Latest Posts

Tonight: M.A.G.S.

December 22, 2018

Nietzsche’s is where it’s at tonight when it hosts an exceptional lineup featuring a home for the holidays performance from former Buffalo  but now Los Angeles based guitar hero and  blog favorite M.A.G.S., aka Elliott Douglas. Always hard to pin down when he was kicking around the city, M.A.G.S. hit listeners with surf punk, soul, and emo rock all, frequently at the same time, with a crack band including Deadwolf’s Tyler Mendola on drums backing up his soaring musical ambitions that’s also reconvening for the evening. Opening the show will be the wonderful fellas of Feverbox also home for the holiday weekend and fresh off the release of their righteous Political Theater EP, the always excellent power pop of The Demos, in town from Rochester with tunes from their fine If You Only Knew EP, and high flying local punks SMUG. Doors are at 9pm and tickets are $10.

Rocco Of The Snow Releases New Single “Big Riddle”

December 21, 2018

Buffalo expat Rocco Of The Snow aka Rocco DellaNeve is back literally and proverbially: proverbially in that he’s got a juicy new single out by the name of “Big Riddle,” and literally because he’s back home for the holidays with a cd release show tonight at the fairly brand new Imagine Event Center in Black Rock. First things first: “Big Riddle” is ideal for those of us prone to seasonal affective disorder, an unseasonably bright slice of electronic r&b perfect for our troubled times, gray, sunless winter days and cold nights in need of funky beats and soaring, fuzzed out synths that broadcast some joy and solace directly into your heart (it’s also a tonic for the soul for those of us who miss Forealists). You can see and hear what Rocco has been up to tonight when he plays a show celebrating his new cd release Prime Mover at the newish Imagine[...]

Tonight: Stay Gold 2018

December 14, 2018

This year’s edition of the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Stay Gold Community Art Party is tonight and they’ve outdone themselves with the music lined up for their annual shindig, now heading into it’s third year. Coinciding with M&T’s free admission Second Friday at the Burchfield, Stay Gold features site specific installations by a dozen Western New York artists and music performances from a thoughtfully diverse and eclectic selection of local acts very much worthy of attention, covering a wide range of genres for your art party pleasure and giving party goers a snapshot of the area’s art and music scenes right now. Stay Gold 2018 will be featuring the funky and soulful jazz of The Frontstreet Men Organ Trio; radiant soul singer Curtis Lovell, who wowed the audience at Sugar City’s 10th Anniversary Party; the bluegrass Americana of The Brothers Blue; Kokoneetz, aka Andrew Kothen of dreambeaches and The Shallows; the lyrical and technical[...]

Tonight: Rubblebucket

December 5, 2018

Make sure your Fitbit is charged up and your footwear rated for dancing tonight when Brooklyn art funk duo Rubblebucket bring their thoughtful, intense, and very groove heavy show to Babeville’s Asbury Hall with And The Kids.  The longtime indie darlings will be turning it up with jams off their luminescent fourth album, Sun Machine, which feels really like the juiciest nuggets of the Tom Tom Club oeuvre but with even more feels, so you can definitely expect some fun and maybe some sweet emotional release by the time Annakalmia and Alex are done with us, in one of the city’s most sacred venues (and hub of artistic endeavor). Getting everything going will be Northampton, MA indie pop quartet And The Kids, who also qualify as “luminescent” but I already used that once today. But seriously, don’t be one of those wankers who stroll in fashionably late in time for the headliner, try to get to Babeville early for And The[...]

Night Slaves – III

December 3, 2018

Local dark electronica duo Night Slaves have returned with a killer live show and sophomore full length album in Night Slaves III that brims with soaring ambition, darkness, and evil, genre defying grooves that lift it above the noise. From start to finish musical polymath David Kane astonishes on III, bending so much to his will to create varied backdrops for his cohort John Toohill to summon some serious mojo, channeling Bowie, Nick Cave, 90’s Michael Stipe and Paul Banks to impressive effect, while the incredible guest vocals from Lucy Bell throughout kind of echo in your soul like ye old fairy magic… if that fairy magic wore boots and kicked ass. III crushes immediately with a bleak yet defiant drive through a post apocalyptic wasteland on “The Last Elephant” that grooves with menace and a Spectoresque wall of sound, layering haunting vocals among the droning guitars, loops, organ, etc to fill your ears.[...]

