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See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of events to watch out for the week, including our editor's pick: Good Neighbors Helping Haiti, a benefit being held on Friday, January 22 at the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out our new and improved events calendar on-line for complete event listings, a location guide to find your way about the city, restaurant reviews, and more.

Good Neighbors Helping Haiti

Friday, January 22

Last week, an earthquake ripped through the small island nation of Haiti, its magnitude unlike any that area had seen in roughly 200 years. Aftershocks are still coming even eight days after the quake—the most powerful yet struck yesterday—sending people and more rubble from ruined buildings into the streets. Needless to say, Haiti is in dire need of help. This is why the altruistic people at the Good Neighborhood have opted to collaborate with Asakivle Buffalo Friends of Haiti, El Buen Amigo, DTR45, and various musicians to present Good Neighbors Helping Haiti this Friday (January 22) at Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. Proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross Haiti Relief & Development fund. Offered is a multimedia glimpse into the beautiful Haitian culture, a silent auction, a 50/50 split, and a stand of crafts and apparel from El Buen Amigo, with proceeds going straight to the Red Cross effort in Haiti. Lazlo Hollyfeld and DJ Cutler will perform together, along with Buffalo Music Hall of Famer Emile Latimer and Gruvology. These artists will present an ad-libbed performance that will bring forth the notion of “Asakivle.” This saying, when roughly translated from Haitian Creole, means “Let whoever will participate.” In a time like this, the people in Haiti need all the participation they can acquire

—jeremy lee

Pictured: Haitian art by Dyoumbè, at Asakivle Fine Arts Gallery. Visit www.asakivle.org

9:30pm / Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, 76 Pearl St. / 856-2337 / pearlstreetgrill.com / $5

Thursday, January 21

Prefuse 73

Giullermo Scott Herren, international music producer and artist, has been based out of various cities from Atlanta to New York to Barcelona, releasing music under various aliases, most notably Prefuse 73 but also Savath y Savalas, Diamond Watch Wrists, Delarosa & Asora, and Piano Overlord. His DJ career began in the Atlanta club scene of the 1990s where Herren learned his trade, but he moved to New York City in order to ply it, releasing his first recording, Sleep Method Suite (1997), under the name Delarosa & Asora. The moniker Prefuse 73 came about with the release of 2001’s commercially and critically successful Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives. Now with his fourth LD as Prefuse 73, entitled Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian, Herren has made a weighty name for himself not just as a DJ but in hip hop and avant rock circles as well. Ballads, noise-jams, and techno beats make unlikely bedfellows on his latest album, but it serves as good launching ground for Herren’s latest incarnation, Diamond Watch Wrists, which explores new sounds within the realm of classic singer-songwriter fodder, 1960s European acid-folk, and krautrock. Herren will be performing tonight (Jan. 21) at Soundlab with two acts out of Los Angeles: DJ Gaslamp Killer and femalo duo Voices Voices.

—k. o’day

9pm / Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab

Friday, January 22

A Relative Term CD Release Show

A Relative Term is the moniker for all things musical for Mark Longolucco. In a time where anyone can strap on an acoustic guitar and call themselves a songwriter, Mark’s music has always proven to be a reminder of the pure quality that can be achieved if you have the chops and really mean it. Boasting a jaw-dropping live show, he has set the standard for captivating an audience, and this Friday’s (Jan. 22) event will be no exception. After a hard year’s work, it will finally be time to celebrate the brand-new full -length album entitled Happiness. This stunning record of dreamy space-folk brings to mind what Conor Oberst might sound like if he were to cut loose and experiment with eerie soundscapes a la Phil Elvrum (of the Microphones), while adding some eastern folk influences reminiscent of Beirut. Mark’s already brilliant folk ragas are complemented by strings, e-bowed guitars, accordion, bells, and omnichords that cascade together almost effortlessly. This backdrop combined with Mark’s achingly sincere vocals succeed in creating one of the most well-rounded records I’ve heard in a long time. (locally and otherwise!). To make the deal even sweeter, I’ll add that the veritable cream of the crop of Buffalo indie music will be there in support of this momentous occasion: Red Tag Rummage Sale, Vox Humana, A Hotel Nourishing, and the Bear Exchange. Not to mention a slew of special guests throughout the night helping to fill the air.

eric kendall

8pm / Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. / 855-3931 / myspace.com/mohawkplace / $5

Monday, January 25

Buffalo Shuffle featuring Count Rabbit

The Buffalo Shuffle is: (A) An advanced juggling maneuver (B) An R&B style pioneered by Stan & the Ravens in the 1960s (C) A weekly Monday night showcase featuring some of Buffalo’s hottest musicians (D) All of the above. If you answered (D), you are correct! Although the weekly showcase got off to a rough start a few weeks back when the first show had to be cancelled due to a flare up of our fair city’s trademark winter weather, it’s been building up steam ever since. Hosted by jaw-dropping local guitar slingers Doug Yeomans and Mick Hayes, Pete Holquin on the trap kit, ace-bassman Steve Sadoff, keyboard king Jim Ehinger, and Al Monti, the sultan of the sax—this week’s installment features a guest appearance by local blues music royalty in the personage of Robert Robinson, better known as Count Rabbit. Rabbit—an Alabama native whose family followed the steel industry from Birmingham, to Pittsburgh, to Buffalo—became a fixture of the local blues scene as far back as 1950, heating up joints with names like the Moonglow, the Lucky Clover, the Little Harlem, and the Club 440. There is no more authentic practitioner of the genre alive anywhere today, and this show promises to be a celebration of our own local contribution to it.

—buck quigley

Pictured above: Caitlin Koch with the House Band on January 4, singing Etta James

8pm / Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. / 852-2860 / tralfmusichall.com / $5

Saturday, January 27

Mountains With Tape, All of Them Witches

Having just released their second album, Etching (Thrill Jockey), Brooklynites Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, the duo known as Mountains, come to Soundlab on Wednesday (Jan. 27). Their music unfolds gradually and organically, exposing the stark, inherent quality of the acoustic instrument. Ambient, but not in the way we think of ambient nowadays as being “background music.” No, their music requires an active listener to catch the intricacy and subtlety in what might only be a single guitar chord, elongated and distorted over time. The layering of acoustic and electronic is all part of their atmosphere, their mood—the entity that is being created as you listen. For them, the acoustic and electronic, the natural and artificial, blend seamlessly together. This is how our world operates, after all. Mountains is certainly experimental, but their music hardly seems like an experiment. It seems like it was meant to be that way all along. Their East Coast tour kicks off here in Buffalo, with support from Swedish trio Tape. Local band All of Them Witches opens the show.

—jon wheelock

9pm / Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab