Latest Posts

Column 18: Pulp Returns to Spotlight on Life, Death, & Supermarkets

November 19, 2014

There’s been a recent surge of classic Britpop bands resurfacing, from the Verve to Suede to Blur, and Pulp appears to be the latest. That said, Pulp’s reunion seems a weirdly appropriate time to reunite. While other Britpop acts had a wide array of influential factors, Jarvis Cocker’s have remained the same: sex, politics, and class inequality. Since classic singles “Mis-Shapes” and “Common People” were released 20 years ago, that inequality has only grown, both in their homeland of England and here in America. And with the release of the first documentary about the band, Pulp: A Film About Life, Death, & Supermarkets, Pulp is back in focus as the film centers on the band’s return back to hometown of Sheffield and attempts to discover the culture that influenced its writing. Pulp spends its majority splitting time between both the band and the people of Sheffield. At times, we get[...]

Column 17: How the Music of Guardians of the Galaxy Created Our Most Human of Heroes

November 13, 2014

With Oscar season now in full-effect, its worth pointing out that there has been a recent absence of popular music in nominated films. Whether it’s the period, tone, or just an effort to pick up additional nominations, Oscar contenders seem to shun the use of pop music. So I thought it might be best to take this time to look back at this year, and few films stand out more than James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The film was not only the biggest at the box office in 2014, but for my money, the best musically. This is not to say that other films haven’t had better original songs or more enjoyable soundtracks, but there was no film where pop music played as pivotal of a role as in Guardians. For those who haven’t seen the film, let me set the stage for you. The movie opens on a[...]

Tonight: Sloan

November 9, 2014

Sloan are no strangers to Buffalo. Returning for their fourth show in the past five years, the Canadian power-pop legends make their way back to The Tralf again tonight in support of their latest album, Commonwealth. The four-piece is famous for their shared songwriting credits and the latest double-album perhaps offers the clearest distillation of Sloan’s sound with all four band members offering a collection of songs. One can expect  plenty of new rockers from the storied Canadian band as well as classics from seminal albums like Twice Removed and Pretty Together. With recent (and upcoming( appearances from other Canadian Indie Rockers like Tokyo Police Club and Stars, Sloan’s appearance tonight is yet another chapter in the great Canadian/Buffalo musical tradition and one not to be missed. Doors at the Tralf open at 7:00 PM tonight and tickets are $24 at the door.

Column 16: BBC’s Drive Experiment Crashes & Burns

November 5, 2014

When I was a kid, I remember trying to explore everything my computer could do. A personal computer was still an exciting new technology and I had so many fresh tools at my disposal. But of all these tools I had to use, I enjoyed messing with none more than Windows Movie Maker. I still have fond memories of taking popular shows or movies I watched and crudely mashing them up with some of my favorite songs. I share this not to revel in nostalgia, but because that’s what BBC’s latest experiment reminded me of. In the last week, famous BBC radio DJ, Zane Lowe, premiered his rescored version of Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2009 film, Drive. The project overseen by Lowe earned the blessing of the film’s director and collected some of the UK’s biggest indie & electronic acts to create original music for the film. The original was already[...]

Column 15: Pop Music in Horror Movies

October 29, 2014

While this feature often highlights the use of music in contemporary work, with Halloween just two days away, it seems only appropriate to focus on horror movies this week. While it took a good 20 years for horror movies to catch up to popular culture, ever since the use of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” in John Carpenter’s Halloween, horror filmmakers have been keenly using pop music in a variety of ways. This week, we’ll take a look at some of my favorites. The Strangers – Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom’s voice has always been a divisive factor in her music. Her almost elfin voice is as entrancing to some listeners as it is off-putting to others. Using this quality of Newsom’s voice to his advantage is director Bryan Bertino. The filmmaker soundtrack’s The Strangers first real scare with Newsom’s “The Sprout and the Bean.” With the specter of looming menace outside our protaganist’s front[...]

