by Dan Bauer | Nov 6, 2014 | Preview
Bryan Johnson and Family’s upcoming release, Cool Your Jets, is shaping up to be maybe the best thing they’ve ever done. The two singles they’ve released, “Dead Fox” and “Cerulean Eyes,” take the elements of bands like Weezer,...
by Dan Bauer | Oct 28, 2014 | Preview
Tonight at Mohawk Place: a pretty interesting bill to make your Tuesday feel good. Baltimore’s Wildhoney will be coming through, supported by locals Hot Tip and Alpha Hopper. A good shoegaze band has a knack for bringing out the best in a song by softening the...
by Dan Bauer | Oct 15, 2014 | Preview
Cleveland’s Filmstrip is an interesting band to listen to because they sound like guys who could explode into cathartic-but-too-obvious fuzz at any moment, but who choose not to. It’s reductive to call a band “mature” just because they...
by Dan Bauer | Oct 12, 2014 | Preview
You know your band has to be good when a band as great as Krill writes their best album about how terrible they feel about how good you are. That’s Pile, talented enough to make Jonah Furman feel bad and bastard enough to come to Buffalo while I’m out of...
by Dan Bauer | Sep 22, 2014 | Buffalo
Some of the best music videos (any maybe pieces of art in general?) are single concepts carried out simply and directly. I’m thinking of one in particular, the video for The Pixies’ “Velouria,” but Hot Tip’s new video for “Human...
by Dan Bauer | Sep 8, 2014 | Album of the Week
The title of Alpha Hopper’s Let Heaven and Nature Sing hints at harmony and order, and despite the fuzz and the dissonance, the album churns like a fantastic machine, pistons and gears lifting and pulling in sync. The two main drivers: the jagged, restless...
by Dan Bauer | Sep 5, 2014 | Buffalo
Labor Day marks the symbolic end of summer (of course the powers that be have decided to attach a stigma to a holiday celebrating the labor movement), but as long as there are festivals and gatherings, I like to think that there’s still a little warmth in our...
by Dan Bauer | Aug 25, 2014 | Album of the Week
Almost every song on Brimstone Blondes’ new album, AGE OF CONSENT, is a take down of some sort. The targets change and their crimes run the gamut from exploitation to allegations of rape, but lead singer Matthew Danger Lippman feels pretty much the same as...
by Dan Bauer | Aug 14, 2014 | Preview
Carnival Night by Shaken Stylus means that there will be balloons, silly string, kazoos and beach balls at an undisclosed location tonight. It means late evening fire hooping by Kayla Hoop. It also means four fine musicals, Beekeepers (Detroit) and Skirts (Rochester),...
by Dan Bauer | Aug 9, 2014 | Preview
If by this point, you’re all Vaggied out, I can only ask you to take heart and soldier on, because this is the big one. Day three of Vaggie Fest is an all-day affair, featuring 13 bands that you are lucky enough to catch for just ten bucks over at Ocean Garden...
by Dan Bauer | Aug 1, 2014 | Preview
The show must go on at The Flower House tonight. New Haven’s Worn Leather and Western Massachusetts’s Blessed State are coming to town, supported by locals Radical Operations. This was originally a five band bill, with four touring bands descending upon...
by Dan Bauer | Jul 30, 2014 | Preview
Nothing quite like a perfectly curated bill. Tonight at the Glitterbox: Calgary’s La Luna, supported by Sperm, Hot Tip, Fleshy Mounds and Alpha Hopper. These bands really are five fingers on one hand, whatever that means. La Luna is about 80 percent brutal...
by Dan Bauer | Jul 26, 2014 | Preview
I know you folks like crying, but there’s nothing quite like a real actual rock ‘n roll show, which is exactly what The Vonneguts are bringing to town tonight. These grisly fellas hail from Detroit, and they’re an increasingly rare breed: a band that...
by Dan Bauer | Jul 21, 2014 | Preview
If you’ve ever been to a show in the basement of Spiral Scratch Records, then you know that it can get ear-splittingly loud down there. Which is perfect for a band like Seattle’s Nudes, who sound like they’re living inside a tornado anyway....
by Dan Bauer | Jul 18, 2014 | Preview
Mac DeMarco gets called a slacker a lot, but that’s only half the story. He reminds me of this kid I went to high school with: let’s call him Mike. Mike, I imagine, was a precocious little youngster, and very bright. Rolling with ease right over the...
