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Still Diggin’: Narrowing Your World

April 17, 2014

Record shops only really made any sense to me because of my experience with another increasingly-obsolete medium: television. Spending a summer alone, abjectly depressed and too hot to move a few years ago, I finally came around on TV. Streaming stuff over the internet had for a month or so been my only friend, and now even that seemed like an overwhelming task. With a multitude of potential entertainment out there, the act of choice seemed impossible. The freedom nauseated me a little, in fact. I craved control. So, faced with passing the rest of the night in total silence, I hooked up the tiny television in the closet and stole my housemate’s cable. Instantly, I had pleasantly narrowed my world. Fifty channels and half of them too fuzzy to come in: it was a blessing. Sacrificing the freedom of having the world at my fingertips meant freeing myself from[...]

Grabbed from Facebook: Pleasure Leftists. Their faces look like that all the time.

Tonight: Pleasure Leftists

April 9, 2014

If you caught last Friday’s Cloud Nothings show, then you also had the pleasure of catching opener Pleasure Leftists. If you didn’t, don’t sweat: they’re coming back. After a few dates supporting Cloud Nothings, they’ll be swinging back through Buffalo to grace the stage/basement of the Glitterbox. Pleasure Leftists, to my ears, sound a whole lot like Joy Division, even more live than on the record. But it’s hard not to sound unique with a vocalist like Halley Morris. Her voice is an enormous, powerful thing and she herself is a presence: up on stage opening up for Cloud Nothings, she sometimes seemed like she was 20 feet tall. I’m excited to catch the band up close and personal. The rest of the bill, all Buffalo locals, is just as exciting. You’ve got Aaron & the Burrs delivering some excellent instrumental surf-rock. You’ve got Hot Tip serving up some hard-hitting[...]

Cloud Nothings at Buffalo Iron Works. Photo credit: Erica Morano of Buffalo.com.

Cloud Nothings at Buffalo Iron Works (4/4/14)

April 5, 2014

Last night’s Cloud Nothings show at the Buffalo Iron Works was a great experience. The bands played well, the crowd was into it, but it was the synergy between the two that pushed things over the top. I admit I was worried at the beginning. Openers Pleasure Leftists, who will be joining Cloud Nothings for a few dates before coming back through Buffalo next week for your listening pleasure, were awesome, but the crowd barely seemed to move. They clapped hard, but they seemed a little sleepy. Even when the headliners came on, I was concerned. The crowd only started to pick up a few songs into the set, when singer Dylan Baldi started strumming out the first few chords of “Stay Useless.” Lyrically, “Stay Useless” is all aching ennui, wishing for “Something to do/somewhere to go.” The crowd, at least the first few rows of it, seemed to know[...]