Tonight is a packed night for live music in Buffalo. If you're one of those people that have to go close your eyes at a Conspirator show to pretend you're seeing the Disco Biscuits, by all means do so, I've been there. Afterwards, head over to The Vault to catch some of Buffalo's finest original electronic acts. Show starts at 9.
Local artist Voodoo Friends released a remix of Radiohead's "Nude" that he made three years ago but only released today, stating that it's one of the best things he has done:
Obviously, it had to be our weekly remix. His remix of "Nude" is now one of four posted on his bandcamp page and possibly my favorite. I have listened to countless remixes of the tracks off Radiohead's infamous In Rainbows and its easy to go wrong when messing with such an amazing album. Voodoo Friends does a great job maintaining the beauty from the track while making it his own with whatever you dj masterminds do with these machines. Its great. I hope you enjoy.
Dust off your dancing shoes (as if they’d ever get dusty!) and head over to Babeville tonight for Reptar. The Athens, Georgia quartet is touring in support of their upcoming debut LP Body Faucet, due out May 1. According to bassist Ryan Engelberger, "The record feels like a big dream with different chapters.” You can preview songs from Body Faucet below, and then get blown away when you hear them live later tonight.
The show starts at 8 and tickets are $10. Be sure to get there early to catch fellow Athens, GA chamber pop group Quiet Hooves and local favorite Voodoo Friends.
The first buffaBLOG post was on March 28th of 2010 (and what a post it was). Since then, we have written over 2200 posts, recorded dozens of podcasts, and attended hundreds of concerts, which leads us up to today, as our little blog has turned two years old. Tonight, we are throwing ourselves a birthday party and what better way to celebrate than with a handful of our favorite Buffalo musicians. All week long, we have been previewing our stellar lineup of acts, which constists of Andrew J. Reimers' Country Punk Extravanganza, Early Attic, On Beta, Ramforinkus, and Voodoo Friends, but as for tonight, make sure to get to Nietzsche's for the real thing. Music begins at 10:00pm sharp, with a cover of only $5, and goes all night long. Be there to celebrate this great night with us. I can only hope our birthday is as glorious as Don's was.
I first heard about Voodoo Friends from this very site. That article sums up his background better than I can, so let's not plagiarize, that's what Wikipedia is for. Karl Hohn's electronic alter ego marks one of the few times I've uttered the words "this is great" without adding "for a Buffalo act". For a city that seemed forever doomed to have that asterix attached to it's local music scene, Voodoo Friends was a much needed breath of fresh air. While Buffalo has it's share of notable electronic artists, what sets Voodoo Friends apart is his songwriting ability. All of the technology in the world can't cover up the fact that your songs suck (Deadmau5, I'm looking in your direction... and while I'm at it, a person who wears a giant mouse head isn't allowed to criticize drug use). Whether he's remixing someone else's work or chopping up samples beyond recognition for his own compositions, there's a unifying sense of melody at the core. You get the sense that if Karl were to step out onstage with an acoustic guitar and play the same songs, they would still hold up, which is something that no amount of wobble can disguise. Tomorrow night, he'll be DJing between sets at our 2nd Birthday Party at Nietzsche's, so you'll never be more than 45 minutes away from a dance party. Keep your arms folded tight, I dare you.
To see more of our Voodoo Friends video, click here
“Really? No one complained?” James and I stood in the lobby
of The Hotel Lenox, a little flabbergasted at what we had just gotten away
with. The concierge politely confirmed that not so much of a peep was made to
the front desk. James thanked the man,
grabbed his clothes from the laundry room, and back up the elevator we went to
process what had transpired over the past 24 hours.
That previous night I sat in Early Attic’s practice
space. I had just finished stuffing
Matt’s PA system into my overworked Dodge Intrepid (an abuse the vehicle was all
too accustomed to) and decided to catch my breath for a moment and kick back
some warm Red Dog we had lying around. The easy part was over, pretty soon we
were going to have to figure out how to get the damn thing up several stories
while avoiding some uncomfortable conversations.
