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PAUL'S GRANDFATHER Do It Themselves
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It’s a Friday night and 17-year-old
Tracy is waiting around with her boyfriend
after seeing Paul’s...It’s a Friday night and 17-year-old
Tracy is waiting around with her boyfriend
after seeing Paul’s Grandfather
play at Labyrinth in Jamestown. She
wants first pick when the three-piece
Fredonia band, who she thought “truly
excellent,” finally lay out their merchandise
table. “If there are buttons I’ll buy
one. Mostly I’m psyched for a t-shirt,
though,” she says, checking her skullpatterned
wallet for funds. But the band
is packing up, and so far the only thing
that seems to be for sale is their new
CD. Tracy frowns. “I don’t really need
the MP3s. I can get those from friends
or online. I guess I’m more interested
in the fun stuff.” As it turns out, Paul’s
Grandfather haven’t brought the fun
stuff. They’re a new band and haven’t
Wash, rinse, repeat. Welcome to the
new music economy of rock ‘n’ roll (and
its mirrored hall of endless variants),
where fans would rather buy a band’s
ancillary merchandise than recordings
of their music, and where musicians
become savvier about what they have
for sale at each stop along the way of
their self-booked, self-financed, Econoline-
van-enabled, go-for-broke, crosscountry
tours.
A shift in the way we experience new
music has occurred in the last decade,
one that has tens of thousands of young
musicians taking to the interstates to
do themselves what they used to hire
booking agents and managers to do for
them—get gigs and perform. It’s DIY no
longer as a philosophy, but as the only
option. This shift can be partly traced
to the recording industry itself. As the
major labels have moved away from
developing actual talent over the long
run, instead coalescing around formulas
of profit gain that rely solely on creating
and manipulating trends and packaging
images, actual musicians have had to
become wholly self-reliant. Couple this
with the rise of digital piracy and the
pervasiveness of P2P download culture
and you have the perfect storm. It’s as
if the last hundred years of the music
industry and its talent/hard work/fame
model never happened. Could we
be headed back to the age of the
roving troubadour?
Paul’s Grandfather are Karrah
Teague, Rebecca Ryskalczyk, and Katie
Preston, three women in their twenties
who met last autumn while attending SUNY Fredonia. All three are musicians who previously wrote songs and
performed on their own, but realized
that they could do much more together.
Their three-part-harmony songs are
unusual and affecting, pulling audiences
in with a combination of wry imagery
and emotional weight. They’re the kind
of group that twenty years ago would
get signed to Arista Records and then
spend a couple of albums and international
tours developing their sound and
building a solid following, all the while
bankrolled by the label. But in the new
economy they record, press, and distribute
their CD themselves, and travel
to various towns and cities by van to
perform live for little or no money in the
enormous, ever-expanding circuit of bars
and coffeehouses that arein the
enormous, ever-expanding circuit of bars
and coffeehouses that are bookable via
MySpace or Facebook.
There are good and bad aspects to
all of this. In the positive column, there’s
a widespread feeling of camaraderie
among these armies of the road. If you
share a bill with a band and you click,
chances are down the line they’ll get you
a show in their town. And vice-versa, with
plenty of opportunities for friendship and
free places to crash. Jam sessions
are back and the phenomenon
of house shows—performances
on makeshift stages in
the living rooms and basements
of fans or fellow musicians—has
brought a sense of homemade
fun back into the scene. From
this, a dizzying number of collaborative
projects and hybrid
groups have been birthed in the
last few years, some going on
to sign with bigger indie labels
and even actually moving a chunk
of CDs.
And from an audience point of view
its a great time to be listening. Labyrinth
Press Company has been on top
of enticing bands that are going to be
driving through the county anyway. Its
bookers, Frank Besse, Nick Dean, and
Andrew Harrington, all peruse MySpace
pages looking for interesting bands with
blank dates on their tour itineraries that
would consider stopping off and playing
for a free meal and a chance to push
the all-important merch. Sometimes they
sweeten the pot by booking them an additional
late-night spot at Mojo’s, where
they might make cash from a door cover.
