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Tonight: Newish Star & Space Wolves

March 7, 2015

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 new Feral Kid Records mix tape, which features Mallwalkers, Plates, Resist Control, White Whale, Utah Jazz, and more; There’s a mixtape exchange going on, if you’ve got any to spare; It’s all free, bay bee. What god smiled on us to make this show happen? Pick one to believe in, at least for today, because this will be grand. Below: good songs from both bands releasing tapes. Facebook event here.

Tonight: Poison Arrows

February 28, 2015

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 noise. Bill Nehill’s Poison Arrows fill out the “deathfolk” part of the equation. Hot Tip will provide the “postpunk,” and Scott Valkwitch and his walls of guitar-generated noise are probably the “experimental.” Then again, all three probably experiment with death, punk and post in lesser and greater amounts, so don’t sweat: your demons will be represented across the board. Show starts at 8pm. Facebook event here. Hot Tip jams below.

Tonight: Krelboyne & Shit Blimp

February 22, 2015

End your weekend right: let four bands, two from Ohio, pummel you with sludgy punk. Shit Blimp and Krelboyne are coming to the Glitterbox, joined by locals Dream Journal and Red Heat. If you’re wondering what a Shit Blimp could possibly sound like, check the very first bass notes on the band’s demo: that’s exactly what a Shit Blimp sounds like. It’s not all heart-stopping low end, though: mostly it’s aggressive, fast, punch-your-face punk. Krelboyne can play in the same vein, but they’ve got a little bit more indie-rock groove in the tank. That vibe and its deceptive catchiness makes lines about “scrambling for answers in the bottom of a bottle,” spending your time on earth “eternally as a fumbling fucking imbecile” come across less like self-pity and more like relatable, uncontrollable internal rumination, which in turn makes it a whole lot easier to bob your head along to. Doors[...]

Hot Tip Releases “DNA” Video, Produced by Flatsitter

February 5, 2015

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 brought a body suit and a color pallette straight out of a 90’s neon wet dream. Definitely fits the song’s frayed, frenetic vibe. Check it out below. “DNA” by Hot Tip (2015) from FLATSITTER on Vimeo.

Alpha Hopper Release “85315,” Tease Upcoming LP

January 26, 2015

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 beast, drawing power from a driving beat and singer Irene Rekhviashvilli’s forceful shouts. But it’s different, too: the jagged aesthetic has been augmented by vaguely Eastern melodies and rhythms and Rekhviashvilli’s vocals are a bit more out front, more chants than yells. The band sounds like they know what they’re good at and they’re experimenting with different ways to use it, which makes the prospect of their upcoming LP (set to be released this summer)  even more exciting. Check out “85315” below.

Facility Men Release Futility Men

January 15, 2015

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 songs and released them earlier this year, which caught the attention of Black Dots. The result: a remixed, remastered and expanded cassette of garage punky bangers. Facility Men can chug along with the best of them, but the most exciting moments of the cassette come when the guitars start rising and screaming and everything feels like it might crash wildly, like the cresting of the wave. It’ll keep you on your toes. Check out Black Dots’ Bandcamp, where you can buy the digital album or snag the cassette. Check out a sample below.

Tonight: CAGES

January 10, 2015

“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 could clumsily try to walk you through how that process is mirrored on CAGES’ Vivipary, but I’d rather just ask you to sit with the image: the embryo growing inside the body, morphing from a distended hunk of cells into a semi-translucent thing with eyes into a fetus as alien as it is human which is finally, agonizingly brought into into a cruel and arbitrary world, a crying hunk of flesh covered in the primal slime and detritus of birth (and that’s if the embryo is lucky!). To me, that’s not a bad analogy for CAGES’ music. It’s beautiful and powerful in the terrifying, inhuman way that nature is. It pertains[...]

