Looking for your new favorite band? Ben Schechter should be able to help you. Have you checked out What The Sound yet? Schecter’s basically doing what I do week in and week out here with these columns…(i.e., interviewing bands,) only at a much more industrious and ambitious rate that spans the entire world for new music artists, reaching out and conducting interviews with up-and-comers as a means of providing them an outlet to spread their sounds and reach new fans. One recent interview featured Australia’s Royal Headache.
Schecter is a senior at UM, finishing up general studies this December with a focus on Entrepreneurship. While he’s established himself as a champion for DIY musicians here in Ann Arbor, he actually hails from Seattle. “I get a kick out of finding unknown artists who I think have great potential,” Schecter said.
“I started What The Sound in order to give up-and-coming musicians a press opportunity through the form of interviews,” said Schecter. “I really like engaging with the artist and asking them what they’re all about, what they’re hopes are for the future, or what they have done and what they’re planning on doing in the future.”
THURSDAY
Schecter’s first showcase is this Thursday night. Here’s the lineup.
Mesa Villa is a kaleidoscopic pop project out of MSU that blends jazz, soul and hip-hop with indie-rock and some punk. Every other outfit on his line up are students at UM, with Jacob Sigman’s melodic-pop, Cooper Anstett’s neo-Americana, Aaron Dombrey’s inventive one-man folk/jazz explorations, 2faced’s blend of hip-hop, electronica and rock. What The Sound is Schecter’s outlet for sharing a bit more insight into the artists who make the music he loves.
“All bands except Mesa Villa are students at UM. while MV is from MSU,” Schecter said. “I enjoy each artist’s sound and for a few of them it’s their first Blind Pig show. I hope to continue putting on What The Sound Presents shows for the rest of my time in Ann Arbor and am planning to present more with WTS’ past interviewees in other cities like Toronto, Chicago, and NYC soon.”
Thursday Night at the Blind Pig
What The Sound hosts its first showcase featuring: Jacob Sigman / Cooper Anstett / Mesa Villa / Aaron Dombrey / 2faced
MORE INFO
8 PM (ages 18+)
$7 (or $10 for under 21)
www.whatthesound.com
SATURDAY
The trippy improvisations and transcendent jazz-ified incantations of Alex Koi come to charm the Blind Pig this weekend. Koi hails from Pittsburgh but is currently based out of Ann Arbor, where she finished up studies in the Jazz Program at UM.
Koi (who recently left the band Caves to focus on her solo compositions), creates music that feels primal and futuristic at the same time; hauntingly beautiful, visceral, enchanting… she’s using her voice as an instrument in powerful and provocative ways, intricately overlaying ambient synths and sequenced beats to build toward some fantastic, nightmarish opera of sorts.
Koi’s got pure talent, but she’s using it to explore more avant-gardist realms; defying, all-at-once, any preconceptions of jazz standards, electro-pop and ambient experimental slow-jams. Koi can also be heard as part of another unique improv project called saajtak, with Simon Alexander Adams, Jonathan Taylor, and Ben Willis.
This Saturday, Koi is joined by a pair of comparably experimental outfits like local quintet Rooms and the sax-bolstered THC Quartet.
Saturday Night at the Blind Pig
Alex Koi ft. THC Quartet / Rooms
MORE INFO
Doors @ 9:30pm
$7/ under 21 $10
Jeff covers music for Current, posting weekly show previews and highlighting new bands in the area.