The ploy has been remarkably successful
so far, bringing on-the-verge groups like
The Low Anthem, Tartufi, and Deer Tick
to Jamestown. A clearer case of win-win
would be difficult to find.
After the Labyrinth gig, Paul’s Grandfather
took their show on the road, first
to Cleveland, then on to Philadelphia,
Brooklyn, Ithaca, and ending with a
house show in Rochester, Karrah’s home
town. The seven-song CD, No Home,
sold well, a sign that they could be
poised for bigger sales when a full-length
album appears next year. It’ll be interesting
to see where their Ford Econoline
takes them from there.
REVIEW OF CD:
PAUL’S GRANDFATHER
NO HOME
Whaleplane Records
The debut EP by
Paul’s Grandfather
is a surprisingly
finished affair,
especially when
you consider that
Katie Preston, Karrah
Teague, and
Rebecca Ryskalczyk
have only been a band since they met
last October. There are just seven songs on
No Home, but the overall effect is of three
young women who’ve sung together and
known each other for far longer. It bodes
well for the music they’ll be making down
the road.
The songs are both familiar and strange,
melodic enough to sing along with, sly
enough to stick. They restore a lyric dimension
to this generation’s folk music, cutting
through the self-absorption and twee-ness
that characterizes a lot of it. These are
songs about offbeat life observations, like
diary pages stuffed in a bottle and set adrift;
dry comic passages set down before the
wonder dies and while the wit is still fresh.
In three-part harmony, mind you.
It kicks off with “Jailbirdie,” a drowsy
country stomp featuring fiddle, tambourine,
strummed dulcimer and lyrics about sin and
restitution in “the city,” although the location
in question might be only in the imagination.
As sunny as the performance is, the song
seems more a lament for those caught up
in life’s endless cycles of good and not at
all good. There’s something in the line, “Jailbirdie,
your striped coat looks better on me,”
that even suggests salvation, not to mention
the song’s coda, “Glory! That’s my lord
coming down to save me!” Don’t believe it.
PG’s harmonies have a built-in skepticism
that doesn’t buy simplistic answers.
“Gravity and “Bones” both use eccentric
imagery to put across feelings of flight and
freedom from earthly want, and maybe the
body itself. In “Gravity” Katie admits, “The
atoms that are me will be something else
someday,” before building to a jubilant chorus:
“I’m a wave, I’m a wave, I’m a wave!” In
“Bones,” Rebecca agrees. Life is a temporary
state of affairs, especially if you’ve
already slipped your skin: “I’m not coming
home tonight/Please don’t leave the light
on/I’ll be hiding deep inside the ground/
Down in a sinkhole/The earth holds me here
for now.” The cheerful fatalism of both songs
is matched by musical jauntiness, but the
next track, “Apples,” is more introspective.
A beautiful violin-led waltz, like something
Richard and Linda Thompson might have
done in the ’70s. “Don’t break my heart this
way/Cause I can’t take it.” It’s a breathtaking
shift and hints at deeper possibilities.
“Leaves” continues the whimsy begun
with “Gravity”—stream-of-consciousness
observations sung over a music hall romp
that wouldn’t have sounded out of place
on Apple Records circa 1968. “This is the
greatest era of the rest of our lives/But she
can’t stop thinking about the rest of her life,”
goes the wonderful chorus. Paging Mary
Hopkins.
The last two tracks might be about
regret, and both feel like being stabbed with
an icicle. The weapon disappears and only
the jab remains. “Cat Song” is sung with a
slurriness that seems deliberate. It’s a personal
admonition to stop making the same
mistakes over and over, probably to no avail.
As the vowels and consonants of the chorus
blur into each other, there’s a feeling of
losing control on the merry-go-round, those
painted ponies going up and down. The
EP’s closer, “No Home,” almost plays itself,
one of those folk-rock gallops that reminds
you why guitar, fiddle, and a trap set will
always be friends. It’s takes in wanderlust,
self-loathing, and, as my old dad would say,
the limits of personal freedom. “It’s not the
whisky talkin’ tonight, no/I swear to god
I’ll pick up and move to Illinois/But it’s the
same goddamn thing I said a year ago/
Yeah, it’s the same fuckin’ place I swear I’ve
been before/I ain’t got no home anymore.”
