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February 9, 2010 # 12:19 am # Features, Music # 13 CommentsBy Melissa Wright
The original point of departure for this exploration came from a suggestion to survey the Buffalo underground music scene. In the conversations that followed, it became apparent that either I was talking to all the wrong musicians or that “underground” needs some teasing out. Perhaps, most importantly, the concept of underground is limited in its cultural temporality, seeming to have specific ties to ’60s counterculture, ’70s punk rock and ’80s hip hop.
So this investigation evolved into an interest in two specific questions: if we’re all above ground now—at least in Buffalo, for that matter—is there an interest in remaining “counterculture”? And secondly, can there be an authentic music anymore when everywhere we have sampling, pastiche, cover bands, and throwbacks?
Three India Pale Ales in, I stand front-and-center to watch a local band at McGarrett’s, formerly No Names, on Elmwood. The only people closer to the band than me are a hip-rotating, music-lovemaking, engrossed young woman in overalls and a man hanging over the threshold that separates the band Family Dinner from the bar crowd. His eyes are magnetized by Luke Bennett, the lead guitarist’s hands sliding through a song called “The Spaniard.”
“The Spaniard” is fresh and foreign. Invitingly it descends a full scale to a common, unmistakable riff. A trumpet slices through with the most pleasing sort of unexpectedness: something not so far from jazz—dare I say Miles Davis—in its controlled bursts.
Around the bar, one gets an unmistakable sense of ’60s nostalgia, whether that be from the hung tapestries behind the band, the occasional Grateful Dead T-shirt, or counterculture vibe of the place overall. The façade of the venue begs of a former generation and one can’t help but question whether the bands feel a sense of historical suffocation. Don’t you want your own generation?
“It’s more than a nostalgia for the ’60s,” Bennett begins as we discuss the Buffalo music scene and where his music fits in. “More than anything else, that time was the roots, an inspiration. We’re not simply covering old Grateful Dead songs like other bands are doing.”
And yet, I ask, what are you doing? So many bands in Buffalo seem to be playing fusion jam music. And by fusion, I mean a kind of sampling of multiple different genres. Do you feel the sense that you’re not doing anything new?
Bennett shakes his head in fervent disagreement. “That’s what anyone says before the next musical genre happens. After jazz, they probably thought, ‘what can come next?’ The same thing for jam bands. It’s impossible to tell inside of our own time period. And I think we are doing something new. Fusion is new and every band that’s doing it in Buffalo, from what I’ve seen, has their own sound—U-MELT does progressive groove, Universe Shark does jazz/space jam, we do blues/funk jam, New Clear Fusion did big band funk jam, and the Funky Beats do actual rock ‘n’ roll jam.”
The Family Dinner is truly a part of a network of musicians and bands throughout the Buffalo area. Together, they share jam spaces, instruments, amps, and even swap musicians. The effect is an ever-evolving sound and an intimate music-watching experience, where quite often the line between friend and fan is blurred. In the jam band tradition, these groups plan smaller-scale festivals throughout the year, showcasing both local bands as well as any big name band they can get on the bill. And yet, they are determined not to play backyard festivals for the rest of their careers.
Family Dinner is throwing their second summer festival in June and was lucky enough to get some pretty large names on the bill. “We’re very excited to have The Breakfast and Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad playing at our festival, JAM-Boree this summer,” says Derek Morgan, one of the band’s informal booking agents/ “groupies.”
“We’re not underground, because we want to make it,” Bennett says. Fancy that. I ask whether he considers his band to be fulfilling any kind of ’60s counterculture tradition.
“Counterculture didn’t arise in the ’60s. In the ’20s there were flappers, in the ’40s there was jazz, Django Reinhardt, in the ’50s, with the invention of the electric guitar, you have Chuck Barry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley. When punk music came about, when heavy metal took off—anything that goes up against mainstream America is counterculture.”
I explain to both Bennett and James Gaydos, the bass player for the band, the angle of my story. Gaydos works part time for a local production company called North Star Media Studios, started right in Buffalo and led by a couple of Canisius alumni. I thought he would have insight as to whether there was anything “underground” in the city.
“Did you laugh when they asked you to cover it?” Gaydos questions with a widening grin. “There is no Buffalo underground.”
