The Xperience | RadioRadioX & The Xperience Monthly

The Strength of Elephant Back

Interviews

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October 4, 2026

Sarah and Dave Snediker of Elephant Back are some of the hardest-working artists in our local music scene. They recently spoke to Sara Busone about the latest Smaz Fest lineup, the current state of local music, recording, and the strength behind their band name.

RRX: So, the first thing I want to ask you is: how was Smaz Fest?

SS: It was awesome! It was a really fun way to get tons of local musicians together in one place at the same time, and it was the perfect day for it. And we got to listen to a bunch of people that we haven’t actually heard from. So that was cool, and we got to make some friendships.

RRX: How did you get involved with Smaz Fest?

SS: I mean, we started playing out back in 2022, and I had reached out to people in different bands and on social media, just to find people to play with out there. The Hard Luck Souls ended up on one of the bills we played with, and Dave Smaz is just like the nicest guy ever, and we’ve been playing with him ever since. So, at least once or twice a year we book gigs. We got him out here in Syracuse last year, and I’ve booked The Fuze Box a few years back and got him in on that with us and … it’s just a really cool collaboration between different areas; music, musicians and things like that. But it was all through Dave Smaz we made that connection. And so, he reached out to us and was like, “Hey, I do this festival every year. You guys want to come and be involved?” And I was like, “Of course, whatever you got going on.”

RRX: That’s awesome. If you could envision what you would love to be doing a year from now, what would that look like?

SS: I mean … what we’re doing now, just more! We got two albums all written, so we’re going to be recording them soon. So, hopefully releasing some albums.

DS: Yeah, it’s kind of been a can’t-stop-won’t-stop adventure since COVID. We took some time during 2020-2021 to write a bunch of music and get together, and then went with videos, and we have been touring and recording, and we just, we really haven’t stopped. We put out four albums already. And we have one that’s getting close to being finalized that we’re going to hopefully put out here at the end of 2026. Then we have the next one in the can and are starting to record the scratch tracks for all that, too. We love playing out; we love the community, especially in the Albany area. Yeah, just playing music. We just can’t stop ourselves.

RRX: You guys are definitely prolific. I’ve noticed you guys really are a hardworking duo. You guys play out a lot, and of course I met you guys when I was presenting your award at the 2026 Listen Up Awards, which was a really cool, fun way to meet you guys. Tell me a little bit about that, how that felt.

SS: It kind of blew us away, to be honest. We got nominated, and we’re like, “OK, let’s go there and network and meet some people.” And all of a sudden, we’re walking on stage! So, it was pretty cool.

DS: Yeah, it was crazy. I didn’t expect to win anything. We were going there for the fun of it, and because we got nominated, and we’re like, “Oh, you know, it’s a night out for us.” We’re usually working so hard that we don’t go out and get a chance to see live music as much as we’d like to because we’re always working on it. But it was crazy to have the first one come up … and then for the second one to come up again, I was like, “Whoa, OK. That’s funny.”

SS: It did feel like a little like, “Ummm, everybody’s looking at us. Like, who are these people?”

RRX: That’s funny. So, as a working band, I wanted to ask you, what do you guys think about live music in the area right now? I know we’ve lost a couple of venues. What do you see as pros or cons? What would you change?

SS: Well, we like to play, you know? We like to play. There’s a circuit that we have in our head from Rochester to Albany. We like to play wherever we can, and when we go into Albany, there are always good venues. It’s kind of disappointing when the venues don’t make it, and you have to find new venues. I kind of have a feeling of “if we build it, they will come” kind of thing.

DS: It’s been kind of odd to me. Like post-COVID, I figured people would be coming out in droves, you know, to relax, but it seems like people got content with staying home. So, I wish people appreciated what all these hardworking musicians are doing, not to say that they’re not. Smaz Fest was awesome, and there are certain venues in certain places that still get good crowds and get a good community going, but it’s not as many as there used to be. You find yourself saying, “Oh, remember the good old days,” kind of thing. It’s still there, but you’ve got to be positive about everything.

RRX: What do you think about the democratization of art … the way that people are able to sit down and make an album in their home? The way that people have more accessibility to different platforms? What are your perspectives on that?

DS: I think there’s some good and bad. I don’t want to date myself too much, but I can remember being in bands, and all we wanted to do was make a record. And the only way to make a record was in the studio, so you’d work for six months at a job just to get enough money to go into the studio for a day and cut a record. And nowadays it’s so easy to make a record. I actually love it. You do have people that are making records that probably shouldn’t be making records, but the really good stuff floats to the top and is recognized.