No Home is quite an accomplishment.
If these seven songs are intended as a
sampler of what’s to come on the full-length
they’re planning to record this fall, Paul’s
Grandfather might begin preparing now for
that white hot spotlight.
No Home also benefits greatly from the
talents of Paul Swenson on cello and
Robert Frisk on percussion, as well as
sparkling production by Jon Gernhart and
Brandon Battles.
http://crword.com/PDFs/WEB_WORD_07_22_09.pdf
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Artvoice Battle of The Bands Round 3
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This week, it’s a battle of the sexes as the all-girl trio Paul’s Grandfather faces off against the ...This week, it’s a battle of the sexes as the all-girl trio Paul’s Grandfather faces off against the all-boy trio Wildebeast Wontabeast. Check out both the bands below, and cast a vote for your favorite by January 27.
Of course, bands are encouraged to get out the vote any way they can short of stuffing the ballot box. Our IT guy is very savvy, and he’ll be monitoring the votes more closely than an election lawyer in Ohio. If you’re caught cheating, you can be disqualified. And there’s nowhere to appeal our decision.
Musicians, there’s still time to enter BOOM, even if you’ve entered before. Click here to find out how your band can enter the fray.
The rewards for the winners are great. They will receive a recording package from Audio Magic, and 100 CDs of that recording from ESP CD & DVD Manufacturing. The four winners of our live quarterfinals will face off in our Grand Finale in May. The winner that night will win a slot on WBFO’s Wednesday night concerts live from Allen Hall, a video produced by Artvoice, and a nice cash prize as well.
We’re happy to present this contest with the help of our great sponsors below. They all play a vital role in making our town a hotspot of original music. But we can’t make msic without u. Visit Artvoice.com and vote. And may the best band win.
When did the band form? We found each other fall of 08’ at SUNY Fredonia and have been close friends and band mates ever since.
You might like us if you like: The Avett Brothers, the Beatles, the Dixie Chicks (haha just kidding!)
List of recorded releases: Whaleplane!
Best show ever played: The best show we have ever played was in the “Longitude Global Headquarters” aka a living room. We played with the band Mock Orange who are basically the number one band in Japan and a personal favorite. We bonded over each other’s music and it was an incredible night all around.
Worst show ever played: I don’t think any show is a bad show really...but it would probably be the first one. We had one mic. No kickdrum. Katie didn’t have a piano yet so we were playing on a mini Korg synth. And alot of wine. But it was alot of fun!
Why you should win the Artvoice.com Online Battle of Original Music: We deserve to win BOOM! because there is no-one else out there like us. We all have great senses of humor and can harmonize like nobody’s business!
http://artvoice.com/issues/v8n4/boom_week_3
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Paul's Grandfather
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This impressive female group is in the process of recording a full length album of ebullient lyrics,...This impressive female group is in the process of recording a full length album of ebullient lyrics, vocal harmonies and Devendra Banhart-esqe sounds when we checked back in with Rebecca.
So there’s three of you, all girls - do you think you have a stronger presence by not including males?
Not necessarily a stronger presence, but I think if we added guys it would take away from our sound. We like it like this.
What’s the common thread that brought you all together?
We all met here in Fredonia at school, just by chance. We started playing together, the early work was kind of weird because we weren’t friends before we started playing together. We’ve become really close since.
How long have you all been singing together now?
Just since October.
You have a pretty developed sound - gospel and folk with a contemporary twist. What’s your thoughts behind that?
I think it just worked out with our three different styles that we bring together - that’s how it fell.
Do you all write?
Yeah, we all write together. Basically, one of us will write a song and bring it to the others and we’ll add other parts. So I’d say we all write an equal amount.
Who takes on what role?
We all sing, me and Karrah play guitar, Katie plays piano and we all take turns doing percussion
Why did you choose such a masculine name for the band?
