Latest Posts

ROREY – “Apt 7d”

July 3, 2023

There’s no shortage of NYC-based acts that have changed music… The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol – basically any band you’d have seen or read about in the semi-recent Meet Me In The Bathroom documentary. With The Strokes having won a Grammy for The New Abnormal; Yeah Yeah Yeahs riding high on the success of their new album; and Interpol touring the world and playing stadiums with The Smashing Pumpkins, there’s no doubt the world is ready and willing to hear more NYC-bred, guitar-driven music. Enter wunderkind ROREY, the 23 year old grunge-popper who is turning heads with her palatable blend of ’90s influenced nostalgia triggers. We’ve had the pleasure of reviewing her latest album, Apt 7d, and it itches that deep-rooted scratching that exists in our tired millennial brains for good times (i.e. the aughts) now long past. EP opener “Burned Your Letter” introduces us to the hallmarks of ROREY’s sound –[...]

Anya Baghina – Anya Baghina

June 28, 2023

Anya Baghina, who you may know as a member of the Detroit-based act, Soviet Girls, has called many different places home – Moscow, New Jersey, nearby Ithaca, Detroit, Brooklyn, and then Russia again. Longtime collaborator Jonathan Franco has been accompanying Baghina live and in the studio since their Brooklyn days (and fellow SG bandmate Devin Poisson recorded her first three singles to cassette). Despite being halfway across the world, somehow, someway, Baghina has managed to stay in touch with her OG Detroit crew. She’s now located in Kazakhstan, and since her collaborators are so far away, we couldn’t help but be drawn to Anya’s story. Her latest offering, a self-titled album packed full of eleven jangly, indie-pop songs that highlight Baghina’s skill as a songwriter. It’s clear Baghina has put a lot of herself into these songs, so a title of Anya Baghina feels fitting to say the least. Album opener[...]

Sweet Freedom – Divilmint

June 20, 2023

Lots of bands grind the cover game for years and years, playing the hits to fans in bars, at private parties, or at the state fair. Hours and hours of practice, honing the rough edges of a carefully curated group of songs, all to bring some much-deserved enjoyment to a drunken bachelorette party or someone’s employer’s happy hour event. It’s a good time (mostly, I’m speaking from experience) and you’re making money doing what you love after all. Enter Kilkenny-based band Sweet Freedom (SF), who know all about the cover grind. As they put it, they’ve “completed cover band mode on the Expert setting several times over,” which means they’ve certainly closed out the night with “Hey Jude,” “Desperado,” or maybe even “Closing Time…” Probably too many times to count. They’ve decided it’s time to “take a punt on the originals scene,” so we’ve been gifted with their latest offering, Divilmint. Released[...]

The Last Domino – Two Thirds Of Our Lives

June 19, 2023

Multi-instrumentalist The Last Domino, also known as one-man-band John Orr, has been working on his latest album, Two Thirds Of Our Lives, for the last eleven(!) years. It’s fitting that the long-awaited album has such an aptly-named title – released on its namesake (February 3rd, of 2023 – 2/3 in every sense of the word), the album is a conceptual look at how we spend our lives… Asleep, awake, and alive. The Indianapolis-born, LA-based artist jam packs Lives with ’90s adjacent riffing – heavy buzzsaw guitars; ear-shredding drum bombast; and a thudding, grungy bass presence can be found everywhere. Orr’s menacing vocal presence is omnipresent, sauntering and slinking through his songs like a snake slithering through the shadows before striking at lightning speed. Album opener “One Third: Asleep” channels Nine Inch Nails with it’s haunting delayed guitar and electronic elements. Orr embodies the deep baritone of Trent Reznor and/or Depeche Mode here[...]

Helen Kelter Skelter – Chroma Crawl

June 18, 2023

It’s been an odd and unpredictable few years for Oklahoma-based act Helen Kelter Skelter (HKS). And yet, it’s an all too familiar story. Tours get scrapped, shows get cancelled, trajectory runs askew, and futures seem bleak (I’m talking about the pandemic, in case you couldn’t read between the lines)… Luckily, it hasn’t stopped these psyched-out Oklahomans from doing what they do best. Crafting stonerish, psychedelic-infused, heavy music made for speeding down the highway or deeply enjoying the trip on your substance of choice. A decade into their career, HKS is here with their latest EP, a five-song blast of heavy guitars and droning vibes they’ve entitled Chroma Crawl. Over the course of 19 minutes, you’ll be taken on a trip through the sun-scorched Oklahoma desert. This Buffalonian blogger is wondering aloud if there are even deserts in Oklahoma (we only have endless mountains of snow here), but if there isn’t,[...]

