by Tim Fenster | Jul 1, 2015 | Album Review
Sure, in writing it sounded like a good idea, or at the very least a ballsy and righteous one. Neil Young, one of rock’s most dedicated social and environmental activists, dedicating the space of an entire LP to taking down one of the most controversial corporations...
by Tim Fenster | Jun 30, 2015 | Preview
“Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah / some call me the gangster of love.” Chances are, even if you’ve never heard of the Steve Miller Band, you are at least familiar with the above lines, which are the iconic opening to the San Fran outfit’s most familiar...
by Tim Fenster | Jun 16, 2015 | Preview
Benjamin Booker is certainly far from the first to mix the power and passion of blues with the vigorous energy and attitude of rock ’n’roll. But few in modern music seem as committed to the rawness and simplicity of their respective influences – which, in this...
by Tim Fenster | Jun 8, 2015 | Album Review
Nearly four years after their hugely successful debut, My Head Is an Animal, the Icelandic indie-folk/indie-pop quintet Of Monsters and Men has at last returned with a proper follow-up in Beneath the Skin. The record is a rare, near-perfect follow-up that both retains...
by Tim Fenster | Jun 2, 2015 | Album Review
As humans we would never wish personal turmoil, i.e. a tough breakup, on anybody, most of us having gone through a lot of that shit ourselves. As music-fans, however, there’s nothing better than a breakup, divorce, death of a loved one or mental breakdown, as...
by Tim Fenster | May 19, 2015 | Album Review
Even while experi-metal rockers Faith No More helped inform so much heavy music of the 90s and early Aughts, they always seemed to be miles removed from it. In the early 90s they were too abrasive for the alt-rock crowd, too weird and unpredictable for grunge, and by...
by Tim Fenster | May 12, 2015 | Album Review
Snoop Dogg sure is having one hell of a late-career rediscovery. After more than two decades in his revered gangsta rap persona, the D-O-Double-G reinvented himself as a peace-loving, rastacap-wearing reggae crooner for 2013’s Reincarnated. After that he had a brief...
by Tim Fenster | May 5, 2015 | Album Review
Though the de facto leaders of the folk revival movement, Mumford & Sons have always been arena rock as much as anything. On songs like 2009’s “Little Lion Man” and “I Will Wait” off their GRAMMY-winning sophomore effort Babel, frontman Marcus Mumford brought a...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 29, 2015 | Album Review
The Wu-Tang Clan as a collective has unquestionably seen better days, but the group’s most talented member (if not Ghostface Killah) has enjoyed something of a Raekwonaissance as of lately. Buoyed by the 2009 release of the excellent, long-delayed sequel Only Built 4...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 25, 2015 | Preview
Legendary DJ Afrika Bambaataa is making his debut performance in the Queen City tonight at Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar. While the South Bronx DJ has scarcely a popular hit to his name, his fusions of hip-hop, funk and electro house made him one of the most...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 21, 2015 | Album Review
When they exploded on the scene in 2012, Alabama Shakes’ mix of bluesy garage rock, Southern rock and soul (channeled via vocalist Brittany Howard) led most critics to brand them a roots rock group. It was, for the most part, a fitting umbrella genre to peg the...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 17, 2015 | Record Store Day
Spiral Scratch Records is the kind of place that’s becoming increasingly hard to find in these times of big-box department stores and strip malls – a shop with character. The Bryant Street record shop is Buffalo’s only independent record store, and definitely...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 13, 2015 | Album Review
Say what you will about Tyler, The Creator – his puerile public persona; his real-life destructive stage antics; his stoic, perennially grumpy-sounding delivery – but the dude’s nothing if not eclectic. Much like the sophomore records of fellow Odd...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 11, 2015 | Preview
To the uninformed, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad is Rochester’s premier dub reggae crew. That may sound like a particularly narrow and unessential niche to reign over, but the decade-old quintet is, in fact, one of the most popular and skillful live acts to...
by Tim Fenster | Apr 7, 2015 | Preview
The past decade has certainly seen no shortage of underground artists melding electro-rock, psychedelic rock, alt-dance and synthpop – from MGMT to Ratatat to alt-J and beyond. But Big Data – a relatively new project helmed by Brooklyn DJ Alan Wilkis...
