The 30th edition of the radio show that spotlights West Michigan’s music got up close and personal with the Grateful Dead-like Bigfoot Buffalo from Grand Rapids, who made their in-studio, on-air debut. And the show debuted new tracks from several regional acts.
Engaging Musical Herd: Bigfoot Buffalo at WYCE on Friday.
The folky, jam-oriented Grand Rapids band Bigfoot Buffalo takes its cue from the legendary Grateful Dead.
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But frontman/guitarist Kyle Brown and his cohorts give this group — which swings from jamgrass to psychedelic rock — their own distinctive West Michigan spin.
“I had this idea to form a band where everybody had a lot of input but drew from similar backgrounds,” says Brown. “Live shows, you’re going to see a whole kind of spread of sounds. There’s gonna be tight, kind of folky-influenced bluegrass numbers, but then we’re going to go off into jam-oriented tangents.
“Sometimes we’ll take a song that we play for three minutes and it will be an eight-minute song ’cause we’ll get into it and open up what it can be. We like to explore on stage and have the audience see that and be a part of that, too.”
This super-group of sorts which also features violinist Michael Prokopchuk (The Waxies), mandolinist Evan Breithart, bassist Eric Engblade (The Northern Skies) and drummer Christian VanDuinen (Brad Fritcher + trois) plans to release its first full-length studio album in May, but gave WYCE audiences a sneak peek into the new material and the band’s striking three-part harmonies with in-studio renditions of songs such as “Calamity Joe.”
At 7 p.m. Sunday, Watching for Foxes, Bigfoot Buffalo and Devin & The Dead Frets play The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids. Tickets and details available online here.
Listen to the podcast here, with a video of their performance below.
Friday’s 30th edition of Local Spins on WYCE also featured the debut of new songs from jazz singer Kathy Lamar, rock’s Ed Englerth Band, “prohibition-Era” folk duo Moxieville, jam band Big Sherb and a live-in-studio number from soul/rock’s Vox Vidorra, who played a HopCat presents Local Spins Live at River City Studios event in February. (Watch that entire podcast and read an in-depth feature story about Vox Vidorra in this Local Spins Artist Spotlight.)
The show also featured music from Jim Shaneberger and Heaters, along with a blast-from-the-past track by West Michigan’s Dutch Henry.
VIDEO: BIGFOOT BUFFALO FOR LOCAL SPINS ON WYCE
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