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About russellkwagner

I enjoy eating various kinds of pies

Acoustic Night at the Ant Hill

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The good folks at the Ant Hill have graciously offered up their living room for another cozy night of acoustic performances. Making this the first stop of a two week tour out to the East Coast will be Chicago’s Into It. Over It.

Credit: Dr. Dave Summers

This will be the inaugural visit to Kalamazoo for Evan Weiss, whom you may know from the many active bands he’s been a part of (The Progress, Damiera, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start) or the ambitious project he undertook known as 52 weeks, which involved recording a new song every week for a year. Since then the ever-industrious Mr. Weiss, who records often as a full band but performs solo, has been working on releasing a series of split 7″ records with other Midwestern artists the likes of Castevet, Empire! Empire!, Everyone Everywhere, and Bob Nanna (from Braid!) & Lauren Lo. His latest release is a split 12″ with Koji.

Providing local support will be some of the best of the best of our town’s acoustic guitar-slingers. If you made it to the last acoustic night you will have caught Ian Miller, who returns tonight and will be joined by the equally fantastic Lisa Anderson. A man simply and mysteriously known only as Ashton, a resident of the Hill, will be performing. Kalamazoo’s favorite identical triplet folk team, the Almanac Shouters, round out the bill.

The music kicks off at 8PM and everyone is strongly encouraged to bring a few dollars to donate.

Daniel Francis Doyle returns to Kalamazoo Oct. 3

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If you caught Daniel Francis Doyle’s set at La Iglesia last time he came through town, you probably experienced the same sense of perplexity, surprise, and delight that I did. He’s a man with three first names and he works a loop pedal like no one else I’ve seen.

Doyle will start out a song by recording a random and incomprehensible series of guitar phrases that I’m sure only the man himself can wrap his mind around; he’ll then pause what he has looped, sit down at a drum set, and proceed to simultaneously manipulate the guitar playback along to his drumming – all while singing into a headset mic. It’s a remarkable display of creativity. Check out the video below to get a better understanding of what this one man alone can pull off.

Doyle is just about to begin a lengthy tour that has him on the road all the way through the month of October until the middle of November. He’ll be making the Strutt the fourth stop of his trip. Joining him will be three bands from across Michigan – newer Kalamazoo act, That’s Blood, who bring the shred in a hard way with their proggy, aggressive sound; Ferndale’s brilliantly mathematical The Summer Pledge; and the hyper-energetic punk frenzy of Radiator Hospital from Grand Rapids.

Decisions, decisions

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One way or the other, you probably ought to be at a show on Saturday night.

Not only will spastic math-rock virtuosos Tera Melos be in town performing with our local boys Pan and Good News, but legendary folk punks Defiance, OH will be coming to Grand Rapids performing with our very own The Almanac Shouters.

Something like four years ago now I had the chance to catch a little band called By the End of Tonight at the Dolphin House (RIP) here in Kalamazoo. Not only was I blown away by their performance that night, I was also introduced to the equally mind-altering Tera Melos through the split release they put out, Complex Full of Phantoms. Here we are, four years on, and they’re finally making their way from California for what I believe will be their first ever visit to our fair city. Since 2004, this three-piece (formerly a quartet) has been honing and constantly evolving their style, putting out release after release, and touring hard – thus establishing themselves as a touchstone of the math-rock genre. They’ll be touring behind their newest release, the poppier, Patagonian Rats.

Joining them for this show will be locals Good News who may arguably not be the band they are today if it weren’t for Tera Melos (or at least bands of that ilk) and Pan, who I’ve watched only get better and better in the year and a half since they’ve formed.

That same night Defiance, OH will be playing what will surely be a packed to the gills show at the DAAC in Grand Rapids. For about the last decade these folk punk troubadors have been defining a genre and inspiring countless others to mix up their punk rock with banjos and upright basses and cellos, invoking the the activist spirit of classic rabble-rousers like Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. All the while, they’ve remained true to the DIY ethos. If you’re a fan of sing-alongs and capacity shows you can crowd surf at, you would do well to be at the DAAC Saturday night.

Also performing will be solo artist Toby Foster from the punk mecca of Bloomington, IN (original home of Plan-It-X Records) and Grand Rapids’ Radiator Hospital, as well as the afformentioned Almanac Shouters (our Kalamazoo darlings).

It’s easy to be torn, but Saturday will be an undeniably excellent night for music in Southwest Michigan. Either way, you win.

Unless you’re talking about the game, in which case you definitely just lost.

Folk and Punk and Folk Punk in Kalamazoo

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The community for the back-to-basics style of punk continues to thrive in Kalamazoo as its younger offshoot folk-influenced cousin begins to stake more of a presence for itself.