Jacob Peter Releases Wind Song

January 6, 2015

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 write it up. Jacob plays guitar with Humble Braggers, but his solo EP is a different beast. Much folkier, for instance, and much moodier. There are some very catchy pop songs on here (like the opener, “Stella”) but it’s definitely at its most interesting in its broodier, more Jeff Buckley-esque moments  (for example, “The Line Between Us and Being”). Check out the rest of the EP here. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177561709″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Tonight: Rabbit Rabbit

December 29, 2014

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 poltergeist. Doesn’t mean you any harm, but probably doesn’t bear any good will, either: just spooking you for the sake of entertainment. Check out “Holyoke” below to see what I mean. The vocals range from whispers to haunting wails while the song bounces around of its own accord. Wanna see it all for yourself? Rabbit Rabbit’s playing tonight at Black Dots with Grout and Jamie & The Debt. Doors at 7, show at 8. Six bucks. Facebook event here.

Newish Star

December 18, 2014

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 the band launches into the song of the same name, but for the most part, they just kind of barrel through and rip. You come out of the set in kind of a daze, but a good one. And if you’re smart, you pick up their tape, Look Both Ways. And when you actually sit down with it, you realize how good all those songs you just got pummeled with actually are. They’re clever, they’re catchy, they’re simple but superbly written. There are hyper-complex songs out there in the Buffalo scene, there are very interesting songs, but there aren’t many that flow as well as tracks[...]

Wooden Waves – Wilder Dreams

December 8, 2014

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 assumption about progress. It implies that the band was one thing yesterday, is something else today and is working towards becoming some perfected version of itself in the future. This kind of assumption might give us a framework for making sense of things, but it’s not actually how reality works. Seeds grow, fruit ripens, but bands? People? They change, but there’s no perfect end point to work towards that is more valuable than the present. Accepting that realization is closer to maturation than the acquisition of any object or the accomplishment of any goal, and the struggle for that acceptance is at the heart of Wooden Waves’ Wilder Dreams (One Percent Press).[...]

Tonight: Zealot

November 29, 2014

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. It’s the real weekend now and your familial, occupational and gastronomical responsibilities are hopefully, momentarily behind you. So if you’re so inclined, check this show at Milkie’s. We’ve got The Beggar’s Best bringing some rock on the grunge spectrum that touches on Nirvana and Sonic Youth while still leaving room for poppier moments. And we’ve got Zealot, WNY’s fuzz-rock-shoegaze-college-indie-punk-grunge-noise-rock-lo-fi-princes-or-kings-or-paupers. You’ll be delighted. Kicks off at 9:30 pm. Facebook event here. (photo credit Nick Karp, by the by, check out his photography which is dope)

Harmonica Lewinski

November 21, 2014

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 thing, but it went something like this: Joe Strummer, let’s say, gathers the whole crew in their practice space. He says it’s time to get serious about who The Clash is and what they’re trying to do. He draws a line on the ground in chalk, or something. On one side of the line: the members who view themselves as entertainers. On the other: the members who view themselves as musicians. Tense moment, until Paul Simonon sticks his little English tongue out and plants one foot on either side of the line. Probably didn’t happen. And when faced with that kind of decision, most people[...]

Tonight: Bryan Johnson and Family Release Show

November 6, 2014

Bryan Johnson and Family‘s upcoming release, Cool Your Jets, is shaping up to be maybe the best thing they’ve ever done. The two singles they’ve released, “Dead Fox” and “Cerulean Eyes,” take the elements of bands like Weezer, Vampire Weekend, and The Shins and, in their best moments, inject them with the intimacy of a campfire singalong. The rest of the tracks could be yours tonight as the Studio at the Waiting Room hosts the band’s release show. Ten bucks not only gets you into the show, but gets you a shiny new copy of the album as well. Filling out the bill: local emo superstars Del Paxton and superstar local punkfunkers Mallwalkers. Show kicks off at 8pm. FB event here.

Tonight: Wildhoney

October 28, 2014

Tonight at Mohawk Place: a pretty interesting bill to make your Tuesday feel good. Baltimore’s Wildhoney will be coming through, supported by locals Hot Tip and Alpha Hopper. A good shoegaze band has a knack for bringing out the best in a song by softening the edges, and Wildhoney can definitely do that. There are elements to their newest EP, Seventeen Forever, that I bet are going to tear some people apart live. But at their best, what they’re doing just sounds gorgeous . Hot Tip and Alpha Hopper, as you may know, sound much more aggressive. Check this post and this post for proof. Definitely interested to see how it’ll all play out live, but feeling pretty thumbs up about it. Show starts at 8pm. $5 at the door, which is a steal. Facebook event here for more info.