Latest Posts

Why Slow Days Matter Just As Much As Busy Ones

July 16, 2025

(Photo by furkanfdemir) Some days fly by before you’ve even had a chance to stop and think, but other days… well, they stretch out, and you look up and it’s still early, and you’re not sure what you’ve actually done yet. It’s easy to think of those slower days as wasted ones, but they’re not really most of the time.    The fact is that even when things feel quiet or aimless, your mind and body are still doing something, including processing, recharging, catching up, and those things are important. So keep reading to find out more about why slow days are actually important.    The Pressure To Be Busy    We’ve been taught to value packed schedules, fast responses, and endless productivity, and it’s true that sometimes that’s helpful because it gets things done, but when it becomes the default, and every moment is filled with tasks, there’s no[...]

The Bandcamp Era

November 17, 2015

Car Seat Headrest recently rolled out a “Greatest Hits” of sorts. Well, the bandcamp lo-fi version of what a greatest hits compilation would be. The album is called Teens of Style and it raises at least a couple of interesting questions: What do we do with all this lo-fi music laying around Bandcamp that previously independent artists released, now that those artists are being signed? What does this mean on a greater scale, for artists and fans, as windows like Bandcamp are becoming a standard within certain genres? There have been a lot of irrelevant questions posed to these guys from different angles, mostly pertaining to the “pressures” of having a wider audience, having to work with other people, and all kinds of ridiculous questions that really stereotype people like Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest) and Mat Cothran (Elvis Depressedly) as introverted guys who wouldn’t know how to make or perform[...]

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

October 14, 2015

The Buffalo News via Buffalo.com reported Wednesday that the Common Council unanimously voted Tuesday to eventually move the wildly successful Canalside Concert Series somewhere not Canalside, a move that might potentially kill off the long running concert series just when it’s getting good. Apparently complaints about noise, traffic, and unruly young people by Marine Drive Apartments residents proved sufficient to precipitate this shock move, and now Canalside concertgoers get to look forward to the series moving to the Outer Harbor or Lasalle Park, and truthfully, I don’t think the series can survive a move to either. Let’s be honest: while summer was great, it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for the “fun crowd” in Western New York, with the oncoming change in bar closing time in Erie County, which is totally happening by the way (you’ve been warned), and now word of a Canalside Concert move to the[...]

Dr. Dre and Detox

August 5, 2015

Last week, Dr. Dre, the notorious and elusive producer who had us salivating for 15 years for Detox, the final part of his solo album trilogy, announced that it has been scrapped. Instead, he is dropping Compton: A Soundtrack, inspired by the upcoming N.W.A. biopic on Thursday. Dre, who helped introduce a sort of street-level realism in the late 80s with N.W.A. and then came like a riot into white America’s living room with 1992’s The Chronic, is still perhaps hip hop’s most influential producer, despite ghosting out of the game entirely for the past decade. With The Chronic, Dre’s sun-bleached, 70’s funk samples mixed with surly, even darkly comic raps. For his sequel, Chronic 2001 or just 2001, he assembled a core of musicians, including studio-rat-turned-fallen-Greek-God Scott Storch, and bassist Mike Elizondo, to relaunch his brand of g-funk as airtight, cosmic and sample-less. He ended up going beyond what merely just passed[...]

Waka For President? Maybe

April 22, 2015

Over the past couple of days, “news” broke that Queens-born, ATL-based rapper Waka Flocka Flame is running for president in 2016. In a Rolling Stone video released on 4/20, Waka indulges in an L and runs through the driving points of his campaign. This includes the obvious mention of marijuana legalization and some more obscure topics like banning dogs from restaurants and people with feet over size 13 from sidewalks. The campaign continued again today with this video in which Waka collects signatures for a petition that will get him on the ballot However sincere this campaign actually is comes second to the idea that as far as rappers running for president go, Waka Flocka is actually a pretty solid choice. It’s easy to look at the lyrics of a Waka Flocka song and call it trash, but lyrics have never been his thing. He himself has admitted that he’s[...]

Happy Kanye Disappoints, So Far

February 20, 2015

It’s 2015, and Kanye is happy and making an album. He was hungry making College Dropout, inspired for Late Registration and Graduation, depressed for 808s, desperate for MBDTF, and angry for Yeezus. Every one of his solos was reflected of Kanye’s state of mind during their time period, and now Kanye is probably in the most simple emotional state he’s been in since he’s entered the celebrity arena. He’s got a wife and daughter he loves, and his fashion career that has often been a point of frustration in his life, appears to be turning a new corner. Simply put, Kanye is in a good place. Is that good for us as listeners though? “Only One” is probably the best song Kanye has let out in the new year, but right now I can’t say that that’s even a top 20 Ye track. “FourFiveSeconds” is one of the more disappointing tracks in memory, as accurately described by Justin on here[...]