SS: I mean, it’s twofold. It’s like COVID allowed us personally to… I took courses online through Berkeley, and I was able to get a Pro Tools certificate. So, I have the ability, and we were able to get equipment that we can record at home, and if that wasn’t available, we wouldn’t have put out the first album. So, our first album was completely done in-house. We recorded it ourselves. We mixed it ourselves, and we had someone master it for us. So that album, that first album that got us out into the universe, wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have technology available for, like, at-home use. However, on the flip side, on the next two albums we went crazy, and we drove all around the world to record. We recorded at Abbey Road Studios. We recorded at Cyber Sound in Boston. We did a whole bunch of stuff … we recorded in Ithaca, Syracuse, etc. But I think there is value in having the knowledge of what needs to be mixed, where and how and why. So, the availability of Logic and all of these other programs and YouTube videos … you can YouTube anything these days. It kind of floods the market – anybody can do anything. I think, like Dave said, you know, the cream rises to the top at the end of the day. So I think it’s getting more people interested in doing things; I think that’s a positive for sure, and I feel like hopefully the people that are working harder, it’s paying off.

RRX: I feel like you guys are the hardest working band locally. I’ve got to ask this … please tell me about your band name!

SS: That’s a big Dave question.

DS: OK, I’ve had the name in my back pocket for many years, and I always thought of it as like a symbol of strength. People have won wars off the backs of elephants, so it’s like elephant back, you know? With a lightning bolt on back of the elephant, and I just had that image in my mind. I sat there when we were first getting together and playing, and I’m like, “I have this idea for a name and a logo,” and she’s like, “Oh, I can do that.” And then she comes up with the logo.

SS: Yeah, it was pretty fun because when we first started writing music together, I was like, “Well, do you have any ideas?” “I’ve always wanted to name a band Elephant Back.” Yeah, he had this idea for the logo, and I was like, alright. I messed with it, and we came up with it. So, it’s been interesting because I think every time we tell somebody that’s our name, they’re like, “… what???” (laughs)

Be sure to check out Elephant Back October 9th at Artisanal Brew Works in Saratoga Springs. They will be releasing a video for their song, “Soundbite”, very soon.

RECAP: Eric Idle @ Universal Preservation Hall, 10/1/2026

chadfromalbany

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October 3, 2026

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RECAP: Eric Idle @ Universal Preservation Hall, 10/1/2026

by “Chad from Albany” Koenig.

The first night of the Saratoga Book Festival rolled into town on Thursday, October 1. Spearheaded by the Friends of the Saratoga Spring Public Library, venues throughout downtown Saratoga will be hosting a trove of events, and boasting presenters such as Joan Lunden, Julia Alvarez, Chris Bohjalian, John Searles, and the subject of the sold-out performance that opening night- the legendary Eric Idle.

Held in the uniquely fantastic Universal Preservation Hall—the former 19th Century Gothic Methodist Church of Saratoga— actor and comedy icon Eric Idle, most well known as one of the founders of the Monty Python sketch troupe, discussed his new memoir, “Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme,” a comedic chronicle discussing a ramshackle house, located in Southeastern France in 1971, that he purchased, and the restoration of it over the past 55 years. His book weaves the restoration of his “Shackeau” throughout his illustrious career as an ever-present part of his life, and tells the tales of famous friends visiting and enjoying the anonymity that came along with it.

Coming out to the stage to a standing ovation at the sold-out hall, Idle mentioned that he was appreciative of Saratoga simply for being the birthplace of David Hyde Pierce, who portrayed Sir Robin in the Broadway smash “Spamalot.” He immediately went on to explain the crux of the book and the origin of its purchase in 1971, during the first couple of seasons of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” He went further into the early days of that sketch show, and he remains surprised by its longevity 55 years in. He explained how fortunate the cast was to have had a show that aired at 10:30 pm on a Sunday night on the BBC, and the freedom they were allotted to be on during those late hours. “Flying Circus” yielded sketches that became famous in Britain six years prior to Saturday Night Live using that same model. And with the records released of their sketches, it was able to reach a global audience, including the United States. But as Idle noted, Canada embraced them first. That part of the conversation concluded with a humorous story of how the Monty Python cast toured Canada from Toronto to Vancouver in 1973 (under the moniker of “The First Farewell Tour of Canada ”). After Vancouver, they went to L.A. to debut on The Tonight Show. Idle explained that the American audience did not understand their humor at all, so they hurried their act and immediately ran outside to laugh on the lot because of how terribly they bombed.

