Latest Posts

Still Diggin’: Spiral Scratch Records

April 17, 2015

Spiral Scratch Records is the kind of place that’s becoming increasingly hard to find in these times of big-box department stores and strip malls – a shop with character. The Bryant Street record shop is Buffalo’s only independent record store, and definitely one of the quaintest record joints around. Its entire retail space could fit probably fit into your living room, or a single studio apartment, so the place feels crowded with just a half a dozen patrons. But that’s also its charm – the personal, individualized feel of the place, and the chance to interact with hip people who probably share your tastes in music. While the store boasts a good collection of new and used vinyl records – along with various clothes, CDs, books, magazines, stickers and the like – they specialize mainly in punk, indie-rock, and various underground and cult acts. On a typical day you can[...]

Tyler, The Creator – Cherry Bomb

April 13, 2015

Say what you will about Tyler, The Creator – his puerile public persona; his real-life destructive stage antics; his stoic, perennially grumpy-sounding delivery – but the dude’s nothing if not eclectic. Much like the sophomore records of fellow Odd Future emcee Earl Sweatshirt, and unlikely OF friend and collab Mac Miller, Tyler unleashes a dizzying, psychedelic smash of sounds on his second album, Cherry Bomb, that’s quite incomparable in rap. It’s no secret the OF Head Honcho has been trying to incorporate jazz influences in his music, and free jazz, neo-soul and funk swirl and percolate on the album’s softer, finer moments. “2 Seater” is a woozy R&B slow burner that could almost bit the bill for a Frank Ocean track, and lead single “Fucking Young” is a lovably campy lovesong backed by a psychedelic soundscape of shimmering strings and ringing synths. But Tyler’s still Tyler, and he counter-balances these prettier[...]

Tonight: Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad

April 11, 2015

To the uninformed, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad is Rochester’s premier dub reggae crew. That may sound like a particularly narrow and unessential niche to reign over, but the decade-old quintet is, in fact, one of the most popular and skillful live acts to emerge from The Flower City in recent years. With their mix of chill Caribbean rhythms, spaced-out soundscapes, and heavy low-end sounds, it’s easy to see why the band is so well loved by everyone from dub fanatics (as in the sub-genre of reggae, which is a world apart from the EDM atrocity that is dubstep) to college-aged stoners and reggae aficionados. Though Giant Panda has only put out a handful of studio LPs since their 2004 formation, the group has nursed a sizable and much-deserved cult following due mainly to the strength of their live shows. You can hear tons of their performances for free, and[...]

Tonight: Big Data

April 7, 2015

The past decade has certainly seen no shortage of underground artists melding electro-rock, psychedelic rock, alt-dance and synthpop – from MGMT to Ratatat to alt-J and beyond. But Big Data – a relatively new project helmed by Brooklyn DJ Alan Wilkis – displays enough intensity and virtuosity to stand apart, if not above, many of its peers in such a crowded field. Big Data’s music is at turns heady and danceable, abrasive and poppy, upbeat and frighteningly paranoid. His debut, 2.0, released this March, features vocal appearances ranging from Rivers Cuomo to Rochester indie-rockers Joywave to indie-pop artists the world around, from Kimbra to Twin Shadow. But their lyrics are pretty universally manic – Cuomo croons about Edward Snowden on the blaring noise-pop of “Snowed In;” White Sea sings about a relentless lover over Europop synths on “The Business of Emotion;” and on the bass-heavy debut single, “Dangerous” (which peaked[...]

Tonight: Bleachers

April 5, 2015

It’s too facile to call Bleachers merely a side project of fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff (or, if you’re a Girls fan, the lover of Lena Dunham). With over-the-top production and unabashedly catchy alt-rock vibes – what he describes as a merging of Arcade Fire and Discourse, and music that isn’t ashamed to be mainstream – Antonoff has developed a band just as fun and commercially viable as his breakthrough group, if not more. The young band (conceived and developed during his touring with fun.) was launched into fame largely on the heels of lead single “I Wanna Get Better” – a jubilant and irresistibly catchy piece of audio-therapy, with its sunny sound suggesting Antonoff will be just fine. Their debut album, Strange Desire, came out July of last year, with the New Wave-y third single “Rollercoaster” also helping to cement the group’s place in the lighter halls of alt- and[...]

Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi

March 31, 2015

“I don’t know where to begin,” croons perennially plaintive vocalist Benjamin Gibbard on Kintsugi, the eighth studio album from indie-rock vets Death Cab for Cutie. Indeed, with its synth flourishes and electronic left-turns, it does ring of a band that’s struggling to maintain its identity while still growing musically – albeit one that’s doing it fairly successfully. Kintsugi mostly follows in the electronic-tinged footsteps of its predecessor Codes And Keys, but while maintaining the sense of heart and intimacy that has made the group among the more interesting in indie pop. Gibbard evokes a stark, forbidding landscape with space for relationship conflict in the most straightforward rocker “Black Sun” – a piece which begins with an “I Am The Highway”-like riff that progresses unexpectedly into cascading riffs and an awesomely static-y guitar solo. And on “Ingénue,” he tells of a young woman ignored and under-appreciated over a slow-building, electronica influenced power[...]

Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside

March 24, 2015

Could Earl Sweatshirt make it any clearer that he has no interest in being a chart-topping rap-star? With the release of his sophomore album, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, it’s pretty obvious the only right answer is no. An entirely self-produced effort – under the alias randomblackdude – the barely 21-year-old SoCal rapper pushes the restrained minimalism of his debut, Doris, to even further extremes. The beats are weirder and more abrasive; his flow is even more down-tempo and heavy-handed; his lyrics are intensely personal and dark, at times suffocatingly gloomy. Rap braggadocio this is certainly not, though he and his stolid-voiced guests do manage to cram a few disses and kiss-offs in with all this introspective ruminating. “Fingertips to tapers, now, salute us when you face us / give a fuck about the moves all these loser niggas making now,” he raps over eerie keys on[...]

Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves

March 17, 2015

Over the last couple years, Modest Mouse’s new album had become arguably the most anticipated release in alternative rock. The eight-year gap so soon after their mid-aught heyday was made all the more intriguing by the bits of news that did emerge. Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr had already left the band, they worked with OutKast mastermind Big Boi (but mostly just got fucked up), and of course, the tongue-in-cheek name for front man Isaac Brock’s record label, Glacial Pace. But Strangers to Ourselves is classic Modest Mouse – overstuffed, over-the-top and overdramatic in all the best ways. Even still the record shows a sense of maturity and growth. The music is darker, more brooding and abrasive than their last two records – yet still retains the pop influences opened up by their breakthrough Good News for People Who Love Bad News. And perhaps most important: Brock’s frenzied vocals and razor-sharp[...]

Tonight: EOTO

March 14, 2015

With EOTO, String Cheese Incident percussionists Jason Hann and Michael Travis explore some extremely far-out places, using live instrumentation and then looping it to improvise intensely psychedelic grooves right on the spot. Their songs weave seamlessly through Drum and Bass, Electro, Dubstep, House, Glitch Hop, and Eastern Music, forging its own brand of heady, abrasive livetronica. Backed by a truly astounding light show that’s dead-focused on bending minds, EOTO is an absolute trip. Hann once describes their performances as an “all improvised alien disco party.” Indeed, it’s music that sounds like it shouldn’t come from planet Earth. Catch it tonight at the Town Ballroom. General admission tickets are $25, and the doors open at 8pm. Opening the show is Toronto DJ ill Gates and Baltimore live act ELM.  

Will Butler – Policy

March 10, 2015

A few weeks ago, Arcade Fire keyboardist/drummer Will Butler shared an interesting, but ultimately inconsequential tidbit about his upcoming debut solo album: inspired by early Bob Dylan, Butler would write a song each day based on a headline in The Guardian. He allegedly culled the songs from a week’s worth of headlines – specifically the week of Feb. 23, 2015. Given Dylan’s long, exemplar history of protest songs and storytelling, Butler may have set a bar of expectations that was all but impossible to attain. But Butler doesn’t even seem to be trying to write next “Hurricane” or “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” (his purported inspiration behind the project). Rather, Policy – what became of that challenge – is a collection of eight breathtakingly concise pop songs that rarely sound political or even remotely literary. The whole affair clocks in at just past 26 minutes, barely eking past the standard[...]

