Tag: Music
monday may 28th 2007
Old Wicked Songs: Make Your Own Kind Of Music
Old Wicked Songs sheds doubt on the theory that the truth lives between two differing points of view. Left, right? Old, young? Christian, Jew? Truth must be somewhere in the middle, no? Not always.
Playwright Jon Marans' first move in this gambit scrutinizes the possibility of absolute good or absolute evil. What you find beautiful must be art, and, of course, it is good. But is there ever beauty in the art of your enemy? And is it good if you and your enemy find the same beauty in the same art?
The play is an encounter between two musicians: Hoffman the student and Mashjan the teacher. Hoffman is a young American looking forward to his career, Mashjan an old European looking backward on his. Social, political and religious differences arise as they work together through Robert Schumann’s song cycle, Dichterliebe.
Their inner lives are reflected in the music…a piece which needs youthful passion to interpret it, but requires experienced mastery to play it. Actors Louis …
User Options
saturday may 26th 2007
Something Different: Chris Cannon's "Model Citizen"
In any review you will every read about Buffalo's Chris Cannon, you will find one similarity -- his uncanny resemblance to Tom Waits. Musically speaking. That being said, let me give you my take on Cannon's newest album Model Citizen with a Tom Waits metaphor.
Tom Waits is walking down a road, cigarette in one hand, flask of whisky in the other. He comes to a six street crossroads. Each road is a different musical genre. One road is country, another is R&B, one is blues, one is Mexican folk, etc, you get the idea. Anyway, in my mind, each song on Model Citizen is Tom Waits at this point taking a different road. The first track sounds like Tom Waits singing doo-wop at some 1950's prom. Another song sounds like Tom Waits using Peter Frampton's voice box singing a mo-town tune.
But let's stop talking about Tom Waits, and start talking about Chris Cannon.
Now I…
friday may 25th 2007
Punkfest 2007 @ Club Diablo!
No, punk isn't dead. It's not even twitching in it's Doc Martens. And if you're one of the people who misses styling your hair with wood glue and regularly bought out the safety pin supply at the local craft store, have we got a show for you!
Jesse Zuefle and Club Diablo are bringing Punkfest 2007 to Club Diablo. Not three, not five, but ten bands will play beginning at 6 PM to a 16-and-over crowd, proving that some people still like to get their thrash on in realtime instead of Grand Theft Auto #478. You can expect songs like the Wheezing Stumblers' "Run, Fight, F&(*#$", and the Snot Rocket's "I Hate Punk Rock Girls", a charming little anthem with the classic fast beat, three chords, and ironic lyrics to scream al…
One question you will never have to answer is “Chita who?”
There is only one.
To write about Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life comes perilously close to treading on the show’s territory…something a respectful journalist would never do. It would be worse that synopsizing the plot, always a lazy substitute for cultural journalism. Suffice to say, there is no traditional plot to this biographic revue coming to Shea’s as part of Rivera’s national tour.
One could write about the show’s purpose, a brainy attempt to get to the “why” of the show…but the show is all about purpose, and set to music to boot- why Rivera dances, why anyone dances- the training, the toil, ambition and disappointment, the thrill of performance victory, the agony of the feet. (Sorry. But that’s how hard it is to put an acceptable gloss on the physical suffering a career dancer experience…
wednesday may 23rd 2007
Artist Spotlight: Hallwalls Artist and Models event
Fun, zany, entertaining and just plain weird are a few words that describe some of the artists we will see this year at Hallwalls' Artists and Models “Nocterminal” event; a fund raiser to support Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center.
Our first interview was with visual artist and connoisseur of the sensual, Sean McGarry. Upon entering Sean's studio, I was besieged by an exquisite collection of erotic artwork. Beautiful paintings of equally beautiful women indulging themselves in various pleasures of the flesh, made me feel as though I had stepped into some kind of alternate universe. This was an atmosphere of fearless self expression and moral immunity, an environment that demands a laissez faire attitude from even its toughest critic.
Buffalo Rising: Would you classify your work as art for experiment or art for entertainment?
McGarry: …
tuesday may 22nd 2007
Fen Ikner of Knife Crazy
Ah, Rhode Island Street, it’s a colorful place really. Home to the Essex Street Pub, Left Bank (on the same block, honest!), and Delicious Delicious Audio, our second stop and favorite hang of Fen Ikner from Knife Crazy. The studio is just as unpredictable and entertaining as the street it resides on, and its owner for that matter. Buffalo Rising: Where are we?
Fen: This is my studio; it’s called Delicious Delicious.
Buffalo Rising: So you’ve tasted it? Fen: Yes, two times! I like to record rock bands here. Um… should I name rock bands? Can I name rock bands? Buffalo Rising: Yes please!
Fen: Ice Cream Social, The Czeck Mates, Light Box Therapy…god, who else?... Joe Molhollen, Knife Crazy… millions and millions of other artists. Bon Jovi…
Buffalo Ris…
Anker, Taborn and Cleaver (ATC) had its premiere in May 2003, where the band did a small, but successful tour in France, Germany and Denmark. Since then ATC has been performing at festivals, clubs and concert spaces in Scandinavia, Europe, USA and Canada and also released the critically acclaimed CD "Triptych" (LeoRecords).
"Pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver are close allies on the New York scene, and this encounter with Danish saxist Lotte Anker affirms their simpatico. Anker, a fount of sinewy yet lyrical abstraction on both of her horns, seems to bring out the best in her collaborators. While Triptych is every inch a free session, with seven collectively composed pieces, the trio covers a wide swath of sonic territory." Jazzwise UK 2006
June 11 8PM $12 general admission, $10 members/students/seniors
monday may 21st 2007
Artist Spotlight: Josh Brown of Psuedo Slang
Josh Brown of Psuedo Slang, now here's an artist you definitely don't want to miss at the upcoming Artist and Models event, a fundraiser to support Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. This group is as real as it gets!
Artist Spotlight is a series of interviews that take a closer look into the local music and art scene and the artists whom drive it.
Buffalo Rising sat down with Josh at Spot Coffee on Elmwood Avenue to get the lo down on this hip hop virtuoso, and (in his words) not to sound “bragadocious”, but ... it was dope! For more information on the Artist and Models e
Beloved Buffalo duo John and Mary are kicking off their summer with an intimate duet in a "perfectly Buffalo" setting. The Essex Arts Center is one of those places that makes you feel like you've stumbled onto a secret world in the arts, a self-contained environment reclaimed from a Victorian brick-walled ice factory. A movie set waiting to happen, it's the perfect backdrop for the intricate melodies and laid-back guitar of the duo, formerly the heartbeat of the "other" Buffalo super-group, the 10,000 Maniacs.
Friends who come to visit keep surprising me by being astonished at Lombardo and Ramsey's accessibility and easy-going manner. They're such nice people, it's easy to put aside that they've filled stadiums with their fans and have individually and collectively produced more albums than you and I have fingers and toes. So, if somehow i…
wednesday may 16th 2007
Old School Goths Represent!
Break out the eyeliner and Docs -- we're about to have a Continental flashback. Aging hipsters (ahem) that the "South Park" goth kids were probably modeled on will be thrilled with tonight's show at Hallwalls -- poet, playwright, scholar, critic, and labor activist Mark Nowak will be reading from his essay "'To Commit Suicide in Buffalo is Redundant': Music & Death in Zero City, 1982-1984". Cribbing his title from Michael Bennett's famous quote from A Chorus Line, the essay is featured in the forthcoming critical anthology, Goth: Undead Subculture, (edited by Lauren Goodlad & Michael Bibby, Duke University Press, 2007).
The show is presented by Hallwalls and Talking Leaves.... Books, who will have copies of the anth…
Jim Heath, aka the Reverend Horton Heat, should be pickled in Budweiser and bronzed as the Essential American Rocker. Just my opinion, but still. The Rev has been ripping it up since 1985 with his buddy Jimbo Wallace joining him in 1989 and new drummer Paul Simmons signing up for the chaos last year. Safe to say that for 22 years, few ‘billy bands have made more of scene, drunk more bourbon or screamed while standing on top of more upright basses than this trio of hellcats. While you may not wind up in heaven after this gig, you’ll feel like you’ve died and bought your ticket, rising up with tattooed angels at your side.
May 22, 7 PM $22 The Buffalo Icon 391 Ellicott, 14203, 842.0167
thursday may 10th 2007
The Next Big Thing?
It's been a busy year for the guys in COLORSINTHEAIR. After forming in 2005 at SUNY Fredonia, CITA has been on the run from the start, and the horizon is miles away. Their sound brings to mind Coldplay and Jimmy Eats World having a love child, with the Foo Fighters playing the antagonizing older brother. Honest lyrics and beautiful arrangements add to to moving and captivating stage presence that gives the audience a show worth listening and watching, rather than merely being a visual CD player.
After the 2006 release of the "Montreal EP", their sound caught the ear of the wacky folks at The Workshop Group, whose penchant for keeping their studio hidden remains a fun mystery (word has it everyone is blindfolded before traveling there). The Workshop Group immediately signed the band after only a few listens, sensing something special. After months in the studio, COLORSINTHEAIR h…
The man, the myth, the legend, original music producer Pete Bennett, has announced the winner of the Pete Bennett Show's local talent conference at a press conference in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday. Meet Kim Monroe. Kim, a young singer/songwriter with a voice Pete compared to Sheryl Crow, stood out from a field of over 90 bands, many whom had been performing for as long as Kim has been alive at 20 years old. "This young lady has a fresh sound, a fresh face. Most of you have never heard of her, but I like that, I wanted to bring you new blood."
"She sang for me live, with just her guitar player, and it was stunning," said Bennett. "She's got a nice voice, a good look for TV and film, a…
wednesday may 9th 2007
The Big Easy ‘Bringing it’ to Buffalo
Young band changing the sites and sounds of Cajun and Creole music
The rhythmic and raucous sounds of Cajun and Creole music will fill the air Thursday night when the Pine Leaf Boys invade downtown Buffalo. As part of the “Big Easy in Buffalo” music series, the critically-acclaimed Louisiana band brings their New Orleans-style dance party to The Tralf Music Hall located at 622 Main Street. Tickets can be purchased for $15 at local Ticketmaster outlets. The show begins at 8:00 p.m.
saturday may 5th 2007
Food, Wine & The City
May 10th brings us one of the Shea’s three annual fundraising events, always a terrific blend of fun, friends, and fabulous food and drink. This time around is “Food, Wine & The City, held in Shea’s Grand Lobby and featuring live jazz along with some of the best food and wine in the city.
We have searched our little black book and set a date with some of Buffalo’s favorite restaurants, to bring the best food and wine from around the world!
May 10, 5:30 PM $35.00 Presale/$40.00 Day of Event Shea’s Performing Arts Centre 646 Main, 14202, 847.1410
