Doctor Baker (w/ E.R.I.E & Bendt)

Doctor Baker originally started as an acoustic duo featuring singer/songwriter Ed Schwarzschild and guitarist Iggy Calabria, two wayward Philadelphians who met in Albany. Schwarzschild is an award-winning short story writer and novelist (In Security, The Family Diamond, Responsible Men) and a professor of creative writing at UAlbany. He is the “doctor” of the group. Calabria, a trained jazz musician who owned a gourmet scratch bakery right on Lark Street, is the “baker.” The duo then added singer-songwriter Chris Gockley on bass and Danny Goodwin, an artist and professor at UAlbany, on drums.
After a few EPs, they recently released their first full-length album, Trespassers, and it’s been called “the perfect musical antidote to post-pandemic malaise, from the opening track of ‘Exhausted,’ which rolls like a Mississippi river boat down a current of dissatisfaction, to the toe-tapping, hopeful uplift of ‘Hey Romeo’ and ‘Dark Times’” (The Daily Gazette). All eleven tracks were recorded with legendary producer Don Fury (Quicksand, Helmet, GG Allin, Agnostic Front) at Don Fury Studios in Troy, NY.

“With a sound that “evokes the Velvet Underground, though is all their own at the same time” (Nippertown), Doctor Baker is always on call, bringing alt-folk roots rock sound medicine to the Capital Region and beyond.

Upstate New York indie-rock outfit E.R.I.E. turn their focus externally on sophomore LP, Suburban Mayhem (due April 7th via Mint 400 Records). Trading in the internalized existential struggle of debut Don’t Wanna Live, Don’t Wanna Die, TJ Foster, Matt Delgado, Chad Flewwelling and Levi Jennes redefine their raison d’être to the draining external forces that permeate a modern existence. Simply put, it is triumphant. Their “crunching guitars, catchy choruses and down-to-earth, working-class vibe that recalls modern heartland punk rock…” (Daily Gazette), has garnered the band comparisons to The Gaslight Anthem, Frank Turner and The Get Up Kids. Coupled with live performances that are rife with energy and vulnerability, E.R.I.E. is “a class act with lots of passion and a great chemistry, making them very easy to cheer for…” (Nippertown

kWith lyrical grit, dynamic grooves, and atmospheric, yet driving melodies, Bendt has carved a distinctive sound into the face of modern rock. Formed in 2015, Bendt evolved out of the crucible of the Albany, New York music scene as a passion project between friends. Bandmates Matt Plummer (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Carl Blackwood (lead guitar), John Longo (bass), and Cody Bingham (drums) work to craft a unique presence, one that draws from their individual musicianship and shared love of hard rock, alternative, metal, and funk. As Bendt’s songs leap between soaring riffs and emotive screams, to unusual time signatures and bass-heavy flows, the band captures something that is universal while simultaneously personal and immediate.