Sam Reviews a Show: The Homegrown Buzz Showcase

So I was at a show the other night and it was a bit of a showcasing of some of Kansa City’s finest local music acts thrown by local alternative station 96.5 the Buzz and it was a pretty good time people and I figured I can take the 30 seconds to inform you guy’s of some acts that you should be on the lookout for if they’re having a show near you.

The Greeting Committee

So here we have a group of some young kids or at the very least I think they looked young as hell that are making music that’s not honestly the most original thing you’ve ever heard but even if it’s not completely breaking the mold it’s done DAMN well and their set was very tight, energetic, and hella fun to see because they just put all their efforts into making all the people there want to listen and the songs were solidly good especially their closer a lovely little love song by the name of Hands Down which in and of itself may be the best Modern Love song to of been made and I can only hope that it breaks them or at the very least ends up being put into some cheesy but lovely little date flick but really this group kicks ass and hopefully the rest of the country picks up on them soon.

  

Hembree

I had the pleasure of talking to some of the members of this band before and after the show and realized that I’ve actually seen them before at one of the other free shows that get thrown on by the Buzz and while the first time I remember they had to deal with Opening band Syndrome they do a really REALLY fun cover of Dare by the Gorillaz which I pointed out and they added to their set because yeah it was bad ass, but covers aside this time around they really seemed to of tightened up their sound since the last time I saw them and I found myself really digging their groovy sound and how there’s a natural feeling to their performance and of course they also looked like they were having a hell of a time.

This band really is composed of some cool dudes and if you get to see them you really should they’re quite fun.

 

Outsides

So these guys were the headliner of the nights festivities and they were yet another unfortunate case of the opening band syndrome when I saw them at The Night the Buzz Stole Christmas but I actually do have their album downloaded onto my computer because when I saw them they gave out free download codes to get the record and in all honesty it’s a pretty solidly 80’s new wavey sounding record with some solid stuff but there’s also a pretty big jump in quality once you see them performing the songs live because kind of like Hembree these guy’s got extra tighter since the last time I saw them and they looked like they were both having the best time ever and really wanted to put on a show that left people wanting more it was a tight collection of New Wave sounding numbers that were energetic and quite fun with a couple of newer songs thrown in to showcase some solid work and of course they did a cover of Toto’s Africa which was FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

These guy’s really have done something good and their song Just Curious is actually quite a bad ass little tune that is kind of a dreamy Depeche Mode meets INXS sounding number that really capped off their set before a solid encore.

 

Kansas City has some fine music coming out of it people and these are just a few acts that decided to go out and really show us what they’re made of and I think every one of them could do something and if you can you totally need to see them.

Sam's Message to Vance Joy...

So 96.5 the Buzz’s yearly prom themed show is coming up and this year’s headliner is Vance Joy and while that’s pretty damn sweet I had this idea that I need to convince people to start pushing to have him perform his cover of All my Life at this show because well…it’s fucking prom so to the world hashtag the shit outta this video and get him to put it into his prom set god damnit!

#playatpromvance

Sam Went to a show last night....oh and Happy Valentines Day

So before I get into anything people I'd like to take the 30 seconds to say that Kansas City's 96.5 The Buzz is the best station ever....just saying they're more then responsible for making KC an amazing showcase for young and emerging artist and deserve as much love as possible and last night they had their annual Afentra's VD show and it was pretty bad ass and I'm going to tell you guy's just how awesome.

 Like I said last night was their annual Valentines Day concert and rather then taking the route of just having one obviously big act headline the whole thing they instead decided to have a series of bands and artist looking to make something of themselves and last night was a pretty solid showcase so here's the acts that played and my thoughts of them.

X Ambassadors

So these guy's opened the show with a pretty solid set of tunes that were a good bit of energy and plenty of interesting instrumentation and solid songs but I think they unfairly got the issue of opening band syndrome which kind of meant they didn't get the crowd in the heat of the moment but they were still solid none-the-less and I figure they may get to be better in time.

In the Valley Below

Not going to lie this band was pretty solidly good and kind of made me think of a more electronic Sonic Youth at times which isn't a bad thing at all and while some of their songs kind of sounded the exact same they were still pretty damn good and their song Peaches was pretty spectacular definitely a group to keep an eye out for.

