Make sure to follow all of the blog’s year in review coverage throughout the month of December

Cliff Parks
Favorite Album
Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
I don’t want to go with this album, it was my Album of the Year So Far earlier this summer and I loved the latest from Tame Impala, CHVRCHES, and Neon Indian, but with America currently cracking up, Father John Misty’s sophomore album is album of 2015 now more than ever. Between the ascent of candidate Trump and our nation’s mounting multiple existential crises, Josh Tilman’s ode to love, manhood, and getting hitched to that special someone so you can ride out the American apocalypse together seems right on time, all the time lately. It should also be noted that it’s a beautifully produced slice of Americana that your parents would probably love.

Favorite Song
Made Violent – “Wasted Days”
I loved Made Violent’s self titled and self produced debut EP to pieces this year from the first listen, and to be honest- I would’ve loved it if they weren’t from Buffalo. Their whole downtown post punk meets LEGENDS OF UK ROCK sound and stoned out vibe is irresistible, none more so than on the EP’s album closer “Wasted Days,” an anthemic jam that sums up the band’s ethos in a shambolic yet deceptively concise three minute single. It’s all there: Justin’s impeccably timed drum thrashing, Rob’s melodic yet crunchy guitar genius, and Joe’s throbbing bass and rock star vocals, on one super tight single that left me wanting more. The interactive YouTube video for “Wasted Days” is also my video of the year.

Favorite Song
Dan Deacon – “Feel the Lightning”
The best song of the year? That’s easy… uhh… well… there was a new album to be excited about about twice a month… Sleater Kinney came back… tons of bandcamp artists got signed… Kendrick put out one of the most hyped albums ever… so yeah! Easy to pick! I’m going to go with one from February, from an album that instantly became so ingrained in my brain that I forgot it was even from this year. “Feel the Lightning” by Dan Deacon. Dan took the indie music blogs by storm with Gliss Riffer, his seventh full album. “Feel the Lightning” was a tame electronic piece when compared to most of Dan’s stuff, however that may have been the best case scenario, as it was also one of the most intelligent pieces he’s created. Hopefully we don’t have to wait three more years between releases for the next Deacon project.

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Nick Muldoon
Favorite Album
Jamie xx – In Colour
In Colour feels like the culmination of so much that has lead to it’s creation, not just the work of Jamie xx, but an entire genre, time, and culture of music. It’s an electronic record that feels so refreshingly personal; a heartfelt love letter to a bygone era of rave culture by someone young enough to have properly experienced it. Which is what perhaps makes In Colour such an affecting record, the sounds of an album produced from childhood nostalgia. The music, city, and culture that surrounded and Jamie Smith as a child is beautifully re-crafted into a single cohesive definitive statement. In Colour is the rare album that tells as much about an era of music as it does an artist.

Honorable mentions:
-The Tallest Man On Earth – Dark Bird is Home
–Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith

Favorite Song
The Black Ships – “Aurelian Walls”
My favorite song of 2015 came from Saratoga Springs quintet, The Black Ships. Their album came out just a few weeks ago, but I find myself going back to it over and over again, especially the second track “Aurelian Walls.” This song is an 80’s gothpop gem, in the vein of New Order, Q Lazzarus, or Depeche Mode, and it’s absolutely perfect.

The post Staff Picks first appeared on buffaBLOG.

“Music does pay our bills,” singer Brian Elmquist said in a recent interview. “But we’re still in the fight.”

Playing with Eric Church tonight in front of 15,000 people should help deliver a few blows. The last time the Brooklyn trio played in Buffalo was at a well-attended yet intimate show at The Tralf. This time, they’ll be playing an arena as big as any other in the country.

“This will actually be the biggest venue we’ve played in to date, and we don’t really know what to expect,” Elmquist admitted.

Certainly, they can expect a warm embrace from the crowd and great sales at the merch tent because it’s very, very difficult to listen to this band and not like them. In the past, we have compared them to Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, and Mumford and Sons. I see similarities between them and Delta Rae, another contemporary, folk-influenced, alt-country band.

