mike Hotter
Writer, Metroland; guitarist, Swamp Baby
Small Axe: dark, murky, psychedelic.
Jump Cannon: dark, sylvan, goth turned outward.
The Day Jobs: bright, loud, so good no one knew what to do with them.
Dominick Campana
Former lead mouth of Dirty Face; main one to blame at Paint Chip Records; old sound guy and record producer
Nothing but the hits. In the early '80s it was Blotto, Fear Of Strangers (pictured), the AD's and the Sharks. Teenagers could drink and everyone danced at clubs. Dirty Face was my focus in the late '80s. We tried to keep the "Fuck You" alive in rock & roll. The '90s was the Paint Chip decade. Bloom and Lughead dominated the weekday airwaves (along with the Vodkasonics). As music started to become "work," doing sound for bands became a form of torture. luckily Rocky Velvet was around to keep things fun. The new century brought the Wait. They had the same commitment to the music that the old bands had (ie: playing and recording what was best for the songs), but with a heightened sense of purpose and musicianship.
Mike Pauley
Bass player, the Charlie Watts Riots
The Figgs. Still. Great songs, played with abandon. They encapsulate everything I love about live music.
Caroline "MotherJudge" Isachsen
Host of the "Best Damn Open Mic Ever"; Songwriter; Event Producer; Owner, North Albany Rehearsal Studios
1. The Gibson Brothers
Brother harmonies, top notch musicianship and great songwriting make the band not just a popular regional act but a worldwide favorite in their genre.
2. Brian Patneaude Quartet
Albany's hardest working jazz saxophonist populates his quartet with the area's finest.
3. Super 400
Undeniably the reigning kings of Tech Valley rock & roll, Super 400 keep doing their thing with heart and soul, attracting the kids and keeping the old guard coming back for more.
4. The Orange
Best pop-rock outfit in these parts, ever. The songs are still stuck in my head years after the band's end.
5. The Star-Spangled Washboard Band
Back before I was a New Yorker, before Blotto, wa-a-ay before the Ramblin' Jug Stompers, this "post-hippie comedy jug band" was a favorite of mine. A precursor to the aforementioned groups, including many of the same suspects.
Lori Friday
Super 400
Going to Valentine's to see Lughead play was really fun for us. It felt like a real rock & roll scene, and the room would have that special crowd energy, everyone's molecules bouncing off of one another. Dennis Blaine's razor of a guitar, gouging the haze of cigarette smoke.
Matt Mac Haffie
Writer/photographer, Nippertown.com
For me in my college years nobody spat it out with more punk angst as poetry than Dirty Face. Dominick, Matt, and Ross were as a collective a force to behold. The sarcasm, the humor, the rage—oh, and the spit that burst forth with originals like "Carousel," "Pray to the Beast" and "Stella" or the out-of-Dominick's-range but well-within-his-guitar-mastery take on Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown." True story: I was thrown off WCDB for forging a cart of new Dirty Face material.
All time faves list: Super 400, the Suggestions, Ashley Pond, Amy Abdou, Fear of Strangers.
Mike Trash
The Erotics
China White, Trauma School Dropouts, Second Hand Smoke. The latter because they cover "River Bottom Nightmare Band."
John Rodat
Metroland
1. Big Barn Burning
It might be a stretch to claim Big Barn Burning as an Albany band. Brothers Andrew and Matt Pelletier were originally from Bovinia. And the rhythm section—drummer Pedro, bassist Matt Elms—who performed the brother's compositions behind frontman Matt Pelletier (brother Andy wasn't actually, regularly on-stage), were recruited in Boston, if I remember correctly. But the band's frequent gigs at the QE2, not to mention the brothers' later-life residences in and around the region, feel like liberty-takin' loopholes. Somebody once said that Big Barn Burning were what it'd sound like if Uncle Tupelo grew up in New England; and that's not wholly off the mark. But where Tupelo drew from the folk and native blues of the agrarian South and Midwest, Big Barn Burning seemed inspired and imbued, not with the dread of endless toil and suffering, but with the explosive, joyful color of Northeast autumn and a "harvest's in" intoxication. Their live shows easily, sweatily, chaotically, ecstatically earned the band's moniker. (Though Big Barn broke up in the early '90s, the brothers still gig, here and there, as the College Farm. Check 'em out.)
Mark Rose
Guitarist, Ten Year Vamp
Resolve will always be one of the greatest bands you never heard of... as was noted in Musician Magazine back in the mid-90s. They moved to Boston, but still called Scotia and the Capital District their home, playing the old Bogie's and Valentine's. Look up their first album Jack for a fist full of anthemic songs that make you drive fast and sing with the windows down. Anyone who knows this band would agree they would have been huge if their label didn’t go under before the release of their second album. P.S. I also have the Velmas, Erin Harkes, and the Figgs on my iPod right now.
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