Tonight: Night Slaves LP Release Party

November 23, 2018

Recover from Thanksgiving and all of your family by indulging the darkness within tonight at the Mohawk when Night Slaves celebrate the release of their new full length with help frm SKIN SHIT and uncertain. Musical polymath David Kane and Nick Cave channeling vocalist John Toohill are back with some gorgeously dark post industrial pop music on their sophomore LP Night Slaves III, and the duo will be performing it in it’s entirety with a full band featuring friends from around the local scene. Opening the show will be some new noise from SKIN SHIT, aka Nola Ranallo of CAGES and Mark Kedzierski of GOD OF CAPS, and the otherworldly ritual ambient of uncertain. Doors are at 8pm and cover is $10. Night Slaves III by Night Slaves

Feverbox – Political Theater

November 19, 2018

In the interest of fairness I’ve got to preface this review by firmly making the point that I’m not shading anybody else or their art while talking about the bold as brass new EP Political Theater from the beautiful fellas of Feverbox. There’s a number of ways to process these… interesting times personally and through one’s art, and there’s more than a few local acts speaking to the tumult politically and existentially raging in these United States, and representing for what they believe in, and it’s valued and appreciated. But what Feverbox (Griffin Smith, Nico Kelly, Josh Little, Drew Lazelle) is doing on Political Theater is something else altogether because it’s one of the most urgently direct and plaintively honest responses to the Trump era yet. There’s just very little left to interpret when Feverbox kicks off an ep titled Political Theater (featuring our beloved President in photoshopped Queen of Hearts drag)[...]

Tonight: Mac Sabbath

November 16, 2018

There is no better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the formation of Birmingham UK rock/metal gods Black Sabbath than with tonight’s Mac Sabbath show at the Tralf. Equal parts skull crushing Sabbath tribute band and trenchant parody of fast food and consumer culture, Mac Sabbath kicks a profound amount of ass channeling the ur metal majesty of Ozzie, Tommy, Bill and Geezer while hilariously sending up modern life and shamelessly beloved pop culture iconography with a properly Sabbathesque live show that is all satisfyingly sweet sensory overload. And for a band that hails from Los Angeles California (pronounced “Californ-ay-yeh”), Ronald Osbourne really has a tremendous midlands accent. Doors are at 7pm, mayhem begins at 8pm, and tickets are $22.

p0st3rb0y Debuts Video For “everything sad”

November 14, 2018

Non-binary Toronto multimedia and queer noise artist p0st3rb0y (aka Kenton Smith) has released a video for “Everything Sad” that’s gritty, avant-garde, and cathartic… all at the same time. Directed, shot and edited by Sean Keenan, “Everything Sad” feels like performance art, with our protagonist doing his thing in a cold and hostile world and paying some harsh dues in the process against DIY pixilated psychedelic backdrops and out in the streets and alleyways of TO. “Everything Sad” is off of p0st3rb0y’s third EP, Get Fucked, a piledriving 10 minutes of corrosively entropic electronica that crushes hard, and makes your inner ears feel real funny, and you can check out the video below.

Tonight: Well Worn Boot

November 10, 2018

Cosmic forces beyond our limited human capacity for understanding are aligning tonight in Allentown when beloved but currently defunct hillbilly psycho cowpunk outfit Well Worn Boot reunite for one night only at Nietzsche’s with an absolutely stacked all star bill. Prepare your mind and body for a potentially Jodorowskyesque (or is it Schlesingeresque?) journey that will test everything you have as you venture up the unholy mountain, urged upward by Fredtown steam folk punk foursome Mr. Boneless, also reuniting for the evening; Rochester freakazoids Harmonica Lewinski and experimental acoustic duo Green Schwinn before the deranged masked men of Well Worn Boot unleash god knows what upon those in attendance and doing whatever they’re going to do to us to break on through to their own twisted version of enlightenment. Will it be legal? Maybe. Will it be preposterous, twisted, and not soon to be forgotten? Without question. Doors are at 8pm and cost of[...]

