The musician’s ego is an eggshell: all cracked up and abused and covered with bumper stickers. We need attention. We need to know we count. And no matter how good we know we are, we ain’t legit ’til a crowd roars for us, a DJ spins us, or a hack music writer says so. I’ve […]
Frank De Blase
Posted inMusic
Thinking man’s metal
The guys in BML aren’t trying to be obtuse. They’re as perplexed as you are when it comes to trying to pigeonhole their sound — music that’s powerful and angular with shifty progressions that beg for Ritalin. Music that’s progressive, that’s heavy, funky, and complex. Call it thinking man’s metal. “I call it ‘fried-chicken core,’” […]
Posted inMusic
40 is the new 20
It’s easy to get your rocks off when someone — anyone — is watching. The true test of a musician is when one can pour it all out with little or no feedback. Baby, it’s a breeze and we’re all rock stars when they’re all drunk and flailing in front of the stage. But when […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Americana the beautiful
Country music, or anything with a sizeable twang factor, seems a bit out of place in New YorkState. To the outsider, New York is often misinterpreted simply as one big concrete jungle, a never-ending Gotham, when in reality the majority of the EmpireState is green. It’s the same thing up here along the mighty Genesee. […]
Posted inMusic
Souled out
“It’s sold out,” my friend hollered into my cell phone. “They won’t let me in.” I had told her, and countless others, “Nah, don’t get tickets. It’s gonna be a great show but it won’t sell out. Rochesterians are too hung up on cover bands, chain restaurants, and bad TV to venture downtown to dig […]
Posted inMusic
Blender and fray
I climbed into the jalopy and pointed it downtown. Destination: HochsteinMusicSchool. You’d think that’d be relatively simple; drive to show, dig show, split. The daily bustle ‘n’ grind complicates the whole procedure but that just makes the music that much sweeter. I dodged the kamikazes and pot holes on Lake Avenue, just scraping by a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
21st century soul man
James Hunter sings that sweet soul music. And once again, a decidedly American music form, forsaken by American artists for whatever flavor of the year, is picked up by a British artist who turns around and frankly does it better. “We go into […]
Posted inMusic
Slick, tight, and snow-white
Dressed in a day-glo blue suit that would’ve made Iceberg Slim proud, Watermelon Slim brought some of the best blues I’ve seen in The Dinosaur BBQ in a long, long time. Last Wednesday night, before a packed house, the man freight-trained the harp, threw periodic tantrums (of the raving Pentecostal variety) on the dance floor […]
Posted inMusic
The echo’s perspective
Come on in, the jazz is fine. I’ve been dipping my big toe into uncharted waters more and more lately and brrrr, it’s cool. I can probably thank or blame Monk for all of this. Brooklyn experimental guitarist Adam Caine (who incidentally claims to have become a jazz musician at age 16, the night he […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Eight days a week
You’ve only got seven, but there’s something to do eight days a week. Monday. Why not start the week large and in charge? Just take the mic on karaoke night at The Flipside Bar & Grill and prove once and for all that Isabella Rossellini’s version of “Blue Velvet” can actually be topped. The Bop […]
