Silo3 - wny music blog

Handsome Jack Unleash Super Moon

2011-09-28T18:23:00.003-04:00

On a cool, fall Saturday night the flannel-clad descended upon the western edge of Allen Street to celebrate the latest release by local hard rockers Handsome Jack. The crowd spilled out of Nietzsche’s and onto the sidewalk in anticipation of hearing songs from the band’s fourth proper studio album, Super Moon.

Sitting next to the merch table, just a few feet and a few hours from where his band will take the stage, guitarist and lead singer Jamison Passiute leans back and says the band had an extremely simplistic approach to the new record.

“We basically listened to what we did in the past, heard things we don’t like, and kinda go in the opposite direction.”

Over the past year the band scraped together money for Super Moon by playing in a multitude of different bars throughout Western New York. Some of those included long hours and late nights doing 3-hour stints at Gonzo’s in Lockport “just to make some money.” Passuite explains the band would do what it could to earn enough money to pay for recording and pressing the album.

“We even played a birthday party for some guy we didn’t even know cause they paid us 400 bucks just to do it.”

After a stripped-down, drummer-less set by fellow classic rockers Johnny Nobody and indie atmospherics by the Mourdant Sisters, Handsome Jack takes the stage around midnight to a packed-in back room of Nietzsche’s, buzzing with anticipation. The group quickly settles into their somewhere-between-mid-and-slow-tempo bluesy groove.

***

Holed up at Matt Smith’s HI/LO Recording in Eden, NY the band recorded the majority of the music in just two days. After a few overdubs, some re-recording and mixing, Super Moon was completed in just less than three months. Inspirations varied from song to song but are all “rooted in the same feel” said Passiute.

While the title Super Moon could easily be mistaken for a pagan reference, the album, with its down-home lyrical affirmations, feels like a template for what they could be playing at packed-full mega churches instead of the typical Christian rock and reworked hymns. On “Time will tell”, Passuite sings “I know there’s a good life that’s out there in the sun/ It’s not too far to see.”

On stage, the band belts out the new songs with the conviction of a Sunday preacher, inspiring more than a few sweaty dancers. The group maintains a rhythmic slow burn as Passuite and bass player Joe Verdonselli wring every note from their instruments. It’s now in the early hours of Sunday morning, and Handsome Jack is working hard to conjure up a catharsis-- just a few yards from the First Presbyterian Church quietly sitting down the street.

Music Is Art, kind of.

2010-09-29T17:55:00.003-04:00

a Rudy Sizzle review

Would an artist who has work within the paragon that is the Albright Knox Museum cringe at some of the sights and sounds of the Music is Art Festival? Would he or she be disgusted by the over-priced and sub par vendors and crafts being filched as cuisine and artistry?

I cannot imagine Renoir being inspired by a bloated belly dance troop from Williamsville sloppily traipsing through the courtyard of the Museum façade and I am pretty sure Mozart would gladly toss crab apples at the generic, blustery hoopla that sprung forth from the backline of amps of the usual suspects at this years MIA fest. Sadly, art is not being yielded at this event, but rather the mirrored image of a banal culture and its slovenly patrons. Does this seem to be a concern to the masses that get drawn to this event (for the 6^th year now)? Would the suburbanites who show up in droves care if the music was higher browed and perhaps the vendors were of higher standard?

Being that as it may, people still enjoyed themselves. Perhaps the event should be called “Music and overpriced food is fun for most people,” or “Music is art, kind of.” I get the feeling that the average MIA audience member is friends with someone in a band (you know the type: you went to see them play at 3pm, bought a hot dog, drank some beer, did not watch any other stage, did not even know there was a side stage around the corner, or did not know any of the other bands, so therefore they probably suck.) Chances are you saw your friends play and thought they should’ve played longer, since it is strictly 3 songs per act, but hey you don’t make the rules. The rules are pretty straight-forward. Most bands think they can sneak in a 4^th, perhaps even 5^th tune. I mean, c’mon, Robby likes us more than the other bands. He totally gave us the sweet slot because he loves you man.

I honestly think Robby’s intentions are relatively good, I just think he has bad taste. There is no accounting for this in today’s day & age though, especially when people are herded like cattle and given the scraps to chew on. I guess I should not look the gift horse in the mouth since Robby is supporting the local community with this event. It just seems that there are so many amazing artists not being represented. It seems that it is always the same line up, with a few variations to keep it seemingly “fresh.” But that being said I pretty am sure if my band spent a ton of our hard earned cash in Robby’s beauty of a studio, I’d expect to be put on his showcase too.

inTheirWords: The StayLows on The Signature Bridge

2010-06-08T16:32:00.009-04:00

This spring, local indie rockers The Stay Lows dropped their latest full length album, The Signature Bridge. As some reviews of the album are already out, silo3 met up with the band in order to break it down-- track-by-track, "director's commentary" style. In the process, the band delved into how the songs were written, the concepts behind them, and most importantly which one is JP Losman's favorite.

The Stay Lows are:

Jim Schiffert-Guitar,Bass,Vox
Eric Kendall - Guitar
Rick Wright - Cello
Brandon Delmont - Drums
Jeff Delmerico - Bass, Keys

1) Burning None
"What's kind of weird is-- and it's the same thing with the last album-- the order we have been writing them, is how they've been ending up on the albums too. I don't know if that means anything, but that's where we started and the songs progress as we progressed going through it. So if somebody has it on 'shuffle'-- don't." (RW)
---
"It's a great intro to what we were trying to accomplish, by releasing the four songs we had written previously and then bridging into the newer stuff." (RW)

2)Business of Taking Care
"That song, more that the rest of them, evolved during the mixing." (JS)
---
"That's probably one of the first songs where we wanted the vocals to be prevalent in writing (the song) at least." (EK)
"Actually, more of the new stuff is 50/50 right now, if not weighted more toward the vocal side." (JS)
"Yeah, our next album is going to be doo-wop" (BD)

3)They Smoked the Moonlanding
"I really like the concept of industrial-in-motion. When we started the electronic drum beats on there and in some of the other parts, it just started morphing. We had a couple of themes going into the album and post-album a couple more came out." (RW)
--
"That was also JP Losman's favorite song-- he told us." (RW)

"At a Califone show. We opened for Califone and he was there." (EK)

"He came up to us after the set and said he liked us. We had a demo of 'Moonlanding' up (online) and he's like, 'Yeah, it's on my pump-up tape.' " (JS)

4)Are You Guys Pilots?
“That’s actually my favorite song. I guess playing it on drums, it’s cool, you get the best of both worlds. You have a groovy, I don’t want to say dance-y or whatever, but it has a feeling to it more than just like-- rock. Then it kind of goes into, a rock thing. But I don’t know it’s just a really good song.” (BD)

5)Haunted Mouse
“Haunted Mouse was the one song written in that weird practice space on Main St.” (RW)

“We would just heard these two bands that were really loud (all the time).” (BD)

“It was the quietest song we wrote ‘til it progresses…” (RW)

“...until the guitar part then we’re like ‘All right, we have to be louder than the other bands in the space and this is what we’re writing right now.’ “ (JS)

6)Back of the Face
“When we were recording, and we got to that final part, things started just adding on, and adding on-- that’s when I started kind of getting excited about it. Because, there’s a lot of stuff going on and it was just crescendo-ing very nicely.” (RW)
---
“I always thought (the song) was hysterical… We played with this band Dungen, from Sweden, and the dude from that band came up to us and said (in a Swedish accent)‘That song you did was beautiful-- that dun-ga-dun-ga-da dun-ga-dun-ga-da.’ It was great.” (BD)

7)To Evil (Waltz)
“I came up with the original thing at home and I had just started playing with them. I went out on a limb and showed these guys (the song). They took it and turned it into what it is. But it was a totally new idea for me to be in a band where people listened to me.” (BD)

“And that was the last time that ever happened…” (JS)

8)Ugly Babies
“When we play live, we’re a loud band. We’re not deafeningly loud, but we’re up there on the decibel level, and when we were writing that song, I wanted something that took take advantage of the fact that we play loud.” (JS)

“Yeah people nod their heads. People tap their toes…” (RW)

“I don’t really understand why it works, but it seems to.” (JS)

9) The Pastoral
“What I like about that song-- it has such a great sad, tinge-y melody. But then there’s the comedic part, the 70’s cop part, and this is probably very Stay Lows, is to take a really nice, beautiful piece of music and then lob it between comic, you know, cop parts and stuff.” (BD)
---
“That song's a good closer.” (EK)

“Yeah, its kind of like when Hercules walks off on the path, but with that like ‘To be continued…’ ” (RW)

METAL DETECTOR: SHAMROCK SHAKES

2010-03-08T16:16:00.003-05:00

the METAL DETECTOR

with Al Wreckless

As every metal fan knows, metal is not just a musical style; it’s a way of life. And it takes commitment. To truly be metal, at least 83% of your world must be classified as metal. Unfortunately, in the modern climate of the world, lines between reality and fiction are blurred more than ever. It’s getting harder and harder to determine what is truly metal. That’s why you need THE METAL DETECTOR.

Today, we take a look at seasonal McDonald’s beverage offering, the Shamrock Shake. This milkshake is a celebration of all things Irish, from its green color to former mascot Uncle O’Grimacey. Primordial would approve. The treat is only available for a limited time each year, which makes you savor each experience as it may be the last one you taste for a while. Guns N’ Roses would approve. Though Axl’s output hasn’t been as consistent as Mickey D’s, so maybe we shouldn’t put too much stock into his opinion.

On the other hand, as with pretty much everything else McDonald’s offers, it leads to the abuse of cows, as they are pumped full of hormones, have the milk sucked dry out of them, then turned over to the slaughterhouse where they become Big Macs. Rise Against would disapprove. But Carnivore would approve. So let’s call that one a wash.

Honestly, Shamrock Shakes aren’t all that metal. But they are delicious, which bumps them up a few points to a score of 5.5 Manowars.

