Backseat Sandbar

As a few of you know, I have a few musical projects that take up a lot of my time, and one of them is the indie-folk band Bro. Stephen which just finished up a month-long tour and which will keep me out of Louisville for quite some time.  Now, you will have to excuse the shameful self-promotion because this really isn’t about me.  This is about all of the bands that I’ve met and will meet along the way and who you should check out and support in hopes that we can lure a few of these acts to play in Louisville in the near future.

Just last weekend I caught up with one of the most exciting bands in the country: Cincinnati’s The Seedy Seeds.  TSS closed up the opening night of the Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, OH at Cincinnati’s famed Contemporary Arts Center.  I have had the pleasure to catch this band quite a few times in the past 6 months since they’ve played Skull Alley a few times (to a lucky few folks) and even played the Buzzgrinder Birthday Bash at The Rud with J Roddy Walston and The Business (which was one of the most fun shows in Louisville I’ve ever been too).  That’s not to mention the times I’ve caught them in their native Cincinnati where they are indie-pop royalty with the support of their city like Louisville hasn’t seen since The Merediths (remember them?).  Their set at MPMF had over 200 people crammed into a hot, sweaty room totally blissing out on every note and beat that came from the stage. (more…)

Buzzgrinder, the national which in the last year acquired a local flavor with Sean moving to town, is celebrating it’s 8th birthday on July 31st with a fantastic show at The Rudyard Kipling, with performances by J-Roddy Walston and the Business and The Seedy Seeds, two local favorites!

Help to make this show a success by inviting all of your friends, because Buzzgrinder and other blogs exist to really make an effort to contribute to the local music scene, and the more those contributions are appreciated, the better the contributions can be.

They’re also claiming to have some presents compliments of Pabst Blue Ribbon & who doesn’t love free stuff?

J-Roddy Walston and the Business – Used to Did[audio=http://www.buzzgrinder.com/media/jroddy_usedtodid.mp3]
The Seedy Seeds – Drive Me to the Center [audio=http://www.buzzgrinder.com/media/seedyseeds_center.mp3]

Baltimore’s J. Roddy Walston & the Business are coming back to the area for 2 more dates. They’ll be at the Dame tonight with These United States and at the Mag Bar on Friday. We finally got to see these guys at Lisa’s Oak Street Lonuge the last time they were in town & they put on a fantastic show to the sardine-canned crowd. Not to mention These United States. We were so excited to see them, and their show at the 930 Listening Room back in April did not disappoint us. Check out our review to get an idea of the setlist & to see photos from the performance.

Cost of admission for either J. Roddy show is only $5…as for tonight’s show, that’s $2.50 each for two incredible bands…if you live in Lexington, you have no excuses.

These United States - First Sight

Cleveland’s Magpies are playing at The MagBar on Wednesday, April 9th.  If that isn’t a match made in Heaven, I don’t know what is.  The show starts at 9pm and costs $3 bucks. 

Review of The Magpies from Hardcore Troubadors:

“The band was the (newly re-named) Magpies, formerly Roger Hoover & the Whiskeyhounds. These boys are that perfect mash of rock, folk and that bit of twang I love so much. The influences/sounds likes listed on their MySpace page are fairly close to what I’d say: You can hear a Bruce Springsteen and Rolling Stones influence under the rock and roll parts, infused heavily with Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and a strong heartbreak of twang that pulls it towards country. Roger Hoover fronts the band, singing, playing guitar and generally instantly becoming my new singer/songwriter boyfriend (sorry, Cory, but I think you understand). His song writing is tight, smart and exceptionally excellent. The drummer and bassist—I’m going to take a guess, based on what I could find online and say they were Dave McKean and Adam Simms respectively—kept a steady beat that made this a band you could dance too (though you’d never know by the stiff response from the East Nashville hipster crowd, but those people never look like they are having fun). Justin Gorski rounded out the band ..boards and accordion. His playing was great, his showmanship was spastic and raw and totally worth going to see the band for.”

J Roddy Walston and The Business play the next night, Thursday, April 10th.  These guys are from Baltimore, but they have made plenty of stops here in Louisville.  We saw them late last year at Lisa’s and they put on one hell of a show.  Come ready for a high energy, rock show.  Cover is $5 bucks and starts at 9pm.  They will also be in Lexington on the 13th at The Dame, playing with Wax Fang. 

J Roddy Walston & The Business- Used to Did

I, for one, am a huge fan of the MagBars surge in the live music scene lately.  Keep up the good work. 

Wax Fang followed up their Saturday Headliners show with an in store set tonight at Ear-x-tacy (Sorry for the camera work…Cory was at Feist with the new camera). They were promoting the release of their new album, La La Land. A ton of people showed up to support this local band:

The set was full of energy and drummer, Kevin Ratterman, kept a beat that was impossible to stand still to.

Wax Fang’s next stop will be in Lexington at CD Central (7pm) and The Dame (9pm) on December 6th. This will be a great show as J. Roddy Walston will be there with them (read more about J. Roddy)!

UPDATE: Kory at 37 Flood recorded the show and has some additional pics…check it out:

Archiving Wax Fang, Part II