The conversation shifted back to his French home and the renovations throughout the ’70s. He then started to talk about the celebrities that visited over the decades—many of whom are shown in color images within the book. He was asked who his most famous visitor was, and he responded with Robin Williams. Idle discussed that the location of the French house was ideal for people of note, as their celebrity may not have traveled to this region in those days. Williams first visited during his days on Mork & Mindy, and in America at the time, Williams couldn’t go anywhere without someone saying “Nanu Nanu” to him. But in Provence, the comics would go out to a dance club, and neither would be noticed. Williams even jumped on a table and said “Hey everyone, I’m Mork!” to a slew of startled faces, Idle recounted.

Other celebrities to have visited over the years ranged from Paul Simon, Penny Marshall, Art Garfunkel, and recently, Puddles Pity Party. But it was the stories involving George Harrison that were most fascinating. After explaining how the two sparked an immediate friendship after the Beatle tapped him on the shoulder to meet him at an event, their admiration for each other’s groups (Idle quipped, “I asked him about his John, and he asked me about my John,” obviously referring to Lennon and Cleese, respectively). He then told the story about how he told Harrison that Python were in need of financial assistance to fund 1979’s “Life of Brian” and that Harrison would do what he could to help. Not long after, Harrison told Idle that he got the money, and Idle asked how. Harrison re-mortgaged his house to the tune of 4.5 million dollars to assist them. Idle said, “Why did you do that?” and Harrison replied, “I wanted to see a movie!” Idle closed that bit by saying that still ranks as the most amount of money anyone ever spent on a movie ticket.

As the hour-long session came to a close, Idle briefly told stories about his four times hosting the early days of Saturday Night Live, as well as his memorable role in “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” before the moderator mentioned that Idle wanted to sing a song to the crowd. The joyously entertained crowd sang along with him as Idle played to a backing track, the iconic “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” which he penned for “Life of Brian.” An honor for those fortunate enough to be in the lovely Universal Preservation Hall.

The seemingly too-short event made us realize that we were in the presence of greatness. And the ambiance of the church was wonderfully fitting, almost in a Monty Python-esque way, especially knowing that the song that we sang in unison, on film, was sung and whistled optimistically by the cast being crucified in the desert sun, which, of course, was famously controversial. One couldn’t ask for a better backdrop.

Saratoga Book Festival information can be found here.

Universal Preservation Hall information can be found here.

Signed copies of the book are available here.

Cemetery Art 3

Photos

Joshua Scarselli

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October 3, 2026

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Welcome to the third installment of Cemetery Art! Right in time for the 1st day of Halloween, I took some time to go to Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, NY. (Yes, Halloween is the entire month of October, and I will die on this hill!)

Oakwood Cemetery is really a stunning place. There are rolling hills and great architecture to explore. Oakwood is also home to some notable figures, including Uncle Sam himself! It would take all day to really explore it.

Instead of my usual trip where I seek out the monuments, I took another approach: a spooky photo shoot! The wonderful Kira served as my model. She really did a fantastic job helping bring my vision to life. Being on the other side of the camera takes some guts. I definitely have a hard time with this.

Doing an actual photo shoot can be much more difficult than taking pictures of the stones. There are moments when the stones are the main subject and the model is there to complement them. You also need to be respectful of where you are. Capturing your vision without any desecration is key. Saying thank you to the people for the use of their stones can help avoid any attachments. (You either know or you don’t.)

These monuments were put there for the living. They serve as reminders of those who came before us. The monuments give us a brief glimpse into parts of people’s lives. We should use this in our own art when we can. They are already immortalized in stone. I like to immortalize them with my lens. Later in the month, I’ll visit again and take pictures of the graves for Cemetery Art 3, Part 2.

Happy Halloween!

Photography by Joshua Scarselli.

Escape the Fate @ Proctors, 9/30/2026

Photos

Staff

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October 3, 2026

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Escape the Fate provided support for Skillet on their Comatose tour at Proctor’s.

Photography by Mike Hart.

More coverage of the show here …

WORLDWIDE Exclusive Premiere: UMIKO Kotori ‘UKA (羽化)’ FULL ALBUM Stream 10/9/2026 on RadioRadioX.com

Stories

Staff

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October 2, 2026

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WORLDWIDE Exclusive Premiere: UMIKO Kotori ‘UKA (羽化)’ FULL ALBUM Stream 10/9/2026 on RadioRadioX.com at 4pm (New York) 11pm (Lithuania)

UMIKO Kotori
UKA (羽化)
The sound of becoming — an eleven-track album where electronic production,
live instrumentation and instinctive genre collision become one moving form.

