- THE BROADCAST
0 Jam series to feature concert by Chompin’ at the Bit String Band « WCU News
Jam series to feature concert by Chompin’ at the Bit String BandJanuary 26, 2012 | Share |The First Thursday Old-Time and Bluegrass Jam Series will continue at Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center on Thursday, Feb. 2, with a concert featuring the Chompin’ at the Bit String Band of Asheville.The band’s 7 p.m. performance will be followed by an 8 p.m. jam session in which local musicians are invited to participate.
Performing “rowdy old-time string band music,” Chompin’ at the Bit includes Lindsey Liden, fiddle; Kevin Scanlon, banjo; WCU alumnus Christopher Farmer, guitar; and J. Grey Nelson, bass. After years of exploring other musical genres such as punk, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz and country, the four young musicians have settled into the style of music they were raised on. “I tried to fight for years, telling my parents I was a punk rocker and didn’t want anything to do with their old-time music, but something about it kept drawing me back,” Liden said. “Now, I can’t get enough.”
The concerts and jam sessions will continue at the Mountain Heritage Center through the winter, with programs from 7 to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month. The lineup of upcoming performers includes the New Southern Ramblers.The events are free and open to everyone. Pickers and singers of all ages and experience levels are invited to take part in the jam sessions, and the events also are open to those who just want to listen.
The Mountain Heritage Center is located on the ground floor of WCU’s H.F. Robinson Administration Building. For more information, call the museum at 828-227-7129.
via Jam series to feature concert by Chompin’ at the Bit String Band « WCU News.
0 Pick-Up Productions from DC does interview with The Broadcast
MERRIJOY JANUARY 27, 2012 0
After the release of their EP “Days Like Dreams” in 2010, Asheville-based band The Broadcast have kept busy with their prevalent life on the road by playing many shows up and down the east coast. And they aren’t stopping any time soon. We spoke with Broadcast-drummer, Michael W. Davis about band-influences, life on the road, their recording process and the big plans the six-piece band has for 2012. Get to know more about The Broadcast!
Be sure to check them out live at Acre 121 on February 4th!
Listen to their EP “Days Like Dreams” from their Bandcamp below.
Who are The Broadcast?
The Broadcast is a 6-piece, female-fronted soul rock band. We originally formed in Brooklyn in 2007, and since the fall of 2010 we’ve been based in Asheville, North Carolina
Your sound provides a rock meets soul kind of vibe. Can you tell us about what inspires your sound and who your musical influences are?
We draw from a myriad of influences, from 60′s rock & roll, to Motown soul, to jazz and improvisational music. Each of us in the band has slightly different musical preferences – depending on who’s playing DJ in the van, we could be listening to Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Nick Drake, Arcade Fire, A Tribe Called Quest, Cake, or John Coltrane
You released your EP “Days Like Dreams” in 2010 and have been such road
warriors since then! Does it ever get extremely exhausting being on the road for so long?
It can definitely be exhausting – nobody enjoys finishing a show at 2am and driving 5 hours through the night to the next destination. We enjoy it though, it’s an adventure. For every terrible experience we have on the road, we have 10 positive experiences, and they all make for great stories. We’ve met so many incredible, fun, generous people on the road, and that makes it all worthwhile.
You all have played multiple shows in many cities up and down east coast. What have been your favorite cities to play?
We always love playing in NYC, our old stomping grounds. DC is a blast too. Big cities are great, but there’s a whole lot of small, music-loving towns all over the South that have been extremely supportive of us. Bristol, Tennessee in particular knows how to party…
Let’s talk more about your albums. Between the six of you, how did your songwriting process come about when recording your albums “Days Like Dreams” and “Over the Undercover”?
Our songs all start with someone in the band bringing a simple idea to the table – a lyric, a bass line, a basic melody, a dance, anything. From there, we work together to flesh out the structure and parts of the song, and we make adjustments until we’re happy. It’s a pretty democratic process that we continue to refine.
