Latest Posts

Tonight: Bleachers

April 5, 2015

It’s too facile to call Bleachers merely a side project of fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff (or, if you’re a Girls fan, the lover of Lena Dunham). With over-the-top production and unabashedly catchy alt-rock vibes – what he describes as a merging of Arcade Fire and Discourse, and music that isn’t ashamed to be mainstream – Antonoff has developed a band just as fun and commercially viable as his breakthrough group, if not more. The young band (conceived and developed during his touring with fun.) was launched into fame largely on the heels of lead single “I Wanna Get Better” – a jubilant and irresistibly catchy piece of audio-therapy, with its sunny sound suggesting Antonoff will be just fine. Their debut album, Strange Desire, came out July of last year, with the New Wave-y third single “Rollercoaster” also helping to cement the group’s place in the lighter halls of alt- and[...]

Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi

March 31, 2015

“I don’t know where to begin,” croons perennially plaintive vocalist Benjamin Gibbard on Kintsugi, the eighth studio album from indie-rock vets Death Cab for Cutie. Indeed, with its synth flourishes and electronic left-turns, it does ring of a band that’s struggling to maintain its identity while still growing musically – albeit one that’s doing it fairly successfully. Kintsugi mostly follows in the electronic-tinged footsteps of its predecessor Codes And Keys, but while maintaining the sense of heart and intimacy that has made the group among the more interesting in indie pop. Gibbard evokes a stark, forbidding landscape with space for relationship conflict in the most straightforward rocker “Black Sun” – a piece which begins with an “I Am The Highway”-like riff that progresses unexpectedly into cascading riffs and an awesomely static-y guitar solo. And on “Ingénue,” he tells of a young woman ignored and under-appreciated over a slow-building, electronica influenced power[...]

Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside

March 24, 2015

Could Earl Sweatshirt make it any clearer that he has no interest in being a chart-topping rap-star? With the release of his sophomore album, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, it’s pretty obvious the only right answer is no. An entirely self-produced effort – under the alias randomblackdude – the barely 21-year-old SoCal rapper pushes the restrained minimalism of his debut, Doris, to even further extremes. The beats are weirder and more abrasive; his flow is even more down-tempo and heavy-handed; his lyrics are intensely personal and dark, at times suffocatingly gloomy. Rap braggadocio this is certainly not, though he and his stolid-voiced guests do manage to cram a few disses and kiss-offs in with all this introspective ruminating. “Fingertips to tapers, now, salute us when you face us / give a fuck about the moves all these loser niggas making now,” he raps over eerie keys on[...]

Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves

March 17, 2015

Over the last couple years, Modest Mouse’s new album had become arguably the most anticipated release in alternative rock. The eight-year gap so soon after their mid-aught heyday was made all the more intriguing by the bits of news that did emerge. Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr had already left the band, they worked with OutKast mastermind Big Boi (but mostly just got fucked up), and of course, the tongue-in-cheek name for front man Isaac Brock’s record label, Glacial Pace. But Strangers to Ourselves is classic Modest Mouse – overstuffed, over-the-top and overdramatic in all the best ways. Even still the record shows a sense of maturity and growth. The music is darker, more brooding and abrasive than their last two records – yet still retains the pop influences opened up by their breakthrough Good News for People Who Love Bad News. And perhaps most important: Brock’s frenzied vocals and razor-sharp[...]

Tonight: Transformers II – I’ll Be Your Mirror

March 6, 2015

The massively influential rock musician, singer and songwriter Lou Reed may have passed in October 2013 – succumbing to liver disease less than six months after he underwent a transplant of that same organ – but his legacy, as they saying goes, continues to live on. To honor the underground rock icon, Nietzsche’s will be holding its second annual Lou Reed birthday party, appropriately titled “Transformers II: I’ll Be Your Mirror” (Transformers, of course, is the Reed solo debut that introduced him to a larger audience, while “I’ll Be Your Mirror” is one of the more melodic songs off the Velvet Underground’s debut, and one of three tracks sung by Nico). Reed would have been 73. The lineup is quite eclectic: fitting for the risk-taking, ground-breaking artist who lent so much to punk, alternative rock, glam, noise, experimental rock, avant-garde rock and industrial. The lineup includes the gloomy synth-pop of[...]