Infringement Fundraiser / Chili Cookoff@ Nobody’s 1/30/2009

2010-02-11T11:31:00.008-05:00

Performance Art in a Vacuum

a Rudy Sizzle review

Hello. What? Art is expression? Sure. I guess if you want to express yourself, you are entitled to do so in any way you see fit. The more you attempt to explain yourself though, the less the definition sticks, so just let your freak flag blow freely in the wind and have no concern as to what intellectual jerks and scornful sour pusses might take away from your zeal and eccentricities as you wiggle into your hipster clown suit and bang away on your Microkorg on a dirty basement floor. REMEMBER GRASSHOPPER: It is crucial to remain vigilant to ones own Id, appearing unscathed by the criticisms of anyone. You can transcend judgment by being the lightning rod that sets fire to that barn full of gas tanks. We’ve all been scrutinized by someone, there is always a pair of eyes attached to a nasty brain waiting to slice us up & cut us down to the size with a diatribe of venomous slander and opinions as far as the eye can see. No one is impervious to this; it’s just how thick your skin gets that makes the difference in the long run. You need to see yourself as a warrior and the battle is that stage, floor, whatever.

I am convinced that the above is a thesis for some lunatic staring intently in the mirror, dressed in a chicken suit with a banjo running through a loop station and a future gig booked @ (insert art space) as part of this years up coming Infringement Festival. I am not surprised that the Infringement Festival exists and that Buffalo has a sizable contingency of freaks and geeks that get hyped up over it. I love seeing people spill out of the shells, leaving the comfort of their bedroom to emulate the likes of Laurie Anderson, John Cage and Tony Conrad. Noise makers, avant-garde poets, theatrical misfits, jokesters and everything above and beyond congregate in unique settings to expose an alternative to the socially accepted “alternative” music and art scene. It is left of the left. Tending to be a rallying cry for local misanthropes who rarely leave the weirdness dungeon (or their video game stations), the Infringement Festival is good for someone who is uptight and used to a homeostasis that is flannel button downs and "indie rock cool" like me. I mean, I love experimental music as much as the next guy, but being immersed in an entire event dedicated to the crème of Buffalo’s freaky crop is a good dose of reality for us square pegs.

Freeze frame: Me, standing in the middle of the NAC (Nobody’s Art Center), ingesting homemade Chili and slugging down a delicious stout bought @ Mobil on the Run last Saturday. Life is weird. I stood there for a moment fixated on the painting of what seemed to be an impressionist piece of an ice cream melting City Hall done in Lemon Yellow and Purple and realized that the chili I liked the best was painted by the artist, Jason Klinger. Damn. He is really talented in both culinary art and fine art. I cannot paint anything except for skeletons with snakes coming out of their eye sockets (thanks heavy metal upbringing) and Slash portraits (thanks heavy metal upbringing, yet again!) I used to think that fine art was out of my league to criticize and that my opinions were of no consequence. There is some truth to this, and this can also be said for critiquing ones performance art. How the hell am I going to know why Gallagher smashes Watermelons? Eugene Chadbourne amplifies a rake, scratching it across the stage nonsensically and an audience of onlookers act impressed, while Pam and I stand there packing up the last of our gear post set thinking “what are we doing wrong?” There is no wrong or right in performance art. It is completely the moment’s notice, an impulse, totally unexpected and Id driven. This is something that resonated quite clearly at Nobody’s last Saturday.

I stood watching amazed and smiling watching The Dense, one of the finest examples of a local all-star lineup held in check by neurosis and gravity. The old adage “you don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone” aptly applies to the Dense playing their final show last Saturday. It was a shame to hear Andrew Sannes (the main impetus for the bands anxiety and overall live expression) state gloomily, “this is it for us folks, the last time we’ll all be playing together.” I love the Dense. There is no better example of raw catharsis with insanity as the glue then this band. They are genuine and the songs are great. No filler bullshit the music is stark and at times a throwback to early DEVO, the Dense is Buffalo music in a nutshell. Underdogs, freaks, odd ball textures (2 basses, a strange poly-synth droning throughout the set and bizarre manic vocals) with songs that tear across the room with abandon. I felt like I was watching early Floyd with Barrett. I am convinced that people will find a CD-r demo of them in 10 years and wax nostalgic about how amazing they were at this little art space back in the day. This shit never surprises me-- I always feel like the best things get swept under the rug or left in a box in the attic.

The other performances of the night were supplied by local dynamic Duo, A Hotel Nourishing & the Blue Laser. AHN is remarkable and rarely disappoints. Their music is taut and furious, somewhere between mid 90’s post punk and “For Respect” era Don Cab. If you find yourself watching them and thinking, “damn!” that is usually the common response yielded from AHN live. I’ve seen them on many occasion and this was no exception to their sheer kinetic force and explosion of sound.

Blue Lazer took to the stage last, but certainly not least in any way. There was a bit of downtime between the change-over but in the end it was well worth the 30 minute wait. Featuring a cast of bongo drum (with a contact microphone attached and boy was it loud!) and two keyboardists (one schooled, one not so schooled). The main thrust of the Blue Lazer set was a rant comprised of nonsense and strangely matter of fact humor that Blue Laser front man, Tim Sentman (Blue Laser), writes and rehearses! I found myself catching random lines that evoked hilarious imagery of intergalactic time travel, pizza delivery, cats in outer space and something about the weather. All in all, Blue Laser was a nice way to cap off an evening of unusual vibes and energy.

Patrons of Sweet: Nothing Drastic

2010-02-02T16:34:00.007-05:00

Full Disclosure: Patrons Of Sweet frontman Vic Lazar contributes and is a friend to this blog. Although Vic's input here has been limited lately, he has been associated with myself and silo3 for the past several years.

Vic Lazar has been one of the greatest local musicians for the past 15 years, at least. His roster of past and present projects could fill a festival roster twice over. From His epic singer/songwriter work as Vox Humana, to being one third of the post-punk prog legends Knife Crazy, to His timeless ambient-electro collab with Pam Swarts in VictoryBlackLightHoney.

Ahem, with that out of the way...

Patrons of Sweet is like a 48-oz. steak, cut straight from the cow and tossed on the coals of an open-pit fire. Charred on the outside and bloody within, the is nothing subtle going on here. At times, the new record Nothing Drastic-- like last years Go Whatevers!, can be a ham-fisted take on mid-90s college rock. Throughout much of the album, Lazar and company switch between two volumes: 8 and 11. With an emphasis on urgency, the songs never have a chance to breath as the band throws in a new riff, tempo change, or vocal line almost every four bars. There are virtually no intro passages, no instrumental sections, no interludes, no crescendos, and no codas. As a rule, most of Nothing Drastic rarely comes within a whiff of anything that could be described as a groove. One of the only exceptions can be found in the album's transcendent closer-- "Under Such Heavy Surveillance."

A lack of repetitive grooves runs counter-intuitive to what one might expect from a group heavily influenced by 90s rock. Laying down a groove is a tool that last decade's alt-rockers wielded masterfully. From Fugazi to My Bloody Valentine to the Pixies and Nirvana, these bands knew the value of letting their songs breath and bounce.

The 90s also saw the renaissance of original guitar playing and like so many other Vic Lazar records, Nothing Drastic excels as a guitar masterstroke. While not entirely technical, the album is chock-full of original and unexpected twists and turns of the guitar phrase. Nothing Drastic should be required listening for anyone cynical of our local talent.

Many of the songs on this new record are obtuse and multilayered, revealing more to the listener with each successive pass through. With that in mind, The Patrons are at their absolute best when unloading titanic hooks, as first evidenced in the somewhat poppier Go Whatevers! "There's No More Room in the Beehive" and "Almost Executable" are two songs on Nothing Drastic that showcase the new lineup, with drummer Dave Bordin and bass player Matt Lavin, in full pop-bombast. However, these moments are too few and far between and could be evidence the band is still better off basking in the sunlight rather than wallowing in the muck.

Redwater DIY: part 2

2010-01-11T18:41:00.003-05:00

As a part of our continuing series on the recording of Redwater's new album Time is a Lie, the band takes a break from mixing to sit down with Silo3. The band talks about using the DIY recording process to deliberately distill a multitude of rock influences in the process of making their new record. (Part one of Redwater DIY can be read here.)

THE METAL DETECTOR: Christmas Edition

2009-12-04T09:32:00.007-05:00

the METAL DETECTOR

with Al Wreckless

As every metal fan knows, metal is not just a musical style; it’s a way of life. And it takes commitment. To truly be metal, at least 83% of your world must be classified as metal. Unfortunately, in the modern climate of the world, lines between reality and fiction are blurred more than ever. It’s getting harder and harder to determine what is truly metal. That’s why you need THE METAL DETECTOR.

Today, we take a look at Christmas. There is probably no more polarizing holiday than Christmas. On the one hand, it was intended as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ but has been commercialized into a crass materialistic season where people will literally kill one another for a good deal. Mortification would disapprove.

On the other hand, it’s a crass materialistic holiday about spending money. KISS would highly approve. In fact, I think Gene Simmons took a copyright on the whole concept of Christmas and we now all owe him some royalties.

Christmas started as a way of co-opting the Pagan festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. The entire Norwegian black metal scene would disapprove. Christmas also minimizes the importance of Hanukah. Orphaned Land would disapprove.

In the end, no matter how much fun it is, Christmas isn’t very metal. On a scale of one to ten Manowars, it only rates a 2.7. And that’s simply because of this--

WTF chic

2009-11-25T15:53:00.004-05:00

This fall has produced more than its share of WTFs: Weezer with Kenny G, Grizzly Bear with Michael MacDonald, Animal Collective sampling Zamfir, the Weezer Snuggie (let's face it Weezer has been one big WTF since Matt Sharp left.)

So what the fuck? Why are artists so geeked on being uncool? One possibility is a visceral reaction to the hipster culture that has spread to every corner of society. One could easily imagine the shaggy-haired hipster reaching for his iPhone at the first toots of Zamfir's pan-flute (mission accomplished!) In much the same way that Twee was punking the punks, WTF could be kicking cool kids in their girl-jean crotches. Of course, the irony of this explanation is it would mean that this is a calculated move rather than an organic outgrowth.

And, if there was anything sinister about the last decades obsession with hipsterdom-- it was the subculture's cold calculation. The explosion of media and meta-media fed into a vicious cycle of microtrends and hyperawareness. Keeping up with everything was only a click away and hipster clones quickly began rolling off factory lines. From the denizens in the deepest enclaves in Brooklyn to flood victims in the Midwest as seen on the evening news, faux-hawks and Strokes look-a-likes dotted the American landscape from coat to coast and campus to campus.

So as underground culture searches for a post-hipster identity and forces itself to un-ironically (gasp!) embrace its inner Pee Wee Herman, we may have to withstand periodic jolts of uber-uncool. Just open wide and try to relax-- like the micro-fads before, it'll be over before you know it.