“We actually like to dabble in multiple genres, but our music usually falls in the folk rock stream,” Elmquist stated.

The big takeaway here, though, is that they’re going to surprise concertgoers who arrive early for Church. Their songs are catchy, passionate, and, most importantly for this venue, big. Listen to “Tree to Grow” off their self titled, debut album and you’ll know what I mean. When the three band members – Elmquist, Zach Williams, and Kanene Pipkin – sing together, their sound can fill a space of any size.

“We can’t wait to hear what the music sounds like in that setting,” Elmquist said, alluding, I think, to the confluence of the objective and the subjective, the point at which their already powerful vocal harmonies meet the adrenaline of performing on such a large stage.

This is the band’s second trip to Buffalo. I tossed them a softball and asked them to name three things they know about our city. Their response was “Goo Goo Dolls, Jim Kelly, and snow,” which is about as accurate a response as we’re ever going to get. However, later in the interview, I dug a little deeper. In a recent article about the band, I wrote that “Country music isn’t just driving on a dirt road and sticking an American flag up someone’s ass, as I’d previously thought.” I asked them how they felt about the prevalence of patriotic themes in country music, and whether it was a unification or an exploitation of audience’s emotions.

“I think it depends on the motivation behind the person singing the song,” Elmquist replied. “I think you can tell which way that goes.” He added, “It’s one of the most beautiful things, though, when someone writes a song that tells a story about the people that sacrifice everything to keep us safe. Those stories need to be told.”

I’m sure most of us can support that. And I’m sure most of us can support an honest, hardworking band, eager to play a big venue for the first time. When asked if they ever sat back and realized that they’ve really made it, that’s when Elmquist answered that they were still in the fight.

“I think we would feel like that anyway, even if we were headlining arenas. We are truly thankful every day to do what we love.”

Let’s help the fight. If you’re going to the show this evening (7:30pm, tickets start at $25), make sure they feel enough love to come back. We even have a promise for a future show on the record: “We’ll definitely be back to headline,” Elmquist said. “I think it will be in the fall.”

The post The Lone Bellow first appeared on buffaBLOG.

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 most emotional in “Runaway,” and some of the most memorable singles of his career in “All of the Lights,” “Power,” and Monster.” West questions his identity as both a artist and a human, and lays all his flaws out for us to examine, all the while making catchy, unforgettable tunes.

Favorite Song: Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire ft. Danny Brown, Das Racist, El-P, Despot – “The Last Huzzah” Remix (2011)

“Huzzah” is a lyrical assault by the who’s who of 2011’s underground rap scene. The video is an ode to Craig Mack’s “Flava in Ya Ear” remix. Each feature has an argument for best verse, and the song came just before Danny Brown and Run the Jewels crossed over into critical darling territory. Rapper/anomaly Despot drops one the few verses of his career, El-P is rapping without Killer Mike (though he stands intimidatingly in the background) and Das Racist is still together.

It was a special moment in time. Heems of Das Racist has the line of the song though, when he compliments the impressive roster he’s sharing the mic with, concluding his verse with “The worst rapper on this track, third coolest.”

Favorite Show:  Lupe Fiasco @ SUNY Brockport (2012)

Though Lasers was received pretty poorly, it made for some pretty kickass concert singalongs. Crammed into a rec gym on the Brockport campus, Lupe countered every “The Show Goes On” with a “Daydreamin’,” and had the aid of some great live instrumentation that included electric violin.

Mike Torsell (Staff Writer)

Hard to believe this blog is already five years old. When Mac asked us to begin thinking about a favorite song, album, and concert from the last five years, I was initially eager to hammer out my thoughts. But, as I reflected on it, I realized this was actually very difficult. As I continued to think about it, I actually came to a very (personally) surprising conclusion, I couldn’t possibly pinpoint a favorite anything!

