With Rochester behind us, it's time to turn our attention to Buffalo's year in music. After spending months listening to great (and not so great) music to come out of the Queen City, our committee spent the last few weeks ranking our top tracks of the year. While our top 20 will come later this week, we had five songs that just missed the cut that we feel deserve attention too. You can think of them as the 25 through 21 best songs from Buffalo this year if you like. We call them our five close calls.
Alex Berkley - "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
Unassuming Buffalo singer/songwriter Alex Berkley has been releasing collections of witty yet touching folk music for years. Following the release of his ambitious 28 Days of Fun project in March, Berkley channeled his inner fan boy for his Star Trek tribute EP, The Star Trek Movies. On the EP's opening ode to the series' favorite ripped, space tyrant , "The Wrath of Khan," the songwriter recounts the events of the second Star Trek installment, matching the detailed lyrics with the singer's trusty classical guitar, subtle backing vocals, and always welcome heartland harmonica. Fans of the Weakerthans should be digging through Berkley's catalog right now. - MPM Lesionread - "Neutron Bomb"
From his bonkers sets at Hardware for Inventory Mondays (RIP) to turning the Tralf into his own personal warped circus, Shawn Lewis aka Lesionread arrived to the Buffalo music community in 2013 in a big way, whether you like it or not. The art student's brand of avant, electro-punk is brash, abrasive, in your face, and at the end of the day, a lot of fun. "Netutron Bomb," his stand alone August single, finds Lewis wrangling in his many maniacal selves into a cohesive cut of house music that would make any Chemical Brothers fan turn their head. Mixed with some buzz saw drops, funkafied beats, and surprisingly soulful vocals, "Neutron Bomb" is Lesionread in a nut shell: an unpredictable force that demands your attention. - MPMAircraft - "Wilt"
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The second track off Aircraft's stellar debut LP Sonic Boom feels like it could be the soundtrack to a great Western shoot out. The gunmen each reaching the center of town, eyeing their counterparts and waiting to reach for their holster and fire. When that gun finally does go off, the meticulous tension turns to chaotic thunder. From Ian Be's booming drums to Justin John Smith's haunting wail, Aircraft's "Wilt" is a building cut of psychedelia that rides the the band's killer rhythm section for nearly 6 mins of soaring rock. - MPMThe SSC - "Grassroots Metro"
Buffalo lost a good man this year when lo-fi wunderkind Jacob Smolinski, formerly of the Cascos, moved to Pennsylvania to pursue an education (or something). Luckily, the Cascos released a farewell album, Garage on Martha. Before that happened, Smolinski found enough time to sneak in a four song EP, Slush. The highlight of the EP is "Grassroots Metro," an upbeat, synth-heavy satire of disingenuous "scene" dudes trying to stay relevant. It's one of those songs that walks the line of "intentional lo-fi pop genius" and "that bedroom demo that turned out away better than a studio quality recording ever could." My guess is that it's a little bit of both - and either way I'm still not sure how he made those canned Casio keyboard drums sound so cool. You will be missed Smolinski. - NASTired Iron - "Rut"
Tired Iron may be a fairly new name, but its members are not fresh faces. Consisting of Jason Rich (Vocals/Guitar), Zach Ausman (Guitar), Flip Ragusa (Guitar), and Adam Wakefield on drums, this quartet’s sound was molded and shaped by that upstate NY’s post-hardcore punk oasis, Medina. In August 2013, the band released their second EP, 2013, which closed with “Rut,” a rousing audio memorial to a friend who passed. The majority of “Rut” is a proggy post-punk instrumental, with Rich’s vocals cutting out at the 1:09 mark. From there, “Rut” goes into an epic, almost ballad-like Propoghandi/Minor Threat influenced memorial for their friend. Stick with this one through til the end. - MJM
SLUSH was so good