Both albums were recorded in Brooklyn and produced by Chris Cubeta. Did the recording process get easier the second time around?
The process was different for each of the albums. “Over The Undercover” was recorded in two parts – half of the songs feature the full band together in the studio, and the other half are from a session that Caitlin and Chris did a couple years prior. Chris actually plays a lot of the instruments on the first record. “Days Like Dreams” is something The Broadcast created as a unit, with a greater focus on the details of each part and how it fit into the song as a whole. With Chris’ guidance, recording both of the albums was very smooth.
We’re all very excited that The Broadcast are making another stop in DC to play Acre 121 again. How have your experiences been playing in DC many times before?
We love playing DC! I believe this will be our 6th or 7th time in DC; we keep coming back because we always enjoy ourselves. Last time we were in town, we played a Halloween party at Bayou. We went all out with costumes and face paint, and it was quite the night. We’re looking forward to being back at Acre 121. No face paint this time around, sorry
Does the band have any big plans for 2012? Can your fans expect another album release?
We’ve been working very hard, and 2012 is going to be a big year for us. We recorded a live album back in September, which we will be releasing in March. It features some of our newer songs that are not on either of our previous records. We also just began working on our next studio album, which we’re very excited about. We’ll be spending a lot more time on the road this year, branching out to new cities while revisiting places we know and love (like DC!). And as always, we’re keeping things fresh by writing new music and remaining our current songs.
Thanks for time, guys and gal. Anything else you want to add?
Big thanks to all our friends and fans – your support means the world to us. See you February 4 @ Acre 121!
For more information about The Broadcast and their upcoming shows, visit their websitehttp://www.thebroadcastmusic.com/
0 Worcester Telegram does Feature on Jeff Bujak
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Pianist-DJ Bujak enjoys the silence
Jeff Bujak, performing Sunday at Secret Society Tattoo in Worcester. (SUBMITTED BY SAM SPOKONY)
By Sam Spokony SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
Jeff Bujak certainly wasn’t the first musician to have trouble with the law. But his problems had nothing to do with drug possession, nightclub shootouts or the gratuitous destruction of hotel rooms.
“A few years ago, I started playing college house parties because they fit my setup really well, but the cops were just breaking them up one by one,” Bujak said, laughing, as he prepared his keyboards before last Sunday’s show. “It was killing the whole idea.”
When, soon after that, his manager introduced him to silent disco — concerts at which audience members are given wireless headphones to make a performance virtually noiseless — Bujak saw a promising solution. Two years and more than 40 silent shows later, he found himself once again in an unusual, yet perfectly suited venue: Secret Society Tattoo, on Water Street in Worcester.
Bujak, 32, a pianist-cum-DJ whose music constitutes an ever-evolving series of hip-hop remixes and electronica jams, seems to treat every performance as house party. Although he’s built a loyal following throughout the Northeast and played festivals many times larger than the intimate space offered by the tattoo shop, watching him perform on Sunday night felt, as always, less like seeing a star musician than being in the presence of a brilliantly insightful jukebox — one with relentlessly busy hands.
Blending tracks from artists as diverse as Talking Heads and Lil’ Wayne with his own odd-time beats, massive bass lines and improvised melodies, Bujak began the evening with a standard (or, as he calls it, loud) set. He still worked silently. For an artist so personable and engaging, it might have come as a surprise to new fans to watch him dissociate from the audience as soon as fingers hit the keys. But, once dialed into the mix, talking to the crowd or even making eye contact wasn’t a part of the show, if one could call it that. Bujak’s connection with his listeners is one more musically direct; it runs straight from the sound of his digital workstation to the nodding heads and moving feet surrounding him.
It was around 11 p.m. when the noise was cut, the headphones distributed. For this second set, walled in outward silence not only for Bujak but the entire room, it became clear that the wireless connection serves more than the practical purpose of avoiding noise ordinances — it can become a musical tool in itself.
