by Dan Bauer | Mar 26, 2015 | buffaBLOG 5th Birthday Artist Spotlight
Difficult Night sits at the intersection of a handful of disparate influences. There’s the Malkmus vibe in the lyrics, the vocals and the music, but not quite so wacky. It’s a bit more conversational, if you you imagine you’re having a conversation...
by Admin | Mar 23, 2015 | List
Since the blog debuted on March 28th, 2010, with a truly horrible post about a Passion Pit show (sorry Bill), our ever revolving staff of writers and contributors have spun hundreds of albums and songs, and attended more shows in and out of Buffalo than I dare to...
by Dan Bauer | Mar 14, 2015 | Album of the Week
There’s a certain word that comes to mind when I think about the genre of pop-punk: “bratty.” In this context, it’s a compliment, or at least not an insult. Good pop-punk tends to come with a sneer and a stuck-out tongue, the objects of its...
by Dan Bauer | Mar 7, 2015 | Preview
Space Wolves and Newish Star are both putting out new cassettes; They’re playing a release show today at the Glitterbox with Alpha Hopper and Space is Haunted; There are, reportedly, free beverages, cookies, clothing, and balloons; You’ll also be able to pick up the...
by Dan Bauer | Feb 28, 2015 | Preview
Dreamland’s putting on a showcase tonight of what the Facebook event calls “experimentalpostpunkdeathfolk.” Sounds about right. Poison Arrows, Hot Tip, and Scott Valkwitch are all playing, and I’d say all three have a penchant for darkness and...
by Dan Bauer | Feb 5, 2015 | Buffalo
Hot Tip’s new video for “DNA,” produced by Flatsitter, is what your TV does when you’re sleeping. And what your TV does when you’re sleeping is give everyone who’s still awake seizures. It’s a dance party, and someone faceless...
by Dan Bauer | Jan 26, 2015 | Buffalo
Alpha Hopper’s new single “85315” (pronounce it “Eight Five Three Fifteen,” I think) draws on much of what made their last album, Let Heaven and Nature Sing, so great. Here, like there, the band locks in and stampedes like a single minded...
by Dan Bauer | Jan 15, 2015 | Buffalo
Technically, much of Facility Men’s new cassette, Futility Men, has been available for months. So forgive me if you’ve heard this one before: Facility Men trace their lineage back to Plates, who called it quits a few years ago. They recorded most of these...
by Dan Bauer | Jan 10, 2015 | Preview
“Vivipary” is the name of both CAGES’ new album and a biological condition. Vivipary, because I am sure you wondering, means “development of the embryo inside the body of the mother, eventually leading to live birth.” Thanks, Wikipedia. I...
by Dan Bauer | Jan 6, 2015 | Buffalo
Still catching up from the holiday lull, personally. Takes a lot out of you to get through another year and there’s some stuff that got lost in the mix. Jacob Peter’s Wind Song, for instance. He sent this over a while back and I’m just now getting to...
by Dan Bauer | Dec 29, 2014 | Preview
There are so many different kinds of ghosts. You’ve got your vengeful spirits, your floating sheets, your ancestral phantoms, your Caspers. So when I describe Rabbit Rabbit’s music as kind of spectral, I should clarify that I am thinking of a playful...
by Dan Bauer | Dec 18, 2014 | buffaBLOG Holiday Party Artist Spotlight
Every time I see Newish Star, I’m sort of entranced. This is mostly because of the way they careen through their set, packing 15 songs into half an hour with minimal bullshitting. You might get a “Double Super Jackpot” out of Jordan Nittoli before...
by Dan Bauer | Dec 8, 2014 | Album of the Week
It’s a cliché to say that a band’s latest release shows “signs of maturation.” On one hand, it usually doesn’t mean anything: you’re just saying they’re older than they were yesterday. On the other hand, it makes an incorrect...
by Dan Bauer | Nov 29, 2014 | Preview
For some people, Thanksgiving has made this whole week one big weekend. For others, especially folks working in retail, it’s been a few pieces of turkey and a mad dash back to work to sell people happiness. My point: we’re just coming out of that haze....
by Dan Bauer | Nov 21, 2014 | Rochester Showcase Artist Spotlight
I last saw Harmonica Lewinski at our fourth birthday party, and I was struck by just how good they were at what they do. There’s some apocryphal story about the Clash that’s relevant. I can’t find it for fact-checking, and maybe I dreamed the whole...