Bennett chimes in. “We’re not in the NYC rap scene where Eminem and Immortal Technique can push out ‘underground shit with Stan.’ ”
Gaydos offers his stance on my countercultural dilemma. “There’s always going to be a crossover between whatever countercultural scenes there are going on at the time. With all the various types of music I’ve played, I’ve partaken in whatever was the most happening scene for the region,” he says. “I want to be where the thought, imagination, and invigoration is; so yeah, I have been somewhat of an opportunist in my musical career. I played metal festivals in Cleveland and I play jam band festivals in Buffalo, because that’s what’s going on in each town. Jam bands are pretty much the scene all over the Western New York area. All the bar owners are dead heads and you have to be in good with them if you want to play around here.”
Seems ironic—the counter culture is now the dominant culture?
“Hippies are capitalists. It’s very much not a counterculture. It’s simply another scene. Things that were once countercultures quickly become mainstream,” Gaydos says. “Hippy culture now is hippy storefronts more or less. There’s all kinds of places back in Cleveland that are another fucking Hot Topic, except they’re not a chain.”
So can we even say there are counter cultures anymore?
“Things spread too quickly,” Gaydos says, arranging his bass to head out for a practice session. “We’re obviously a YouTube generation and little 15 second clips fly across the country in seconds. Everything is immediately commercialized. When the indie emo scenes were emerging, it didn’t take long before people were wearing tight jeans and riding an old bike around.”
Perhaps this is the thrust of the frustration—radical façades with completely mainstream tendencies, the absorption of real musical difference into a homogenous stream of ready-made culture.
Before Bennett and Gaydos take off, I ask whether they feel stifled by the musical scene they predominantly belong to. “None of us are bound by counterculture influences,” Gaydos says. “There’s tons of old bikers at festivals, punkers at SlyFest. There were some dudes who looked like they were right out of a Slipknot show, rocking snake bite double lip piercings and chest pieces. Dude looked like he was ready to start throwing some bows, but really he was just trying to sell some pot.”
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It was painful to read beyond the lead of this story, but yeah, you were talking to the wrong musicians. Maybe you could read some back issues of the old Generation, realize that Buffalo has one of the best underground music scenes in the country (and I say this as a current resident of NYC) and begin talking to the real Buffalo underground scene.
Here’s some names for you–The Failures’ Union, Lemuria, Red Tag Rummage Sale, or just about any band you will see at Sugar City, Mohawk Place, or the various house/basements that churn out some seriously quality music consistently.
You should probably actually send reporters who have some sense of authority in the subject matter they’re writing about it, Ren. This is kind of embarrassing.
this is insane. whether or not buffalo has a good underground music scene is certainly a debatable, but it definately exists, and it’s clear that you put no real effort into finding it. it’s very disappointing that the thousands of out-of-town students will have the idea that buffalo is such a lame city that it has no underground music scene.
hah this is a funny joke.
It is as if this person had never even picked up an old version to see the scene reports in them. There were articles on local groups and shows every week, but now there is no underground? And the conclusion of the “alternative voice” is that there is no such thing as alternative. What a joke.
according to urbandictionary.com Underground music is: music that is not heard on mainstream radio stations, Does not have concerts taking place in Stadiums or huge Arenas where you pay 50-80 dollars to get in, Will not be found in small(ish) chain record stores, and so on. So according to your brilliant analysis, yes, every band in Buffalo is underground. But that’s not the point. I myself am in one of the “jam” bands of Buffalo and every musician i know is ultimately looking for popularity in their music. And so are the supposed “underground” bands you spoke of according to their myspace pages, in which they’re trying to sell everything they can for money, i.e. selling out. For godsakes the failures union is travelllng to europe. (Not very underground). And your notion of awesome undergound being at basements and house parties is grossly overestimated. Those are the bands that can’t get into bars to play. If they could, they would. My bass player actually likes the music you are talking about (punk, indie, emo, etc.) as much as he likes what we play, and says the scene sucks so much he’s never be in one of those bands here. And while yes Buffalo had a fairly large underground scene at the end of the eighties and throughout the nineties, knowmatic tribe soundsystem comes to mind, that was a decade ago. Today Buffalo has an awesome OVERALL music scene and i think this was a very well written article about one in particular. shame on you michelle in your flatout nastiness.
