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Staff Picks: Favorite Albums & Songs (so far) – Part 1

June 26, 2014

With 2014 at its mid way point, the staff here at buffaBLOG has gone over the first six months of the year and picked our favorite tracks and albums. Variety is always nice on lists like this; it shows that we have been blessed with a rich and diverse year of new music, and for the most point, it is reflected on today and tomorrow’s Part 2 lists. Bill Wright Album: Liars – Mess For 15 years, Liars have been tweaking, reworking, and pivoting their sound.  But if there is one thing that has remained constant over the years, it’s that they have always been a little weird. Their front man is even named Angus ,which is a weird name if I’ve ever heard one (apologizes to all the readers out there named Angus). This year, Liars put out their “electronic” album, a record that takes all the beeps and boops they[...]

Mystic Braves – Desert Island

April 30, 2014

Mystic Braves is one of those groups that tend to ramble on. Since their last, self titled album, they haven’t quite figured out how to stray from their original sound, which is a western-influenced, rawhide feel. For starters, I’m not asking that a group create dramatically new content with each work, but when I can’t tell the difference between song A and song B, there’s a cog missing in the clock. On Desert Island, guitar licks are swinging in the wind like a pair of balls too big for their boxers. Indeed, this is good music to listen to if you’re driving or trying to get through the day at work. It’s casual surf rock, almost like they didn’t know what to play when they started, so they decided to rehash the same motif heard in groups like Tame Impala and Ariel’s Pink Haunted Graffiti. On “I Want You Back,” they[...]

Thievery Corporation – Saudade

April 2, 2014

Rob Garza and Eric Hilton are busy guys. Since forming Thievery Corporation in the late ’90’s, they’ve produced eleven studio albums, with the release of Saudade as their twelfth. Normally when one thinks of Thievery Corporation, they are associated with the acid-jazz movement and over-dubbed relaxing reggae. For the duo, things are shifting with this new release. What drew them together is the Brazilian-born genres of music that can be seen here in purely classical form on Saudade. After straying and exploring several elements of the electronic world, as Garza says, ‘it’s us coming full circle from electronic music back to something organic.’  The Portugese word ‘saudade’ means “a longing or something or someone that is lost, a contented melancholy, or, simply, the presence of an absence.” This is an appropriate titling for the group and the musical shift they are exploring. Sometimes, in order to get rid of that feeling of loneliness,[...]

buffaBLOG 4th Birthday Party Artist Spotlight: Chauncey Tails

March 28, 2014

One of the most important factors involved in pleasing the party goers is the disc jockey. They do us a great service by pleasing our eardrums in-between acts, making sure we all keep our dancing shoes in check. This time around for our 4th bday party at Duke’s, we will have Gowanda native Chauncey Tails spinning a delightful mix before acts, during, and closing out the night. Chauncey certainly has his chops when it comes to the wide-range of influences working within his own music, not only focusing on more popular genres such as dub-step but also incorporating elements of IDM, house, and trip-hop.   Take, for instance, the songs “waitin 4 2 nite” and “Yr Girls Got a Drug Prob (Instrumental).” Chauncey layers minimally–and that may sound contradictory. He lays down an initial beat, with the former track it’s more so four on the floor, and then glitches in a sharp, witty loop that could become[...]

Liars – Mess

March 26, 2014

The Brooklyn-based threesome Liars is hard to peg when it comes to classifying, or relaying their catalogue of music. After moving between New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Berlin, finally settling down in New York City, it is apparent their music morphs alongside them like a nomadic passenger. Liars’ seventh studio album, Mess, is glam-electronic at its finest, boasting erotic, dark synths, and deadpan vocals that make me wonder whether these guys are night walkers (see: Game Of Thrones). If the title of the album doesn’t already give off a strong hint of the chaotic, musical swirl that follows, the album art might, looking like something out of artist Jim Drain’s anthropomorphic, woven sculpture collection.  “Mask Maker” begins with lyrics sung through a vocal changer that say “smell my socks/ eat my face off/ take my face off/ I like your face” that remind me of what a crazed man or woman on bath[...]

The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

March 20, 2014

If one were to switch out the article ‘the’ with ‘a’ in The War On Drugs’ new album title, Lost In The Dream, one would find a stark and subtle difference between interpretations. Lost in ‘a’ dream connotes a superfluous, vague experience, like, ‘oh yeah, I was like, all swirling up in that dream man, totally bonkers.’ Lost in ‘the’ dream is specific, melancholy. Why would anyone feel lost in ‘the dream’, which I’m getting to here, is the dream that each individual pursues? From what I gather of Adam Granduciel is that the guy is rather OCD. After doing a little background research, having not been a die-hard fan of the group already, I found that this album took to him like a leech. Post-breakup, like many of us know, can turn on an obsessive creative switch to deviate from any lingering feelings or emotions. I’m not saying that this album[...]