Buffalo

Cove Explores Humanity’s Strongest Emotion On love.gained/love.lost.too

June 20, 2014

The Essential Vitamins Crew (EVC) of Buffalo boasts “no additives or preservatives,” and that’s exactly what EVC member and hip hop producer Cove has testified to on his latest album love.gained/love.lost.too. The release is a follow up to Cove’s Love.Lost/Love.Gained. release of last February, and it follows a similar soundscape. Cove keeps the track name nearly as simple as possible. Most of the titles are just their number, with the exception of a few dates and the album’s closer. Track “two”begins with a quote from Love and Basketball, in which the main characters as children begin dating. Throughout the album Cove rips scenes depicting different stages of love from movies and uses them as interludes to further portray the album’s themes. “Apr.20” was hardly the pot-smokers anthem one would think considering it’s name. Cove chops up the same vocal sample we’ve heard on Black Hippy’s “Black Lip Bastard” remix, and combines[...]

The Get Money Squad Drops Debut Single, “Back Again”

June 20, 2014

Last night, Quinton Brock of Network and producer Jon Bap debuted an interesting new project called The Get Money Squad. The pair is prepping the release of a debut EP and have shared their first single, titled “Back Again.” Those familiar with Network’s Death Grips inspired live shows will be pleasantly surprised to hear laid back, chiming guitars, and the smooth vocals of Brock, drawing comparisons to the latest albums from both Mac DeMarco and Ducktails. Check out “Back Again” below and keep an eye on the band’s soundcloud page for future tracks.

Local Onlys Drop Mt. Wister EP

June 19, 2014

Jacob Smolinski is one busy man. In addition to leading the charming yet now disbanded group, The Cascos, he is involved with numerous bands, side projects and his own independent record label, Lips Records. Unlike his other bands, however, which seem to exist from the sheer fun of playing and recording, Local Onlys stands out as Smolinski’s most serious and polished endeavor into songwriting. Their new EP, Mt. Wister, shows the band at their most mature yet, but luckily still sports their preppy tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. What struck me the most from the EP is the band’s range of different styles, moving comfortably from quiet acoustic ballad (“Komono”) to fast punk rock (“Ode to an RA”) while still maintaining Smolinski’s signature jumpy pop sound. After only a little less than a year since the band’s formation, it is refreshing to note the other members influence on the songs, particularly[...]

Fotisporn Releases “D Frenzy” Single

June 16, 2014

Speaking of Buffalo vaporwave acts, another interesting track popped up over the weekend from the underground genre in the form of “D Frenzy” from electronic artist Fotisporn. The dark, disco single samples Billy Ocean’s “Carribeen Queen” while backed by smooth horns and has some serious Darkside vibes. Keep an eye out from future releases from this mysterious project. In the mean time, listen to “D Frenzy” below.

Silo Sessions Debuts Nat Baldwin Performance

June 16, 2014

After this weekend’s successful launch party over at Silo City, Silo Sessions, a weekly live video blog, launched its first installment featuring Nat Baldwin of the Dirty Projectors. The blog fittingly kicks of its series with the artist whose performance was one of the inspirations of the project. The stand up bass extraordinaire, who has made it a habit of performing in Buffalo over the years, delivers a stunning and haunting performance in the site’s inaugural session. Silo Sessions will be releasing a new session, all filmed within Silo City’s grain elevators, every week over the coming year, featuring performances from both local and touring acts, many of whom played Saturday night’s event. Follow Silo Sessions website for future installments. Watch the full session with Nat Baldwin below.

Newish Star Releases Look Both Ways

June 12, 2014

I didn’t know what to expect when I dove into Look Both Ways, the early-June release from fresh Buffalo act, Newish Star. As I examined their bandcamp page, I noticed there isn’t a track on Look that touches the two-minute mark, so the moments before that initial listen-through were saturated with a nervous curiosity. Safe to say the songs—frenetic Dinosaur Jr-style explosions of noisy energy—warrant the quickness. It works. The opening track, “Super Double Jackpot,” touches on the all-too-familiar feeling of helplessness with lyrics like “So you tried, and you gave it your all / but the only thing that matters is the control of it all”, as the song races to the finish line, raucous and proud. Other highlights include the 36-second-long punk number “No Way Out”, the satiating riff-work of “Newbody,” and the whistle solo (yes, whistle solo) a midst the bumbling chug of “Runnin’ Rich.” Although proclaimed[...]

The Tins Premiere Music Video For “They Aren’t Evil” Single

June 11, 2014

Herd Fest act the Tins have announced the release of their latest EP, Young Blame, set to drop on July 29th. The EP is currently available for pre-sale here, but luckily, the band has released the music video for Young Blame‘s first single, “They Aren’t Evil,” earlier today to give us a taste of the new material. The single moves away from some of the more new wave vibes of their last LP, Life’s A Gas, and enters a DOM-like melody territory. If you wish to hear the new tracks before streaming begins on bandcamp, you can help celebrate the release of Young Blame with the trio on Friday, July 11th at Buffalo Iron Works. The release show will also serve as a tour kick off (see full itinerary below) that will take the threesome across the U.S.. More confirmed dates will follow. July 11th- Buffalo N.Y – Buffalo Iron[...]

