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Dirty Work

[TRIBUTE] Covering Steely Dan is no joke. Fagen and Becker took the band off the road in 1975 because they felt the sound they were achieving in the studio wasn’t well enough represented by their stage show, and they didn’t emerge in a live format again until 1993. Technology eventually caught up with them, and by the early aughties, “The Dan” was capable of a mighty impressive live performance, complete with a trio of backup gals and full-on brass section. It has continued that way, more or less, since then and will likely live on despite the death of Water Becker last year.

Xavier Jara

[CLASSICAL] “What the classical guitar actually is known for is the tone of the instrument just being so special,” said Xavier Jara, teaching a masterclass in guitar at Oberlin College in Ohio. The 25 year old classical guitarist will match the special tone of his guitar, as played with his virtuosic talent, with the acoustic perfection of the main hall of Kleinhans for a concert on Tuesday, April 3.

Paul Deslauriers Band

[BLUES] Call it a blues-rock power trio. Formed after two decades of working together on projects far and wide, guitarist/singer Paul DesLauriers, bassist Greg Morency and drummer Sam Harrisson decided a few years back to focus their energy on this outlet, which is based out of Montreal. They’ve gone on to win some coveted awards in the world of Canadian blues, and the trio’s most recent album, Relentless (2016) made appearances on blues album charts in both Canada and the USA, garnering some impressive reviews along the way.

Ponder

[INDIE] A new name for local indie rock band, Ponder the Giraffe, now known simply as Ponder, means a new set of shows. The band returns this Wednesday, March 28 for a show at Mister Goodbar. Expect some Hump Day beer specials too.

Twitching Tongues

[HARDCORE] Named after a song by the Boston 1990’s metal-hardcore hybrid outfit Only Living Witness, Twitching Tongues is an L.A.-based quartet with a pair of siblings at the base. Formed in 2009, they’re now a completely different band than at their initial inception—Colin Young (vocals) and Taylor Young (guitar, vocals) found themselves the only remaining members following the release of 2015’s Disharmony, their third full length.

Interview: Michael Ian Black

[COMEDY] Comedian Michael Ian Black’s association with Buffalo is more than just stand up shows and chicken wings—he also has fond memories of traveling to Buffalo to watch men beat each other up in what he claims to be among the greatest nights of his life. Black’s razor sharp wit and sarcasm have been among his calling cards since the debut of MTV’s The State sketch comedy show in 1993. Since then, Black has added many credits to his resume beyond comedy and acting.

Radio Wonderland

[EXPERIMENTAL] Radio Wonderland, the experimental electronic music project by Brooklyn-based artist Joshua Fried, doesn’t just take electronic music to its natural extremes, it demolishes it entirely and doesn’t even attempt to put it back together in a familiar way. On stage Fried is dressed in a baggy suit as he wriggles around, bopping his head while he splices together bits of sentences, fragments of words, or the essence of a pop melody, distorting, shifting, and repeating these bits ad infinitum.

Cynthia Nixon and Upstate

I watched Cynthia Nixon’s YouTube video kicking off her anti-corruption-outsider-to-the-left-of-Cuomo remake of the original, starring Zephyr Teachout, and came away disappointed. I like Nixon’s passion about public education, but the rest of it was as if she was running for a city council seat, not governor of a huge and diverse, economically complicated state. 

What's in the Bill?

Like Minority House Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), I’m old enough to remember the Republicans and the “Tea Party” demagoguing “what’s in the bill”, and “have you read the bill”. Now? The House passed the omnibus spending bill just 24 hours after its 2,300 page text was revealed. 

Unsane, Love Simon

Steven Soderbergh has inserted a little embed joke into a scene in his new horror thriller Unsane. Matt Damon, no doubt cheerfully slumming in a cameo as a personal security advisor for his old pal Soderbergh, tells the main character, “Think of your cell phone as your enemy.” This, in a movie that was entirely photographed (by Soderbergh himself, under the transparent alias Peter Andrews) on iPhones. Judging by the results, it seems likely that he was more interested in the means than the ends as he made this movie.

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