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Tonight: Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts

Tonight, NYC folk punk outfit Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts headline a top lineup over at Sugar City with Multibird, Jack Toft and Little Cake. Taking a garage/punk rock sledgehammer to austere folk music tropes, Jeffrey Lewis finds new epic territory to mine live, while Multibird, a new act from Rochester’s Seth Faergolzia takes apart the folk music form from the inside. Ana (Radarada) Vafai’s band Little Cake and local hip hop hero Jack Toft. Cover is $10, doors open at 7pm and the show starts at 7:30pm to beat the 10pm curfew.

Bold Folly –More Garbage Than Art

Buffalo psychedelic garage rock power trio Bold Folly are back with More Garbage Than Art, a larcenous EP of off-kilter punk jams that always keep you guessing and holding on for dear life right from the start. Between our home grown psychedelic bands (Aircraft, Deadwolf) and the touring variety playing the area over the next few months (Foxygen, Mac DeMarco, Flaming Lips, Roger Waters) Bold Folly’s latest offering is a fascinating entry, exploring the darker aspects of the journey. More Garbage Than Art starts with “Dogfight,”  a pleasant shuffling song with soothing surf rock backing vocals that give way to bloodcurdling howls and crushing punk chaos only to reset itself for the increasingly menacing second verse that goes even further, scraping it’s way to splendor before retreating again. The resulting tension continues to unfold on the bleak and vaguely Sabbathesque “I Wanna,” a tribute to watching TV with the closed captioning on in the background while[...]

Tonight: Hank & Cupcakes

Tonight Nietzsche’s will be jumping thanks to an incredible slate featuring the thunderous dance punk of Hank & Cupcakes and some of Buffalo’s most forward looking acts. Hailing from Brooklyn, Hank & Cupcakes, aka Sagit Shir and Ariel Scherbacovsky, rock an evolving, mighty sound that currently skews more punk than dance on their third full length release Cheap Thrill, while still keeping those danceable beats coming. Opening the show will be R&B crooner from the future Saint Opal, grunge rock heroes SMUG, and charming vintage alternative rock revivalists Hundred Plus Club. Doors open at 9pm and cover is $6.

Talking Under Water Release Video For “We Used To Dream”

To borrow and adapt a now classic Rick James quote, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. Ephemeral, elusive and irresistible, we can’t escape it now matter how hard we try (trust me, after a while you just go with it), and for Exhibit A of this human phenomenon would have to be the video for Talking Under Water’s “We Used To Dream.” Already lovely and melancholic slab of Beatles, Beach Boys and Chicago infused 80’s mega pop, the clip from the Rochester quintet is practically weaponized nostalgia… for the joy of youth, the Tom Hanks classic “Big,” and a magical time long ago when blowing on things like videogame cartridges really did fix them. The clip and single hail from the bands eponymous debut album which arrived in April and can be found here.

The Leones – Songs From The Canyon

With a turbulent spring doggedly holding out like that one lingering party guest against the full bloom of summer in Buffalo, Songs From The Canyon from ambitious Batavia psych rockers The Leones  arrived right on time last week with a clutch of spacious, heady jams ideal for Album of the Week… and for getting wasted around summer bonfires or driving in the desert or along the 90 at night with the windows/top down. Lovers of hazy, reverb drenched California rock will get a genuine thrill with Songs From The Canyon. Tom Burtless from Humble Braggers guests on the majestic album opener “Coast,” a plaintive country rock ballad journey that’s always in motion, while “Dealer” digs deep with a swirling, introspective piano and aching vocal harmonies before the high flying yet reassuring release of “Home.” There’s a nice War On Drugs vibe sure, but there’s also a real Laurel Canyon thing[...]

Tonight: The Leones

Tonight Batavia based psych rockers The Leones celebrate the release of their latest release, Songs From The Canyon at the Ninth Ward at Babeville with the busy as hell Humble Braggers and art rock outfit Parade Chic. Fans of vintage synths, spacious jams, and songs that conjure sensations of a beating sun over the low desert and yearning freedom won’t want to miss this one. Doors are at 8pm and cover is $5. Songs From The Canyon by The Leones

Rap & Destroy Return With “Act Like UGAF”

Buffalo hip hop punk crew Rap & Destroy follow up their debut singe “R Kelly’s heel” with an even clearer declaration of intent and sonic manifesto in the form of their latest cut, “Act Like UGAF.” A spicy sneak preview of their forthcoming debut LP R.A.D AdVICE due next week, “Act Like UGAF” is raw, insurgent, and solid for turning things up at the party thanks to it’s powerful collective presence and thoroughly blunted 90’s hip hop sound.

