Music Archives | MendoWerks

Karina Rykman Sets ‘Late Checkout’ Album Release and Webster Hall Celebration

31Aug

By SimonNo Comments

Features, Music

Karina Rykman Sets ‘Late Checkout’ Album Release and Webster Hall Celebration

Karina Rykman will release her second studio album, Late Checkout, on September 25 through Karina Rykman/High Rotation Records. The 12-track album follows her 2023 debut, Joyride. The latest preview from the album is “Shoegaze Summer,” which follows previously released singles “Easy Rider” and the title track, “Late Checkout.” The new album was recorded with longtime collaborator Gabe Monro at Trey Anastasio’s The Barn in Westford, Vermont, and DFA Studios in New York City. “Shoegaze Summer” was developed with Rykman’s bandmates Adam November and Chris Corsico during a 72-hour writing session in 2024. “It’s catchy and heavy. It’s dreamy and full of left turns,” Rykman said of the track. “Shoegaze Summer” will also receive airplay on the Monday, August 31 edition of JamCast, airing fr...

Ian Flanigan’s New Song ‘Through The Darkness’ Six Years In The Making

15Aug

By SimonNo Comments

Features, Music

Ian Flanigan’s New Song ‘Through The Darkness’ Six Years In The Making

Ian Flanigan has released 'Through the Darkness,' a new song with a story that dates back six years. Flanigan originally wrote the song for the graduating class of 2020. At the time, students were entering adulthood during a period filled with fear, loss and uncertainty. However, the song was never officially recorded. Six years later, Flanigan returned to it. He says the circumstances may have changed, but the uncertainty behind the song still feels familiar. “I wrote Through The Darkness for the graduating class of 2020, when the world was filled with fear, loss, and uncertainty. I kept thinking about the young people stepping into adulthood without knowing what came next. Six years later, that feeling hasn't disappeared, it just looks different. That's why I finally recorded t...

Dylan Doyle Goes Deeper on New Album ‘Nowhere’

10Aug

By mendowerksNo Comments

Features, Music

Dylan Doyle Goes Deeper on New Album ‘Nowhere’

Hudson Valley singer, guitarist and songwriter Dylan Doyle has released his fifth independent album, Nowhere. The nine-song record arrived July 24 and is available on major streaming platforms and on CD. The album explores themes of longing, melancholy and emotional release while blending R&B, rock, soul, Americana and other styles. Dylan Doyle Explores New Sounds on Nowhere Nowhere reflects experiences from the past five years of Doyle’s life. Several songs focus on unfulfilled love, uncertainty and relationships that have reached difficult turning points. “A big chunk of the writing touches on unfulfilled hidden love, and a deep sense of longing,” Doyle said. The album also gives Doyle room to explore new sounds. “Sideways In The Suez” is an instrumental fusion track feat...

Twiddle Returns for Frendsgiving 2026 and Releases New Single ‘Good Time’

21Jul

By mendowerksNo Comments

Features, Music

Twiddle Returns for Frendsgiving 2026 and Releases New Single ‘Good Time’

Twiddle has given fans two reasons to celebrate. The band has announced the return of its annual Frendsgiving celebration while releasing a brand-new single, "Good Time." Frendsgiving returns to The Capitol Theatre from November 27-29, 2026, bringing one of the jam scene's favorite Thanksgiving weekend traditions back to Port Chester, New York. The three-night run has become a yearly gathering for the Twiddle community and is expected to draw fans from across the country. Alongside the announcement, Twiddle released "Good Time," a feel-good new track accompanied by an official music video. Watch the official "Good Time" music video below. Ticket Information Fans hoping to attend Frendsgiving won't have to wait long for tickets. Artist Pre-Sale: Wednesday, July 22 at 10:00 a...

Cage The Elephant Open Bold New Chapter With “Beaches In Tennessee”

10Jul

By mendowerksNo Comments

Features, Music

Cage The Elephant Open Bold New Chapter With “Beaches In Tennessee”

After a two-year break from releasing new music, Cage The Elephant are back with "Beaches In Tennessee," a reflective new single that marks the beginning of the band's partnership with Big Loud Rock and signals a fresh creative era. Cage The Elephant - Photo Credit: Lewis Evans The Kentucky rock veterans have built a reputation for constantly evolving, and "Beaches In Tennessee" continues that tradition. Rather than relying on dense production, the band opted for a stripped-down approach that lets the song's emotional core take center stage. Inspired by Real-Life Experience Frontman Matt Shultz says the song was inspired by his recovery following a mental health crisis that led to a lengthy hospitalization. While the lyrics present a fictionalized account, the emotions behind t...