Local, Live Alt-Rappers Stay On Message

2009-11-06T16:18:00.006-05:00

Before the Benjis and the bling, hip-hoppers were all about a backbeat and a message. Whether it was De La Soul talking peace and love or KRS-One dropping knowledge, these "golden age-rs" emphasized content and commotion instead of an image or street cred. A wave of locals are returning to this ethos of early hip-hop only to take it in a new direction. Some are taking it to its more abstract, its more extreme, while others infuse the genre with new ideas and sounds. The results can be strange and abrasive one minute and propulsively upbeat the next.

BloodThirsty Vegans started as a cadre of artists playing only a once a year benefit show. A lineup began to solidify around a couple of MCs and the same core group has been together for about eight months. MC Vendetta, née Janna Willoughby, and My Rap name is Alex are the two vocalists/ MCs that anchor the variety of musical styles that the band delves into. While the term "skip hop" has been thrown around, in reference to the band's frequent fusion of ska and hip-hop, the Vegans musical style varies widely and remains difficult to pin down. Both MCs deliver rapid-fire quasi-ragamuffin style lyrics over this bubbling stew uptempo musical styles. The band says they differ from most live hip-hop acts in that they write tightly compacted definitive songs as opposed to a more "jam bandy" approach. Alex explains one unifying musical theme: "You should get up off your ass and dance."

Unifying the band as well is the message-driven content of their lyrics. The Vegans espouse a "call-to-action" mentality and challenge their audience both to appreciate what's around them and to get active, not only on the dance floor but in the community as well.

"I started writing to have an impact," says Alex. "But you can't have nearly the impact if people don't enjoy it."

"And we try to (have an impact) with the way we produce as a band too," adds primary drummer _dave. "We're getting our CD cases printed locally and on green materials; and we get our shirts prints locally."

The band continues to play more frequently than ever including many benefit shows that support a variety of causes.

"At zero money," says _dave. "But that's just cause we like playing a lot."
---
Another message driven artist steeped in the hip-hop ethos is Jack Topht (which, by the way, not a stage name). Along with The Vegetables, his partner Lindsey Grate who plays a drum kit and a variety of keyboards, Topht takes rap music to that more bizarre, abstract place. Adding elements of folk, punk, bedroom pop, and freak rock, his act is one part music, one part performance art.

"Me and Linds never really fit in with anybody," says Topht. "We do three or four rap songs, and then we got these quirky pop songs that don't really sound like anything... so I think we fit in with a lot of bands, but at the same time we don't fit in with any bands. We're like a punk rock band, or like, a weird pop band and we kind of make sense with noise bands too, cause we have an original sound."
Topht raps and sings over a myriad of beat-driven songs, which he describes as "light-hearted, upbeat and fun." He also tries to include what he calls "pep talk songs", songs that exude a positive, motivational message to serve as reassurance in a harsh reality.

"Those are the major theme's I try and cover: life's weird, do your best, stuff like that you know?"

The band recently took these themes on the road, playing shows across the Midwest and up the West Coast. Topht says the band played with a variety of acts, in a variety of settings: a sweltering basement in Reno, a garage rock fest in San Diego, an art-house/performance space in Montana. He says they translated well at almost every show in almost every city. They returned to Buffalo ready to record another full length album.
---
Zev is another artist skewing the old school ethos. A Ph.D candidate at SUNY Buffalo, Zev has his fingers in many pies. He performs both as a solo act, backed by prerecorded beats, and with live bands as well. As a solo performer and producer, his sound can be dark, rich and cinematic.

"I definitely like lush soundscapes and multi-layered stuff," says Zev. "A lot of influence (for me) comes from really early boom-bap, real stripped down stuff. But I definitely prefer more lush stuff."

As someone who's been performing with bands since the late 90's, Zev is also in touch with the live, more tactile approach to musical performance.He tailors the live hip-hop versions of his songs to arrangements written by the particular group he's working with at the time, whether it be with local indie rockers notic or musicians from an artist group called the Intangible Collective.

Some 80's and 90's rappers had an overtly political or social messages. Public Enemy, NWA, and Ice-T all drove home their message with scathing indictments of both the community and the system around them. Zev tends to stay away from hot button topics that might turn off listeners and instead focuses on more introspective issues.

"I talk about the sense of alienation (that comes from) living in this sort of, weird post-modern world and the sort of questions of identity that I think a lot people in this country and around world that people are asking themselves," he explains. "So, basically the unrest that comes from being a compassionate individual in this exceedingly violent world."

Zev performs, when time allows, at traditional venues and art spaces alike. He says while school and other endeavors take up much of his time, making music and performing in Buffalo are passions he finds time for.

"Buffalo has such a great music scene: its close knit, its good size and its definitely made me feel that I should keep doing this stuff cause there's really a lot happening here."

THE METAL DETECTOR: Twitter

2009-11-04T15:45:00.006-05:00

the METAL DETECTOR
with Al Wreckless

As every metal fan knows, metal is not just a musical style; it’s a way of life. And it takes commitment. To truly be metal, at least 83% of your world must be classified as metal. Unfortunately, in the modern climate of the world, lines between reality and fiction are blurred more than ever. It’s getting harder and harder to determine what is truly metal. That’s why you need THE METAL DETECTOR.

Today, we take a look at social networking website Twitter. If you don’t know what Twitter is, then you’re the ultimate hermit and therefore truly metal and don’t need this column for help.

Like other social network tools, Twitter allows long-lost friends, family and random strangers with little in common to connect and keep up on each other’s lives. Metallica would approve. I think. I’m not sure what their stance on fan interaction is these days.

Twitter has found a surprising audience with the older generation. Even congressmen have taken to tweeting during Obama speeches. There is no age limit to be a twitterer. Ronnie James Dio would approve.

On the other hand, Twitter limits you to 140 characters per post. Anything you say has to brief, thus preventing something truly epic. Voivod would strongly disapprove.

Truthfully, social network websites are pretty lame and populated by Top 40 fans and wimpy emo nerds. In other words, the very people metalheads should be beating up. On a scale of one to ten Manowars, Twitter scores a pitiful 1.3. Stick with MySpace, at least you can customize your profile page to look evil and force people to listen to some crunching metal.

Crappy Futurism: the new aesthetic?

2009-10-27T17:22:00.005-04:00

The lo-fi retro futurism of the Flaming Lips fantastic new album along with Wired's "Good Enough Revolution", and even the latest iPhone killer, with its allusions to Star Wars' futuristic dystopia, seems to be heralding a new aesthetic in our culture and music. This new aesthetic makes all the more sense when framed by these "tough economic times" we currently live in.

Call it a commentary on the materialism of the past decade. A decade that saw brand name/ designer awareness reach an all-time high. Think about it, when The Devil Wears Prada came out, no one asked for an elaboration on what exactly Prada was. Urban, which made a name for itself catering to grungy skateboarders, now sells $200 sunglasses out of a case by the front window.

Call it a commentary on the modernism of the past decade. Minimal modernism was everywhere-- Kompakt, futura, IKEA, even the White Strips saw a post millennium bounce. No doubt all this minimalism would experience some blow-back. But if minimalism were a stock, I'd short it.

Instantly transmitted cell phone video, tinny mp3s, twitter... What does this all mean for the future of music? The recent rise of lo-fi rock and glitchy techno might be more than passing fads. Will the blown out sounds of Times New Viking ever be used to sell Cadallacs? Will Sileni's micro-edited freakouts ever pack the dance floors on Chippewa? Highly doubtful, but don't be surprised to hear something like "No time, no hope" underneath a Mountain Dew commercial sometime in the crappy near future.

THE METAL DETECTOR: Dick Cheney

2009-10-01T10:31:00.005-04:00

the METAL DETECTOR
with Al Wreckless

As every metal fan knows, metal is not just a musical style; it’s a way of life. And it takes commitment. To truly be metal, at least 83% of your world must be classified as metal. Unfortunately, in the modern climate of the world, lines between reality and fiction are blurred more than ever. It’s getting harder and harder to determine what is truly metal. That’s why you need THE METAL DETECTOR.

Today, we take a look at former Vice President Dick Cheney. At first glance, he doesn’t seem very metal. He looks like my grandpa. Actually, he looks like Col Klink’s grandpa. But let’s take a closer look at this complicated imp, shall we? He shot a guy in the face. The members of Mayhem would approve. He’s big on starting wars for self-serving reasons. The members of Bolt Thrower would approve. He’s in favor of torture. The members of Slayer would approve. He’s intolerant of other religions/beliefs/opinions,etc. Varg Vikernes would approve (though he’d support a different religion).

Now that Dick Cheney is now longer in power, we can sit back and admit that he truly is a badass. Seriously, he shot a guy in the face and the guy was so scared, he actually apologized to Cheney. That’s pretty metal. On the other hand, he did pretty much fuck our country over. On a scale of one to ten Manowars, Cheney rates an 8.2.

Upcoming: 9.25 More new bands with familiar faces

2009-09-21T18:48:00.004-04:00

Just in time for Lego Rock Band, local power poppers will reassemble in different forms this Friday at Merlins. With lots of "ex-"s on the fliers, be sure these guys know their way around a hook or two:

On Beta (ex-Old Sweethearts, current Johnny Nobody)
Tuco (ex-Clearmotive, Miracle at Rich, The Control)
Turn it up (ex-Elad Love Affair, The Design)

September 25th, 11 p.m. $5

besnyo break-up--> new projects

2009-08-06T09:49:00.002-04:00

besnyo have announced their break-up after over 4 years of playing and recording music. As one of the premier local indie-electro bands, the band will be sorely missed. However...

when bands break-up there are always new projects coming together from the ashes of old:

Wooden Waves - being touted as Sleeping Kings of Iona 2.0, the demos being streamed here sound promising and pick up on similar themes of both bands, driving indie-dream-pop with elements of shoegaze and electro.

Cinnamon Aluminum - described as "an experimental/ambient/freak out jam group", their first demo sounds a lot like an AC bootleg with its triumvirate of loops, echos and arpeggios. Let's hope CA incorporates the African rhythms, alternate time signatures and micro-processed samples that makes that other band transcendent.

Worrywort - no footprints on the web yet for this new project. They can been seen in the old-fashioned live format in the upcoming weeks, including a Cd release party.

September 4th @ Burnwood Studios

885 Niagara Street 5 dollars 8pm

w/ All of Them Witches & Fourem

WORRYWORT CD RELEASE

October 16th @ Karpeles Manuscript Museum

220 North Street (corner of North & Elmwood) 2 dollars 7pm

w/ Cages & Fourem

Sunbaked

2009-07-30T09:41:00.009-04:00

Like a blast of hot sunlight through the cold July clouds, the new sun-bleached Son of the Sun Ep arrived just in time to breath new life not only into the summer, but into the local indie rock scene as well.

