…if it’s big rock you want, then there’s only one place for you to be tonight: Pearl is hosting three of Dayton’s finest and you won’t want to miss it. Opening the night will be up-and-comers Stone The Mayor Sheriffs who have impressed us greatly in recent outings and we’re expecting good things from them in the near future. Then you’ve got pop/punk stalwarts The Sound for Language who are always good fun. Closing the night will be the big party of Vows. Here’s a great way to jumpstart yr weekend….

…this past Sunday afternoon at Gem City Records, a small crowd gathered to watch short sets by Jake Geisege of Wild & Free, Mascot, and this performance by Andrew Smith of Andrew & the Pretty Punchers. With the feel of an old sea shanty imbued with some incredible life advice, it has the feeling of running into a drunken old Irishman who just can’t help but share his wisdome. This is one of our favorite new songs floating around Dayton at the moment, so have a peek….

…from the mind of Caregiver come Letters: Part I, available now as a FREE download over at Fictionband. Since Caregiver strictly avoids personal appearances, we recommend you take full advantage of this opportunity and let yourself be absorbed into this retro-futuristic soundscape. Employing synthesizers and tone generators both old and new, the manner in which Caregiver subtly mutates melodic structures is captivating without a doubt. With points of reference falling somewhere between Kraut and Kubrick, Caregiver serves as the soundtrack to your future….

…on this particular evening, we can’t recall exactly how many times we heard mention of the fact that this was to be the coldest night of the year. With sub-zero temperatures and it being a weeknight and all, you might have expected a less-than-stellar turn out for this show at the Nite Owl. Oh, how you would have been mistaken….

…upon arriving, we just missed We Are the Fury. Although, reports from various audience members confirmed our suspicions that WATF blew people away, especially being in the opening slot on this night. The reports we got made us eager for a return visit soon…

…We were fortunate enough, however, to come in just in time to find a spot near the stage to catch De Novo Dahl. Luckily we made our move when we did, as within minutes the whole front area was jam-packed with dancers and romancers, all vying for a spot near the stage. De Novo Dahl were incredibly enthusiastic, unabashed fun. Their ability to incite the crowd and sustain the ride for the duration of their set left us in awe. There was not a minute of let-up the entire time, and the audience loved them for it…

…as their amps get bigger, the sound of Grizzzzy Bear only intensifies. Luckily, they’ve not subjugated the brilliance of their songs in favor of sheer volume. Although some of the material continues to lack the edge that the application of synths has always given the the songs both live and on record, on this night Grizzzzy Bear seemed to have arrived at a suitable middle ground, as the guitar arrangements still delivered the intricate melodic runs with stunning accuracy, but with the added impact. Much to our delight, the band was joined late in the set by their previous keyboardist for the song “Passing”. We were later told that he will be joining the band full-time, a notion which could not have made us happier….

For more pics from this evening, you can go here.

…we want to thank everyone who came out last night to enjoy the best in Dayton music and beyond. In case you didn’t make it, here’s what we played:

Brainiac “Vincent Come On Down”
The Breeders “I Just Wanna Get Along”
Captain of Industry “Greater Than Greater Than”
Grizzzzy Bear “Time Machine” & “Passing”
The Human Reunion “Red Ape”
Jet Kid Committee “LOL”
My Latex Brain “Capitalist Knife”
Mercury Pusher “Deface the Lightning Child”
The Northwest Ordinance “Dancin”
Ohio Casket “It’s Not the Cough”
Pretty & Nice “Grab Your Nets”
Tobin Sprout “It’s Like Soul, Man”
Switchblade Serenade “Cowards in the Shadows”
Toads and Mice “Ghengis Kahn” & “Skull”
Wild & Free “Where’s Your Head?” & “Get It Straight”

…We’ll be back at Fab Gear again next month on Thursday, February 28. As always, we’ll be playing the best from Dayton’s past, present, and future from 10 to 11, followed by Fab Gear, spinning the best in vintage soul, funk, new wave, punk, and more! Make your plans now to come down and catch up on all the bands you may have been missing….

…alright kids, ready to ramp up for the weekend? Well, you got two really good options tonight, depending on yr moods…
…if you’re in the mood to shake it out and blow yr mind, you’re best bet is to head over to the Nite Owl, where De Novo Dahl from Nashville (who we profiled earlier this week) is gonna help you work it on out. You’ve also got We Are the Fury, trafficking in vintage 70s glam, as well as one of our favorite locals, Grizzzzy Bear, to take it all right over the edge….

…now, if you’re more inclined toward some earthy introspection, we’d advise you head over to Canal Street Tavern and dig an incredible set of personal paeans. Up from Cincinnati, you’ve got a pair of Americana enthusiasts, with very different interpretative aspects: Frontier Folk Nebraska are the young guns and The Hiders are the road-tested troubadours. Rounding things out will be Joe Anderl, who will be joined by drummer Dan Stahl of Shrug. Anderl has just put up a pair of live tracks from a recent show, as well as a new studio track that will appear on his next album. Head over and dig in…

…so, figure out where you stand and chart your course appropriately. If you need an early stop, don’t forget that The Buddha Den will be playing the best of Dayton past, present, and future from 10-11 over at Pearl, followed by Fab Gear for the rest of the night….

…we’ve got something special to give back to you today. We’re doing our monthly outing tonight at Pearl, courtesy of the good people over at Fab Gear. To show you how much we want you to be part of this monthly event, we’re giving away FIVE FREE PASSES for tonight’s event! Head over to our Myspace, send us a message, and the first five responses will be special guests of The Buddha Den this evening as we spin the best from Dayton and beyond between 10 pm and 11 pm. Afterwards, stick around as the Fab Gear DJs will play the absolute BEST in garage, new wave, soul, funk, punk, and everything else you can imagine…

…hurry, these passes went pretty fast last month….

UPDATE: Sorry, all the passes are gone. Be sure to get yours for next month, which will be on Thursday, February 28…

…as one of the most promising bands we’ve seen in the last several months, The Northwest Ordinance has been laying low as of late. We’ll forgive them, as they’ve been hard at work behind the scenes putting the finishing touches on what we believe will be one of the best albums to come out of Dayton in 2008. Really, just take a look at that cover art…

…We got our mitts on their upcoming album, State of Ohio, a while back and we’re pretty enthralled with it. With a tasteful vintage punk/garage flavoring and a dash of Seattle and some herky-jerkiness for good measure, the dizzying twists and turns and tempo shifts will keep it on repeat for days….

…we’re giving notice now: The Northwest Ordinance will be releasing this album on Saturday, February 16 at The Oregon Express. It’s gonna be a great bill, which includes one of our new favorites, The Lions Rampant, who put on an amazing show last weekend. If you missed that one, don’t make the same mistake again…

…we like to keep tabs on those who’ve left Dayton and still continue to work elsewhere. Today we’ve got a clip from Cincinnati’s The Chauncers, featuring longtime Daytonian Billy Catfish, along with members of Heartless Bastards, Wussy, and Moth. The clip is shot in their rehearsal space and intimately documents the recording of the tune,” Runaway Blues”. We highly recommend you swing over to their site and check out the rest of their tunes. We can only hope for a visit soon….

…this Thursday night at The Nite Owl you’ve got a real treat in store: De Novo Dahl from Nashville will be making a stop in Dayton during a brief winter outing. With their incredibly upbeat,danceable brand of indie pop,we couldn’t recommend any higher that you do everything you can to make this show.

We were able to wrangle an interview with De Novo Dahl bassist, Keith Lowen. Read on…

The Buddha Den: What is the function of De Novo Dahl? What motivates you as a group to do what you do? What brought you all together in the first place? From where do you all pull influences?

