Opinion

What I’m Thankful For 2014: A Resurgent WBNY 91.3 FM

November 26, 2014 Cliff Parks

It’s that time of year, that time when we are called upon to be publicly thankful for things like family, God, country, capitalism, blah, blah, blah, and this year, outside of family, I’m fairly pessimistic about the rest… with the exception of a vital development in Buffalo’s radio scene. No I’m not talking about 107.7, which seems to have already plateaued in terms of musical direction with everything they play starting to sound the same (memo to Alt Buffalo: more indie, less corporate “indie” crap; maybe some Radiohead post 1997). I’m talking about a long running and venerable institution that’s found it’s mojo at precisely the right time for our area. This year, I’m thankful for Buffalo’s truest alternative radio station, the newly focused and resurgent WBNY 91.3 FM. It’s as if the folks at 91.3 remembered that people beyond Buff State and the Upper West Side listen to them,[...]

Is the New Pusha T Track the Least “Kanye” Kanye Beat We’ve Heard?

November 25, 2014 Matt Moretti

Pusha T (through Funkmaster Flex) released “Lunch Money” about a week ago (week ago), his first new track since his solo debut album My Name is My Name last year. From back in the Clipse days of the early to mid 2000s, right through MNIMN, King Push has been rapping over unorthodox beats. Take 2002’s “Intro” off of Clipse’s Lord Willin or 2013’s “Suicide” as examples. It’s in Pusha’s blood to choose unconventional production. So, earlier in the week when “Lunch Money” dropped attached to P’s name, it wasn’t exactly shocking that the beat was pretty whacky. Listeners debated over whether the beat was good or not, but the real conversation started when the producer of the track was revealed to be none other than Yeezus himself. On the record, I would call this a weird beat for Kanye to produce. Off the record, I’d say that this beat is weird as fuck for Kanye[...]

T-Pain’s Return to Relevancy

November 7, 2014 Matt Moretti

What a week it’s been for T-Pain. The premiere hook-man of the late 2000s was the face of the auto-tune era in pop-rap music, but few people knew that there was so much more to this artist. When T-Pain began using auto-tune, it was innovative and creative. As with any fad, at the decline of it’s popularity, auto-tune in pop music was looked at with disdain. We believed (often times correctly) that is was a crutch for those that lacked real talent. There were artists like Kanye West and Bon Iver who received exceptions from this perception, due to their artistic integrity, but T-Pain was thrusted in with the former group. What everyone forgot until seemingly recently was that T-Pain was using auto-tune before nearly everyone else. Auto-tune was popular because of him, but it wasn’t bad because of him. It was bad because people who couldn’t sing tried to[...]

One Direction Dads Draw Short Straw Next September

October 29, 2014 Cliff Parks

To say that there was a collective groan accompanied the shrieks of tweener and stunted teenage girls when it was announced that British boy band juggernaut, One Direction, would be playing the Ralph next September would be an understatement. From music bloggers to music blog readers to purists rightly bemoaning the fact that the first show at the former Rich Stadium in ages will be a boy band, not to mention Orchard Park residents bracing for an even louder godawful shriek that will be heard for miles around, there wasn’t an abundance of joy on display beyond the OD target demographic. But there’s a demographic that groaned the loudest, and it was from the sorry bastards who will have to take their daughters to the show. Sure, many blokes have already called “NOT IT!” whilst touching their index finger to their nose or are already scheming to have that week[...]

Do I Love Makonnen?

October 22, 2014 Matt Moretti

Makonnen Sheran has had a whirlwind of a couple months. The 25-year-old ATLien has spent the last 5 years or so in legal trouble, stemming from the accidental death of his friend while Makonnen was trying to take a gun from him. Posted up at home for all that time with a computer and a passion for music allowed Makonnen to hone his craft during the heyday of MySpace. After years of rubbing virtual elbows with the likes of Adele and Lil B, Makonnen was released from his confines. Upon release, he was able to meet up with another one of his virtual friends from back in the day, superstar producer and probable Miley Cyrus slampiece Mike Will Made It. Will brought Makonnen to the studio and introduced him to the producers that would forever change the course of his musical path, the ones that man feel Makonnen should thank[...]

