Latest Posts

Red Heat – Dark Days

September 24, 2018

Seemingly, the biggest outlier on Red Heat’s new album, Dark Days, is the song “Yojimbo.” Most of the songs on the album are very literal and highly political, but “Yojimbo” is a relatively direct recounting of the movie of the same name. In their fierce, subtly technical punk vernacular, Red Heat recounts the story of a masterless samurai who stumbles into a village ravaged by violence and reluctantly saves it from itself. Except, look at the lyrics: “The bodyguard is trying to kill you, Better get your wallet out. This town is a graveyard now, The cooper’s all sold out. The old mayor plays his prayer drum, While the new mayor’s selling silk, ‘Til they burn the silk house down and put a sword in his gut.” What’s missing here? The hero. There’s no change, no action, no resolution. The agent of change has been excised. “Yojimbo” has been reduced[...]

California Cousins – Distant Relatives

September 17, 2018

California Cousins have been kicking around their native Rochester (and far beyond) for a while now… If you’re not familiar, they wield the most noodly riffs known to man stuffed into time signatures that will make your head spin. Distant Relatives (out now on  Chatterbot Records and Deep Sea Records) is their debut LP, a ten-song lesson in emo and skramz virtuosity. There are elements here of heartfelt-emo (The Hotelier) and heavier, vocal-cord-shredding hardcore (Touché Amoré), all wrapped up in a nearly impossible math rock (Tera Melos) package. “Aspirin” is an apt opener; the Cousins opt for a quick-tempo screamer to start things off with a bang. The real treat here (and throughout the rest of the LP) is the attention paid to sheer guitar acrobatics. In general, their songs are packed full of ingenious guitar tricks – squealing harmonics, swelling feedback, nimble bends, and quick licks that will make any musician nod with approval. Lead single “Extendo Weekend”[...]

Humble Braggers – Cycle

September 10, 2018

Cycle, the latest EP from synth-pop quartet Humble Braggers, is excellent, danceable and almost entirely bereft of hope. The cycle that the album title alludes to goes something like this: Feel lonely, feel desire; Take a risk, regret the consequences; Find connection, find out that it’s torturous; End up alone; Repeat. Sounds depressing, right? But it’s not. Even as the lyrics dwell on despair, the songs themselves carve out a euphoric space where pain gets put on hold as we give ourselves over to the music. We start with “Reckless.” In a stripped-down verse, bass and a simple beat drive us forward as vocalist Tom Burtless softly intones: “You’ll never get what you want it’s pointless… It’s rinse wash and repeat. It’s the cycle you wish you could defeat.” But instead of collapsing into despair, the synths bubble up and explode into the chorus, with Burtless chanting “I know, I[...]

Leyda – s/t

August 27, 2018

Leyda evokes the feeling of college. Not Asher Roth’s college, not “Animal House,” but the actual emotional space of the place. You’re constantly two different people. On one hand, you’re hopeful, idealistic, excited to see how life turnedyer hand, day-to-day life is sad and often gross. Everyone seems to harbor a barely-concealed depression, relationships end messily and you spend a lot of time watching other people vomit. Those two layers of life exist simultaneously, both true in their own way but mostly irreconcilable, like two liquids in a suspension. Leyda lives in that tension, makes poetry out of it. “Wren,” the first song on the self-titled EP, sets this tone. It starts with the symbol-laden image of a burying a dead wren in fertile ground, with songwriter, vocalist and pianist Saffi Rigberg’s distinct and lilting voice matching the strange beauty of the moment. But soon, we’re back to reality –[...]

Venus Vacation – Muggerhugger

August 13, 2018

Muggerhugger, the latest release from Venus Vacation (formerly known as Major Arcana) is a hard album to place. That’s not only because the vocals, song structures and levels of intensity are so unpredictable (though they are, and compellingly so). It’s because of the tension between the feel of the songs and the songs themselves. Tension, here, being a good thing, the sort of thing that makes the 7-song ride of Muggerhugger so interesting. It’s impossible not to pay attention when Muggerhugger is playing, and not because it’s aggressively experimental or experimentally aggressive. It’s because you’re always trying to figure out your relationship to these songs. Passive listener? Melancholy comisserator? Blissed-out romantic? Where you stand changes rapidly, often in the course of a single track, and you’ve got to keep up or start the song over. What is this driving tension, exactly? On one hand, you’ve got a band with an[...]

SLINKY X – Darn

July 16, 2018

SLINKY X’s Darn is a feelgood summer record if, for you, feeling good in the summer means waking up late and groggy on a Sunday, throwing on yesterday’s clothes, jumping in the car and stopping at the gas station on the way to a party because, while you didn’t have enough time in the morning to brush your teeth or shower, you have plenty of time to buy beer. In that moment, this is the disc you’d pop into your CD player (you’d be playing music off your phone, but you dropped it in a swamp last Tuesday and haven’t bothered to replace it). Darn is fuzzy garage-pop, with riffing guitars laying the base for matched-up male-female vocals that alternate between “ba-ba-bas” and cheeky lines like: “My brain feels like a slinky… always feel like I’m drinking/soda water from the sinky.” That line, from lead track and standout “slinky,” sets the[...]

Soft Opening – Don’t Like Most Things

July 9, 2018

Don’t Like Most Things, the new release from Rochester’s Soft Opening, is not nearly as misanthropic as the title suggests. Far from it, in fact – the best moments of the album spring from longing for connection, not denying it. The first song, “Don’t Bury Me Yet,” kicks off with distorted and strutting hard rock machismo, but it’s just a feint. It’s almost immediately undercut by a cleaner guitar and a cooing saxophone that launch us into something closer to Dinosaur Jr. than T. Rex. Singer and songwriter Justin Pallini soon begins to catalog his fear of death by bodily breakdown: “Feeling swollen, aching knees/Body’s breaking, takes what it needs/Getting harder and harder to breathe… Soon, I’ll die, won’t I?” The humming sax lines, quick tempo and over-the-top neuroticism keep the mood light, as if he knows the obsession is ludacris and counter-productive. He just can’t help himself. “Love Dumpster”[...]

Space Cubs –What Iff

April 16, 2018

From the start, the reborn band Space Cubs cultivated a much needed air of mystery, from their magical debut last summer somewhere in Allentown to a captivating show at the Mohawk before disappearing to record What Iff, their excellent debut EP and our Album of the Week, and praise be, that glorious mystery is very much intact. Dreamy yet precise and very much  fully realized, What Iff only hints at this band’s tremendous potential, offering a  tantalizing glimpse into a possible future for  Buffalo’s music scene that you can totally get down to, which is always welcome. Originally a one woman bedroom dream pop project from Suzanne Bonifacio, Space Cubs expanded, assimilating electronic artist and enfante terrible Shawn Lewis as well as scene mainstay Ken Culton and Adam Pressley to become something beautifully new, and “Gnaw” captures that metamorphosis  perfectly in sonic amber. Hazy loops and haunted vocals give way to a de-tuned, underwater piano, buffeted[...]

Comfy – Thanks For The Ride

March 12, 2018

If you’re at all familiar with the upstate NY music scene, chances are that you know Comfy. The Utica-sourced garage pop act, which serves as the musical brainchild of Connor Benincasa, is known for its highly energetic live shows, feelings-on-his-sleeve style of songwriting, and general relatability. Benincasa recently packed up and shipped out to Philadelphia, but that hasn’t slowed his roll. The move seems to be the creative catalyst behind Comfy’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Thanks For The Ride–an unwavering rock-and-roll record self-described as an “exercise in independence,” also netting our album of the week. The hype that has waxed during the four years since Comfy’s debut Pillowhugger is not without warrant–not only is the album a local slam-dunk, but it picked up a bit of national attention when Rolling Stone (yeah, that Rolling Stone) named Pillowhugger one of the top 10 cassettes of 2014. All hype aside, Thanks For The[...]

Post Prom – Changing Weather

February 19, 2018

It’s mid-February, and winter should be in full force here in Buffalo… Instead we’ve been subjected to wild temperature changes and bizarre precipitation – topical, especially in the case of Buffalonian quartet Post Prom. Their debut EP, Changing Weather, came out earlier this month, and whether it was intentional or not, CW certainly lives up to its name. Last summer, the band was hard at work writing; they recorded the EP in the autumn and finally released it in the winter… All in all, these songs document the evolution of a new band across the changing seasons, and now, it’s our Album of the Week. Without wasting any time, Post Prom launch right into their upbeat title-track, EP opener “Changing Weather.” Fans of the Starting Line or Fall Out Boy, early aughts-style, will find themselves right at home. Sometimes, there’s just no substitute for fast tempos and energetic guitar-driven songs (set off by lead guitarist Charlie Rumfola’s snappy, nimble[...]