It’s a Beatles reference from a Hard Day’s Night and the one thing the three of us did have in common was a love for the Beatles. I’m not sure how that specifically came up. I think we were all sitting around singing, drinking and joking around when we picked that name. I do know Katie thought of it.
Have you recorded your first CD yet?
We’re working on it right now here in Fredonia at the studio with my friend John from the band Longitude. I think we’re recording nine songs with John, but then there’s another guy in Fredonia that wants to record more for us, so we’re probably going to be coming out with a lot. We have about twenty songs together now that we’re going to be recording. We should be done recording it in the next couple of months, then it will be sent away, so we have a few months before it comes out.
Now you’re very loyal to your friends in Fredonia, but with your talent, do you see going to a bigger city and working with a larger label? Or do you consider yourself lucky to be involved in the Buffalo scene?
Yeah definitely, we don’t really know what we’ll do right now, but once Katie and I are done with school, we’ll look into moving somewhere else. I really like Buffalo, but, moving somewhere bigger…
http://www.thearterymagazine.com/featured/pauls-grandfather
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On Show With Ted Leo and the Pharmasists
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Ted Leo and the Pharmacists performed at Tralf Music Hall Wednesday, June 17, their second Buffalo s...Ted Leo and the Pharmacists performed at Tralf Music Hall Wednesday, June 17, their second Buffalo show in less than a year.
The audience varied widely in age, but shared the same laid-back vibe.
Local band Paul’s Grandfather took the stage at 8:45 for a show slated to begin at eight. Scheduled opener, Titus Andronicus did not make the gig.
Paul’s Grandfather played a wide range of folksy self-written songs including, Jailbirdy, from their new EP, No Home. Vocalist Becca Ryskalczyk said that The EP “just came in the mail today.”
Band founders Becca Ryskalczyk, Katie Preston and Karrah Teague share vocal duties and an impressive array of instruments, from guitar and bass to harmonica and percussion.
The women of Paul’s Grandfather met at Fredonia State and began performing together. The most recent additions to the band are Bobby Frisk on percussion and Paul Swenson on cello.
The mellow crowd remained seated throughout the hour long set, the dance floor a twenty foot gap between the audience and the stage.
http://www.mybuffalo.com/_Ted-Leo-Wows-Tralf-Crowd/blog/401317/85283.html
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Show Review w/ Paul Baribeau
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March 21st, 2009 at The Attic
By Dan Creahan
The stairs creaked as I walked up to the top floor of...March 21st, 2009 at The Attic
By Dan Creahan
The stairs creaked as I walked up to the top floor of the house. I have to say, presentation aside, the guys who run The Attic on Elmwood definitely have one of the best venues in Buffalo. Inside the skeleton frame of the old house, cross-beams span over attendees heads and make a perfect accent over the performers up front. Sound echoes off the wooden roof and floats down into your eardrums.
I had missed most of the opening bands thanks to some miscalculations and parking issues, but luckily managed to catch Paul's Grandfather, a trio from Fredonia, NY whose indie-folk tendencies provided a perfect counterpoint to the sparse surroundings. The songs were equal parts beautiful and furious, featuring basic instrumentation and breath-taking three-part harmony. Their last song, "Jail Birdie," had me absolutely floored. Definitely a band to watch in the local scene.
http://www.buffalorising.com/2009/03/if-springsteen-was-a-folk-punk.html
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Show Promotion
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PAUL’S GRANDFATHER We only discovered this Fredonia band a few months back, and then just from live ...PAUL’S GRANDFATHER We only discovered this Fredonia band a few months back, and then just from live recordings someone had made at their shows—there were no studio releases. But the combination of sharp lyrics, drowsy harmonizing, and acoustical prowess had us listening at their MySpace page sev¬eral times a week. Lo and behold they’ve got a brand new EP titled No Home and are hitting the road to push it. As a descriptor you could say that Rebecca Ryskalczyk’s voice leans into Karen Dalton/Alela Diane territory, but with completely different results. One question remains: are they named after a certain flinty pensioner in “A Hard Day’s Night”? Soy Un Cabollo is a Belgian couple who write and perform songs of exqui¬site fragility, according to Wire magazine. “As cool as Jean-Paul Satre and as romantic as the Left Bank.” Saturday, June 27th, 7:30 pm, Labyrinth Press Company
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Under The Radar Music Sampler
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"Bones" will be featured on the Sept. - Dec. 2009 Under The Radar Music Sampler.