Darksleep Releases 電効営み

June 11, 2014

Over at the blog offices last week, we stumbled across the  impressive, debut LP, 電効営み , from vaporwave artist Darksleep. The album immediately had us thinking of works from Oneohtrix Point Never, Crystal Castles, and even some Purity Ring, and while we have no idea how to pronounce 電効営, the album quickly grew on us. Check out the entire release over at Darksleep’s bandcamp page and in the mean time, listen to album’s stand out track, “Left on the Curb,” below.

Edwang Shines On Collaborative Effort With Duce

June 11, 2014

Buffalo born producer Edwang has honed his craft remixing and mashing up other rap songs, but he’s stepped in a new direction with this collaborative effort with rapper Duce. The Duce Bootlegs is a project full of poppy hip hop goodness that reasserts Edwang’s staying power. He’s crafted complex beats that still allow the freedom of an emcee to flow over. The bouncy keyboard on “True Hollywood Story” sets the tone for the rest of an album that never takes itself too seriously.  The beat in “Pirate Booty” is based around a upbeat west-coast guitar riff, and the rapping is basically Duce rattling off pirate references in each line. His best rapping probably comes in “Old Joe,” where Duce narrates the unfortunate experience of catching an STD. Edwang continuously impresses on the beats, and flashes his experiences in productions by including some pop culture bites for skits between songs. Aziz Ansari’s[...]

Aircraft Premieres Video For “Space Euphoria”

June 10, 2014

Just this morning, Buffalo quartet Aircraft released the new music video for their single “Space Euphoira.” Originally released on a split EP with former Buffalo “it” trio, the Malones, the track will also be included on a future LP from the foursome. As for the Lesionread directed video, which by the way, is one of the best produced local videos that comes to mind, the clip finds the guys traveling the cosmos in a space equipped mystery machine, battling interplanetary villains with surf rock riffs. Keep on the look out for those trademark warped eyes that have become a staple in Lesionread directed videos these days. In other Aircraft news, the band will play at the Burchfield Penny right after work this Friday,  but if you can’t make that and have a passport, you can always catch them at their NXNE showcases the following weekend. If you are in the Toronto area[...]

Quiet Country Audio Debuts Latest Session feat. Head North

June 5, 2014

A few weeks away from hosting their own showcase at the buffaBLOG’s inaugural Herd Fest, Quiet Country Audio has released the latest installment in its video session series. This time around, QCA teamed up with Head North to record live cuts from the the pop-punk four piece’s recently released Scrapbook Minds EP. You may listen to the full, four-song session at QCA’s bandcamp page and watch the clip for “Doubt and Deadlines” below.

crontab -u john Releases GIRLS EP

June 4, 2014

Not really sure who crontab -u john is, other than that it’s a producer who just relocated to Buffalo from the small island-nation of Canada, but I am super high on his recently released Girls EP. Perhaps knowing that I’m wildly desensitized to boring regular indie rock and can only get off on weird shit and hard-as-fuck gangster rap anymore, a fellow buffaBLOGGER sent me a link to the Bandcamp page. A tinny and claustrophobic cluster of angsty tracks, Girls sounds like what would happen if David Byrne and The Birthday Party got tricked into boarding a time machine in 1981, but it turned out it wasn’t actually a time machine, it was actually just the hard drive from a shitty mid-00s laptop, oh, and the Butthole Surfers and Fucked Up were in there too, but instead of instruments they were playing circuits. So, in the end, it sort of[...]

Pizza Pizza Drops His 25th Slice

June 4, 2014

Continuing his stretch of high quality free releases, Buffalo trap artist, Pizza Pizza, has dropped his latest in “Slice 25.” Its uplifting, summer-y synths make this track a great instrumental for the season. In fact, Yung Zza himself has declared the song to be the best that he’s ever made. He’s created a swirl of trap and EDM that still manages to be soothing and low-key. Considering his latest song is also perhaps his best, it’s become apparent that Pizza Pizza is only growing and getting better as an artist. Check out “Slice 25” below.

Smart House Releases Revamped “Let’s Skip”

June 4, 2014

Since releasing one of the blog’s favorite songs of 2013 in “Car Ride,” Alek Ogadzhanov’s Smart House project has been keeping busy. In between the reshuffling of band members and a future collaboration of some sort with Tom Burtless of Humble Braggers, Ogadzhanov has also taken to revamping some of his older material. One of those revisited songs, which just so happened to slip under our radar, was “Let’s Skip,” released nearly a month ago. Originally a nervy chip-tunes number recorded under the Brat’ya moniker, “Let’s Skip” has been remarkably remade into a lush cut of electro-pop that would make Johnny Jewel jealous. Fans of Cherub, Chromatics, and darker Hot Chip  should listen below. You might want to check it out now so you aren’t surprised when this makes our top 20 count down at the end of the year.

Yesterday vs. Tomorrow Releases “Mark Rothko” Single

June 3, 2014

Yesterday vs. Tomorrow peaked our interest since we caught a glimpse of their discography via an early leak for this year’s Infringement lineup (which by the way, is set to blow the previous years out of the water). The duo’s single, “Mark Rothko,” is a soaring mix between whiney Taking Back Sunday and melodic Muse anthem rock. Currently in the studio working on their upcoming double album titled Aurora Borealis, Yesterday vs. Tomorrow will be keeping busy this summer with a string of June gigs.  Check out the building single “Mark Rothko” below.