I’m sorry, and this is an actual non-sarcastic question, but was there another page or two that was cut off during the phase of uploading this to the website? Because there is not nearly enough sources in this story to make any form of a valid statement. The reporter interviewed three people, two of which are in the same band, the third a fan of the band, and they are supposed to speak for the entire Buffalo community? What about talking to musicians that play punk rock or hip-hop, two genres that I believe have a far longer and more deeper underground history (not just in WNY, but nationally overall) than the “jam band” genre? Buffalo has had a long history of pumping out great punk rock music and is still doing so. The hip-hop community here is growing as well. Also why even limit it to just music? I understand the writer just wanted to do the music scene, but a better and more complete story about the “underground” would’ve involved local artists as well. I’m sure you could’ve found some that represented both sides of the argument.
As soon as the interviewee said “We’re not underground, because we want to make it,” that should’ve been the signal for this writer to 1) not base their entire story off this one source and 2) look for more sources to either support or contrast the statement. It just seems like either this reporter had a biased opinion right from the beginning, or simply rushed this article and did little to no research and planning.
I really think this could’ve been an interesting article if more time and effort had been put into this by the writer, as well as the editors, to realize this story is completely one-sided. I just hope the readers realize this as well and aren’t duped into believing Buffalo has no underground music scene.
Underground music is when I listen to my iPod on the Metro Rail… right?
who’s this chuck barry?
What EXACTLY is underground to you guys? i think we might be getting our definitions messed up. if you think every band who isn’t signed or doesn’t tour or doesn’t get much overall exposure is underground then you are wrong. again this would be almost every band in buffalo and around the country. an “underground” movement starts and then one of two things happen. it either becomes bigger and bigger, and therefore isn’t “underground” anymore, or it dies out because no one liked what was going on in that particular movement. the term itself can’t be a constant. do you guys just move from one underground scene to another and claim to be a pro on it. like i said Buffalo has a great music scene, especially for it’s size. and this includes some very good underground acts of the past. it’s just that by now everything has already been underground or counterculture to a certain degree so it’s very hard to replicate that. and in this particular day, while i do not claim to be an expert, just like the writer didn’t, the only things i’ve heard from ALL the other bands and people i hang out with is that today’s Buffalo “underground” scene is very weak. IT MUST SAY SOMETHING IF THE WRITER, INTERVIEWEES, AND OBVIOUSLY THE EDITORS HAD NO HARD INFO ON THE WHOLE “UNDERGROUND” SCENE. no one is telling people and prospective students that Buffalo’s music scene is bad, it’s not. and you don’t have to go to a house party/basement to see indie, punk, emo, or whatever. you can go to almost any bar that plays music and find any genre you want if you look around a little. i’m not in any way dissing the bands involved in this type of music. they are fellow musicians and i greatly respect them. the sense of an authentic purposeful awesome “underground” scene in this city just isn’t correct. this is not a sarcastic statement but please give me a couple specific dates, times, places, and bands to check out what is considered underground in Buffalo, because again we could just be using different definitions of the term.
did you even do any research before reporting on the “scene” in buffalo? jesus christ get on the internet for 5 minutes and youll find a robust cornicopia of knowledge about past and present buffalo rock, hardcore, jazz, anything else. who is this band? no one has ever heard of them! epic failz
Oddly enough, a major piece of the hip hop scene in Buffalo that’s been growing for a over a decade is an album aptly titled “NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND”. Strange indeed that punk, jazz, hip-hop, folk and all sort of genres are left out, which would be fine, had the article not began with “…survey the Buffalo underground music scene”. You’d need a broader brush to do that for sure…
I can’t believe you put this online! Holy crap!
This is like when we couldn’t get student letters and had to publish the ones about sea turtles. bad. to the above…Chuck Barry was a talk show host? You guys need to…..
panic!
and melissa…next time you want to go to a concert, just look on artvoice.com. There are plenty of shows to see every week all over Buffalo.
BOO! THIS ARTICLE WAS EVEN LAZIER THAN MY CRITICISM OF THIS ARTICLE~~:”~!~!!`L;KJWE
step up your game!!!!!!!!!111 smok a blut!!!