Local musicians end year on high note
In many ways, the past 12 months have been a real roller-coaster for humanity. Politically, culturally, you name it, it was a tumultuous 2019.
However, for local music this year was outstanding all year long. From indie or blues rock to country and hip-hop, 518 talent had much to offer in terms of both quantity and quality of releases. Area mainstays with longtime fan bases like folk-jazz ensemble Annie and the Hedonists and bruising metal outfit Brick by Brick put out solid LPs in 2019. So did burgeoning national talent with regional roots in rapper-R&B crooner Souly Had and Americana songstress Ashley Sofia.
A host of local talent has dropped new material in the last couple months. As the year comes to a close and the winter chill stays with us for the foreseeable future, here's a look at three recent one worth cozying up to for a while.
"There is no Good in Us," Blackcat Elliot
Albany rockers Blackcat Elliot have been delivering its take on late '70s, New York City-inspired hard rock for nearly 20 years. "There is no Good in Us" is the band's first full-length project since "Never Come Clean" in 2006. It doesn't sound like it's been 13 years between Blackcat Elliot releases; it may as well have been 13 minutes. Blackcat Elliot hits it just as hard on "There is no Good in Us."
The band offers up blistering punk rock on "Turn It" and "Let Yourself Go!." On "Dark Side" and "Tomorrow Doesn't Come Today," Blackcat Elliot offers up an amalgamation of punk and bluesy garage rock on the swaggering "Dark Side." The 10 tracks on the album all fall somewhere on a spectrum between punk and straight-up, guitar-driven hard rock, held together by crunchy riffs and attitude to spare.
Frontman/guitarist Kostas Gus Hais' gravelly vocals are perfectly suited for the...