Reno, Nevada, is known for a lot of things — bright lights, desert-scapes, nickel slots — but a hotbed of indie music it is not. Until now. According to some, the Biggest Little City in the World is experiencing a musical renaissance of sorts. And at the helm of the movement is none other than Buster Blue. The two-year-old quintet is a quirky amalgamation of multitiered instrumentation, bold four-part harmonies, and a live show that borders on the theatrical. When the band cruised through town last month, they brought with them an arsenal of head-turning gear, including accordion, sax, and a whole lot of heavy chains and buckets. Still, these five are greater than the sum of their parts, and the proof is in the recordings. On their debut full-length, When the Silver’s Gone, the band dishes up dirge-like anthems, dusty folk stompers, and raucous gypsy-punk-meets-country-rock-outs that truly place them in a category all their own. The band rolls back through town this Saturday for a return engagement at Muddy Waters. Below, guitarist/trombonist Andrew Martin talks haunted recording sessions, crazy travels, and the changing face of the Reno music scene.
How did you guys all meet? We actually all grew up in the same town a little south of Reno called Gardnerville. We all went to the same high school at one point. Bryan [Jones] and Jay [Escamillo] were playing in coffee shops, stealing their neighbors’ pots and pans and using them as drum sets because they couldn’t afford one, then Bryan wanted to play bigger shows and was writing music that needed more instruments on it. He knew us from school, so I joined the band and started contributing, then Rachel [McElhiney] joined the band, and we had a couple of different bass players before Brendon [Lund], who we found when we all moved to Reno for school.
What’s the music scene like in Reno? In the last couple years, it’s actually been blossoming. There was a lull for a while with the same group of people doing the same type of music over and over again. There have been some pretty good venues opening up, which actually allows bands to stay in town and grow. Four years ago, or even two years ago, it was like, “Okay, here’s the band; now we need to get the hell out of Reno so we can do something with it.”