It was with tremendous excitement that I learned this band had headed up to Virginia City to record a new album at Piper’s Opera House, to be titled, quite appropriately, When the Silvers Gone. You can catch two tracks, “Bloody Your Teeth” and “Cowboys & Indians” on the band’s Myspace.
Buster Blue’s debut, 2008’s This Beard Grows for Freedom, was an amazingly fun ride through a style of music perhaps best described as swing noir. Seeing this band play live in a tiny little bar was quite an experience. A six piece fitting into a tiny space like The Zephyr is something all its own, but it’s quite another thing to have the sound come out with almost perfect fidelity. So many instruments are employed in the production of Buster Blue’s songs that it is quite something to see it all come together.
What I just describe was my first time experiencing their music live. The last time I saw them play live was in a really, really crowded house at St. James Infirmary on a Friday night. The show was to raise money for the band to record their new album. The atmosphere that night was tense and difficult. The crowd was very noisy, and there were so many people in the bar that it was next to impossible to move through the room. Forget trying to hear the band! My party ended up outside the bar, standing by a window in the chill of a December evening, grateful then to finally be able to hear the music. This was before the Knitting Factory had opened downtown, and I said to my friends that I could not wait for the new album to be done and the Knit to open, so that I could hear them play in a proper music venue.
Well, Buster Blue has played the Knit lately, and I haven’t been able to make it out to see them play. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the CD release show would be happening at a swankier venue still – John Ascuaga’s Nugget’s Celebrity Showroom. This event will take place June 18 at 8 pm. Tickets are $16.50 and can be booked online. Highly recommended.
Noise music is usually an abstract version of sound. Sometimes there’s a beat to follow, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes it’s irrtating, sometimes it’s texturally fascinating. From home made, home-built acoustic instruments to racks of ancient synthesizers, you’ll see what people decide to do with them. It’s avant-garde questioning if people actually do just bang on stuff for the sake of minimalistic simplicity, or if they know how to play an instrument (or break it live, on stage) altogether. A good time will be had by all. This is a free show, so what do you have to lose?
DJ’s perform under a constant string of pseudonyms, which makes them natural allies of the posters on this site.
So it might not surprise you that the DJ’s Diplo and Switch got together and invented a Jamaican former commando DJ who survived the Surprise Zombie War in the 80s.
Hey, I don’t make this stuff up.
Someone else does that. I just write about it. Here’s some music, and video!
Major Lazer is the name of this collaboration. Major Lazer will perform at the Knitting Factory in Reno on April 15, 2010. Tax day. Tax day!?! Yes, Tax Day. Doors at 7, show at 8. $16 - $21. Knitting Factory’s Show Page.
Anything is good when it’s free, and this is better than good, because it’s actually the decent kind of free.
Empire Improv is helping to develop the premiere comedy stylings of improvisational (meaning, they make it up) kind of comedy in Reno. Led by Michael Lewis, their troupe “Hostel Greetings,” has regular shows that flaunt their talents as funny guys and gals.
Did you ever think you’d be good at it? Now is your chance! For free! Just send michael@empireimprov.com a message, and sign up.
They’re doing it again, those crazy boys that put together the band The Madorians are having another shin-dig, this time, with a mostly-new lineup mixed with some talented Reno favorites. The Madorians will be joined by Hopscotch Whiskey, Come Think, The I Knows!, The Humans and between sets you can sway to the grooves of DJ Gilt.
All happening February 27th at 7pm at the Studio on 4th (432 E 4th, Reno): An all ages gig!
In addition to the music, there will be face painting, and performance art by Dominique Palladino!
The Magical Mystery Show will be an art, performance and hang-out spectacle featuring some of Reno’s newest and greatest talent. If you liked The Electric Circus, you’ll love the Magical Mystery Show!
One of the best things in life is to get a random e-mail promoting something I would never have found out about just on my own. I guess if you want to get really pedantic about it I am sort of finding out about it on my own, but this is no time for pedantry!
This is a time to tell all of you about Dessa, a singer-songwriter from Minneapolis, MN who is working her way around some of the cities of our beloved West this month, and will be stopping off in Reno for a show at Tonic Lounge on February 16 with Grieves, and fellow Doomtree artist P.O.S.
Dessa’s Badly Broken Code is big, classy music. Solid beats with a blend of rapped and sung vocals over the top. The rhymes are tight, the phrases turned with nice surprises. And so it shall be at 9 PM at Tonic Lounge on February 16.
This will be an interesting show at least for the mix of acts. Dessa and Grieves are actually opening for P.O.S. P.O.S. is billed by the promoter as “teenage hardcore punk rocker grows up and becomes a critically acclaimed hip-hop rapper.” His current album Never Better has some exemplary tracks like Goodbye (free MP3 download).
Finally rounding out the ticket is Brooklyn-based Grieves. I am an instant fan and will leave you with this video which is a collaboration of Grieves and Type.
Tonic’s Myspace claims “Huge bands in a small room is always the most fun.” Tonic is definitely a small room, and these artists will do a fine job putting that claim to the test. Music this good on a Tuesday is damn near unheard of. Tonic’s Myspace also claims well drinks, beer and wine are 2 bucks all night on Tuesdays, which should help take a little of the edge off the cover charge. Recommended.
