2012 has been an excellent year for the Buffalo music scene. We've seen a rise of legitimately talented rappers, tight indie rock bands, and quality electronic acts all actively releasing some great tunes.
Beginning this Thursday, we will be revealing the first half of our top 20 tracks from Buffalo in 2012, with the second half coming on Friday. If you can't wait til then though, then tune into the WBNY Local Show tomorrow night at 7pm for the full list
But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. There was just too much good music released this year to fit into our Top 20, so we wanted to give some credit where credit is due to a few songs that just missed the cut. Here are some of the close calls to our top 20 tracks from Buffalo in 2012.
If you've been paying attention to the local scene, you'd notice that Jack Toft has been on it lately. There has been a burst of creativity on his soundcloud page within the past month. His recent partnership with electro producer TEEN WOLF (of NINJASONIK fame), has invigorated his musical output, strengthening both his lyrics and flows. This highly observant punk rock rapper's track "Beef on Weck" drops nods to Buffalo's culture, women, and landmarks. Buffalo's tourism industry may want to get in contact with this emcee because in the end Jack Toft is Buffalo and Buffalo is Jack Toft.
In 2012, Victory For Poland burst out of the high school
battle of the band scene and into our hearts with their sophisticated beyond
their years sound. These indie popper's track “A Man Who Suddenly Realizes He is
Not Alone” impressed us on the first listen with their notably developed sound,
reminiscent of Los Campesinos or Vampire Weekend. With close to half of the members still under eighteen, they are the youngest band we've covered this year and with this deserve a shout-out for one of the best tracks from 2012.
Remember in 2003 when the whole new phase of "emo" came along? Bands such as Brand New and Taking Back Sunday influenced thousands of impressionable fifteen years olds to start their own usually shitty emo band for the next five years until "indie" became cool. Fast forward to today. This genre of emo phase II/pop punk is emerging in Buffalo, and All Blondes Go To Heaven is a good example of how to do it right. All Blondes have mastered the art of shout-singing in unison, pumping out songs about the glory days of high school, and delivering catchy-ass choruses. Their single "Magdalena, Queen of the World" is a testament to the band's potential and ability to write a great pop-punk song.
Applennium is one of those great bands that gets taken for granted in Buffalo. They don't play live all that often, and release new music even less. But when they do, they sure make it count. During the sweltering summer we had this past season, the sort of local super group (lineup includes members of Bearhunter and Fourem) released "Swing-jump," a summer tune if there was one. Full of sunny melodies and gorgeous harmonies, the tune could easily fit in with Woods at their most restrained or Yo La Tengo at their sunniest of times.
Not much is known about Go Exploring except he is a talented one man band with the ability to craft a catchy tune. Go Exploring's "Today" starts a laid back indie pop tune similar to that of The Radio Dept that goes straight disco in the last two minutes. We at buffaBLOG are looking forward to hearing more from Go Exploring and seeing them live as soon as they put together a full band. So yeah, get on that.
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