Tonight: Handsome Jack Album Release Show

October 24, 2014

With their Southern blues-rock sound, some might mistake Handsome Jack for one of the host of bands from the Nashville rock scene, but rather this talented four-piece hail from our very own Lockport, NY. The local retro-rockers will take the stage tonight at Mohawk Place to celebrate the release of their new album, Do What Comes Naturally. The album is already receiving early acclaim and even landed them a shout from Rolling Stone. Tonight offers a rare chance to hear the self-described “boogie-soul” band debut their latest record in an intimate venue while you still can. The band will also be joined by a local acts Bearhunter, JOHNS, and Pine Fever. Doors opens at Mohawk Place at 8pm and tickets are $7.

Radiohead’s “Lift”

October 21, 2014

Lost Gems is a new feature where I will explore some of the B-Sides, Covers, and Unreleased songs from some of pop music’s greatest artists. Some of the weird, cool, or brilliant songs that for whatever reason might never have gotten the notice they deserve. Today we begin this feature with Radiohead, and the story of “Lift.” “It probably would have been the best song on the record” – Ed O’ Brien In 1996, Radiohead had just released The Bends and was currently on a US tour supporting Alanis Morissette. While the band had just become huge stars in its own country off the popularity of “Street Spirit (Fade Out),“ the five piece was a band still struggling to fight off the one-hit wonder perception over here in the States. Night after night, Radiohead played to largely indifferent crowds who couldn’t be bothered with anything that wasn’t “Creep,“ and new songs like “Paranoid Android” and “Climbing[...]

Column 13: Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch Tries On The Movie Musical

October 15, 2014

Expanding on the world he’s created through his music comes Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl. The frontman of indie-pop legends Belle & Sebastian makes his directorial debut with this coming-of-age musical that brings all the same retro twee kitsch and emotional vulnerability that style his music to his debut film. While the film’s plot isn’t terribly dense, the film rather plays through a series of musical vignettes that flesh out it’s characters and speak to it’s wider themes about the various purposes for musical expression. The transition isn’t always seamless as at times, the change in emotional tone that works well in the music is slightly more jarring on screen. The film also seems to runs a bit longer than it needs to, as if Murdoch was intent on finding room for every song written in the film. That said, when these sequences work (and the majority do), they really[...]

Tonight: Cheap Girls

October 13, 2014

Mohawk Place is a venue with more than a lot of history for Buffalonians and since it reopen last month, many bands will add to the esteemed venue’s history. That said, few bands better reflect both where the venue has been and where it is going than the showcase of bands gracing it’s stage tonight. That starts with Cheap Girls, a trio hailing from Lansing, Michigan with a sound that reflects everyone from The Replacements to Gin Blossoms to the Gaslight Anthem. They’ll be hitting our fair city in support of their latest album, Famous Graves.  The band has been quietly been making a name for themselves among retro-rock enthusiasts for awhile and with their realist blue-collar lyrics, catchy pop hooks, and classic guitar riffs, should put on quite the show. And speaking of bands of the future working off the past, Beach Slang will bring their brand of 90s-inspired[...]

Column 12: Beauty in the Ugly – The Music of Gone Girl

October 6, 2014

**Warning – This article features mild spoilers for the film Gone Girl** The first memorable musical moment of David Fincher’s recent film, Gone Girl, takes place in a flashback as protagonists Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) trade witticisms before embracing in a cloud of sugar in a New York back alley. The scene’s mood is set by it’s soft lighting and the gentlest of marimba hits making the moment feel like something out of a fairytale, and that’s because it is. If you’ve seen the movie, it’s clear that, above all, Gone Girl is a film about perceptions and the versions of ourselves that we create, for others and for ourselves. In this early scene, audiences are meant to believe what we’re witnessing is a real event, only to later find out it’s a fictional romanticization by Amy to build a perception of the early stages of her and Nick’s[...]