Music »

[11 Jan 2012 | 11 Comments | ]
3 2 1 … Tim Koch

Three, two, one… BLAST OFF. This man makes me feel like a rocket ship. Don’t read too much into that. He is rocket fuel, one of B3nson’s most inspirational song writers. Tim voices Dunbar, the Hoborchestra and beats his gong for the Man Scouts. He is currently busy organizing the next label compilation ‘B3nson does B3nson’ and is doing one heck of a job.
Don’t just read this post, participate! Email rnolan1983 at gmail dot com and suggest the next person to run the gauntlet of the 321.

 
B3: What is the …

Reviews, Uncategorized »

[10 Jan 2012 | One Comment | ]
Bonus Book Talk! Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!

Karen Russell has been a big deal in American letters since she released her short story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.  She’s garnered praise from critics, other writers, readers; everyone loves her.  Her new book, Swamplandia!, is popping up on year ending best-of lists everywhere for good reason.  Russell is one of the most inventive and talented voices in American literature.  The fact that she’s only 30 makes such a fact even more impressive.
Swamplandia! follows the lives of the Bigtree tribe, who live on and operate an island theme park …

Music, Reviews, Shows »

[10 Jan 2012 | One Comment | ]
The Slaughterhouse Chorus

The Slaughterhouse Chorus – S/T
April 2010
I’m a bit late to this party, just like I was a bit late to see these guys play last Saturday. NBD, I was able to get a copy of their self titled and a koozie. If you want to be remotely as cool as me you will need to head over to http://theslaughterhousechorus.com/ and have a listen for yourself.
The first track off of The Slaughterhouse Chorus’s self titled album, ‘Guns and Cattle’, pays homage to the Long Island ska/rock/whatever act ‘The Fad’. Twang and …

I'm a song, Music »

[7 Jan 2012 | 2 Comments | ]
Song-A-Week Celebration #1

Members of the B3nson community have decided to challenge themselves with the task of releasing at least 1 new song for every week of 2012. Home recordings, demos, live stuff, remixes, collaborations… anything goes! This week we have a song by Muddskipper called “Drink the Kool-Aid”.

Music »

[5 Jan 2012 | 6 Comments | ]
B3 Basement One – The Great Between

It’s here, it’s here! Welcome, everyone, to 2012, the year of the Celebration! Hooray! To celebrate this momentous occasion, watch the first of the new B3 Basement series. We’ll start out light with yours truly. Here’s The Great Between. Enjoy, friends, and may all your celebrations be joyous!

Music, Reviews »

[4 Jan 2012 | 3 Comments | ]
518 Mixtape Track 4: Importante

We here at B3nson have a tendency to focus on what is currently happening in the capital region music scene and sometimes we even focus on what is going to be happening in the capital region music scene. This is for good reason: there’s a lot of awesome stuff going on out there and there’s always a lot of awesome stuff just over the horizon. But, sometime’s, it’s good to take a step back from all of that and take a look at some things that have already happened. Maybe they happened before you were here, maybe they happened and you missed them. Maybe you were there and need a little trip down Memory Lane. That’s what this column is all about. We’ve had some great talents here in Albany, and sometimes they get overlooked or sometimes they go on to do other things. But with so many good stories to tell and so many great songs floating around it seems like a shame not to share them with people.

listen to me?, Music »

[30 Dec 2011 | One Comment | ]
My Soundtrack to New Years Past

New Years Eve 1998-1999: Prince “1999″ (duh)
I was a freshman in college and 18 years old. On our college winter break my best friends from childhood decided we would take the train to Montreal for New Years. A place where people respected our right to drink alcohol. Our friend’s dad was a train conductor, and somehow we managed to get an entire train car to ourselves -twenty 18 year olds on the five hour train ride North. I remember looking out the window to the snow covered tree tops and …

Music, Photo, Story »

[28 Dec 2011 | 5 Comments | ]
Woodchuck Charlie Remix

Partially in honor of the retiring of the name We Are Jeneric but mostly in honor of me finding a few pieces of paper (below) in my jacket pocket, here are the lyrics to an alternative version of “Sir Charles the II” performed only once during a b3nson familyband set comprised otherwise entirely of classic hip-hop covers.