Opinion

How To Break Into Buffalo’s Local Music Scene

Have you been inspired by your favorite Buffalo artists? Many people dream of breaking into their local music scene — but whether you’re a Buffalo native or the new kid in town, it’s never easy to take those first steps towards a career in music.  In this post, we’ll be sharing some of our top tips for breaking into the music scene. Whatever your style, these ideas could help you find your feet and get the ball (rock and) rolling.  1. Read Your Local Newspapers — All Of Them  From searching for the best online piano lessons to signing a record deal, the road to becoming a professional performer can be a long and winding one.  One of the best strategies to break into music is to know your local scene inside out. If you prefer to find your news on social media, you might not have picked up a[...]

How Music Has Changed With the Emergence of New Technology

Technology has changed many aspects of life in a multitude of ways. The music industry has not gone untouched by the influence. Music is one way we use to express ourselves, and it has been changing for thousands of years. In recent decades, there have been numerous technological advances and innovations, which have led to a remarkable effect on modern-day music. Here are some of the ways music has changed with technology. Music Creation New technology has led to countless sound effects and opportunities for musicians. Effect pedals have allowed musicians to experiment with altering the pitch and variety of time-based effects. Timing effects, for instance, enable you to create an echo for a more textured sound.   There are new apps for musicians who are on a low budget. Downloading these apps enables them to experiment with sound creation affordably. With the introduction of new exciting sounds, music writing and[...]

From Techno to Classical, the Intangible Benefits of Music

Music is such a strong, influential tool in our lives. It has the power to induce certain emotions from us, and mold our habit of thinking in ways we least expect. Due to the philosophical hold it has, there’s an imperceptible bridge that connects us to different cultures, millions of people across the globe. More than providing entertainment and ambiance, music, as a whole, also impacts our overall learning and memory process. There’s a study on Academia about how music affects university students. As a matter of fact, actual music students, or those who took up art-related courses, have better GPAs and are mostly higher achievers than those who aren’t involved in the craft. The Netherlands, Hungary, and Japan, are just some of the countries that put a premium on this subject’s study and participation. Now for us to further understand the concept of music and its overall influence, let’s[...]

A Few Thoughts On Prince (1958-2016) [UPDATED]

I’m not even going to try cranking out an obituary for Prince, who died unexpectedly at age 57 Thursday. There’s already a tremendous amount of excellent writing out there marking this terrible and frankly surreal tragedy. So as staff Princephile, I’m just going to stick with a few thoughts on the great man, his music, and how it changed my life: I was a little too young to truly appreciate 1999 and Purple Rain when both took over the pop world in 1982 and 1984 respectively. I liked the singles and videos but I wasn’t tuned in enough to be down with Prince when he broke big time. But five years later I was a full blown teenager and in love with Tim Burton’s Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson Batman movie, and I had no choice but to get both the Danny Elfman score and Prince’s album of original music for the[...]

A Very Murray Christmas

The A Very Murray Christmas special on Netflix is one of the greatest pop culture artifacts ever produced, and potentially the apex of human civilization. Crafted by international icon/spirit animal Bill Murray, Mitch Glazer and director Sofia Coppola for streaming whenever you like, it is an instantly classic one offmedia masterpiece that transcends film, television, and reality itself. Featuring preposterously bravura performances  from a multitude of talents that are soulfully beautiful, yet ironic without a trace of irony, it’s ridiculously heartfelt and brilliant. There, I said it. And the musical numbers supervised by Paul Shaffer are sublime from start to finish: the very first number “Christmastime Blues” featuring Bill with Paul at the piano in his suite at the Carlisle Hotel before Bill’s ill-fated live TV holiday special instantly recalls Nick the Lounge Singer while setting the slightly melancholic mood; a duet in matching Andy Williams sweaters of Bill and[...]