Nick Sessanna (Staff Writer)
Favorite Album: Mansions – DIg Up The Dead (2011)

Call it kismet, but Mansion’s heart-on-your-sleeve confessionals hit me right in the early 20s. Christopher Browder is a master of simplicity. Between the squelching bass tones, waves of feedback, and the trusty strumming of his acoustic guitar, Dig Up The Dead ebbs and flows in just the right ways. The lyrics of “Wormhole” alone are enough for me to call it my favorite, but there’s no substitute for the lonely fuzz of “Call Me When It’s Over” or the swelling feedback that permeates the title track. It’s one of those right-place, right-time kind of albums that’s always going to stick with me.

Favorite Song: Pity Sex – “Keep” (2013)

Pity Sex’s Feast of Love was my pick for AOTY in 2013. Track two, “Keep,” would wind up (pun intended) becoming an obsession of mine. There is something inexplicable about this song that catches my ear in just the right way. Between the mid-tempo groove and lyrics about love and death, listening to “Keep” is pure bliss, even if it’s only for four minutes and eight seconds. Maybe I’m just a sucker for fuzz these days or maybe it’s Britty Drake’s glassy-eyed delivery, but two years later I still find myself humming that chorus that’s burnt into my brain; “You know I’ve never been the type, afraiiiiid to diiiie.”

Favorite Show: Pinback @ Buffalo Iron Works (2014)

10 year anniversary shows are a dime a dozen these days, but the opportunity to get lost in a live version of 2004’s Summer In Abbadon was a joyous daze I’ll never forget (I’ll also never forget paying $4 for a PBR, but that’s a different story). Rob Crow’s pristine voice soared majestically over ABSIV’s inhuman bass grooves – both men in cryptic synchronization with a selection of projected vintage film clips. From the choppy guitar in “Non-Photo Blue” to their campy electronic take on “Fortress,” the whole experience had me gazing nostalgically at the stage, wide-eyed and lost in the rhythm.

Joe Speranza (Staff Writer)
Favorite Album: The Lone Bellow – The Lone Bellow (2013)

Picking the best album of the past five years based solely on quality is not something I am qualified to do. I can throw albums from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Of Monsters and Men, Kanye West, and The Black Keys into a hat, pick one out, and be satisfied with the choice. So I’m going to pick my old friends, The Lone Bellow, and their self-titled debut, because of what the album did for me as a person. The band took its southern roots, moved them to New York City, and put out an incredible alternative country album. By doing that, they suddenly made that genre accessible to me. Country music isn’t just driving on a dirt road and sticking an American Flag up someone’s ass, as I’d previously thought. It’s finding a way to tell a story and making it sound good.

Favorite Song: Kanye West – “Monster” (2010)

There are too many choices, but this one’s as good as any in the past five years. Rick Ross comes out of the gate hot and the entire song just has you pinned down on the ground the entire time. The best part is the angry, aggressive Nicki Minaj verse, recorded when she was an up-and-coming fire-spitter, before she turned into a nonsensical porn star. Fantastic song all around.

Favorite Show: Modest Mouse @ Ommegang Brewery (2014)

I’ll start with the cons: the venue workers wouldn’t let me take my bottle of whiskey inside the venue; after we’d set up our tent we were told we were set up in the wrong spot and we had to move; I yelled at my friend for yelling at me that I was setting up the tent the wrong way; about halfway through the show, some old guy with a prickly beard kissed my girlfriend. But aside from that, it was great.

It was the perfect road trip: the drive to Cooperstown was scenic but not too long. It was the perfect capacity: the place was full but not crowded. It was the perfect venue: the campsite was right next to the stage. And “The View” was the perfect final song and a fitting end to what the band must have seen that night: thousands of fans standing on a gentle slope towards the hop garden, drinking hours-fresh beer in the driving rain.

