Frank & Dependent: This Year’s Winner of Battle of the Bands

Last Saturday some of Boston’s finest local bands threw down in the final round of our Battle of the Bands series and out emerged Frank & Dependent as this year’s victor. The band has been steadily on the rise on the BU scene over the past few months, so it’s about time all y’all got acquainted with the folk-rock ensemble.

Frank & Dependent, with its fluctuating slate of 8-ish members who play a wide array of instruments, deservedly took the competition when the crowd deemed them the official winner of the night. Enjoy the video below of them performing a particular favorite of mine, “Kelly Combs”.

Be sure to like the band’s Facebook page by clicking here or downloading some of their awesome free music off their Bandcamp page by clicking here

Have a great week, y’all!

-Josh

Oddity Fair Comes to Boston!

Hi everyone!

I would like to introduce you all to someone very important in my life. My absolute favorite musical artist and biggest musical influences is the bass player named Les Claypool (pictured below). He has a style of bass playing that is unique and his own. His musical talent is only surpassed by his oddity.

If you happen to recognize his name, it might be because he has worked with tons of artists over the years. It started in 1988, when Les formed the band Primus with drummer Jay Lane and guitarist Todd Huth. Since then the active members of the band have included others such as Tim Alexander, Brian Mantia, and Larry LaLonde.

Check out ‘Tommy the Cat’ which is perhaps my favorite song by Primus:

Tom Waits does the spoken parts; you may know him from ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ or the mad scientist from ‘Mystery Men’. And yes, that is Claypool’s actual grandpa in the video.

Claypool has gone on to work on many side projects and solo albums in the past 20 years. His band Oysterhead featured Phish front man Trey Anastasio and drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police; Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and the Allman Brothers Band appears on his album Purple Onion. He has worked with Buckethead, a guitarist who wears a KFC bucket on his head emblazoned with the word FUNERAL in block letters, and an expressionless plain white mask. Buckethead was said to have been raised by chickens, and he has made it his mission in life to raise awareness of the ongoing chicken holocaust in fast-food joints around the globe.

This is another great song: ‘Buzzards of Greenhill’ from his album Purple Onion by Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, featuring Warren Haynes on slide guitar and jazz artist Skerik on saxophone.

If this kind of stuff tickles your fancy, then be sure to go see Primus this Sunday (find tickets on Ticketmaster). Be quick, its only 2 days away! They will be at the Orpheum Theater as part of the Oddity Fair. Mucca Pazza will be their opening act, but I’ll leave it up to you to listen to them. I went to the Oddity Fair last year and was pleasantly surprised by the opening bands… you may be too!

TTFN,
Tim