FileMaker Failed to Save the Wrong Version of this Entry About Jesse Sprinkle and Burning Daylight [hooray!]

Posted on 2008-Dec-28 by Jason Olshefsky

OK, this one's specifically dedicated to John Lam. Whenever we talk about JayceLand, he frequently comments that I don't blog "properly" — often posting an entry for — say today — on next Wednesday. So this one's for you, John: it's 2:59 a.m. and after the event about which I'm about to blog. …

So I went to Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) earlier. I arrived in time to catch just a song-and-a-half of Jesse Sprinkle. I liked what I heard, but don't feel confident opining further due to insufficient experience. Next was Burning Daylight who are really swell. Jesse plays drums in this band — and I met lead-singer/guitarist Nick and bassist Tim afterward. I generally stand by my database-stored comment from December 21, 2006 at the Bug Jar: "unremarkable bar-rock except when they get more punk-rock". [No offense, guys: let me qualify …]

I had a great time. I considered heading to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) for the metal and metal-like show featuring (among others) Sulaco (featuring some friends of mine) but instead, I opted to get a pint or two (or three) at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) instead and enjoy some, well, bar-rock. Burning Daylight does a fine job with a mix of [mostly] originals and [some] covers in a bar-rock/punk-rock style. I mean, what more can I say? Have you been at a bar where some band was playing and had a drink or two, and noted, "hey, these guys are pretty good."? It's that kind of personal experience that really doesn't carry over well to radio-play or other popular, substantive fame. It's just … well … nice. With notably-sexceptional exceptions like "Black Soul, Black Heart", it's not the kind of thing you're going to get nagging in your head. But that one song can keep you coming back.

Heck, maybe it's whatever it was that Ali and her friend were so impressed that the band played for them. Or maybe it's just that Tim's this kind of faux-Canadian [in the "gosh, aren't those Canadian folks polite and kind" kind of way] Buffalo … umm … resident. Or that I owe Nick, Tim, and Jesse a drink [and $1.33 more each] for giving me their CD (Jesse 2x for supplying his personal-favorite own CD in addition).

In conclusion, thanks: you guys gave me a great time (even despite that poor dude who got carried away by ambulance for whatever reason … at least it wasn't body-bag). So when you're at your regularly-paying day-jobs, know that I thought your time was worth its while. Sure, your songs aren't on 'BER regularly [or are they?: I'm so irritated by the Guisto-inspired BOCES-training-esque 'play what the people want' kind of crap that I barely listen anymore].

But whatever: play live and there's someone there who'll love it.

Bird Show, Sun Circle, and Autumn in Halifax at the Bug Jar

Posted on 2008-Dec-10 by Jason Olshefsky

I headed out to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) a second time [and a late update to the JayceLand page, in case you wondered if you missed it the first time]. First up was Bird Show which consisted of one guy playing synth-sourced, digitally-altered, experimental, anti-melodic, anti-tempo music. It was a lot like interesting ambient — only not mellow. Next was Sun Circle who did a trippy meditative set — in one song, for instance, they harmonized reed instruments with a rolling synth tone and burned incense; it was actually a lot better than you might expect.

Finishing up was Autumn In Halifax — joined by "leaves" Joe Tunis and R. Scott Oliver. Although I loved Dave's solo work when he first started playing as Halifax, I've come to really enjoy the new line-up, especially now that it's more mature. The lush poetry of Dave's lyrics works just as well now as it did before, only now it's set against a more traditional three-piece band.

Lobster Quadrille, Township, and Auld Lang Syne at the Bug Jar

Posted on 2008-Dec-06 by Jason Olshefsky

I guess it's been a while since I wrote any reports of performances, much less one where I see a band. I still get out — although less often than I used to — and tonight was one of those cases. I went to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) and got there a bit early so I had a chance to catch up with the folks in The Lobster Quadrille. As it turns out, they were up first — there was some confusion about who was when, as it was Auld Lang Syne's show (so they got top billing) and Township came in from Boston.

Anyhow, The Lobster Quadrille did a great set. I found myself particularly mesmerized by Love is Cold. I've mentioned it hundreds of times [okay, for each of the last 29 of their shows I posted], but they do a great rendition of satirical gospel with all of 6 [or is it 7?] people on stage performing. Lead singer Solomon commented afterward that he felt the set was a bit melancholic feeling; although I think that "melancholic" suits them quite well.