Retroists Son of the Sun have been slumming it in the garage now for a while now, making meticulous sounding yet slightly derivative guitar based rockers. Like so many other local bands they leaned heavily on retro swagger and vintage tones for their appeal.

However, the new Ep Before the After finds the band hitting a different stride. The meticulous production is still there, but the new album has the band trading their tight jeans for board shorts, cranking up the reverb and finding a real knack for writing timeless, lazy surf gems. The new songs are just as '09 as they are '59 and can be added to Buffalo's bizarrely strong surf cannon that includes songs from locals such as the Irving Klaws, Bloody Hollies, the Waves, Blue Rocket Trio, Dimetrodon, Skate Korpse and Mockba.

Songs from the new Ep can be downloaded here or streamed here.

Redwater DIY: part 1

2009-07-24T15:43:00.004-04:00

When Redwater enters the studio this fall, the band will be determined as ever to put hits to hard drive and release a full, proper album.

"Plain and simple, this record is going to happen because, for us to be together for as long as we have and not actually have something to show for it-- is one of the most frustrating things." states singer, guitarist and de facto frontman Kevin Di Lucente.

Di Lucente, like the rest of the band, carries himself as easy going-- almost to the point of reluctance. Rounded out by guitarist Tony Nash and the rhythm section of drummer Mike Dicioccio and bassist Jay Czuba, the band members maintain an understated, yet ebullient confidence, holding conversation as easily as cracking a cold beer.

The band's primary sound is based around a trio of classic rock, grunge and country. Loud, catchy, up-tempo, blues-based hooks and riffs have been the band's meat and potatoes. As the songs shift gears and change palettes they tend to highlight Nash's technical flourishes and Di Lucente's vocal swagger.

Nash, with his beard and shoulder-length hair, comes across at first impression as a rockist through to the bone. He says when they first started playing together almost three years ago, they first gravitated to a "raw, rock" sound that was a "common denominator." However, he adds that the group's sound has begun to evolve into something more complex, less immediate.

"We've had that time to get through that, just that debut period, where it's just hungry... but after a while you don't have to scream. Slower songs-- basically what it translates to-- different tempos, trying different things... we don't just listen to hard rock, or rock 'n roll and you know, alternative."

The band practices and records in a converted basement in the last house on a dead end road in Orchard Park, just a stone's throw from the Stadium. Set back from the road and bordered on one side by a small patch of woods, the space is far removed from the downtown bars where they regularly play. The sincerity of the Southtowns comes across in the band's music and attitude. Describing themselves as an "honest band" looking to reach a "broad audience", they bristle at the thought of elitism or pretension in their music.

In looking to keep their music honest, especially on the upcoming record; the group is setting the goal of giving it a raw, live sound. While Nash cites the layered production of Pink Floyd as an influence, he says the band must walk a fine line and keep the recorded songs true to their live versions.

"Kind of like Zeppelin and Beatles, all these classics, they revolutionized recording with crazy panning and all this stuff," he says. "But at the end of the day, there was a [good] song underneath all that and it was easy to see."

"We don't want it over produced, but we don't want it to sound like we just threw a tape player down," says drummer Dicioccio.

They plan on recording the entire album themselves, in their neon-sign lit basement space, with Nash's recording equipment. It's an approach the band has used before on their previous two Eps. Nash, who takes the helm with respect to engineering and producing the band's sessions, has been recording music for around 10 years and says he has a good feel what will work and what doesn't.

Jay Pagano, an engineer at Select Sound Studios in Kenmore, says bands that hone their sound live can sometimes experience pitfalls when entering the studio.

"The big difference between playing live and playing in the studio is what you can hear," he says. "[Some bands] might feel that they're well rehearsed, but when they're in the studio they might be totally off key, they're playing their pitches too high or too low, their tempos are way off-- you don't really hear that in a live aspect that much, but in the studio you hear the slightest little thing," says Pagano.

He notes that newer bands are also not set in their ways and tend to "go with the flow" more over groups who have logged more studio time.

Redwater has an ambitious agenda, setting the goal for the upcoming release at 10 to 12 songs. They say the ratio of new-to-old songs will be about 4-to-1, with the "newer" songs being played out only a handful of times. Fully embracing the idea of changing or writing songs in the studio, they say they will take full advantage of the control and time they have in Nash's ad hoc studio.

The band, currently in the pre-production stage, is posting updates on their mySpace site. Expect silo3 to follow the band through the process as a look at a local band recording their first full-length in a DIY setting.

“The Economics Of Fast Food”

2009-07-10T15:40:00.008-04:00

chit-chat from the Chainsaw--
an irregular feature
by a. cerda

As a Dollar Menuaire, the McDouble pisses me off. And not just because it robs me of an extra piece of cheese. It’s because… well, okay, it’s because it robs me of an extra piece of cheese. But I refuse to be hoodwinked by the clown. Why does getting that extra piece of cheese cost me 19 cents when a regular cheeseburger only costs 10 cents more than a regular hamburger?

The math doesn’t add up, especially the more you break it down. Okay, let’s assume each slice of cheese really costs 19 cents. Now a McDouble is only a penny more than a regular cheeseburger. That means each patty only costs a penny. So that leaves 79 cents covering the bun, pickle, ketchup, mustard, and whatever other condiments they throw on there.

Now, we know condiments really can’t cost much otherwise restaurants and sporting venues across the nation wouldn’t offer them so freely. Let’s give an estimate of about 10 cents for condiments. Now, we’re down to 69 cents for bun and pickle.

An 8-pack of hamburger buns generally goes for about $1.50, meaning each bun is about 19 cents. If my math is correct (which it is, unlike my logic), that means the pickle is costing me about 50 cents. That’s outrageous! Especially since I order mine without a pickle. I want my 50 cents back, clown.

By the way, why is it that two 4-piece pack of chicken nuggets is not only cheaper than one 6-piece pack, but you also end up getting two sauces instead of one? Maybe if McDonalds wasn’t losing money hand over fist in the McNugget department, they could put the double cheeseburger back on the dollar menu.

from the McDonald's official Web site FAQ:
"What if I order a McDouble with an extra slice of cheese. Then it would only be $1, right?
No. If you order the McDouble with an extra slice of cheese, you will be charged for the extra slice of cheese. Nice try, though!"

(Ed. Why the dickish tone?)

How Pitchfork is killing "alternative"

2009-06-04T09:36:00.010-04:00

Through top-notch writing and reviews, pitchfork.com has become the premier internet resource for all things music, especially for acts that don't show up on the mainstream pop culture radar. That being said they have effectively crippled underground, alternative or whatever you want to call it.

They have done this not by HOW they review, but by WHAT. For example:

1) They review mostly stuff that is very polished or heavily buzzed. This shuts out a lot of acts with unproven yet redeeming qualities, especially when compared to the ink/ love something like Maximum Rock n Roll gives a lot of unknowns.

2) Because of what they review, they create the mentality that image and polish are more important than the music itself.

3) Some accuse the web site of promoting style or personality over substance-- giving props to acts based solely on charisma.

So-called indie, underground or whatever has become very poppy and very trendy in this post-Pitchfork age. I hate to sound like an ol' timer but "alternative" used to be about being different or weird. Now-- its about having a different brand or image.

Like the financial sector, the advent of Pitchfork becoming the premier taste-maker for the music industry has lead to another "boom and bust" industry. Acts and genres are sequentially built up and torn down. Music doesn't seem to evolve organically anymore with Pitchfork-reading hipsters across the lands glomming on to the latest trend (or in Buffalo, last year's trend (oh BTW, it's been over for a few years now-- GIVE IT UP STONER ROCKERS!!!)) only to see it blow up in their face.

The last serious rock movement was the garage revival earlier this decade, which, by the way, was based entirely on the rebooting of old ideas. Meanwhile, micro/minimal techno seems to have turned the page on electronic music, trendiness be damned. These two examples show ground swells in "pop" music still exist, however substantive, yet it remains to be seen if the snowballing of underground trends via Pitchfork hype will have an effect on music in the long run.

On hiatus til May-ish

2009-02-26T09:22:00.003-05:00

this being my last semester and a busy one, silo3 will be on hiatus until late spring. sorry to those looking for their stories to appear. they will in due time.

-BS

Podcast: Stay Lows in Studio

2008-10-27T16:40:00.005-04:00

Silo3 was lucky enough to recently get invited into the studio with the Buffalo indie-veterans the Stay Lows. Jeff, Jim, Rick and Brandon answered a few questions between reviewing rough mixes for their upcoming album, tentatively titled The Signature Bridge. This is the first in a series of Silo3 podcasts.

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Silo3 Staylows in Studio - Silo3

Always well-documented, the band can be seen in action here.

RRIICCEE RREEVVIIEEWW @ Soundlab 9/25

2008-09-30T18:40:00.005-04:00

photo from rriiccee.com

Vincent Gallo, who put Buffalo on the hipster map with his movie Buffalo '66, bought his musical project in RRIICCEE back to Soundlab last Thursday. While Gallo's past musical collaborators in other projects include Sean Lennon, Jim O'Rourke, Eric Erlandson and legendary New York artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, the current RRIICCEE line-up includes less recognizable names in brothers Nikolas and Simon Haas. Gallo describes RRIICCEE as, "a gesture of composing and performing at the same time, always hoping to avoid musical cliché or jamming... when we play live, the music is often created during the performance."

Upon descending the Soundlab steps Thursday night, it looked like Gallo had planned everything except the music. Seven rows of black folding chairs had been arranged in rows facing the stage, with a narrow, de facto walkway cutting the rows through to the back of the room. A drum set, synthesizers, amplifiers and guitars were set up in front of a white screen. The stage was completely lit by fluorescent light-- an island in the dark, subterranean Soundlab performance space.

RRIICCEE took the stage without opening act, the first song built up from guitar noise loop into abstract trip-hop. Throughout the set, the band also touched on elements of jazz, tropicalia, electronica and rock. Some of the songs had vocal melodies, a hint that some of the music is written beforehand. The music felt, at times, like the score to a film playing just behind the stage. Returning to trip-hop before the end of the set, Canadian emcee Buck 65 dropped a few freestyle verses over RRIICCEE's bed of minimal-ambient sounds.

photo from buck65.com

After playing about only 40 minutes, with no opening act, some people were grumbling about the ticket price after the show. Some were probably hipster-suckers, looking for a celebrity experience or Gallo photo-op. At $20 a pop, without hearing a single song they recognized, no doubt a lot of people were asking themselves-- who the fuck is Vincent Gallo anyway?

