Pittsburgh’s Grand Buffet open and ready to serve

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.