Latest Posts

Letter to Elise – the five stages of grief

September 24, 2026

Team Reba! Never in my life did I think I’d be typing that for any reason, but here we are.   This week, we’re celebrating Letter to Elise, who is fresh off an appearance on NBC’s The Voice – a really, really cool opportunity, especially for an independent rock band from our neck of the woods. The Buffalo-based five-piece tout themselves as a “Rust Belt Rock ‘n Roll” band who write their songs with their blue collar hearts… I think that’s fair enough and technically true, but to my ears, this quintet is writing smartly-crafted pop rock, polished far past rust into a mirror-finish shine. Their latest album, the five stages of grief (which I will henceforth be referring to as grief), is razor-sharp and unapologetically glossy, taking cues from indie-pop luminaries like Neon Trees and Walk the Moon, and/or Heartland-esque rockers like The Killers to make a legit run[...]

10 Acts to Catch Music is Art 2024

September 19, 2024

Music is Art is a dream come true for Buffalo music fans looking to Kobayashi the local scene in 12 hours. The list of local talents playing this year can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t know what to look for, so we put together a compilation of ten bands to add to your must-see list this weekend. If you’re a blog-reading regular, you may notice we aren’t writing about the many established local acts that are great and we’ve covered ad hoc. There are dozens of bands playing that we won’t discuss today, as we’ve already exhausted hundreds of adverbs over the past ten-plus years via album reviews and show previews. The purpose of this article is to add some newer bands to your knowledge base and expand everyone’s horizons. Should you see bands that aren’t on this list? For sure. One of the best aspects of this[...]