This Thursday the Canopy Club is doing something very exciting. They are putting together two genres that do not, at first glance, seem to mesh well. Indie Rock bands Elsinore, Dark Meat, World’s First Flying Machine (band of the week!), and Tall Tale will be playing along side Hip Hop artists Krukid & the Sugargliders, Agent Mos, Curb Service and Yea Big plus Kid Static. Amazing line up!

What? You think throwing these genres together would create a musical cacophony that would destroy the world? That’s just silly. Allow me to allay your fears with a little mash-up magic!

If you haven’t heard of The Hood Internet already, they are a group of DJ’s and audiophiles that fuse Hip Hop with Rock or Indie Rock. Usually this is done by using the acapella and main beat from the Hip Hop track and making it follow the Indie Rock song. My favorite mash-up of all time (besides Girl Talk of course) is a song The Hood Internet did last year.

Imagine Spoon performing with Ghostface Killah, or don’t because it might make your head explode, but seriously that would be awesome. To get an idea of exactly what it would sound like check out the track “The Ghostface Of You Lingers” over at the Hood’s myspace. If you think that is the shit, which you will, download their whole mixtape vol.1 for free at their website!

Now, there are not necessarily going to be any mash-ups going on at the show, but I have heard Elsinore is always ready to throw a little Krukid into their set!

Look for interviews with several of the artists performing in this week’s Buzz and make sure you head over to the Canopy Club Thursday night. It’s gonna get rowdy!

$5 in advance, $7 before 8:00pm and $8 after 8:00pm

If you didn’t catch the inaugural lift off of WFFM a couple of weeks ago, now is your chance to make up for your mistake!

They will be playing tonight at the Canopy Club at 10 pm for the first round of the weird but interesting gimmick “Fall Semester Showdown”.

Tonight’s showdown is between Tall Tale and Hotel Ahead! May the band with the best alcohol sales win!(?)

I received my one cent guitar in the mail today, and no, it wasn’t a scam. The guitar is admittedly a piece of shit that was probably made in about one total hour of work. I have not yet tuned it so I don’t know what kind of sounds it is going to make but let’s just say I don’t have my hopes up.

Regardless of the quality of my instrument, now that I have one I will immediately become the next great virtuoso! Having wasted $8 on the new “feel good movie of the season”, August Rush, I now know all it takes is an annoyingly wispy attitude towards life and a Fagan-esque mentor to become the world’s next Mozart. Seriously, did anyone actually get through that movie without throwing up all over the middle-aged women crying in front of them?

Speaking of musical genius, if you were at the Canopy Club last night you saw the first showcase of Brian McGovern’s project Green Ghost Red Ghost!

Green Ghost Red Ghost @ Canopy Club 12/9

The show was fun and Brian has an excellent repertoire of songs ranging from GGRG originals to Saturday Looks Good to Me covers! Anne Rufa was excellent on trumpet and without the help of guest Thomas Lowery the show could not have gone on.

Brian plays guitar and has short hair

Further neglecting my ten page music business paper with this post, I fear I’m totally fucked this year.

I might as well forget studying tomorrow night and play Glockenspiel for Brian McGovern’s project Green Ghost Red Ghost at the Canopy Club.

If you saw Brian play in World’s First Flying Machine a couple weeks ago, you know this show will be kick ass.

FREE ADMISSION - CHEAP DRINKS - FINALS HEADACHE RELIEF

9 pm this Sunday the 9th of December

Ghosts and Butterflies will be on hand

In the future I am making a greater effort to cover local music. After all, it is usually the most personal and exciting.

This Wednesday I was a couple hours late for Matt Wertz. In fact when I got to the Canopy Club he had already gone and some new bands were getting ready to take the smaller stage in the bar. I was so upset I missed the epic performance style of Matt Wertz I decided to get wasted and cry my troubles to the bartender…

Had you there for a second! I hate Matt Wertz and the fact I have to share my first name with him.

Instead I grabbed a pint of Miller and waited until the good bands went on around midnight for only $7 ($5 advance)! One of these was World’s First Flying Machine.

