Nice Nice

Based in Portland, Oregon, Nice Nice is a two-piece band consisting of a drummer and guitar player. The pair makes highly damaged instrumental music that may at first seem to be simple, unassuming party funk that has been stretched and manhandled beyond the parameters of accepted forms. Jason Buehler (guitar) and Mark Shirazi (drums) employ a bank of pedals to disfigure the music, pouring funk, metal, jazz and free-noise into the blender and coming up with something that defies categorization but is both improvised and ordered. Nice Nice is an extremely unique band, as evidenced by the fact that their appeal reaches across genres, attracting techie-nerds, mainstream alt rock crowds, improv-junkies and jaded hipsters in equal amounts. The most interesting thing about this band is that, like their ideological brethren Lightning Bolt, Nice Nice's music is recorded sans overdubs, and their live shows can make listeners wonder how the hell two people can make so many things happen at once.