Even Limp Bizkit Hates Limp Bizkit Fans

January 30, 2015

For most of us born in the late ’80s or early ’90s, the name Limp Bizkit brings to mind two things: the group’s almost laughably awful and contrived bro-metal, and the groups fans, which could be politely described as “roided-out, tribal-tattooed, spray-tanned, Jell-O shot filled bohunks.” In fact, it was none other than Wes Borland, Limp Bizkit’s lead guitarist/mascot, who so kindly described said fans of his in an Instagram caption. Then, perhaps in the briefest moment of self-reflection (you know, reflection that these people made you rich as hell), apparently later deleted it. According to MetalInjection.net, Borland wrote: “Getting all packed up this week for Broatchella 2015. It’s the same as Brochella but it’s off land. Can’t wait to see me some roided out tribal tattooed spray tanned Jell-O shot filled bohunks do their best drunk MMA impressions in the top deck mosh pit. Whenever we aren’t on stage, I’ll be curled[...]

Is “FourFiveSeconds” Even A Song?

January 26, 2015

On paper, the Kanye West-Paul McCartney-Rihanna collaboration “FourFiveSeconds” looks huge, a swing-for-the-fences song that could actually change things. It features two of the world’s greatest pop stars, plus a Beatle, and other wild card talent, but virtually none of their presence is felt. The legendary Paul McCartney is reduced to tapping on a few keyboards—maybe guitar. Kanye deploys a brief, auto-tuneless vocal performance that is totally mailed in, and I have no idea what David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors is doing here. For all we know, he was just hanging out in the same room while the song was recorded and got some props. A total of 10 people are credited here – a spare acoustic guitar song – that sounds like it was mixed down from just four tracks. The song’s uplifting, face-the-day tone feels like it could be sung at AA meetings or in one of those[...]

Is the New Pusha T Track the Least “Kanye” Kanye Beat We’ve Heard?

November 25, 2014

Pusha T (through Funkmaster Flex) released  “Lunch Money” about a week ago (week ago), his first new track since his solo debut album My Name is My Name last year. From back in the Clipse days of the early to mid 2000s, right through MNIMN, King Push has been rapping over unorthodox beats. Take 2002’s “Intro” off of Clipse’s Lord Willin or 2013’s “Suicide” as examples. It’s in Pusha’s blood to choose unconventional production. So, earlier in the week when “Lunch Money” dropped attached to P’s name, it wasn’t exactly shocking that the beat was pretty whacky. Listeners debated over whether the beat was good or not, but the real conversation started when the producer of the track was revealed to be none other than Yeezus himself. On the record, I would call this a weird beat for Kanye to produce. Off the record, I’d say that this beat is weird as fuck for Kanye[...]

T-Pain’s Return to Relevancy

November 7, 2014

What a week it’s been for T-Pain. The premiere hook-man of the late 2000s was the face of the auto-tune era in pop-rap music, but few people knew that there was so much more to this artist. When T-Pain began using auto-tune, it was innovative and creative. As with any fad, at the decline of it’s popularity, auto-tune in pop music was looked at with disdain. We believed (often times correctly) that is was a crutch for those that lacked real talent. There were artists like Kanye West and Bon Iver who received exceptions from this perception, due to their artistic integrity, but T-Pain was thrusted in with the former group. What everyone forgot until seemingly recently was that T-Pain was using auto-tune before nearly everyone else. Auto-tune was popular because of him, but it wasn’t bad because of him. It was bad because people who couldn’t sing tried to[...]

Is Originality Overrated?

June 23, 2014

I’m still not sure what my favorite song on the new Black Keys album is. It might be the one that sounds like Pink Floyd, or the one sounds like Sweet, or the one with the riff that sort of sounds like an electric version of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.” Or maybe the other one that sounds like Pink Floyd…. Ok, you get the idea. But while many of the songs on Turn Blue can be directly traced to 70s classic rock, that doesn’t make me love it any less. If you go to The Black Keys looking for originality, you’re looking in the wrong direction. They have loads of great songs, but they are more than happy to be revivalists rather than originators. This brings up an interesting question: Is originality really all that important? We’ve spent more than a decade appreciating songs from rock bands who we love because[...]

Why The Presence Of A New Pixies Album Bothers You

May 5, 2014

When the Pixies reunited in 2004, they swore they wouldn’t make a new album. At the time, most thought this was the right move. After all, what they accomplished in the 4.5 albums they made was pretty close to perfect, so why dilute that greatness with a new album that couldn’t possibly live up to expectations? It was a sound bit of thinking, but after a decade, they just couldn’t help themselves. They released Indie Cindy, a collection of the songs released on three EPs that have come out gradually over the past eight months. The reaction to Indie Cindy – as well a the EPs that make it up – has been frosty to say the least. Just as the band had feared in 2004, it couldn’t live up to the Pixies’ legacy and the record is being treated as an unwelcome guest in their catalog. Over the past two and a[...]

The “Related Artists” Question

April 21, 2014

A few weeks ago a friend of mine – who is also a musician – posed a question to her Facebook friend: “Which other famous acts did she sound like?” Because I can never resist the opportunity to be a smart ass, I responded with “Def Leppard, Boyz II Men, and Frank Sinatra.” If you’re wondering, she sounds nothing like any of those acts, but while my original post was just for shits & giggles, it happened to inadvertently represent an important question: what does it mean when we say that one artist sounds like another one. If you’ve read a lot of local music publications – including this one – you’ve probably seen a lot of local acts compared to internationally famous ones. I know because I’ve done this myself; in my preview of Well Worn Boot’s show at Nietzsche’s this Sunday, I described the group as “Primus meets[...]