The next day Karl Hohn, a.k.a. Voodoo Friends, would
be using it to perform a secret show in James Wild’s apartment that we were filming to kick off buffaBLOG’s new video series. This was no doubt a risky
endeavor. Here we were, throwing a concert in the middle of the afternoon, in a
crowded apartment building, facing the looming threat of getting shut down at
any moment. This is, after all, a time where Acropolis can’t even play their fucking radio. If a reputable business could have this much
trouble putting on live music, who the hell were we?
Fortunately for us, the show went off without a hitch. Not
without a little help, though. My bandmate Matt McCheskey provided his PA system, Katie Africano spent the day scrambling around town to
secure camera equipment, Tom Dennis dropped in with his tripod, Chris Young
from The Wakos swooped in at the last minute to record audio when our soundboard recorder was
acting up. I’m trying to avoid an “I
get by with a little help from my friends” reference, but it’s true folks. A
lot of effort was made by a lot of people to make this work.
A very special thanks, however, goes out to the
tenants of The Hotel Lenox for not reacting like the humorless cogs plaguing Acropolis’s
hopes of contributing to the arts community this town so desperately
needs. Even Sal, James’s elderly
neighbor, who inadvertently shared our elevator trip with the entire PA system the night before, was only
interested in discussing the Sabres. When we reached his floor, he nodded at
the speakers, smiled and remarked, “those look heavy”, and strolled off into
the night. This town could use more Sals.
Check out the videos below, and be sure to catch Voodoo Friends live at our 2nd Birthday Party on March 31st at Nietzsche's.
Hooray!!!! We're turning two this year and to celebrate we have put together another fantastic night of local music. On Saturday, March 31st come to Nietzsche's to have the most fun you've had since our Holiday party! This time around we are bringing you the Andrew J. Reimers County Punk Extravaganza, Early Attic, On Beta, Ramforinkus, and Voodoo Friends. If you haven't seen these bands yet, then prepare yourself for some amazing music. The show starts at 10 pm and we will be there all night partying. We thank you ahead of time for graciously paying the $5 cover to pay the bands, and make sure you stop by the buffaBLOG table and pick up some buttons! See you there!!!
Have any plans for tonight? Want to experience some of the best local electronic music Buffalo has to offer? Yes. Of course you do. Grab your dancing shoes, lace those suckers up and come out to The Bend on Allen tonight at 10 pm to see Wakos and Voodoo Friends play an awesome set! The cover is only $2. From jazz-fusion to blues to experimental, the five dudes that comprise Wakos have created a heterogeneous technique of rich songwriting that is truly special. Voodoo Friends is Karl Hohn, a Buffalo native who developed his righteous synth-skills at Berklee College of Music, and has made Buffalo his home for the time being where he hopes to contribute to a music scene he says is “inviting and accepting.” You can’t go wrong with this combination of local talent. So come out to The Bend tonight, and don’t forget to bring a pal to boogie down with!
Something interesting has happened over the past several years in Buffalo: I have started seeing local music that didn't suck. Even more interesting, the shows were attended by more than the typical 5 sweaty, hairy nerds such as myself. One such act that I haven't been able to stop listening to is Voodoo Friends, who is part of a growing electronic music scene that has been brewing steadily over the past few years. This is his remix of The Joy Formidable's "Whirring", which he cuts up into a playful, bouncy dance anthem. You can check him out live at The Bend on January 26th with The Wakos. Check out both his remix and the original below.
So, it's New Year's Eve, and even
though the standard banter switched from “How was your Christmas?”
to “What are you doing for New Year's?” days ago, you still
haven't formulated a plan for the night. Best bet? Check out the New
Year's Eve Party for Drinking at SP@CE 224 (224 Allen St, 9pm). The
event is being advertised as a “Money Party,” meaning the
audience will be given stacks of fake money for bartering, and the
line-up features some of the best electronic acts in town. With
performances by the brain-bendingly trancey Jeff Repeater, synthscape
pop by Voodoo Friends, and a ball-drop set from electro-dance duo
Love Scenes, the Allentown gallery is set to start off 2012 right.