Next up was Township who I really enjoyed as well. They do a crisp, fresh version of classic rock. I even bought their CD which I've been enjoying as well. Finishing up was Auld Lang Syne who I've now finally had the chance to hear. The night was getting a bit long for me, but I stayed enough to find they played a great heavy-hitting proto-rock that I'll likely seek out in future shows.

The Copyrights and Kepi Ghoulie at the Bug Jar

Posted on 2008-Jun-29 by Jason Olshefsky

I headed out to the late show at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) First up was The Copyrights who played some superb high-energy punk-rock with a rich thumping bass. Next up was Kepi Ghoulie (a.k.a. Kepi: The Band) former front-man of The Groovie Ghoulies. Well, his new band is naturally very similar in that it's still a ghoul-themed punk-rock band, but it's got a more gritty, distorted sound that suits them well. Plus more people.

Unfortunately they hadn't learned the Ghoulies' Chupacabra yet so I'm stuck with it in my head — perhaps until the next time someone mentions the Chupacabra (or is it three times into the mirror?). Regardless: I had an absolute blast.

Autumn in Halifax and the Weird Weeds at the Bug Jar

Posted on 2008-Jun-16 by Jason Olshefsky

I got to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) a bit early just in case but things got started later than usual. I chatted a bit with Dave Merulla of Autumn In Halifax who was interested in what I'd think of the show tonight. Despite my description last week, Dave would be playing things vanilla acoustic style: no "Leaves" (additional members who join him now and then) and no "band in a box" (a reference he made a few years ago to the digital effects he uses).

In the end, the show was excellent. It's still Dave and still his songs. He was clearly itching to use some effects or have people accompany his playing at times, but he persevered. Afterward he said that he likes to do a few shows all alone like that to shake out the songs. It's like he's building a foundation: that the melody and lyrics have to be strong on their own before he fiddles around with adding decoration and style. And they are generally strong songs to start with. He'll be playing them with "The Leaves" in July at The Little Theatre Café (240 East Ave.).

I've come to really appreciate what he's trying to accomplish. He said that he enjoys playing with additional people for the variation it causes — that there's always something unknown by doing that. He commented that it's usually a matter of trying to figure out which of the wheels is going to fall off first. And as such, the band is constantly changing … I said that my notes on bands are thrown way off with this kind of thing: by this time next year, Autumn in Halifax will have a completely different sound, although rooted in the same quality of music.

I got to thinking about how I like to see people do what they've done before, but it kind of makes them machines. I already have machines for that: they play back audio recordings. So no matter how many times any band plays something different, there's always the possibility of revisiting what was through the last CD.

Anyway, the other band up was The Weird Weeds. They do a sort of accessible experimental music — a bit of alternative-rock and with a bit of experimentation and a bit of harmonization. One of their members was nursing some kind of cold with whiskey, but they still did a great job.

Mose Giganticus and The Mathematicians at the Bug Jar (sorry, Emotron)

Posted on 2008-May-01 by Jason Olshefsky

I headed to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) and tried not to miss any of the show. Unfortunately I arrived long after The Emotron had finished — Mose Giganticus was just taking the stage. They were great — a really fun snyth-rock band. Following up, The Mathematicians put on an excellent show. Their synth-driven sound covers things like rock, punk, and hip-hop seamlessly. Unfortunately they had some power problems and I got in on the fray [hopefully] being helpful and getting them to play one more song before an effects-pedal problem did them in — and I was so close to fixing that one too.

SoundRabbit at Boulder Coffee

Posted on 2008-Apr-20 by Jason Olshefsky

I went to Boulder Coffee Co. (100 Alexander St.) to check out SoundRabbit. The place was dead with just a few musicians, myself, and the slowly building crowd for the Open Mic Comedy. It's too bad there weren't more people because SoundRabbit is a nicely rhythmic, expertly proficient acoustic-driven band. Several times they reminded me of Paul Simon's acoustic solo stuff, but maybe with a country twang. They teeter right on the edge of "jam band" but without the annoying vapid repetition of the latter — they reminded me more of The BuddhaHood than any of a billion Grateful Dead wannabes.

During the show Russ (the lead singer) was having problems with the sustain pedal on his keyboard — it seemed to be stuck. It got so bad he just unplugged it in the middle of the song and tried to hold notes manually — given the staccato style of most of the song it appeared to work. Between songs I dashed up to see if I could fix it. I didn't even make it back to my table when I noticed it had a switch on the side so it would operate as either momentary or push-on/push-off and it was in the undesirable position. They were all very appreciative that I had "saved the tour" (although I think they'd have figured it out somewhere in the van on the road before their next gig) and gave me a free CD.

