Latest Posts

Five Year Rewind: Staff Picks – Part 1

March 23, 2015

Since the blog debuted on March 28th, 2010, with a truly horrible post about a Passion Pit show (sorry Bill), our ever revolving staff of writers and contributors have spun hundreds of albums and songs, and attended more shows in and out of Buffalo than I dare to count. To commemorate our upcoming five year anniversary this Saturday night. we have assembled a cast blog writers from past and present, each discussing their favorite albums, songs, shows, and even some memories since the blog’s inception. Today is Part 1. – Mac McGuire Steven Gordon (Staff Writer) Favorite Album: Thee Oh Sees – Castlemania (2011) There are so many good things about Thee Oh Sees: an insane rate of musical output, notorious live performances, profoundly debauched aesthetics, and a propensity for gradual innovation despite inherent stylistic simplicity. The group started a decade or two ago as the artistic vehicle for guitarist/vocalist/flutist John Dwyer.[...]

Tonight: Tweedy

October 1, 2014

Father and son make their way through town tonight in the newest creation by Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy. With Jeff taking his usual spot at guitar and lead singer, you can find his oldest son, Spencer, behind him on drums. Listening to their music, you get the sense that it’s more than just a hash mark off Jeff’s list of “things to do as an accomplished musician.” Beyond the blood they share, the lyrics are personal—in many places you can see themes of the most intense thing the two now face on this earth: a mom and wife fighting with cancer. The duo’s first album, Sukierae, is indeed named after Jeff’s wife, Sue Miller. It features 20 songs soaked with a Jeff Tweedy at his most raw. But then again, I suppose his lyrics are always served best with a high dose of emotional turbulence. While in many cases[...]

Tonight: Ark Life

September 24, 2014

Buffalo will get a dose of Colorado tonight as Ark Life makes it’s way through town, breathing magic into the newly reopened Mohawk Place with their soul-steeped take on folk-rock. This is a band that hit the ground running—they’ve been together little over year, with one record under their belts and nearly 200 shows in their pockets. They’ve shared bills with the likes of Shakey Graves, of Montreal, Barcelona and Warpaint, and have a string of shows with Dispatch and State Radio guitarist Chadwick Stokes coming up in early November. Their summer tour dates now blending into fall, this quintet will bring their stories with them, soaked in the harmonies and passion that have led them down such a thunderous road of early success. Joining them will be Buffalo romantic-folkies Tiny Rhymes. 8pm start. $5 gets you a couple ears full of beautiful tunes.

Keller Williams

September 16, 2014

It’s Friday, September 12th, which means Keller Williams’ show at the Tralf is exactly one week away. I sat down to call him on one of those typical, overcast Buffalo mornings of early fall. You know, where the chill makes it hard to get out of bed, and you realize how much you’re still holding on to summer. It’s his second day at the much warmer Utopiafest in south-central Texas, and he’s getting ready to play a set with Grateful Grass, one of the many side projects in which he currently dabbles. They just released their second of two live albums in August—a fundraising initiative to benefit the REX Foundation, a non-profit started by the Grateful Dead. Appropriately, it’s titled DOS. buffaBLOG: Last time I saw you was at Summer Camp in May with More Than a Little. How’s your summer been? Keller Williams: It’s been super fun. It kind of[...]

Tonight: Greensky Bluegrass

September 10, 2014

It takes a relentless disregard for boundary to push the music like Greensky does. They have this uncanny aversion to falling in line with what so many might think of as bluegrass in the conventional sense. Where the skill of songwriting is mixed with the finesse of an all string quartet, this progressive ensemble takes root in an old genre, turning it on its head to make it new. Hell, if nothing else, the proclamation lies in the name, as if trying to say, “it’s opposite day, and we’re here to fuck with all of your preconceptions.” You see a lot of jam bands make that push—one could argue it’s stylistically inherent to the approach—and in many cases it’s easy to see where the bluegrass roots have taken hold. Phish, String Cheese Incident, or moe., just to name a few. And while I hesitate to stick Greensky with the jam[...]

Faux Leather Jacket Releases Music Video for “Only I Can Break My Heart”

August 27, 2014

Rochester’s alt-country rockers, Faux Leather Jacket, released a music video late last week for “Only I Can Break My Heart,” the shining track on their debut EP, Sorry, Bud. In collaboration with Rocco Hagan, who shot and edited the video, it features a dreamlike montage of friends goofing off, dudes playing with hatchets, and, as many of us can relate to, a man on a mission to make things as hard as possible for himself. With a wisdom of the ages, this youthful group highlights the song’s title through the pointed words of a repeating chorus: “Don’t go feeling guilty/ Don’t even start/ It’s like I’ve told you once/ Only I can break my heart.” It only seems right, then, that the video’s protagonist (songwriter, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Trevor Courneen) might be likened to something of Sisyphus, as he makes a hellish journey across town hauling a burlap sack[...]

Tonight: Mr. Boneless

August 22, 2014

When I first checked out Mr. Boneless’ latest album, Cutting Teeth, I was at a loss for what to make of the guys on the other side of my headphones. You begin with a pedestrian, almost mechanic rhythm of some rockabillies getting ready to roll through tales of train hopping or sipping on moonshine or some shit like Oklahoma, and just when you think you’ve got them pegged, they turn the on the distortion and kick it up to 90. With instrumental foundations in the blues and a tendency towards punk rock screaming, it’s pretty clear this band has no qualms with busting down the walls of genre, or even of finding a placement in one, for that matter. They’ve got a guitar that shreds and a one-of-a-kind singer who doesn’t hesitate to shift his constitution. They’re mad and they’re explorative and they straddle the line of in your face[...]

Tonight: Alan Evan’s Playonbrother

August 13, 2014

Come check out some interstellar, funkalicious grooves as supplied by Playonbrother tonight at Larkinville, USA. In this melting pot of soul-steeped talent, band-leader (and Buffalo’s own) Alan Evans exhibits the visionary freedom to do more than lay down his traditionally explosive backdrop of drum work—though you can damn well bet he does. In the studio, he demonstrates a variety of instrumental talent, taking guitar, bass, and even mic in hand. He envisions, he records, he mixes, he produces. And perhaps most remarkably, he is able to bring his broad range of talents into the live arena under an umbrella of direction that successfully blends a fiery fusion of Scofield-inspired guitar licks (Danny Mayer) with whirling strokes of organ meanderings (Kris Yunker) as they tactfully improvise their way in and out of focus. It’s an electric wall of funk-rock clamor, one that screams a skill and style to easily separate itself[...]

Tonight: Humminbird

August 7, 2014

Rock on down to Electric Avenue tonight to catch the avant-garde folk of Chicago’s Humminbird. Normally featuring the ethereal vocals of Muyassar Kurdi and the decisive finger picking of Matthew Schneider on guitar, Kurdi will ride solo this evening with a sound taking on a novelty that almost seems  to come straight off of one of your parent’s old 45’s. Also taking the stage will be Buffalo folk-rockers Difficult Night, as well as the experimental lounge beats of Different Planets. Doors at 10pm.