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Tonight: buffaBLOG’s 6th Birthday Party

There’s something great to be said about the camaraderie that has formed between buffaBLOG, Buffalo musicians and honest music lovers over the past six years. We’re celebrating the all-around enthusiasm for the local music scene as well as the DIY essence of that camaraderie tonight at Nietzsche’s, and the lineup couldn’t be doper. Helping to kick off the night are Telempathy and The Get Money Squad, both of which maintain a surfy tone, though Telempathy has a more 60’s rock-infused lo-fi sound while TGMS has a breezier groove to them. Also slated to play are Cooler, one of our favorite fuzz rock bands who seem to be gaining enormous momentum lately, Moody Cosmos, psychedelic garage rock act who are gearing up to deliver new material this summer, and The Leones, whose dreamy, ethereal tunes are every bit atmospheric as they are ruminative. The only sad bit of news to report on is the cancellation of Bethlehem Steel’s set for the night.[...]

buffaBLOG 5th Birthday Party @ Nietzsche’s (3/28/15)

The blog crew ringed in our 5th birthday this Saturday night with a packed house and a bill full of Buffalo’s (and one of Utica’s) very best acts. On hand to shoot the evening was blog friend and local photographer, Nate Peracciny, capturing sets from Zak Ward, Comfy, Applennium, and many more, in addition to candid shots of many of the night’s supportive audience members. I say this after every one of our parties, but this was my favorite yet. Check out a handful of Nate’s pictures below, and for the full gallery, please click here. Photos by Nate Peracciny

Tonight: buffaBLOG 5th Birthday Party

Later tonight at Nietzsche’s, we return to the seen of the crime: our first birthday party. Looking back at the bill from that night, a lot has changed since then. Love Scenes and Arctic Death are no longer active. The birD day moved out to Portland, and the Tins just returned from SXSW. All week long, we have been spotlighting all of our birthday acts, a mix of both seasoned acts and fresh to the scene bands. In case you missed any, now is the time to catch up: Zak Ward M.A.G.S. Difficult Night Comfy Applennium Wooden Waves Music kicks off at 10pm sharp with a cover of $7. Thanks in advance for all of the support over years. We hope to see you all tonight.

Wooden Waves

I’ve seen a lot different ways to describe Wooden Waves. Some may consider them surf rock, others electro-pop.  The band was even nominated as one of the best ska bands in all of Western New York by the highly regarded All WNY Music Awards. I’m the kind of guy that likes to walk my own path, so I would describe them as 90’s indie rock. Regardless of descriptors, Wooden Waves are set to close the night tomorrow night with a fresh batch of tunes from their long awaited Wilder Dreams LP at our five year birthday party at Nietzsche’s tomorrow night. The quintet has been around longer than probably 90% of other Buffalo bands, all-the-while delivering quality triple vocal college-radio jams. All the bands are awesome and get there by 10pm.

Applennium

You might have noticed that we’re throwing a 5th birthday party for ourselves tomorrow evening at Nietzsche’s. You might also have noticed that Applennium is one of the bands playing. The oft-revered but rarely-spotted band only plays one or two shows a year; we consider ourselves very lucky to have secured them for our big day. Applennium specializes in simmering jams with perfect male/female harmonies. One might say they excel at creating moods instead of just plain old songs. We say it every time we cover them, but Applennium is one of Buffalo’s hidden gems. True talent shrouded in mystique. We’ll see you tomorrow at 10pm sharp. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/175635118″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Comfy

What would a birthday party be without some out-of-town charm? Well in the case of our fifth birthday party, it would be without Comfy, Utica’s buzzing indie-rock (and roll) sweethearts. We’ve had our ears on Comfy for a while now; their early 2014 debut Pillowhugger, an endearing collection of garage pop confessionals smothered in slacky indie-rock charm, is one of our favorites from last year. Think Rochester’s Cottage Jefferson (another one of our 2014 favorites) meets Krill and you’ve got a pretty good start. (If you can’t conjure that up, just scroll down right now and hit play.) The band is definitely worth your attention before they hit the back stage of Nietzsche’s this Saturday night. The Utica natives look to have a big year in the works. Comfy is rumored to be finishing up a fresh release for your patient ears and have begun plans for a summer tour (according to their[...]

Difficult Night

Difficult Night sits at the intersection of a handful of disparate influences. There’s the Malkmus vibe in the lyrics, the vocals and the music, but not quite so wacky. It’s a bit more conversational, if you you imagine you’re having a conversation with a hyperliterate neurotic. It noodles, it jams, it bobs your head. Sometimes it may even rock a bit. But guitarist/vocalist Shane Meyer is so out front the entire time crooning that he kinda reminds me of Van Morrison. Instead of singing about caravans and eyeballs and whatnot, though, he’s making puns, telling stories and twisting his words around. The music itself is understated and effective, complementing the vocals and building a space for Meyers to talk. In that sense, it certainly feels like an intimate singer-songwriter project, but without all the overwrought emotions and emotional whispers that label often implies. Check out Difficult Night and a few[...]

M.A.G.S.

