Each week we’ll bring you the tracks that are fueling the creation of The Collaborative whether composed by local artists or national acts with a connection to the region. Let us know if there’s something we should add to next week’s list!
“The Prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform” Prince Daddy & The Hyena
The beloved Capital Region punk band’s long-awaited sophomore album Cosmic Thrill Seekers, a rock opera of anxious vignettes based on the dreamscape of “The Wizard of Oz,” is full of individual hits like the already-popular singles “I Lost My Life” and “Lauren” (sharing a drool-worthy, seamless transition.) “Prototype” is the cathartic sing-along that’s just as good for being frustrated and alone and screaming at the wall as it is a banger to sing and dance along with friends. It packages the live show, crowd-surfing energy of the band into a neat two minutes and 21 seconds. Therein lies the magic of Prince Daddy.
“Grit (Demo)” Amani O+
Audiences at The Collaborative’s first patio show at Superior Merchandise Co. in May were lucky enough to hear the early iteration of poet and raptivist Amani O+’s freestyle embracing and uplifting the ideals of working with and for your fellow people through reparation, protection, love and letting go in order to receive your blessings. “We gon be alright.”
“Penance” Uniform and The Body
This collaboration between industrial choral anarchists The Body and New York City’s old-school Ministry worshippers Uniform is stunning in how it blends screeching noise and pleasing melody. “Penance” is the first single from the second collaborative album from these provocateurs. The new album “Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back” drops in August. You can catch The Body at Basilica Soundscape in Hudson September 13 to 15.
“Burn Rate” Spell Runner
Kerrang dubbed Spell Runner’s new album “Always on the Cool’ as the “bastard child of hardcore and surf rock.” You can call it whatever you want, we just know that every song on the album is an undeniable earworm. Start listening and you won’t stop.
“What You Do” Zan & the Winter Folk
These Troy-based folksters released their new EP “How to Be Alone” at a packed Peck’s Arcade last week. Opening track “How to be Alone” finds frontwoman Zan Strumfeld declaring “I am a woman who stands strong and tall and I need a man, I need a man who can handle it all.”
“Uterine Industrialization” Venom Prison
UK death metal exports Venom Prison are here to destroy the patriarchy thanks to self-described vegan, anarchist, nazi-fighting lead singer Larissa Stupar. “Beauty, once wild and free/Now silent and domesticated/Mothers separated/Possessions confiscated,” Stupar howls on “Uterine Industrialization” off the band’s new album “Samsara.” Check it out before the band headlines a rager of a show at Chrome in Waterford with Homewrecker and Call of the Void on September 15.
“Hollow Grasp” Low Flying Hawks
Dale Crover of The Melvins and Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle have been making astonishingly beautiful and heavy music together for years now and with each release, their work has grown simultaneously more complex and accessible. Local label Magnetic Eye Records released their new EP “Anxious Ghosts” on Friday.
“Pavement” B. Chaps
Albany rapper B. Chaps has made a great new single commiserating with the overworked. It’s a catchy sing-along for those of us who love to pile up the tasks until we’re overwhelmed and anxious–a few drinks in at happy hour thinking about all the things we have to do, aren’t doing, should be doing, and saying, “Oh well.”
“Clifton Park” OHZHE
We’re excited to have OHZHE, back on the scene this summer from a long break, perform a set along with Soo Do Koo and Candy Ambulance at Albany Distilling Co. on August 30. The hip hop artist has always been a fulfilling listen and an intentional performer, focusing on self-care and self-study through his introspective music. “Can’t limit my growth,” he raps in “Clifton Park.”
“Dream” The Parlor
The electro-pop duo has released the first of two tracks that didn’t quite fit their moving 2018 album Kiku, exploring the couple’s experience with multiple miscarriages and the physical and emotional toll that has reverberated from their yearning to build a family. “Dream,” described by the band as a “realization of the couple’s tight bond, a glimpse of a blissful moment in an otherwise dark epoch,” is a steady, plucking track that feels like trying to catch your breath.
