Swamp Baby and Dust Bowl Faeries Headline Folktronica Fest at Helsinki Hudson

Dust Bowl Faeries

Dust Bowl Faeries

(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Two of the Capitol Region’s top folktronica outfits, Swamp Baby and Dust Bowl Faeries, headline a night of avant chamber-pop at Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, June 28, at 8pm. Special guests Two Cats in Suits, featuring members of the Last Conspirators, will warm up the crowd.

Making its Helsinki debut, Swamp Baby formed in 2005 out of the ashes of acclaimed alt-country (and originally Kingston-based) outfit Knotworking. Albany-based Swamp Baby has been gaining notice for its particular form of intimate, ethereal chamber pop. The six-piece group refuses to perform in bars, preferring to couch its music in quieter situations where audiences can contemplate its rich, layered sound. Swamp Baby consists of the founding quartet of guitarist Mike Hotter and multi-instrumentalists Nick Matulis, Frank Moscowitz and Megan Prokorym, with the recent addition of drummer Nicholas Kopp and bassist Stephen Orsini.

Swamp Baby

Swamp Baby

Dust Bowl Faeries leader Ryder Cooley performs in tandem with Hazel, a disembodied taxidermy ram. They are nearly inseparable, as one is literally strapped to the other. This is as it should be, considering their work as hybrid performers explores the complex, knotty relationship between human and animal, existence and extinction. The Dust Bowl Faeries is Cooley’s latest musical incarnation; a mesmerizing collaboration with keyboardist/vocalist Sara Ayers (herself a giant in the underground ambient scene) and steel guitarist/cellist Karen Cole. Cooley, a co-host of Helsinki’s weekly open-mic night and a resident of Hudson, sings and plays accordion, ukulele and musical saw in the group.

Two Cats in Suits is the rock ‘n’ roll acoustic duo of singer-songwriter/punk-poet Tim Livingston and writer-guitarist-bassist Nick Bisanz, both of the punk-rock band the Last Conspirators. They play stripped-down and alternate versions of Last Conspirators songs along with new material by Livingston and Bisanz, select covers and other tunes from their extensive back catalogs. TCIS take a slightly quieter, guerrilla approach to playing while still maintaining the same edge and attack of a Last Conspirators full-on assault.

For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800.

 

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