"Wait, I’m Not Even A Registered Voter… Am I?"

2008-09-17T16:37:00.005-04:00

chit-chat from the Chainsaw--
an irregular feature

picks up on the theme of my recent mySpace blog...

Now, normally I don’t do many political rants ‘cause I’m not the type of guy to offer an opinion on something he doesn’t know a lot about. Oh, no, wait, that’s exactly the type of guy I am. And as long as I think I’m right, I probably am. Hey, if that philosophy works for George Dubya, it’ll work for me.

I just have to get it off my chest. Sarah Palin bugs me. Really, really bugs me. More so than any other candidate. Why? you might ask. Is it because she’s a woman? Well, pretty much, yeah. I’m not afraid to admit that my voting preferences are based on genitalia. That’s why I supported Hillary. She had the biggest balls of all the candidates.

Honestly, I have nothing against Palin personally. I just disagree with her on every issue. She’s anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, pro-drilling, pro-war, pro-moose hunting, anti-polar bear, and I’m pretty sure she voted for David Archuleta. And I’m sick of hearing guys referring to her as a MILF. I mean, yeah, she is, but so is Denise Richards, and I wouldn’t want her leading the country.

And let’s not overlook the lack of experience factor. Her only major political experience is two years as governor of a state whose entire population consists of ten Eskimos and several caribous. I guess it’s all a moot point, anyhow. Our votes won’t matter come November. With the way the Electoral College is set up, no matter which candidate gets the most votes, George Dubya will win again.

--A.L. Cerda

Roger Bryan on 'Recovery'

2008-08-21T18:05:00.012-04:00

As he eases back into the beige-ing faux-fur couch in his second-floor practice space above Main Street, Roger Bryan takes a drag from a freshly lit cigarette. "It just reached a point where it really wasn't going to work the way it was," he explains.

In 2004, Roger would help start a band that would consume his creative energies for the next four years of his life, the Old Sweethearts. The band would go on to produce two proper releases. "When the Sweethearts first came together," he says, "it was a pretty inspiring period of time."

Grabbing a Miller High Life from a small dorm refrigerator a few feet away, Roger heads back to the couch as he describes how the band would fall apart as lost momentum gave way to dwindling creative drive and weakening relationships. The situation was further strained by guitarist Andy Vaeth’s commitment to his other band, the power trio Johnny Nobody. As the weeks, months and years passed Roger became increasingly frustrated.

"By the time we'd started the third record, it had been two years," he says. "Also, the 'new' songs we were recording, we had been playing all along (this period of time)."

Perhaps for a shot at redemption or maybe for closure-- Roger was inspired by this time in his life: the long, slow deaths of an important relationship between himself and the band as a whole; between himself and his band mates. This inspiration found its way into the songs on his second full-length as a solo artist, Recovery.

Although his backing band, the Orphans, includes some familiar faces, ex-Sweethearts Jeff Pietrzak and Erik Roesser, he wanted an otherwise fresh approach to Recovery. The new songs were shorter and faster. The band was recorded mostly live and in a few takes. Recording in guitarist Matt Smith's Hi/Lo Studio, the band entered the sessions without any preconceived notions on how the record would sound. The only predetermined goal, says Roger, was to finish the record with a sense of urgency and within a year from when the first songs were written. The results were better than he had expected.

"Everyone brings a very high level of play... we're lucky to all be on the same page," he says. "It was extremely refreshing, especially after years of sitting around."

Roger Bryan and the Orphans cite both Crazy Horse and the Replacements as strong influences, which can be heard throughout much of the album. The folky-garage of "This Song" punctuates distant, sing-a-long verses with searing guitar lines that flicker up like campfire. The 90’s alt-pop meditation of “If we fall” finds the band I an up-tempo gear, swapping melancholy for bitter-sweet.

And on an album filled with rebukes and flat-out regrets, Roger feels out for redemption on the record-closer “Full Reverse”, as Crazy Horse guitars wash over his scratchy vocal lines. Where he and the Orphans go from here is anyone’s guess.

JUCIFER! @ Mohawk Place, Friday July 25th w/ Chylde and Sonorous Gale

2008-08-07T14:12:00.002-04:00

a rudy sizzle review

What the fuck is wrong you? Why do you even waste your time going to shows if you are going to run away at the first signs of something dangerous and perhaps even debilitating? SO WHAT if you might be deafened by the insane decibels that Jucifer is about to spew forth from their monolith of Ampeg? Who cares about your hearing anyway, you obviously don’t use it if you sat through Chylde’s set and thought, “aw yeah, right there is some real rock and roll.”

Your friends, you know, the guys who all work at that sweet restaurant owned by the piece of shit Greek who has more cocaine up his nose than on his cheap Pier One glass dining room set. Yeah, the same gang that seems to run the show in town, perhaps bringing in all the hot shit just to be able to let their awesome rock and roll band open. The same people that base their entire ideology on remaining ten minutes behind the coolness curve to make sure it at least sticks for their entire night on the Allen Street strip. See yourself there, wearing those flip-flops and that torn up ironic metal t-shirt, chugging cans of PBR at the Old Pink flamingo while your boy is spinning CD’s and no one is really using their hearing to discern the blandness piercing the speakers as a flash-in-the-pan, waif-British novelty has already run its course. Reach out across the room to your pal to give him a secret-man-shake and perhaps exchange witty retorts that are all based on your favorite sketch comedy show. Make a snide remark about how bored you are with the fact there is nothing wrong with your life as your parents keep sending you a check once a week to keep you well submersed in the ever-so-boring lifestyle that you seem to think of as being a “hardcore existence.” You know, you are so punk that you cannot stand punk music, nor can you stomach the thought of watching live music.

However, if your bros in Chylde are playing, than it’s got to be a party. It’s got to be the place where all the shit is going down. Right? “Who is the opening band? Sonorous Gale? What do they sound like? Big Business? Tragedy? A raw version of NoMeansNo? Perhaps the coolest band in Buffalo? No way, Chylde obviously is, I mean at least that is what they told me. Sonorous Gale just can’t contend, what with all that precise musicianship and intricacy in song structure. That just bores the hell out of me, especially when it is delivered with such ferocity and honesty. I hate that shit. I like when my music sounds like it is overly thought out, as if the songs are eschewed from any type of shred of original thought. I need my music to remind me of what my cousin’s and older brother liked when they were 16. I cannot fathom anything that sounds remotely like it is original because then it might be too much for my PBR buzzed brain to handle. My girlfriend liked it, but fuck her anyways. She likes anything that pisses me off, that’s why she dragged my ass to Jucifer anyways. I went because my boys, my main dudes, Chylde were on stage promptly @ midnight. They always do it right, hitting the toll of midnight and letting the riffs roll and rage proper. I like to smoke a bunch of weed and pop some pills and act all stupid-off-the-chain when they riff, but my gal just idly watches and occasionally reminds me that I am making an ass out of myself. I don’t care, I love rock and I love Chylde. She loves Jucifer, probably because there is a girl in the band that kind of looks like a deranged fairy on acid. She probably digs them because they sing about the French revolution and Marie Antoinette (whoever that is?) I think that they are just a phase and someday she’ll realize that their complicated raucous is merely an allusion to the fact that they wish they could just let the good times roll and forget about stuff like historic events that shaped cultures and what not.”

Yep, that sounds about right, doesn’t it? I guess if Jucifer’s immense wall of Ampeg cabinets frightened you away before you even gave them a chance (they were selling earplugs jack-ass), then you might as well have went back to your hipster high chair for your bottle to be inserted back into your stupid mouth. Mommy made sure it was nice and lukewarm, like you like it.

~ Rudy Sizzle

Infrigment 08 Picks

2008-07-24T09:11:00.009-04:00

It's Infringement fest time again folks. Besides some of the local bands covered in previous posts-- here's the silo3 best bets:

Ajent-O
underground hip-hopper who's baby steps have been followed by a string of solid tracks. THE premier underground rapper in Buff City.

Saturday, July 26 10:00 pm - 2:00 am, Nietzsche's

Audibel
this Rochester, NY solo act's latest songs have him sounding more like a minimalist Panda Bear and less like post-electroclash. good stuff.

Monday, July 28 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm Burnwood

thee Audience
these guys are always lo-profile which is a shame. Best thing to see in Jamestown, NY besides the five Lucy and Desi museums.

Sunday July 27 7:30-8:30pm Gateway Gallery

besnyo
local anthemic-indiepoppers get better with every release-- for fans of JAMC, Flaming Lips,M83

Friday, July 25 Nietzsche's 10pm
Friday, Aug 1 Golden Key 9pm

patrons of sweet

less than a year old, these grizzled locals sound great already

Sunday, Aug 3 Nietzche's 9pm

Ray Tarantino

Sony artist with a Coldplay hard-on slumming it-- great voice, decent songs.

Friday, July 25	6:00 pm - 7:00 pm	Buffalo Barfly HQ
Friday, July 25	10:00 pm - 2:00 am	Nietzsche's
Saturday, July 26	1:00 pm - 2:00 pm	Gateway Gallery
Saturday, July 26	6:00 pm - 9:00 pm	Skunk Tail Glass

voidologists
the minimalist "harsh" noises on the above link will put your speakers through their paces.

Monday, July 28

6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Burnwood

Wednesday, July 30

9:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Squeaky Wheel

Saturday, August 2

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Squeaky Wheel

“I Don’t Love The New Millennium”

2008-07-13T20:40:00.003-04:00

chit-chat from the Chainsaw--
an irregular feature

Don’t get me wrong. The past seven and a half years have been, more or less, good to me. It’s just that I don’t miss them enough to feel nostalgic about them. But VH-1 has scraped the barrel and mined the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s for every single possible event that could warrant a half-assed joke or two. (I’m sorry, but 1983 was not interesting enough to warrant three hour-long specials.) And since presumably nothing of note happened before 1970—and as far as I can tell from history books, nothing did—VH-1 and their third-rate panelists have moved on to the… uh, aughts? Seriously, have we figured out a classification for this decade yet?