Saturday night saw the inaugural show at the New Frontier House, the recent venture of our good friend Zach Smith. They kicked it off in traditional Vine Neighborhood basement show fashion with the local hardcore of the Destrukters and Ackley Kid opening and closing the show respectively. Making their way to town was South Bend punks The Distractions and the dance-punk of International Espionage from Minneapolis; always a favorite here in Kalamazoo.

It was heartening to see how much everyone enjoyed themselves, especially as the night went on and the energy only increased. All in all, a Saturday night well spent in the company of friends and a great start for a new venue. Keep your eyes out for more activity at the New Frontier House.

On the folkier side of things, as our own Almanac Shouters prepare to play what will be a monster of a show with legends Defiance, OH in Grand Rapids on the 18th (be there), folk and folk-punk continues to assert itself with a show at the No Fun House this Thursday.

The show will be starting a bit earlier, 8:30, so we can have local gal Peggy Wray open up. She’s a lady with an acoustic guitar and a gigantic voice and you’ll want to make sure you’re here for her performance. Then we’ve got the acoustic act Foreign Flowers coming down from Grand Rapids and Broken Half on tour from Oklahoma City. Washoard and a homemade upright bass? Gimme a hell yeah.

Then closing out the night will be our very own power couple Lincoln County War doing an unamplified performance.

Monday, Tuesday – Back to Back Shows

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The No Fun House brings you two nights of music in a row this week.

Monday night

  • Bubonic Bear (on tour from Philadeplhia, PA – home to a ridiculous amount of great music)
  • As Above So Below (a newer Kalamazoo band of the heavy, proggy, posty variety)
  • Good News (stupid good local mathematic two-piece)

Tuesday night

  • Dead Horse (Sprawling post-rock on tour from Pennsylvania)
  • Analecta (South Bend boys who play post-rock/post-metal)
  • Nue Sprights (Kalamazoo cats – It’s going to be weird)

Pansori added to the lineup at the Strutt tonight

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2049 has unfortunately dropped off the show at the Strutt. Taking their place will be a band from Baltimore that combines elements of hardcore, post-rock, and screamo into a sound that’s as sonically captivating as it is aggressive. After having them talked up by friends from Pittsburgh way back in the middle of last Fall, I was looking forward to crossing paths with Pansori for a long time. That chance came last night when we got to play a show with them at the DAAC in Grand Rapids. I was impressed to say the least. Their lush dual-guitar, bass, and drums instrumentation with a free-standing vocalist (who boasts a monster shriek) might not sound unlike other screamo bands of the atmospheric nature, but add to that a violinist who knows her stuff and you’ve got something that truly stands out. I’m happy Kalamazoo was able to turn a hole in their tour schedule into what will be a rad chance to play for a new audience. Check them out, you’ll be glad you did. http://www.myspace.com/eighthundredyearsofsilence

Of course they will be joined by the Detroit madmen of Child Bite who have played Kalamazoo a number of times, as well as Chelsea Boys and Buffalo Moon. It’s all good, baby.

No Fun House! Tomorrow!

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Tomorrow night at the No Fun House, all the way from Toronto, comes an instrumental band called Sleep For the Nightlife. I had the good fortune of running into them earlier on this tour in Long Island, NY. I had no idea what to expect as I hadn’t listened to them before and I was pleasantly surprised, nay, blown away. Their mathy dual-guitar attack was right up my alley but I was even more delighted when I realized that for a post-y band of this nature, they refreshingly eschewed anything unnecessary. They keep their songs short and between the straight up two guitar, bass, and drums lineup only one member uses any effects and even that is only limited to a single Line 6 delay pedal.

Joining them will be a new creation which I have yet to witness, Deep Waters, the latest project from Kalamazoo stalwarts David Spalvieri-Kruse, Pat Carrol, and Josh Holcomb. Do I have any idea what we’re in store for? Just imagine this image in musical form…

And rounding out the bill is our very own the Number Eight whom you should be plenty familiar with by now. If not, have you ever even been to a Kalamazoo show? Now a duo, these guys play indie/shoegaze influenced slow burners that are as pretty as they are seductive. You heard that right. If we’re lucky, we’ll hear some singing-saw thrown into their primarily acoustic guitar/electric guitar performance.

August 7 @ No Fun House – The Reptilian, Former Thieves(IA), and Native(IN)

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Former Thieves from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Native from Northwest Indiana will be beginning a US tour soon. Their Michigan stop for this tour was canceled due to a venue closure just a few days ago. Fortunately we were able to move this show to the No Fun House. Also playing will be the Reptilian. You can bet it will be a crazy good time. I am fully expecting this to be the wildest No Fun show so far. Help us make it so.