Kick Out The (Hometown) Jams

The Figgs, “Palais.”
The eighth full-length release from the mates who grew up as high school buddies in
Saratoga Springs is a 25-song double-CD that features punched-up guitars and catchy pop tonics while conjuring images of Carnaby Street swingers and mop-top jubilees.
After spending nearly a generation together touring the globe, the trio is back
waving the D.I.Y. banner, and self-releasing the work which cuts a pattern from the cloth of 20th century Brit-inspired pop, and lands in the seam somewhere between The Kinks and
the Jam.


The Sixfifteens deliver a contemporary buzz with their CD debut,
“Let’s Not Think About It," a seven song journey clocking in at just over 30 minutes.
The Saratoga quartet joined forces in 2002 and include the vocalizing of Bob Carlton
and the smash-the-hell-out-of-the drum kit frenzy of Joel Lilley, both
veterans of defunct area favorites Dryer.
The Sixfifteens offer sinister guitar licks and harrowing layers of rhythmic intensity
in a porridge of pop angst and catchy pop waves, reminiscent of bands like
Wedding Present and Mission of Burma.

“Babylon” is the third album issued by Albany-based musician Bryan Thomas, and a
departure from his previous efforts.
There is a haunting intimacy to the work, recorded live during a single Joycean day in 2003. This is acoustic music laced with snatches of biblical prose.
Much of the material was written during angst-filled times for Thomas in early 2003,
with the U.S. invasion of Iraq on his TV and the songwriter preparing for the birth of his
first child.
The sparse sound is augmented by the delicate bass strokes of the Kamikaze Hearts’
Bob Buckley, while fellow band mate Matt Loiacono drops beat riffs across the sonic landscape.

Blackcat Elliot’s none-song blast, “Threads Tearing from the Inside,” revs up the rock with glitter-infused power chords ala the early NY Dolls.
Just when you thought rock ‘n’ roll was dead, an old friend like Blackcat Elliot shows up to remind you just how fun the endless party can be.

Seemingly every ear that has caught Bob Warren's song "The Silver Fox", yearns for another listen. That particular tune, written about the songwriter's father, plus a dozen others can be heard on Warren's brand new CD, 'Clear Connection.'
The veteran songwriter's muse is a field filled with cross-country rambles and shadowy psychological escapades.
Warren's tight, emotionally poetic ballads stir and inspire, like the creative morsels they are, sifted from the hallowed ground of Woody's dustbowls and blown north and delivered to your doorstep.
"Clear Connection" delivers with an all-star cast, to boot. Guest performers include Trey Anastasio(PHISH), Richard Bell(THE BAND), and local musical geniuses Michael Jerling,
Tony Markellis, Tim Wechgelaer and Rosanne Raneri.
The photographs of image-catcher Emma Dodge Hanson grace the cover, and David Greenberger, of Duplex Planet fame, pitches in with book design duties.

Small Axe, 'Ride to the Bottom'
Thirteen pop tunes power from the glitter-prose of vocalist Jimbo Burton - somewhere on
the morose side of T. Rex's Marc Bolan - while fellow Saratoga Springs High School alum
D.J. Miller pumps metal-driven riffs through a wailing guitar.
Small Axe is pure pop for metal heads, a three-piece blow-out inside a wind tunnel.

Mark Tolstrup, 'That's the Way I Heard It'
From the opening sounds of Mark Tolstrup's fingers sliding across the fret board
of his National Steel guitar, “That’s the Way I Heard It,” is a feast for Delta-style
blueshounds.
Tolstrup revisits Blind Boy Fuller's 'Walking My Trouble Away,' covers a trio of
Robert Johnson tunes, and adds a pair of self-penned originals that fit right in with the
bluesy ragtime experience.
Even Tolstrup's cover of Dylan's 'Meet Me in the Morning' is south of the folkie-protester's normal form - this is a heavy brooding Zimmerman, in all its depth, churned through the metallic resonator of Tolstrup's guitar.
The 10-song CD was recorded live at Caffè Lena and at the band's Levon Helm's Woodstock studio. Accompanists Dave Sokol paints a neat bass bottom with his tuba and Peter Davis riffs along on the high end of his clarinet.

Classically trained violinist Mike Grutka hasn’t let textbook study drown his muse. In the multi-instrumentalist’s second release, “Reach," Grutka acts as guide for an enjoyable splurgeof rhythmic tunes, cranked through a dirty and distorted tubular amp like the great garage anthems of the modern age.
Grutka has the rare ability of being able to blend world music influences – from subtle
rasta beats to hints of riffs from Zimbabwe inspired guitars – and churns it through the
musical machine in a way that makes it all his own. All this and a singing voice that sounds, uncannily, like Michael Stipe.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
published in The Saratogian, 2003-2004