Meanwhile back on the West Side, the Gypsy Parlor will be hosting retro garage rock outfit, The Loveless, and electro spazz act, Voices, later on for an enjoyable evening of music. Keeping the music going between acts, and long after, will be DJ sets from the Victory Gardens, a.k.a. Brett Mikoll of former blog faves All Blondes Go to Heaven, playing choice cuts of indie rock into the night. Show kicks off tonight at 8pm. Have $3 on hand for the door.
Before heading to Canada for a couple gigs, New Jersey’s Night Birds will make a quick stop at Nietzsche’s this evening, not Broadway Joe’s as originally planned. The band plays a brand of fast-paced raucous surf-punk that is pretty well-received in our city. They also wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Tony Hawk Pro Skater game. Providing local support tonight will be instrumental surf trio Aaron & the Burrs as well as the crispy new post-punk act Orations. Show kicks off at 8:45 sharp. $6 will get you through the door.
The former Buffalo-bred two-piece turned Portland-based trio, Settlers, released the animated clip for their single “Proskater” last night. Directed by Jack Graydon, the clip shows images of warped wiener dogs, skateboarding hounds, and lots of beer floating towards the viewer over the booming, instrumental surf jam. It’s been a little while since we heard from our favorite former Jungle Gym noise rockers so keep an eye out on both coasts for future updates. Watch the video for “Proskater” below. Settlers from Toiletsnake Productions on Vimeo.
With countless live crowd shots on Youtube, it seemed to be about time that Radarada sat down to release something proper. And just as the hip-hop collective is set to drop its debut EP, First Edition, in early June, an EP tease in the form of the music video for “Topanga” was released this afternoon. Filmed at the Bird Cage, the laid clip features Tommy Too, Little Cake, and the rest of Radarada performing the jazz infused tune. Without a doubt, this is one of the most charismatic acts coming out of Buffalo, and as you may remember, they were one of our five-ish bands to watch in 2014. Watch the video for “Topanga” below and catch the Rada crew celebrate the release of the First Edition EP, along with Dr. Ooo and Jack Toft, at Buffalo Iron Works on June 7th.
Man, who knew these guys were still around? I am sure I am not the only one who left Cymbals Eat Guitars for dead after the band followed up its incredible Why There Are Mountains with the somewhat disappointing 2011 release, Lenses Alien. The band returned in a big way yesterday by sharing “Jackson,” from forthcoming album, LOSE (8/26). The epic album opener, with its layer upon layer building towards that release and big classic rock guitar lines, could easily have led off WTAM too. Its thats good. And that big pay off at the end? Well worth the 6+ min wait.
For all of the talk this blog has give to Fredonia fuzz trio, Zealot, over the last few months, the band only has one track to its name, the very good debut single “Magic Eye.” The band doubled its catalog size today by releasing a fresh demo titled “Blanket Fort.” The welcome No Age comparisons are going nowhere on this reverb and shout heavy track. Word is the band will be releasing its debut EP some time this summer to keep an eye out. In the mean time, listen to “Blanket Fort” below.
With the exception of the stellar design work over at Your Cinema and the now west-coast based Hero and Sound, the Western New York Book Arts Center has been producing some of my favorite gig posters in Buffalo over the last few years. Better known as WNYBAC on the streets, the Washington St. printing center has been producing prints for the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, the New Pornographers, First Aid Kit, tUnE-yArDs and my personal fav, the Broken Social Scene poster for their last gig in Buffalo on their “final” 2010 tour. I have a pair of these hanging in my apt. WNYBAC’s most recent commission is for tomorrow night’s of Montreal show at the Town Ballroom. Samantha Epps, WNYBAC’s retail manager, filled us in on the design process: “This is a 5 color letterpress print produced using metal and wood type exclusively from the collection at the[...]
