It's my last post for buffaBLOG, as my life will be a-changing in the coming months, and there's no better way to send myself off than with a preview for one of my favorite bands of all time, moe.! I've seen moe. more than I've seen any other live band, and every time they come within a reasonable driving distance, I still go back for more (err, moe.).
Formed at my alma mater, the University at Buffalo, moe. has been perhaps the most consistent band in the jam scene since the mid-1990s. The reason I love them is because, while they can jam out just like the likes of Phish and Umphrey's, they pay special attention to songwriting and structure, as a large number of their songs wouldn't sound out of place on a popular rock radio station. Additionally, seeing co-lead guitarist/vocalist Chuck Garvey play is worth the price of admission by itself. And the other guitarist, Al Schnier, bassist Rob Derhak, drummer Vince Amico, and percussionist/utility man Jim Loughlin are all formidable musicians and songwriters themselves.
The show is sold out, so if you don't have a ticket, you'll have to wait 'til next time, which shouldn't be long, because moe. tends to visit the area at least twice a year.
The South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas seems to get bigger with each new edition - evidenced by the plan to have Bruce Springsteen give this year's keynote address and NPR broadcast it - and Buffalo is lucky enough to be sending three bands to this year's hullabaloo. The Albrights, Son of the Sun, and The Tins are three determined and up-and-coming indie outfits from our fair City of Light, and tonight, The Good Neighborhood is helping finance their trek to SXSW in Austin with a sendoff show at Nietzsche's. Each band will play a set, starting at 10 p.m., and the $5 cover you'll pay will help make their trip a little easier.
In this age of decreased attention spans, I don't want to write too much and lose you before you hear this amazing track from three modern-day musical heroes - Gorillaz creator and Blur frontman Damon Albarn, rap genius Andre 3000, and LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy. It's called "Do Ya Thing," a promotional track for Converse. You can download it for free here, and you can watch the crazy music video below. Enjoy.
One of the underground rap scene's innovative producers is performing at Soundlab tonight. Blockhead, perhaps best known for producing many tracks for hip-hop wordsmith Aesop Rock, hits the stage at 10 p.m. tonight. Blockhead's atmospheric, trip-hoppy beats have gotten him compared to the likes of DJ Shadow and RJD2, two of my favorites from the hip-hop instrumental realm. Heads will certainly be hypnotically nodding up and down tonight. Admission is $12.
Rochester's RootsCollider and their brand of "livetronica" and "dubcore" will hit the stage at Mr. Goodbar tonight at 11 p.m., when they will open for the funky jams of the Twin City Kings. RootsCollider's name comes from the idea that they fuse a host of what they call "roots" genres - reggae, dub, drum & bass, dubstep, electro-rock, and funk. Their song "Akuma," streaming below, is a good example of the dance craziness they can throw down regularly. The Twin City Kings are a young band out of - you guessed it, the Tonawandas - and their vibe is an original take on Hendrix and the like. Admission is $3.
Wanna dance around like a fool tonight? Head to Nietzsche's, then, for Athens, Ohio's Papadosio, a band that does the electro-jam thing as good as anybody. Think Lotus and the Disco Biscuits crossed with your favorite DJ. Self-described as "conscious, mind-expanding dance music that purposely defies classification," Papadosio hits the stage at 10 p.m. tonight. Admission is $15.
Anyway, it seems Dave and Co. come to Darien Lake every summer, and we just found out that they'll be back again, on July 3. Even if you hate DMB's music and hate their often-obnoxious fans even more, their concerts often make for a great party in the parking lot.
It was a dance party. That's the one thing I keep thinking about last night's sold-out Umphrey's McGee show at the Town Ballroom. It's really too bad that the Ballroom's disco ball is out of commission; it could've been put to good use last night, especially considering light guy Jeff Waful's amazing light show.
