[INDIE] The first ever Cobblestone Live music festival happens this Saturday, July 15 and Sunday, July 16. The two day festival features a couple dozen bands, from nationally known, to regionally rising, and up and coming locals, with a focus on indie rock and jam bands. With such a massive line up spread across three stages, we thought we’d save you some research time and highlight a few must see acts.
[FOLK] Hailing from western Massachusetts, Parsonsfield is a folk band that delivers emotionally heavy yet pop-sensible Americana music. Their latest album, 2016’s Blooming Through The Black was recorded in a warehouse in an industrial section of Farmington River in Collinsville, Connecticut. What drew the band to the setting was its “reverberant, reactive space,” and having to sweep away a few layers of sawdust didn’t stop them from turning it into the recording studio of their vision.
[TRIBUTE] This may be sacrilege to Pink Floyd fans, but rather than spend a lot of money to see Roger Waters perform songs by his old band when he appears here in September, you’ll probably have just as good a time with Brit Floyd, and without having to sit though any Waters solo tunes.
The Doobie Brothers have been “Rockin’ Down the Highway” for over fifty years. And even during their mid-1980’s hiatus, guitarist Pat Simmons kept moving with that theme, opening a vintage motorbike shop with author William Craddock, a celebrated fixture from the California biker scene during the 1960’s countercultural heyday. Simmons, 66, is the only Doobie that’s been constant throughout the groups incessant lineup changes, sticking around during the Michael McDonald years when co-founder Tom Johnston took off (he returned in the late 1980’s).
[REGGAE] Fun fact: this guy wrote the theme song for Arthur, the cartoon with all the aardvarks. That’s hardly the most recognizable aspect of Ziggy Marley, though. He’s also Bob Marley’s eldest son and leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. His birth name is David, and it’s been said that Bob Marley nicknamed him Ziggy meaning ‘little spliff.” Ziggy, however, stated to a magazine once that people began calling him Ziggy after “Ziggy Stardust” was released because he’s such a big David Bowie fan. Either way, it stuck.
[ART PARTY] Multi-talented artist Halley Marie Shaw is presenting a creatively diverse night of dance, poetry, performance art, and music in her show titled Vessel: Fragmented Fiction, Solid Soundtrack with creative direction by Angela Christina Lopez. The first two acts will feature multiple artists transforming into different characters from “Vessel,” which is a series of poems and flash fiction written by Shaw.
Hey, see if you can guess who this is:
Buffalo’s first Cobblestone Live! Music Festival is coming up quick, and will feature 35 bands and artists from all over the place. Amongst the lineup is Midnight Snack, an indie pop band that mixes eclectic sounds with a ton of cool instruments. Originally forming in Boston in 2014, the band is now based in Asheville, North Carolina.
[INDIE] A bunch of talented local indie rock bands come to Nietzsche’s this Saturday, July 8. Making their debut are Violet Mary, alongside indie rockers Mecca of Allen St., and headliners rock and roll band Dirty Smile with special guest Nathan Cronk.
[INDIE] Formed from the Buffalo-based, Equal Vision Records signed band Dameira and the Upstate New York based band Kiss Kiss is Hidden Hospitals. Since 2011, the band has released two EPs and a full length record, 2015’s Surface Tension, which has landed them shows along side bands like Hot Rod Circuit, Cartel, Kevin Devine, and the Used. Now based out of Chicago three-piece band’s moody yet poppy form of indie rock might grab the attention of fans of The Postal Service, Muse, or Radiohead.
[FOLK] Led by multi-instrumentalist Zac Little, Columbus Ohio’s Saintseneca are leading an indie-folk revival. Four full length albums in, the band has a pretty substantial set of songs to pull from, but beginners might want to start with their ANTI-Records debut Dark Arc, which includes their haunting single “Uppercutter.” 2015’s Such Things doubled down on the band’s folky, sometimes dark but catchy indie rock sound, and expanded their already impressive instrumentation even further. Fans of Violent Femmes and Neutral Milk Hotel, line up.