If a perfect blend of cover songs and original material actually exists in a band’s arsenal, Wayne County’s Low Flying Planes may have found it. The band skates the razor. It’s found the balance — give the people what they want peppered with what you want them to want. The band arrived at this balance over its brief, […]
Music Profile
Posted inMusic
Funknut
Funknut is already the big band it will never be. Don’t get me wrong; the Funknut sound is big and soulful, nestled somewhere between Curtis and Sly and a persistent jazzy jam. This is the cry of a trio that can’t even get past trio as far as keeping permanent guns in its ranks. When […]
Posted inMusic
B.C. Likes You
Robert Mostyn, better known as B.C., is a regular presence on the Rochester scene, but he makes music that is noticeably different from the output of most other local acts. He’s part of a genre, and musical movement, called chiptune. Chiptune can be defined, in the words of B.C., as “music made with retro video […]
Posted inMusic
MoChester
The hearts and influences of its members are visible on its collective sleeve. Clearly a pop vehicle, MoChester jams effortlessly outside the safety of pop’s sugar walls with apparent, and perhaps some not-so-apparent, roots. There’s reggae, there’s jazz, even some darker leanings toward the blues. But the band’s gentle song-based aesthetic gives it a unique […]
Posted inMusic
Steve Katz
Some of us remember the time as if it were yesterday. Sitting in the bedroom of a friend’s home in the mid-1960’s, taking the brand new record from the album cover with the five hip-looking guys on it, and playing “Projections” by The Blues Project. A few years later we were putting the needle down […]
Posted inMusic
JD McPherson
For 29 of the 35 years that drummer Jason Smay has spent on the globe, his snappy beats have gotten asses out of seats and started them shaking. An amazingly solid, in-the-pocket performer, he’s kept time with an array of classic rock ‘n’ rollers. Smay has done time — and kept it — in groups […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
INTERVIEW: Pink Martini
With equal dashes Esquivel lounge and Martin Denny exotica, chilled on retro rocks and poured into a Camelot-era America glass, Pink Martini is the ultimate in sophisticated pop cool and classic, jazzy swing. Since 1994, this ensemble from Portland, Oregon, has traveled the world plugging into orchestras along the way. It’s breathtaking. It’s an elegant […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
INTERVIEW: Marti Brom
There’s a spot in certain female voices — a transitional spot, if you will — between sweet vibrato and growl. Texas rockabilly songstress Marti Brom traverses this vocal twilight beautifully, leaving a slew of broken hearts in her wake. Brom’s voice and overall persona is classic and way beyond your typical rootsy twang and tribute. […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
INTERVIEW: Anat Cohen
When Israeli clarinetist Anat Cohen steps out of her Brooklyn home, she finds herself between two worlds. Cohen resides in Williamsburg, a vital neighborhood in the New York jazz scene. But Williamsburg is also a center of Hasidic Judaism in the United States. “I live right on the border,” says Cohen. “I make a left […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
INTERVIEW: Rudresh Mahanthappa
It’s not unusual for a jazz artist to lead several groups, but Rudresh Mahanthappa just might hold the record. He leads or co-leads 10 different ensembles. “I’m always hearing a different sound in my head,” says Mahanthappa. “My artistic vision is not necessarily about having one group and keeping it together for 10 to 20 […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
INTERVIEW: Gas House Gorillas
So, five gorillas walk into a bar… But seriously folks, five guys from Brooklyn walk into a joint in Anytown, USA, and promptly take the stage. They look like a cross-section between The Bowery Boys and escapees from The Reformatory for Wayward Boys circa 1959. It’s still not clear if these cats are the band, […]
Posted inMusic
Rock-n-Roll Social Club
It was a lopsided split when local band Boneyard disbanded last year. Cloud-busting singer JJ Lang went one way, while guitarist Mick Ditko, bassist Doug MacDonald, and drummer Brian Donnelly went another. Lang went on to form The JJ Lang Band and keep with his former band’s heavy, Southern gothic grind and wail. The other […]