“It presents some opportunities that are a lot more fun for me as a player,” Bujak said of his approach to silent disco. “It’s not supposed to replace the loud shows, but it’s also not supposed to be the same experience. I can utilize that stereo effect you get with headphones by panning things left and right, and in doing so put together a more melodic flow than I can by just dropping beats.”
As the show neared midnight, that search for new creative avenues became the centerpiece of music that too often becomes bogged down by stylistic clichés and a lack of harmonic depth. Encased in silent stereo, Bujak’s tracks became even more lush, and his keyboard runs — whether on his trademark, a distorted Fender Rhodes, or another one set to a classic piano tone — took on feelings of urgency and focused frenzy. His crowd was relatively small, packed within one-half of the shop, with Bujak himself tucked into a corner behind his one-man-band array of equipment, bathed in psychedelic lighting. The sheer size of his music, though, was not limited but amplified by that closeness of setting and immediacy of sound.
Those moving in rhythm around him weren’t just wearing Jeff Bujak like earmuffs; they were practically gorging themselves on him.
Of course, as a performer, he wouldn’t have it any other way. But amid the never-ending search for the perfect groove, there’s one thing Bujak hasn’t done yet. He’s never heard his own silence.
“I’m always encased in sound, but there’s a different feeling when it’s a silent show,” he mused. “It’s the realization that if I were to pull those headphones off, there would just be nothing.”
0 Cider Magazine Features Jeff Bujak
The Singular Creativity Of One… Jeff Bujak
Publish Notes:
Cider Magazine December, 2011
NORTHAMPTON, MA. – Jeff Bujak is a singular musician-composer, keyboard player, producer – and takes his unique mix of intelligent electronica and dance music to the deepest complexity of the genre. Creating intense, rhythmic backdrops for his free-wailing keyboard style.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Bujak
Based in Northampton, Ma., Bujak was introduced to the piano at age 7 and before long, began studying music theory and thus, developed a deep understanding for the math in music. This, somehow, led him down a path of music which his fans have describedas nothing short of overwhelming and epic.
“Early on, I didn’t have many piano influences other than the Billy Joel and Elton John albums that I listened to, so I looked more to metal and progressive rock for influences,” Jeff said in a recent interview. “It wasn’t about finding a style or playing technique and it wasn’t about finding someone to follow.
“It was about disecting what made different music and why certain, complex writing can feel comfortable,and how to create progressions that aren’t predictable; these kind of things intrigued me more than any one person’s playing.”
When asked to recall the realization of wanting to be a professional musician, Bujak’s response was curious, if not enlightening. “Right out of college, I aimed to get a steady job and have a normal paycheck – living life, and I always wanted to tour full-time and create music for a living, but it was never a reality. I joined a few bands and toured around, hoping we’d make enough money for houses, swimming pools and luxury cars.
“It took me about six years to learn that when you’re splitting up money and paying for expenses, it’s almost impossible to build a life-long career in live music. But I also had a life-long dream to be a solo artists and play the music that I created.
“About five years ago, I releaseda solo album and learned to play it all live… alone. So, somewhere in those 11 years, I learned that I could do this, I just needed to make some adjustments. So with my business education, I built a music business.”
“Jeff just started emailing me and sending me music to consider for the label and management company,” Brian Asplin of Macro Management said. “He really won me over with his music and dedication.”
Bujak is prolific, having composed over 300 solo compositions in a wide range of styles including everything from classical, to the aforementioned dance and electronica, to heavy metal. He hand-crafts loops, beats and samples into a hard-driving blend of composition and improvisation.
He is on tour full-time, with an arsenal of four studio albums, over 120 multi-track albums and a multitude of keyboards, gadgets and sequencing innovation to completely captivate and mesmerize his audiences. Bujak has now been working with Macro Management for a few years.
“Jeff’s music is so unique because it is all live,” Asplin said. “He is such the musician, which really shines through in his compositions, but he also listens to what people are enjoying about the music… and that is a big key when you are a musician.”
