News

February 14, 2014

Buke and Gase debut video(s), play gigs in Asia, Tenn & NY

Happy Valentine's Day! There's good reason to open with that cheerily romantic greeting: We hear some people really love them some Buke and Gase. Take this news brief as a kind of rose bouquet to you, the B&G loving audience.

But...psyche! Anyone expecting lovely smells or great new sounds will be sorely disappointed. The main sense that will be stimulated by this post is your eyes as we introduce two new viewing experiences, starting with this video for "Metazoa"—or perhaps we should call it a "video"?



The band requested the only text accompanying the premiere of said video be what follows:


Arone's dream of Jan15 with Unadulterated Tour Footage.

Mirror back wall - stocked bar - cinema real - vivid visceral - goosebumps on moist bare skin - chopstick tip gently pressing and pulling - close up intensity - sexual but innocently - un-intending indentation - how do i draw a grimacing australian man out from behind the bar dragging a chopstick up and down his torso - painfully slow - sweating with dust or flour caking onto his skin - the woman in a cowboy hat playing violin - some sort of Bach Suite #7-3 while filming his actions with a mini camcorder? and the audience of men and women watching this as a live documentary in the velvety red back room theater - homo-hetero-friendly it was and they streamed in - i took out the garbage and glass leaving it on the cobblestones and they said it was the best performance they'd seen since hollywood.


A-ha! It all makes sense now!
Hmmm, well, no, we didn't think so either.

So, here's a kind of explanation: Since we released Buke and Gase's most excellent second LP General Dome this past January, we've been bugging the duo to make more "content" to showcase that aforementioned excellence. Kids love blog premieres, yo! (Or at least we suspect lots of new parents are weaning their digitally-inclined children on indie rock.) Anyway, since they were about to announce a half-dozen new tour dates, we bugged 'em one more time about how "Metazoa" is really catchy & ought to have a video component. (For the impatient amongst you, the catchy part of "Metazoa" comes after the noise jam part; though for the weird among you the noise jam in "Metazoa" may well be the catchy part.) Anyway the band agreed with us (something they do not frequently do), and a week or so later, they delivered that green, sheepy wonder embedded up above. (Actually the sheep are pink but you know what we mean.) In a way, we've interpreted the piece as a protest video of sorts about the demands of creating "content" in our present moment. Thankfully it's a protest whose zen-like stasis is oddly compelling & as unique as the band. (And thankfully they've yet to protest our tendency to litter our news posts with parenthetical statements.)

The end.

Ok, not the end. You still want smells & sounds you say? Well, if you happen to live in Asia, Tennessee or New York, the Buke and Gase experience will be touching down (relatively) near you in the near future, an experience we can almost guarantee will include some aural excitation & the smell of human sweat. And nothing says Valentine's Day like human sweat.

Clickity click here for details but if you just need to know the wheres & whens, here are the dates:

- Feb 16: Tokyo, Japan - Hostess Club & Weekender
- Feb 20: Manila, Philippines - Hostess Club @ Febfest 2014
- Feb 22: Singapore – Hostess Club
- March 26: New York, NY, USA - Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center (Ecstatic Music Festival)
- March 28-30: Knoxville, TN, USA - Big Ears Festival (schedule TBD)
- April 5: Kingston, NY, USA - BSP Kingston

That brings us to the second video experience we promised, a teaser for the February trip to Asia:

And Buke and Gase said they weren't into making videos! Hrumph.

Anyway, we'll leave you with some notable facts about the upcoming shows. The February dates mark the band's first shows on the Asia continent and are part of a festival put together by our distributor in tehe region, Hostess. The festival also happens to feature our buds in The National. This will mark the fourth continent Buke and Gase have taken their music to during the General Dome release cycle, adding Australia & Asia to the already well-trodden Europe & North America territories. South America & Africa, we are open to your show inquiries.

Second thing! The March dates in both New York City and Knoxville will include the debut of a new collaboration with So Percussion, a hint of which you can hear in this recording from an early rehearsal.


And just to complete our circuit of the human senses, let's chat a brief, confusing second about taste. Last night someone passed along this brief video of yet another collaborative project called the Lickestra which (girl) Arone has contributed to apart from her daring duo with (boy) Aron.



Frankly, it's so trippy, we're not even going to try to understand or explain this one. In the true Buke and Gase spirit, you can do it yourself.

PS - Is anyone ever going to call us on the fact that we refer to these as news "briefs?"


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