Latest Posts

Must See Shows (9/11/24-9/17/24)

Saturday, 9/14 @ 7pm Elemantra w/ Patchwork @ Black Dots The west side is set to host a double banger with locals Elemantra and Patchwork this Saturday night at one of Buffalo’s best record stores. The lineup consists of two locals at the top of Buffalo’s indie scene. Elemantra may be up your alley if you are a fan of a shoeagaze-y Mew meets Slowdive vibes, while Patchwork will impress followers of the 90’s college radio scene. Both bands are worth the field trip and it’s just $10 to support local artists.   Photo: Adam Parshall Monday, 9/16/24 @ 7pm Pile w/ Oceanator @ Buffalo Iron Works It’ll be a Monday night ripper with the return of Boston’s Pile to the 716. The heavy hitting act will be debuting at the highest capacity venue they’ve played in the city, coming a long way from the days of playing on Niagara[...]

Tonight: Beach House Listening Party

Local devotees of Baltimore dreampop legends Beach House fans are in for a genuine treat this evening when the fantastic people at Black Dots on Grant Street host a special listening party for the band’s latest release 7, two weeks before it arrives in stores. From 5pm to 7pm the store will be giving the hotly anticipated album a couple of spins for the assembled faithful to savor while trying to win free stuff and collectively trying to wish into reality a Buffalo date on the band’s upcoming tour, which would be wonderful to be honest. 7 manifests online and in the physical world May 11 on Sub Pop Records.

Record Store Day 2017 is Tomorrow

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day, the international celebration of vinyl, physical media and the indie record stores that sell returns tomorrow with celebrations happening locally at Buffalo’s surviving record shops. Whether you brave the early morning lines for the Record Store Day special goodies you’ve scouted in advance or plan on some leisurely shopping, bonhomie, and live music later in the day after the rush subsides, enjoy yourselves (“It’s a celebration!”) and be sure to spend some money to keep these treasured local resources going: Record Theatre will be having their annual Record Store Day blowout at their remaining location at Main and Lafayette from 9 AM til 9 PM with the line forming Friday night I imagine. They’ll have the RSD special releases, live music from 12pm-7pm, plus the R&R BBQ Truck for lunch, Lloyd’s for dinner, and Community Beer Works local brew throughout the[...]

Today: Record Store Day

Today is the ninth annual  Record Store Day, a holiday created in 2007 to celebrate Mom and Pop record stores and the stagnant vinyl industry. In the past nine years, much has changed in the music industry, and vinyl is HOT again (thanks millenials). Over 700 independent retailers across the world celebrating selling/collecting music by numerous rarities and one-offs being released today, including new releases from David Bowie, J. Dilla, and Regina Spektor to name a few. To get a hold of the whole list of new releases, check out Record Store Day’s website. Here’s what is going on locally. Record Theatre (1800 Main St): Ever want to meet Johnny Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls), Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs), and get a signed copy Cassandra Kublinski’s latest CD all in one location with a Community Beer Works beer in hand? Well, good news for you. Get to Record Theatre’s 1800 Main Street location[...]

Record Store Day Black Friday Preview

Ah… the filthy capitalists! In their unquenchable thirst for more dollars they finally managed to thoroughly bungle Black Friday last year, with ludicrous early AM opening times and worse, some retailers even opened on Thanksgiving Day. Consumers amazingly said “ya basta!” and the swine took a bath. It was beautiful. Independent record stores however eschewed the lunacy, instead continuing their own Black Friday tradition of Record Store Day specials and in store fun, a tradition that will be there for you, weary consumer, after you’ve done battle, or eschewed the scrum and saved yourselves exclusively for the pleasures of the record shop. In either case, enjoy yourselves at these following fine record merchants. Both Record Theatre locations (3500 Main St in University Plaza, 1800 Main St at Lafayette St) will be opening at 9am with Black Friday Record Store Day special releases, prizes, and surprises all day. Black Dots (223 Lafayette St[...]

Tonight: The Utah Jazz & Love Canal

What is better than a tape release show? A dual tape release show! Tonight, rock and roll kings the Utah Jazz, along with local hardcore freakers Love Canal, are both dropping new tapes on the Black Dots record label. To celebrate, the bands are setting it off at the Hickory Urban Sanctuary, a small warehouse type venue on the East Side of Buffalo. Set to open up the show are garage rock act and overall fun time Kharlos plus local doom outfit Sun Black Smoke. The Hickory Urban Sanctuary is at 232 Pratt Street on the East Side, and doors are set to open around 7pm.  With a cover of only $5 and a good attitude, there’s no reason NOT to go support your local punks. BLK-07: LOVE CANAL – Enter the Love Canal by LOVE CANAL BLK-06: UTAH JAZZ – Ivory Wave by UTAH JAZZ

Herd Fest 2015: Day 3 (Part 1)

Day 3 of Herd Fest proved to be the young festival’s biggest day yet (so big, in fact, that we made the photo galleries two parts), featuring five loaded showcases spread all over town. The afternoon saw local record shops Record Theatre (along with Steak & Cake Records) and Black Dots host in-store and, in the case of the latter, outdoor patio bills. Candace Camuglia was once again on hand to shoot all of the action. Check out some select shots below and for a full gallery, visit the festival’s Facebook page. Keep an eye out soon for a part 2 gallery from Herd Fest’s Day 3.