That Made Violent homecoming show the other week at Waiting Room was great for a variety of reasons, but one of my favorites was watching the crowd meet M.A.G.S., who played second at the show. It’s always enjoyable watching a crowd get introduced to an new act, but that Friday night something more happened: that audience watched M.A.G.S. with rapt attention, all eyes seemingly fixed on the three guys onstage, main man Elliott Douglas in particular. Cloaked in dreads and coiled purposefully behind his guitar and mic stand, he unleashed a mesmerizing set of bold post punk and new wave grooves that got the growing audience on his side in no time, and by the time the trio finished up, Made Violent might’ve been the hometown heroes on the verge of breaking out, but M.A.G.S. was the starlet serving notice that it were next. Which brings us to Saturday’s 5th[...]

Zak Ward

Birthday parties for people are overrated. Birthday parties for music blogs guarantee a jam packed night with kick-ass bands. If you haven’t already caught wind, buffaBLOG is celebrating its 5th year this Saturday at Nietzsche’s. Kicking off the merriment is Zak Ward, who will be joined by former Son of the Sun band mate Jeremy Franklin, as well as Sonny Baker (Wooden Waves, Lazlo Hollyfeld, A Hotel Nourishing). Ward delivers his tender acoustic indie-folk songs with a sufficient dose of grit. His voice has comparable tone quality to Thom Yorke when it comes to soaring vocal lines, apparent in songs like “That’s What You Get,” and sounds like a healthy mixture of David Bazan and Gregory Alan Isakov during quieter moments. The addition of ethereal sounding synth parts and swelling, twangy instrumentals makes for a very even-tempered, enjoyable listen. This year’s bill will not disappoint, so come early and pack[...]

Five Year Rewind: Staff Picks – Part 1

Since the blog debuted on March 28th, 2010, with a truly horrible post about a Passion Pit show (sorry Bill), our ever revolving staff of writers and contributors have spun hundreds of albums and songs, and attended more shows in and out of Buffalo than I dare to count. To commemorate our upcoming five year anniversary this Saturday night. we have assembled a cast blog writers from past and present, each discussing their favorite albums, songs, shows, and even some memories since the blog’s inception. Today is Part 1. – Mac McGuire Steven Gordon (Staff Writer) Favorite Album: Thee Oh Sees – Castlemania (2011) There are so many good things about Thee Oh Sees: an insane rate of musical output, notorious live performances, profoundly debauched aesthetics, and a propensity for gradual innovation despite inherent stylistic simplicity. The group started a decade or two ago as the artistic vehicle for guitarist/vocalist/flutist John Dwyer.[...]

Five Year Rewind: Staff Picks – Part 2

Since the blog debuted on March 28th, 2010, with a truly horrible post about a Passion Pit show (sorry Bill), our ever revolving staff of writers and contributors have spun hundreds of albums and songs, and attended more shows in and out of Buffalo than I dare to count. To commemorate our upcoming five year anniversary this Saturday night. we have assembled a cast blog writers from past and present, each discussing their favorite albums, songs, shows, and even some memories since the blog’s inception. Today is Part 2. – Mac McGuire Matt Moretti (Staff Writer) Favorite Album: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) A masterpiece of a hip hop record, and probably my favorite of all time. The buildup included weeks of some of the best free music we’ve heard, in Kanye’s GOOD Friday series. It featured some of Kanye’s best songs of his career: his best rapping on “Gorgeous,” perhaps his[...]

Just Announced: buffaBLOG 5th Birthday Party

Just about four years ago, we threw our first birthday party at Nietzsche’s. We only had about six regular writers at the time, and none of us knew the first thing about putting on a show. Half of the musicians we asked to play were underage (something Curt still won’t let me live down), we were clueless on what to pay the  bands (we played them A LOT that night), and really had no idea if anyone would come. We even asked Lloyd Taco, this is before Chris and Pete had a fleet of trucks and were being given $250K by CNBC to open a restaurant, to park outside for food. We practically had to beg people to go out and get tacos. This was before the food trucks really took over Buffalo mind you. That birthday party ended up being amazing, still one of my favorite shows we have[...]

Real People

Our final installment of buffaBLOG Video from our recent 4th birthday party at Duke’s comes from Real People, the long time, ever evolving emo/punk four piece  who closed out our party. One last thank you to Dan Bauer and Tom Etu for capturing and editing the footage. Past birthday video installments featuring Mr. Boneless, Harmonica Lewinski, and Alex Berkley & the Atlanta Falcons, can be viewed at our Youtube page. Watch a clip of Real People’s performance below. Photo Credit – Robert Emhof

Alex Berkley & the Atlanta Falcons

Next up for this week’s video installment from our 4th birthday party at Duke’s last month is a clip from Alex Berkley & the Atlanta Falcons.  Reuniting after a five year “off season” (because football), The Falcons, which features past and current members of Bear Exchange, Lazlo Hollyfeld, Besyno, Wooden Waves, and more, are fronted by local singer/songwriter Alex Berkley. Watch the video below, complete with an ultra charismatic intro by yours truly. You can also check out past sets from Harmonica Lewinski and Mr. Boneless here. Tune in next week with our final birthday party video with Real People. Photo Credit – Robert Emhof

Harmonica Lewinski

The second installment in our 4th birthday party video series comes from Harmonica Lewinski. The Rochester based surf-garage act barely made it to our party as the snow had better ideas that evening. But luckily for us, and everyone in attendance, the band made it and performed one of the best sets in blog party history. Not a bad time for their first area show.  Check out the video (courtesy of Dan Bauer and Tom Etu) below of a couple songs from the band’s set. And if you missed last week’s video of Mr. Boneless, you can catch that here. Stay tuned next week for a clip of Alex Berkley & the Atlanta Falcons’ set. Photo Credit – Robert Emhof