Passive Aggressives Anonymous – The Mauve Album

February 12, 2018

The Mauve Album is the perfect title for Passive Aggressives Anonymous’ first full-length release. The Rochester band’s music has more in common with the shade of violet than you might think–both have a pleasant and mostly disarming initial appearance, but upon scratching the surface you’ll find a little something extra. For Passive Aggressives Anonymous–or ‘PAA’–a band whose call to glory is their expertly-arranged romantic lounge style of instrumentation, that “something extra” comes in the form of frontman John Valenti’s tongue-in-cheek vocal delivery, which remains unabashedly intact on the new album. The Mauve Album is buffaBLOG’s Album of the Week. For those unfamiliar with PAA and have no idea what I mean by “tongue-in-cheek” vocal delivery, allow me to paint a picture. You’ve booked a suite in a hotel that’s near overly classy (not a t-shirt in sight, decked-out lobby bar, red velvet everywhere, etc.), but something about the elegance is[...]

Seafox – Eulogy of the Angels

February 5, 2018

Harnessing musical influence into something fresh and original is no easy feat. Unless you’re Seafox. The Buffalo-based folk-pop band upended the scene late last year with its impressive sophomore full-length Eulogy of the Angels, channeling the likes of Beck, Pink Floyd, My Morning Jacket, MGMT, and more. The amalgamation of these influences brought to the table something ambitious yet near-perfectly executed, as well as our album of the week. As the sophomore effort of singer/songwriter William Fortier, Eulogy carries some serious weight. A full ten songs deep and somewhat of a departure from the solo singer/songwriter vibes of Fortier’s debut Colours, the album enmeshes acoustic folk with some of the catchiness of modern alternative for a blend that makes repeat listens easy and often. Having begun initially as Fortier’s solo project, Seafox has evolved with the recruitment of brother Eric Fortier on bass/keys and Kevin Pryles on drums. Together, the[...]

Cooler – Buried

January 29, 2018

If the late 2000’s were a type of coming of age for the skinny jeans wearing, flatiron worshipping scene kids of the world, right around now is their approaching quarter-life crisis, and Buffalo trio Cooler is here to provide the soundtrack with their recently released EP, Buried. Cooler’s brand of indie-emo wears its careful cultivation like a fine wine, funneling that youth-driven angst into rigorous precision, vocal interplay, and a healthy layer of fuzz. As the band’s third release, it’s clear they’ve shot through the polite awkwardness of a new band learning their way and are joined at the head in a synchronicity that’s iron-tight. The EP shows off modern emo as multidimensional, if not more accessible to the mainstream. Through its five tracks, the band broods over a complex array of emotions, each with their own individual flavor and essence. “Will-o-the-Wisp” starts the ball rolling with hearty group vocals,[...]

Eric Beeny – Glass, the Wall’s Ghost III

January 22, 2018

Local indie folk singer-songwriter Eric Beeny’s latest project is part three in a series of albums under the moniker Glass, the Wall’s Ghost. The self-titled record (Glass, the Wall’s Ghost III) is his most unified piece yet, with a cohesive and polished flow throughout. Using only an 8-track digital portastudio and a condenser microphone, the album was recorded entirely at Beeny’s home. Engineered, produced and performed completely by himself, the album feels inherently all his own and extremely intimate. The songs are meditative and melancholic, reckoning with themes of death and despair. Throughout his GtWG series of albums, he has brought the listener on an emotional journey through his own personal trials and tribulations. This third installment is no different, and finds his words more contemplative and story-like. Musically, the record is steeped in hushed bedroom folk akin to Bon Iver, with ornamental elements of dream electronica in the vein[...]

Sonny Baker – Steady Hands, Dead Tired

January 8, 2018

On his new release Steady Hands, Dead Tired, acclaimed Buffalo-area guitarist Sonny Baker solidifies himself as a purveyor of top-notch rock ‘n’ roll with a post-punk flair. The raucous and thrilling yet impressively considered first track “Basic Interactions” augments ravaging guitar, exclamatory singing and rollicking drums with surges of bass sure to course through the listener’s entire body. “Reluctant Thief” stays subdued and relaxing until about the 1-minute mark, when it lets loose to exhilarating effect with an impassioned cry of “I know it’s been years, since I made a fool of you.” Charged-up instrumental ascension is curtailed in a snap when the song returns to its relatively more easygoing, reserved verses. The next track, “Comfortable,” begins with stand-alone guitar riffage before pounding drums kick in to send the song into a melodic barrage. A biting, relentlessly catchy rhythm ensues, and two full minutes of interlocking guitar work escort the[...]