I remember when I Love the 90’s first debuted, many snobbish critics decried it, claiming it impossible to be nostalgic for a decade barely over. Little did anyone realize that VH-1 was just being cutting edge and innovative and forward-thinking. After all, in a world driven by instant gratification, why should anyone have to wait to feel nostalgic? Truly, this creative, present-tense approach has come to full fruition with television viewers now longing for a decade that’s not even over! Imagine the possibilities when these network execs find out a way to make us miss the good ol’ days of the future!

Ironically, all of VH-1’s nostalgia shows make me feel nostalgic for the days when they actually played music videos. You know, video hits. One. Remember when it was the music channel for the stodgy old parents of the hip kids who watched MTV? Well, as I’ve officially become a stodgy old parent, I feel like my needs are not currently being met. I’ve tried watching the fresh new, young bands on Fuse or MTV2, and I’m always left with the same thought: Who gave these teabags money to make a video? And it’s not that I don’t think good music is being made these days; I’m just too lazy and stubborn to seek it out. I guess my complaint boils down to what all my complaints boil down to. The world doesn’t do enough to tailor itself to fit my wants.

--A.L. Cerda

Thurrrsday at the --- bleccch

2008-07-01T16:48:00.006-04:00

Independence Day week seems like a good time for a good ol' American rant about how things got ruined, more specifically Thursday at the Square.

Local bar owners seem nonplussed at the recent developments surrounding the square. The spate of "jam" bands leads less of a bar/ drinking crowd, they say. Also, extending hours of the Square to 10pm keep people from coming in and spending money, preferring to go home in an attempt to drag themselves into work on Friday. Owners Silo3 spoke to however were quick to point out the crowd they get, which also depends on the weather, is better than none at all.

Some people have been saying for years that the crop of Square talent has been steadily declining for years. They make the case Buffalo Place knows; people are there to see the sides of beer trucks not live music.

Here's some highlights from 2001, what some would say was a high-watermark:

5/24 - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mexican Cession
5/31 - The Steam Donkeys
6/21 - moe., DJ Logic
6/28 - English Beat
7/19 - Bo Diddley
7/26 - Crash Test Dummies
8/02 - Eddie Money
8/09 - Pat Benatar
8/16 - Great Big Sea, Jackdaw
8/23 - Lance Diamond
8/30 - Donna the Buffalo, The Waz, Soulive

Compare to entire '08 lineup:
5/29 - Galactic, The New Deal
6/05 - The Disco Biscuits
6/12 - Yonder Mountain String Band
6/19 - David Sanborn Group,
6/26 - Martin Sexton, Mike Doughty Duo
7/03 - Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels
7/10 - Jimmie Vaughan, JJ Grey & MOFRO
7/17 - Mickey Hart Band, Tea Leaf Green
7/24 - The Gin Blossoms
7/31 - Spirit of the West,
8/07 - Zappa plays Zappa, The Whigs
8/14 - Mike Gordon, Samantha Stollenwerck
8/21 - Saliva
8/28 - Candlebox, Agent Me
9/04 - Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Rumors have it that changes at Buffalo Place's TATS management team are afoot. Is a better lineup possible for '09? Will they book more classic/ contemporary rock in an attempt to bring out more of a bar crowd?

End of an era - changes at the local show

2008-06-03T12:04:00.007-04:00

"WBNY isn't what it used to be," says Jessica a member of the podcast collective Through the Hiss at their Wednesday night organizational meeting in a loft space on the west side. The group sits amidst of tangle of cords and sound equipment, some new and some in various states of reuse.

Through the Hiss is a group of broadcasters who were all previously involved in the local show and are dedicated "to promote not only Buffalo music, but also creative works from a wider geographic range.

The group decided to start podcasting after the local college radio station WBNY released TTH member Brain Kedzierski, who had been the voice of the local show for 10 years and affiliated with the station, first as a regular caller, for about 15 years. Some of the DJs felt after several warning signs, this was a red flag they could not ignore, a sign the station is headed down the wrong path.

According to both the station and Brian K., his release was the result of a lackluster 2008 WBNY Battle of the Bands. That battle received about 11 submissions for entrance into the contest, when, in several previous years, the call for submissions culled around 70 recordings from local artists.

After what can only be described as a communication breakdown between the local show staff and station management, the '08 Battle of the Bands slowly began its downward spiral. Members of Through the Hiss maintain that poor promotion and a general lack of interest on the part of: the station, local (music) community and perhaps the local show itself led to poor attendance and ultimately the release of Kedzierski.

In an email response WBNY station manager Dave Vogan wrote:

"Personally, I think Brian is a great individual who has done a lot of work for the radio station in the past. Unfortunately, it became evident to me that Brian did not have the same caring attitude as he once had. Local rotation was rarely updated, mic breaks seemed to be non-existent and it just seemed as if there was no personality to the local show anymore. Whenever the program director and myself confronted Brian about a situation, he didn't have a response. Again, I think Brian is a great guy and all, but it was time to move into a different direction."

Besides his release, Brian and other TTH members had a litany of complaints about the station including: the use of local show sound equipment for a wedding and the trashing of the studios by other DJs at the station. They say WBNY has lost its way and the respect of the community due to a lack of passionate, informed DJs who care about promoting local music.

For his part Vogan, says listeners of WBNY can expect some changes and improvements to daily broadcasts:

"I think listeners can look forward to hearing a more diverse selection of bands not only when they tune into the local show, but when they hear local music on the station. Listeners will also notice more personalities and mic breaks."

He also adds, "if bands are interested in either sending WBNY a CD for some air-play or are interested in playing on the local show, they can contact the local show through the mySpace page.

New World Record's final days

2008-05-09T12:16:00.005-04:00

The bittersweetness that was record store day has come and gone. New World Record closes its doors on May 18th.

As the 21st century begins, the world is seeing the new, modern society transform at a record pace. Buffalo is no longer the industrial bull it used to be, and as the city struggles to find its place in the post-industrial economy, many casualties will pave the way of its future.

NWR was an Elmwood Avenue institution for so long that, when the store moved to its location on Delaware Avenue, to many it was already dead. Of course the move was inevitable, with dwindling record sales and bills to pay--we've all heard that story before, yet,like many other so-called progessive-minded citizens, I asked myself "why?"

Why can't they find a way?

Why does Elmwood have to change?

Like the razing of a many a vacant house, the end of NWR should be viewed not as the loss of the present, but a push toward the future. Maybe one day Buffalonians will laugh at the thought of a bricks-and-mortar record store in the center of the Elmwood Village. By then, anyone who bought indie or underground records will probably be priced out of the neighborhood anyway.

As of this being published the currently has everything at 30 percent off. Here are some of what others are saying about the store closing:

http://www.buffalonews.com/lifearts/next/story/335420.html

http://www.buffalorising.com/story/new_world_loss

New World Record Store Day 4/19

2008-04-17T11:35:00.005-04:00

A bittersweet Record Store Day celebration as New World Record prepares to close its doors. Silo3 will be there with coverage of the day:

12 -- gary zoldos
1 -- patrons of sweet
2 -- a hotel nourishing
3 -- the dense
4 -- like a panther
5 -- besnyo
6 -- the missing planes
7 -- bela's shadow
8 -- the stay lows

Chiggity-Checkout Yourself Before You Wriggity-Wreckout Yourself

2008-03-24T16:18:00.006-04:00

chit-chat from the Chainsaw--
an irregular feature

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to stop the insanity! And since Susan Powter has disappeared, it behooves me to take matters into my own hands. I’m trying to get a law passed, but seeing as I’m not a high-class escort, politicians in Albany are turning deaf ears to my pleas. So what is it that has caught my ire? Those damn self-checkout lanes.

Much too often, I find myself at Tops, dying for my late night fixin’ of Combos, frozen pizza and grape soda. But the self-checkout lane will be backed up because some douchebags are shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and enjoy the convenience of bagging three carts worth of food. Maybe it’s because we have so little control of our lives in other areas, but at some point in human civilization, we’ve accepted the notion that bagging our own groceries represents an important step towards autonomy.

And it’s not like it’s cheaper to self-bag the way it’s cheaper to pump your own gas. Really, the only convenience the self-checkout lane offers is the ability to pay completely in loose change without worrying if you’re on penny 638 or 639. These machines do offer freedom from Coinstar’s loan-shark fees, but that’s all. The time-saving aspect is merely an illusion. You still have to wait in line during busy hours since everyone seems to want to use them. Not to mention that at least one of the machines will be down. And at least one will be occupied by someone with so little grasp of technology, they probably still have a flashing 12:00 on their VCR. And let’s not forget the aforementioned example of someone who doesn’t understand the tiny space allotted is not conducive to massive grocery shopping.

So folks, please, let’s treat these things as express lanes and limit ourselves to 15 items or less. I know it’s a lot to ask that we police ourselves, but it’ll help bring some harmony to the world. And it’ll represent a true step towards real autonomy.

--A.L. Cerda

Love Parade CD release party: for “All Together Now”

2008-03-18T19:14:00.005-04:00

a rudy sizzle review

When: Saturday, March 1st
Where: The Mohawk Place

Considering the fact that late February, and pretty much all of March, is when “real winter” sets in for Buffalo, the attendance for Love Parade’s CD extravaganza was great. I rarely get stoked mid-winter to leave the house, but perhaps knowing one of my favorite live bands was braving the elements, traversing across the 90 West all the way from Brooklyn, to make a special appearance and to celebrate with Love Parade was enough enticement to get me out. Upon seeing Aloke, one may consider earplugs and maybe to have a few shots of whiskey. Not that you need to mute your hearing to enjoy them; they are pummeling sonically, very confrontational on the stage and need to be appreciated on an up-close and personal level. Their poignancy is felt wholeheartedly in each of the band's four members, channeling a vibe akin to that of Fugazi or Quicksand, yet somehow honing in on their very own brand of thick indie-rock that both crushes and captivates. The vocals are washed in an ocean of delay, blending into a wall of sound, balanced on the tightly-woven rhythm section. The Aloke song craft is high caliber, despite the heavy barrage of distorted and effected guitar and vocals. There are some seriously memorable moments in Aloke’s battery of material, namely songs like “Head inside a Suitcase” and “Unresolved”, which are both spectacularly captured on their up coming full-length release recorded by Steve Albini.