Bujak has since been quite busy,including four-hour, non-stop sets on Jam Cruise, annual cruise ship-music festival featuring top artists of the jam band genre, or the countless set-breaks for such unique artists as The New Deal, Lotus and Eoto. Bujak released a CD titled Alive Like The Spine in 2009 and is currentlyworking on a new studio project.
Bujak’s new venture is a 36-track set that will be released at certain times throughout 2012. Started on January 1, Bujak is releasing six tracks for download or to purchase at his live shows. He will then release six more new tracks every two months and of these six tracks, two will be brand-new studio tracks, two will be new re-mixes or cover songs and two will be live from the studio.
“I’ve already released studio albums… and live albums… and remix albums, but never all together in one release,” Bujak said. “My goal is to cater to most people’s ADD. Some people just can’t take in a full 15-tracks anymore. I feel that people would rather get six tracks to listen to and after two months of playing them, then get another six songs and so on. It’s the way I want music offered to me, and how I want to offer it to everybody else.”
To learn more about Jeff Bujak, visit his web site at www.jeffbujak.com. and his label, Harmonized Records, atwww.harmonizedrecords.com. Contact Jeff’s manager, Brian Asplin of Macro-Management at www.macro-management.com.
0 Underhill Rose in the Kingsport News – great Article
0 Underhill Rose live on WCYB news in Bristol, TN
The Fritz – Sounds, Habits, Blame
Recently, The Fritz performed for Knoxville’s 11 O’Clock Rock. Here is a new tune that will be on their forthcoming album to be released in Spring of 2012.
Underhill Rose Newsletter
Lots of big news, tourdates and more for 2012!
The Fritz take soulful sound to MoDaddy’s in Asheville
The Fritz plays Friday night at Mo Daddy’s. / Special to the Citizen-Times
Written by
Jedd Ferris | take5 Correspondent
IF YOU GO
Who: The Fritz with Duende Mountain Duo.
When: 9:30 p.m. Friday.
Where: MoDaddy’s, 77 Biltmore Ave.
Tickets: $6. 258-1550. modaddysbar.com.
Good news for people who love to get down. Asheville has a new local band that specializes in soul-driven dance grooves and high-octane funk. The Fritz moved to town this past summer.
The band members of the five-piece funk crew met at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, as students of the school’s jazz department. After forming in 2007, the group toured relentlessly around the Sunshine State, but recently decided to trade the Atlantic Coast for the Appalachian mountains.
“We liked the community and the music scene in Asheville, so it seemed like the right place for us to move,” said The Fritz’s guitarist Jamie Hendrickson. “It’s helped us reach a lot of other parts of the Southeast.”
With trained backgrounds in jazz, the band has gradually built regional crowds with a high-minded brand of improvisational groove music that branches out to include elements of rock and electronic flourishes.
“The sound has evolved from all of our different influences,” said Hendrickson, who founded the band with bassist Jake O’Connor and eventually added Jamar Woods on keyboards, drummer Michael Tillis and percussionist Mike Evans. “The best way to describe it is progressive funk. It has a rock edge with a lot of fusion sections.”
The band released an independent album, “Prehistoric Stomp,” last year. Although they have a healthy catalog of original material, the band also likes to mix up live sets with some fun covers, including an often-requested version of Cee Lo Green’s popular hit “F*** You” and Prince’s “Black Sweat.”
“Three of us write songs, so there is a lot of original material,” Hendrickson said. “The thing that ties it all together is that it’s energetic. We’re definitely a dance band.”
Locally, the band has found a favorite room to play in MoDaddy’s, where the group just held a weekly residency this past November. The band is returning to the venue on Friday night, as part of a special three-night, three-state New Year’s Run that will also include shows in Tennessee and Florida.
“It should be three days of hectic craziness,” Hendrickson added. “We’re really excited.”
Jedd Ferris writes about entertainment for take5. Email him at jeddferris@gmail.com
