Latest Posts

Pitchfork Music Festival: Saturday

While I’m sad to see it go, Pitchfork Music Festival was without a doubt one of my favorite music festival experiences of all time.  There wasn’t a band all weekend that I was disappointed by, and I was blown away by multiple bands I hadn’t heard before. With a forecast filled with rain and thunderstorms almost all weekend, somehow the rain held off for almost the entire weekend, making it near perfect. Basically, for the next year, you’ll find me in my room listening to Broken Social Scene counting down the days until next year’s festival. Saturday featured performances by Brian Wilson, Anderson Paak. And the Free Nationals, Martin Courtney, and many more.  Check out some of the photos below, and if you want to see more than just 4 or 5 shots of each band, click HERE for a full gallery. Circuit Des Yeux Girl Band Royal Headache Jenny Hval Savages Martin[...]

Five Most Anticipated Acts of Pitchfork Festival: Saturday

Last year was my first ever Pitchfork Festival experience, and let me tell you, it’s something I’ll never forget.  The bands, the food, the city, and just the overall vibe of the festival, all come together to make one of my favorite music festivals – period.  The Chicago-based music festival boasts phenomenal lineups year after year, and 2016’s lineup is no different. As part of buffaBLOG’s coverage leading up to the festival this weekend, I will be highlighting my five most anticipated acts of each day of the festival.  You can check out last years photos here, here, and here. Royal Headache @ Blue Stage (2:45pm) This band is easily one of my most anticipated of the entire festival.  The punk / garage rock act from Australia released a new record in 2015, titled High which topped my top the list of my favorite albums last year. The band seems to[...]

Sufjan Stevens at UB’s Center for the Arts (10/30/15)

So we may not have been treated to a very random cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” but we were still undoubtedly treated. Sufjan Stevens, in his long-awaited return to Buffalo this past Friday, delivered one of the most spectacular live performances the city has seen all year. I thought Carrie & Lowell—Stevens’ 2015 full-length written in dedication to his late mother—was already a masterpiece, but seeing, hearing, and feeling the album performed live at UB’s Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre brought an entirely different light to the songs, a poignancy so thick it was nearly tangible. I wasn’t sure what to expect from opening artist Gallant; I hadn’t sampled his music before the show, but was confident that an opening slot on a Sufjan Stevens’ tour was already a testament to his ability. I wasn’t wrong—the young R&B singer (23) had an incredible falsetto and exuded a great deal[...]

Tonight: Sufjan Stevens

It’s rare enough for an artist to produce an album revered as a masterpiece once in their career. And to do it twice is nothing short of remarkable. But that’s exactly the kind of artist Buffalo will welcome to tonight as eclectic singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens will take the stage at the UB’s Center for the Arts. While Sufjan already had a host of great releases behind him (including 2004’s excellent Seven Swans), it wasn’t until 2005, with the release of Illinois, the second album in his now defunct “50 States Project,” that he truly broke through. The album was a sweeping baroque pop masterpiece, a stunning humanist collage built from history, folklore, and personal experience. It rightly received mass acclaim and produced a chart entry by way of lead single, “Chicago.” And while Stevens has continued to produce beautiful work over the years, including The BQE, his inspired Christmas double album, Silver &[...]

Just Announced: Sufjan Stevens

After a run of somewhat gimmicky releases – the electro 180 turn of The Age of Adz, a second round of Christmas albums, an experimental ode to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway – Sufjan Stevens returned in prime form earlier this year with the stark and devastating Carrie & Lowell, a front runner for album of the year and what could be a personal best in the singer/songwriter’s eccentric catalog. This fall, he will once again take Carrie & Lowell on the road, this time including Buffalo on his latest itinerary. On Friday, Ocotober 30th, Stevens will perform in the Mainstage Theater at UB’s Center for the Arts, his first area performance since his magically bonkers holiday show at Asbury Hall a couple years back. Tickets will go on sale Friday, July 24th at 10am for $43.50. A portion of all ticket sales will go towards Stevens’ Plus One charity organization.

Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

Loss can alter a person. Whether it’s reinvention, recollection, or flat-out despair that hits the hardest, the death of a loved one often times has a profound effect on an individual. In the case of Sufjan Stevens, the feelings resulting from his mother’s death in 2012 became the creative fuel for Carrie & Lowell, his most masterfully put-together musical release to date. However, this claim does not come without its irony. The album, an emotionally-baring open-book chapter of Sufjan’s personal life, is also the artist at his most torn-apart. Detailing childhood feelings and the difficult relationship he had with his late mother, Sufjan lays out his experiences without expectation, covering a wide spectrum of human emotion. Struggling with alcoholism and bipolar disorder before her untimely death to stomach cancer in 2012, Sufjan’s mother Carrie (along with his stepfather Lowell, who now works at the label that put out this very[...]

Sufjan Stevens – “No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross”

Sufjan Stevens fans rejoice! Earlier this morning, we were given a taste of the prolific songwriter’s new album, Carrie & Lowell, in the form of the deliciously dark folk morsel “No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross.” It’s been a while since we’ve heard Steven’s folksier side, and this first single returns to those roots, paralleling the romantic aspirations of his earlier material, namely Seven Swans. The angelic harmonies and delicately cascading acoustic melodies lay a nice foundation that contrasts the darker subject matter this time around. Have a listen below; Carrie & Lowell drops 3/31 on Asthmatic Kitty. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/190647487″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”160″ iframe=”true” /]

Mikaela Davis Arranges “Chicago” For Crane Harp Ensemble

A couple years ago, we caught wind of Rochester songtress, Mikaela Davis, and her rendition of Sufjan Steven’s “Casimir Pulaski Day.” The cover was a hit of sorts on Youtube and firmly entrenched the talented harp player on the blog’s radar. The buzz around Davis has been building over the years through cross-country touring and a SXSW appearance, all while becoming one of WNY’s best and most promising artists. In recent Davis news, she tackled another Stevens’ track, his breakthrough “Chicago,” this time rearranging the tune for the Crane Harp Ensemble out of SUNY Potsdam (Davis’ alma mater). The song is already getting some good burn on Soundcloud and you can listen for yourself below. Those wanting to catch Davis live in Buffalo should head down to Buffalo Iron Works on July 25th to see the real deal in person.