Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
One flaw in my New Paltz musical investigative journalism career, if you’d be so polite as to even refer to it as such, is that I thought I became aware of the existence of The Field Service too late. The first time I saw them perform was the spring of this year, when live music finally started making its way back to this town, their headliner performance at The Parlor’s 4/20 show being the gleam in the nighttime I needed to see to have faith in this scene after the disheartening pandemic year it faced. Much to my previous belief, I now realize I discovered them at the foot of the elevator, and I grabbed onto their jacket sleeves to witness a pretty successful stream of opportunity. Previously named SpaceShack, the jam band has been present in the New Paltz scene since 2017. The three original members, Devin Devine, Marshal Radulov and Chuck Crover, along with Alyssa Spiegl, are present today to tell the tale of their journey amongst a series of lineup and name changes. However, contrary to what their timeline suggests, they haven’t always felt like they fit the New Paltz bill. “We had a lot of trouble getting any gigs in New Paltz, because we weren't in the scene,” Crover said. “We weren't playing that kind of music. And at that time, we weren't even really centralized around here. But we were coming here because that's where the music was happening, and there were all these house shows and venues. But I think we only ever got booked at one place.” When the pandemic rendered musical performances to be outside in Fall 2020, a noticeable shift of sound overtook the DIY scene in New Paltz. For a class this semester, I wrote an assignment about it where I tried to line up all of the reasons for this change. Pre-pandemic DIY was primarily set in basements, which made for a very pop punk-type of blanket to coat the town, the genre most associated with those types of shows. When the setting changed to backyards and storefronts, the jam-wave followed. It’s no secret that COVID-19 deeply infected the way the scene operated. House venues fell apart. Organizers moved away. The music scene in New Paltz was very much nonexistent to the naked eye. Of course, it really wasn’t; the passionate musicians were still around. It demanded to be reconstructed again from the very bottom, and several musicians and other organizations such as Parlor braved the leap in the past year. “I think a big reason for that change is the conglomerate of organizers [falling apart,]” said Radulov. “Since COVID, all the house show stuff basically is nothing. It fell apart. There’s a lot more different kinds of events; it feels like a lot more other things are happening.” The Service went on to play several residencies at the Groovy Blueberry storefront throughout the Fall 2020-Spring 2021 year, most of the time accompanied by the Blueberry pioneers themselves, Man’s Mother. The original lineup is no stranger to the outdoor performance, however. Through a mutual friend and his backyard venue, Behind a House, located in Warwick, the band was able to get comfortable with playing to crowds in a cozy setting in 2018. “Behind the house was kind of our starting point for live music,” Crover said. “It turned into something bigger when a bunch of other bands came in. It was the kind of thing where whoever wanted to play could play there. It was really popular like this one summer when it first started, but come next year, everybody either went away to college or moved out of that area and there wasn't as much of that specific scene there.” Before starting off at Behind a House, the band didn’t even know how to go through the booking process. Despite this, the core trio of Devine, Radulov and Crover, all friends since high school, and the energy that they project off of each other has always been present in their live aspects.
The Field Service is spun together by a web of influences from all directions of the members; Crover’s Tony Hawk soundtrack and screamo favorites, Devine’s blues knowledge inherited from his jazz drummer father and Radulov’s dabbling in 1930s and 40s American acoustics all find a happy medium in the upbeat and funky sound the band presents nowadays, diving deep past what constitutes as your average jam band. “There's certainly less than that traditional aspect, now, in terms of jam bands,” said Radulov, who also makes music under the name Marshal Grey. “I mean, mostly what that stuff is trying to get stylistically, is kind of more like a late 70s disco. And because of some of the stuff we listened to, we have more of that inner sound than we used to, coming from the background of jazz and country which is what a lot of those bands at the time were coming from anyways. I feel it's pretty easy for us to get into that disco style stuff just because of our roots. It's an easy progression because it's natural. Even if you were unaware of their wonderfully blended musical chemistry, catching the Service live will give you a glimpse into the extensive bond the musicians share with each other. Improvisational flows, impromptu deflections and musical inside jokes run through their sets, showing the way they are all in tune with each other on and off the stage. “It's a language. It really is,” reflected Devine. “You can convey things through music that you really can't through words. You play guitar in a way that nobody else would, or you play drums in a way nobody else would. You learn how to communicate and make an effective thing out of it. It's just really cool to be able to do that and just watching it develop over time because it's never stagnant. It can be for short periods of time, but in the long run, it's always developing.” “I know how Devin plays and I know how Marshall plays,” Crover said. “I understand their language that they're speaking, and they understand mine, and we can kind of go off that. I have an idea of where that conversation, so to speak, is going and then I can react meaningfully. And, you know, that's cool.” As The Field Service gained more exposure from the New Paltz venues, they managed to land a couple of gigs in Manhattan, at venues such as Arlene’s Grocery and Connolly’s. For many musicians, getting gigs in the city is a peak, where they witness the most lively audiences and truly discover the notion of “making it,” but the band still feels their strongest connection towards their loving New Paltz crowd. That love comes with no surprise. During the summer months, the fields across from the Blueberry were flooded with people, moving to the music in their own way and cheering as the improvisations got faster. This bounces off the performers themselves, who feel as though they play better when they are supported by a crowd who not only understands their vibe and passion, but embraces them for it. “I think that the best thing [about New Paltz] is just that there's a very receptive audience to music here,” Crover said. “That's probably the best part about it, because if the crowd is digging you, then you're going to play better and you're going to play more in tune to the crowd.” “The whole thing together feels like it's from a different time,” Radulov added. “It feels good that the stuff that we were doing before everybody was kind of doing it is something that is a lot more acceptable, and a lot more people are okay with that.” Follow @thefieldservice on Instagram to stay updated on any upcoming news or gigs.
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