Interview

Weatherbox

July 17, 2014

In honor of their show next week at the Waiting Room, we sat down with Weatherbox frontman Brian Warren for an intimate look into his life since the release of their stellar new album, Flies in all Directions. You can catch the band this upcoming Tuesday, July 22 with Dikembe and local support from Brother Keep and Del Paxton. buffaBLOG: You guys are playing in Buffalo on July 22… have you ever played here before? Brian Warren: I have to admit that I don’t recall… you can Google it? We had a drummer from Buffalo. He was in the band from 2009 to 2011, so I think we stayed there on tour. bB: Well, you guys are from San Diego right? Do you think that living there has a lot of effect on your music? BW: Um… There are definitely a handful of my favorite bands that are from San Diego… For[...]

Five Questions with Fat Creeps

July 13, 2014

Local musician John Toohill (JOHNS and Alpha Hopper) will occasionally sit down with touring bands and ask them five questions. For his latest installment, he spoke with Mariam Saleh of Boston’s Fat Creeps, set to play Buffalo tomorrow at Spiral Scratch Records. John Toohill: Hi. Are you awake? Mariam Saleh: Yupp! JT: Great! Question 2 – So I heard your band is named after all the insects the bullies made you eat as kids. Do you still eat bugs and night crawlers for song inspiration or do you just kinda like how they taste now? MS: You can get use to almost anything. That shit grows on you after a while. Stink bugs: not that bad. Not that bad at all JT: So I should just accept my strange childhood traumas and name my band “Alone at Lunch Again” or “Senior Poopy Pants?” MS: Naw, “shit guy.” Title your first release[...]

Miniature Tigers

July 10, 2014

The guys of Miniature Tigers just can’t sit still. Originally from Phoenix, Charlie Brand, the lead singer of the indie-pop outfit, has called home to a number of places- including Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Austin. Safe to say that the band’s musical style changes roughly as much as their home base, and that’s not a bad thing. Their latest album, Cruel Runnings – a confident summer record stuffed with solid synthpop songs that WILL get stuck in your head— paints an entirely different picture than that of their 2008 debut Tell It To The Volcano, but no matter how drastic the stylistic departure may be from album to album, Miniature Tigers always seem to wind up with songs worth grooving to. buffaBLOG was able to get a few questions in just before the band left for an extensive full US tour with The Griswolds. Brand discusses recording in the tropics, going[...]

Psychic Teens

June 24, 2014

If you happened to make it out to buffaBLOG’s Herd Fest this past weekend, you may have heard something about a little band from Philadelphia called Psychic Teens. Now if you were fortunate enough, you actually got to catch their set at Allen Street Hardware, as part of Sugar City’s showcase. And if you missed their set, well, then shame on you. Needless to say, the brotherly love trio (singer/ guitarist Larry Ragone, bassist Joe Decarolis, and drummer Dave Cherasaro) made an impression on Buffalo this past weekend, brandishing their own brand of gothic, art-punk with some post-punk tendencies. As one attendee said, “I just got blasted by Psychic Teens,” while extending his jaw attempting to make his ears pop. “Did you catch them?” he asked me. However before I could answer, partly due to being unable to hear him, he said, “I totally forgot my plugs. They are definitely[...]

Five Questions with BAMBARA

June 18, 2014

Editor’s Note: Local musician John Toohill (JOHNS and Alpha Hopper) will occasionally sit down with touring bands and ask them five questions. For his first installment, he spoke with Blaze Bateh of Brooklyn’s BAMBARA, set to play Buffalo tomorrow at Broadway Joe’s. John Toohill: Hey, I’m getting this local blog to do a post about the show. They asked me to ask you five questions, like a mini interview. Then they will post it as promo. You into that? Blaze Bateh: Oh cool. Yeah we are definitely down. How was your trip out west? JT: Hey, I’m asking the questions around here mister. BB: Whoops. I’m such a dingus JT: Question 1 – So I just got back from Salt Lake City last week. There is a restaurant on South Main Street there called BAMBARA. Why did you name your band after that place? Are you guys all Mormon? BB:[...]

Joshua Smith of Black Dots

June 10, 2014

You have most likely walked by it a thousand times. You’ve probably totally ignored it, like it was invisible, like a vagrant. If it was a two headed mythological serpent of the future, it would have offered you it’s forbidden fruit. It sits drunkenly on the corner of Grant Street and Lafayette Avenue, like Dylan Thomas over a typewriter, directly across from Sweetness 7 Cafe. I am of course talking of Black Dots record shop. If you have ever wandered into the basement record store, you are familiar with it’s owner Joshua Smith. Smith can usually be found sitting behind the counter with the glow of his laptop dancing across his scruffy face.  Always sporting jeans and an obscure punk T-shirt, Smith will give a gentle nod as you enter the store, and calmly go back to his computer. He has a quiet demeanor, but if you can engage him,[...]

Jake Smith of The White Buffalo

April 29, 2014

Jake Smith stands in the back hallway of The Irving Plaza, the music venue that lives in the East Village of Manhattan. Smith’s band, The White Buffalo, will be playing in a few short hours, along with co-headliner Chuck Ragan, a tour that Smith’s publicist has personally coined, as ‘the manliest tour.’ After one look at Smith, you can see why that title just may stick. “That’s a little strange,” he says of the tour’s coined nickname, “But in a lot of respects, there’s not a lot of bullshit on this tour.” He adds, “we [Ragan and opener Johnny 2 Bags] all write honest songs and try to form them unabashed, and without compromise, we try to write good songs, songs that people can believe in.” When your wife informs you that she has been cheating on you with another man and is leaving, Jake Smith is the kind of[...]

The Tins

April 22, 2014

Hello and welcome to the first in what I hope to become an ongoing series where we check in with various local bands to ask that question that pops into our head from time to time, “what are they up to” these days. It has been a little while since we last heard from The Tins after they initially took Buffalo by storm in 2012. And, judging from this interview and their recent logo contest (submissions due April 25), they are preparing to come back with another string of solid releases. So, what are they up to? What is your band currently working on? Dave: We are currently prepping for our summer release.  We are all very excited! When was the last time you released an album? Adam: Back in 2012, when we released our first full-length, Life’s A Gas What has changed since your last release? Adam: We’re pretty much[...]