The Bandcamp Era

Car Seat Headrest recently rolled out a “Greatest Hits” of sorts. Well, the bandcamp lo-fi version of what a greatest hits compilation would be. The album is called Teens of Style and it raises at least a couple of interesting questions: What do we do with all this lo-fi music laying around Bandcamp that previously independent artists released, now that those artists are being signed? What does this mean on a greater scale, for artists and fans, as windows like Bandcamp are becoming a standard within certain genres? There have been a lot of irrelevant questions posed to these guys from different angles, mostly pertaining to the “pressures” of having a wider audience, having to work with other people, and all kinds of ridiculous questions that really stereotype people like Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest) and Mat Cothran (Elvis Depressedly) as introverted guys who wouldn’t know how to make or perform[...]

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

The Buffalo News via Buffalo.com reported Wednesday that the Common Council unanimously voted Tuesday to eventually move the wildly successful Canalside Concert Series somewhere not Canalside, a move that might potentially kill off the long running concert series just when it’s getting good. Apparently complaints about noise, traffic, and unruly young people by Marine Drive Apartments residents proved sufficient to precipitate this shock move, and now Canalside concertgoers get to look forward to the series moving to the Outer Harbor or Lasalle Park, and truthfully, I don’t think the series can survive a move to either. Let’s be honest: while summer was great, it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for the “fun crowd” in Western New York, with the oncoming change in bar closing time in Erie County, which is totally happening by the way (you’ve been warned), and now word of a Canalside Concert move to the[...]

Dr. Dre and Detox

Last week, Dr. Dre, the notorious and elusive producer who had us salivating for 15 years for Detox, the final part of his solo album trilogy, announced that it has been scrapped. Instead, he is dropping Compton: A Soundtrack, inspired by the upcoming N.W.A. biopic on Thursday. Dre, who helped introduce a sort of street-level realism in the late 80s with N.W.A. and then came like a riot into white America’s living room with 1992’s The Chronic, is still perhaps hip hop’s most influential producer, despite ghosting out of the game entirely for the past decade. With The Chronic, Dre’s sun-bleached, 70’s funk samples mixed with surly, even darkly comic raps. For his sequel, Chronic 2001 or just 2001, he assembled a core of musicians, including studio-rat-turned-fallen-Greek-God Scott Storch, and bassist Mike Elizondo, to relaunch his brand of g-funk as airtight, cosmic and sample-less. He ended up going beyond what merely just passed[...]

The Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well: A View from the Couch

To many, a “couch tour” likely sounds like a grueling task of furniture shopping, visiting store after store, only to end up disappointed with the final choice. To those in the jam community, though, the experience is an opportunity to listen to and view the shows we would otherwise miss. Phish and Umphrey’s McGee are famous for this, streaming many of their shows while on tour. As for the Grateful Dead, the group has not played in an era where this technology was available, until now that is. The reunited core four, composed of rhythm guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir, bassist and recent vocalist Phil Lesh, and drummers/percussion members Bob Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, and joined by Bruce Hornsby on Grand Piano, Jeff Chimenti on Brent Mydland’s (former Grateful Dead keys player) old rig, and Trey Anastasio from Phish on lead guitar, played a total of fives hows together for[...]

Thursday at Canalside Report Card

The announcement of the Thursday at Canalside series, now years away from the cesspool that was Layfette Square, is one of Buffalo’s true indicators that summer is pretty much here. And with that announcement, comes lots and lots of bitching, at least normally. My fellow buffaBLOGGER Cliff Parks once told me “if you like three of the Canalside acts, then it’s a good year.” And you know what? The guy is 100% correct. What people don’t realize is that this FREE lineup isn’t made for you, or your parents, or a fan of one particular genre, rather, it’s made for everyone, which means multiple genres/bands/sounds will be represented, some to the pleasure and some to the disdain of those looking to spend a nice Thursday evening down on the water front. As per tradition, I have compiled my Thursday at Canalside Report Card, and before I go any further, please take[...]