Jon-Olov Woxlin – JUNK TRUNK

June 18, 2023

When you hear the Americana-soaked music coming from Jon-Olov Woxlin, your initial impression might be that of a man living in the southern United States (think Mississippi or Louisiana or something like that). In actuality, Jon-Olov is from Gothenburg, Sweden, making his distinctive brand of mile-a-minute folk all the more unique. His latest offering, the 12-song JUNK TRUNK, highlights Jon-Olov’s penchant for cleverly-worded folk rock with an onus placed on spontaneity. Expect bouncing basslines, plenty of acoustic guitar strumming, and Jon-Olov’s ear-catching baritone throughout – each track on this album is simply three instruments and Jon-Olov’s vocals. It’s stark and it’s simple, but it works for Jon-Olov & co. Album opener “Exit Sign Explicit” finds Jon-Olov borderline rapping overtop an acoustic guitar backbone. Are his songs political? Are they religious? It’s hard to tell while he’s spitting lyrics at a surprisingly brisk pace… What’s even more surprising is that this[...]

Shep Treasure – s/t

February 19, 2020

Sunday morning, a few hours after a long night out, I lay flat on my back in my new, sparsely furnished apartment, the snow-reflected Sunday light streaming through the windows – a big departure from the glass-block filtered sun of a previous basement apartment. I zoned out with my eyes glued to the wall above my bookcase, and “Nothing” by Shep Treasure was stuck in my head. The next night, wrapped up in a quilt, I once again found myself spacing out, this time toward a cat toy on the floor, and “Friday” was playing in my mind. Rochester indie pop trio Shep Treasure’s debut, self-titled EP is our Album of the Week, and it won’t leave me. Frontwoman Sabrina Nichols has been narrating my thoughts for a few years now. This is her second time landing Album of the Week, the former being in the days of a previous[...]

Green Slime – 2

February 11, 2019

Buffalo trio, Green Slime, are back and in full effect with their new speaker blowing and truly excellent 10-track stoner garage rock album, 2. Their sophomore full-length can best be described as the perfect combination of heaviness and melody. It’s the kind of songs Rivers Cuomo circa the Blue Album would have wrote had he snorted a mountain of coke and bit the head off a bat. The wonderfully raw and crunchy garage grooves from guitarist Eric Ellman and bassist Mike Euscher are so thick they practically ooze from their amps. The two shred at their heaviest and doomiest on “Survival,” a boisterous track that will possess you to throw up your lighter while headbanging deeply and lethargically along. Ellman also works double-duty as Green Slime’s lead singer with crooning vocals reminiscent of the ones you’d hear on a nostalgic 90’s alt-rock single. They’re an absolute blast to sing along[...]

SLUGS – Cool World

September 4, 2018

Los Angeles-based band SLUGS have released their second EP titled Cool World, and it may just be the perfect summer album. A refreshing take on the classic rock sound our parents taught us to love, Cool World demonstrates an appreciation for the origins of the genre, as well as its promising future. From front to back, this 6-track album will have listeners’ full attention with little effort. There are elements reminiscent of well-known bands such as Dead Sara, Royal Blood, and Weezer (check out “Curveball” specifically for this reference) in choices of guitar tones and vocals. However, the interpretation of the genre itself is something we see developing in upcoming bands (some local examples include Cooler, Ellsworth). At its foundation, the music is still rock. Yet, there’s something wholly different about the songs by these emerging artists. To accurately depict this difference is challenging, because the distinction seems to entirely[...]

Chill Ali – FREE YA MIND

July 23, 2018

Rising Buffalo-based emcee, Chill Ali, earns his moniker with his latest, long-gestating project, FREE YA MIND. This nine-track offering, which Chill served as both rapper and producer, is two years in the making. The thought and dedication that went into the process is obvious, but as a result Chill has created a superbly cerebral and zen indie-rap album that shows promise of the spitter’s budding signature sound. As a producer, Chill’s productions are spotlight stealing and mess with your senses and perceptions in the best way possible. Hypnotizing beats reverb, melt and ungulate with the syrupy influence of the Houston and cloud surfing hip-hop scenes. The closing title track in particular will massage your brain and get your head nodding in euphoric satisfaction. As a wordsmith, Chill floats over his dreamy beats with a cool and assured flow. His subject matter varies from Buffalo street raps, personal anecdotes and third-eye[...]