Tonight: Maybird

Tonight Rochester by way of Brooklyn vintage rockers Maybird will be bringing their instantly timeless rock to the Buffalo Iron Works with Sun Parade. The quartet from just up the 90 made a big splash regionally, rapidly drumming up a number of admirers, including a few of our staffers, and more importantly mega producer Danger Mouse, who snapped them up and released their debut EP Turning Into Water in 2015.  Opening the show will be The Sun Parade, four gents from the wilds of Massachusetts exploring the outer reaches of college fried indie rock.  Doors open at 8pm, show’s at 9pm, and tickets are $10.

Tonight: Interstellar Vibrational Travel Experiment

Tonight beloved art space Dreamland will play host to the Interstellar Vibrational Travel Experiment (IVRE), a multidisciplinary multimedia excursion beyond the limits of space, time, and corporeal location. Conducted by Wren Williams & The Sons Of Luther, HOP HOP, and Rat v Cat v Bat, audience members/test subjects will be expanding their consciousness and  journeying into the beyond without changing coordinates via curated stimuli, theoretical vibrational frequencies, and the power of shared, communal experience. Reality challenging science isn’t free, so a donation of $5 (for science!) would be tremendously appreciated and a genuine boon to humanity.  Audience members/test subjects are encouraged to be present for departure by the appointed zero hour of 8pm; arrival is scheduled for 11pm but please be aware that time is entirely subjective. Good luck.

Wavves at Tralf Music Hall (05/19/17)

Friday’s Wavves show with Post Animal at The Tralf was one for the books, with drama, tension, and a potential for chaos that became manifest throughout the night. Chicago’s Post Animal got the night going with a super charged set of psychedelic rock that channeled the heft and darkness of Black Sabbath (“You Were Not There”), free form sixties Pink Floyd and the dense harmonics of Tame Impala (“When I Get Home”) to crush the slowly growing crowd under their heavy space riffs. The jury is out on whether Joe Kerry (Steve from Stranger Things) was with them; the one guy kind of looked like him but he was wearing glasses and sporting indie rocker long hair instead of the Steve Harrington bouffant, and his yelps sounded familiar, but in the end it didn’t matter. Post Animal was a heady and head banging good time in the best way possible.[...]

of Montreal at Asbury Hall (4/26/17)

The semiannual of Montreal art rock freakout rolled through Asbury Hall at Babeville Wednesday night with Christina Scheider’s Jepeto Solutions, and the results were customarily intense and deeply satisfying. Jepeto Solutions were instantly effective, with a continental psychedelic sound that recalled the soundtracks to Michelangelo Antonioni and Barbet Schroder films. Christina Schneider’s dreamy vocals kept everything in a hazy focus while she and her band bathed the crowd in shimmering guitars and kept us guessing through whimsical, swinging timing changes that conjured pleasing sensations of detached freedom and innocence, ideal sensations before a set from of Montreal. of Montreal devotees know that their shows are happenings in the truest sense, and the current show came at the audience hard with a teasing set that largely explored the band’s last three albums and visions of masculinity in 2017. Frontman/guru Kevin Barnes dazzled the crowd with a cross dressing series of tasteful[...]

Today: House Of Pain

House Of Pain are one of those 90’s exuberances that’s simultaneously regrettable and irresistible, especially during Buffalo’s internationally renowned extended St. Patrick’s Day bacchanal, which reaches it’s apex today with the parade down Delaware Avenue, and House Of Pain at the Waiting Room. Giddyup fam, Everlast, Danny Boy and DJ Lethal will be presiding over an epic blow out in the Waiting Room’s parking lot featuring St. Patrick’s Day mayhem, 90’s covers from blog favorite Soul Patch, Slaine from La Coka Nostra, and DJ sets from Dovey and Rick Jameson. Tickets for this once in a lifetime Buffalo rager are still available for $15 general admission and $40 for VIP tickets. Rick Jameson starts it off at 12pm and House Of Pain caps it all off after the parade conclude’s at 4:30pm.