I had met Ted at the now extinct Club Diablo after his set with Left Hand of Darkness, where he showed me his remarkable drum set, and encouraged me to make use of the extra snare drum which he had placed vertically on an arm attached to his cymbal leg, with a kick pedal used to strike it. This was the same man that I had seen earlier in the night sitting in his car in the middle of the dark Diablo parking lot playing rudiments on the steering wheel.

After that, I had been wandering music stores by myself trying to strike the best deal on a bass drum pedal worth nearly half the price of my full drum set, and there was Ted. He was by himself as well, taking drum stick after drum stick and testing to make sure that none were warped. He went on for nearly five minutes rolling sticks and doing different exercises on the counter of the Guitar Center drum section, likely to the dismay of the associates working there, to find the perfect sticks. Watching him from the other side of the room, there was an air of mysticism. Ted showed the zeal of a child on Christmas, yet the enthusiasm had been honed and placed into man who had mastered, loved, and cared for his trade.

The final time I had spent with Ted was at a show we played together a few months ago. Ted approached me and endlessly (with the utmost delight and passion), showed me some of the most absurd rudiments, sticking techniques, and all around drumming “concepts” I had ever seen or heard. He showed me complete inverses of rudiments, playing rudiments with accents mirrored, and sticking patterns that, explained verbally, make no sense at all until actually played, with an unabashed level of excitement. All of this, he told me, he does at home when he’s bored and watching television. He said that if he were to sit and waste his time watching “garbage” on television he may as well be working on something.

We exchanged texts and sent one another Youtube videos. He would send me brilliant videos of a 70 year old Han Bennink playing a drum solo beginning on his shoes and ending in tremendous fashion on his drum set, while I would send him videos of Hella and Lightning Bolt.

The few times I had spent around Ted are comical to look back on. Comical because I was interacting with a man thirty-seven years older than myself who showed such adoration and love for what he did that it seemed hard for him to contain himself. One would be hard-pressed to find anyone, of any age group, who shared the passion and love for drumming that Ted showed.

Perhaps it is a thing of generational differences, but for us to encounter another man like Ted Reinhardt and share the pleasure in experiencing his sheer excitement for drumming, seems to be a distant hope. Young and old, drummers, guitarists, musicians, and people alike, we will all miss Ted.

The post R.I.P. Ted Reinhardt first appeared on buffaBLOG.

This past Friday saw the release of A Hotel Nourishing’s long-awaited Empty Gesture EP, a six-song scorcher that, like their 2007 debut Deux Ex Machina, features that familiar original blend of “almost” math rock and post-punk artistry that made them so buzzworthy in the first place. The duo’s calculated anti-rhythms have a pulsating, gyrating soul, and when paired with Baker’s mildly abstract musings, paint a truly mesmerizing sonic portrait.

Empty Gesture opens with “Day of Charlie (Ode),” a brooding swirl of tribal drum work and swelling guitar that fuses a jazzy vastness with an exactitude that satisfies. The opposite ends of that spectrum both find their way into this instrumental for a decidedly hard-hitting blast of math rock mayhem. The following track, another instrumental titled “Dick Laurent is Dead” (Lynch, anyone?), begins with a more optimistic approach, pairing a bouncy melodic guitar riff with the groundwork laid out by Roger’s crisp and intricate drumbeat. The latter half of the song explodes with a dizzying crescendo that features Chris Svoboda on saxophone.

Other notable moments on Empty include the revisited, remastered, and revamped craziness that is “Plastic Circumstances”—a song originally recorded for the band’s debut seven years ago, the groove worthy dreamscapes of “Too Bad You Missed the Apocalypse,” and the sheer velocity of start-stop rager “Gracewood Groves.”

As a whole, Empty Gesture EP, which was engineered and produced by Steak & Cake Records’ Brandon Schlia, is fully worth the seven years we’ve waited for it. Between the fresh new material and the familiar stuff played live that has finally been recorded and compiled, the EP is also worth the five dollars that A Hotel Nourishing so graciously requests on their Bandcamp page. Have at it.

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buffaBLOG: So what exactly is DIY fest?

Cam Rogers: To me, the DIY Fest is a gathering of people to celebrate the DIY spirit and culture in Buffalo. It involves people that make things, whether that is art, crafts, metals, paints, music, or noise, and celebrates creation.

bB: What inspired you to organize the festival?

CR: I guess what inspired me to organize the festival was the desire to bring people together. It’s tough to bring all the factions of people in Buffalo together at one time so this event focused on making that happen.

bB: What makes the concept of DIY so important?

CR: There are many reasons I consider the DIY community and spirit so important on a larger scale, but I think one of the most important aspects is on the individual level. It sounds fairly ridiculous, but people don’t seem to have the thought that they can create something of their own. This could be food, art, jewelry, music, anything really. I hope to help in igniting something in people – help them realize their potential simply as a human being in a community that everyone contributes to. The larger organism starts with the individual and that’s what is most important, the individual.

bB: This is the second annual DIY fest. How has the festival evolved since last year?

CR: This year, we remarkably acquired some funding, so that’s certainly different. The event is free this year, and we’ll be running two stages so we can get more musicians in. This year actually saw more than three weeks for us to put the event together as well. Last year was a mad dash to get everything done; this year has gone much more smoothly.

bB: Is there anything specific you are looking forward to this year?

CR: This year I’m definitely looking forward to eating FallyMac. It’s not often that I get to grab their food. As well as that, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Allison Mitchelle play some tunes. She’s got a pretty awesome thing going. It seems like All of Them Witches has two new songs that we’ll be debuting at the event as well, so I’m looking forward to that because it’s a good sign into the direction we’re heading.

For a full list of this year’s musicians, artists, and vendors, check out the Facebook event here.

The post Today: Buffalo DIY Fest II first appeared on buffaBLOG.