Keith Lowen: I think you would get 5 totally different answers to that question depending on which one of us you asked. In my opinion, De Novo Dahl tries to be what our name describes. Roughly, “De Novo Dahl” means “the new Dahl.” Roald Dahl was an eccentric, creative, exciting, and FUN
writer. We try to encompass all of those adjectives in our music, hence
“the new Dahl.” Also, I think we want our shows and music to highly
incorporate crowd participation and try to eliminate the division
between band and audience as much as possible. We love shows where fans
get on stage and dance with us or when there’s no stage at all.

The band formed six or seven years ago when Joel and a guy named Mark
Bond, who now plays in a band called The Features, formed a new band
after their high school band broke up, long story short. De Novo Dahl
started as a six-piece and in late 2005, half the band quit. Joel, Joey,
and Serai wanted to keep it going and Joel and I were pretty close and
had worked on some other music projects together. That, plus I was
already a huge fan of the band, so it didn’t take much to convince me to
join. Matt just joined about 6 months ago. We went to high school
together and he was an excellent musician even back then, so he was an
easy choice when we had yet another keyboardist leave the band.

I think our influences are across the board. I definitely had a long
funk phase where all I listened to was Sly and The Family Stone, The
Meters, James Brown, and stuff like that so I probably incorporate some
of that into my playing. I also listen to a fair amount of brit-rock and
power pop which influences my playing and writing. Joel listens to a lot
of Kinks, Bowie, and Hip Hop. Joey listens to a lot of hip hop, but it’s
not rare to catch him listening to Peter Gabriel, Sting, and stuff like
that. Matt likes a lot of random, obscure Japanese rock and also lots of
glam stuff. Anyway, it’s all over the board, which probably has a lot to
do with the music we create.

TBD: How would you describe the current scene in Nashville?

KL: I think Nashville has the best music scene in the world. We had a
festival recently called Next Big Nashville in venues all over town
featuring almost exclusively Nashville-area bands and I would put the
quality of music up against South by Southwest or CMJ any day.
Obviously, Nashville is known as a country town, but there are so many
great rock bands here, pretty much all of whom are getting out on the
road a lot now, so I think the stigma of “Nashville band” will change
very soon.

TBD: What continues to bring you back to Dayton? Why the decision to do a small tour now?

KL: We probably have more fun in Dayton than any other city. The first time we played there after I joined the band, we played at The Pearl Club on a night where they were also doing a tattoo exhibition featuring nude women in body paint. De Novo Dahl plus drunk dudes plus naked girls
dancing equaled a pretty crazy, amazing show. Ever since, we’ve gotten
great reactions every time we’ve played in Dayton and there are a
handful of kids that come to our shows that always make us dinner and
show us a good time when we’re in town. And as I said before, we like
playing shows where the band and crowd seem to be equally involved in
creating the show, and Dayton seems to have the most interactive crowds
we’ve played for…or with.

TBD: What can we expect from De Novo Dahl in 2008?

KL: Our new record, Move Every Muscle Make Every Sound comes out March 25th. I am incredibly proud of the record and think people are going to love it. We’ll most likely be touring constantly once it comes out, so you
can expect a really good record and lots and lots of De Novo Dahl shows
in 2008.

TBD: Why did you abandon the stripes for the glam threads?

KL: We didn’t abandon the stripes. In fact we played a show in Nashville
wearing the stripes this week. It’s just that we just got the Nudie
Suits (look up Nudie Cohn on Wikipedia), we paid a lot of money for
them, and we love them so we wear them most of the time. You can
definitely expect for De Novo Dahl to keep coming up with crazy wardrobe
ideas. I absolutely can’t wait for our record release show, because we
have something different up our sleeves that is going to be incredible
if we pull it off.

De Novo Dahl will be at The Nite Owl this Thursday, January, 24, with We Are the Fury and Grizzzy Bear. If you need a little more to go by, view this intro to the band by their label, Roadrunner Records. Apparently, it’s causing quite a stir…