The worst part? I got there a little late, and I missed opener "The National Anthem" - yes, the Radiohead song. I'm still not over it. I walked in during the middle of a groovy "Professor Wormbog," which the band morphed into a tease of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"; Jake Cinninger played David Gilmour's solo note-for-note perfect. The set ended with a scorching "Mulche's Odyssey," one of the more rocking tracks off of 2004's Anchor Drops.
But it was during the second set that Umphrey's really started heating up. The improvised jam out of set-opener "Spires" was "by far the best jam of 2012. Very fast, tight funk," according to Waful. And the band remained on fire for the rest of the set. After bassist Ryan Stasik and Cinninger traded solos in the prog-metal suite "Search 4," the band treated the crowd to four straight songs of more dance-funk bliss, which started out with an unbelievable cover of Daft Punk's "Voyager." Umphrey's is known for spanning an enormous range of genres, but they are still a rock-and-roll band, and for them to faithfully recreate a Daft Punk electro-rave song is truly laudable.
The funk reached its peak during "Soul Food II," an original take on classics like Parliament's "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)," and it finally slowed down for the downtempo (yet still groove-heavy) "Atmosfarag," giving the crowd a chance to catch its collective breath before set-closer "All in Time," complete with drum and percussion solos, melted its collective face.
Umphrey's gets better every time I see them. I do not exaggerate when I opine that they are the best live band in the business right now.
In less than a year of writing for buffaBLOG, I've already written about Umphrey's McGee countless times. It seems there's always something to say; they're always playing cheap shows in Buffalo, they released a killer new album in the fall, and it doesn't hurt that, in my humble opinion, they're the best live band going right now. See for yourself tonight at the Town Ballroom (that is, if you have a ticket - it's sold out). They can be considered a jam band, but they do things other jam bands can't, like segue from a raving trance groove into a scorching metal manifesto. Plus, light guru Jeff Waful provides the best visual supplement to music I've ever personally witnessed. Show starts at 9 p.m.
The main point of this post is to point you to Complex magazine's list of the 50 best J Dilla songs, posted in commemoration of the late Detroit hip-hop producer's birthday and untimely death (Tuesday and Friday, respectively). It's a fantastic list and tribute to Dilla's indisputable genius. It awakened me to many tracks I'd never heard before and allowed me to reminisce on some of my all-time favorite hip-hop songs. Author Andrew Barber did a great job, and he clearly has listened to more of Dilla's output than I have, but I still have to join the debate. Here are six great tracks I think he should have included:
6. Slum Village - "Fat Cat Song"
From Slum Village's debut album, Fan-tas-tic Vol. 1, which put then-SV house producer Dilla on the map. The off-kilter bounce of the piano and the "oooh" and the "aaaahh" of the soul samples were early indicators of Dilla's trademark style.
5. Jaylib - "The Red" Champion Sound was a collaboration album between Dilla and my personal favorite underground producer - Madlib of Oxnard, Calif. - which featured the two rapping over each other's beats. "The Red" was the album's first single.
4. Common - "New Wave"
Common's experimental Electric Circus, which showcased lots of production from Dilla, was misunderstood by many. But there's no doubting "New Wave," featuring an aggressive piano riff played on the instrument's lower register and segueing into a thoughtful chorus sung by Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab.
3. Raekwon the Chef - "10 Bricks"
Released after Dilla's death, "10 Bricks" was one of two tracks he produced on Rae's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. II (the other, "House of Flying Daggers," made the Complex list). As Dilla was primarily known for his feel-good Soulquarian bounce and his love-rap jams, these beats showed he could emulate the grimy Wu style as well as RZA himself.
2. DOOM - "Gazillion Ear"
Another posthumous Dilla beat, this time off of DOOM's Born Like This, "Gazillion Ear" is actually comprised of two Dilla compositions - "Dig It" and "Phantom of the Synths." DOOM does the late great producer justice, providing four-plus minutes of classic hip hop.
