By Patrick ~ 3rd December 2013
It’s not just something SUNY students dream about anymore. Syracuse-based band Perfect Pussy, recently proved buzzworthy by the blog gods at Pitchfork as “one of the year’s boldest new rock bands“, set their latest tour off the right way after buzzing a room full of eardrums inside the UAlbany Campus Center. The group set up quickly in the small Rock Library at WCDB and didn’t leave quietly. Perfect Pussy hit-it and quit-it with four rapidly delivered songs — but made up for it with their energy and that much blogged-about boldness. But it’s not the time that matters… it’s how you use it.
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By Patrick ~ 24th November 2013
Valentine’s welcomed two floors of “incredible local music, exemplary facial hair, and delicious beverages” on Friday night for the 6th annual Benson Recording Company’s Funsgiving. Performing bands included Hammer Hawk (not pictured), Bear Grass, party rockers Rival Galaxies, The Parlor, a friendly reunion show by a stripped down Scientific Maps, local mainstays Sgt Dunbar and the Hobo Banned, and fan favorites Barons in the Attic, in what is rumored to be one of their last shows together. Awards were given for best man and lady beards and most went home with prizes — and pies.
More photos:
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By Patrick ~ 19th November 2013
San Diego based rockers Crocodiles felt most at home after the modest but energetic crowd at Valentine’s tossed articles of clothing onto the No Pepper stage. Between noisy jams, lead man Brandon Welchez admitted that Albany had a special place in Valentine’s — apparently not knowing of its doomed fate. The crowd didn’t seem to be thinking about that either. Ski Lodge opened, coming off their recent full-length debut on Dovecote Records, after local acts Party Boat and slowshine. More from last night’s performance:
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By Patrick ~ 1st August 2013
Every day for 13 years, “as long as rain ain’t falling”, four Jamaican men have gathered to pick through bones on their Park South sidewalk.
Tonight is no different — Ivory dominoes are strew about a wobbly card table framed with duct tape, commonly called a “boneyard”. The men passionately slam down their domino blocks, only breaking to greet the occasional neighbor that strolls by or to free up a hand to puff down a cigarette. The quiet clacking noise continues into the night after the sun sets behind Albany Medical Center, turning a multi-block urban construction zone into a field of echoing cricket clacks.
The domino game will be forced to permanently move by December 1st as a result of the hospital’s neighborhood redevelopment plan. Ask the men, some of whom work for the hospital, and they don’t mind: “It’s a good thing. Helpful to the whole Albany area. They take good care of patients there.” The men have lived in the neighborhood for decades, and represent the values any newly manufactured community will strive for, but admit that the hospital was there long before they were. “It’s their neighborhood.”
But where will their game be played come December? They don’t know. The only move on their mind tonight is the next one going onto the table.
By Patrick ~ 26th July 2013
Editor’s note: Musician Stephen Stanley shared his thoughts after yesterday’s Valentine’s news.
“All who wander are not lost,” but after graduating college, like many of my generation, I was completely lost. I decided that after four years of intense study I no longer wanted to be a theatre artist. It didn’t speak to me the same way it did when I began diving into the works of Beckett and Mamet, but I didn’t understand why. In the Winter of 2008, while finishing school, some buddies and I stumbled into a band we called “Susie and the Qs” in the attic apartment of 442 Morris St. After careful deliberation, we refined our name to the more familiar “Barons in the Attic.” It was purely for fun and, god damn, it was fun. A much needed release from the looming “real world” that awaited me in just a few short months. We made some musician friends and played some shows at Valentine’s; the usual Albany band story.
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