www.undertherada..."Bones" will be featured on the Sept. - Dec. 2009 Under The Radar Music Sampler.
www.undertheradarmag.com
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Paul's Grandfather : No Home
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Paul’s Grandfather is led by three female singer/songwriter/friends who marry their diverse backgrou...Paul’s Grandfather is led by three female singer/songwriter/friends who marry their diverse backgrounds into a brooding indie/folk sound reminiscent of traditional folk as well as contemporaries like Jenny Lewis or Nicole Atkins. Granted Atkins and Lewis’ work is on a much bigger scale while No Home is just Paul’s Grandfather’s self-released debut. But there are a lot of similarities in the fact that the ladies of Paul’s Grandfather can shine within bare arrangements as well as more playful accompaniment. With the addition of a drummer and cellist the band fleshes out their fragile melodies and succeeds at finding a complimentary balance. The three ladies form a unique songwriting core that allow Paul’s Grandfather to strike a rich combination of intimacy and eclecticism. This is quite a little doozie of an album that reveals more with each and every listen. Innocent and quite beautiful.
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Album Review for the Fredonia Leader 9/9/09
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Review:
Paul's Grandfather
No Home(Whaleplane)
NED CAMPBELL
Managing Editor of the Leader
...Review:
Paul's Grandfather
No Home(Whaleplane)
NED CAMPBELL
Managing Editor of the Leader
Fredonia, NY
The indie-folk scene has seen a recent wave of support led by the unlikely talent and charm of bands like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. Their sound, a mix of savvy harmonies and driving percussion, has proven infectious among college students. Most compelling is their knack for reproducing a skillfully tight sound in concert, with added soul.
To find these results in Western NY, Paul's Grandfather is the band to turn to. Originally consisting of three Fredonia students Kate Preston, Becca Ryskalczyk and Karrah Teague they first collaborated in September 2009; the specifics vary from day to day.
"I saw Katie and wanted to push her over 'cause she was really slender," said Ryskalczyk of first connecting with Preston. Of Teague, she added, "And Karrah, I used to eat her cookies that she made a lot."
Paul's Grandfather gathered a following as just three, playing house shows and other venues in the Fredonia/Buffalo/Rochester area. When it came to recording No Home in the Spring, they were looking to fill out there sound. They took the advice of the EP's Producer, senior Sound Recording Technology major Jon Gernhart, and recruited Robert Frisk, a senior percusion performance major, to play drums. "Word of mouth," as Preston tells it, led them to turn to then freshman cello performance major, Paul Swenson. Drums were a given but cello, less so.
"The cello kind of serves as our lead guitar,' said Preston. "We're more folky so it works more nicely and it kind of draws everything together. He's kind of our lead guitar with a bigger thing to carry around."
No Home kicks off with "Jailbirdie," an early crowd favorite for this relatively young band. The guitar is simple but catchy, as are the words. Teague's vocals, a maintained combination of breathlessness and depth, mixes remarkably well with the more resonant vocals of Ryzkalczyk and the warmer, spinning tones of Preston. These elements combine with energetic tambourine and bass drum, but the volume and echo of both overwhelms the track as a whole.
Next is "Gravity," the track which best emulates Paul's Grandfather's live prowess. It moves atop incessant piano triads that serve as perfect momentum, sounding just soft enough to avoid testing the listener's patience with its repetition and still be heard. Preston takes the lead on this one and her voice is a mix of intensity and freedom, coming off her phrases with a crooning vibrato. Her rich sound goes well against Swenson's building cello lines, which peer through as somewhat inverted versions of her melody.