Black Dots

Continuing with this weekend’s Herd Fest festivities, local record shop Black Dots will be hosting another rooftop show this evening.  The show will feature all local acts.  Kicking off the showcase will be fem punk outfit Boy Scouts, followed by fresh local act Alien Three, featuring members of Dream Journal and Failure’s Union.  Up next will be Black Dots imprint Facility Men, and the showcase will be closed out by the psychedelic beatdown hardcore act, Junk Drawer. As usual, the showcase is free if you have a Herd Fest bracelet, but if not it will be five dollars.  Black Dots is on the corner of Grant and Lafayette.  If weather does not permit the outdoor porch show, the gig will be held inside the store. If you can’t find your way up to the porch,  come down into the shop and someone will direct you. Black Dots is on the[...]

Today: Del Paxton

In case you’ve been ignoring our Still Diggin’ posts, today is Record Store Day.  As a sort of celebration, local independent record boutique Black Dots will be holding a show at the shop. Unlink every other show at Black Dots, instead of being held inside, the bands will play playing outside on a patio above the garage connected on the side of the shop. Genre wise, this showcase really hits all ends of the spectrum. Playing will be local indie lake-pop act, Bryan Johnson and Family,  avant-garde Black Dots signee, Cages, as well as indiemo rockers Del Paxton. This show will serve as the official release show for Del Paxton’s 7” split with Gulfer, out on Topshelf Records. The forecast is looking great for today, so its sure to be a great show.  If you have some spare time during your busy record store shoping,  Cages will be opening the[...]

buffaBLOG Record Store Day 2015 Preview (WNY Edition)

What began as an effort to save independent record stores has evolved into an almost full-fledged international holiday for music lovers, and 2015’s year’s Record Store Day this Saturday promises to be the biggest yet at our local record shops. Seldom does commerce and art and bonafide happening intersect so beautifully as on Record Store Day, and in shops all over Western New York music fans will converge in search of deals, new and esoteric special releases, and the bonhomie one finds when lovers of vinyl come together to celebrate something they hold special. Is it too much to call Record Store Day an almost religious observance? Certainly, but with the shared reverence, goodwill, joyful expectation, hand shaking and good tidings, it’s not far off. To help you get your good feels on this Saturday, here’s our annual guide to Record Store Day in WNY 2015. Of course many of[...]

Still Diggin’: Shopping Local

I remember beginning to buy and collect vinyl about four years ago. Sure, since then, my taste has changed vastly, but the reasoning for buying is still the same. There’s just something weird about owning a record, something that I can’t easily put into words, and it’s something that definitely seems to confuse a lot of people. For me, records have always been sort of a ritual for me in a way. Having to pull one off the shelf, open it up, and read the liner notes after dropping the needle is what draws me in. Simply put, it’s the involvement that listening to vinyl requires that makes it special, the involvement that that other formats lack. That involvement has drawn me in and turned record shopping into a real money sink, but a money sink that I love and has made music a truly special aspect of my life.[...]

Tonight: Posture & The Grizzly

Our friends over at at Black Dots are hosting a raging good bill  at their Lafayette Avenue record shop tonight. Emo punks Posture & The Grizzly (East Haven, CT) will be headlining the shop’s basement back room tonight, slinging their gravelly melodic punk ragers. Touring support comes at us from the likes of indie-pop craftsmen Brightside (Pittsburgh) with local support from our hometown punk heroes Del Paxton. It’s notable that just this morning, both touring bands had their van break down and are awaiting repairs. Unfortunately, their attendance is up in the air tonight, so keep your ears to the ground and your eyes on the Facebook event page, here, for updates. Music set to start around 8, could be slightly later depending on the situation. Damn punk shows. $5 – $8 sliding donation for entry.

Facility Men Release Futility Men

Technically, much of Facility Men’s new cassette, Futility Men, has been available for months. So forgive me if you’ve heard this one before: Facility Men trace their lineage back to Plates, who called it quits a few years ago. They recorded most of these songs and released them earlier this year, which caught the attention of Black Dots. The result: a remixed, remastered and expanded cassette of garage punky bangers. Facility Men can chug along with the best of them, but the most exciting moments of the cassette come when the guitars start rising and screaming and everything feels like it might crash wildly, like the cresting of the wave. It’ll keep you on your toes. Check out Black Dots’ Bandcamp, where you can buy the digital album or snag the cassette. Check out a sample below.

Tonight: CAGES

“Vivipary” is the name of both CAGES‘ new album and a biological condition. Vivipary, because I am sure you wondering, means “development of the embryo inside the body of the mother, eventually leading to live birth.” Thanks, Wikipedia. I could clumsily try to walk you through how that process is mirrored on CAGES’ Vivipary, but I’d rather just ask you to sit with the image: the embryo growing inside the body, morphing from a distended hunk of cells into a semi-translucent thing with eyes into a fetus as alien as it is human which is finally, agonizingly brought into into a cruel and arbitrary world, a crying hunk of flesh covered in the primal slime and detritus of birth (and that’s if the embryo is lucky!). To me, that’s not a bad analogy for CAGES’ music. It’s beautiful and powerful in the terrifying, inhuman way that nature is. It pertains[...]

Cages

“Have you heard Cages?” Josh Smith asks. I shake my head no. “Oh they’re awesome. They are this weird…I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s this avant-garde noise, neo-folk fusion of sorts. The first time I saw them was at the Sugar City Metro Show.” When Smith talks about Cages, his eyes light up like a redneck showing off his new thirty-aught-six at his daughter’s wedding. With excitement like this, it’s no wonder that he decided to put out Cages new record, Vivpary, on his imprint Black Dots Records. Vivpary is Cages follow up studio release to 2009’s, Folding Space. It was written in 2011 and recorded in 2012 at GCR in Buffalo. “The sound is really amazing. It’s the closest picture of what we have been working on. Definitely different than anything else we have recorded,” guitarist David Bailey says, adding, “This is the most fully realized[...]