Area Bands Really Wanted to Beat Up Bush, But They Made a CD Instead: A new project called Albany Against W, headed by UAlbany student Harith Abdullah, has produced a CD called We Want Our Country Back and a corresponding Web site (www.albanyagainstw.com) to use as vehicles to share their anti-Bush sentiment. Abdullah says that “the idea came when my girlfriend played me the song ‘The March of the Mindless’ by her friend Raif Pomeroy, which ended up on the CD. It occurred to me that a lot of local acts probably had similar songs, and since there were so many national anti-Bush CDs popping up, that it would be cool to have one that centered around Albany-area musicians.” The CD—which includes 10 songs and two spoken-word pieces, features some well-known names (Jason Martin and the Highsocks, for example) and some smaller acts, whom Abdullah met through a monthly open mic that he hosts at the Borders on Wolf Road. You can buy the CD from the Web site, and it will most likely be available at the featured artists’ shows. “All the profits are going to a progressive nonprofit organization, which sadly I cannot name, as they aren’t allowed to be affiliated,” Abdullah says. “We felt that was the best way to oppose Bush without specifically endorsing another candidate.”

Armory to Become Concert Venue? Yes, ladies and gents, you heard right! After years of fighting for the old building, former county exectutive Jim Coyne finally acquired the Washington Avenue Armory (on the corner of Lark Street and Washington Avenue) and has big plans for it—not only will it serve as home base for a basketball team (remember the Albany Patroons?) and as a location to put on special events, it will also be used as a concert venue. Coyne estimates that there will be room for about 4,500 seats when the old landmark is used for music shows (there will be an estimated 3,500 available for basketball). Because of extensive water damage, the armory is already undergoing renovations that are expected to last a year. So hopefully, by this time next year, you’ll be reading about the next big show there in these pages.

We’ll Help You Save Your Money and Your Jazz: The annual Williamstown Jazz Festival just got a very welcome shot in the arm with the donation of $2,500 from the Berkshire Bank. With this gift, the bank joins the Massachusetts Cultural Council and area businesses in lending support to the April event that features dance, gospel, jams, professional jazz combo concerts and much, much more. The festival is held at the Clark Art Institute, MASS MoCA, and Williamstown College’s Chapin Hall. The coming year’s schedule will be posted on the WJF Web site early in
2005 at www.williamstownjazz.com. Information will also be available at the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce and Department of Music at Williams College.

Take the Initiative! If you have music news we should know about, e-mail me at klurie@metroland.net. If you have a show that you would like to see listed in club dates, e-mail all the pertinant information (yes, this means venue, address, phone number, time, date, band and lineup information) to calendar @metroland.net, with “attention clubs” in the subject line.

—Kathryn Lurie