Feature

How Do Casinos Use Music To Keep Patrons Entertained And Engaged?

January 26, 2020

Listening to music makes even the hardest moments in life a little more enjoyable. Exercising, driving, or working can often be turned into exciting activities with the right tune playing alongside them. Music does more than just fill the silence. It can create a mood and even determine the atmosphere of a room. Slow music means relaxation while faster music leads to excitement. Casinos offer a very particular experience that music helps create. But how can organized beats and vocals alter a player’s gambling trip? The music that a casino plays in the background contributes largely to the success of every player’s experience. The right music will allow them to loosen up and have fun while the wrong music could drive them away. Since music is a comfort people seek in many situations, casino owners have figured out just the right hits to play to make their establishments hot places[...]

A June 7th Prince Playlist

June 6, 2016

June 7th has been a special day for fans of Prince since the beginning as it’s the great man’s birthday. Before he became a Jehovah’s Witness and gave up on the concept of birthdays, Prince would mark his birthday with special performances, announcements, and the release of singles, and after he stopped having birthdays the fans kept celebrating them for him. This year however will be the first June 7th without Prince Rogers Nelson in 58 years , the incredibly sad result of a fatal overdose six weeks ago on April 21st, and that means it is going to be hard. As we get ready for another round of public mourning and appreciation for Prince’s aforementioned brilliance, here’s a playlist highlighting some Prince music from his legendary vault underneath Paisley Park, something for Purple newbies, casual fans, and for hardcore members of the Purple Squad to savor the profound genius of a prolific and[...]

Johnny Nobody

August 12, 2014

By all accounts, Johnny Nobody is a forgotten band. The trio of Lockport natives—Andrew Vaeth (guitar/vocals), Colin Roberts (bass) and Jay White (drums)—haven’t released an album or been out on tour in over three years. According to the now-thirty-something Vaeth, he may be old to even be in a band. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” he coyly said with his signature crooked smile, eyes hiding behind his Ray Ban sunglasses. “Oh, what are you doing tonight?” he said, mimicking what may have been an actual conversation. “Oh, my band is playing at this shitty bar, and you should definitely not come.” Roberts smiled and shook his head from the backseat of the moving van. Vaeth jumps onto the 190 North to make the thirty minute trek to Lockport, New York, where Nobody now rehearses. “You ever been to Lockport?” he asked. I shake my head no. “That’s probably a good thing,” he said with another smile.[...]

Buffalo Vaggie Fest

July 28, 2014

I’m sure you have seen the flyer. I’ve seen it everywhere, from Black Dots Record Boutique to the Elmwood Market, from Spot Coffee to Amy’s Place. The flyer depicts any man’s worst fear, especially if they’ve seen the campy B-­horror film Teeth. Needless to say, it’s definitely eye-catching. The flyer that I am speaking of is for the Buffalo Vaggie Fest, which will be celebrating its fifth year next weekend. The event is the brainchild of Britt Wagner, and even though it is a “lady band” fest, Wagner has a hard time identifying herself as a feminist. Well, maybe she is a feminist by its technical definition, but she prefers the term “equalist.” “I don’t like to say that I am a feminist, but I’m an equalist. Equal shit for everyone,” she says as she takes a sip from her bottle of Magic Hat. “I’ve been places where people have been[...]

Made Violent

July 14, 2014

You desperately want to give the boys of Made Violent a bath. They’re not hippie dirty, nor are they ‘I’ve been candy flippin’ and shitting in my own hand for three days at Bonnaroo, dirty.’ No they’re just grungy. They’re filth-chic, if you will. They all sport wild manes and patchy beards, however bassist/vocalist Joe White’s mane is most Mufasa-esque. The trio has set up shop in the basement of a cottage in Colden, New York. The cottage sets far back from the road, with a quarter mile driveway surrounded by trees on both sides, which leads up to a two story cottage. To the right of the driveway is a pond, filled with fish and a snapping turtle. The cottage lives on the opposite side of the driveway. Behind the cottage sets another patch of trees, which hides two other structures, one which resembles the house from The Walking[...]

A Time of Music, The Music of Time

June 17, 2014

As far as bands go, there are many comparisons you could hail in speaking between the two. They each frolic on the edge of rock, offering a heavy improvisational approach to their music that transcends the boundary of genre and gives a dynamic sense of adventure to their respective sounds. And just as moe. cut their teeth around the gritty Buffalo bar scene before breaking into regions far and wide, so too did Aqueous, albeit over a decade later. But around here the footprints still feel fresh, and time has a funny way of morphing conceptions, of turning prodigies into legends and making legends seem they always were. Though maybe that’s just my tendency towards romantic analogy when it comes to music. After all, I’m still young, and I can’t say that I was entirely present for either group’s ascension to their current music posts. To start, moe. came up[...]