Born A Number In Print

Just saw that Born A Number was mentioned in the Urban Tulsa weekly magazine for the NewVo showcase coming up this Saturday night (April 19th). It should be a pretty interesting night of music, very diverse. We’ve got Kawnar kicking off the show, Branjae (r&b) after that, Here Is There (Jeff Buckley singing into a tin can & my favorite singer in town) and then us closing the show.

The festivities kick off at about 8pm so get there early and you could miss something. I’ll be broadcasting live via webcam all night and will be taping for a new MalanDTV Episode that is long overdue. Read the full article below.

Click here to see the crazy photo collage they did of all of the bands.

At 9pm, the evening begins with two acts that couldn’t be further removed from each other. Blank Slate kicks it off with local R&B sensation Branjae, while the Diner opens its concert hall to the wacky theatrics of man-child indie geeks Wighead. Branjae, a Tulsa music veteran, was the female lead vocalist for the hip-hop supergroup Full Flava Kings before recently branching out into solo work. She’s currently booked to the gills through the end of June, with an average of two or three shows a week scheduled in Tulsa alone.

“I believe Tulsa is starting to step up to the plate as far as recognizing its talent and supporting it,” she said, in a recent interview. “I think my music will have an effect on ulsans because I have something to talk about, and people are ready to listen.”

Branjae’s music is a polished, energetic riff on top-forty R&B, but what sets her apart from other like-minded artists is an excess of soulfulness and sincerity that’s well-balanced against the slick commercial appeal of her studio recordings. As for her NewVo performance, Branjae says to expect a show. “I love entertainers,” she said. “Artists that make you never take your eyes off them… I really want people to be blown away.”

Staying with the Blank Slate, Branjae will be followed up by young hip-hop prodigy Kawnar, who will take the stage to perform tracks from his recently released album Unclear. Kawnar’s quickly developing a reputation for himself around town as a benign kind of enfant terrible, and the headstrong commitment to his craft will likely translate live to impressive results.
Following Kawnar, the Slate roster switches gears for prog-rock outfit Here is There. This young band somehow manages to channel The Mars Volta and Kings of Leon simultaneously, and their studio recordings are impressive displays of technical virtuosity that hint at much greater things to come. Live, they can be a bit rough around the edges, but there’s a palpable excitement to the songwriting that offsets any technical nitpicking. The Booker T. Washington high school students are young and still on their way up, and based on the quality of their output thus far, the sky’s the limit.

Finally, to cap the night off, Born a Number will close down Blank Slate with their eclectic brand of electro-reggae. The project is the latest from Malan Darras, who, alongside percussionist Justin Siggins and laptop wiz-kid Cody Bailey, continues to entertain his propensity for genre-dabbling and self re-invention. The show is sure to be loud and colorful.

That’s it. Check out the full article at Urban Tulsa.com and hope to see you there.