…although we’ve been exceptionally quiet around these parts, rest assured, we are still very much alive. This afternoon, the organizers of the Dayton Music Fest announced the official schedule for this year’s fest, to take place on Saturday, October 2. You’ll see some new names, some new clubs, but will certainly experience the best that the current Dayton crop has to offer. Take a look:

Blind Bob’s

12:30: The Story Changes
11:30: Kuan
10:30: Eat Sugar
9:30: Okay Lindon

Tumbleweed Connection

12: Human Reunion
11: Astro Fang
10: Jasper the Colossal
9: Yakuza Heart Attack

Oregon Express

12:30: Toads and Mice
11:30: Hospital Garden
10: 30: Nick Kizirnis Band
9:30: Sohio

Trolley Stop

12: The Turkish Delights
11: Good Sir Con Artist
10: Alone at 3 am
9: Bonneville

South Park Tavern

7 pm: Roley Yuma
6 pm: Sleep Fleet
5 pm: Luxury Pushers

Garden Station

3 pm: Jesse Remnant & the Trainwrecks
2 pm: Father’s Day
1 pm: Wake Up Mordecai

…if you are interested in becoming a volunteer for Dayton Music Fest 2010, please contact the staff at staff@daytonmusicfest.com…

…after nearly a decade spent in the basement recording for albums that were never to be, seasoned veterans Dark Backward finally emerged as a fully-formed band in 2008 and promptly set to flattening eardrums throughout the Gem City. Featuring Eric Purtle [Luxury Pushers/Mondolux], Max Nye [Dementia Precox], Jeff Brelsford [Sexicon/Mondolux], and Jim Ingram, this quartet issue their debut disc, Mute Memorials, this weekend at Oregon Express. While the disc contains much of the aggro fury you would expect from the band’s respective pedigree, buried deep within its gooey center lies a sonic departure that gives the disc an unexpected range. Drawing on at least three generations of British post-punk that gives the songs a pronounced tunefulness and subtle application of swirling backgrounds and applying just a hint of disco, Dark Backward delivers a depth that will certainly beg repeated spins. You can catch them tomorrow night, June 26, at the aforementioned Oregon Express along with My Latex Brain and The Jackalopes for an evening of ear-splitting rock n’ roll…

MP3: Dark Backward “Standard Device”

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MP3: Dark Backward “Binary Love”

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MP3: Dark Backward “New Luddites”

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…after 18 months at Oregon Express, tonight will be our final edition of The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO at that location. Tonight we will wrap up our February Residency with Brandon Hawk performing a solo acoustic set and also with his band, By Way of Sunstorm. Certainly, this will be the icing on the cake of our stint at the Oregon Express. We’d like to thank Joe Bavarro and the staff at OE for providing us with such an incredibly opportunity and an amazing room in which to host this event. Thank you to everyone that came out and supported the event and thanks to all the musicians that took time out of their week to come by and play. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience and we learned a lot about hosting shows and just exactly how much incredible talent there is in Dayton…

…as we move into March, we’ll be moving The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO across town to the cozy confines of South Park Tavern. Additionally, we will be changing the night of the week for the NTRO/XPO from Wednesday to Tuesday. The event will continue to be FREE, however, and will now also be ALL AGES. We will kick off our March Residency on Tuesday, March 9 with an amazing young band that we recently discovered, Roley Yuma.

…although the snow refuses to relent its grasp on Daytonia this week, we will forge ahead with The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO this evening, featuring our February Resident, Brandon Hawk. Along with Mr. Hawk this evening, we have the duo, Doom Patrol, featuring Brian Baker of Astro Fang and Mike Payne aka Cry Baby Genius, who also serves as drummer for Andrew & the Pretty Punchers. As always, we’ll be at Oregon Express this evening, music starts at 10 pm and is FREE. See you there….

….well kids, we’ve come to a new month for The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO, so it must be time for a new Resident. All throughout the month of February, we are very excited to present Brandon Hawk as our artist-in-residency. Hawk will bring his acoustic, noise, and spoken word talents to the stage at Oregon Express every week this month, so join us and see what the emerging talent does this month. Tonight Hawk will be joined by the debut of a new outfit in town, Feathered Serpent! [ex-The Fire Science/Dirty White Ponies]. Head on down tonight and join us for something new in Dayton. As always, we get started at 10 pm and admission is FREE. See you there…

…tonight we will be hosting David Payne for his final week of the January Residency at The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO. We’re sending him off with a bang as we’ve also invited our new/old friends, Sleep Fleet [formerly All Alliteration Aside] and their friends from Columbus, This Is My Suitcase. As always, we’ll be at Oregon Express. Music starts at 10 pm and is FREE. See you there…

MP3: David Payne “Awkward Silence”

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MP3: Sleep Fleet “Worms”

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MP3: This Is My Suitcase “Fish and Dishes”

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…well, here we are just over two weeks into a new decade and things are moving and changing faster than ever. It’s certainly nice for us to have something we can still bank on: The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO. Yep, we’re still at Oregon Express every Wednesday bringing Dayton free music to check out. All through the month of January we’ve got the acoustic stylings of David Payne. This youngster has been increasingly impressive so far this month and we’d recommend you come and check him out over the next couple of weeks before he moves on out of the residency. Tonight Payne will be joined by fellow Xenia outfit, Bernoulli. Music starts at 10 pm and is FREE. We’ll see you there….

MP3: David Payne “A Face in the Crowd”

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…well, Happy New Year everyone! Yes, we know we’ve been stagnant here on The Buddha Den for a while now. We’re very sorry we haven’t been writing as much lately, but, well….it just happened that way. Rest assured, we are still very much here and still very much keeping tabs on the Dayton music scene…

…as is our wont, we’re still hosting music with our FREE weekly event, The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO, at Oregon Express. Tonight we will be kicking off our January Residency with a fine young songwriter, David Payne. Payne recently self-released his debut album, 21, a dynamic acoustic outing that could provide a perfect soundtrack for a Midwestern winter. With a powerfully emotive vocal delivery, Payne channels the angst and anticipation of youth into an impressive debut…

…David Payne will appear at The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO every Wednesday throughout January with a different guest each week. Tonight Payne will be joined by the acoustic duo, Starving in the Belly of the Whale. Music starts at 10 pm and, as always, this is a FREE event. See you there….

MP3: David Payne “Out There”

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…tonight is our final week of the November residency with The Northwest Ordinance, as we’re taking next week off for the Thanksgiving holiday. The band have been featuring material off their upcoming sophomore release, Valley of Ashes, all month at their shows. We’ve also been offering a pair of EXCLUSIVE free downloads here on this site for sampling. Grab these last two now, as they’ll be gone soon. Along with NWO tonight, we’ve also got our first presentation of the new local outfit, Rattletrap. We’re very excited for this, so we hope you’ll join us this evening at Oregon Express. 10 PM. Free. Why not?

MP3:The Northwest Ordinance “Medicine Man”

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MP3:The Northwest Ordinance “Watchin’ the Clock”

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…throughout the month of Novmeber, we’ll be sharing some great new tracks from one of our favorite d8n bands, The Northwest Ordinance. Their sophomore album, Valley of Ashes, drops in December, but we’ve got exclusive tracks for you NOW. Grab these little gems, let them soak in, then meet us all at Oregon Express tonight for the second week of The Buddha Den NTRO/XPO November Residency with The Northwest Ordinance tonight. We’ve also got very special guests, The Revelators. Music starts at 10 pm and, as always, is presented completely FREE! See you there….

MP3: The Northwest Ordinance “Empty Home”

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MP3: The Northwest Ordinance “Waitin’ for a Sign”

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