Cliff Parks (Staff Writer)
Favorite Show: M83 @ Town Ballroom (2012)

Out of the last five years of the blog’s existence, there was a stretch from mid April to mid May 2012 when we were really kicking ass and it felt like the city of Buffalo was living the dream. During a four week stretch Buffalo had shows from Cults, Portugal. The Man, Death Cab For Cutie, St. Vincent, M83, and Santigold, and we were all over it. It was a wonderful time as a music fan in Buffalo and a great time to start writing for the blog. That M83 show in particular still feels improbable, in spite of the video evidence that conclusively proves that it did happen.

Nick Muldoon (Staff Writer)
Favorite Album: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

I would love to have a more original answer here as it’s certainly making this easier to write, but I simply cannot. What can be said about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that hasn’t been said before? Sometimes an album has a reputation for a reason and with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, that’s exactly the case. The record has already been acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of all-time and with good reason. Following the death of his mother, break-up with longtime girlfriend, and a drunken interruption at the VMAs that made him the most divisive artists in the world, Kanye secluded himself in a recording studio for months to record the album.

Race, Religion, Sex, Class, Celebrity; the artist unfurled everything occupying his psyche into a glorious sprawling collage that would make or break his career. The album is nothing short of a masterpiece, a record that set a new bar for hip-hop in both its immense ambition and scale. The record’s influence can already be seen in the work of so many young artists like Frank Ocean, Chance the Rapper, and Drake. I’ve played so many of my favorite records over the years to the point where I can’t listen to them anymore, yet no matter how many times I’ve played Kanye’s magnum opus, I always come back. That’s the mark of a classic.

Favorite Song: Japandroids – “The House That Heaven Built” (2012)

Almost any rock band could probably write a Japandroids’ song and do it with relative ease. The duo’s music isn’t terribly complex and the lyrics read like catchphrases and motivational posters. Yet, as hard as any band might try to duplicate Japandroids’ sound, it would inevitably fall short. And that is down to one simple component: joy, as in pure relentless, ceaseless, unstoppable encapsulated joy.

People forget before Japandroids were echoing through sports arenas and featured in Rolling Stone, this was a band ready to call it quits. Just six years ago, the band released an album that was meant to be its last, and through a mixture of luck and internet buzz, found themselves working as full-time musicians. That feeling echoes through each one of their grungy lo-fi anthems, each sounding like the battlecry of a refusing to let it be their last. The band has released many of these, but none with the raw adrenaline-fueled drive of “The House That Heaven Built” and that’s why it’s my favorite song of the last five years.

Favorite Show: Los Campesinos! @ Wrongbar (2010)

Over the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to see some truly incredible shows. I saw LCD Soundsystem say farewell at Madison Square Garden. I saw Pulp reform to play Glastonbury, and I saw Radiohead enough times to put me in double digits. And yet, for all the shows I’ve been to, none have been more special to me than that night at the tint 200-capacity Wrongbar in Toronto.

Los Campesinos! are one of those bands that hold a special place in my heart, a band which consistently put out brilliantly sharp and heart-wrenching pop music to little recognition. So to find myself in the company of a room packed with fellow die-hards was a near religious experience.

The energy was something untouchable with every person in that crowd jumping up and down, singing along to every line from the band’s biggest singles to their most obscure B-sides. I remember sweat actually raining from the ceiling by the end of the show from the pure flurry of motion and life in that crowd. I’ve been to a lot of shows, but none have come close to the passion and electricity of that night.

Justin Amidon (Staff Writer)
Favorite Album: A House Safe For Tigers – A House Safe For Tigers (2015)

Comprised of Brandon Delmont (Girlpope, Lindberg Babies) and Mark Constantino (Exit Strategy, Returners), A House Safe For Tigers was a breath of fresh air after the frigid Buffalo winter. While everyone else and their brother is trying to make Buffalo the punk rock mecca of Western New York, Tigers are crafting beautiful pop songs. Rather than being drowned out behind heavy guitars and drums of his past projects, Constantino’s voice flourishes at the forefront of the record. The vocals layer perfectly with the multi-instrumental talents of Delmont, especially on the track “Anne Marie.”