1. Slum Village - "The Look of Love"
My personal favorite Dilla track. I don't know how this didn't make the Complex list. Something about this song just gets me every time. Its mellowness, its quiet confidence, the seemingly freestyled verses of Dilla's SV brethren - just give it a listen:
I write about Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad whenever they come to town, so here's an original spin on my usual "go see this great band tonight" post:
I just listened to Roger Goodell's annual "State of the NFL" press conference. During it, he was asked about the situation involving our beloved Buffalo Bills playing one of their home games in Toronto every year. He invoked that great buzzword that is always used to describe the phenomenon: regionalization. The Bills, in playing in Toronto and holding training camp in Rochester, are regionalizing themselves, expanding their base to include all of Western New York and Southern Ontario, rather than only the Buffalo-Niagara area, which will hopefully provide the incentive and financial stability to keep the team here forever. (Or so they tell us.)
That's what Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is doing: regionalization. Because - even though they're from Rochester - they play here so much and their shows are so well-attended that I feel as if they are our very own band here in Buffalo. And they keep moving up; they were even featured on NPR's All Things Considered recently. Their combination of solid songwriting and groovy reggae dub will be on full display tonight at Nietzsche's, as the band will play an acoustic set and an electric set on the heels of their new album Country being released on Tuesday. Doors at 9 p.m., $12 admission.
There is a new artist management company in town. On Friday, Blue Stream Productions is set to officially launch. The company will allow local up-and-coming bands to sign on for management, merchandising, social media, and public relations services. Run by local merchandising/management guru Josh Holtzman, the company's initial lineup of artists features three giants from Buffalo's prog-jam scene: Aqueous, Peanut Brittle Satellite, and Slip Madigan.
Holtzman said the company's roster will eventually expand to include artists of all types of genres, but the focus for now is on progressive, psychedelic rock bands - and the Buffalo/Upstate area has plenty to boast.
"We want to have a wide collection of music that we, as managers, stand behind," Holtzman said. "I never want to represent a band I don't fully believe in or have a love for."
Before Blue Stream, Holtzman managed Aqueous and produced merchandise at local outlet Park Avenue Imprints for a wide variety of bands. Also on the Blue Stream team are Ryan Bress, Carolyn Lesniak, and Amy Badger.
Must-see show tonight for Beatles fans. Yellow Dubmarine, a D.C./Baltimore reggae tribute to the Beatles, is bringing "Abbey Dub" to Nietzsche's. The performance is a dubbed-out rendition of my personal favorite Beatles album, Abbey Road, complete with reggae riddim and an impressive horn section. Yellow Dubmarine's versions of the Fab Four's compositions are originally imagined; for example, I saw a video of "Octopus's Garden" sans vocals, with the saxophone and trombone emulating Ringo's melody.
Opening the show will be Universe Shark and their infectious brand of "carnivorous spacefunk." And a portion of the $12 cover charge will go to a great cause, Buffalo Outdoor Urban Education. Doors at 9 p.m.
Eclecticism will be on full display tonight at Nietzsche's, whose Friday showbill boasts bands that are rather hard to categorize. Kicking off the night will be Peanut Brittle Satellite/Lazlo Hollyfeld hybrids Logo City (pictured above), whose jazz influences rival their jam band tendencies. Next, Family FUNKtion and the Sitar Jams will bring their downtempo Indian grooves to the Allen Street stage. See the video below for an interestingly plodding yet hypnotizing jam from the three-piece (bass, drums, sitar), which is followed by a more uptempo piece. Also playing will be Shapes of States.
My post today is rather simple. Can we all agree, both bands and fans, to show up to shows on time? This mainly applies to the beginning to mid-level bands that don't have hordes of anxious fans lining up early to get a good spot. Here's how it usually works out with these shows:
Band advertises show at 10 p.m. sharp! Don't be late!
Loyal fans start trickling in around 9:45. Casual fans text to clarify the start time or to explain that they're "on the way."
Band milks it, hoping to maximize the crowd before the next band on the bill, the bar staff, and/or the fans who are already there become impatient.
An adequate number of people have arrived by 10:30. Band starts playing. Venue fills up by the set's third song.