Official album artwork by Eglė Fern · Photography by Dalia Mikonytė

UMIKO Kotori releases UKA (羽化), her eleventh album and the latest chapter in the long-running solo practice
of Lithuanian musician, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Elena Neniškytė. Written, produced,
recorded, mixed and mastered by Elena, the album captures an artist working without fixed genre boundaries
— following curiosity wherever it leads.
The title UKA emerged from an unexpected linguistic coincidence: Lithuanian “ūkas”, a nebula — a cloud of gas
and cosmic dust where stars can form — and Japanese “uka” (羽化), the moment an insect emerges from its
final skin and takes its adult form. One word describes where a star is born; the other describes the moment a
wing is born. Between them sits the album’s central idea: music in the moment of becoming.
The sound: Sonically, UKA moves like a living organism: deep electronic low-end, restless beats and live drums
meet distorted guitars, bass, saxophone, synths and vocals, pulling from grunge, krautrock, hip-hop, soul, punk
and experimental electronics without settling into one genre.

THE ALBUM
Music in the moment of becoming.
UKA is not built around one storyline. It behaves more like a mixtape: eleven distinct moods, each allowed to
exist on its own terms, while the whole record moves through pain, elevation, tension, release and sudden
turns of curiosity.
The album grew out of a much larger burst of writing: twenty tracks created across a single year, followed by
six months of mixing and mastering. Four became pre-release singles; eleven form UKA; five more remain to
come. The album therefore feels less like a sealed object than a cross-section of a living process — one point on
a line that keeps moving.
UMIKO Kotori’s working principle was deliberately simple: from everything in front of her, choose whatever
contains even the smallest spark of curiosity, follow it until it runs out, then choose again. The result is music
that can move between electronic production and live instrumentation, grunge, krautrock, hip-hop, soul, punk
and experimental sound without needing to settle into any one category.
Two collaborators appear on the album itself: Mantas Augustaitis on drums and Augustas Genutis on bass.
Simonas Šipavičius (saxophone), Paulius Volkovas (guitar), Mantas Daujotas (drums) and Augustas Genutis
(bass) also appear across the pre-release singles.

THE PRE-RELEASE SINGLES
Four signals before the emergence.
The four pre-release singles — POLITE, SWEETY, JUNGLY and GRUNGY — introduced UKA’s evolving world
through four distinct moods, each paired with a recurring handmade white mask across different Vilnius
locations, building toward the mask’s removal on the album cover.
The singles were released between April and July 2026, creating a visual and musical arc into the album.
POLITE received airplay on LRT OPUS; the wider audiovisual direction continues through moving image,
performance and real-time visuals.

THE VISUAL WORLD
From mask to emergence.
The visual identity of UKA has developed alongside the music since April. Across the four pre-release singles,
UMIKO Kotori wore a handmade white mask in different Vilnius locations. For the album cover, the mask is
removed for the first time: the visual metaphor of becoming made physical.
For POLITE, UMIKO Kotori created the mask herself and directed and edited the video, extending UMIKO’s
practice beyond recorded sound into moving image, performance and real-time visuals.

THE ARTIST
UMIKO Kotori / Elena Neniškytė
UMIKO Kotori is the solo project of Lithuanian musician, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Elena
Neniškytė. Her musical path runs from classical and jazz vocal training through Vilnius’s alternative scene and
into electronic music. She works across vocals, drums, bass, guitar, synthesizers and trumpet, maintaining an
independent practice in which she writes, produces, records, mixes and masters her own work.
UMIKO began in 2011, with the first album Wave arriving in 2012. “UKA” is her eleventh album under the
project. The catalogue includes the home-recorded lo-fi IF (2014), “Aftermath” (2017), recorded with a live
band at Big Jelly Studios in the UK, the audiovisual “In the Nowhere Without the No” (2020), and later releases
including “SAKE” (2022), “Sorry to be You” (2023) and “Spitting Supernovas” (2024).
Her live work has taken UMIKO Kotori to Portugal, Poland and Germany, including Casa da Música in Porto,
Halfway Festival in Białystok alongside Julia Holter, My Brightest Diamond and These New Puritans, and solo
performances in Berlin at ACUD Macht Neu and Donau115. In Vilnius she has opened for Efterklang and,
through her wider work, for Franz Ferdinand.
Neniškytė’s wider practice includes Ministry of Echology, shishi and the Mommy’s Karma project, as well as
production and recording for other artists. She has also composed for film, animation, theatre, contemporary
circus and visual art, and hosted the monthly Radio Vilnius programme “Kokie nelygūs Vilniaus šaligatviai”
from 2022–2024.