Favorite Song: Hot Tip – “DNA” (2014)

The Queen City punk outfit Hot Tip has built a reputation of assaulting its audiences with 15 minute sets. The qurtet rifles through song after song at intergalactic cosmic speed (the way grandma use to do it), and “DNA” is a perfect representation of that. Bassist Keely Guiliano has called it the band’s “hit” with her tongue firmly placed into her cheek. Thumping bass lines, catchy riffs, and hollowing screams from behind the mic makes “DNA” equally as infectious as it is necessary.

Favorite Show: Psychic Teens @ Allen St. Hardware (2014)

When Philly punk ensemble, Psychic Teens, took the stage at Sugar City’s Herd Fest showcase this past summer, they made sure you took notice. Next to seeing Queens of the Stone Age at The Egg in Albany, Teens is easily the loudest band I have ever heard. Herd Fest “tourists” quickly put away their cell phones and put their Word With Friends games on hold to watch Teens tear the back room apart.

John Hugar (Staff Writer)
Favorite Album:  City & Colour – Little Hell (2011)

Dozens of albums I’ve loved in the past five years, but I have the strongest personal connection to this one.

Favorite Song: Kanye West – “New Slaves” (2013)

This song still blows my fucking mind every time I hear it. The second verse is just fucking nuts.

Favorite Show: Blondie w/ X @ the Rapids Theatre  (2013)

I got to interview Debbie Harry the week before the show and she was really cool. Then I got free tickets, and my friend & I had the night of our lives.

Ryan Wolf (Staff Writer)
Favorite Album: Josh Ritter – So Runs the World Away (2010)

If buffaBLOG had been launched earlier in March, Titus Andronicus’ existential Civil War-meets-modern-Jersey epic, The Monitor, would have trampled over any other sonic vintage, but rules being rules, I am happy to go with Josh Ritter’s more subdued work of songcraft. From the gorgeous swell of “Change of Time,” to the demonic desperation of “Rattling Locks,” to the blessed assurance of “Lark,” the album is a confident unfolding of life’s rich pageant.

Whether constructing cosmologies on “The Remnant” and “Orbital,” resurrecting Egyptian mummies on “The Curse,” or stacking up corpses in the Old West of “Folk Bloodbath,” Ritter’s lyrics are as sharp and inspired as his melodies are transfixing. On “Lantern,” Ritter impels the listener to “be content inside your questions,” perhaps the encapsulating the sum of the album itself, as So Runs the World Away brings its inquiring mind “through the thieves and the rocks” to a place of fortitude and peace.

Favorite Song: The Antlers – “Putting the Dog to Sleep” (2011)

Though Burst Apart contains few tracks that match the revelatory emotional intensity of The Antlers’ devastating debut, Hospice, the album’s final song is the perfect punch in the gut. “Prove to me I’m not gonna die alone,” calls frontman Peter Silberman, as the song’s straightforward chords snap and strut over the void of coming night. The track is simple, sad, and, for all its pet euthanizing imagery, stunningly courageous.

Favorite Show: Arcade Fire @ CONSOL Energy Center (2014)

Arcade Fire live is a full-blooded stadium rock experience. The Reflektor tour was accompanied by paper mache heads, TV screen helmets, and plenty of space age silver. The concert I caught in Pittsburgh began with Win Butler and Regine Chassagne crying out to one another from opposite ends of the amphitheater, preforming an ethereal duet as the mythical Orpheus and Eurydice. It ended with both the band and the crowd lifting their voices to the ceiling for an ecstatic rendition of “Wake Up.” Arcade Fire’s baroque pop spectacle might have been a tin-foil coated display of glittering excess, but it was also driving, delirious, deftly produced entertainment.

Katie Africano (Co-Founder, Graphic Designer)
First of all, it is absolutely amazing and wonderful that BuffaBLOG has been around for 5 years! Thank you to every writer, band, venue and reader that’s helped get us here. A special thanks to Billy for asking me to help him start a music blog, Mac for all his incredibly hard work and Mike for all his great new ideas.