U2’s 1% Problems

September 25, 2014 Cliff Parks

Last week was a bummer for a lot of U2 fans when the Irish band gave away their latest album, Songs Of Innocence, by heavy-handedly and shamelessly jamming it into everybody’s iTunes accounts. Listening to the dud, talking to other U2 fans and finding out that they too think it’s a dud, and seeing the album’s poor reception by critics, millennials, and Tyler the Creator has been sobering. What’s always been interesting about U2 and their grand gestures going back to the beginning is that there’s always been a few grand failures along the way, but this time they went too far. They’ve become a punchline… and spam that everybody wants to delete. And for this longtime fan at least, three duds in a row is enough and the end of the line. I know some fans are into Songs Of Innocence, but one gets the sense that those fans[...]

In For The Long Haul

August 18, 2014 John Hugar

Last week, I picked up the new Judas Priest album, Redeemer Of Souls, and I have to say, I’m stunned at how great it is. At 13 tracks, and a running time over an hour, I never got bored while listening to it. It reminded me of everything that made me love Priest to begin with, and you could slot it in comfortably next to classics like Screaming For Vengeance and British Steel. After each listen, I found myself wondering how a band exactly 40 years removed from their first studio album could sound so fresh and vital. Shouldn’t they be getting stale and disinterested by now? The Rolling Stones are the first band we think when we think of bands who hang around forever, mainly because they’re the oldest band that hasn’t broken up (although it’ been nine years since their last album…). These days, bands being in their third[...]

Remembering Echo, Tom Petty’s Overlooked Masterpiece

August 11, 2014 John Hugar

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Tom Petty is asked if there’s any album he’s made that he’s not fond of. He responds by telling us that he’s not particularly thrilled with 1999’s Echo, although people have told him it’s “not that bad.” Well, I can safely say that this is an enormous udnerstatement. Not only is Echo not bad, it’s Petty’s most underrated album, and one of his best. Of course, I don’t blame Tom for not being a fan of it – he recorded it while going through a bitter divorce, and it features some of the darkest songs he’s ever recorded. But while that experience may not be fun for Petty to relive, the album is extremely rewarding on repeated listens. Petty has always been the kind of artist whose songs are from the hip, and often feel autobiographical, but this is the rare album where[...]

The Importance of Young Thug’s TV Debut

August 8, 2014 Matt Moretti

Last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, we saw perhaps the most meaningful performance in recent rap history, as it was the coming out party for a certain Thug. Young Thug has been making waves with some of the best party songs of the last two years, as well as being the new go-to hook man in the scene. So what makes this artist’s appearance particularly interesting? Well, we might end up looking at him as a trailblazer. Kanye was weird when he was wearing pink polos and backpacks in the early to mid 2000s. He was stylistically a standout, the first mainstream rapper in forever with the preppy, intentionally not-gangster image. It would mark a shift in what was popular in rap, a move towards non-violence, humor, fashion, and so much more. He first appeared on the Dave Chapelle Show alongside Common, and has never left publicity since then.[...]

Can We Still Believe In Weezer?

August 4, 2014 John Hugar

So a few weeks ago Weezer released a new single and… it’s actually pretty good. If you haven’t heard “Back To The Shack” yet, I’d recommend checking it out. It’s catchy as hell and it displays the sense of humor that has always been one of Rivers Cuomo’s strong suits. So do we get excited for the new album now? After years of disappointment, have Weezer finally gotten their shit together? Well, that’s where it gets a bit tricky. Weezer have came out with strong lead singles before and failed to deliver on the album. In 2009, Weezer released “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” as the first single off Ratitude, and everyone agreed it was the best thing they had done in years. The following album failed to live up the hype. It was full of tracks that were catchy enough, but rather soulless,[...]