WHY THIS RELEASE MATTERS
For media, curators and music industry professionals, “UKA” offers a clear entry point into an artist whose
practice is already unusually broad: a self-contained producer and multi-instrumentalist with eleven albums,
international performance experience and a growing audiovisual language. The album is also the beginning of
a new visual phase — one that can extend naturally into live performance, moving image and real-time visual
work.

CREDITS
Lyrics, recording, mixing & mastering: UMIKO Kotori;
Album cover art & graphic design: Eglė Fern
Photography: Dalia Mikonytė
Musicians across singles and album: Mantas Augustaitis (drums), Augustas Genutis (bass), Simonas Šipavičius
(saxophone), Mantas Daujotas (drums), Paulius Volkovas (guitar)

Official website: umikokotori.com

Skillet @ Proctors, 9/30/2026

Photos

Staff

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October 2, 2026

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Christian rockers, Skillet, celebrated 20 years of their album, Comatose, at Proctors Wednesday.

Photography by Mike Hart.

Banned Book Week at Albany Public Library

Events

Staff

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October 2, 2026

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Banned Book Week at Albany Public Library

As book challenges and bans continue to rise across the country, our annual Banned Books Readout — on Oct. 6 at the Washington Ave. Branch — reminds everyone that access to information, diverse voices, and free expression are fundamental to a healthy democracy.

During the Readout, you’ll hear local performers read powerful passages from books that have been banned or challenged, illustrating the themes of free speech, intellectual freedom, privacy, and the importance of resisting censorship.

The program is presented in partnership with the New York Civil Liberties Union and APL, along with a coalition of community organizations committed to protecting intellectual freedom, including League of Women Voters of Albany County, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, and Albany NY Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Other Banned Books programs include:

And don’t forget to check out a banned book to read! Here are the most challenged books of 2025 from the American Library Association.

Liberty DeVitto – An Xperience Interview

Interviews

OP Callaghan

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October 2, 2026

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Liberty DeVitto – An Xperience Interview

(photo by R Shanahan)

Interview by OP Callaghan.

Liberty DeVitto is a phenomenal drummer, best known for his work as the drummer for Billy Joel. But as a session drummer, Liberty has played with a ton of other artists, including Elton John, Paul McCartney, and his current band, The Slim Kings. He’s a monster of a player, and will be appearing in a drum clinic on October 3rd at Rocky’s Music Studio in Latham. He will be appearing with Corky Laing, drummer extraordinaire from the band Mountain, coming together to BEAT Parkinson’s disease. All proceeds will benefit Parkinson’s Center YMCA in honor of Bob Girouard.

So please welcome Liberty DeVitto!

RRX: How did you get your start?

LD: I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do – tour the world with my friends and make music everyone loves.

RRX: Did you take lessons?

LD: No, at the time no one would teach me how to play R&R. They were jazz snobs and thought R&R was horrible.

RRX: Was there one song or performer that made you want to play drums?

LD: Ringo Starr! Then there was Dino Danelli from the Young Rascals!

RRX: You’ve had an astoundingly successful career as a drummer. Is there a certain song, performance, or recording that you’re especially proud of?

LD: That’s a tough question. I made 11 albums with Billy Joel. To pick one is impossible.

RRX: Yeah, that’s impressive! Who are you playing with now?

LD: I play with many people. My main band to perform with is The Lords of 52nd Street. It’s myself, Richie Cannata, and Russell Javors. We are members of the original Billy Joel band. We perform all the songs we recorded with Billy.

RRX: That’s quite a catalog! What can we expect at your upcoming clinic?

LD: Corky Laing and I will speak about our careers with both Billy and Mountain, along with taking questions and just having a great time, whether you’re a drummer or not.

RRX: I can’t wait!

The Xperience Monthly – October 2026

Justin Piatti

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October 2, 2026

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Go get your copy of The Xperience Monthly, September 2026 edition, for FREE, at any of the over 1,100 locations around the Capital Region of New York.
If you can’t find one, you’re not even trying!

Grab the Digital Edition here ===> October 2026