Jul 26 : "Disorienting" - The Rally (New York)

(( June 26 Mix & Match / Part 3 ))

New Music / Freshly Written & Recently Released

The original part of my plans that night was to go to the Cameo Gallery to hear "The Rally". I had been listening to them on line and was looking forward to seeing them live. So after hearing the Alexander Bishop and the Tom Shaner bands play at Spike Hill, I headed over to Cameo where I heard The Rally play live for the first time.

Here is a sample description from one of the Rally pages ::: The band started as Wolves, a noise/experimental set that played art galleries during early 2013 but matured into a full band and began doing the local rounds. As Wolves, they played Pianos, Public Assembly, The Delancey, Bowery Electric, and Mercury during the following months and even took part in their first festival gigs for CMJ and Northside Festival. It was towards the end of 2013 that they recorded a 3-song EP and that they released under the name The Rally. Having grown into a more melodic sound and serious approach to song-writing, while maintaining a melancholic, moody feel, the new year introduces The Rally as the pleasantly invigorating result of an unplanned allegiance to music.

The Rally does have only a few songs published. Playing here right on my blog page is "Disorienting", released just a few months ago, this past January. :::

The Rally did a good show that night at Cameo, and they have another coming up soon, on Wednesday, August 6th, at Mercury Lounge. To visit The Rally in the meantime, here is the click to their Bandcamp page ::: The Rally (CLICK HERE)

Jul 20 : "Forever Drug" - Tom Shaner Band (New York)

(( June 26 Mix & Match / Part 2 ))

The past few weeks I got sucked up into a busy work schedule and have fallen behind in my comments on this page. Still writing chronologically about bands I saw on June 26 (Yikes!)

The second artist up at Spike Hill on June 26 (playing after Alexander Bishop, mentioned in the previous blog) was Tom Shaner, who also came with a band. If there was any common theme about these two bands, I would say that it would be their eclectic repertoires. Tom Shaner played rock, folk, ballads, a wide range. However, the styles of presentation between the two bands were quite different. Alexander Bishop's Band's style was extremely freeflowing, while Tom Shaner's Band's style was tight and precise..

The band is a five-piece, with the keys player switching off to accordion keys for a few songs. Some very interesting lyrics, which are sung by Tom Shaner himself.

As with some other bands I've written about recently, the web music doesn't do justice to what you can see live, but here's an example of some of his work. The song is "Forever Drug" :::

If you would like to hear the Tom Shaner band live, you're in luck; they have another show coming up TONIGHT! This is an early show at the LIC Bar. Here is the click to Tom Shaner's Facebook page for more information ::: Tom Shaner Band on Facebook (CLICK HERE)