Photo by Ryan Dornfeld. More on Flickr

Written by Ryan Dornfeld, filed under Live and tagged The Old Rock House, Todd Snider.

Photo by Alana Miller. More on Flickr

Written by Eleven Magazine, filed under Live and tagged The Pageant, Trey Anastasio.

Gritty doesn’t begin to describe B. Dolan’s to-the-point narrative about post-9/11 desperation in the Big Apple.  Back that up with a rapid fire, low-end beat, and you’ve got a solid response to Jay-Z’s glitzy panorama of New York.  B. Dolan’s LP Fallen House, Sunken City drops early next week – be sure to give it a listen!

B. Dolan – “Leaving New York”

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Written by Jonathan Fritz, filed under New Music and tagged B. Dolan, Fallen House, Leaving New York, Sunken City.

Saturday, Feb 27th

The Reeling Gilly w/ New Locomotive, Mike Kendrick and the Blue Eyed Sons

Where: the Gramophone
When: 9 PM

The Reeling Gilly create old-time, soulful rock ‘n’ roll.  Though we’ve got a few months ’till those lazy, summer days need a soundtrack, we might as well get a head start.  And to start off the night: Mike Kendrick and the Blue Eyed Sons provide the perfect, Midwest style Americana that’s not afraid to pack a punch.

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Written by Jonathan Fritz, filed under Upcoming and tagged Majongg, The Firebird, the Gramophone, The Reeling Gilly.

Photo by Nathan Burrell. More on Flickr

“I’ll do this ‘till the day I drop dead in front of you,” Yonder Mountain String Band’s Jeff Austin shouted to a packed crowd at the Pageant Saturday night. This was the second night of their two-night stand, and YMSB were going to leave it all on the stage. At one point Austin, the group’s mandolin player, even looked at his watch and said, “we’ve got an hour and forty minutes till they kick us off.” It was that kind of night. Read More »

Written by John Stanley, filed under Live and tagged Jeff Austin, The Pageant, Yonder Mountain String Band.

Chaz Bundick weaves spacey-funk yet beat driven soundscapes under the moniker Toro y Moi.  He fills Eleven in on the dividing line between musical hobbies and work and how to get crowds dancing.

Toro y Moi – Low Shoulders

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You are from Columbia, South Carolina, but avidly participate in the open, global music exchange that is the internet. What do you have to say about the geography of music in our generation? Is there a “local” mentality that we should work to maintain everywhere (not just in Brooklyn and Austin)?

Chaz Bundick:

I think that because of the internet more music fans and musicians are able to influence their musical taste. I feel that Columbia’s music scene has not been fully recognized, there are a lot of great bands here. So, with the success I’ve been getting lately I’d like to show as much support to the local scene as possible.

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Written by Nelda Kerr, filed under Q+A and tagged Causers of This, Toro y Moi.

Ever the wise-ass, Donald Glover, rap alias Childish Gambino, is much more than a rapper.  Having started his career as a start-up comedian, and now accelerating it on the cast of NBC’s Community, Gambino  exhibits a bit of his comical, theatrical, and musical talent on the mixtape.  His work as a writer (30 Rock, Comedy Central Presents) has rendered him a clever lyricist, capable of producing such Wayne-esque rhymes as “I f**k a girl named Kira, nightly.”  While the production quality and over-the-top delivery will prevent the listener from taking the tracks too seriously, Gambino’s rap ambition is admirable.  He is above all an actor/comedian who has finally made enough money to pursue rap as a hobby, but not an additional source of income.  The resulting work is eclectic (sampling Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear), lyrically satisfying, and at times reminiscent of FOTC’s Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerous.

Childish Gambino–My Girls (My Girls)

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Written by Dayo Adesokan, filed under New Music and tagged Animal Collective, Childish Gambino, I am just a rapper, My Girls.

Photo by Nathan Burrell. More on Flickr

Written by Nathan Burrell, filed under Live and tagged Off Broadway, Pokey LaFarge, the South City Three.

Photo by Ryan Dornfeld. More on Flickr

For the last few years, every halfway decent hippie I know has tried to convince me that Galactic, the New Orleans birthed jam/funk/rock band is the second coming of Jesus, Buddha and Timothy Leary all in one.  So it was with high expectations that I headed to the Pageant last week to see the band touring on the strength of their new album Ya-Ka-May along with openers Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. Read More »

Written by Nathan Moore, filed under Live and tagged Galactic, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, The Pageant.

Photo by Ryan Dornfeld. More on Flickr

Written by Ryan Dornfeld, filed under Live and tagged Cicero's, Weatherbox.