by Ryan Wolf | Aug 14, 2014 | Album Review
On a loose, idiosyncratic, freewheeling debut, Adult Jazz display a broad, virtuosic interest in packing as many musical ideas into an album as possible. The UK act combine the bobbing melodic panache of the Dirty Projectors with the lunging Afro-beat tendencies of...
by Ryan Wolf | Jul 27, 2014 | Concert Review
Considering that Alternative Buffalo 107.7 is only nine months old, it’s a bit of a miracle that their inaugural one day festival was as much a success as it was. After gestating for three full trimesters, the fledgling radio station has given birth to something...
by Ryan Wolf | Jul 24, 2014 | Album Review
Entering through the indie pop door by way of Vivian Girls and Best Coast, Toronto’s Alvvays have arrived on the tinny, reverb-loving scene with their first LP. Like CHVRCHES, Alvvays recognize the Google-friendly potential of the letter “v” when...
by Ryan Wolf | Jul 18, 2014 | Preview
Jolie Holland’s take on Americana is hardened and harrowing, a bracing brand of homegrown darkness. Injecting elements of jazz, soul, and rock n’roll into her country-noir folk songs, the Houston singer-songwriter embodies the sum total of our American...
by Ryan Wolf | Jun 18, 2014 | Preview
Between the fact that the Arctic Monkeys remain one of the biggest acts in the world and that tickets to see them here at Artpark were ridiculously cheap, it’s no surprise tonight’s outdoor concert is sold out. For those lucky ticket holders (or those who...
by Ryan Wolf | Jun 12, 2014 | Album Review
Since Hospice emerged as a narrative record of tremendous emotional force in 2009, The Antlers have consistently defined themselves through their weightiness. There is no hip posturing, no casual cleverness, and very little pop sensibility to the music they spin forth...
by Ryan Wolf | Jun 10, 2014 | Concert Review
To begin with the obvious: last night could not have been a more beautiful evening for an outdoor concert. Though I apparently am Buffalo-illiterate, confusing Canalside with the Outer Harbor, a ride on the water taxi over to the event, shuttling me from one part of...
by Ryan Wolf | May 15, 2014 | Album Review
When The Pains of Being Pure at Heart debuted in 2009, the band endeared instantly. A song like “Young Adult Friction” felt wide-eyed and wistful, vividly realized and alive with youth. The tracks on Days of Abandon, the New York City act’s third...
by Ryan Wolf | May 8, 2014 | Album Review
Names can be deceiving. In spite of their moniker, The Horrors are about as terrifying-sounding as a hot bath or a warm shower (which post-Psycho still might be scary for some). The band also isn’t light and effervescent enough to be described as Luminous, the...
by Ryan Wolf | Apr 17, 2014 | Album Review
With Light and with Love, as its creators must have intended, is light and lovely. Yet for an album offering semi-straightforward psychedelia that seems tamer than Tame Impala, there is a fair amount of sonic playfulness. Joy jumps from each note. Woods, a folk rock...
by Ryan Wolf | Apr 3, 2014 | Album Review
Cloud Nothings’ face-crunching fourth album is a fearless, assertive follow-up to 2012’s Attack on Memory. Oscillating between a chaotic rush of existential howls and throaty but tuneful melodies, Here and Nowhere Else pounds its presence out through...
