On Friday, February 1, downtown Canton got another welcomed addition to the city's booming art's district, Frankenstein Records. With more than 35,000 records, a slew of independent books, local music, posters and artwork, Frankenstein Records promises to be Canton's newest one-stop vinyl shop. It gets better — this monster is owned by one of the Canton music scene's longest supporters, Chris Bentley, of The Most Beautiful Losers, and he's making damn sure the Canton music scene keeps growing. The Losers are gracefully gearing down the national touring life after years of being one of the...
Turn on 91.3 in Akron or 90.7 in Youngstown and you’ll hear what The Summit has to offer. Contemporary music, '80s music and local music — it all has a place on this station. There’s more than just music, though, and Tommy Bruno had something to do with that. Bruno has been general manager at The Summit for the past 12 years and counting. He had such a need to work for The Summit that he called up Bill Gruber, The Summit’s program director of 27 years, and asked: “What can I do for this station? I’ll volunteer. My family has a restaurant. I have food. I have a truck. Just tell me ...
Unless you live in a hole, you know the Grammys happened last night. Adele took home a Grammy trifecta (best album, song and record), the Black Keys lost to Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse, and everyone was in tears about Whitney Houston's untimely passing. Buzzbin wrangled up some locals (which is a lot like herding cats) to give us their take on last night's event. Michael Socrates, If These Trees Could Talk: "I'm just happy to see Adele take home every category she was nominated in. She's fantastic and totally deserving of all the accolades being thrown her way. I actually proposed to...
The Vortex Concert Club & Lounge on Brittain Road in Akron is the areas newest full-service concert venue, but it deserves to be one of the areas premiere concert destination spots. Owner Andrew Leger, an Iraq War veteran, set out to create a great concert experience for everybody and he's succeeded. His enthusiasm for the project is evident in its execution. As most newly opened concert clubs, the place is absolutely spotless. It doesn't smell of the grime and filth of thousands of dedicated concert goers, yet. The place still has some innocence left. It's refreshing. The Vorte...
FOREWARD: Well here it is; Buzzbin's Local Music Gift Guide. Now the pro of doing something like this is that you, our beloved reader, obtains a clear cut picture of what to get your music lover this year. The con is we're about ready to get hit with a shitstorm of emails from bands we've covered saying "Oh, so yo think my band sucks too bad to be in the list?!?!" The answer is: of course not. And my answer is "Hallo wrote it ... talk to him." Seriously though every month we cover as much local music as possible. Hell, even in this issue there are tons of great bands to listen to that are...
About a year ago, when Dead City Dealers guitarist Mario Sapanero heard his singer wanted to pursue other interests, he didn’t skip a beat. For one, the guitarist and his motley crew of misfits and rif-raff have an insatiable work ethic, and their attitude of playing anytime, anywhere for anyone wasn’t about to go out the window for something as trivial as a front man leaving. For another, there were show opportunities. Simply put, since the group’s inception in 2007 the Dead City Dealers’ ethos is being on the stage. “The first two years of the band we played an absolute a...
Radio personality Viking Jim has championed the Youngstown rock scene for years. He’s had to remain fairly quiet in the public eye about what he really thinks. Until now. Ed. note: This article first appeared in the winter 2010 Youngstown Pulse. By B.J. LISKO Youngstown Pulse Magazine Editor I don’t clearly remember the first time I met Viking Jim. It was probably at a Hellvis gig some years back at The Nyabinghi. I’m sure the conversation was blurry and me trying to recollect the details now would be even blurrier. What I do know, is that Vike is one of the good ones. He’s...
Square Records is hosting their 8th anniversary party at Musica to celebrate the shops opening in 2003 on Friday, August 5. The show is free, and three of Square Records’ favorite local bands will perform. What started as a very small, niche-heavy record store has grown over the past eight years to become a store where you can find records from your favorite rocks bands right along side that obscure record you heard about that one time. “We were just trying to open up something in Akron that wasn’t already available,” said shop owner Square Dave. “We focused more on having the ...
The word on Relaxer is strangely specific and strangely unanimous. Across the board, what you’ll hear people say is that they are one of the most impressive bands Akron has produced in recent years. And one of the laziest. Their lineup is a patchwork of some of the area’s most influential musicians of the past decade. Lead guitarist Jamie Stillman and drummer Cory Race are in Party of Helicopters. Keyboardist Steve Clements was in Houseguest. Rhythm guitarist/vocalist Joseph Scott is in Michigan’s White Pines along with Clements. Clements and Stillman were in the short-lived Drummer, ...
Local heavy metal grunge rockers Groove Pipe will be releasing their newest, long awaited cd. Come out for an awesome evening full of some of the best local music you could hope to hear! Be part of the festivities and help Groove Pipe celebrate all evening! MORE INFO HERE...
“This band's main focus is to continuously re-invent itself...” This is Margin of Error’s objective as stated on their Facebook page. If that’s the case then “What you are about to Witness” is a failed experiment. They tried inventing themselves as one of the many faceless and forgettable scream/drum/riff-until-your-ears-bleed hardcore metal bands that pollute local music scenes everywhere. Every so often the album peeks out from the murky depths of mediocrity and does something unique. Since the album has a serial killer theme, it has a few moments that feel suspenseful ...
“Cellar Door Records Volume III” Eight years ago, a small coffee shop in Madison, Ohio opened its doors, hoping to give local bands a place to play. Cellar Door Coffee had a 135-person capacity and two visionaries at the helm: college students and musicians Justin Markert and Rick Fike, who wanted to bring the electricity of local music to their small town. Since then, Cellar Door has attracted the likes of Oh My God, The Detachment Kit, Hero Pattern, The Heavenly States, Xela and The Pink Spiders. Their coffee shop had an organic vibe that could encompass whatever act caught their e...
By Rachael Ullinskey Youngstown, Ohio, isn’t simply the home of abandoned warehouses and old steel mills anymore. In fact, revitalization efforts for this town once dubbed as the “armpit of Ohio” have made significant progress, especially in the world of arts and music. A perfect example of this revitalization is Vex Fest, an August 15th concert in downtown Youngstown’s Federal Plaza West, featuring over forty bands on four different stages. Originally conceived as a hard rock festival, Vex Fest is now in its 7th year and has grown to feature local bands of all shap...
By Joe Ostrica As I try to recover from the overwhelming but spectacular turnout we had on Saturday, April 25, at our 3rd Annual Zombie Walk, I just want to say thank you to all who came and attended and helped our food drive. Big thanks to Bill Hinzman, our special guest and the iconic graveyard zombie from the 1968 George Romero classic “Night of the Living Dead.” Hinzman, who at 72 years old, was out there with the makeup melting and taking part in the walk in nearly 90 degree weather. Bill’s a great guy, loves to party with the fans and is now part of our wacky family. Thank...
