The Killer B’s
Since I seem to be on a bit of an acoustic binge lately, I figured I’d do a feature on two of the fresher acts in the local pit of pickers, strummers and claw hammerers.
While I hung out at the last show in town for Spring Breakup (who I featured in a post last week) I turned the camera on the two supporting acts: Bread and Roses and The Killer B’s.
Bread and Roses is the project of Ben Rigby, banjo player of popular local indie folksters Dead Language (a band I was planning to do a feature on but have since found out they are no more — I heard this offhandedly, is this a truth? I don’t know.) Bread and Roses gave an extremely restrained and delicate performance, and Ben Rigby revealed himself to be in the possession of an unusual Yukon prospector voice. I enjoyed the cello, banjo, stripped down drums combination they had.
Here’s a song they did about a bird:
The Killer B’s are a sorta loose-knit supergroup of notable local pickers and improvisors. Darren Browne, Daniel Banoub, David Bridger, and Mike Belbin make up the core of this group of shaggy jammers who want to emulate the feel “of a dance party band from the 40s.” They play a range of material, from ragtime to bluegrass and war era French hot-house jazz, and they proved to be a jumpin’ closer for the night.
Here they are doing the theme song that has been running through my head on loop for nearly 20 years:
And here they are joined by a guest violinist whose name I have completely forgotten (if any of you readers wanna let me know that would be great):
August 19th, 2009 at 11:06 am
awesome..nice choice with the super mario bro’s 2 song…by far the best of all the mario songs….i love Daniel’s style of guitar playing…reminds me of Marc Ribot….great stuff!
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November 1st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Katie Baggs of Dead Language responds to the rumour that they’ve disbanded:
“…Although I’ve moved across the country to teach on a teeny tiny little island, I will be home for Christmas and we will be releasing our new cd at that time. We have a show at Bianca’s Bar on the 20th of December, the same day I fly in from Vancouver. No guarantees about the quality of my playing and singing but the record will be there and I have heard it is very dark (it hasn’t made it to the west coast yet).”
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November 2nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Hey Pat, I just bumbled upon this, far out, thanks!
The fiddler is the “fifth B”, Emilia Bartellas.
D.Bzzzzzzz
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