Hello, Brian here with some video from The Vault Holiday Show a week ago. I was able to get videos of two great local acts that should have your attention, Voodoo Friends and Applennium. Voodoo Friends will be joining buffaBLOG favorites Love Scenes on New Years Eve at Sp@ce224 Gallery, and Applennium will be at Mohawk Place on January 26th. Be sure to catch those shows!
Tis the holiday season and once again we find ourselves in that reflective mood. We think about the things we're thankful for and the things we sometimes take for granted. Well, I'll tell you what Buffalo. I'm thankful that we live in Buffalo.... Why?
Chicken Wings that are awesome. Check. 4am bar closing. Check. The Pink's steak sandwich. Check. And because Buffalo is home to some of the most creative, interesting and talented bands around. Take tonight's show at the Vault for example. We have four absolutely excellent groups that you'd be hard pressed to find in any other city. Early Attic have been absolutely killing it lately, along with with the newly formed and self-proclaimed "slumbercore" group, Voodoo Friends. Indie rockers, Applennium, have released one of my favorite tracks in recent memory ("Fizzle") and then you have Primrose, which features TJ of buffaBLOG faves, Love Scenes. Get your local flavor tonight at the best holiday party in town...it's time to start appreciating what we have here. $5. Starts at 8pm.
Voodoo Friends is comprised of one man, and that man is Karl Hohn, a Buffalo native who knows how to create a lot of sound for just one person. Creating "simple" pop music that sounds quite complex, Hohn's creations truly are soundscapes in which you can get lost, showcasing their creator's lifelong passion for music.
Before attending school at the Berklee College of Music, Hohn had written singer-songwriter guitar songs. Growing up with musical parents, he was never short on inspiration. "I was brought up on a really wide range - oldies, jazz, orchestral, Broadway show tunes. More or less anything but what was popular at the time," said Hohn. His own works don't give into popular trends either, leaning toward a longer form of electronic-based pop ear candy.
At Berklee, Hohn studied Music Synthesis which ultimately gave him the idea to base Voodoo Friends (a name chosen from an ad on a cardboard box in New York City's Garment District) out of his laptop. "My coursework revolved a lot around electronic production - synthesizers, sampling, editing and mix technique," explained Hohn. "The most valuable things I learned were in my composition classes. I got a much stronger grasp of form, structure, pacing - the basic shaping forces of music." Though he refers to his music as "simple songs about simple emotions," Hohn's skill shines through layers of synthesizers, ambient sounds and his own vocals that give the illusion of something much more complicated. What is clear is his perfectionist nature in aiming to achieve just the right sound.
Nothing in Voodoo Friends' songs seems spontaneous or unplanned, it's obvious that the works were made with a lot of care. "I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I'll start something over or scrap it completely if it feels forced," said Hohn. He's been successful thus far in keeping it natural as his songs flow seamlessly without any hint of pretension or falsity. On "Dying Light," each sound feels as though it's been born from the previous one, while each still manages to catch your ear in a different way.Other tracks "Spinning Out" and "Little Things" do the same, particularly with Hohn's vocals that are processed differently for each song to match the feel.
"I still don't really consider myself a songwriter as much as an arranger," explains Hohn, who doesn't have one standard way of creating music. Sometimes it's one certain sample that begins his process, other times it's the piano or vocals that get him motivated. One thing we can be grateful for is his decision to remain in Buffalo rather than staying in Boston after Berklee or pursuing the musical dream somewhere like New York City. "I feel like the musicians here are really doing their own thing rather than following the same old buzzband trends," said Hohn. "And it's easier to find your way in - the scene is very inviting and accepting."
All media shared on this website is intended for listening and viewing purposes only. If you would like to own the music file, we encourage you to purchase the music at a local record store or online. If we shared your intellectual property and would like it removed please email us, we will remove it immediately. Thanks.