Ghostface Killah and BadBadNotGood – Sour Soul

March 3, 2015

After the needlessly complex, multi-sectioned production on A Better Tomorrow, Wu-Tang fans probably want another album of live-instrument production about as much as the MidEast wants another W. Bush administration. But where the RZA’s work on Tomorrow was too often flowery and excessive, Sour Soul’s sparse, brooding beats mesh perfectly with Ghostface Killah’s trademark intensity. In fact, it’s some of the best production on a Wu-Tang record in years. For that we ought to thank BadBadNotGood – a superb instrumental trio out of Toronto, discovered first by Tyler, the Creator (who, interestingly, has his own jazz aspirations). Their work on Sour Soul runs the gauntlet from post-bop jazz to soul to trip hop and electronica, sometimes all in the same track. More importantly, they prove themselves masters of tone and texture: it’s some of the most head-spinning production this side of Portishead. As for Ghostface, it could nearly go without[...]

Solidisco

February 26, 2015

Considering that both members of the funky dance duo, Solidisco, were born and raised – even recorded material – here, it’s pretty strange to hear their show tonight at Waiting Room is their debut home performance. But that is what it is. Though the disco house duo has played shows and festivals around the world in its three-year history, members Don Skotnicki and Matt McGurn have yet to play the Queen City. The reason: Buffalo is (arguably, of course) just too small a city for aspiring musicians to really get a career off the ground. Skotnicki explains that, while they have nothing but admiration for their hometown, it has neither the resources nor the venues you’d find in a larger city like New York or L.A. In New York, where they’re half-based, you have clubs that play dance music every night of the week. You also have thousands of talented[...]

Kid Rock – First Kiss

February 24, 2015

Believe it or not, Kid Rock turned 44 back in January, and he’s not sounding so young anymore. On First Kiss, his tenth studio album, the American Badass stays firmly planted in his front-porch rocker, offering up what might be the chillest, most country-infused music of his long and (somewhat) varied career. Of course it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. The Kid’s been moving toward Seger-esque rock ’n’ roll, southern rock and country ever since he sang about putting your picture away with Sheryl Crow, peaking with 2010’s classic rock achievement Born Free. But where Born Free was endearing – almost charming – in its simple, sunny authenticity, First Kiss often feels cloying and repetitive. On the retro boogie-rock of “Good Times, Cheap Wine,” Rock yet again reminds us what he likes – which, in case you forgot, is “good times, cheap wine (and) backbeat rock and roll.” Elsewhere, he’s[...]

Tonight: The Public Presents Mr. Boneless

February 12, 2015

Buffalo’s new alt-weekly is holding its second installment of The Public Presents tonight at Nietzsche’s – and they’re serving up a night of simple, down-home American rock with fixings of blues, bluegrass, country, folk, Americana, and everything in between. For headliners, The Public brought out one of WNY’s best folk-rock outfits in Mr. Boneless. This Queen City via Fredonia quartet melds gentle, woodsy folk with hard guitar blues, noise rock, punk, and grunge. With a true, authentic revivalist spirit, this group brings the honest passion and grit of its classic influences while  invigorating it with all the muscular energy of 90s DIY punk. Opening the night is the bluegrass-influenced Rear View Ramblers (featuring former members of the CPX), country-rockers Leroy Townes Band, and Jaye Bartell, on first, who admirably takes after the stoic, gritty deadpan of Johnny Cash. The show starts at 8pm at Nietzsche’s, with a $5 cover.

Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night

February 3, 2015

Shadows in the Night is certainly one of Bob Dylan’s most confounding projects. From one of the greatest and most innovative architects of modern music – the man who redefined the scope and sound of what an artist could do, and stands still as the voice of the 1960s counter-culture movement – probably the last thing we would expect is a full disc of music that pre-dates his own towering influence, while also avoiding the music that informed most of his career – namely, folk, country, blues, gospel, and Americana. Instead, Dylan goes entirely pre-rock on Shadows, offering us 10 covers of traditional pop standards made famous by Frank Sinatra. But, as even the most casual observers know, Dylan is no stranger to throwing left field efforts. And he’d hinted at his inner Frank in more recent releases; see the slow-dance swooner “Soon After Midnight” from 2012’s Tempest, and the[...]

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[...]