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Tonight: Shonen Knife

June 1, 2015

Legendary Osaka, Japan garage rockers, Shonen Knife, return to the Queen City to kick off their North American tour at a special benefit show tonight at Waiting Room for beloved community enterprise Music Is Art. Local punkers and post-punkers Healer, Lost Elysium, and Orations will open the show with Tokyo’s DJ Sashimi spinning records throughout the evening. With the Music Is Art Festival only a few months away on September 12th, this is a mightily good cause to get behind, in addition to a terrific bill featuring a band with a long history playing our city. Tickets are $15 at the doors and show will kick off at 7pm.

Tonight: Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra

May 30, 2015

A special convocation of musicians featuring members of One World Tribe, Rockaz, and 12/8 Path, plus DJ Milk will be assembling at Nietzsche’s tonight as the Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra to celebrate Afrobeat music and that genre’s totemic hero, Fela Kuti. The Nigerian bandleader, philosopher, and political rabble rouser has become legendary not only for contribution to world music, but for off stage activities that bordered on revolutionary, and his inspiration will no doubt propel Buffalo’s Afrobeat community to new heights of excellence tonight. DJ Milk will also be spinning choice cuts into the night, so if you’re looking to get down to Fela, Femi Kuti, Africa 70, Manu Dibango, and Antibalas, Nietzsche’s is the place to be. Tickets are $10 and the show starts at 10 PM.

Neon Indian – “Annie”

May 26, 2015

Summer is definitely starting to jump, with show announcements and new music, and Neon Indian (aka Alan Palomo) is doing his part with his first new material since 2011’s excellent Era Extrana in the funky and reggae flavored “Annie.” It’s been far too long since we’ve been treated to the expressly psychedelic sounds of Alan Palomo, and even longer since we’ve seen him live in these parts (5 years since Soundlab), and even though there’s no word yet on a new album, this delightful morsel just might be enough to hold you over until beach season.

Tonight: !!! (Chk Chk Chk)

May 22, 2015

The beautiful old bricks that bless the Ninth Ward at Babeville with sublime acoustics will be vibrating with all sorts of sexy funky future sounds when !!!, blog favorites KOPPS, and Groove Cereal take it over tonight. Sacramento, California’s dance-punk outfit, !!! (or, Chk Chk Chk, a reference to the 80’s classic The Gods Must Be Crazy), is in town promoting 2013’s Thr!!!er, with a follow up in the wings, while this show will also be KOPPS second show in Buffalo this week, having played Waiting Room Monday night opening for Priory at one of the Alt Buffalo’s $1.07 shows. Even though their set was plagued with sound problems, the unstoppable Rochester darlings overcame the static and utterly owned the audience, and the show. I’ve never been to a show at the Ninth Ward that didn’t sound absolutely wonderful, so tonight ought to be a genuine treat. Plus, dancing. Buffalo trip-hop[...]

Tonight: ZSD

May 14, 2015

Among the many things I’ve been digging about this “New Buffalo” has been the synergy generated when organizations and interests come together in an effort to bring people together and do good work. Case in point: tonight’s latest installment of the ongoing collaboration of The Public Presents and The Good Neighborhood at Nietzsche’s featuring the debut of ZSD, the latest project from the always magnificent Zuri Appleby, working with Deshawn “D Ray” Jackson and Sike. $5 or the donation of a gently used musical instrument to Music Is Art and later a deserving Buffalo Public School music student, gets you in the door at 8pm to see what Zuri’s been up to, plus Radarada and the Vitamin D Duo while hanging out with folks from insurgent weekly newspaper The Public and community organization The Good Neighborhood. You just might catch a glimpse of what our “New Buffalo” looks and sounds[...]

Tonight: EPQ Presents A Tribute to Herbie Hancock

May 7, 2015

Buffalo jazz/funk collective Ellen Pieroni Quartet is presenting a killer four band tribute to American music legend Herbie Hancock at Nietzsche’s later on tonight. Jazz, funk, fusion, r&b, and classical… Hancock has done them all during his 50+ year career, and his CV is sure to provide fertile ground for the EPQ, along with Intrepid Travelers, Adam Bronstein Trio, and Jon Lehning Sextet to showcase Buffalo’s jazz scene. The show starts at 9pm and the cover is $5.

Tonight: The Soft White Sixties

April 22, 2015

Buffalo Iron Works will be representing for the people tonight when the Cobblestone venue hosts San Francisco’s The Soft White Sixties along local favorites Handsome Jack. Earnestly rocking what’s been dubbed “working class soul,” this maximum R&B quartet are touring behind its just released debut album, Get Right, and for a city nostalgically holding onto it’s once proud working class ethos, this could be a pretty good show. Opening the evening’s entertainments at 9pm will be Buffalo by way of Lockport powerhouse, Handsome Jack, fresh off a Record Store Day 2015 set at Record Theatre last Saturday. Tickets are available at the door for $12.