World’s First Flying Machine’s Ben Campbell

Via their Myspace: “World’s First Flying Machine is a musical collective created by Ben Campbell and Chris Howaniec, and based out of Urbana, IL.”

Other members include: Laura Lynch: Violin, Backup Vocals. Zane Ranney: Drums. Brian McGovern: Ukulele, Glockenspiel. Kurt Werner: Ukulele, Glockenspiel, Bass.

After some awkward sound banter (centered around getting MORE UKE) Campbell got the band’s first show started. WFFM’s folk rock sound filled the room, managing to quiet some annoying bitch yelling shit from the bar. The band’s six members crowded together on the cramped stage, barely able to rock out during the more enthusiastic songs, but still capable of sending the crowd into bouts of dancing and cheers.

Each song was completely different from the next ranging from experimental instrumental (my fav of the night!) to the rousing collective folk rock of “Ferris Wheel”. A somber “Butterflies” featuring Campbell on acoustic and Lynch on Violin was almost ruined by the Canopy’s incredible ability to draw assholes that talk during good music. Seriously, if I find that relentless chatterbox bitch that always seems to care more about bar speak than what’s on stage I will make sure she never attends another show. Problem is, I think there is more than one of those.

From the Tops of Trees finished out the night nicely; more to come on them!

WFFM will be playing at the Iron Post this Saturday at 10 pm (only $3!!). Check out this excellent new addition to CU’s local scene.

That’s right folks. Broken Social Scene played at Canopy last night. Well, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning played some BSS songs anyway. In fact the ratio of Kevin Drew songs to BSS songs played was about 2/1. This was probably just to keep the freaks in the front row from screaming “Lover’s Spit” more than ten times. Jesus Christ.

Despite having “emerged from a haze of smoke on the bus” (canning’s words) the crew played an excellent show. Drew has been on vocal rest all week and had some trouble hitting the high notes a few times, but there were some magical moments. The “tbtf” (too beautiful to fuck) transition to “Stars and Sons” was wonderful, featuring some signature Brendan Canning rock star jumps. That guy is too cool.

And now for some snap shots. Sorry for the quality, Sony’s suck.

Drew lingered on stage after the encore for some rambling banter with the crowd. This eventually escalated until he shouted “Drum solo!” and rushed to the risers. Canning returned with his “flying v” axe to support Drew’s playful mood. They hammered down a massive jam before getting real with “It’s All Gonna Break”. The rest of the band came back on mid song and rejuvenated a tiring crowd. Encores are serious business to a lot of people, but not Kevin Dew. Good thing, it made his show.

Everclear played a show at the Canopy Club last school year. Tickets were $25. People laughed.

Dave Matthews Band played at Assembly Hall two years ago. Tickets were $40. It was packed.

Ryan Adams played at Foellinger for a Star Course show earlier this month. Tickets were $23. The Auditorium was one third full.

Ticket sales are an absolute crap shoot on this campus. Students are poor and putting on a show is expensive, but if an artist is popular enough the tickets will sell, right? You would think so. Unfortunately things are far from that easy.

Venue managers spend lots of time estimating an artist’s worth, pursuing a show, negotiating contracts, and promoting a show. The most important decisions made are the ones deciding an artist and how to promote them. Factors such as venue size, artist popularity on campus, cost of the artist, and show date all help determine what a reasonable charge for tickets would be. A couple dollars too much and a venue could lose hundreds of ticket purchases. After the show is confirmed a promotions campaign has to get started quickly. Locally, things usually don’t get running until a month or two before the show date. How many people are reached and excited by the artist can make a huge difference in not only ticket sales but the success of the concert.

Students are cheap, flaky, and capricious enough to make this entire process a living nightmare. An occasional trip to Ticketmaster should be enough to remind concert-goers that CU concerts are for the most part service charge, shipping charge, and printing charge free. Instead of indulging a Jimmy John’s fetish three times a week or spending too much money on beerses try putting a few bucks away every week to save up for several concerts a semester. Most of them are a way better experience and a cheaper price than spending two hours getting a contact high at DMB circus shows.