So about a month ago, we announced our inaugural Herd Fest, a two-day, nine showcase festival centered in Allentown and slightly beyond on June 20th-21st. We invited some of the blog’s closest friends – Sugar City, Quiet Country Audio, Only Comrades, The Good Neighborhood, Steak and Cake, Black Dots, Harvest Sum, and Spiral Scratch – to get in on the festival fun by presenting their own curated showcases in the hopes of providing you with a weekend full of variety, eclectic genres, and sounds. Today, we want to share Herd’s full schedule and lineups for all nine of our festival showcases, which you can check out below, and to be honest, if you don’t see even a few acts on that lineup that interest you, then I don’t know what to tell you. If you wish to purchase a pre-sale bracelet, which will grant you all-access entry to of all[...]
In other Canalside news, the promoters announced their ticketed events last night as well, a lineup that is headlined by a performance from mashup king Girl Talk. After having played a highly-anticipated Outer Harbor show a couple summers ago, Pittsburgh-born Greg Gillis will slide down the canal to the inner harbor for a show on Friday, August 8th. Tickets will go on sale for the show on Monday, May 12th, for $15 in advance, $20 day of.
Along with Memorial Day, the official start of summer here in Buffalo always seem to be when the Thursday at Canalside Concert Series, formally Thursday at the Square, announces it’s summer schedule. Ever since leaving that cesspool that was a 5pm on a Thursday at Lafayette Square, the series seems to be on the up. It doesn’t hurt that the still-under-renovation Canalside is gorgeous on a summer night. With Buffalo Place pulling out of the concert series and Comcast stepping in, we were interested to see if anything drastically different would happen with the types of acts brought in (spoiler: it didn’t). Yesterday at 5:30pm, the Canalside Concert crew hosted a lineup unveiling party down by the water, and as expected, plenty of opinions were voiced. On one hand, concert-goers want familiarity. People like what they know, and repeats tend to rule. On the other hand, people want change. Keep it[...]
While you await the next installment of Transmission Dance Party, give a listen to the new project from Jason Draper, one half of Transmission (and bass player for Failures’ Union), called Orations. The four piece outfit dropped a short, two track EP full of driving and hypnotic post-punk on Tuesday. I bet they could easily sneak one of the songs onto the next Transmission set list and no one would miss beat. Keep an eye out for future music from this interesting project, and while you are here, listen to “Early Spring” below.
One of the more sneaky good, under the radar albums of 2013 was Mutual Benefit’s Love’s Crushing Diamond. A revolving project led by Jordan Lee, the act sounds like Daniel Rosen or maybe the Antler’s Peter Silberman crossed with Broken Social Scene at their most tender. Lee will bring his project to Buffalo Iron Works next month on Thursday, June 19th. While you may not be familiar with the act, you will most likely be down town at Canalside anyways, so take the quick stroll over to the Cobblestone District after and you may leave with a new favorite act. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 9th, at 10am for $10 in advance, $13 day of
It’s been a while since we last heard from Buffalo expat/Portland transplant Jon Riggie and his project Le Printemps. For those unaware, Riggie was the drummer of 2011 Buffalo buzz band, the birD Day. Le Printemps is probably as opposite of the birD Day as it can get, with jazzy guitars, swung drums, along with a healthy does of south western Americana, almost like a Cass McCombs meets Jose Gonzales. Riggie and crew are prepping the release of their new album, Long Walk Home, which was recorded at Supernatural Sound Studios, a notorious noise factory that has recorded some of the very best west-coast acts including Modest Mouse, the Shins, and Portugal the Man. Le Printemps is clearly in some good company. The band has shared three of the tracks on its soundcloud page, all of which sound like they would be the perfect soundtrack to a drive along the coast.[...]
If you have yet to head down to the new Larkin Square, now would appear to be a good time. The revitalized business district’s Food Truck Tuesdays kick off this evening, and just yesterday, the Live at Larkin series announced its summer lineup. Beginning June 18th and running every Wednesday until September 17th, the series once again touches on a wide range of local artists and genres, from folk and jam to party pop and soul. Some blog favs, including Aircraft, Forealists, and everyone’s favorite subtle ladies man, Lance Diamond (if you didn’t know he was Buffalo’s best entertainer, just wait for him to tell you), are a part of this year’s lineup. The series will kick off on June 18th at 5pm with Neville Francis. You can view the entire Live at Larkin lineup here. Aircraft – Nano Hurricane – Live at Mammoth Recording Studios from Pat DePuy on[...]