Tonight: Monophonics

April 16, 2015

Buffalo Iron Works will be grooving hard this evening to the gorgeously psychedelic, R&B stylings of San Francisco soul outfit Monophonics along with Albany’s hard rocking Wild Adriatic. In town in support of its recently released sophomore album, Sound Of Sinning, the mighty five-piece from the Bay Area is known for an intense and towering sound, reminiscent of The Isley Brothers, Edwin Starr, The Guess Who, and Shuggie Otis, that grandly fuses classic soul with the psychedelic rock of the 60’s and early 70’s to intense effect. Meanwhile, Albany power trio Wild Adriatic channels the bar band stadium rock sound of 80’s stalwarts The News and Bryan Adams with unabashed enthusiasm and a minimum of irony. There’s going to be a wild and heady dance party at Iron Works tonight, and $15 gets you in. Show starts at 9pm.

buffaBLOG Record Store Day 2015 Preview (WNY Edition)

April 15, 2015

What began as an effort to save independent record stores has evolved into an almost full-fledged international holiday for music lovers, and 2015’s year’s Record Store Day this Saturday promises to be the biggest yet at our local record shops. Seldom does commerce and art and bonafide happening intersect so beautifully as on Record Store Day, and in shops all over Western New York music fans will converge in search of deals, new and esoteric special releases, and the bonhomie one finds when lovers of vinyl come together to celebrate something they hold special. Is it too much to call Record Store Day an almost religious observance? Certainly, but with the shared reverence, goodwill, joyful expectation, hand shaking and good tidings, it’s not far off. To help you get your good feels on this Saturday, here’s our annual guide to Record Store Day in WNY 2015. Of course many of[...]

Tonight: Smart House

April 11, 2015

Tonight Buffalo’s hottest free weekly newspaper, The Public, and The Good Neighborhood will be presenting a show at Nietzsche’s featuring two of Buffalo’s most ambitious and exciting bands: Smart House and Strange Acres, in addition to Brooklyn’s The Vine Brothers. Working backwards, the eclectic lineup actually traces a fascinating history of popular music, from the gritty yet delicate Americana infused folk rock of The Vine Brothers to the aching, David Lynch inspired retro chill-rock of Strange Acres to the less is more future pop of Smart House (including blog alumni Brian Gorman). $5 or the donation of a used musical instrument gets you in.

Tonight: Start Making Sense

March 31, 2015

Buffalo Iron Works will be the place tonight when Talking Heads tribute band Start Making Sense “burn down the house” with the music and spirit of that elusive and seminal new wave powerhouse. Endorsed by Bernie Worrell, the godlike genius and legendary keyboardist for Parliament/Funkadelic as well as the Talking Heads in the early 80’s, Start Making Sense gets Talking Heads right without the karaoke, while frontman Jon Braun tastefully handles the difficult chore of channeling David Byrne with a less is more approach that works. Get ready to dance with your neck, elbows, and knees… but please be careful with the sudden hand gestures as you might poke somebody’s eye out of spill his or her beer. Getting things going will be Hall & Oates tribute band HMFO. $12 is day of ticket price and doors are at 8pm.

The Wrecking Crew One Night Only at the North Park Theatre

March 30, 2015

Next Wednesday, the North Park Theatre will be hosting for one night only the documentary The Wrecking Crew, chronicling the legendary Hollywood studio musicians that played on hits by Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Nancy Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Glenn Campbell, and countless others. Their contributions to music history and global pop culture are profound, but their efforts have been largely unsung, until now thanks to this film, which lit it up on the festival circuit before arriving in Buffalo next week. The Wrecking Crew were musicians’ musicians, the ones studios called first when they needed hit music for artists recording throughout Los Angeles or for a TV show or film, and they included conductor/arranger Jack Nitzsche, Hal Blaine,  Carol Kaye, Dr. John, Leon Russell, and Niagara Falls native Tommy Tedesco, whose guitar can be heard in Bonanza, M.A.S.H., Batman, Green Acres, the[...]

M.A.G.S.

March 25, 2015

That Made Violent homecoming show the other week at Waiting Room was great for a variety of reasons, but one of my favorites was watching the crowd meet M.A.G.S., who played second at the show. It’s always enjoyable watching a crowd get introduced to an new act, but that Friday night something more happened: that audience watched M.A.G.S. with rapt attention, all eyes seemingly fixed on the three guys onstage, main man Elliott Douglas in particular. Cloaked in dreads and coiled purposefully behind his guitar and mic stand, he unleashed a mesmerizing set of bold post punk and new wave grooves that got the growing audience on his side in no time, and by the time the trio finished up, Made Violent might’ve been the hometown heroes on the verge of breaking out, but M.A.G.S. was the starlet serving notice that it were next. Which brings us to Saturday’s 5th[...]

Lesionread – Lesionread’s Greatest Hits! Vol. 1

March 23, 2015

Just a little shy of two years ago, Lesionread exploded onto the scene opening for Wild Nothing at the Tralf with an experience high on avant-garde mischief and mayhem, and Buffalo frankly hasn’t been the same since. The performing moniker of ever ambitious artist Shawn (Sean?) Lewis (Louis?), Lesionread has been an adventure ever since: staging fun yet challenging happenings, constantly refining his sprawling sound, doing his best to live his “art all day” mantra, and in 2015, he’s compiled two year’s worth of work onto a CD/tape cheekily titled Lesionread Greatest Hits Volume 1, and it’s our Album Of The Week. Still, as cheeky a name as Greatest Hits is for a debut album, it’s not entirely undeserved. From the start, it was clear that he wasn’t thinking about his art strictly in terms of songs, instead focusing on the experiences he’s orchestrating, and Lesionread has always been fine[...]

Tonight: Scajaquada Creeps

March 21, 2015

Tonight Nietzsche’s is going to be hella crazy all night long thanks to the Scajaquada Creeps and friends’ PJ Party (“all of the fun of a sleep over without the sleep”). The Creeps have rounded up a murderers row (without the murderers) of freaks for you to party and get naughty with into the wee hours, including Queen City Music Lottery spawn BEASTCOAST, local hip gurus Little Cake & Jack Toft, Soul Butchers, and DJ/Master of Ceremonies Pat Kewley. Remember this is a pj party, so it’d be downright crass to not show up in your finest pajamas, so you’ve been warned. This 21+ show features a $5 cover and kicks off more or less at 10 PM and goes until ?