The Stunning Endurance Of Weird Al

July 21, 2014 John Hugar

Last week, the winner of the internet was pretty much unanimous: it was Weird Al by a mile. After releasing his new album Mandatory Fun and putting out a new video for eight straight days, it became abundantly clear that the world is still interested in Weird Al’s warped take on the popular songs of the day. Really, this isn’t surprising; he’s a hilarous guy, and he always has been. But one interesting thing to consider is that Weird Al has managed to remain relevant in music for 30 years now. That sort of thing is practically unheard of. As the trends in popular music have shifted again and again, the only thing that’s really remained constant is Weird Al’s ability to mock them. There’s always a New Dylan, a Next Springsteen, and a Madonna-in-waiting. But Weird Al is pretty much irreplaceable. Plenty of aging musicians still have their albums[...]

The De-Evolution of Robin Thicke

July 14, 2014 John Hugar

At the end of 2013, when I made my predictions for what would happen in the year to come, one of them was “Robin Thicke will return to pre-Blurred Lines fame level.” It was something of a throwaway line. I figured a 36-year-old lucking into a monster hit was more of a fluke then a signal that he’s going to be a mainstay on the top 40. What I couldn’t have predicted was just how far he would sink. Thicke’s new album Paula came out two weeks ago, and has been one of the biggest bombs the music world has seen in some time. It sold about 530 copies in the UK, and just 53 in Australia. Things were a little better in the US, where the album debuted at No. 9, and sold 24,000 copies. Still, the notion that Thicke was going to turn his smash hit into a[...]

Is Originality Overrated?

June 23, 2014 John Hugar

I’m still not sure what my favorite song on the new Black Keys album is. It might be the one that sounds like Pink Floyd, or the one sounds like Sweet, or the one with the riff that sort of sounds like an electric version of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.” Or maybe the other one that sounds like Pink Floyd…. Ok, you get the idea. But while many of the songs on Turn Blue can be directly traced to 70s classic rock, that doesn’t make me love it any less. If you go to The Black Keys looking for originality, you’re looking in the wrong direction. They have loads of great songs, but they are more than happy to be revivalists rather than originators. This brings up an interesting question: Is originality really all that important? We’ve spent more than a decade appreciating songs from rock bands who we love because[...]

Best Case/Worst Case: Up-and-Coming Pop Stars

June 16, 2014 John Hugar

Pop music is in a transitional stage right now. New performers keep sprouting up with mega-hits faster than we can keep track of them. So, with that mind, let’s look and some of the bright new faces in pop and determine what would be the best ways for their careers to play out, and what scenarios would leave us sick with disappointment. Lorde Best case: Continues to embrace weirdness, and largely ignores what’s going on with contemporary pop stars. In a perfect world, she could keep making the music she wants to make while staying a force in the mainstream, but if she fades out of view of the Billboard Hot 100 and continues to do her own thing, that would be fine, too. Really, just as long as she stays weird, and continues to grow as a songwriter without blatantly seeking out huge pop hits, that would be great.[...]

When Rock Stars Are Jerks

June 9, 2014 John Hugar

Last week, I wrote about the ongoing feud between Jack White and The Black Keys, and why I didn’t think it was anything to get worked up about – musicians talk crap about each other’s work all the time, so what if one artist you like hates another artist you like? But the Rolling Stone interview with White wasn’t just noteworthy because of White’s specific comments about the Keys, it also registered because the dude just comes off like a bit of a prick. He just seems like a bitter guy who, considering his massive success, doesn’t have all that many reasons to be bitter. Ultimately, that was why White decided to apologize: he knew his words had left a bad taste in his fans mouths, and he wanted to correct the problem as quickly as possible. But this raises a larger question: does it matter that our favorite rock stars[...]