Waka For President? Maybe

Over the past couple of days, “news” broke that Queens-born, ATL-based rapper Waka Flocka Flame is running for president in 2016. In a Rolling Stone video released on 4/20, Waka indulges in an L and runs through the driving points of his campaign. This includes the obvious mention of marijuana legalization and some more obscure topics like banning dogs from restaurants and people with feet over size 13 from sidewalks. The campaign continued again today with this video in which Waka collects signatures for a petition that will get him on the ballot However sincere this campaign actually is comes second to the idea that as far as rappers running for president go, Waka Flocka is actually a pretty solid choice. It’s easy to look at the lyrics of a Waka Flocka song and call it trash, but lyrics have never been his thing. He himself has admitted that he’s[...]

Happy Kanye Disappoints, So Far

It’s 2015, and Kanye is happy and making an album. He was hungry making College Dropout, inspired for Late Registration and Graduation, depressed for 808s, desperate for MBDTF, and angry for Yeezus. Every one of his solos was reflected of Kanye’s state of mind during their time period, and now Kanye is probably in the most simple emotional state he’s been in since he’s entered the celebrity arena. He’s got a wife and daughter he loves, and his fashion career that has often been a point of frustration in his life, appears to be turning a new corner. Simply put, Kanye is in a good place. Is that good for us as listeners though? “Only One” is probably the best song Kanye has let out in the new year, but right now I can’t say that that’s even a top 20 Ye track. “FourFiveSeconds” is one of the more disappointing tracks in memory, as accurately described by Justin on here[...]

Drake Pulls Beyonce, Drops Surprise Album

Friday the 13th, February of 2015. A day that will live in Drakefamy. It was just yesterday that we were all wondering what rap superstar Aubrey “Drake” Graham was cooking up. Early in the day, he dropped “Jungle,” something of a promo video of him walking around his hometown of Toronto, and rumors of a mixtape had been swirling since Drake became increasingly active in recent months. And at about midnight, the hype came to fruition with the release of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Always savvy, Drake went over all of our heads and dropped a full album on iTunes! Surprise albums have been all the rage in hip hop-RnB in the last few years, most notably starting when Jay Z announced during June’s 2013 NBA Finals that he was dropping Magna Carta Holy Grail on the 4th of July. That commercial, with all of it’s Rick[...]

Even Limp Bizkit Hates Limp Bizkit Fans

For most of us born in the late ’80s or early ’90s, the name Limp Bizkit brings to mind two things: the group’s almost laughably awful and contrived bro-metal, and the groups fans, which could be politely described as “roided-out, tribal-tattooed, spray-tanned, Jell-O shot filled bohunks.” In fact, it was none other than Wes Borland, Limp Bizkit’s lead guitarist/mascot, who so kindly described said fans of his in an Instagram caption. Then, perhaps in the briefest moment of self-reflection (you know, reflection that these people made you rich as hell), apparently later deleted it. According to MetalInjection.net, Borland wrote: “Getting all packed up this week for Broatchella 2015. It’s the same as Brochella but it’s off land. Can’t wait to see me some roided out tribal tattooed spray tanned Jell-O shot filled bohunks do their best drunk MMA impressions in the top deck mosh pit. Whenever we aren’t on stage, I’ll be curled[...]

Is “FourFiveSeconds” Even A Song?

On paper, the Kanye West-Paul McCartney-Rihanna collaboration “FourFiveSeconds” looks huge, a swing-for-the-fences song that could actually change things. It features two of the world’s greatest pop stars, plus a Beatle, and other wild card talent, but virtually none of their presence is felt. The legendary Paul McCartney is reduced to tapping on a few keyboards—maybe guitar. Kanye deploys a brief, auto-tuneless vocal performance that is totally mailed in, and I have no idea what David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors is doing here. For all we know, he was just hanging out in the same room while the song was recorded and got some props. A total of 10 people are credited here – a spare acoustic guitar song – that sounds like it was mixed down from just four tracks. The song’s uplifting, face-the-day tone feels like it could be sung at AA meetings or in one of those[...]