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Do you ever get tired of rock music? Not necessarily forever or even a while, but at least for one night.
Of course, many don't like the genre to begin with, but the guys in Wrong Direction certainly did. About 3 years ago, that Reno rock band featured brothers Weston and Jackson Buck and Jimmy Marshall, and things were going well enough.
But a couple weeks before starting a tour, Jackson came to Weston with a confession. He was through with playing rock music.
"This whole thing started because we were tired of playing concerts where we sounded just like the band before and the band after," Weston said.
The "whole thing" he's referring to is Weston Buck, a dance-pop-electronica group that, although it bears only one of their names, actually is made up of both brothers, and sometimes even Jimmy Marshall on guitar.
And it was born because Jackson's heart just wasn't into drumming in a rock band anymore. He had been toying with a software program called Fruity Loops to compose and produce electronic music. After seeing what Jackson had been able to do in a short time, Weston got on board.
Influences ... or not
"We just wanted to play something completely new that people hadn't heard before," Weston said.
When they play live, Weston sings and plays keyboards, while Jackson is mostly kept busy managing a circus of technology. He does some live drumming, but it is a full job just to keep all his beats, melodies and effects he composes queued up and playing as designed. The pair records everything in the home on a laptop. It's a low-maintenance but high-tech setup.
And while the finished product sounds similar to Hellogoodbye, they stumbled into the genre independently.
"We didn't even listen to that kind of music," Weston said. "I just really listen to rock music."
If anything, Weston compares their sound to that of Russian electronica duo t.A.T.u., "except we're not fake lesbians or Russian. Or girls, either." Aside from that, though, there are a lot of similarities.
But the pop music of Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson actually has been a bigger influence than modern rock-electronica groups.
"I love Michael Jackson," Weston said. "He has some of the best melodies in pop music ... in his earlier years, of course."
Basically, they want to make dance music.
"But I'm not a good dancer," Weston said, "so I'm not trying to compare myself to Michael Jackson's moves."
Instead, he makes the audience do the dancing, with competitions and even prizes.
"We want our shows to be where everyone gets to have fun and forget all their problems and go crazy," Weston said.
Brainchild concert
And although they may be tired of playing rock, they haven't grown weary of hearing it. This Saturday, Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m., Weston Buck co-headlines at the Underground with two other Reno acts on their way up. Wayward earned a spot on a Warped Tour stage this past summer and has an EP for sale. Days No Different has been busy touring after releasing their album this summer at a summer concert with, of all people, Wayward.
Weston Buck has been selling out shows at the Underground, so the owners said something to the effect of "Hey, put together your own show with who you think are the best bands in the business."
That's the whole point," said Weston. "We're all from Reno, and we mean business. We want to show everybody what we can do."
Originally, Weston was in talks with We Are the Arsenal to headline the show, but they had to drop out, though now the local bands will get more stage time.
"Having We Are the Arsenal drop out was actually like it was supposed to happen," Weston said. "There's good music here, and [the bands] don't have to be attached to an outsider for people to come to our show."
Try to bring one of the fliers scattered throughout town, as it will get you $1 merch from any of the bands. And hey, if TV can be trusted, that $1 will buy you a value menu burger at any number of fast food restaurants. Unfortunately, Metromix really only catalogues the good places.
