Jeffrey Butzer & the Bicycle Eaters Lille Places March 18, 2011

Old televisions screening work from auteurs, dangling scissors, and an otherwise intricate set make up Jeffrey Bützer’s stage. Without even hearing his music, it becomes obvious that the musician is indebted to the cinema. After listening to only a few minutes of his music, however, the ties become even more apparent. For Bützer, the films he has in mind are set in the same locales as his music: French-inspired Eastern Europe. His first two LP releases, each comprised of short instrumentals, would—and are designed to—fill the soundtracks to such films. While his second release, The Garden of Scissors, accompanied a self-written script, it is his recent score for Raymond Carr’s Wild is the Wind which served as his first on-film release.

When played by the solo musician, Jeffrey Bützer’s music generally comes across as minimal, melodic French musette. With the Bicycle Eaters, however, he maintains a different M.O. Comprised of Bützer on piano, accordion, and glockenspiel, Chad Shivers on guitar, William J. Brigsby on bass, and Eric Balint on xylophone and percussion, the sound comes closer to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores, klezmer, and gyspsy than musette. The melodies and general style of the original songs are intact, but the band attempts to make things more direct, intricate, and engaging with bold strokes.

In addition to performing in Atlanta, his place of residence, Bützer has toured China, France, and the US.

Atlanta bands Lille and Places round out the evenings show. While Lille plays a combination of tropicala and minimal folk, Nico Giarrano’s Places maintains a kind of bedroom dream pop sound.

Official Website: http://www.badearl.com/