Tonight: Transformers II – I’ll Be Your Mirror

March 6, 2015

The massively influential rock musician, singer and songwriter Lou Reed may have passed in October 2013 – succumbing to liver disease less than six months after he underwent a transplant of that same organ – but his legacy, as they saying goes, continues to live on. To honor the underground rock icon, Nietzsche’s will be holding its second annual Lou Reed birthday party, appropriately titled “Transformers II: I’ll Be Your Mirror” (Transformers, of course, is the Reed solo debut that introduced him to a larger audience, while “I’ll Be Your Mirror” is one of the more melodic songs off the Velvet Underground’s debut, and one of three tracks sung by Nico). Reed would have been 73. The lineup is quite eclectic: fitting for the risk-taking, ground-breaking artist who lent so much to punk, alternative rock, glam, noise, experimental rock, avant-garde rock and industrial. The lineup includes the gloomy synth-pop of[...]

Ghostface Killah and BadBadNotGood – Sour Soul

March 3, 2015

After the needlessly complex, multi-sectioned production on A Better Tomorrow, Wu-Tang fans probably want another album of live-instrument production about as much as the MidEast wants another W. Bush administration. But where the RZA’s work on Tomorrow was too often flowery and excessive, Sour Soul’s sparse, brooding beats mesh perfectly with Ghostface Killah’s trademark intensity. In fact, it’s some of the best production on a Wu-Tang record in years. For that we ought to thank BadBadNotGood – a superb instrumental trio out of Toronto, discovered first by Tyler, the Creator (who, interestingly, has his own jazz aspirations). Their work on Sour Soul runs the gauntlet from post-bop jazz to soul to trip hop and electronica, sometimes all in the same track. More importantly, they prove themselves masters of tone and texture: it’s some of the most head-spinning production this side of Portishead. As for Ghostface, it could nearly go without[...]

Solidisco

February 26, 2015

Considering that both members of the funky dance duo, Solidisco, were born and raised – even recorded material – here, it’s pretty strange to hear their show tonight at Waiting Room is their debut home performance. But that is what it is. Though the disco house duo has played shows and festivals around the world in its three-year history, members Don Skotnicki and Matt McGurn have yet to play the Queen City. The reason: Buffalo is (arguably, of course) just too small a city for aspiring musicians to really get a career off the ground. Skotnicki explains that, while they have nothing but admiration for their hometown, it has neither the resources nor the venues you’d find in a larger city like New York or L.A. In New York, where they’re half-based, you have clubs that play dance music every night of the week. You also have thousands of talented[...]

Kid Rock – First Kiss

February 24, 2015

Believe it or not, Kid Rock turned 44 back in January, and he’s not sounding so young anymore. On First Kiss, his tenth studio album, the American Badass stays firmly planted in his front-porch rocker, offering up what might be the chillest, most country-infused music of his long and (somewhat) varied career. Of course it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. The Kid’s been moving toward Seger-esque rock ’n’ roll, southern rock and country ever since he sang about putting your picture away with Sheryl Crow, peaking with 2010’s classic rock achievement Born Free. But where Born Free was endearing – almost charming – in its simple, sunny authenticity, First Kiss often feels cloying and repetitive. On the retro boogie-rock of “Good Times, Cheap Wine,” Rock yet again reminds us what he likes – which, in case you forgot, is “good times, cheap wine (and) backbeat rock and roll.” Elsewhere, he’s[...]

Tonight: The Soft Love

February 21, 2015

Don’t miss new-kids-on-the-block The Soft Love playing Nietzsche’s tonight at 9pm The young local group, which played its debut show at the same Allentown venue on Jan. 17 of this year, brings together members of the Buffalo-based rock groups Son of the Sun and the Thermidors. With The Soft Love being so young – and with next to no recorded material of theirs yet released – it’s still anyones guess what exactly they will bring to the stage tonight. But the Thermidors have a clear affinity for classic rock, blues and garage rock. Meanwhile, Son of the Sun – now defunct – were more informed by shoegaze and moody post-punk (think Interpol or Joy Division with more traditional rock vocals). Desert rockers Johnny Nobody and the garage rock trio, The Naturalists, will open the show. Nietszche’s is located at 248 Allen St. Cover is $5.