"Gravity" plots desire against reality as the phrenetic drum fills of the interlude evoke a strong sense of aspiration, only to be returned to the calmer verse by Swenson's cello, whose path of whimsical descent sounds very much a product of gravity. This idea comes to fruition with the second verse, as Preston sings, "On the ridge of my conscience I want to justify my days/ could really use a raise and some pocket change/ But the atoms that are me will be something else someday/ and with that I am okay with sharing everything." Preston's lyrics keep coming back to this idea that the present and future are one.
In 'Gravity,' there is a sense of accepting this as the nature of things but on 'Leaves,' it shifts to a tone of frustration. On a rigidly pulsing chorus, the three profess, "This is the greatest era of the rest of our lives/ but we can't stop thinking about the rest of our lives."
'Bones,' led by Ryskalczyk, rolls along moderately, reinforced by a piano part suspiciously similar to The Office theme song. This act of imitation may be more subtle for some, and certainly not enough to deter Under The Radar, a nationally distributed indie music magazine, from choosing it for their September sampler. 'Bones' peaks towards the end as the piano softens in place of a percussive, reverbed finish, with the voices of Paul's Grandfather blending beautifully. During this final, tantamount run, they demonstrate a middle ground found between innovative and catchy harmonies. Ryskalczyk and Teague sing in opposing directions, arising tension on "Rain will not awaken me." Preston comes from beneath with rich, warm tones, singing, "so clear your dark disguise," before eventually joining them for a harmonically trenchant finish.
With seven songs, No Home feels remarkably symmetrical. At its fourth-song apex is 'Apples' (which in all likelihood has no intended conceptual connection to 'Gravity'). It is a slow, melancholic come-down from the fast-paced, geared up 'Bones,' featuring a beautiful balance of Swenson's sweeping cello, Ryskalczyk's delicately finger-picked guitar and the harmonies of Preston, Ryskalczyk and Teague, which are sounded like bells. The voices drop off for the finish, forcing a pensive pause before the abrupt downbeat of the jazzy, playful 'Leaves.'
The titles on No Home are noticeably short; 'Apples,' 'Leaves,' 'Cat Song' -a byproduct of their functional origins. "Originally we were just playing shows not really thinking about making an album per se," Preston said. "So it was more about what we wrote on the set lists."
Paul's Grandfather plans to record a full-length this fall but are still looking for someone to record. A glimpse of those new songs can be caught at their next show starting at 10 p.m. Sept. 11 at 41 West where No Home will be available for purchase. Also find it at the Main Street locations of Wishberry and Cool Little Music Shop or online at whaleplane.org.
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Cursive Packs Mohawk Place
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Mohawk at near capacity was a nice surprise for a Sunday night show. That's the fortunate part about...Mohawk at near capacity was a nice surprise for a Sunday night show. That's the fortunate part about a band like Cursive, they're on the fringe of recognition which allows them to operate in the small venue circuit while still packing the room with die hard fans. We watched with a secret pleasure as the Sold Out sign went up and the stragglers were turned away.
The bill featured a cast of well established local musicians. Opening was Paul's Grandfather, a indie-folk band centered on the songwriting of three talented young ladies, Becca Ryskalczyk, Katie Preston, and Karrah Teague. As each took a turn leading, they were complimented by unlikely instrumentation including cello, and a saw played with a bow (that's right, like the tool for cutting trees). Following them was All Of Them Witches, a prog-rock guitar-fest. Featuring members of A Hotel Nourishing and Red Tag Rummage sale, Cameron Rogers, Phillip Freedenberg and Vic Lazar formed an intricate delivery of guitar tapping and turn on a dime rhythm. Most notable was the synced facial gesticulations and finger tapping of Freedenburg. His expressions moved so furiously it almost looked like the riff was coming from his mouth.
Lastly, Cursive took the stage and proceeded to execute one of the best live sets of music I've seen. After 2 bands and all the wait around time, I usually find myself tired of standing in a crowded bar by the time the headliner's set is halfway through. Their performance had virtually no down time. They managed to link nearly every song together fluidly. I was floored by their control over every element in the mix; the way they played on their dynamic options and worked all the rhythmic accents. It was quite clear that they've been doing exactly this for many years and are well versed in the tricks of the trade.
