Latest Posts

The War On Drugs at the Town Ballroom (4/13/14)

April 14, 2014

Last night, the Town Ballroom hosted one of Buffalo’s more anticipated live shows at the quarter mark of 2014 in Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs. Riding high off of the band’s acclaimed album, Lost in the Dream, front man Adam Granduciel and crew delivered a triumphant set of hazy heartland rock that is as much Springsteen and Henley as it is J. Spaceman. Wasting no time, the band dove right in Lost in the Dream opener “Under Pressure.” Since first listen, the meticulous kraut rock stylings of the song reminded me of Wilco’s “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” but where Wilco lets “Spiders” absolutely rip live, The War on Drugs keeps “Under Pressure” under control, albeit a driving control. Buffalo concert crowds are funny in that you never really know what kind of turnout you will get at certain shows. Here we have one of 2014’s breakthrough acts coming through town, something that[...]

Tonight: Tired Iron

April 11, 2014

One of the blog’s favorite Medina based bands is throwing the towel in tonight. Tired Iron, which features Boiler 54 promoter Adam Wakefield on drums, has decided to call it a day, and as a curtain call, will be competing in tonight’s BOOM competition at Nietzsche’s. Tired Iron’s raucous post-punk single, “Rut,” caught our attention last year, and if you haven’t had the chance to catch the four piece, tonight could be your last chance. Other acts competing tonight are the Naturalists, Orius, and Child of Folly, and while we don’t want to go around throwing our hat in any band’s camp, it sure would be a nice story for Tired Iron to advance. No matter your band preference, BOOM, which as always is presented by Artvoice, kicks off tonight at 10pm with a $5 cover.

Only Comrades Drop Spring Mixtape

April 11, 2014

Buffalo streetwear fashionista duo, Only Comrades, have released the second installment of their seasonal mixtape series. Following the winter cut from local DJ duo Buzz Trillington, the OC crew reached out to buzzing NYC DJ Tanner Caldwell this time around, which can be listened to in full below. Set aside 40 minutes, put on your hippest duds, and strut around your house with sunglasses on drinking mimosas to this one.

Tonight: PigPen Theatre Co.

April 10, 2014

The unfortunately named PigPen Theatre Co. is rolling through town tonight. After reading up on them through the group’s bandcamp page, it appears the band employs shadow puppets into its routine, which is, well, different. I suppose that is where the Theatre Co. part of the band name comes from. The music, though, reminds me more of acts like the Swell Season (good), despite the unavoidable comparisons to other acts like Mumford & Sons (bad). PigPen Theatre Co. will be playing tonight at Buffalo Iron Works, which is suddenly becoming quite diverse after hosting considerably non folk shows like the Misfits, Screaming Females, and Cloud Nothings over the last couple weeks. The show kicks off tonight at 8pm with a cover of $15.

Makeshift Letterbox Releases Hazy New EP

April 10, 2014

Rochester has been a little quiet this week, so we were delighted to stumble upon Makeshift Letterbox. The hazy post-rock band just released its new EP this week, titled The Vaporbomb Love Affair. This menacing collection of songs, which by law should only be played after dark, includes a take on the often covered “Just Like Heaven.” Luckily, the band manages to give the track a fuzzy Secret Machines vibe. Fans of the Twilight Sad, early Killers, and even Mogwai should go listen to the EP over at the band’s bandcamp page. With a super fresh (like less than 24 hours on social media fresh) introduction, we hope to see the project hit the show circuit in the near future. Listen to stand out track “Brooklyn: Remedy the Guestlist” below.

Mr. Boneless

April 9, 2014

If you happened to miss our 4th birthday party a couple weekends ago at Duke’s, thanks a lot. I am sure you had a good excuse. Kidding of course. For those who could not make it though, we did happen to capture some footage of all of the acts performing, and over the next couple weeks, will release some clips featuring a couple songs from each birthday band. Today, we start with the Fredonia bred Mr. Boneless, a band who sounds like early Modest Mouse had they come out of the back woods rather than the Pacific Northwest. Thanks to blog contributors Dan Bauer and Tom Etu for tackling the footage. Stay tuned next week for a clip of Rochester’s Harmonica Lewinski’s incredible set. Photo Credit – Robert Emhof

Just Announced: Titus Andronicus

April 9, 2014

New Jersey punk rockers, Titus Andronicus, are making their way back to Buffalo on Saturday, June 7th with a return to the Tralf Music Hall. The band recently played the downtown venue late last summer in support of their third full length album, Local Business. Led by one of the genre’s more intriguing front men in Pat Stickles, Titus Andronicus is making visits to Buffalo a thing of habit as past stops have included an opening gig for Okkervil River at Town Ballroom and a raucous set in Babeville’s basement while supporting their epic release, The Monitor, a couple years back. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 11th, at noon for $12 in advance, $14 day of.

