On Saturday, influential music Yahoo group the NYC Freaks held their sixth annual Freaks Ball at New York’s Coda. As in year’s past the Freaks Ball, which helped launch Robert Randolph to fame at the turn of new millennium, featured a number of the scene’s biggest buzz bands performing in a variety of unique configurations. Reprising their occasional Duo Buggin project, The Benevento/Russo Duo and the Frog Brigade axis of Skerik and Mike Dillon performed a mostly improvised selection of material as Coxygen, also finding time to reference Duo material from 2005’s Best Reason to Buy the Sun.
Earlier, RANA’s Scott Metzger offered a new edition of his rotating Metzgerville ensemble featuring Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz, Fat Mama vibes player Kevin Kendrick and RANA/Sam Champion drummer Ryan Thornton. In December, the NYC Freaks also held a battle of the bands at New York’s now defunct Tribeca for the evenings opening slot. A number of groups featuring NYC Freaks participated, with New Jersey’s Secret Government taking top honors. As a friendly gesture, however, Secret Government invited out a number of its competitors throughout its opening set. First, Circus Mind’s Mark Rechler and Buzz Universes’ Freddy Moises emerged for ‘Truck Song,’ before being joined by Buzz Universe’s Greg McLoughlin on ‘Blue Ridge Mountain Sky.’ Next, Stir Fired’s Jan London appeared on both ‘Airplane Gypsy’ and ‘Bloom,’ while Rechler returned for ‘Eastbound Shakedown.’ Rechler and the HI Fi Fugitives’s Adam Sabella then helped Secret Government closed out its performance with a handful of selections including a show closing ‘Buffalo.’
After taking a road break to work on its next album , The Duo will perform next at Langerado’s ‘Soundcheck’ on March 10. The Duo has also readied the release of its first live album, Raw Horse, due in stores March 2. Currently, the live collection, which was recorded at Boulder’s Fox Theatre on May 11th, is scheduled to be released exclusively in Japan and will feature several unrecorded numbers including ‘Best Reason to Buy the Sun.’ The NYC Freaks, meanwhile, will return to the web for another week of loaded musical discussion.