 Melanie Martinez

I'm just going to get the one fault I had with this chick out of the way right now and say that I honestly after seeing her play live and getting to hear a little more of her songs I'm going to have to say that this chick REALLY sounds like she's taking quite a bit of her sound from one Kimbra who is an artist I've covered plenty of times on this blog and am very much a big fan of but even with that kind of souring her set a tiny bit there's still a load of positives I really have to give her.

While I was and am still not really a fan of her current EP that's out this chick is an incredibly solid performer  and she really can sing these kind of weird circusy sounding tunes very excellently and even with some technical difficulties she managed to hold up and give a very solidly good performance that sold me more whenever she started to do some of her more confident and quality tunes that she's saving for her upcoming album which I'm very much looking forward to give a listen to.

If this chick comes to your town hella go give her a view she wont dissapoint.

LIGHTS

It was rather disappointing that a good chunk of people left the show before this little Canadian pop artist got to perform because she's a pretty solid live act that gave a very high energy and entertaining set of songs that were a lot of big chorus' and danceable numbers that engaged a good bit of the crowd where I was standing quite a bit while also seemingly just throwing herself completely into her set and really did her best to show why she was the headliner and she did a very solidly good job at it.

Overall this show was pretty fucking great and the only real complaint if any is that the set's were very short and at times and some of the crowd was kind of less then spectacular but overall that's all minor because I'll be hella sure to come to the flying condom showcase again next year hopefully.

Thumbs up all over KC and here's a playlist of the bands that performed for all those interested in giving them a listen and of course make sure to go like and share The Official Facebook Page because you're awesome....

Friday's Finest

So I didn't post yesterday for a variety of reasons mostly pertaining to the fact that I wasn't really in too much of a mood to write about a thorwback to a day that's one of the more important events to ever occur in my lifetime and out of the fact that it's difficult at times to come up with the right words to say so I instead decided to not say anything and for today it's still rather gloomy and cold outside so I kind of couldn't come up with too much for today.

Now it's Friday and that of course means it's time for Friday's Finest, but rather then writing about the normal 5 tunes I do instead I decided to only cover 4 because that's all I could come up with and also today I figured I'd write about a batch of songs that my local alternative station decided to post about being put into their rotation and give my two cents so let's quit bullshitting and get to the tunes...

1. Up We Go-Lights

So here we have a very electro-pop cut that in all honesty isn't anything original compared to the fact that a decent amount of these female fronted electronic tunes with large chorus' and sugary beats have been quite a thing recently on all radio mediums and while this Lights chick is pretty fucking hot I don't honestly see too many reasons to give this band much a look  beyond this one decently catchy number that's not a bad song per say it's just kind of generic in comparison to everything else..

2. Rollercoaster-Bleachers

Probably one of the reasons I feel so fondly of this group an excellent kind of swirling indie rock number that has a larger then life Sam's Town-era killers feel to it and I love it and can't wait to hopefully hear this quite a bit.

3. The Righteous One-The Orwells

This song sounds like some seriously old school grungy rocker people with the lowest production, the dirtiest guitars, and of course vocals that are very reminiscent of the early 90's with a slightly groovy kind of psychedelic movement to it that's also reminiscent of the doors at times so overall I can dig it and probably will grow fonder.

4. High-Young Rising Sons

So to round this out we have a very poppy kind of indie number by Young Rising Sons who like the first act covered aren't anything super original compared to what else I'm hearing on alternative radio atm but judging by the amount of comments that were positive I have a feeling this song will do it's thing and be something if not a one hit wonder.

So there's some new music for you guy's to go and listen to and here's the playlist so you can actually listen to them...

Sam Reviews a Show: Buzz Beachball 2014

So I went to a show a few day's ago and rather than immedietly coming up with a review the very next day I figured I'd take a few day's to kind of digest things and write about more what stuck out a few day's later and of course you know get over that convert haze we all have.

So this years Buzz Beachball was heald at Sporting KC over in Kansas and annoyingly enough it was raining the beginning of the day which combined with the hangover I happen to be nursing sucked balls people, but all those complaints aside there was some good thing's at the beginning of the day namely the Griswolds High energy performance to open the whole show which was like a good mix of INXS and most modern day indie acts which was good because they were fun as hell and got the show off to a good start.

After their set though that's when it started raining and because of that it was fairly easy to skip over Broods set which was a bit better compared to their prom set but they've still yet to sell me and from what i can remember the next act I actually watched was J. Roddy Walston and the Business who were a kind of Bluesy rock and roll act that actually do a very solid set but honestly felt a bit out of place because their music doesn't really feel alternative in a sense of what's to be expected from the vast majority of bands on the bill but they still held their own and did a great job.

So by the time the Mowglis hit the stage my hangover was starting to let up and from the small bits of their set I was able to catch they got a bad ass and Highly energetic performance of San Fransisco that was the perfect way to introduce the good weather and string of amazing performances to come.

Before I get to into things I will say that I didn't much care for how they organized the performances of this show by having the second stage perform during the main stage's set ups because I missed Meg Myers set due to the fact that she got the 30 minutes after Weezer and before the Arctic Monkeys which I didn't care to lose for getting an piss poor spot to see her again but form what I heard from her set she killed it.

OK now let's quit fucking around and get to the meat of the matter people the big 3 and first up was the 1975 who were fucking BAD ASS PEOPLE! They had a very solid tightly played set that was filled with all the strongest cuts from their album and tunes like Heart Out and M.O.N.E.Y. are strong when placed amongst hits like Sex and Girls which all sounded like the best New Wave record to not come out of the 80's. I'd definitely make an effort to see them again.

After them was the all mighty Weezer people and while I will admit some fault to the fact that their entire set list was nothing but hits and they noticeably didn't perform anything from Pinkerton which was minor in the grander scale of things because their set BLEW ME THE FUCK AWAY PEOPLE! Seriously Rivers Cumo and company where one of the tightest most well rounded group of performers I've had the pleasure of seeing live since The Smashing Pumpkins. They admittedly were a bit more straightforward but that didn't take away from the fact that the string of hits that they powered through didn't kick ass.

From the Woah-oh's of Perfect situation to the crowd chanting rumblings of Beverly Hills to the epic conclusion of Buddy Holly their entire set was a big string of awesomeness that was sure to satisfy everyone and reminded me just why in the hell I ever got into them because their songs are that fucking good, and that could have perfectly ended the whole damn show but they didn't and oh buddy did the act that followed just show why they did.

So I have to tell you guy's that with the opening chords of Do I wanna Know I was immediately slapped in the face with the overwhelming scent of wet pussy and marijuana and the fact that that was just the opening song kind of perfectly summed up what I was in for from the tour de force that was the all mighty Arctic Monkeys. In-between a large collective of women who were very vocal about their desire to start stripping and running to go attack one handsome fucking front man and the pairs of undergarments getting thrown at the stage this show was a trip people.

I can't lie I'm not really a convert and going in I wasn't and still am not the most familiar with this bands impressive catalog of material but they more then justified the fact that they closed this bitch out with a set that was just a mastered blend of progressive thinking numbers that expressed a large amount of tight musicianship and effort that was seemingly as if they just oozed showmanship. They without a doubt where a group of individuals that just left no doubt as to their expertise in what they do and completely and utterly impressed me in every way with just how well they not only made very progressive sounding numbers and could occasionally fucking pound you with rockers like I bet You look Good on the dancefloor which was just the bee's knees for me people because I loved their faster paced moments of musicianship and would of liked to see more but that's minor because they hit every hit I wanted and it was impressive and more then showed they deserved to close that bitch out.

Overall beachball was amazing people and all minor complaints I have towards the scheduling of performances can be considered minor because the quality of performances I got to see was worth it all and I can't wait to see if they can maintain this next year.

Below is a playlist of some of the acts listen and enjoy....

Quick Weekend Updates

Hey World sorry For not posting yesterday I was actually attending 96.5 The Buzz's annual Beachball Concert over in Kansas and I couldn't find the time to get to actually posting something on here so I just wanted to take a second to let all you guy's know that the show KICKED ASS and Weezer are actually one BAD ASS live band but I think I'll save a more in depth review of things for later this week because today I'm just going to relax but until then why not enjoy this bad ass little cut from one of the other random acts I got to see that night just a little old band called the Arctic Monkeys...