The lovely folks at The Hidden City have an amazing set of photos from last night’s heARTS aligned event in Cohoes, N.Y. The above image is the card designed by Jason Antonelli that represented the song “Forest & Dive“.

Thanks to Matt Durfee for putting on such a rad event!

A warm welcome / hello to Greg Haymes and his wife Sara Ayers, who have apparently been working on the following secret project for a bit now. Nippertown is their new home for writing about art, music, and events around the Capital Region. Greg’s arts coverage at the Times Union was excellent, but this just takes it WAY over the top! Congratulations to both and I look forward to seeing how this unfolds over time!

(Photo stolen from Nippertown’s logo section, which was generated at the Magic 8-Ball Generator)

One of my first posts in this space was about Bobby Baby, an artist I’d been pointed to by Hello Pretty City Laura. I’m still absolutely smitten with her songs, and this video of one of my favorite free songs she has posted was a real treat. Here’s hoping that she’ll have enough time to write and record more Bobby Baby songs, despite a reasonably full touring schedule with It’s A Musical.

Photo by Flickr user one_schism of Cynic live in Europe.

Fifteen years ago, my pal Scott Gleason (I really miss this guy, anyone know where he is? Scott, you out there?) foisted this record on me. He said, “It’s death metal, but with New Age lyrics… you’ll love it!” The high schooler in me was skeptical. Really? “No, no! Check it out… there’s a synth voice, a growler voice and an opera voice! And there’s these jazzy breakdowns… and you’re going to love the drummer!”

Thus began my slight love affair with a “death metal” record. More »