Latest Posts

Alex the Astronaut – “Half of 21st Street”

March 24, 2016

Aussie native turned temporary New York transplant, Alex the Astronaut, released her first single close to a month ago, and it’s an indie-pop gem. Alex is a passionate story teller, and “Half of 21st Street” is a testament to her skills. The song is a love story (as half of songs are), of two individuals that start innocent and develop into something that is real.  If indie-pop Regina Spektor with an Australian accent sounds appealing, then you’ll be into Alex the Astronaut. Check out “Half of 21st Street” below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/246479469″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Kindatheart – “Perception”

March 22, 2016

Sometimes a song just hits you at the perfect moment and seems almost like you are in a movie. This is what happened to me when I popped on “Perception” by University at Texas  at Austin enrolled ndie act Kindatheart, when I was driving through into the nicest day since November watching dirty snowpiles melt into nothing. The quartet’s sunny sounds is obvious a product of their environment of constant and sometimes brutal Texas sun. If Buffalo’s Bryan Johnson and Family are Lake Pop,  Austin’s Kindatheart is River Pop.

dreambeaches Release New Single

March 15, 2016

Buffalo-based beach-y trio, dreambeaches, released their first single off their forthcoming album Habits. dreambeaches, lead by Corey Bzibizik sprang onto the local scene last year after splintering off from local synth-pop band,  Humble Braggers (and bringing Jacob Peter and Gabe Wells from said band along). Set for a late spring release, the summer-y lead single “Graduation Day” is a fuzzy-pop song that delves into casual frustrations – road rage, cocky college students, and watching a relationship fade away while you are still treading water. Put some shades on, drive with the windows down, blast “Graduation Day,” and care about nothing. Hakuna Matata.

Tonight: SWMRS

March 12, 2016

Echoing Oakland act, SWMRS, will be in town tonight at the newly christened Leopard Lounge at Town Ballroom. SWMRS’ sound is a twist of Tokyo Police Club pop lyrics with the electrifying rock riffs of the Wombats, SWMRS will give you a great mix of energetic slacker-rock will light up the dance floor. Their songs are anthemic with heavy-hitting choruses that fans of Skaters, Free Energy, or Buffalo’s very own Made Violent would appreciate. Tickets are $12 and doors open at 7pm

Just Announced: buffaBLOG’s Sixth Birthday Party

February 26, 2016

It seems like just yesterday that buffaBLOG was obsessively writing about Love Scenes, The Bird Day, and Arctic Death, but after checking the site stats, it seems as though this was five plus years ago. This means we are turning six. It’s time to celebrate. Please join us on Saturday, March 26th at Nietzsche’s where we celebrate our existence as an all-volunteer blog that is just really into the Buffalo music scene. On the main stage this year we have trippy-sunrock act, The Get Money Squad, along with support from Brooklyn-based fuzzy sweetness Bethlehem Steel (fronted by former Buffalonian Becca Ryskalczyk), dreamy psych-folkers The Leones, and the night started off by scene newcomers straight from 2002, Cooler. On the way to bum cigarettes we got you covered. At the front stage we will have a karaoke set by psych-y Fredonia art student, Moody Cosmos. Starting off the night we will have super[...]

Ithaca Underground Releases Fundraising Compilation

February 18, 2016

Earlier this month, Ithaca Underground released their second annual fundraiser compilation, featuring an array of artists that span many genres. If you are not in the know of Fingerlakes DIY community, Ithaca Underground has been promoting indie gigs since 2007 and is registered as a non-profit, think of it as something similar to if Sugar City did not have a home-base. The collective’s latest compilation has 51 tracks, ranging from Ithaca-based acts (Sammus, Izzy True) to some buzzing up-and-comers (Aye Nako, Cold Sweats)and even some bands with Buffalo roots (CCDS [Death Squad], Why The Wires [on local label, One Percent Press]). Ithaca Underground will be holding a fundraiser this Friday on February 19th at The Haunt, with sets by Anna Coogan & Willie B, Mary and Billy from Madder Rose, Circus Culture, Scopes Monkey Trial, and Viva Mayhem. If Ithaca is too far from you, feel free to donate to the cause either directly[...]

PineSheets – “Sunday Afternoon”

February 11, 2016

Albany’s music scene is severely underrated. Their atmosphere is a lot like how Buffalo’s was in 2012-  minimal legitimate venues spaces for a local band to play and talented musicians constantly talking about moving to another city (mainly NYC). Even with the obstacles put in place, talented up-and-coming acts have been emerging (Slowshine, Prince Daddy & The Hyena, Bare Mattress, Jouska, and The Black Ships, to name a few). Enter PineSheets, a wonky one-man producer/singer’s whose sound is something best described as weirdo-sensual. If Mac DeMarco were to write an album to try to seduce a woman wearing high-waisted jeans after binging on How to Dress Well, the after product would be pretty close to PineSheets’ current discography. The R&B Capital District sensation has released a new music video this morning for the song “Sunday Afternoon,” off the forthcoming EP Casual Frustrations out March 5th. “Sunday Afternoon”  in essence is about how much[...]

Tonight: Taking Back Saturday: A Night of Emo Music

January 30, 2016

Admit it. This is a safe space. Emo music dominated your ipod in the 2000s. How could you drive to your part-time job without plugging  Deja Entendu into the auxiliary-to-tape input in your 1996 Ford Taurus? That tape converter was easily one of best piece of technology of the 2000s., by the way. Join us in nostalgia tonight at Milkie’s where we will be spinning the deep cuts from all your favorite bands from the era. We’re talking Taking Back Sunday, Saves the Day, Midtown all the way to some deep feelers like Hey Mercedes or American Football, sprinkled in with some must-have forefathers like Get Up Kids or Cap’n Jazz. It will all be there, folks. Fun starts at about 10pm with DJ sets from local reformed emos Kevin Scoma (Mandy K), Jay Zubricky (producer over at GCR), and Dennis Ferry (of This is an Empire). $5 will get you past the door[...]