They seemed to favor the older material for their set list, and kept their latest effort, "Mama I'm Swollen," to a minimal. Judging by the level of energy, everyone was quite please with this. But, the highlight of the night had to be "What Have I Done" off the aforementioned record. You could tell that the band has a deeper interest in the songs fresher to them, and Tim Kasher's vocal delivery was powerfully genuine for this reason as he crooned: "the best years of my life were spent waiting on the best years of my life!"
Rather than take the usual five minute break before returning to the stage for the encore, Kasher took a few minutes break to chat, and self deprecate. "I'm usually that asshole at the party who keeps talking to you and you have to think, 'how am I going to get out of here? I'll tell him I have to go to the bathroom." It was nice listening to the mind of a talented artist stream out some consciousness. It also had another noticeable affect, it made him human. Undoubtedly idolized by a room of 300 hundred fans, he maintains his insecurities and it connected the crowd and the artist even more than the music could.
Cursive is reputable for many reasons. They're signed to Saddle Creek, a label responsible for cornering the market on the unique singer songwriter. They've been relentlessly touring, and releasing albums over the course of 15 years, helping to define the indie sound of post-emo. They have the experience, the chops, the presence of mind to make good musical decisions for translating their recorded music into a ballsy live effort. It was a pleasure to have them in Buffalo.
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Chautauqua Star Artist Spotlight
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Band/Musician Name: Paul's Grandfather
Members:
Katie Preston (vocals, piano, accordion)
...Band/Musician Name: Paul's Grandfather
Members:
Katie Preston (vocals, piano, accordion)
Karrah Teague (vocals, guitar, bass)
Rebecca Ryskalczyk (vocals, guitar, bass)
Paul Swenson (cello)
Robert Frisk (percussion)
Hometown: That varies. We all hail from differently places: Rochester, Buffalo, Elmira and Long Island. I suppose the North East is our hometown.
Genre/Style: How we should describe ourselves has been an ongoing question. We like to blend genres since our influences are so vast and we all share the song writing responsibility. We were told by the man who wrote the song "Rock Around the Clock" that it would be wise to describe our style as 'Americana' and come on, you can't really turn down the advice of one of the members of Bill Haley's Comets, so we'll go with that.
Influences: Roy Orbison, Neil Young, Billie Holiday and so many of our talented friends
Favorite Album(s): We've listened to both Man Man's "Six demon Bag" and The Snake the Cross the Crown's "Cotton Teeth" inside and out on long van trips. We can also can rap the majority of the lyrics to Wu Tang Clan's album "Enter the 36 Chambers."
Favorite song to perform: We have a lot of songs that we never get sick of performing. "Cat Song" is not one of them. The song is very creepy and it usually leaves audience members feeling frightened. (I kid.) The most fun songs to play are the ones with intricate instrumental parts and harmonies. We recently wrote a new song that involves complex cello and accordion parts as well as the craft work of a very talented saw player, who is our newest addition to the band. (yes, by saw I mean the kind that you use to cut lumber.)
Of course, we love making harmony. Although all of our songs feature a lead singer in some way, we're constantly backing each other up or singing counter melodies. We keep adding new eclectic elements to our music and that is what keeps it exciting for both us and the audience.
Favorite Gig/Show: The best shows are always the intimate house shows. You get a chance to know the people there before, after and during the show and there is always a lot of warmth from the audience. Once, at a house show in Philadelphia, an audience member gave me a free haircut (Don't worry, he was a professional stylist.) He brought audience participation to a whole new level.
Favorite local band: The Harlem Renaissance, a Fredonia band that will forever remind us of our college years. Of course, we love all of our peers in local bands for their willingness to share their creativity with the community.
Do you play originals, cover, or both? We play mostly originals. Recently we played at "Sock Hop" party and learned a few oldies for the occasion. The Beatles' "I've just seen a face," Roy Orbison's "Cryin" and Bill Haley and the Comet's "Rock Around the Clock" to name a few.