Aloke is a very difficult band to follow however, Buffalo’s own noise-laden indie-rockers La Cacahouette were up for the challenge. La Cacahouette are a trio based out of the Queen City and have been steadily developing their craft over the past four years. Since their inception, the “Little Peanut” has managed to build a solid fan base locally, as well as outside of Buffalo with a regular tour roster that has seen the band make it out to the West Coast and numerous jaunts to the Mid-west. Co-fronted by the married duo Pepper Ochsner-Thomas and Gerald Thomas, La Cacahouette’s song craft mixes keyboard and electric stringed instrumentation equivocally in the sonic spectrum. By having the monster-bashing drum skills of Blake Ellman, the songs tend to lean more towards metallic-tinged stoner rock while morphing occasionally into an analog-digital hybrid ala My Bloody Valentine or Stereo Lab. At times the genuinely sweet inflections of Gerald and Pepper’s vocals syrup the sound and offset the powerful tension being built by the chaos of the heavy pounding and cacophony of heavily effected guitars and keys.

I’d also like to take moment to rewind to the beginning of this special CD release party and describe the genius that is Nick Gordon. There are certain types of songwriters, namely the folk-style purists who are offended by anything that digresses or mars the aesthetic of the preconceived folk-roots tradition. Nick Gordon makes this niche seem plausibly real and honestly easy to fall in love with. If you did not know him, you would have thought you were being privy to the roots of beat music, to the old school noir-hearted center of post-modern, post-mortem, post-post-office… etc. I know that Nick’s style is not merely a “shtick” because this fellow means it. If you did not know him, you might be willing to wager the farm on this kid being full of shit. You’d lose the farm once you spoke with him; the man has soul. Song-craft and soul are a married couple of convenience, they tend to stay together as long as they can usually to get the kids up and out of the house and into their own fucked up marriages, families and thus the cycle repeats. Nick’s songs are mad and blunt, dangerous and safe to enjoy, if there are no strings attached.

Love Parade took to the stage very late. The numbers dwindled, but not nearly enough to thwart the Parade of Love’s vigorous song sequence. They performed the track list of the new CD “All Together Now” from start to finish and this apropos statement is definitive of this trio. They all seem to be connected to the same weird muse that makes great pop music seem slightly drug induced, maybe even a bit insane. They keep this secret within the lines of the songs lyrics, such as the line “Driving is fine if you can get to a new place instead of hitting a wall so close to home…” and thus the brilliance of the Love Parade. Jason Sallese has a dry wit that keeps the serious freak-out of manic absurdity at bay. The tongue-in-cheek nature of this band is what draws you in and wins you over. Their performance was nearly flawless, which makes it more than perfect, as they tend to force themselves off the rails every once in awhile. “All Together Now” is a solid representation of this quirky and loveable trio’s musicality.

For locals: punk-is-the-new-punk

2008-03-13T10:30:00.006-04:00

ever since the punk explosion of late 70s underground musicians have been searching for the next thing to shake rock's foundations. In the 80s it was hip-hop, hardcore and new wave. In the 90s it was grunge, rave and nu-metal. In the 00s its been wave after wave of revivalist movements: garage rock, techno and ???

locally, a few revival-minded bands have grabbed the punk mantle and made it their own. Some have taken influences from punk's early years while others have taken from other sub-movements within ever-growing scope of punk rock music.

the music of White York expands on the folk resonances found within the punk movement. The band dwells in territory staked out by folk/ punk icons like Patty Smith and Tom Waits.

"we use a musical style that originates directly from a punk rock background, and we (more or less) have the accompanying ideology and attitudes," WY guitarist Alex Yoshi tells S3 via email.

basement-dwellers plates take a more purified approach to punk. According to Dave Anchovies, plates guitarist and all-around nice guy, the biggest single influence on the band is the '77 punk band the Wipers, which can be heard in the loud, tight, fast plates songs.

artvoice battle-of-the-bands winner London vs. New York is another high-profile local group proudly waving the punk banner. Their battle victory is no doubt a testament to punk rock presence and popularity in the local scene. WBFO Music Director Bert Gambini writes the band, who recently performed on the radio station's 'Live at Allen Hall' series, plays with "raucous spirit and high volume," which sound's like Yoshi's idea of what punk music should be:

"with 70's punk, there was a shift taking place in terms of how music was being treated. It was approached not as an arrangement of notes and rhythms that were foreign to the player, but as an invitation to take a simple pattern and intensify it, make it dynamic, make it explode."

Trystero @ Mickeiwicz Library (1.11.08)

2008-01-13T16:38:00.000-05:00

grunge instra-metalists Trystero filled up the performance space at the Mickeiwicz Library with their sludgy-noise metal. Their sound borrows as much from 70's proto-metal (Black Sabbath) as it does 90s grunge (Soundgarden) and noise (Swans/Sonic Youth).

As revivalist instrumental rock moves from 80's angularism to 90's grinding swirl, you had to see this one coming; yet the band, with their cello player front and center, was anything but formulaic, and had success drawing, and keeping, a crowd from the bar in the other part of the building. No small feat for a place that offer very cheap European beer and indoor smoking.

November Top 5ive

2007-12-11T11:13:00.001-05:00

The month that was... in song.

shapes have no religion - Bela's Shadow

In windchime rest stop scenic - Drivers to Warsaw

Somewhere on Christmas eve - Viva Noir

Trans Am - Brown Music

player piano - minuet

Neptune & Tentet/Octet @ Sound Lab, Sunday 11/18/07

2007-11-30T15:59:00.000-05:00

a rudy sizzle review

the branding of music is at an all time high and it seems like there is nothing that can be deemed new, and/or original. I find myself dry heaving at the thought of modern rock music that is featured as the soundtrack for modern hybrid automobiles, teen-zit creams and fresh-breath enhancers. It’s true, I often throw up in my mouth when I hear the lulling sound of youth culture careening around the corner as I wait patiently for the Simpsons to come back from commercial break.

i also feel equally, slightly queasy when someone tells me about a band that primarily features homemade instruments and is adored by hipster geeks in the underground progressive music scene. Especially when that someone tells me that they are performing at Soundlab on a Sunday night and they are pretty well known in the “avant-garde" scene. Most of what occurs in the realm of “a/g” is generally summarized as the following simple catch phrase coined by a very jaded, but talented soul: JERK ART.

JERK ART can be as hard to swallow as teenybopper, emotional rock. Atonal noise can hurt. For real, especially when it is aimed at you from a small-platform stage at high decibels by a couple of dudes that do not care to offer songs or “compositions” even.

Buffalo duo Tentet/Octet allow little room for objective criticism as they pretty much are aware of the effect that overly distorted cacophonies can have on an audience. They perforate the air with “skronk” music, pitter-patter on drums, guitar and the occasional key line from the beloved Casio SK1. The redeeming quality of Tristan Trump and Kyle Price’s musical collaboration is that it is truly uncompromising. They deliver belches of loud freak-out with very little trouble and seem to be masterful in the craft of excessive drone and noise. T/O seem hell-bent on being too weird to pin down with song structures and genre specifics, but also too safely nestled in the warm chambers of “soft/quiet/weird noise here/occasional tantrum of drum fills then howling through halls of delay” sort of formula. They have performed as an accompaniment for performance art pieces and it worked relatively well in that medium. As far as being a live act to behold on their own, the lack of memorable melodies or dare I say, songs, make Tentet/Octet border line JERK ART.

upon entering the stage for their performance, Neptune struck me as a bit labored and overly gadget oriented, struggling to make the jigsaw puzzle of homemade electronics spill forth some noise for a simple line check. Once the trio from Jamaica Plain, Mass. strapped on their homemade sonic battle axes and spun out the first notes of their first piece were my perceptions smashed to bits.

they launched into primal percussive thumping via mutant makeshift drums and layered a whirling dervish of a rhythmic loop by putting forth low unrelenting currents of sound wave. The songs were channeled from another world, somehow bridging the gap between Kraut and electro-clash with the mixture of hand-assembled electronics and percussion. There was an exorbitant amount of tones pushed through the wall of rickety amps behind the band (mostly modified and re-built) and these sounds managed to encapsulate the entire room with their eerie drones and inescapable melodies.

the band all shared vocal responsibilities and, unlike most “avant-garde” indie bands, they actually understood how to establish melodic phrases, which instantaneously became earworms. Neptune delivered a live onslaught that blew away my expectations by a landslide and left me wanting more. Their spectacle was relatively short lived, perhaps that was my one and only complaint.

Postpunks pump up the jams

2007-11-23T17:57:00.000-05:00

the faint stench of stale beer, smoke, and sweat seeps up from the Mohawk Place below; up and into the cramped second-floor practice space of the Exit Strategy. This is where much of the material on City of Microphones, the four-piece band's second record, was hammered out from countless writing sessions and free-form jams.

Microphones sees the band trading in much of their angular post-punkisms for more rounded-off muscular riffs and song structures. The result is more a compact and focused sound, ironically a sound they feel is more representative than their eponymous first album.

"on the first one you could definitely tell what our influences were," laughs Tim Turcott, drummer for the band. "(This record) is more of our own thing."

mark Constantino, Steve Kabza, Tony Flaminio, and Tim Turcott have all know or played music with each other for 12 to 15 years and their interpersonal chemistry is evident. They often finish each other's sentences without missing a beat. It seems only natural that City of Microphones is mostly a product of collaboration, a departure from their previous album.

"this one was definitely more -- all four of us in the practice space coming up with stuff," vocalist Constantino says. "A lot of the last record was Steve (the band's guitarist) coming in with these ideas; because he had tons of these ideas that he had written over (that) year."

the band recruited J. Robbins to help produce the new, beefed-up songs. Robbins' reputation proceeds him in many circles: he has produced iconic indie bands in the past such as Jawbreaker, Clutch, and the Dismemberment Plan. The result of the Exit Strategy's sessions with Robbins are guitar sounds that blaze like four-log fires and rhythms that rumble the cheapest of car stereos.

the album opens with "X-rays", a song that was written just days before the band left for Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore to record with Robbins.

"he needed to hear demos of every song we were going to do so he had a rough idea and that was kind of troublesome," said bassist Flaminio. "He was fine with it. It ended up being one of his favorite songs."

the band said they knew what they had immediately after writing "X-rays".

"we got done playing that song, it was the first time we went through it," Constantino said. "And Tony looks at me and goes, 'I guess that song's done.' "

constantino's job as a Buffalo Police officer gives him a unique perspective as a songwriter and lyricist. The eleventh track on City of Microphones, "He has a Bright Future with British Steel", is about his view on lay-offs within the BPD.

"about four years ago, these guys that I was good friends with just got laid off and kinda left in the dust," he said. "A few guys I knew went from health benefits, a good job and a pension to tending bar three nights a week."

according to Constantino, the band is a relief from work and a chance for him to vent his frustrations. He said, surprisingly most of his material doesn't come from the streets of Buffalo.

