Cigarette Beach

Grand Buffet.

Looks aren’t what bring…

Cigarette Beach

Grand Buffet.

Looks aren’t what bring people to listen to Nate and Matt Kukla, also known as Grape-A-Don and Lord Grunge, or by their given names Jackson O’Connell-Barlow and Jarrod Weeks. Instead, people listen to these two white rappers from Pittsburgh because they are creative with the beats that they use – looping a lot of different sounds and beats over each other – and because they can rap.

Their newest release, Cigarette Beach, is long for an EP in terms of tracks – there are ten – but in terms of minutes, it falls right where most normal five- or six-song EP’s do – around the 25-minute mark.

One track, titled “The Old Folk Smashers,” a quick song about smashing old folks with one punch because they have weak bladders and fragile bones, is only 41 seconds long, and has a fun beat.

Another track, “Nate and Matt,” is strong, with solid beats, though it’s pretty basic – they say their names a couple times over. Yet it still works. They mention Batman a couple of times in a few of the songs, and, at the end of the album, they mention how much they like Batman – because he is that cool.

Cigarette Beach is a lo-fi album – it sounds like it was recorded in their parents’ basement on a four-track recorder, and that is nothing new for Grand Buffet. Their sound has always been lo-fi, and they like it that way. It’s what makes them a unique act, besides the fact that they are two white guys from Pittsburgh.

Grand Buffet is no stranger to the University of Pittsburgh campus – they usually play once or twice a year here – and, every year, they play a show put on by the University’s student-run radio station, WPTS.

Two white guys from this Steel Town can indeed rap.