Favorite Album: LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening (2010)

My favorite album from the past five years is LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening. It came out our first year as a blog and is still an album I love all the way through til this day. It even made the number one track for the epic top 100 list Billy and I spent countless hours debating and forming back in 2010.

Favorite Song: The birD day – “Gonna Beg You” (2010)

My favorite song from the past five years has been really hard to pick. Is it something Beyonce? Arcade Fire? Fiona Apple? I decided to go local, since it’s what buffaBLOG is all about, and pick The birD day’s “Gonna Beg You.” It was one of the first local songs I really was crazy about and helped the inspiration for promoting the local music scene. Too bad they left!

Favorite Show: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings @ Town Ballroom (2011)

My favorite show from the last five years is easily Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings at the Town Ballroom. Not only did I dance for two hours straight, but it was one of the first photo passes we got for buffaBLOG, helping me get closer to my dream job of a music photographer.

The past five years were awesome and I can’t wait to keep it going. See you at our birthday party!

Bill Wright (Co-Founder)

Reflecting on buffaBLOG’s early years reminds me of a quote from Steven Wright:

“Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories.”

In all seriousness, that deadpan-delivering stoner had it right. The last five years have produced an enormous amount of memories. Some bad, most good, but all them a stepping-stone to where we are today.  So without further ado, these are some of my favorites from the first couple years.

Favorite Memories:

One of my favorite early pieces was an interview with Bryce March about being a promoter. It’s easy to take for granted how hard it is to bring bands to Buffalo and pay them a decent wage. That piece was one of our first interviews and a true eye opener every local music enthusiast should read if they care about what goes on behind the curtain of every indie rock show.

Our first email from JJJ (Jeremy Jermaine Jerome) was pure WTF. The mysterious email only had around six total words and a link to his latest video. At the time, we weren’t quite sure what to make of him so we simply described him as “a mullet wearing, patriotic flag waving Weird Al-Outkast lovechild.”  To this day, I’m still not sure if his stage name is Just Ending Now or Jeremy Jermaine Jerome. All I know is that this mysterious character wanted us to spread the word and that I’m glad we did.

The first time we received press passes to a show was a watershed moment. It was for Tokyo Police Club at the Town Ballroom back in 2010. The PR person emailed us to ask if we would be interested in participating in a contest to build some buzz around the upcoming show. The contest involved asking the TPC fans to submit a random challenge to the band (balloon toss, three leg race, that sort of thing.) in the comments section of our preview post. The winning submission would get to meet the group, participate in the challenge and win tickets to the show and in return for our corporation, the blog would also get a couple of press passes.

Up until that moment, we had never thought of ourselves as popular enough to cover a concert for free. We loved seeing concerts and we loved writing about them, but it always felt more like a passion project than an actual job. This offer changed things. Instantly, we felt validated for our hard work. We felt respected and filled with purpose. We weren’t bums or concert nerds. We were actual journalists. From that day forward, we began we request our own press passes to concerts. Subsequently, our staff doubled, and our output quadrupled. We were no longer restrained to cover the acts we could afford on our messily minimum wage paychecks. From that day on, the entire Buffalo music scene was ours to report on.

For Part 1 of our staff picks, click here.

The post Five Year Rewind: Staff Picks – Part 2 first appeared on buffaBLOG.

To find out more, check them out Saturday night at buffaBLOG’s party (and keep an eye out for a new Boneless album this summer). So far, they’ve filled a void left by Merchants’ semi-uncertain future, in that I listen to them and want to become more of a man. When Elliot sings, he uses every bit of throat that he’s got; picture, if you will, a dog getting a bone lodged in its throat and using every ounce of energy he’s got to dislodge it. That’s a pun within an analogy for you; my work here is done. 

Check them out Saturday at Duke’s. They’re batting leadoff and will go on right at 10:30. Tickets are $5.

– Joe Sperenza

The post buffaBLOG 4th Birthday Party Artist Spotlight: Mr. Boneless first appeared on buffaBLOG.