Latest Posts

Slowshine – s/t

March 16, 2017

Based out of Albany, shoegaze rockers Slowshine offer up a slick blend of new-wave elements and somber vocals, all with just the right amount of shoegaze haze on their recent self-titled release. Put out independently by the band on March 7th, the band is made up of Noah Bondy and Cameron Castan, who trade off on guitar, bass and vocals, Connor Dixon on drums, with additional guitar work by Nicholas Worchol. To talk about modern shoegaze would not accurately describe the kind of sound that Slowshine are bringing to the table. Instead of being a wall of sound, that’s been fed through a few dozen different pedals and distorted, fuzzed, and hazed out to near indefinability, Slowshine are much closer to the early 90’s variant of the genre, like Ride’s Nowhere. The band has more in common with Slowdive than in just their name, for instance. There’s a dream-pop like[...]

Tonight: Cooler EP Release

November 19, 2016

Phantom Phuzz, the newest six song release from Cooler, comes as a follow up to their hard-hitting EP 1993 released last September. From beginning to end, it’s easy to hear growth in musicality from the local four-piece. The EP opens with a haunting post-rock influenced jam that does its job setting the tone for what follows. Dynamics and harmony between male and female vocals is this EP’s strong suit. The conscious approach to bringing out each lead vocalist’s natural abilities  is evident. I’m a huge fan of Run For Cover Records’ shoegaze all-stars, Pity Sex, who Cooler reminds me a lot of. But in contrast to them, it’s really nice to hear deliberately crisp vocals paired with all the fuzz. It amplifies the melodic hooks and adds a whole new element of charm to each tune. “Days”, the second track on the EP and also my favorite, is the best illustration of this. In celebration[...]

Tonight: Slowshine

October 22, 2016

Those Little Baltimore rascals are up to it again! This time they’re bringing Albany shoegazers Slowshine to town for what promises to be an extremely sad evening full of delightfully downtrodden music. Also playing tonight are Little Baltimore in-house sad boys Holland Purchase, and their in-house discordant brethren in Yellow House. Rounding out the evening is male/female sobcore act Honey Coma. Emos everywhere need to ask a punk where Little Baltimore is. Show up at 8 if you’re feeling froggy – music will be done by 12 so y’all should plan to party after. Brush up on your Little Baltimore etiquette – details here.

Shows We Shot in January

February 2, 2016

While buffaBLOG was on break the past month, blog photographer Brendan O’Connor was out there doing what he does best: taking pictures of bands. While he didn’t have a chance to shoot any major national touring acts, he took the time to photograph some local Buffalo acts, and went out on a little weekend tour with local post- rock outfit Tomoreaux. On tour, he caught some incredible acts such as Albany’s existential goth poppers Slowshine,  Rochester lo-fi duo Buffalo Sex Change, and the stellar up-and-coming pop punk young guns Prince Daddy and the Hyena. In addition, Brendan made a couple trips out to Fredonia where he also had the chance to shoot buffaBLOG favorites, M.A.G.S. and Sixties Future, as well as Fredonia psych-rockers Mooses. To kick the post off, though, we’ll start off with one of Yace Booking’s best events to date, which served as Tomoreaux’s album release party, featuring Cooler, Passed Out, and Brimstone Blondes.  You can click HERE for a[...]

Tonight: Aircraft

October 16, 2015

Buffalo’s heady psych pop outfit Aircraft will return to Mohawk Place’s stage tonight as the group continues to tour in support of its latest record, the Admirable Traits released 7 Gems From the Sparkling Void. With a healthy dose of surf and space rock, the album continues to raise the ceiling of one of the city’s most cherished and promising acts. Those who have yet to catch the band live will be #blessed tonight with some fantastic harmonies and exhilarating musicianship. Joining Aircraft tonight will be rising Rust Belt post-rockers Tomoreaux and sardonic slackers Difficult Night, both of which are set to release a new album over the next couple months. Rounding out the bill will be the debut local performance from Albany’s dark shoegazers, Slowshine. Doors open at Mohawk Place this evening at 8pm with a cover of $5.

slowshine – “Solid State”

July 6, 2015

I think it’s no secret at this point that I split my time between Albany and Buffalo. The drive sucks, but it definitely keeps my life interesting leading two completely different lives. One of the things I’ve liked about Albany life is being able to discover all the local bands/scene. Although there is are like two legit venues for indie bands to play in (with an additional two DIY venues that I know of), the quality coming out of the region is pretty remarkable with what seems to be little support. This brings me to the band slowshine, an Albany-based three piece that I first discovered when researching the 17 Best Bands to check out at Move Festival.  Consisting of the songwriting partnership between Noah Bondy and Cameron Castan, and a rotating drummer, the duo seems to be on the bill for every great indie show coming to the capital region. In[...]

17 Bands To See At Albany’s Move Music Festival

April 20, 2015

One of the goals we have as a blog is to expand our regional/state-wide influence/knowledge base. Once we received an e-mail from Move Music Festival, a three day festival taking place in the heart of Albany, NY, we knew we had to check out. Over 100 bands were announced as part of the festival, and trust me when we say we did our homework. Over the past week we listened to probably about 96 acts that we’ve never heard of before. Bands like Sheen and CONTACT were impossible to google so I have no idea what they sound like. Other bands totally disappeared from the lineup (C’mon Dead Leaf Echo, I was looking forward to catching your first show since I was super poor living in NYC and eating the complimentary apps as dinner at someone’s art show in Williamsburg). The following are 17 acts we are personally excited to check out[...]