"I was frustrated by Miami. It's a DJ town. They'd rather pay a guy to sit behind his iMac than have a musician. It's frustrating," says Diablo Dimes, a man who yearns for the days when the blues made an impact because, he says, "nowadays, nobody gives a shit." Any man who lives as a myth is hard to pin down. Dimes is no different. He's asked that his real name not be disclosed in this article, and it won't be. He wants to remain mysterious, but where exactly does a man like Diablo Dimes come from? The crushed bones of jazz legends of the past, reanimated by some voodoo doctor? Perhaps. Dim...
Buzzbin recently got in touch with the harmonica playing sexy country star, Stacie Collins. We discussed what it was like to be on the road, her history with Cleveland and her love of music. Below is the transcript of our conversation. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get started? What inspired you? Well, I married a musician. I was a music lover and through my association with my husband Al, who plays bass, I had the opportunity to be immersed in the rock and roll world. He was in bands previously, he was always touring. But eventually we discovered that we h...
Hailing from Philadelphia, Good Old War has strived to create rapturous indie folk tunes for the last three years. Comprised of Keith Goodwin, Daniel Schwartz and Tim Arnold, Good Old War splits its time between recording folk-rock songs that would make Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel blush and serving as Circa Survive frontman Anthony Green’s backing band, both in the studio and on the road. Goodwin and Arnold originally made waves with the progressive rock band Days Away before calling it quits and forming Good Old War. The band obtained their unique name from taking portions of each music...
November 5 - Youngstown - Cedar's Lounge On November 5, pop-rockers Dolson will be sliding through Cedar's Lounge with After Z, calleBand and Woodson. Tickets are just a five dollar bill. As a teenager, singer/songwriter Andy Dolson was breaking the strings on his family’s Wurlitzer spinet piano writing pop songs reminiscent of a modern Jackson Brown. These songs ended up landing the young musician some pretty high profile solo gigs and some local radio-play. The culmination of the latter, along with a growing fan base attracted the attention of some of Northeast Ohio’s most respected mu...
Billboard Music is currently running a poll to try and figure out who the scariest musician of all time is. Their choices range from the obvious (Marilyn Manson, Gwar) to the absurd (who could be scared of Thom Yorke?). The thing is, we don't see any Mushroomhead on their list. In fact, Ohio music is sadly under-represented. To make up for their silliness, we're hosting our own poll over on Facebook to see who you think is the scariest thing to come out of Ohio. The real question is: what makes a band scary? If it's their makeup, Mushroomhead would have to reign supreme. On the other hand, D...
Country music singer Suzy Bogguss seems nearly unstoppable. After countless Grammy and Country Music Awards, the chart topping musician has embarked on a new chapter in her career – that of a folk singer. With the release of her latest album, American Folk Songbook, Bogguss is on a mission to turn the tables yet again. Buzzbin Magazine caught up with her just days before her visit to The Kent Stage on August 25. What inspired you to become a musician? Don't know really. We had an accordion, a piano and a guitar when I was small and I loved to tink around on them. There was only one st...
Electronic British dance rap. What’s that, you say? That’s “Watch Me Dance” by Toddla-T. Toddla-T is a DJ/producer from England, and “Watch Me Dance” is his second studio album. His first album was called “Skanky Skanky.” This album is definitely not something that has hit the mainstream here in America yet, but across the pond people are dancing to Toddla-T and the likes of like it is nobody’s business. It’s not hard to hear why people love it: the lyrics are good, every song brings something new to the table and you can’t keep from moving when the album is p...
After Akron's famed Houseguest had taken an open-ended hiatus, musician David Rich was looking for some new blood to play some tunes. Enter Dave Giffels, who Rich had known since the days of Main Street's now defunct Lime Spider. Giffels' band Difficult had also stopping playing together so the time was fitting. The two dudes started writing music last summer with the likes of Friday Mike and Pat McNulty, who both played in The Same Things that sadly had also called it quits. And May Company was born. Buzzbin Magazine caught up with Rich to discuss the recent workings of this exciting new ...
L.A. indie rockers Mind the Gap got their name from London's Underground, but their lineup is global: one Korean, one Sri Lankan, one Mexican and one Jew from Cleveland. They started out as a duo, then decided to let their two musician producers join them onstage — and the rest is mellow, bouncy indie history. 8/18 Grog Shop • Cleveland ...
Colin John, an Ohio-born, Memphis-grown musician, made his name playing lead guitar at B.B. King’s Beale Street club, backing the likes of Hank Ballard and Pinetop Perkins. The Colin John Band takes blues, funk, soul and rock and twists them all into a self-proclaimed genre of “x-treme blues.” ...