Afterward I talked with them a little bit before they had to get going — the odd Sunday Rochester stop was a convenient one between Chicago and Boston. Since I've been to Denver quite a few times I'm familiar with Boulder a little as well so we talked geography a bit. Several of the band members are from Massachusetts originally so they were doing a stop at Mom and Dad's for the night.

Anyway, we also talked a little about the RBT Backstage program. Basically they invite fans to join the backstage program for $20/year and in exchange, they get access to all the music recorded that year (and presumably before) to download along with other perks — if you're "in" the backstage, then you get access to everything, and if you aren't, then you can go to shows and buy CD's like anyone else. What they then do is to donate their merchandise sales to charity rather than trying to scrape out a tour on the often not-so-deep pockets of people at the shows. I imagine it makes for a more relaxing tour — they said the travel money was mostly already budgeted with a few major college shows to cover the rest — so it's never an issue of selling enough stickers and T-shirts to fill the van with gas.

I'll probably send them a message tipping them off to the idea of Creative Commons licensing so they can make a (theoretically) legally binding agreement that their works are copyright by them and they license their works freely under certain circumstances — like to share in a non-commercial setting or to remix the works given the same license is provided.

Meddlesome Meddlesome Meddlesome Bells and City Harvest Black at the Mez

Posted on 2008-Apr-04 by Jason Olshefsky

I stopped by The House of Hamez (389 Gregory St., formerly Daily Perks) to check out the show. I didn't find it all that different from Daily Perks (which was the last time I visited the place, so it's been quite a while). Naturally the architecture wasn't any different, but the decorating gave it a different feel. I was disappointed to find there were even fewer places to sit. The guy working wasn't particularly cheerful, either, but I'll give that a pass. I have heard people calling it "The Mez" but I still didn't get a feel that was anything but an artificial nickname — the website still reports "House of Hamez".

Anyway, starting out was City Harvest Black who did a great job with looped noise and quasi-intelligible voices drawn from found sources. It had the feel of a meditation on the sounds of the subway and really hit its mark. I also stuck around for a bit of The Meddlesome Meddlesome Meddlesome Bells. I was interested in seeing them because I thought I'd really like them. As it turned out … well … I think I'll need to give them another chance. The style was that of heavy, metal-sounding guitars and drums, some bells now and then, and vocals that were bright but kind of off-key. I think I'd like the whole thing if I was more open to the idea. We'll see.

Monotonix, Handsome Jack, and Blue Spark and Flame at the Bug Jar

Posted on 2008-Apr-02 by Jason Olshefsky

After having dinner with Ali, I headed out to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) later on. When I arrived, Blue Spark and Flame was just finishing their set. They sounded great: loud and powerful, like rock should be. I didn't realize, but Handsome Jack was on the bill too. Their set was very good, but the last time I saw them, I liked them better — the chemistry just wasn't perfect in the whole thing tonight.

Finishing up was Monotonix who blew everything away. They opened up with a flaming drum kit (paper, lighter fluid, and flames, that is). The lead singer Ami started running around and even did a bit of crowd surfing. He grabbed my half-full beer out of my hand before I realized that was where he was getting all the beer I got sprayed with minutes earlier. The guitarist stayed mostly out of the blast radius, but the drummer had his kit moved around by Ami during songs. Half-an-hour in, there's this guy who pops into the fray, moshing with his pants around his ankles. It wasn't long before he was streaking in his socks and being molested by the singer using the microphone cord.

Now that's a show not to miss.

The Lucky Cats, The Sound City Saints, Night Gallery, and A Hotel Nourishing at the Bug Jar

Posted on 2008-Mar-15 by Jason Olshefsky

I headed out for the late show at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) First up was A Hotel Nourishing — a technical, rather precise rapid-fire cacophonous rock band. Next was Night Gallery whom I'd seen before — this time I found them to be a solid rock band with a salsa/Spanish influence. I liked them both a lot.

Next was The Sound City Saints who did some really fun, fairly gritty punk-rock. I helped their bassist with his microphone then his guitar strap. They were a fun bunch of guys. Finishing up was The Lucky Cats who do solid, straightforward punk-rock.