For the band's next show, even the loyal fans realize that the band members are lying when they tell everyone to be there at 10 p.m. sharp! They show up at 10:30. This pushes the casual fans back to 10:45. Now, the next band on the bill and the bar staff are starting to get impatient.
The pattern continues.
Maybe this is just a byproduct of Buffalo's bars being open until an ungodly 4 a.m. - people somehow think 10 p.m. is early. But couldn't we just avoid this if we all agreed, once and for all, both bands and fans, that the show should start at the time it's advertised to start at? Meaning that all bands start at that time, and all fans are there by that time?
This will never happen, but it's worth bringing up.
The Johnny Hart Band headlines Mohawk Place tonight, with Sam Brenner getting things started at 9 p.m. Hart was a member of the now-defunct South Buffalo band Southside, and now he's fronting his own band. I couldn't find much else about the group on the interwebs.
Brenner is a Buffalo-born singer-songwriter whose pop-rock sound was captured on last year's Where We Begin. He is now touring the nation in support of the album. The video below is an acoustic performance released as promotional material for the record.
A extravajamza (see what I did there?) is set to take place at Nietzsche's tonight. The combination of Effective Resolution, Slip Madigan, and the newly formed MKGs is indeed a groovy one, as all three groups are liable to stretch a jam into funky and psychedelic territory. I've seen Effective Resolution (pictured above) a few times, and there really isn't any band in Buffalo anything like them. Their brand of hip-hop, R&B, funk, and rock music is unique and refreshing. Slip Madigan, meanwhile, has been taking the scene by storm with what they call "psychedelic experimental folk-rockin' mind-expanding knifetastic brainfood." That should be enough to get you to check them out. Show starts at 10 p.m.
Odd Future, the Los Angeles underground hip hop collective that broke through in 2011, is reportedly releasing the sequel to it's 2008 debut, The Odd Future Tape, on March 20th. Appropriately titled OF Tape Vol. 2, the album will mark a return to hearing from the group all at once after a slew of solo releases.
The Odd Future rappers have been the subject of controversy for their explicit lyrics, violent/offensive themes, and immature behavior, taking the shock factor to a level not reached since Eminem's early days (many of the group's members idolize Eminem).
Odd Future songs are often very hit or miss, but regardless of what you think of the lyrics (and if you have objections, you are certainly entitled to them for good reason), the tracks that are "hits" showcase some of the most innovative new hip hop music I've come upon since I first heard MF DOOM. For that reason, I'll be listening when this album comes out.
The song below, "Bastard," gives us a glimpse of OF leader/rapper/producer Tyler, the Creator at his most vulnerable (he is usually crass and intentionally offensive).
Tonight's late show at Mohawk Place is headlined by a Pittsburgh outfit called Red Hands, whose alt-metal sound grooves as much as it roars. When I checked out their Facebook page, the first thing I heard was a driving guitar riff in 7/4 time - the beginning of the epic "The Waves Won't Destroy Themselves." This isn't the type of music I usually get into, but I found myself enjoying the couple of songs I found online. The show gets started at 10 p.m., and openers include Alberto Alaska, All of Them Witches, and Voices of Autumn.
Tonight, local DJ collective The Vinyl Retentives hosts its monthly "Freeform Friday" at Merge. The party starts at 10 p.m., and there is no cover. That means free tunes, and these will likely be tunes you won't hear anywhere else, as the Retentives describe their respective record collections as "embarrassingly good." DJs Needles Numark, Fjordan Turlingua, and King Eider come from widely diverse musical backgrounds and preferences, so you won't be hearing any Top 40 hits at Merge tonight. But the Retentives may just play an attention-grabbing cut from your new favorite band - the one you haven't heard of yet.
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It's my last post for buffaBLOG, as my life will be a-changing in the coming months, and there's no better way to send myself off than with a preview for one of my favorite bands of all time, moe.! I've seen moe. more than I've seen any other live band, and every time they come within a reasonable driving distance, I still go back for more (err, moe.).