Just Announced: Boris

April 8, 2014

Japanese rock trio Boris, who last played the area five years ago, will be making a return to Buffalo this summer on Friday, August 8th at the Tralf Music Hall.  Boris’ experimental rock sound, which has shades of shred tempered by heavy tonal effects, should work well for a venue that just recently housed the devastating Swans show last year. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, April 11th, at noon for $15 in advance, $17 day of.

buffaBLOG 2.0 Launches

April 7, 2014

Well, after four tedious years on blogger, we finally made the move over to wordpress. Good riddance to that awful site. Despite desperately needing a makeover, we didn’t want to drastically change the look of the site. Most people have become accustomed to the navigation and enjoyed the site’s simplistic style. Simple is good, so why mess with good. While we stayed simple, we did decide to sharpen the look, which included making a more functional tool bar for easier searching of new music, both local and national. What did get a major face lift is our “calendar,” our favorite new feature to the site. Calendar may not be the right word exactly, more like a comprehensive list of events we feel should be on your radar. New events will be added daily so make sure to visit often. Once there, click an event and get all of the basic concert/show info: who,[...]

Queen City Music Lottery Band, Nail School, Debuts First Song

April 4, 2014

On the eve of the Queen City Music Lottery Showcase, one of the randomly assembled acts, Nail School, has released its first track via bandcamp. Featuring members of JOHNS, Merchants, and Space Wolves, Nail School’s “Russian Bride” is a cut of dark, aggressive garage-punk that doesn’t sound too unlike some of singer John Toohill’s other projects, including the recently debuted Alpha Hopper. You can catch Nail School, along with Plosive, Move Real Fast Stop., and a handful of other brand new acts, tomorrow night at the Foundry (298 Northhampton St) starting at 6pm.

Hamilton Leithauser – “11 O’Clock Friday Night”

April 3, 2014

Despite the Walkmen calling it quits, their former members have been keeping quite busy. Bass player Walter Martine appears to be releasing children’s music, albeit with some help from indie friends like Karen O. Organist Peter Matthew Bauer is prepping his solo LP, which if you have heard the song’s first single “Latin American Ficciones,” you may be wondering who the real secret weapon of the band is. And finally front man Hamilton Leithauser is putting together his own solo album, Black Hours, featuring contributions from Rotsam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, Richard Shift, former Walkmen bandmates, and many more. After releasing the very fun “Alexendra,” Leithauser dropped the video for another new track today, called “11 O’Clock Friday Night.” Ditching the slightly over-the-top feel of “Alexandra”  for a moodiness that made the Walkmen’s You and I so great, this track can be found on the forthcoming album Black Hours, set to[...]

Rackmastas Release Return of the Rack LP

April 3, 2014

Rackmastas, a long time duo born out of the basement of Gates Circle Wine & Liquor, recently released its long awaited LP, Return of the Rack. Spanning 17 tracks, the record has a lot going on, although don’t be misled by the long tracklist as a handful of those songs are fun little radio station under writings. The long form tunes cover many genres, including R&B, hip hop, dream pop, experimental post-rock, jazz, and pretty much you name it. Stand out tracks include “Girl Watcher,” a pretty cut dreamy computer pop that would please Dntel fans, and “H.H.G.M.T Zoppity,” which sounds like what Collections of Colonies of Bees might sound like on a sugar high. You can stream the entire Return of the Rack, which features contributions from members of Inquiring Mind, Crows and Jays, and more, at the band’s bandcamp page. In the mean time, listen to “Girl Watcher” below.

Just Announced: Bombay Bicycle Club

April 2, 2014

Yesterday, proving its never too early to start thinking about summer, Town Ballroom announced that London band Bombay Bicycle Club will be making a stop at the Main St. venue on Saturday, August 2nd. If you are unfamiliar with the act, think of them as a UK version of Vampire Weekend and go from there. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 4th, at noon for $20 in advance, $22 day of.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “Coming Down” [ft. Matt Berninger]

April 1, 2014

Fuzzy and exhilarating psych rock single from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s upcoming album, Only Run, due out 6/3. Features the National’s Matt Berninger on supporting vocals. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/141751050″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]