From the get-go, we wanted Parlor City Sound to not just cover Greater Binghamton, but pretty much everywhere with a 607 area code. And few bands are as synonymous with the Central New York and Southern Tier music scenes as Ithaca’s legendary Gunpoets. Their popularity is so widespread in Greater Binghamton that not having them amongst our artist profiles would be an injustice to the Binghamton music scene, which they’re indelibly a part of.
Gunpoets are a seven-piece hip-hop group featuring interstellar instrumentals backing two brilliant MCs. And don’t let the presence of the word “gun” in their name mislead you into thinking their music promotes violence. Their messages of love and compassion, community and peace are as overwhelmingly electrified as the audiences at their mesmerizing live shows. It’s a flavor of positivity, social consciousness, and stalwart activism that in no small part defines the regional reputation of Ithaca itself, and resonates so profoundly in the Greater Binghamton region.
Personally, my favorite Gunpoets memory took place in 2015. I wrote about politics then, a job I truly do not miss, and I was working on a particularly difficult and upsetting story the day Blues on the Bridge was happening. I felt so burned out and fed up with all the vitriol. So just as they took to the stage, I was taking a break and moving over to the window in the home office of my Southside apartment. I could hear Gunpoets’ set so clearly from that vantage. And their music reminded me there was still so much humanity in the world at a time when I needed to hear that the most.
Background
Formed in Ithaca in 2008, Gunpoets share some similarities with one of my personal favorite hip-hop groups, the Roots. Not only for their poignant, intellectual lyrics, but for their incredibly well-rounded instrumental musicality and the breadth of genres they explore through it. Their music branches out through subtle visitations to jazz and disco, rock and funk. They do a brilliantly reinvisioned cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. This is a band that can musically take you wherever you ask them to go.
Gunpoets drummer Phil Shay and DJ Double A on turntables provide a backbone rhythm that’s bright, tight, and driving. Bassist Michael Wu turns the concept of walking bass lines on its head, with a style I’m not at all afraid to liken to Jaco Pastorius and Victor Wooten. And with Eliot Rich on guitar and Colin Smith on keys, the Gunpoets’ signature sound grows even larger, with layer upon intricate layer of depth and creative atmosphere.
MCs Sun and Jayhigh each offer a masterclass in dynamic, fluid, articulate lyricism, each bringing in their own senses of style and flow that provide the band with two distinct vocal styles that never seem to compete for the same space, all with Smith peppering his excellent singing vocals into the mix.
Gunpoets have been headlining shows and festivals all through the Northeast, including headlining Blues on the Bridge twice, in 2015 and 2016. They’ve drawn huge crowds at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival, the Great Blue Heron Music Festival, Ithaca Festival, Ithaca Porchfest, and more. Their three studio albums include Shoot the Stars (2010), Come With Us (2012), and Bombs Away! (2016), as well as the live LP Gunpoets ♥ You: Live at the Hangar Theater (2014).
Learn more about Gunpoets
Gunpoets perform in and around Greater Binghamton regularly, with their very first live show of 2024 happening at the famed John Barleycorn Tavern on April 27th. Be sure to see them live when you get a chance, and keep an eye and an ear out for their upcoming singles. There’s no definitive release date on those yet, but we’re hoping to see them in late spring or in the summer, and we’ll be reviewing them not long after they’re in our headphones. In the meantime, be sure to check out Gunpoets online:
Gunpoets are an unsigned, self-represented band. Please contact Daniel Irving Lisbe at gunpoets@gmail.com for bookings and press/ media inquiries.
2 Replies to “Artist Profile: Gunpoets”
Comments are closed.