Five Songs We Should Have Written About in January

January 29, 2016

Okay, so over the “break,” I really could not pry myself from paying attention to what music was being released, so here are the songs I feel as though we should have shared with you. We are back in the swing of things with a preview set for tomorrow and back to programming on Monday. Welks Mice – “Talking Too Fast” It’s no secret that Welks Mice are truly unique and paint vivid pictures with their talented story telling. After close to a year of playing Buffalo’s DIY circuit, Welks Mice finally(!) have some recorded material. The nu-lounge duet released their first single “Talking Too Fast” along with “Dreams” and “Company Time,” in January. Centering around a vibraphone and highlighting lead-vocalist Max Weiss’s dramatic bravado,  the  minimalist duo’s “Talking Too Fast” is a great example of the band’s repertoire. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/240297245″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Aaron Welcher – “Bubble Gum”[...]

Herd Fest Accepting Applications for 2016

January 22, 2016

Yesterday afternoon, various Herd Fest social media accounts announced that the annual festival is now accepting applications for 2016’s event, which beings on Thursday, June 16, 2016 and ends Sunday, June 19, 2016 at an array of different venues. In the previous two years, Herd Fest had organizations curate their own showcases based on brand leanings, and although all our partners did an amazing job setting lineups, each year we’ve had the same gripes from bands wanting to get in on the action. “I wish we were knew about this,” “No one asked us to play,” and “Hey I’m in a super cool band coming through and have no contacts in Buffalo and we are playing North by North East in Toronto, Canada and we would like to be added to one of your shows 48 hours beforehand.” Unfortunately, while we cannot do much for traveling bands with poor tour planning skills,[...]

Gone Fishing

January 4, 2016

We’ve been updating buffaBLOG pretty much daily or every other day for the past almost six years. In that time we have exclusively written about hundreds of local/regional bands, curated many many nights with our show previews, and spent thousands of hours thinking about and discussing music from Buffalo, Rochester, and beyond. We are all volunteers over here, and I’ll be the first to admit it, fatigue has set in. We need to take a bit of a break. We will be back with one or two major posts this month, and then returning with our regularly scheduled program on Saturday, January 30th at Milkie’s where we will have our second installment of Taking Back Saturday Emo Night featuring guest DJs Dennis Ferry (THIS IS AN EMPIRE), Jay Zubricky (GCR Audio), and Kevin Scoma (Mandy K). Here’s a music video of an impressive new rapper out of Buffalo called Neese Rich. See ya’ll in about[...]

It Dies Today’s Nicholas Brooks Shares Demos

December 20, 2015

Nicholas Brooks, the lead singer of Buffalo-based post-hardcore act It Dies Today, released two demos earlier this month. Opening the tracks, I expected to immediately crush a beer can against my head and circle pit in the office, but the demos flavor is Americana at it’s fullest. In “Growing Pains,” Brooks leaves little to the imagination about what the song is about – leading a rugged life, toughing through it, and living life as best as you can. Brooks solo is effort could be classified as blue collar whiskey-rock for the working man that fans of Gaslight Anthem, Two Cow Garage, and Lucero would enjoy. Check out “Growing Pains” below.

Tonight: buffaBLOG Holiday Party

December 19, 2015

It’s that time of year again where ABC Family is pretty chill, you go through half your vacation days,  and buffaBLOG has our annual holiday party.  On the bill tonight are synth-pop trio Humble Braggers, gravelly-indie-rockers-all-the-way-from-Rochester Secret Pizza., blue collar Americana rock-band Sixties Future, and hip hop collective Good Huemans. If that isn’t a strong enough bill as it is, we also threw in the turnt tunes of DJ duo GLDN GIRLS just to keep the party going. Doors open at 9pm with a $5 cover. If you wear something festive, it will be noted.

New Masons Release New Single

December 17, 2015

The end of December is always an awkward time to release music – most blogs are doing year-end compilations and best-ofs, music fans are checked out more concerned with visiting family and friends, and generally the atmosphere is not very inviting to new material. With that being said, we are usually too tied up with our own lists and people taking time off to invest time into new music, but after hearing New Masons‘ latest single we decided we had to share. The Fredonia-based band, New Masons, have released their newest single with newly ArcAtlas Records. a record label established only recently out of Fredonia’s Music Business Program. The single “Night Calls” is  an indie-pop gem, with soulful vocals, delicate guitars, an M83 Saturdays = Youth-esque breakdown, and retro Miami-vibes.  If you are a fan of St. Lucia, Ellie Goulding, or Blackbird Blackbird, then you would dig this up-and-coming act. It’s too bad Canary Birds called it[...]

Just Announced: Titus Andronicus w/ Craig Finn

December 15, 2015

New Jersey raucous punk act, Titus Andronicus, will be headlining at the Tralf with direct support from Hold Steady frontman, Craig Finn, on Monday, March 21st. Titus Andronicus will be touring in support of their fourth and most recent album/rock opera, The Most Lamentable Tragedy. Led by one of the genre’s more intriguing front men in Pat Stickles, Titus Andronicus is returning to the Queen City after an almost year and a half absence. Let’s not let that happen again. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, December 18th, for $16.