"most of the lyrics don't come from dealing with people, like on a call." he said. "It comes from... (being a police officer) you get a really nice view of how screwed up government in this area is."

after their Cd release show, the band has a national promotional campaign being launched by Yarr PR in Detriot and plans on supporting the Cd with some dates on the East Coast including a One Percent Press Showcase in Athens, GA, the Lemuria Cd release show, and a stint with the Failure's Union, Tony Flaminio's other band.

city of Microphones will be available locally at Exit Strategy shows and in local stores after the Cd release show at 9pm on Saturday, Nov.24 at the Mohawk Place, their home away from home.

Top 5 for October

2007-10-31T12:04:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the month again only here at silo3 it looks like you ARE gettin' some. Some top five local songs that is:

Ballast - the Old Sweethearts

Dissolution Soundtrack - Viva Noir

All to you - the hammond shutdown

Blown Away - VictoryLightBlackHoney

Battle Snakes - la Cacahouette

Pain in the Big Neck III

2007-10-24T10:45:00.001-04:00

this year's Pain in the Big Neck 3 included more local bands than ever before. Six locals graced the stages of the two day twenty-two band festival, evidence of the strong presence that blue-collar garage/punk still has in the Queen City.

one of Buffalo's newest bands, who emerged from their basement earlier this year, plates(above) put on one of the best 30-minute sets of the weekend ripping through their modest catalog like the grizzly veterans they are. Their modern take on Ian MacKaye punk (Minor Threat+Fugazi) is a big middle finger in the face of trendy garage-rock revivalists and indie kids alike.

another new band/ familiar face that had a strong showing was the minimal-industral one-man-punk band Mannequin Stupor. Not quite punk or garage, Eric G's latest project has influences that run deep into 80's post punk and noise. The set had it's high cerebral moments and low-blow potshots. Watching Mannequin Stupor play, one cannot help but feel transported to NYC art-school hangouts somewhere around 1985. However, a post-backbeat drum machine gave the songs a modern twist, a nod to the right-now post-electroclash NYC scene.

if Mannequin Stupor was the festival's high-brow moment, then Ski-Mask and his Bucketmen were it's low-brow. Ski-mask's angry rants, constant dick jokes and potty humor have been his trademarks since the days of Thunderbird Theatre, his cable access show. The latest incarnation has the masked madman spewing his mini manifestos over free-folk electronica loops dotted with samples culled from AM talk radio, mostly of the religious variety. The set can only be described as a look into the mind of a maniac. Ski-mask has an extremely polarizing presence and makes no apologies for what he does. He definitely gave this year's fest a twist of the demented, something that is missing all too often in today's safe, color-by-numbers punk/alternative.

by all accounts, this years Big Neck Records fest was a blast. If Bart Hart and Co. continue the trend the next one can only bigger and more ambitious.

Top 5 for September

2007-09-30T16:32:00.000-04:00

Top five for Sept:

Sentimental Jenny - plates
http://www.myspace.com/platesplatesplates

Big Words - White York
http://www.myspace.com/whiteyork

Sugar and Dirt - Little Dipper
http://www.myspace.com/mapoftheheavens

Dirty Dirty Deception - Trystero
http://www.myspace.com/cellocrust

Prologue - go, mordecai!
http://www.myspace.com/gomordecairocks

Novelist steps on the gas, throws map out the window

2007-09-25T10:49:00.000-04:00

the 21st century society is one driven by instant gratification and an "on-demand" mentality so pervasive, it engenders a mindset of valueless, disposable media. Once-viewed DVDs collect dust on living room shelves, music folders gorged on P2P networks expand as they fill hard drive space by the second, as do countless photo albums and videos from across the world.

the minimalist rock of Chase Middaugh and Ryan McMullen's Novelist is anything but "on-demand". Riffs and song structures stick together like shitty Velcro, coming apart at the slightest touch. Like an ADD child, the music can be frustratingly difficult to track and therein lies the hook.

while most artists use volume or discord to create tension (see the Pixies, Sonic Youth), Novelist's music meanders blindly around each bend at breakneck speed to create an aura of unexpectedness that hooks in the listener. As guitarist Middaugh wraps dark hues around McMullen's scatter shot drumming, the music can become epic at times and eerie at others, always looming close to the edge of the cliff but never quite falling off.

according to Middaugh, the song writing process has even begun to take on a fast-paced improvisational style. "The process these days is quite similar- just with less 'points' on the map, certain times no map at all," says Middaugh via email interview.

the new Novelist record "DROSERA" will be available this winter, with details on the release still to come. The recorded material tends to be on the more minimal side according to the band, with the live performances more frenetic and rock-friendly, baiting audiences with the hook that never comes.

Top 5 Songs for August

2007-08-30T09:18:00.000-04:00

There' gold in them thar' hills! Or at least a lode of great end of summer songs from local artists. Here's our top 5 for August, once again in no particular order:

Texty McTexington - Knife Crazy

Missing Persons - the Arms

Domicile of the Eagle - Ice Cream Social

All Circuits are Dead - the Exit Strategy

Integral of Love - the Dense

We are also now linked to the Buffalo Music photo set on flickr. Check em out!

Infringment festival Spotlight

2007-07-31T14:09:00.000-04:00

while the infringment festival is usually full of one-off "experimental" bands, occasionally a few decent left-of-left-of-center bands crop up and make an appearance under the festival banner.

knife Crazy makes just such an appearance August 4th at Nietzsche's. The band's prog-art-funk continues to evolve with the latest shows being evidence that the band has reached its most complex and technically-masterful state yet.

kC is planning on finishing another full length to be recorded in drummer Fen Ikner's studio. The band looks to release the new record in early 2008.

Knife Crazy w. Sonourous Gale, Severly Departed, & Pocket Gallow
Nietzsche's
248 Allen St.

Silo3 top 5 songs for July

2007-07-24T09:38:00.000-04:00

we put some heads together to come up with the top five songs for July. So here they are in no particular order:

Give Way - Failures Union

Don't Forget - Love Parade

Bomb Parts - la cacahouette

Tehran - London vs. New York

Ain't So Cruel- Roger Bryan

Lemuria at the Adam Mickiewicz Library - July 13th

2007-07-09T16:31:00.000-04:00

lemuria's simple and short pop songs serve as a pastel-colored backdrops for the band's darker lyrical imagery. A tour warm-up show in the old east-side library is seemingly apropos for lines like:

oh fuck just this once can i root for the hometeam
i'm always the bee to kamikaze to save the precious queen
and i watch the sympathy turn to pity
from my sympathetic friends

recent reviews draw comparisons to indie-pop icons Jawbreaker and Discount, which suggests the band is on the right track. With countless 90's faithful (and revivalists) generating similar sounds, Lemuria's biggest hook lies in the group's vocal interplay and obvious chemistry. Each member brings a piece to the puzzle and makes the band greater than the sum of its parts.

the band is scheduled to play festivals this summer and goes to Europe in September with Ringers from Boston. Catch them for their only local show this summer. Openers Bridge and Tunnel just released a 7" on the highly prestigious No Idea Records.

LEMURIA
BRIDGE AND TUNNEL
YO MAN, GO!
SAM WEIR

JULY 13th at:
Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle
aka The Polish Library
612 Filmore Ave. (near Broadway)
Buffalo, NY 14212

8 pm . $6

Silo 3 Launch Party

2007-06-25T16:55:00.000-04:00

Come out and get loose with the first Silo3 party.

the Dense
Like a Panther
the Dirty Birds

Bands start by 10:30 -- stay for dave anchovies sure-to-be-a-classic DJ set.

La Cacahouette interview

2007-06-25T15:58:00.000-04:00

the Greater Buffalo Area is a study in contrasts. Only Western New York could contain one of the most majestic natural wonders of the world and one of the biggest toxic chemical disasters of the 80's.

la Cacahouette know the meaning of contrast. Soaring melodies run up against stacks of noise. Atmospherics precede breakneck crescrendo. 00's postpunk blends seamlessly with 70's quirk-prog.

the band enters their fourth year with some miles under their belt and a full length album due out in June. Recently, Gerald Thomas sat down to talk about getting their touring legs going:

S3: So this is the fourth tour you're going on now?

Gerald: Yeah. The last tour we did was almost two weeks. We went all the way down through Texas and up to Colorado and... Arizona; Omaha, Nebraska; and into Minneapolis. So [this time] were going all way down the east coast to Atlanta and coming back and ending in Bloomington, Indiana.

S3: So basically east coast to midwest.

Gerald: Yeah, and were already planning to do another two weeks in October, probably a week of that with Otis and the Rufies from Bloomington, Indiana. Last year we did the east coast with them.

S3 : What was the best experience you had playing on the road?

Gerald : Probably, I would say-- Lubbock, Texas because we were down there and supposed to play in Denton and the show got messed up; it fell through but the girl had contacts for people in Lubbock and they basically added us on a bill. We were in Austin. We drove like eight hours, showed up and-- it was one of the best shows on the tour. It was in this artspace, clothing store venue. We played with this really mixed bag of bands, but all the bands worked well. There was this Satanic country band that played, and then a more Wilco-ey alt-rock band, and then like a really crazy experimental rock band. I don't know-- it was just really awesome and we're still getting messages from people-- from [the Lubbock show.]

S3: When your on the road you play with a lot of bands: local bands, and other touring bands that are criss-crossing the country. What is the best band you've played with on the road?

Gerald: I'd have to say Otis and the Rufies. We have a real soft spot for those guys. But even closer [to Buffalo] we love playing with the Audience, from Jamestown. They're really good guys-- actually[we played] their Cd release party.

S3: So where is everone coming from influence-wise?
Gerald: I don't really know. We have this question asked of us -- everybody's always like, "So what does your band sound like?" and we never really know what to say cause we're such, like, a mish-mosh of things. I'm into more modern indie rock, and a lot of psychedelic stuff, and 60's and 70's progressive rock, and then.... I don't know I like all sorts of stuff-- Pepper's way into 90's college rock, and a lot of British stuff like Ride and the Charlatans. Blake's into tons of different music. He has one of the biggest record collections on anybody that I know. He's into any style of music. But I don't really know... we don't sit down... I mean I think a lot of bands are like, "Hey we wanna write a song that sounds like this." or "Here's three different bands we really like. Lets try to do something that sounds like that..."

the La Cacahouette Cd release party is June 30 at the Mohawk Place in Buffalo, NY