Though he captured a few hearts with his band The District after two albums (along with endless nationwide tours), Ron Pope engineered a solo career after an extended hiatus of the band. Within a year, he gained a loyal following, made countless singles and received several offers from major record labels, eventually landing at Universal Republic. Now free from his contractual agreements, Pope steps out with “Whatever It Takes,” released last month courtesy of his own label, Hard Six Records. Tracks such as “If You Were A Stone” and “Our Song” seem primed for local Top 20 radio ...
Cleveland thrash metal veterans Destructor and Auburn Records are offering one lucky fan the opportunity of a lifetime. One winner will be chosen to play bass live on stage with Destructor for their entire set on May 6 at Peabody's supporting Germany’s thrash metal legends Destruction. Heathen and Warbeast are also on the bill. The performance will be filmed and recorded. Destructor bass player Jamie Boulder has a previous out-of-town commitment with his band Midnight on the same night and will not be able to perform. To enter, send a video or YouTube link of yourself playing ba...
Guitar phenom Neil Zaza can play just about any genre you can name, and blends classical with rock in his virtuosic neoclassical stylings. The Northeast Ohio native is coming to the Kent Stage to kick off his “212” tour on April 15. Buzzbin caught up with him to talk about musical muses, being in the studio with Ripper Owens and why he’s huge in Asia. How did you first get into music? I have always loved music. It’s been a big part of my life. I know that anyone else, any musician might say that, but for me, I’ve always been drawn to the guitar. I thought it was coolest instrum...
Country sensation Thompson Square is composed of husband-and-wife team Keifer and Shawna Thompson, but don’t expect a boring married couple. Shawna and Keifer like to describe Thompson Square as the ideal spot where country meets rock and rough meets smooth. Born and raised in Miami, Okla., Keifer always had a knack for incorporating music into his lifestyle. “I’ve always had music in my blood. I used to dance around the house in my diaper imitating Elvis as long ago as I can remember,” he said. At age 14 it really hit him hard. “I won my first contest at the Grand Lake Opry an...
South Carolina native David Reed began his rock and roll sensation with the band Closer, however, he later set out on his own debuting with the self-released Missteps and Miscommunications. For his sophomoric effort as The Private Life of David Reed, he teamed up with producer/writer Tomas Costanza to create a new sound that would represent him as a solo artist. Reed spent the next few months banging out the self-titled follow up, which he wrote, recorded, and remixed all on his own and signed to Chamberlain Records shortly thereafter. Reed briefly spoke to Buzzbin about, among other thing...
By Julia Kazar On Saturday, Thirteenth Floor, Massillon's first independent art gallery, celebrated its grand opening to rave reviews. Everyone who came out enjoyed themselves and had wonderful things to say about the new gallery. The gallery features art from several up and coming local artists, some as young as 19 years old. The art is an eclectic collection that doesn’t really seem to have any rhyme or reason to it, but that’s okay, because it all works well together. From simple sketches to elaborate paintings of people and cartoon characters, all the art on display is incr...
On July 17, Billy Ludwig, artist, musician and entrepreneur, will open Massillon's first art gallery, an event celebrated with live music, lumberjack/chainsaw carving demonstrations and cold draft beer at 28 Charles Street. The street will be closed off and the music will be outside, drawing in crowds to come see the many different forms of art from some of Northeast Ohio's most talented artists. These include Shock Studios, Bili Kribbs, Scot Philips, Steve Ehret and Megan Mars to name a few. "I'm an artist myself," Ludwig says. "And working with other artists, we've been pretty agg...
By Julia Kazar Musician David Gerrard has been making music for over thirty year now, an acoustic guitar player Gerrard combines his musical influences with his own personal take on folk music and ends up with a classic folk sound updated for the twenty-first century. Gerrard’s shows usually consist mostly of covers of others music, but he is constantly working on music of his own and implementing it into the show when he thinks it will fit in. But make no mistake about it David Gerrard is by no means just a cover artist, he is as dedicated to his own music as he is to recreating songs d...
by E.M. Serensky Too lazy to get off your ass and go to a show? House concerts are the growing trend in many areas, more specifically the Midwest. With the economy giving people a hard time, independent musicians are finding it increasingly harder to get good, paying gigs. Along with that, fans are having an increasingly harder time making sense of purchasing an $80 ticket to see a musician that appears to be 2 inches tall. What’s the solution to this growing problem? Bring the musician home with you! How does one host a house concert? The answer is very simple: Go to your favorit...
By Julia Kazar Jeffree Star, the gender bending singing sensation is coming to Peabody’s in Cleveland on his 2 DRUNK 2 FUCK tour this Wednesday. Star is somewhat of a Jack of all trades in the entertainment industry, or maybe that’s Jane of all trades, in addition to his hugely successful singing career he is a well known androgynous model, fashion designer, celebrity make-up artist, DJ, and one of the best known internet celebrities around today. The 2 DRUNK 2 FUCK tour is Star’s first world tour ever and supports his most recent album; Beauty Killer which was released in S...