1Jun

By mendowerksNo Comments

Features, Music

MendoWerks Presents JamCast In Partnership With WKZE

Turn It Up: WKZE and DJ Simon Dunn Launches New Look at Jambands with “JamCast” Improvisational rock music and the bands that deliver it with relentless abandon are the focus of a new weekly radio show launched by a new media start-up and hosted by a longtime New York DJ with a rich history and loyal following in New York’s Hudson Valley. With a focus on jambands and the legacy rock bands that launched the genre, “JamCast” is poised to debut at 9 p.m. est, Monday, March 30, on WKZE (98.1 FM) and wkze.com. “JamCast” is produced by WKZE in the Hudson Valley; and MendoWerks Media, a new, cutting-edge, digital music news outlet. Jambands on the FM dial The two-hour listening experience that is “JamCast” is hosted by Simon Dunn, who is known from having served as Program ...

Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music to Open June 7

10Mar

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music to Open June 7

Bruce Springsteen. Courtesy Photo/Shore Fire Media By John W. Barry The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, a colossal project dedicated to the legacy of The Boss, the legacy of modern American music and the inspiration both have provided for generations of music lovers around the world, will open June 7 at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ. “The Springsteen Center provides a home for Bruce Springsteen’s archives and places him in the greater story of American music,” Robert Santelli, the Center’s founding executive director, said in a press release announcing the opening date. “Popular music is one of America’s most enduring and respected cultural resources and Bruce Springsteen is one of its most important artists.” Springsteen has sold hundreds of million...

Kathleen Parks, Her Fiddle, Charm and Chops: The Right Notes in the Right Places

10Feb

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Kathleen Parks, Her Fiddle, Charm and Chops: The Right Notes in the Right Places

Kathleen Parks, with fiddle, performs Jan. 29, 2026, at White Lake Studios in Albany, NY. From left, guitarist Arthur Terembula; bassist Dan Bui; Parks; and guitar and pedal steel player Alex Formento. Photo by Will Hahn. By John W. Barry Her charm, her chops and the way fiddle player, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Kathleen Parks commands a room is mesmerizing. But even more compelling is the relationship that binds her creative spirit to her instruments—which can be summed up in one line. Kathleen Parks plays the right note at the right time—over and over and over and over. Parks and her band recently dazzled an invite-only audience at White Lake Studios in Albany, NY, for a performance that maintained the thrust of a locomotive, the nuance of devotio...

26Jan

By SimonNo Comments

Features, Music

MendoWerks Goes Live on WKZE 98.1 for Bob Weir Tribute Broadcast

The MendoWerks team joined WKZE 98.1 for a live on-air tribute honoring the life and musical legacy of Bob Weir, airing over multiple segments as part of the station’s memorial programming. The broadcast featured John Barry and Andrew Eisner of MendoWerks, hosted by WKZE co-owner Andy Gladding. Together, the group explored Weir’s influence on American music, live performance culture, and generations of listeners, blending conversation with curated selections spanning the Grateful Dead catalog and related artists. Exploring Bob Weir’s Influence During the broadcast, Barry discussed MendoWerks’ recent deep dive into cover songs, specifically reinterpretations that radically depart from their originals, highlighting how the Grateful Dead’s open-ended approach to music continues to in...

20 Years Later: Matchbook Romance Release “Something Worse Than the Night”

16Jan

By mendowerksNo Comments

Music

20 Years Later: Matchbook Romance Release “Something Worse Than the Night”

More than 20 years after helping define an era of emotional, melody-driven post-hardcore, Matchbook Romance are opening the vault (and the next chapter) with the release of a powerful new song, Something Worse Than the Night. The story behind the track stretches back to the fall of 2005, when the band packed up and headed to Long View Farm Studios in rural Massachusetts to begin work on their second full-length album, Voices. With producer John Goodmanson guiding the sessions, Matchbook Romance spent a month living and recording together in an old barn surrounded by woods, isolation, and inspiration. Songs emerged organically, born from soundchecks, long drives, and cramped practice spaces on both coasts, slowly transforming from scattered ideas into something cohesive and deeply person...