Saturn V - LP

Saturn V – s/t

May 21, 2018

Buffalo three-piece, Saturn V have been making all the right moves following their EP, two songs, released last November. Since then the band has been blowing away crowds as they make a name for themselves in the local punk circuit. Saturn V dropped their first self-titled LP earlier this month that’s full of brash energy and a killer tempo from start to finish. The record opens up with the song, “weight,” which begins deceptively tame before Saturn V presses on the gas midway through and launches into a breakneck punk flourish. There’s a small moment right before the band really speeds things up. It isn’t a revolutionary musical breakthrough and only involves a quick 4 count on the sticks, but it just sets the tone for “weight” and Saturn V’s self-titled as a whole. The record is stripped of any unnecessary chaff and instead, gets right down to it. Over the course of[...]

Mammoth Grinder – Cosmic Crypt

February 21, 2018

It’s been five long, painfully quiet years, but Austin death metal trio, Mammoth Grinder, is back via Relapse Records with a new album, Cosmic Crypt, that will haunt your dreams. Since coalescing in 2006, Chris Ulsh (Power Trip, Impalers), Mark Bronzino (Iron Reagan) and Ryan Parrish (Iron Reagan, Darkest Hour) have plagued the world with their awesomely unholy and bangover-inducing punk infected death metal. Cosmic Crypt, their sophomore full-length, is a non-stop, bruising and frenetic 11-track offering that casts a macabre spell on your eardrums. Each chaotic song bears the weight of crushing blackness as the album propels you faster and faster through an infinite abyss fueled by an evil that transcends space and time. It’s fast, it’s heavy and it’ll give you whiplash. The songwriting and musicianship behind Cosmic Crypt is thrilling and amplified by the band’s crisp self-recordings and Arthur Rizk’s (Power Trip, Sepultura, Inquisition) mixing. Ulsh’s doomy[...]

John Toohill

The Midnight Vein – s/t

January 15, 2018

The Midnight Vein, the first solo record from Buffalo punk rocker, John Toohill recently was self released. You may be familiar with Toohill from one of his many bands like, JOHNS, Radiation Risks, Night Slaves, or Alpha Hopper. The Midnight Vein is a slight departure from his other works, focusing more on the acoustic side of things. The album opener, “When Palm Readers Lie to Fools” is a an eerie start down the winding path that makes up this first solo outing work. The Midnight Vein has a bit of something for everyone. The opener rolls in, like a morning fog with a strong allusion towards 70s pysch folk with its modulated vocals. The Midnight Vein flows on effortlessly into the second track, “The Awaited”. It’s the kind of acoustic track that only Toohill could put out. The first moments are a slicing electric guitar riff that sets up the skeleton of[...]

Brat’ya –Desire

December 21, 2017

2017 is almost history (thankfully) but former Buffalo-based electronica artist/producer Aleksander Ogadzhanov (aka Brat’ya) isn’t done with us yet, with a sophomore album Desire that’s beguilingly one of the most outstanding albums from an expat this year. A luminescent expression of synthwave and 90’s R&B, Desire is a bold and soulful work that showcases a confident artist fearlessly out there vulnerably searching for love/beauty/truth/freedom/sumptuous sonic bliss with 80’s synthesizers and an expressive, honest falsetto that definitely gets the job done. Achingly minimalist, “Fog” provides Desire with a yearning, confessional start that finds a seductive groove that gives Ogadzhanov a chance to channel his inner Passion Pit and showcase his assured falsetto early to achieve early lift off before diving into the seedy and darkish underworld of title track “Desire” about the tyranny of our never-ending quest for satisfaction. “Girl” is straight up one-man band boy band R&B, with irresistible breakbeats, sly lyrics, and treated[...]

Tart Vandelay – Flow

December 20, 2017

Rochester indie pop rock act Tart Vandelay have released their second EP. Aptly titled Flow, it is a jazzy and tranquil four song trip. Originally a duo, the now four-piece group is building off of their 2016 debut, which featured more of a loop-based pop inflection. On Flow, the band is blending ethereal and polished tones together, achieving a smooth and breezy sound. Lead singer Katie Halligan’s voice shifts just as well as the music does; as light and airy as the most laid-back jazz moments, and as full-throated as the heavier rock moments. The EP opens with “High Noon Haze,” a vibey slow burn tune that casually floats along. “Lonely Girl” is a shuffling indie jazz-rock tune reminiscent of early John Mayer. The pace starts to pick up slightly on “Cloudy Doubts,” which rides a beachy vibe and syncopated groove. By the closing track, “Drifting,” they’ve reached full fusion,[...]