Music Monday: New Releases Worth Your Time
New discoveries, familiar proof: the Capital Region’s sound continues to evolve.
The 518 music scene — and the artists who left it — is busy this week.
Eastbound Jesus dropped “Hard to Get to Heaven” with a release party at Putnam Place in Saratoga Springs last weekend. Twelve tracks from a Greenwich band that has been making the case for Washington County’s music scene since 2010.
Piper.Ally — Latham’s Ally Crowley-Duncan, the World’s Most Famous Bagpiper — releases her full studio version of “Hail to the King,” the Avenged Sevenfold anthem she has been playing live for years, because some songs are just built for the pipes.
Two Nashville transplants with 518 roots check in. Maddy Hicks, out of Charlton, releases “I Don’t Know You” — a breakup song that earns the word heartbreaking. David J, the Rotterdam kid with 119 million career streams, drops “What If I’m in Love,” a budding romance told as a question. Both are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, and doing it well.
Vince Palmeri, now working out of Los Angeles, released the EP “Something I Never Had” on Spotify. The dance floor will know what to do with it. Kirsti Blow, a 518 native living in Granada, Spain — and a La Voz finalist — surfaces with “Casual Girl,” a collaboration with Seudogen that pairs her voice with a drum and bass track worth the listen.
Sirsy released “Wolves.” Twenty-five years in, Melanie Krahmer and Rich Libutti are still embarrassing younger bands.
On the hip-hop side: Rhakim Ali drops “Royalty.” Mista Pigz and Mike iLL release “Sewer Plant Kids,” a long-vaulted collaboration tracing Pigz’s road from Dutchess County to Albany. Troy’s Mundy dropped “Go Back, Get It 2.2,” a six-track EP rooted in the Akan concept of Sankofa — look back, then move forward. And Sime Gezus and Slowpace released “The Hard Times,” a tight four-track EP slated for 7-inch vinyl. No filler. That’s the week.
—Michael
A Note on Where Ish Bulletin Is Going
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— Michael Hallisey
Hard to Get to Heaven — Eastbound Jesus
Eastbound Jesus has been one of Washington County's best arguments for paying attention to what's happening north of Albany since 2010. They dropped their latest album with a release party at Putnam Place in Saratoga Springs last weekend. By title alone, “Hard to Get to Heaven,” sounds like a record about the distance between where you are and where you're trying to get.
Hail to the King — Piper.Ally
“Hail to the King” is the 2013 title track from Avenged Sevenfold’s sixth studio album — slow-burning, riff-heavy, and built on a ceremonial weight that, as it turns out, was practically written for the pipes. Ally Crowley-Duncan has called it one of her all-time favorites, and the song has been part of her live set for years.
Wolves — Sirsy
Sirsy has been at this for 25 years — husband-and-wife duo Melanie Krahmer and Rich Libutti, Albany-rooted, relentlessly touring, and still releasing new music with the kind of momentum that embarrasses bands half their age. Their latest single is out now. They are also making their way back east this summer, with a date at the Towne Crier Cafe in Beacon on July 3.
Something I Never Had — Vince Palmeri
Vince Palmeri grew up in the 518 with his father's cover band as the soundtrack — Chicago, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones — and has spent his adult life chasing a version of pop music that actually earns the name. Now based in Los Angeles, the self-styled ambassador of making pop great again has been releasing music at a pace that outstrips most of his peers, playing venues from the Bowery Electric in New York to the Viper Room in L.A. His new EP, "Something I Never Had," is out now on Spotify. The dance floor will know what to do with it.
Casual Girl — Seudogen, Kirsti Blow
Kirsti Blow grew up in upstate New York and followed love to Granada, Spain, where she has spent the past six years writing music, teaching English, and building a following that stretches well beyond anything the 518 has had the chance to notice yet. That changed last year when her blind audition of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" on La Voz — Spain's version of The Voice — earned her a spot on coach Pablo López's team and introduced her to a national audience. She has been writing her own songs since she was 15. Her 2025 album, "Ephemera," is the fullest expression of that work — folk-pop rooted in blues and soul, intimate and unhurried. Her latest work single, paired with Seudogen, finds her voice accompanying a drum and bass track worth the listen.
What If I’m in Love — David J
David J has been Rotterdam's best-kept secret for the better part of a decade — which is a strange thing to say about someone with more than 119 million career streams. The Schenectady County native has spent years making the kind of upbeat, hook-forward country-pop that should be on the radio on a Friday night. His newest single, "What If I'm in Love," keeps that formula intact — a budding romance framed as a question, which is exactly the kind of restraint that makes a good country song.
I Don’t Know You — Maddy Hicks
Maddy Hicks grew up in Charlton and took the road most traveled by ambitious young musicians from upstate New York — south on the Thruway, then straight to Nashville. She studied songwriting and music business at Belmont University, and spent the years since graduation doing exactly what a confessional singer-songwriter is supposed to do: writing candidly about the kind of experiences that make people feel less alone. "Kinda Over It" went viral in 2022. "Roster" followed in 2023. Her latest single, "I Don't Know You," released May 8, is a heartbreaking story of moving on — the narrator finding her footing after someone broke her trust and, in doing so, lost her entirely.
Go Back, Get It 2.2 — Mundy
Troy rapper Mundy released "Go Back, Get It 2.2" on May 1, the second installment of an EP series built around the Akan concept of Sankofa — the idea that you must look back before you can move forward. The project's six tracks came from an unlikely place: Mundy had recorded a batch of songs after his last album, scrapped them when they wouldn't cohere, then circled back months later and found what he was looking for.
Royalty — Rhakim Ali
Rhakim Ali has spent years building one of the more quietly impressive catalogs in the 518 hip-hop scene — an Albany rapper rooted in boom bap and underground tradition who releases music at a pace that rewards anyone paying attention. His projects have drawn listeners well beyond the region, and his latest track, "Royalty," is out now.
Sewer Plant Kids — Mista Pigz & Mike iLL
Mista Pigz has been one of the more dependable names in Capital District underground hip-hop for years — an Albany rapper by way of Dutchess County who built his reputation through sharp writing and consistent output on the 518 scene. Last month he released "Sewer Plant Kids" alongside longtime collaborator Mike iLL, a project that has apparently been sitting in the vault waiting for its moment. Fully produced by Mike iLL, the album traces Pigz's roots in the 845 and his eventual passage into Albany's rap community — two friends making a record that sounds like one they needed to get out of their system.
The Hard Times — Slowpace, Sime Gezus
Two Albany underground fixtures — Sime Gezus and Slowpace — released a four-track EP together this week called "The Hard Times." Gezus, a Capital District presence since 2004 who also runs a weekly underground hip-hop radio show on WSPN 91.1 FM, and Slowpace, who operates under the Happy Pollen Music imprint, keep it tight: four tracks, no filler. The project is also slated for a 7-inch vinyl pressing.