Tonight: Ian Sweet

November 2, 2018

Tonight Los Angeles by way of Boston indie rockers Ian Sweet rolls through the Mohawk with fellow Angeleno art rock quartet Young Jesus, and recently reconstituted local duo and blog favorites Ugly Sun. Ian Sweet, aka Jilian Medford, is touring in support of her freshly released sophomore effort Crush Crusher, a powerful, fiercely emotional, and deeply rewarding DIY one woman band effort that alternately shimmers with beautiful restraint and shreds with glorious intent. Meanwhile, hyper literary yet primal post-punk riff rockers Young Jesus, noted for their improvisational live explorations, also just released some fresh new music of their own, the daring and searching The Whole Thing Is Just There. Then there’s skull crushing garage rockers Ugly Sun, still keeping things properly and properly unsavory but now as a duo, also have some new songs they want to play for you, so be sure to get there early. Doors are at 7pm[...]

Tonight: The Strokes vs Interpol Featuring Different Strokes vs Outerpol

October 26, 2018

What an amazing and miraculous time to be a music fan in Buffalo, NY! Not only is there a Strokes tribute band operating in the area featuring some of Buffalo’s best musicians in the form of Different Strokes, but now there’s a tribute band for their erstwhile “rivals” Interpol… featuring more of the city’s best going by the name of Outerpol, and both are colliding tonight to do metaphorical battle at the Mohawk as part of their run up to Halloween. Fans of early aughts NYC indie rock have to get downtown to catch the Different Strokes crew (Tom “Humble Braggers” Burtless, John “Girl Jeans” Grace, Ryan “The Slums” Schilia, Griff “Feverbox” Smith, Ben “King of the Goths” Parsons) represent for the Converse and denim jacket crowd while Outerpol, featuring Cooler’s Nick Sessanna as well as Hundred Plus Club’s Zain Shirazi, Burak Spoth and Josh Gidwitz. DJ Tight Mike Moretti[...]

Able Bodies Drop Video For “Pedaling”

October 22, 2018

Rochester feel good electronica duo Able Bodies have struck again with a shamelessly infectious video for their latest single “Pedaling” that is pure ear candy that’s possibly good for you too. Extolling the virtues of the active lifestyle with super fuzzed out synths, a sublime guitar riff, and vocals treated or otherwise that wrap you up in an encouraging hug, “Pedaling” is another unstoppable single from Viviani and Flynn who are currently four for four, and the video by Nick Kundrat and Adam Antelek is suitably over the top, trippy, and an adrenaline rush to get you going. Check it out below, and get out of the house!

Tonight: Handsome Jack Album Release Party

October 20, 2018

Tonight is a shockingly busy night for Buffalo music fans, with shows going off all over downtown, and Buffalo Iron Works has a killer show lined up with soulful Lockport rock revivalists Handsome Jack celebrating the release of their third album Everything’s Gonna Be Alright at Buffalo Iron Works with heavy duty psych rockers Deadwolf and garage rock outfit Johnny Nobody. If you know anybody who says “rock is dead” you can tell them to get out of the house more and  send them down to the Cobblestone District to hear up to the minute new tunes from Handsome Jack, and possibly catch a taste of the new stuff on the horizon from the ever ambitious Deadwolf, who’ve been hard at work on a follow up to Heavy Heart. It’s all going down tonight, and doors are at 8pm and cover is $12.

Tonight: Sugar City’s 10th Anniversary Party with Calvin Johnson

October 12, 2018

Sugar City, the city’s only remaining DIY arts and performance space is celebrating ten years of existence in both the material and immaterial worlds tonight with two parties, an excellent lineup featuring friend of Sugar City, indie rock hero Calvin Johnson, and you beautiful people. It’s been quite the adventure for Sugar City since it’s grassroots founding back in 2008, existing first in the hearts and minds of it’s early organizers and supporters, then in a magical physical space on Wadsworth at the base  of Allentown, where magical things happened… before being gentrified out and/or beset upon by unfriendly forces, depending on who you’re talking to. Then it was back to the whole hearts and minds thing as Sugar City regrouped, staging events around the city and keeping the flame alive until an unsolicited grant from Robert Rauschenberg’s foundation put enough wind in their sails to land another wonderful space on[...]